Extreme Knitting Redhead: bluebird of happiness

Friday, April 11, 2014

Chirpy, chirpy, cheep, cheep

I enjoyed crocheting Happy the hippo so much that I decided at the last minute (i.e. 2 days ago!) that I wanted to make another of Hedi's designs for my running chum, Eleanor who I'll be seeing at the start of the London marathon on Sunday. She has the most gorgeous smiley little baby ever and I thought this would be perfect.

So here we have the Bluebird of Happiness. I took some photos outside but it was jolly cold and windy so we came back inside to finish off.

I chose this bright turquoise blue and set it against a day-glo red as little people love bright colours. The stuffing is quite safe for toys and as it's made with acrylic yarn it's easy to wash.

I did a few modifications as usual.

I didn't like the way the tail turned out using the instructions and when I checked on Ravelry I saw that a lot of people had very curly and rather thin feathers. I've made them more robust so they stand up better.

As it's a gift for a baby I didn't use eyes, I just did a bit of embroidery using dark brown yarn.

I also changed the beak completely as the written instructions made a beak that was far too wide. I also pushed a tiny bit of stuffing into to as well.

More birdies:

This was the view that greeted me this morning when I opened the bedroom curtains. We created this little splash pond in the front garden for wildlife and for the reflections. Little did we know that the ducks would claim it as their own!

Bottoms-up!

Then, as I was opening up the curtains in the music room I spotted the first ducklings of the season. This is Mrs duck whose brood was attacked last year. I notice that Mr duck has stayed around to keep his family safe which is unusual as they often disappear to leave the duck to raise them alone.

The proud parents

The 2 remaining ducklings in that link grew into fine drakes and disappeared during the winter. A few weeks ago 2 drakes appeared and seemed to know me as they came really close to me. I nicknamed them Tweddle-dee and Tweedle-dum until I noticed one of them had a bit of a limp and I realised that they were Titch and Quackers but all grown up!

Titch (left) & Quackers, June 2013

All grown up now

Mum's Story

In 1997 my mother, then aged 81, had a series of minor strokes. Shortly after that we started to notice behavioural changes notably memory loss and confusion over everyday items. We thought it was just old age finally catching up with her. Then she started wandering and had violent mood swings. Although she already lived with us it became obvious that she couldn't be left alone for long and so I left my job to care for her. The next few years saw a gradual decline into the blackness that is 'vascular dementia'. My normally placid mum became violent and aggressive. She had psychotic incidents where she would see imaginary people (children hiding in her wardrobe, Russians sitting on the stairs, women stealing her clothes) and she would shout at them and sometimes throw things too. She was so convincing that we used to go and check that there wasn't anyone there! When my sister died mum did not know who Judy was or that she was her daughter. There came a point when I suddenly realised she no longer knew that I was her daughter and this was a terrible time for me. In the last 2 years that she lived with us, life for us all became almost unbearable as she needed 24 hour care - she couldn't be left alone at all because she would either wander off or hurt herself, she never slept for more than 30 minutes at a time during the night, she became incontinent and incapable of doing anything for herself. Finally my husband and I realised that we could no longer provide her with the care that she needed and she went to live in a special care home where the team did a splendid job caring for her in the last few months of her life. There she lived a zombified existence unaware of who she was, what she was or where she was. It was heartbreaking. She died in March 2005, the day after her 89th birthday.

Thank you for taking the time to read mum's story and I hope you'll dig deep and sponsor me using the link below to help find a way of beating this destructive disease.