You know how some people are neat and tidy and artistic and somehow their baking always comes out perfectly risen all over; they can actually paint watercolours whose subjects are recognisable; their flower arrangements always look arranged and not just chucked willy-nilly into the nearest, most unsuitable vase? Whose craft projects always come out looking exactly like the picture on the kit? Well, I am not one of those people.

I cannot draw to save my life; shelves put up by me would always be wonky; my house is untidy and my tart crust always crumbles. And yet my creative spirit is unbowed by my absence of artistic genius and I blunder on, making a hash of everything. I’m a trier and surely I deserve a housepoint for that?

I’ve always longed to try amigurumi, the Japanese term for small crocheted or knitted stuffed creatures, and Ruby Rabbit is my first attempt. Not too bad, though she suffers from a serious case of slack tension and understuffing (I used old yarn and long-forgotten crochet granny squares and flowers) and is pear-shaped with serious love handles. Her ears flop and her tail is less than luxuriant. Perhaps she’s seen better days. Oscar is eyeing her up as his next demolition project. Perhaps he thinks she’s best put out of her misery, I don’t know.

Anyway, here are the facts:

Ruby Rabbit is a pattern from Wool and the Gang, made with their Shiny Happy Cotton in Shade Powder Blue on a 4.5mm hook. Shade B was something I happened to have knocking around, probably some sort of Rowan cotton yarn.

What I have learned:

• Magic Ring method
• Revision of Single Crochet and Single Crochet Decrease (American terminology)
• Revision of reading a pattern in American terminology (thanks to my rescuer, @riverwillow8)
• What happens when you don’t have enough stuffing
• That I should have paused before I took the second picture and switched my focus from Ruby to Oscar. You see? Not artistic.