(I apologize in advance for my English and I hope you can understand more

or less what I meant)

“What amazed me was the order of things...the fact that we wear clothes,
that an office has to look a certain way, the whole bit. It's amazing how
accustomed we have become to certain order. And you become more aware
of that order when you see something change it. Everybody turns around
and stares. But why really? Rules, order. We have ordered things so long in a
certain way, we are numb. Nobody dares to question it. This is what is
wrong.”

Nina Simone.
Eleven years ago I started this blog to talk about my work processes, a little
bit about my life, my doubts, my uncertainties and, why not, express a few
complaints. Kind of a log of my new adventure, Pica Pau, a journey that I
would get on without thinking too much, as always.

I never had trouble saying the things that bother me or telling how I did this
or that. On the contrary, this blog (and my Instagram account) is full of posts
that confirm my “lovely” personality.

Eleven years…and I'm almost sure that since I started writing here it never
took me so long or thought so many times about an entry. And I’ve written a
few controversial ones, so to speak.

But I feel like things are changing now (because they have to change) and I
can't afford to say anything without considering the consequences of my
words.

I want to talk about some trivial stuff related to crochet, about a certain cozy
day to day that we are used to, that routine that relax us because it’s, more
or less, predictable ... and I can't. The words fall short and seem to be
decoration, a tablecloth trying to cover up the stains on the table.

I want to talk about what is happening all over the world, all the stuff that’s
going on and everyone is talking about, the things that have been hitting us
relentlessly every single day for the last months (years, centuries) ... and I
can't.

I know that I am going to say something wrong, that I’m going to forget
something, that a few are going to misunderstand me, that I'm not going to
be able to explain myself properly, that someone is going to get offended,
that I'mgoing to have to swallow a few comments and insults from the
professional opinionated people that tends to appear everywhere like fungus
on the humid walls of a bathroom.

If I only talk about crochet or toys, books or my rights as an author, I feel

that I'm being selfish and it is almost a fact that I am going to fall into
something too banal, too superficial and empty for this moment of our
history.

If I talk about everything that is happening around us, even though I think
that I have enough “humanity” to understand and discern what is right and
what is wrong, more than likely I'm going to mess it up from, talking from my
instagrammable armchair activism.

And, on the other hand, for the first time one would believe that it shouldn´t
be necessary to explain every-single-time why we behave in certain way or
how we feel, why we come and go with our thoughts, why we are so
scattered, why we contradict ourselves.

For the first time, our generation is experiencing a major shake-up (here in
the West part of the world, other people and countries go from tremor to
tremor and we have become so used to it that we neither see them, or prefer
to ignore them).

All the things we considered eternal, truths and certainties fell from the
shelves. Rather, the entire shelves have fallen, with screws, wall and
everything.

All of a sudden, and all at the same time, we understood that "forever" only
exists in fairy tales (for better or worse to the protagonists).

The pandemic stopped us in our tracks, forced us to consider things that we

would never have imagined or didn´t want to think about, and with a very
high cost that we will continue to pay who knows for how long, has stamped
on our foreheads the urgent need to change our habits and customs.

On the other hand, perhaps fruit of the confinement of the lockdown, the
indignation and the impotence before the injustice that explodes in our faces
when the "every men for himself" rules, the world erupted in protests that
had been pending for too many years, centuries! And that, without any doubt
should have been heard and resolved a long time ago.

I want to write about what I do, about my job, my craft, pretend that nothing
is happening and continue talking about how to sew parts.

But I can’t.
And I can't get to deepen into those more complex and necessary issues at
this moment either.

First, because before saying anything, I have to review my position in

society, like almost everyone else. I am quite aware of my privileges and
that, although much of what I have today is thanks to my work, none of this
would have been possible without a lot of things that were given to me, that
I’m lucky to have and have nothing to do with my own merit.

At the same time, because I don’t have the authority to enact what to do or
not to do, what to say or what to keep silent (the level of absolute truth that
some social media “opinionolgy experts” assume to handle is, to say the
least, terrifying). We are still in the middle of the shock and each person's
response time is different.

I also don't feel like talking about exactly why everything exploded on a
personal / professional level again (some people glimpsed something on
Instagram, but there it was).

And it’s not that I am agreeing with those anonymous people without a life of
their own, I’m simply tired. Tired of being outraged. Tired of reading
nonsense barbarities that seem to be taken out of a behaviour handbook
from the Middle Ages.

And before I got here I wrote a lot of angry words. Scary angry words. I went
back and forth, wrote several drafts going from place to another, from the
macro to the micro and vice versa. Hundreds of questions, what is my place,
what right do I have or not to say or claim this or that, who cares what I
think, does anyone have to care about what I think, why can’t I just keep
talking about crochet. But I can't separate those things, I simply can’t.

I think about my job and immediately I found myself thinking about the
context and my head explodes. And I have to erase everything I wrote. I try
to start over and I come out with these collages of uncertainties that you are
reading right now.

And then I found these words in my Instagram feed (along with the
thousands of phrases with which we have covered social networks in the last
months)
“I stopped over explaining myself when I realized people only understand
from their level of perception.”

Constantly explaining yourself is exhausting, it sucks your energy out like a

parasite. It’s never enough, there is always a but.

Polarizing the thoughts is the easiest way to solve our existence without
thinking too much. If it’s one thing it cannot be the other.

If it's not like me it's wrong. If you don't think like me you are wrong. If you
don't eat like me, if you don't dress like me, if you don't work like me, if you
don't suffer from what I suffer, if you weren't born where I was born, if you
don't love like I love.

And so understand, or misunderstand, the universe that surrounds us.

So, instead of keep complaining, keep explaining myself - something that not
only makes me anxious and makes me want to stop doing anything, but
seems to be useful only to create misunderstandings and feed haters and
trolls - I'm going to choose another path, the intricate but beautiful way of
trying to expand our levels of perception.

We all have a lot to learn to stop seeing the world through the little window
that we close more and more as we grow.

Obviously, I'm going to focus almost exclusively on what my job is about, but
that doesn't mean I won’t talk about what's going on around us, because
we're also all that other things too.

Our crafts, our passions, our way of seeing the world is completely marked –
and biased- by what surrounds us (“every person is political”, the day we
begin to understand that idea we will begin to decide and really acknowledge
our lives).

And, logically, what I write in this space is also only one point of view about
this profession and the realities that surround me. So you are more than
invited to share yours. So we can add stories, experiences, different ways of
doing and seeing the world.
Like when you walk every day along the same street: you pay little attention
to it until one day someone tells you or shows you something interesting
about it. A building, a tree, an anecdote about someone who lived there, and
suddenly the street takes on another dimension, expands, it takes on its own
meaning and value.

And it’s quite like this with everything else.

I think that one of the greatest tragedies of humanity, what makes us "more
bad" is the ability we have to take away the value of things, dehumanize,
devalue the intelligence and feelings of all the beings around us (plants and
other animals included), think that our actions don’t bring consequences and
believe that our place is the best and only valid by which we judge
everything else, the bearers of the only truth.

Anyway. I'm rambling on again.

Things are not going to change from one day to another, people are not
going to stop taking advantage from each other's work because a crocheter
says it in a blog, we are not going to respect what is different or unknown
because it is “politically correct”, we will not understand the big differences
between the concept of opinion, fact and truth because someone explains it
in a post, we will not learn to put ourselves in the other's shoes because
social media explodes in phrases and images and news that stamps on our
retina how bad we are.

But it’s a beginning. No one learned to walk, to speak, to write, to crochet,

from one day to another. Somewhere, at some point, you have to start.

If we really want to change, if we think that there is something that is not

right, that makes noise, that is unfair, even if it is from the smallest, almost
insignificant place in our own universe / ego (our own life and work) to the
greatest and transcendental. So now is the time, these shocks that change
the curse of the history of humanity should at least serve as a good kick to
start moving and changing things.

And I apologize.
I needed to get out of my system all this hodgepodge of ideas to be able to
continue with this part of my work that involves "being social".

Basically because of all this wandering and contradictions that coexist in my

brain comes out this craft of inventing crocheted characters.

And, who knows, all this ranting of words was the only excuse I could think of
to introduce you to a character who was left out of the last book and who I
adapted to the last trend somewhat-too-optimistic-basic to my taste of the
rainbow "this will also pass" ... but hey, it's cute, and it kinds of give us
hope…so here it is.

Hello, contradictions!

... Or was the toy the great excuse to say all this?

Oh! The mystery…

Oh! I better stop writing right now.

So, here he is, Aristóteles Rainbow Rabbit.

ARISTÓTELES RAINBOW RABBIT

Size: 12 inches (ears included)

Materials: Pica Pau Worsted weight yarn in

- Yellow (col. 18)

- Off-White (col. 02)

- Teal Green (col.15)

- Light Aqua Blue (col. 10)

- French Blue (cl. 33)

- Bright Red (col. 27)

- Pastel Pink (col. 23)

- Light Pink (col. 21).

Size C-2/ 2.75 mm crochet hook.

Black safety eyes (10 mm)

Fiberfill.

NOSE

(in off-white)

Rnd 1: start 6 sc in a magic ring [6]

Rnd 2: inc in all 6 st [12]

Rnd 3: (sc in next st, inc in next st) repeat 6 times [18]

Rnd 4-5: sc in all 18 st [18].

Fasten off, leaving a long tail for sewing. With black yarn, embroider the
mouth and nose. Stuff a little.

HEAD AND BODY

(start in yellow)

Rnd 1: start 6 sc in a magic ring [6]

Rnd 2: inc in all 6 st [12]

Rnd 3: (sc in next st, inc in next st) repeat 6 times [18]

Rnd 4: (sc in next 2 st, inc in next st) repeat 6 times [24]

Rnd 5: (sc in next 3 st, inc in next st) repeat 6 times [30]

Rnd 6: (sc in next 4 st, inc in next st) repeat 6 times [36]

Rnd 7: (sc in next 5 st, inc in next st) repeat 6 times [42]

Rnd 8: (sc in next 6 st, inc in next st) repeat 6 times [48]

Rnd 9: (sc in next 7 st, inc in next st) repeat 6 times [54]

Rnd 10: (sc in next 8 st, inc in next st) repeat 6 times [60]

Rnd 11-18: sc in all 60 st [60]

Change to off-white

Rnd 19-22: sc in all 60 st [60]

Rnd 23: (sc in next 3 st, dec) repeat 12 times [48]

Rnd 24: (sc in next 2 st, dec) repeat 12 times [36]

Rnd 25: (sc in next 4 st, dec) repeat 6 times [30]

Sew the nose between rounds 16 and 21. Insert the safety eyes between
rounds 17 and 18 about 3 stitches away from the nose. Embroider the
cheeks with pastel pink yarn.

Rnd 26: (sc in next 3 st, dec) repeat 6 times [24]

Rnd 27: (sc in next 4 st, dec) repeat 4 times [20]

Stuff the head firmly with fiberfill. Change to teal green.

Rnd 28: (sc in next st, inc in next st) repeat 10 times [30]

Rnd 29: sc in all 30 st [30]

Rnd 30: (sc in next 4 st, inc in next st) repeat 6 times [36]

Rnd 31: sc in all 36 st [36]

Change to light aqua blue

Rnd 32-33: sc in all 36 st [36]

Rnd 34: (sc in next 5 st, inc in next st) repeat 6 times [42]

Rnd 35: sc in all 42 st [42]

Change to French blue

Rnd 36-39: sc in all 42 st [42]

Change to yellow

Rnd 40: BLO sc in all 42 st [42]

Rnd 41-47: sc in all 42 st [42]

Rnd 48: (sc in next 5 st, dec) repeat 6 times [36]

Rnd 49-52: sc in all 36 st [36]

THE LEGS

To make the legs, divide the work identifying 4 stitches for the front central
space between the legs, 4 stitches for the back and 14 stitches for each leg
(you may find it useful to use stitch markers). If the legs don't line up nicely
with the head, crochet a few more sc on the body or undo them. Join the last
stitch for the leg on the back side to the front side, working a single crochet
stitch (this sc will be the first stitch of the leg). Now the stitches of the first
leg are joined in the round. Continue working the first leg:

Rnd 53-58: sc in all 14 st [14]

Stuff the body and leg firmly.

Rnd 59: dec 7 times [7]

Fasten off, leaving a long tail. Using a tapestry needle, weave the yarn tail
through the front loop of each remaining stitch and pull tight to close. Weave
in the yarn end.

Second leg

Rejoin the yellow yarn in the fourth unworked stitch at the back of round 52.
This is where we start the first stitch of the second leg. Leave a long starting
yarn tail.

Rnd 48: sc in all 14 st. When you reach the 14h stitch of the leg, sc in first st
to join the round.

Rnd 49-59: repeat the pattern for the first leg.

Add more stuffing if needed. Using a tapestry needle, sew the 4 stitches
between the legs closed.

ARMS

(make 2, start in yellow)

Rnd 1: start 5 sc in a magic ring [5]

Rnd 2: inc in all 5 st [10]

Rnd 3-12: sc in all 10 st [10]

Change to teal green.

Rnd 13-15: sc in all 10 st [10]

Rnd 16: (sc in next 3 st, dec) repeat 2 times [8]

Fasten off, leaving a long tail for sewing. Stuff with fiberfill. Sew the arms on
both sides between rounds 29 and 30.

EARS

(make 2 in yellow)
Rnd 1: start 5 sc in a magic ring [6]

Rnd 2: inc in all 6 st [12]

Rnd 3: sc in all 12 st [12]

Rnd 4: (sc in next 3 st, inc in next st) repeat 3 times [15]

Rnd 5: sc in all 15 st [15]

Rnd 6: (sc in next 4 st, inc in next st) repeat 3 times [158

Rnd 7-19: sc in all 18 st [18]

Fasten off, leaving a long tail for sewing.

Inner ears

(make 2 in off-white)

Ch 11. Stitches are worked around both sides of the foundation chain.

Rnd 1: start in second ch from the hook, sc in next 9 st, 4 sc in last st.
Continue on the other side of the foundation chain, sc in next 9 st [22]

Fasten off leaving a long tail for sewing. Sew the inner ear to the center of
the inside of the yellow ear. Flatten and pinch the ears. Sew the ears to the
head.

For the TAIL, make a 2 inches/ 5 cm pompon with off-white yarn.

SCARF/COWL

(start with bright red)

Ch 40. Make sure your chain isn’t twisted and insert the hook in the first
chain stitch and join the foundation chain with a slst. Continue working in
spiral.

Rnd 1-2: hdc in all 40 st [40]

Change to pastel pink.

Rnd 3-4: hdc in all 40 st [40]

Change to light pink

Rnd 5-6: hdc in all 40 st [40]

Fasten off and weave in the yarn ends.