Peckish plant amigurumi + Busan highlights

It’s hard to believe this beautiful summer is coming to a close and I’m heading back to classes on Monday! This time, I’ve enjoyed a much slower pace than I normally take during my summer breaks. I stayed in Korea and took a few short trips, including a beach adventure with my boy Bodhi to Busan, one of my “hometowns” where I lived for my first three years in Korea. It was hot as blazes there (and humid), so we had to pace ourselves. I made a little reel that shows our view of the train trip and destination.

Some photos of previous Busan trips, from 2021 (summer trip) are here, and 2022 (winter trip) here.

I had more fun crafting, too, and managed to finish up this peckish plant amigurumi at the end of last week. It’s from a pattern by Irene Strange, one of my favorite ami artists.

This fabulous monster is reminiscent of Seymour from Little Shop of Horrors. Irene may’ve had that character in mind while designing this, so I couldn’t resist making a little reel that features one of the songs from the 1980s musical and movie.

This carnivorous buddy was a breeze to make, and has some great details. It was crocheted with six shades of Phildar Coton 3 yarn and a 3.00mm hook. I used a coaster inside the figure to form a solid base, and fairly heavy garden wire to keep the mouth smiling and the leaves perky. It’s stuffed with polyfil, and has two beady safety eyes, so it can see perfectly well what it gobbles.

My niece is a plant lover and her room is starting to resemble a jungle, so I think this figure will find its way home to her eventually.

It wouldn’t be a vacation if I didn’t learn or practice something, so I made to time to revisit my Tunisian crochet lessons (pic below, left). I remember just how much yarn this technique can eat – much more than traditional knitting and crocheting. The Tunisian technique is great fun to do and is perfect for making chunky blankets, especially when stitching together individual blocks. It’s also fab for substantial winter hats, cowls, scarves and sweaters. One of the negatives of this technique is it tends to curl at the ends, so some creative remedies should be employed, depending on the project.

I’ve also been trying out some new yarns to get into the autumn mood (see pic below, right). The Scheepjes Merino Soft in color 604 Lowry (soft gray) is on its way to making a hat. In the middle is Alize Diva (100% acrylic microfiber) in colors 383 Ecru and 234, a burnt umber shade. It’ll grow up to be a large shawl with beautiful drape. On the left is a cloud-soft Drops mohair-silk in color 33, a laceweight terracotta shade. It’s such a lovely color. For that one, I’m using one strand and 5.5mm hook to make a scarf. That last one is going to take an age to finish, though, as the stitch I’ve chosen is tiny and delicate.

Music has always been a big part of my life and a daily pleasure. I’ve caught up with some new artists and old favorites this summer, mainly through my Spotify app. If you have access to Spotify, I can recommend this Filtr US summer playlist – a fun list of songs old and new that I’ve enjoyed listening to beachside. I’ve also curated my own winding down playlist over the last couple of years, and added a few more songs this summer. It’s grown to about 13 hours of peaceful listening. Lastly, in the IYKYK file – a great playlist from Axios, with songs from the DNC roll call a couple of weeks ago. Enjoy!