Owl Family

Amigurumi: the Japanese term for a knitted or crocheted doll.  They're pretty popular, at least, if you hang out on sites like Etsy and Ravelry.  I've been crocheting for about 7 years, and hadn't ever made one (unless you count some really odd rabbits I made a few years ago, but they weren't cute, so let's ignore them).

One thing about learning a new technique or attempting something new: perhaps the best time to do so is not a few days before a child's birthday party, when you intend to give that new type of project as a gift.  But I am overly ambitious.  We were invited to a birthday party for a two year old, one of our baby's friends (yes, she has friends - though her friendships are based entirely on us being friends with the parents).  Of course, I decide I want to make an owl-themed gift, because I happen to know it is the child's favorite animal.

Through the awesome power of Ravelry, I found a couple of different patterns that would suit my needs, and then, for some reason, I decided that instead of making one owl for the child, I would make two, one in blue, one in purple (because those were some of the yarns in my stash).  Then I figured that if I was making two, then I might as well make a baby owl as well, and call it a family.  I kindly gave myself three evenings to complete this project.  That was not enough.  I ended up hardly sleeping the night before the party, and I ended up making a rather amateurish owl family with an angry-looking baby:

There are a lot of things I would have done differently, such as constructed better beaks and made the baby's eyes the same size.  I did like the wings and the horns though, and I did join all the pieces well, which was the technique I was most concerned with.

I think the problem I run into with things like this (besides not having enough time) is that I am over-confident in my design skills, even though those skills are utterly lacking.  So I take it upon myself to modify the pattern (in this case, nothing is exactly like the pattern, I modified each piece, some rather heavily).  And since I am not actually skilled enough to modify a pattern, especially when I've never made amigurumi before, I end up doing all kinds of desperate experiments late at night, while watching the clock and wondering how I ever got into this mess.  Then I produce a less than stellar item, but am too tired to care.