Zarafa the Giraffe - Free Pattern!

Well here it is, my first free pattern!

This giraffe has been made for a customer and so while I made it I wrote down exactly what I did. Hopefully there aren't any/many mistakes in here. If you do find any please contact me at littleredfoxyarns@gmail.com.

This pattern is free for you to make items for yourself, friends and the general population. If you make these to sell I simply ask that you refer people back to my site. 

Materials

3.5mm crochet hook

Yellow (approx. 200m) and brown (approx. 150m) yarn 8 ply (I used Panda ‘Cotton Blend’) Using an acrylic or wool yarn may make the giraffe a little larger.

2x12mm safety eyes

Yarn needle

Stuffing

Nose

Work through back loops only

Yellow yarn

Round 1: Ch 2 then sc 6 into the second ch from hook (6)

Round 2: 2 sc in each st (12)

Round 3: 2 sc in first st, sc in next, repeat around (18)

Round 4: 2 sc in first st, sc in next 2 st, repeat around (24)

Round 5: 2 sc in first st, sc in next 3 st, repeat around (30)

Rounds 6-8: Sc in each st (30)

Round 9: Sc2tog in first st, sc in next 3 st, repeat around (24)

Round 10: Sc2tog in first st, sc in next 2 st, repeat around (28) Bind off with a long tail.

Ears (make 2)

Work through back loops only

Yellow yarn

Round 1: Ch 2 then sc 6 into the second ch from hook (6)

Round 2: 2 sc in each st (12)

Round 3: Sc in each st (12)

Round 4: St2tog around (6)

Round 5: Sc in each st (6) Bind off with long tail

Horns (make 2)

Work through back loops only

Brown yarn

Round 1: Ch 2 then sc 6 into the second ch from hook (6)

Rounds 2-5: Sc in each st (6) Bind off with long tail

Upper Legs (make 2)

Work through back loops only

Round 1: Ch 2 then sc 6 into the second ch from hook using the brown yarn (6)

Round 2: 2 sc in each st (12)

Round 3: 2 sc in first st, sc in next, repeat around (18)

Round 4: 2 sc in first st, sc in next 2 st, repeat around (24)

Rounds 5-6: Sc in each st (24)

Round 7: Sl st in yellow yarn then sc in each st (24)

Rounds 8-12 : Sc in each st (24)

Round 13: Sc2tog in first st, sc in next 10 st, repeat once (22)

Round 14: Sc in each st (22)

Round 15: Sc2tog in first st, sc in next 9 st, repeat once (20)

Round 16: Sc in each st (20)

Round 17: Sc2tog in first st, sc in next 8 st, repeat once (18)

Round 18: Sc in each st (18)

Round 19: Sc2tog in first st, sc in next 7 st, repeat once (16)

Rounds 20-21: Sc in each st (16)

Round 22: Sc2tog in first st, sc in next 6 st, repeat once (14)

Rounds 23-24: Sc in each st (14)

Lower Legs (make 2)

Work through back loops only

Round 1: Ch 2 then sc 6 into the second ch from hook using the brown yarn (6)

Round 2: 2 sc in each st (12)

Round 3: 2 sc in first st, sc in next, repeat around (18)

Round 4: 2 sc in first st, sc in next 2 st, repeat around (24)

Round 5: 2 sc in first st, sc in next 3 st, repeat around (30)

Round 6: Sc in each st (30)

Round 7: Sl st in yellow yarn then sc in each st (30)

Rounds 8-9: Sc in each st (30)

Round 10: Sc2tog in first two st, sc in next 3, repeat around (24)

Round 11: Sc2tog in first two st, sc in next 2, repeat around (18)

Round 12: Sc2tog in first two st, sc in next 1, repeat around (12) Bind off with a long tail

Head/Body

Work through back loops only

Round 1: Ch 2 then sc 6 into the second ch from hook using the yellow yarn (6)

Round 2: 2 sc in each st (12)

Round 3: 2 sc in first st, sc in next, repeat around (18)

Round 4: 2 sc in first st, sc in next 2 st, repeat around (24)

Round 5: 2 sc in first st, sc in next 3 st, repeat around (30)

Round 6: 2 sc in first st, sc in next 4 st, repeat around (36)

Round 7: 2 sc in first st, sc in next 5 st, repeat around (42)

Round 8: 2 sc in first st, sc in next 6 st, repeat around (48)

Rounds 9-15: Sc in each st (48)

Round 16: Sc2tog in first two st, sc in next 6 st, repeat around (42)

Round 17: Sc2tog in first two st, sc in next 5 st, repeat around (36)

Round 18: Sc2tog in first two st, sc in next 4 st, repeat around (30)

Round 19: Sc in each st (30)

Round 20: Sc2tog in first two st, sc in next 3 st, repeat around (24)

Attach nose, ears, safety eyes and horns here. See attachment details

Round 21: Sc in each st (24)

Round 22: Sc2tog in first two st, sc in next 2 st, repeat around (18)

Rounds 23-29: Sc in each st (18)

Round 30: 2 sc in first st, sc in next 8 st, repeat (20)

Round 31: Sc in each st (20)

Round 32: 2 sc in first st, sc in next 9 st, repeat (22)

Round 33: Sc in each st (22)

Round 34: 2 sc in first st, sc in next 10 st, repeat (24)

Round 35: Sc in each st (24)

Round 36: 2 sc in first st, sc in next 7 st, repeat around (27)

Round 37: Sc in each st (27)

Round 38: 2 sc in first st, sc in next 8 st, repeat around (30)

Round 39: Sc in each st (30)

Round 40: 2 sc in first st, sc in next 4 st, repeat around (36)

Round 41: 2 sc in first st, sc in next 5 st, repeat around (42)

Round 42: 2 sc in first st, sc in next 6 st, repeat around (48)

Round 43: 2 sc in first st, sc in next 7 st, repeat around (54)

Round 44: 2 sc in first st, sc in next 8 st, repeat around (60)

Round 45: 2 sc in first st, sc in next 29 st, repeat (62)

Round 46: 2 sc in first st, sc in next 30 st, repeat (64)

Round 47: 2 sc in first st, sc in next 31 st, repeat (66)

Round 48: 2 sc in first st, sc in next 32 st, repeat (68)

Round 49: 2 sc in first st, sc in next 33 st, repeat (70)

Round 50: 2 sc in first st, sc in next 34 st, repeat (72)

Rounds 51-60: Sc in each st (72)

Round 61: Sc2tog in first 2 st, sc in next 10 st, repeat around (66)

Round 62: Sc2tog in first 2 st, sc in next 9 st, repeat around (60)

Round 63: Sc2tog in first 2 st, sc in next 8 st, repeat around (54)

Round 64: Sc2tog in first 2 st, sc in next 7 st, repeat around (48)

Round 65: Sc2tog in first 2 st, sc in next 6 st, repeat around (42)

Attach upper legs, lower legs, felt shapes and stuff the neck and upper body. See attachment details

Round 66: Sc2tog in first 2 st, sc in next 5 st, repeat around (36)

Round 67: Sc2tog in first 2 st, sc in next 4 st, repeat around (30)

Round 68: Sc2tog in first 2 st, sc in next 3 st, repeat around (24)

Round 69: Sc2tog in first 2 st, sc in next 2 st, repeat around (18)

Round 70: Sc2tog in first 2 st, sc in next 1 st, repeat around (12)

Round 71: Sc2tog in first 2 st, repeat around (6)

Round 72: Sc in first and fourth st, pull tightly to close off gap, bind off then push excess yarn through to body with crochet hook.

Finished! =)

*** If you can, add weighted beads (preferably tied up in old pantyhose) to the bottom of the giraffe in between rounds 65 and 66. This will make him more balanced.

Attachment details:

Horns

Sew on horns using tail to the 4^th round of the head on opposite sides.

Ears

Sew directly below the horns

Nose

Sew to round 12 of the head

Eyes

Push through space between rounds 10 and 11 and attach safety backing

Upper legs

Partially stuff the legs so that they have shape but aren’t perfectly round. Sew to round 40 on either side of body.

Felt squares
Cut squares and other shapes out of a brown felt that is a similar colour to your brown yarn, approximately 1-2cm². Sew onto back leaving gaps between them using a yellow embroidery thread.

Lower legs

Stuff fully and attach upper edge to round 57 of the body.

More hats and spinning

Well, while I was away on my holiday I managed to get in some crochet time and so I made another sun hat, this time using the 6-9month patter (http://stitch11.com/6-9sunhat/). This one was supposed to be for my niece but it ended up being rather small, I think it may be due to the cotton yarn being so thin. So this is now going to the little girl whom I made the snail for and fingers crossed it will fit!

This is the result of my drop spindling. I did one strand on the top whorl and one on the bottom whorl to get a feel for them and then I plyed them together. The plyed yarn looks gorgeous, the thick and thin bits when overlapped look really interesting! It would look even better if the strands were different colours or variations of colours. I am incredibly pleased.

This afternoon I dyed the yarn with food colouring and this is how it turned out!

I also currently have a work in progress, I am making a giraffe for a friend, this will be my first paid project! How exciting!

Spinning yarn

So 2 weeks ago I decided to hire a spinning wheel to try my hand at making yarn. It was an old Sheridan, from the 70's or 80's I think. It was a traditional style one, I want to say it was called a Macarthur but I'm not 100% sure. It was lovely, but annoyingly big. After the two weeks I can honestly say spinning wheels are not yet my thing. I struggled a lot but the lady who I hired it from said my yarn was great for a beginner. In the future I plan to try again. I also forgot to take a picture of the wheel. Oops.

Here are some pictures of yarn that I spun, they are all single ply.

This is raw fleece, Corriedale I think? I found it realllllllllly difficult to spin it as it was literally just the wool shorn from the sheep, bugs included.

This is a merino wool top that I bought from somewhere... I can't remember where. This was a lot easier to spin as it has been carded so that the fibres are all parallel. I got this in a couple of different colours. They are lovely.

I did really enjoy the experience and since I am going on my trip for 10 days tomorrow I really wanted to get/make a drop spindle so I could keep trying. I went on an adventure to Bunnings on Wednesday and gosh the staff there were rather unhelpful. But I eventually found some dowel, two weird disk things that I thing were for stair banisters and some hooks. My lovely Father helped me put them together I ended up with a top whorl and a bottom whorl spindle for $12. Last night after we made them I decided to test out the top whorl with some undyed merino gifted to me by Katie (http://www.etsy.com/shop/KardedByKatie), a lovely girl in NSW who I have befriended. She dyes, spins and makes gorgeous baby bonnets! 

I think drop spindles are my calling. I found it sooooooooo much easier to use, and get a more consistent yarn although there are still some thicker/thinner bits throughout it. I love it.

Here are the drop spindles, the one with yarn on it is the top whorl, and the one below is the low whorl.

Here is a close up of the yarn I've done so far. I'm rather proud of myself!

Sun Hat

Hi all,

So a while ago I told my lovely boss that I would be making her two little'ns hats! Her little boy got a dinosaur beanie that he just loves! I haven't got any photos of it though. I am basing a pattern off it that I need to fix up and then do another one, perhaps for my nephew.

But for her little girl, who is very fair, I decided to make a sun hat. I started it ages ago but got distracted by all my other projects. It really only got finished because I needed to get it done before I leave on friday for my holiday.

I used a pattern by Corina Gray of stitch11.com. She has SO MANY gorgeous free patterns. This is the exact pattern I used was http://stitch11.com/toddler-sun-hat/. She has also got the same pattern but for different sizes and I am going to make one for my little niece who has inherited none of her mothers gorgeous Thai skin colour! She is almost as pale as me!

I used a 5mm crochet hook with Panda brand Cotton Blend. I absolutely love using cotton/bamboo cotton. So soft! I also threaded a pink ribbon through the last row before the brim.

Ernest the Owl

Today is my sister's 24th birthday!
A while ago she'd requested that I crochet something for her instead of buying a present and she wanted a pink and purple giraffe  That didn't quite work out due to a lack of nice purple yarn (I shall remedy this one day by dyeing my own). So instead I told her I'd make an owl!

I decided to make this completely on my own, with no pattern to go from. The beginning took forever! I find it difficult to work with very dark yarn because my eyes suck. One thing that was really lovely about just doing it my way is I could use whatever stitches I liked. So I threw in half-double crochet, single crochet (normal and through the back loops) and double crochets. It was really fun and I actually wrote up the pattern, I'm planning on selling it in my Etsy store which is being set up and hopefully opening in December.

Here are some pictures of Ernie (as Lucy has lovingly named him)

Button eyes!

Happy birthday Lucy!

Another Hat

So after I made my green hat I loved it so much that I decided to make the same one for my friend Tobi. Since I tried knitting, 8 months ago, I promised to make her a hat but never did. She'd already chosen wool so I just had to get my act together.
For this one I used a larger crochet hook, a 5 or 5.5mm I think. The hat ended up bigger than mine, which was the plan, and it fit really well.

The flower starting to take shape.

Unfortunately I forgot to take a photo of the completed hat so I will have to get her to take one someday!

I've very excited as tomorrow I am picking up a spinning wheel that I am renting for a few weeks to try it out. After learning to crochet, then decided to dye wool I ended up watching tonnes of youtube clips of how to spin wool and so I thought I'd give it a try!

Snail time!

So I can finally put this one up because the gift has been given to its new owner.

This is a snail from the pattern book 'Crocheted Softies' by Stacey Trock. Her patterns are AMAZING! So easy to understand, I've made other patterns from this book too and they all work out perfectly. The animals are so cute and animated. Love this book, and she is in the process of writing another one! Yay!

So this snail was made for my sisters friend who is having a little girl.

It stands up and everything =)

I used acrylic for the main part of the body as it is sturdier and really holds the shape well. The shell is made from bamboo cotton and is incredibly soft. I used a 3.75mm crochet hook for this. I find that it turns out much tighter and less stuffing leaks out.

I have another snail in the making currently for another special little girl.