For the next project in my series of of amigurumi Star Wars characters from the instructions from the Star Wars Crochet craft kit, I decided to make the R2-D2.

One of the little details in this pattern is that it calls for using the plastic safety eyes and corresponding connectors as the joints between the body and the legs.

One of the reasons I picked this project was because it called for sewing on more external details, which was something that gave me trouble on the last one so I thought I'd be able to practice more here. On the positive side my prediction about this being important on this one was correct, on the negative side I still find this frustrating and I'm still not great at it.

My yarn colors weren't an ideal match for R2, I think he's a lighter blue and the gray could be a bit lighter, but it's not too bad. Slightly more frustrating was that I used up the batch of white yarn that I was using with the legs so I had to switch to some different white yarn for the body (the stuff that came with the kit, which I originally used with the stormtrooper). This yarn was stiffer and had a bit more friction than the stuff I had been using, so the end of the project was a little bit aggravating.

Since my patience had been wearing a bit thin I reminded myself to follow a “'good enough' is good enough” standard for the final external details. I still find it tricky to figure out where to poke through with the needle when going from the inside to the outside since it's hard to use visual cues. I much prefer it when the details are “built in” to the crochet pattern since I feel like I have more reliable reference points for how to do things there.

When I attached the side-legs I worried that I might have made them a bit too wide, but it's hard for me to tell if that's due to how I positioned the “eye” connectors or just how I stuffed the legs, or if I'm just being neurotic.

With the body stuffed I was able to finish up the pattern, with the bottom of his cylindrical body that then extends out again to form R2's third foot that he uses when he's moving.

I was in a somewhat bad mood last week for other reasons, so in retrospect it may not have been the best idea to pick a project that would have elements I would find frustrating. Still, I think I learned some things (I realized I may have been doing something backwards, which may explain a few things that I've found consistently puzzling, I'll have to explore in a bit more depth on my next project). Still, even with the frustrations and the bad mood I still think this was an overall positive experience. Here's the whole current collection:

What's next?

I haven't decided what project I'm going to do next yet. It would be nice to do R2's companion C-3PO but I think the yarn colors I have would be a real stretch for 3PO. I could also try another experimental side-project, like my Amigurumi Thing.