Remember Thing One and Thing Two from The Cat in the Hat? I have Lamb One and Lamb Two.

The two lambs have challenged my abilities to replicate--something I've been fairly good at. I've recreated many many many dolls, many many many times, quite easily.

But it was a lamb that challenged me.

Lamb One, pictured above, was made over a year ago. He modelled in a number of photographs for me. He was a great model, you've probably seen him in chairs, or with pajamas or on a doll bed or quilt. He was quite dutiful.

Until he was sold and went off to his new home.

This past week, I needed to make a new lamb. I did not imagine he would be hard to replicate.

He was.

I started with velvet, which was the original fabric, but it frayed so badly, it made working on such a small scale nearly impossible. I switched to organic velour, which was lovely to work with, but it has a slight stretch. This made his shape a bit more, well, flexible, which was good and not so good.

My finished lamb, was cute, but not exactly the same. I realized that so much time had elapsed bewteen lambs, that whatever tricks I developed for making the first one, had been forgotten.

My lesson, which seems rather obvious: it easier to replicate something you have done recently or often.

Below is Lamb Two. He is cute and I like him, but he is not Lamb One.

Lamb Three will probably be somewhere in between, maybe more like a Lamb One and a Half.