Hey dude!

A lovely sunny afternoon gave me the chance to do a little bit more of Paul. This was following our nice long dog walk... you can see the dogs in the second photo but thankfully you can't smell them. Eau de Pond with faint undertones of fox poo.

Paul is looking a bit strange with his long body and absence of arms, not to mention his unstuffed face. His eyes look low but I swear that is where the pattern suggests they go. When his head is stuffed I will be able to do his rosy cheeks and then he'll start to look a little cuter.

A spare basket is where he is living for the time being, with a scarf thrown over the top to hide him from nosy people. I'm only managing a short spell on him every day. The stitches are small and I have quite big hands and the thumb and forefinger grip on a 2.5mm hook gets painful, but I do love this intricately stitched look. I've not done anything like it before, and after Kira and Lupo I may not do anything like it again!

In other crochet news I've completed one Christmas gift and have more on the go. I'd like to be sharing the finished one with you now but the recipient reads my blog so it will have to stay secret for now. I can tell you that it was made using a gorgeous alpaca yarn that was very nice to work with. I purchased the pattern via Etsy and it suggested the time taken to make it would be approximately ten hours. I've no idea whether it took me that or more but it was a very manageable project considering I am making two and have left my gift making much later than I would have liked. I will take some photo's and share them with you after they've been unwrapped.