Yarn Along #4: Attack of the Minion

I'm not even going to pretend things have calmed down out our way.  It seems like as soon as one mini-crisis ends, another two pop up.  Right now, we're just trying to keep on top of a sick in-law of mine, balance work and our lives, and figure out who tried to steal my identity locally last week.  >_<  Here's praying that next week is calmer!

This time I have A FINISHED PRODUCT!  And a finished book!  That is scary stuff right there!

THE CRAFT: In the past two weeks, I blasted out a little project for a sick little boy.  (I also found our digital camera, so we have half decent pictures!)  It's a little Despicable Me Minion.

*singing* These arms are made for cuddling!

This project was a bit of a comedy of errors for me.  The arms I redid no less than 4 times last night, mostly as I 1) Lost count on the hands, 2) Couldn't find the saved inside loops to start the arms, or 3) I forgot to increase all the way around when starting the arms.  It was, to say the least, an embarrassing sight to behold: a beleaguered, veteran crocheter mad over twelve rounds of yellow yarn done twice.  We could have hired mourners.

Well, at least he gives me two thumbs up!

I also took what I called (at first) The Lazy Route as I chose to only make one eye.  This involved modifying the pattern for both the eye and the goggle rims, both of which turned out to be a bit more complicated than I thought.  For starters, I could not for the life of me close the center of the eye's magic loop without risking a yarn tear.  To compensate, I tried to put black felt on the center to make a pupil like the pattern said.  No dice: it looked funny sitting on top, but sewing it into the center of the eye just didn't pop the way I wanted.

My felt-work for the details also finally improved!

A moment of inspiration hit when I went to get my straight pins to assemble this little guy.  Inside my pin case was a random round, black button I had left over from a Pikachu plushie I crocheted a few years ago.  On a whim, I tried pinning that button into the center of the eye.  It was a perfect fit!  The base of the button fit perfectly into the eye's hole, and the button gave the eye the pop I was looking for.  I'm pretty sure I literally cheered.

Little Minion sees all!

Despite a few moment of wanting to fling this minion across the room in frustration (and a surely amusing scene while I tried to whip-stitch a "pouty lip" onto what looked like a yellow hotdog with an eyeball), it all worked out in the end: he turned out better than I expected and on time to be sent in the care package!  Feel better soon, Brett, and I hope this little guy is a bright spot in your days in the hospital!

THE BOOK: A month later, and I'm still on The 19th Wife.  I did, however, finish another audio book during that time: Shanghai Girls by Lisa See.  The book followed two fictional sisters in China for twenty years of their lives as they fled China, were forced into arranged marriages, raise a daughter, and learned about themselves and their relationships.  The book wonderfully illustrated the relationship siblings have, both the positives and the negatives.  I'm the middle of 5 kids, though my two older siblings are much, much older than me; as a result, I grew up like an oldest child.  I very much related with Pearl's struggles to be the kind of older sister May both wanted and needed, and I also sympathized and mourned for Pearl when she learned how those things can sometimes be total opposites.

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