Already 2 weeks into the New year!

It's 2 weeks today that I began 2013...........in hospital! A very bad kidney infection (Pylonephritis to give it its official name) totally floored me. I had been ill with a UTI all over Christmas and had already had 2 courses of antibiotics with no effect. I blame the infusions I had in November to calm my RA down. Good for my pain control but a major side effect is being more susceptible to infection. Anyway I was in for 3 days and had 3 antibiotic infusions and came out with a further 6 day supply of yet more antibiotics. I think it's safe to say that I am now free of the infection. I just pray it doesn't come back!

I have been busy crocheting a Ponyo, Totoro and Catbus. I found some fantastic free patterns on the net. Some people are so generous creating their wonderful patterns and then giving them up for people like me who can knit and crochet but wouldn't know where to start making a pattern. 

The Ponyo pattern I found here  The Totoro pattern here and the Catbus pattern here

This is Ponyo. 

She is a fish/girl from the film Ponyo on the Cliff by the Sea. I had problems doing her hair but found a great tutorial on how to knit dolls hair here The wig I made starts around 5.16 minutes into the video. It took me a while to fathom it out (brain fog!) but what a great way to make dolls hair! I think she's cute :)

This is Totoro

I've made a few Totoro's now. They seem to be very popular. Totoro is from the film My Neighbour Totoro. I'm going to make a bigger one next time and I'm going to try a different pattern.....I get bored so easily...... It's a very similar pattern but made a different way and it's by the same lady that designed the Catbus so worth a try. That pattern is here

This is Catbus

The image is of the one the lady who wrote the pattern made. Mine is still a work in progress but I'll post some photo's later of how it's coming along. It's a tricky one and I've no idea whether it's going to look even remotely like this one but we'll see. Catbus is another character from My Neighbour Totoro. The films are all animation films from Studio Ghibli. The only film I've seen is Grave of the Fireflies and I cried so much it put me off watching any more of them. I've heard that there is going to be a big budget remake of the film. I will eventually watch the other films though because curiosity is beginning to get the better of me and I want to see what all the fuss is about over these characters.........