The Crafty Doctor: November 2014

All of this, for an adorkable little penguin. :)

Introduction
Several weeks ago now, I stumbled upon the beginning of an amigurumi crochet-a-long on allfreecrochet.com. I have always wanted to do one, but never caught one at the right time, so I figured now that I have a little bit more time on my hands, I could try it.

Link to the original crochet-a-long

Week 1

The first week I missed, but it was just buying yarn - so the second week I went out and bought all the yarn (bizarre color choices, in my opinion) and started working the initial pattern.

Week 2 - "main part of the pattern"

Body with eyes attached

Not bad. Obviously a head and body. The pattern called for safety eyes, but I hate safety eyes. I typically crochet my own eyes using thread and then attach them. Because I was lazy, these are attached with hot-glue.

Week 3 - "accent piece"

Add caption

I initially thought that this was going to be a cape or a bib or some sort.

Accent piece

Accent piece and body

Again, nothing difficult with this part of the pattern. I was finding it a bit frustrating that I couldn't go on an assemble the parts together at this point.

Week 4 - "limbs"

This week messed me up. I kept misreading the pattern and I kept skipping rounds. It was extremely frustrating, but it was me, not the pattern itself.

The "limbs"

Everything so far

Still annoyed that I can't put it together yet. Also, the limbs look like penises.

Week 5 - "accessories"

This was the week where I was like "ok, I give up. I have no idea what I am making." Before this week I was thinking some sort of seal or something.

Hat and scarf

My best guess for assembly. (Hint: I was wrong)

The scarf was quick and easy. The hat wasn't so bad, but I don't like the tassels. They don't stand up correctly so they just look...off.

Week 6 - "final pieces and assembly"

ASSEMBLY! FINALLY! I CAN STOP KEEPING ALL OF THIS CRAP IN A PLASTIC BAG.

After assembling it, there was literally no reason I couldn't have started assembling and attaching weeks ago. I was so afraid I was going to lose parts and have to start over.

However, this reveal was kind of worth it. I actually like how it turned out. I just wish I had used maybe blue instead of pink and red.

Penguin!!!

Thoughts/Review

I actually really like this little guy, except for the hat. I attached most of the parts with hot glue to tack in in place, mostly because I am horrific at sewing things on straight, and I ran out of time and patience.

I think if I replaced the pink with a baby blue and the red with a darker blue, I would like him much better - but I'm not a big fan of pink anyway. However, I suppose he would look a little less "holiday" with that color scheme, which is what they were going for, I think.

So now I'm searching for my next mystery crochet-a-long. :)

During my pediatrics rotation, Enterovirus D68 (the new, slightly terrifying pediatric respiratory/neurological virus) made landfall in Florida. I was able to see one patient with this virus in my tenure in the ER, and my preceptor was amazing enough to let me follow the case. This inspired me to make a crochet plushie of it for him as a "Thank You" gift for being an awesome preceptor.

Please use as you wish, but do please credit me for the pattern.

Pattern:

I used a size E (3.25mm) hook and just some scrap yarn that I had lying around. Color doesn't matter, as it's not like we actually know what the virus really looks like anyway. Blue is my preceptor's favorite color so I used blue. This pattern is worked in the round.