A slight obsession with sea creatures...

It began innocently enough with an email exchange with @lightningmcstitch about crocheted octopuses. This led to an introduction to the fantastic book - Crocheted Sea Creatures by Vanessa Mooncie. I'm still not sure if I'm glad that she told me about it...was I better off in my ignorance, happily crocheting less fantastic creatures?!

I showed my children the book (conveniently the Singapore Library has a copy), and the result? An order list from my children. One jellyfish, one starfish and one hermit crab. Add to that the octopus (that started all this in the first place) for a dear friend in Canada, and, well, it's time to get cracking. I'm sure the people at Loveknitting.com are pretty delighted with my never-ending online purchases of yarn for the growing crochet obsession.

First up, the jellyfish...

I'm still not sure how you photograph a jellyfish well, but this isn't bad (without spending hours with fancy equipment and some nylon fishing line). 

I love the jellyfish at the Singapore Aquarium, and I'm quite pleased with the results of my first attempt at a sea creature. I used Paintbox Cotton DK (the 2 shades of blue) and Sirdar Cotton DK (white), with a 3.5mm crochet hook. It all came together fairly easily - the book comes with both charts and written instructions, so it was a good chance to learn how to read crochet charts (I still actually don't quite know how to read them, but maybe after I finish ALL the creatures in this book...). The customer (A) is quite pleased with her jellyfish, who's now hanging out on the head of her bed. The jellyfish really should be suspended from the ceiling for the most dramatic effect, if I weren't so worried about it being covered in gecko poo...

Next up - the hermit crab (complete with removable shell). 

P.S. I've just ordered the book. I can only renew it once, and I'm pretty certain my orders won't be completed in 6 weeks!