If my allergies are any indication, my guess is that when February 2, 2011 rolls around, Punxsutawney Phil will not see his shadow, and spring will come early. This means that in the area where I live, at some point in early April, the cars, sidewalks and any other outside horizontal surfaces will be covered in a thick layer of yellow pollen, and it will be another 3 months before it is all washed away.

But back to today.

Winter is not my best season. Wool keeps me warm, but makes me itch, so for as long as winter lasts, I get to choose between being itchy and warm, or not itchy but cold.

One of the things that does provide me some relief from the winter is the birds that congregate on the porch when I put seed out for them. The birds that come to visit are quite varied, and while I am generally ignorant of what types of birds populate my yard, the cardinal is distinctive, and so easy to recognize, even I can pick him out from the rest of the crowd.

So, it is fitting that this easily identified bird should be one of the stars of the game, Angry Birds. And given that there are a number of crocheters who think that the crocheted version of anything is the true essence of the thing itself, it should come as no surprise to my regular readers that an amigurumi designer, Karla Fitch, has come up with a fetching amigurumi version of a cardinal that bears a striking resemblance to the unnamed cardinal of mobile phone game fame.

I ran across the pattern at ravelry in the week after Christmas and before the New Year, and added it to my queue. Today, I found myself no longer able to resist the siren call of this project, and I got out my 3.5mm hook, the necessary yarns (I used Red Heart Super Saver, hot red, aran, black, and pumpkin), and I sat down with the PDF (available as a free download at ravelry) and got to work.

The directions were impeccable and in under an hour, I had all of the parts that needed to be attached (save the eyebrows) done:

By the time 4:30 rolled around, I had unloaded the dishwasher, finished a some laundry, and completed the newest member of our amigurumi household, (named at my youngest son’s behest) for the French clergyman, Cardinal Richelieu:

Then I took Cardinal Richelieu for his first foray into the great outdoors:

In addition to this charming cardinal, Ms. Fitch is the proprietress of the blog The Itsy Bitsy Spider. I highly recommend you drop in and see all that she has to offer.