Crocheted Giraffe

I just have to show this off!! Look, a crocheted giraffe – love him and all his colorful stripey goodness.  I am just super excited that I figured out an amigurumi (stuffed toy) pattern – we all know reading patterns is my downfall, so I love that I conquered this!

Isn’t it the cutest?!  It’s far from perfect, but that’s part of the charm, right? (at least, that’s what I tell myself).

I had set this on my goal list as a Must-Make Crochet Project for last month when I was doing #projectcrochet – and I know it’s March now, but hey, I’m still sharing all about it!  I can’t wait til next year’s #projectcrochet rolls around – this is too cute to save!

I found the pattern at I Love Buttons after I saw a version in Maybe Matilda‘s Instagram feed:

   

I got a pack of those little bon bon yarn things (from Lion Yarn) at Michaels (on an end cap) and it was perfect for this project.  Because I didn’t have to buy bunches of yarn colors in full yarn bundles – the little bon bons were enough.  And the colors coordinated – I love not having to think about that!

The only problem was that the bon bon yarn was thinner than the basic white yarn I was using.  The white yarn was thicker.  I didn’t think it’d be a problem, but as I went along making that first arm, I knew it was taking a turn for the worse – crochet crafting gone terribly wrong…

So for a semi-novice crocheter, I learned how to look for yarn thickness.  Flip over your yarn skein label, and it’ll have a number on it – I think average is 4.  My white was a 4.  But the little bon bons were a 3 ( i think – I can’t remember for sure – either a 2 or 3).  So I headed back to the store to find a 3 – which of course I couldn’t find.  But I did find some real thin soft yarn – it was a 1 or a 2 (again, I can’t remember, sorry!) so I just ended up using 2 strands of it and it equaled about the same thickness as the bon bon strands.  Which meant the paws were normal and didn’t poof up in a weird way.  Problem solved!

There weren’t directions on the face, so I just kind of made that part up.  I think the original plan might have used embroidery floss, and I used yarn, so mine is thicker.  I think button eyes or bead eyes would be cute too, I just didn’t have those on hand. I messed up on the antenna things (do those have a name?!) and one is thicker and shorter and one is skinny and taller, but that’s what gives it that handmade touch 😉

Thanks for letting me show off my little crocheted giraffe!  Now I want to tackle a bunch more stuffed crochet projects – if you have a good one, let me know!