I was super excited to purchase the second "Edward's Menagerie" crochet book by Kerry Lord which contains many patterns for birds. If you haven't heard of Kerry Lord, I highly recommend checking out her work (www.thetoftalpacashop.co.uk). She's one of my crochet idols and I love her laid back and minimalist approach to her animals. A very important thing to keep in mind is that the book is in UK terms, i.e. a single crochet (sc) in North America, is a double crochet (dc) in the UK. For my first bird, I decided to stick with a bird from the Level 1 section - "Sophia the Flamingo" (which was also Kerry's first bird). Just like Kerry Lord's first book, there are standard forms for all the body parts so you will have to flip to different sections within the book in order to complete an animal. I found no issue with this as you are only flipping between each part; there's no need to look at more than one section of the book at a time. The book is broken into many parts, the key sections are: - Standard Forms - The Patterns - Technicals One benefit of using standard forms is that once you create your first animal, the subsequent animals seem a little easier because they all include the same forms. Also, the book stays a small size by not repeating and printing the same pattern for every animal (the book is less than half an inch thick). There are of course some differences between the birds such as increasing the number of rounds to create a longer neck, legs etc, and these are noted on the pattern page for that specific animal. The only part I struggled with were the claws. You must use Kerry's 'splitting a round' technique to split the foot into the three claws. I found the instructions in the book to be too general and I just wasn't getting it. Thankfully, the Toft website includes help videos for many different techniques. You'll find the "splitting crochet rounds" video here. After watching her video, I had that "light bulb" moment and was able to carry on and complete all the claws. The splitting technique was used again for the tail. I quite enjoyed making this flamingo. It didn't require a lot of stuffing, and other than the claws, was relatively simple to create (as mentioned above, the flamingo is a Level 1 bird). Do you own "Edward's Menagerie, Birds"? What animals have you made? I can't wait to make my next bird! Materials used:
3.5 mm hook 1. Loops & Threads Impeccable yarn in Arbor Rose (medium weight [4], 253 m/127.5 g). I only used approximately one half to two-thirds of the ball of yarn. 2. Black yarn for claws, beak, wing tips and eyes. I used a scrap ball of yarn (same black yarn I used for my first BB-8).
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Melissa LuangsiripanyaHi there! I'm a self-taught casual crocheter. Here you will find more details on how I made my projects as well as stories of hardship, frustrations and success! Archives
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