The publisher sent me a review copy of Super-Cute Crochet which is PACKED full of 35 crochet patterns for animals and dolls.  

Nicki took a lot of time creating accessories, outfits, and back stories for each cuddly little friend.  There is everything from farm animals and jungle creatures to snowmen, and angels.  

My personal favorites are ...

Bees!

Snail!

Octopus (yeah, I'm predictable ... whatevs).

Spider.  This looks suspiciously like the octopus, but I LOVELOVELOVE that crazy mouth.  Teefs!

There are lots of *giant* stitch instructions that are very clear and easy to follow.  Perfect for beginner crocheters.  Unfortunately, the project instructions leave some steps to your imagination ... like attaching parts ... but I am really picky about explicit instructions, so take that with a grain of futuregirl-salt.

I had trouble picking which project I wanted to make ... but ultimately, I couldn't resist the lion.  Oh, a shaggy mane gets me every time!  In the moments while making dinner and finishing our episode of Miami Vice* I got all the pieces crocheted and threaded a boat-load of mane onto the head.

I think he's going to end up looking almost exactly like the one in the book.  I'll tell you more about him when I post him all finished.  Which I hope is soon!

* Right now our dinner viewing is Miami Vice.  We're up to season 4!  I didn't watch it as a kid.  I wish I'd known how awesome it was!  We use Netflix On Demand (which rocks) for most episodes ... but some are only available on DVD through them, so we watch those episodes on Hulu (which sucks).