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...