Chain One: My first crochet project!

Hello lovely readers, I hope the holidays treated you well, and that your respective families didn't drive you to the brink of insanity...and that you didn't drink so much you can't remember what year it is :).  But even if that was the case (and no one will judge you...except maybe that one sober person at the party...but screw 'em!  Your spastic dancing will live in infamy thanks to them), it is a new year and time to experience and do new things...and that is just what I've decided to do.

After countless attempts to teach me crochet, I finally sat down with The Crafty Octopus and had her guide me through the foreign and mystical land of one-needledom.  I have to say that coming from a knitting background it was rather hard for me to grasp.  I think it all boils down to the fact that your working stitches are not innately visible.  And I probably drove The Crafty Octopus crazy with my constant questions of, "is this a stitch?" or "is this the next stitch?" or "how many stitches do I have now?".  But I applaud her patience and willingness to answer every single one of my questions...and for that I say a BIG THANK YOU!!

But for my first crochet project I didn't go the traditional first-project-route of making a scarf...I decided to be a little bit ambitious, so I decided to do an amigurumi plushie.  But not just any old plushie, but a Pokemon plushie...Oddish to be precise.  For those of you who have no idea what an Oddish or Pokemon is here is a cute picture to show you:

Isn't he adorable?!  And the reason I chose him and not another Pokemon, is because he seemed to be relatively easy from the pattern I found on Ravelry.com.  Which leads me to my next shout out.  I have to give MAD PROPS to WolfDreamer who has designed numerous Pokemon amigurumi, and supplies the patterns for free!!  If you love Pokemon or just cute things in general you should definitely check out her blog...she also has a store you should check out too...it has non-Pokemon patterns that she sells, which are all equally as cute and adorable.

But on to my first crochet project.  After learning the basics of crochet and then struggling with the technique of the magic circle...which should be renamed the circle of hell, because I felt as if I was in hell trying to perfect it...those are some hours of my life I would love back!  Anyways, I've finally finished my Oddish and here he is, from start to finish:

Again, isn't he adorable?!?  I think I did a pretty good job for my first ever crochet pattern.  I already have plans for my next crochet project...Drifloon:

Wish me luck!! :D