The Hobbit- Balin Amigurumi

So I'm basically making the lovely Hobbit characters in the order they came knocking on Bilbo's door. (Meaning Thorin will be last, which will serve as motivation to stick to the end XD) So after Dwalin is Balin, at your service.

I'm not sure if anyone else share my thoughts, but my first impression of Balin is Santa XDD I contemplated using a blend of white and gray for the hair, but decided to go for white in the end. It's less realistic but I find it really cute!

Here's the reference pic (though I mostly used pics in my handy movie guide ^^):

Caught a loose thread there XP *goes to fix it*

I used a metallic thread along with my run-of-the-mill black yarn for the edges of his clothes. Balin's outfit is extremely detailed, so I had to simplify it, but I also wanted something fancy =) 

I made the mistake of forgetting the fact that Balin wore gloves. That's what I get for not double-checking my sketches. (And I underlined 'black' too! Twice!) We'll just pretend he forgot about the gloves then.

At one point I had to get his beard out of the way to sew the collar on, and to do that I tied his beard up in a nice little bow, which I imagine is somewhat of an insult to any self-respecting dwarf. Sorry, Balin, had to be done XD I hereby apologize to all dwarf-kind!

Next up is Fili, who is already half-way there~

One Hobbit, two dwarfs down. 11 dwarfs, 1 wizard to go!

The Hobbit-- Dwalin Amigurumi

Goodness, I've had this in draft all this time and I'd failed to notice!

In the midst of the onslaught of reports and assignments and club activities and the anxiety from finals week approaching, I finished making Dwalin!

Funny thing is, though he's a dwarf, Dwalin is the tallest amigurumi I've made to date.

Reference photo =) 

Oops, he looks a bit disproportionate in this photo, doesn't he?

Detailing on the chest.

I had fun experimenting with the furry yarn used for the fur piece. I went looking for the yarn with my Hobbit Official Movie Guide and showed the lady there photographs of Dwalin. She thought I wanted to make an actual fur piece, and stared at me as though I'm crazy XD

He's a good deal taller than Bilbo, but Dwalin is one of the tallest dwarfs in the company, and I'm worried that Bilbo is going to end up taller than some of the dwarfs... hmm... Oh well, as long as Thorin is taller than Bilbo, it's fine with me XD (Bagginshield shipper revealed)

Oh, I almost forgot! I took Dwalin with me to my aunt's house, and my aunt posed him with her kitten~

I just ruined his manliness, didn't I? To all dwarven-kind I probably rank below elves now XD

Dwalin is actually finished long before this post. Like I said, I put it in draft and forgot about it *hides face*. So I'm actually already done with Balin, and Fili is coming together nicely.

For the sake of counting down though, we'll pretend I posted on time:

1 Hobbit and 1 dwarf down, 12 dwarfs, 1 wizard to go.

Bilbo Baggins Amigurumi

It's done! My very own adorable gentle-hobbit. I tried something a bit different with this amigurimi. I added a nose and ears, which I never do in fear of messing everything up. I also made an attempt to shape the limbs a bit more instead of just making a tube... hope it shows XD

Anyway, here it is~

close-up of the clothes

Isn't he adorable!!!? I considered giving him eyebrows, but then again I don't want to fix him with a permanent expression. The yarn for his hair was already curly so it only took a bit of wax to get it just the way I wanted =)

1 hobbit and a dragon down, 13 dwarves and a wizard to go!

Experiments- Koala's March Balls

I read a post on Plurk the other day that said that if you took a box of Lotte's Koala's March cookies, (The ones pictured below, if you've never had any before. If that's the case, I feel so bad for you because they're great XD) shake it for about 30 to 60 minutes, you'll end up with a chocolate (or whichever flavor you're working with) and crushed cookies ball.

It soon became a trend all over, to the point where the cookies were sold out in the nearest 7-11 when I tried to get a box! 

Anyway, naturally I decided to give it a try. After all, worst-case scenario is that I end up with chocolaty goo. Which doesn't sound all that bad, all things considered.

You can feel the koalas crushing and getting dismembered as you start to shake it. After awhile the contents inside start to feel a lot more solid.

And around 30 minutes (I don't know how long exactly, my arms got sore and I took a break), voila!

The moisture in the filling softened up the cookie, but it's still slightly crunchy.

And of course I couldn't stop there! So my dear roommate and I went and got the other flavors as well.

This is strawberry, it's a bit too sweet for me but it smells sooo nice! You can smell the strawberry even before you open the package!

Next is cream. It took a longer time than the others to shake into a ball. Esther assumes it's because of a higher protein content, but we're no scientists, and there are too many factors we couldn't account for, so we do the only thing we can do after dissecting it-- eat it up. Yum!

Challenge- The Hobbit Company

I'm giving myself a challenge, and hopefully putting this here would prompt people to supervise me and see that I get it done. I want to make the Hobbit characters- everyone in the company and one evil dragon- before the end of this year. 

Yep.

That's one dragon down, a hobbit, 13 dwarves, and a wizard to go. 

Okay... I'm starting to feel queasy after putting the photo up. That's a lot of dwarves! 

I'm starting with our dear burglar. 

This is the reference pic so far. There was a inner battle between this version and Bilbo with his suspenders, but I decided on the perfectly respectable version XD 

He's the most colorful of the lot, isn't he? After him I guess I'll be dealing with loads of grays and browns XD

Providing that I finish, of course. 

So if anyone out there is reading this and would like to see the whole cast completed, I'd love a word of encouragement (or scolding, if I'm slacking off).

I'd love to take them all to the next Hobbit movie with me =)