February 07, 2009

Long loved

L&G
Pattern; Gaspard et Lisa Amigurumi Kit from Clover
Yarn; for Lisa (white) included in the kit.  for Gaspard (black) Hamanaka Wanpaku Denis, 17 (black) and 45 (blue)
Hook; included in the kit, 3.5mm

I can take my daughter to craft stores or yarn stores without any problems.  She enjoys taking a look at the buttons or yarns while I get at a loss in front of yarn shelves and taking in or out several balls from the shopping basket.  Often, she gets something just for her or for our "joint project" like this;
play dough candy
These are made of playdough (paper-mache? the one made from pulp), colored with watercolors.  The sticks of lollipops are tooth picks... you'll see how small they are.
These are not my original.  We saw them on TV.

When I took her to Yoshikawa to get yarns for my Baby Projects, she found this;
Lisa amigurumi kit
She wanted to get both Lisa and Gaspard, but one kit costs more than 2,000 yen!  I told her to pick one, either Lisa or Gaspard, "because Mommy can make the other with my yarns."  This claim turned out to be half-true, half-untrue.  I didn't have yarns nor eye parts in my hand, so I had to go back to get yarns, order eye parts online (and ordered a little more - yarns - with that), but I used felt (nose) from my stash and the kit included more than twice the amount of fillings and embroidery threads for two dolls.
Gaspard's eyes are yellow/black in picture books, but these small-ish blue ones turned out very pretty.  My daughter didn't want him exactly the same as in books, but "cuuuuuuute!"

I ended up using Wanpaku Denis again for my amigurumi project, and I think I love this yarn now.  It's 70% acrylic and 30% wool machine washable yarn, and has pretty wide variety of colors.  19sts per 10cm gauge (worsted equivalent), 410 yen per 50g ball is not the most inexpensive choice for a project using like, 10 colors, but not so bad.  I'd say this is a high-grade craft yarn and I-don't-care-if-you-roll-in-the-mud-with-your-sweater-on type garment yarn.  My mother made a sweater with this yarn for my niece about 20 years ago.  She loved it and wore it practically everyday for two winters.  My sister kept it after the last wash, and gave it to my daughter last year.  
The sweater has a character (Tendon-man) from kid's TV show (Soreike! Anpanman) on front side.  That TV show is still on-air and young children still is getting hooked on it.  Of course my daughter loves the show (well, that's why she got that sweater.)  I love standard, stapled stuff.  Maybe that's why I love knitting. 

1 comment:

azzuka said...

You lucky girl! I have a son and it's all about cars, trucks and trains. He's always reluctant to follow me at yarn stores or knitting meeting!

Gaspard and Lisa are really "cuuuuute" as your daughter says!