Terracotta Zoomorphic Askos, Greek, Ca. 1725–1600 B.C.

AmiguruMay Day 6 - WIP: work in progress

ngl i fell off with this challenge but it's never too late to catch up?? 🙃

dilly dallied around London at minumum efficiency today and made a good start at a new lil guy

i've decided to try and crochet with more things things that are not cotton so this is baby alpaca. feels pleasant to work with but does not end up as soft as you'd think and i think will require some gentle blocking (not sure how to pull it all off with stuffing, sewing things together etc)

January 2025 | monthnote

Is it even a new year if I don't make some doomed attempt at weeknotes?

Random notes inc work stuff

Vicky dying still does not feel real. I feel privileged I got to spend some siginifcant time with her when she came along to Conferencia Agile Spain (like most people I primarily knew her from her writing and online presence, altho we met briefly a few times when we overlapped at GDS) and was hoping to follow up on a few things we talked about at GovCamp but equally it means I can't just indulge in my full-on denial mode...

Worked through xmas-ny break like usual. It's usually a chill time unless I am in this department, where apart from the ongoing time-sensitive work lots of random emergencies happened. So glad I'm off for a couple of weeks now, I've not had a proper break since Japan in March/April and I'm shattered.

Overall so much random and weird shit was going down at the end of Dec / start of Jan (including both me and my flatmate having very strange dreams) I was beginning to suspect a gas leak... 🙃

Got extended till Feb 2026 in my current contract. 🎉 It should make getting a mortgage easier, now just fingers crossed that the property does not get down valued like the last one and my sellers find something they want to purchase soon.

Quite a lot of change at work, lots of it quite neatly coinciding with my leave. The migration from GOV.UK PaaS my team was prepping for for the last year got delayed last minute and now I'll be missing it but I'm sure it will all go fine.

Booked in with Keemee for a tatoo just after the holiday. 🌺

Govcamp happened and I was mostly helping our rather than going to sessions. :o Good times as usual, felt particularly busy this year for a 'normal edition'. I really like that we finally have a bit of a Teacamp return with TransformGov Talks and also sort of DataBites! \o/

Spanish classes are back. I've not signed up for Korean yet, there's probably a fair bit I can do to brush up close to my former level by myself if I just find the motivation. :s

Watched

Lots of Taskmaster, the perfect crocheting accompaniment (see below)

Nosferatu - the scene in castle 100% played like something from What We Do in the Shadows, I'm not even sorry for giggling throughout. 😔 Needed more Dafoe hamming it up. I was shocked the cat was not named in the credits - breaking a sacred tradition of cinema. 4 stars.

Presence - not a horror, not my kinda thing otherwise (family drama). The central gimmick could be fun in an actual horror movie tho. Another one they kind of employ ('not being bound by time') is sort of redundant because the progression is linear (I suppose otherwise the twist would be ruined). The marketing vs movie kind of fell in place for me when I realised it's the same distributor as Longlegs which was also underwhelming.

Late Feb / March seems staked with releases I want to see: The Monkey, The Last Showgirl, Mickey 17, Death of Unicorn... probably more. Those are just the trailers I saw before Presence lol.

Played

This is probably between Dec-Jan rather than strictly Jan.

Fledgling Manor - Stefan's route only, basically not sure how the other ones can top it so I lost interest but it seems all need to be played to resolve some plot points so maybe in the future...

Sorry We're Closed - I thought this would be a VN but it's a survival horror and I find the shooting stressful haha. You can say I hould have read the description before buying but I was blinded by the art. -_-

bits of Arco (love the mechanics and the story is good but I got stuck at an encounter I can't pass but I'm too stubborn to back out and return at higher level), Animal Well, Stanley Parable (at very long last - yes, it's as good as I thought it would be), I Was a Teenage Exocolonist (tbh the mechanics were more interesting to me in a more down to earth setting of Growing Up), Cryptmaster (Steamdeck does not work well for this).

Waiting for Yakuza in Hawaii, more Hades 2 patches, next Deltarune chapters, and Ghost of Tsushima sequel + Assassins Creed Japan (open world map marker slop > therapy, don't @ me).

Makes

Decima is still closed so no pottery. I've probably forgotten 100% of what little I could do. I'll probably do a course at Mudgang when I'm back to return to some working level and then get either a studio space subscription from them or Turning Earth near Haggerston, depending on how the flat buying is coming along.

In the meantime I have finally sort of learned how to crochet. I got a kit from TOFT to make a black and white cat, resembling Bella a bit. I tried crocheting before a few times (I learned very basic knitting during lockdown and have half a pride blanket from Wool & the Gang somewhere) but it always ended up with me crying, once in public. 🥲 The kit said it's level 2 so I got another level 1 one (labrador)

TBF they are not that different, cat requires changing colours which is actually not hard if you get over the initial barrier to entry of crocheting anything at all. 😬 The cat is also bigger which makes the process much less fiddly.

TOFT instructions are quite barebones and don't have any interim 'this is what it should look like by now' pics which as a complete beginner is quite rough, but I think I managed to make decent approximations of the cover images. I made some changes to the cat on purpose.

Belly disagrees.

The biggest issue I have with TOFT kits so far is that the amount of yarn provided leaves no room for errors or even leaving longer tails. With both patterns I made mistakes (crocheting with dark yarn is particularly hard going if you don't know wtf you're doing) and the yarn started fraying real bad so I had to chop it. I actually had to buy more yarn (which doesn't exactly match...) to finish the cat at all. :(

I got yarn and patterns for two sheep (Seth and Tobias) from them to keep busy on the upcoming flights so we'll see how consistent this minimalism is. 😬

Anyway then I went crazy at John Lewis sales so I have lots of materials now, just need patterns and ideas. The first one is not going particularly well and I'm losing my patience sligtly, might swap to something else.

またね! ✌️😗

February 2025

I was mentally incapable of moving on from Feb until the sheep was done.

Anyway

Holiday

Cruising is weird and not for me but I was not _for_ me so fine I guess. The polish tour leader was surprisingly competent (esp compared to the LatAm fiasco) and mum had a good time so probably more 🛳️ in my future at some point. It's a good way to recon places worth going back to on my own ig (first Istanbul because that pomegranate juice was to die for, then probs HK).

If there's one thing I know for sure it's that I never need to see another waterfall again in my life. ✋

Work and things

I really don't want to feature an obit in each one of those so can my friends and colleagues stop dying? RIP Charlotte.

Since I cunningly avoided the big thing we've been working towards (migration from GOV.UK PaaS) by being on holiday, a new big thing to work towards that everyone is very stressed about has appeared. 😑

Then I guess I will be moving to a different portfolio since a replacement for my role has been recruited! I get bored easily and I've been here for over a year now so I'm quite happy.

I'm increasingly of the opinion that creating any live service team / BAU capability should probably start with a solid process and roadmap for retiring services.

Sisyphus had it easy compared to people who try to write down processes at work and put them all in one place, I can cheer them on but I have mentally checked out from the attempts and will continue to solve my problems by asking groupchats.

My mortgage got approved, survey happened and has nothing dramatic in it, and my seller has found something they want to buy (with no chain) so it's all happening.

Fool's spring was nice and I am now ready to just delude myself into thinking it's spring for two months no matter how bad the weather gets. At least the lido will continue to be half empty. : )

Got a new tattoo and this was THE shortest time between getting one and wanting the next (as in - while I was still getting tattooed 😑). Love it even more than I expected tbh and definitely getting it extended if the artist comes back to the UK!

I'm helping with the next Delivercon and department's DM get together.

Watched

The Monkey - great fun, true to trailer (yes I'm still pissed about Presence), just a good ass film

The Last Showgirl - 100% of respondents* agree that this could be a double bill with The Substance

*(me and my friend with who I also watched The Substance)

fuckton of b-roll and why the HELL does the photographer girl never have a camera? bizarro. Jamie Lee Curtis just has fun as always. I have a lot to say about this for some reason hah

Mickey 17 - bizarrely bad in an incompetent way (characters introduced for no reason that go nowhere, plotholes, fuckton of expository voiceover, thematic blunt force trauma). Stinks of studio interference frankly, give us the Bong Joon-Ho cut!!!! 🗣️🗣️🗣️🗣️

Played

Hades 2 - major update dropped so that accounts for several dozen hours of my life in this time period. We got Ares, we got the good shade... My only remaining wish is for the game to let me pet the goodest three-headed boy. 🥺

The Roottrees are Dead - is it possible to go wrong with an Obra Dinn-like (that is not actually Obra Dinn, that was too hard for me and my eyes hurt thx).

Reignbreaker demo - Hades-like releasing in the spring which seems REALLY GOOD but the studio already announced they're getting shuttered after release. So glad this billion pound industry I'd love to work in is a garbage fire both working culture and career prospects-wise. :|

Fiasco - I guess our DM wanted more people to try making funny voices... ALAS. TTRPGs are hardly my thing and improv definitely isn't. How do I convince these people to just play a fucking boardgame again. orz

Makes

2 x Sheep (Toft) - https://techforevil.tumblr.com/post/777113383117914112/tldr-i-finished-two-sheep-from-toft-seth-the

Sadie the Sailor Dog (Ricorumi) - https://techforevil.tumblr.com/post/777114285980729344/sadie-the-sailor-dog-from-ricorumi-two-main

Started the Sanitation Worker Raccoon (I have the raccoon herself done, now just the accessories).

I also succeeded getting someone else into amigurumi and she’s onto her 2nd project (having started with a toft cat), counting that as mine. 😎

Next up

Got my Yakuza in Hawaii import from Japan ages ago (how could I live without Majima pop-up pirate toy...) just gotta find 30hrs spare to play it.

Golden Idol has a new DLC 👀

Got a ticket for Stitch Festival, inc a needle felting (aka best craft 🗡️) workshop

Maybe try making a human character amigurumi. :T

AmiguruMay day 1 - Hello!

This is catching me a bit by surprise (just saw someone else post!) and I don't have anything new to show but it finally made me attempt to make these two wear each others' clothes. 🫡

Susie court-mandated community service AU I guess?? The raccoon is sans pants due to the truly voluptous tail....

I posted more detail on both before:

Raccoon

Susie

heard porn bots might be following you guys again. sorry about that. but in some good news i have been gaining many new followers who are real stunningly beautiful women. welcome ladies :)

Screens. Neon Genesis Evangelion (1995)

It’s beautiful.

My mum would not stop asking me to make her a Frenchie amigurumi and I wanted something where I could relax a bit about the pattern/quality after the raccoon, work with a bit bigger hook etc haha. 💀

TBF I wouldn't even post it but I think it's neat to see how far I've come in terms of sheer speed- I think making both took roughly the same amount of time. 🤯 So it's a 2.5 months progress post of sorts.

Patterns:

Eleanor the Labrador from TOFT:

toftuk.com

Beginner Crochet Labrador Dog Pattern | TOFT

Beginner Crochet Labrador Dog Pattern | TOFT

Frenchie from StringyDingDing:

StringyDingDing

French Bulldog & Boston Terrier Amigurumi PDF - StringyDingDing

Crochet a Boston Terrier and French Bulldog with this printable amigurumi PDF crochet pattern! Visit our site to get it now.