Crocheted giraffe

One of my fondest early childhood memories, is my dad taking my toys & me on an adventure, guided by nothing except the music of Vivaldi's Four Seasons and my dad's imagination. I think one of the most important gifts you can receive as a child is the key to your own imagination. As Einstein put it: 'Imagination is more important than knowledge. Knowledge is limited; imagination encircles the world.'

Cuddly toys are great sources of stories, and make excellent companions when journeying in fantasy worlds. This crocheted giraffe (my second attempt at crocheting amigurumi so low difficulty level) was a present for a newborn baby. I used a freely available pattern, with a few little tweaks to make it -hopefully- more baby friendly. Still, I would recommend this kind of toy to be used under supervision only, since it contains small parts that could become available for tiny mouths and nostrils if our sewing job fails.     

   

You can find the original free pattern here. I used a 4 mm crochet hook and dk yarn. I picked a sunny golden colour for the yellow yarn,  and a rich chocolate brown one; making it warm and bright and unisex.

My only deviations from the instructions were that I changed the yellow tufts of hairs at the end of the tail for brown ones, and added some more tufts of brown hair at the top of the neck. I used a fine crochet hook to tease apart the individual stands of yarn. See adding fringe & teasing the yarn in my pet scarves post for another use of this technique.

I used polyfill to stuff the giraffe, and added in a few small bells with the stuffing so the toy makes a gentle noise when being shaken. More specifically, I added bells to the head & main body, since the head can be shaken without the body (I attached it relatively loosely) for some added interest. To make sure the stuffing & bells wouldn't escape their crocheted cage, I first added some lining (reusing lining from an old jacket) before stuffing. I didn't bother attaching the lining to the crocheted shell; rather, I first pushed in the lining, then the polyfill & bells, and sewed the lining to itself to close it. Basically making a stuffed package that fits inside a given crocheted part:

At the moment of writing, Gigi is on her way to join her new friend, and hopefully the both of them will share many wonderful journeys...

Pet football scarves

Do you need a gift for someone who’s crazy about their pet and their football team (or any other franchise with characteristic colours)? Why not knit them a pet-sized scarf in their fan colours? 

I’m not in favour of dressing up animals just for the sake of their owner’s amusement, but the scarves I made were never intended to be actually worn by their furry owners. The scarves may have been proportional for rabbits, but they would make a full mummy-style body wrap for the rats they were intended for. Nevertheless, their owner loves them, and the rats don’t mind posing while sitting on them. We have not managed to confirm whether or not the rats actually support the team in question, or secretly cheer for the rival team…

To get started, you can try to find a picture of a human-size scarf to copy or at least find the characteristic colours of the team/franchise. I used dk yarn for this project, but if you’re aiming for bigger pets chunkier yarn could speed things up. 

This is a very simple project, requiring only 2 basic skills: knitting in garter stitch & changing colours. Optionally, you could add tassels and/or embroider a monogram/logo.

Knit every row (garter stitch), changing colours at the start of a row. Afterwards, you can add tassels e.g. as shown here. After adding tassels in this way, I teased apart the separate strands that interweave to make up the yarn to give the illusion of smaller tassels. I used a crochet hook for this, but any other tool with a fine point that wouldn’t destroy your yarn would work too. 

Finally, if desired, add some embroidery. In my case the rats couldn’t fight over the scarves, since they were clearly labeled with the monogram of their owner! An alternative would be to embroider a logo, or sew on a patch with the logo on it (probably fairly easy to find online if it’s a popular franchise).

Your options are endless. For example, if the rats had been mine, I might have given Harry a Gryffindor and Malfoy a Slytherin themed scarf…