Little bird

In an effort to expand my crochet horizons beyond granny squares, I started searching for easy (and I mean EASY) amigurumi patterns so I could try my hand at making cute little stuffed toys. I've always been so jealous of folks who do amigurumi - those little critters are just so adorable, but to this total novice, they also look dang hard to make. I wanted to make a bird, so I stumbled across this handy page of bird pattern links. Lots of inspiration!

This lovebirds pattern (you may need to register. it's free!) from Lion Brand was perfect. Basically the birds looked like simple roly-poly little egg-shaped things, and I thought I could handle that.

Image by Lion Brand Yarn.
So after much cursing, and a TON of extra stitches and screw-ups and me saying, "Meh! Let's just see what happens!" I made a bird. It looks nothing like the ones in the photos on the pattern site, but who cares. It's relatively cute and holy smokes, I was able to read a pattern. This is a major, major achievement.

The tiny little tail nubbin just kills me.


What I did differently: I made rounded wings instead of half-circles, because I couldn't quite figure out the half circle thing; I had trouble sewing on the bill - my stitches kept getting lost - so I crocheted a larger bill by chaining a few stitches, slip-stitching them together, and sewing to the bird's body. I like the look of the smaller bill and will try again next time; and finally, I stitched on the eyes with embroidery floss instead of using plastic eyes.

I made a ton of mistakes with this little bird, but now I know what NOT to do the next time. I am officially addicted and making another as we speak...