Gwynn the Giraffegirl - Crochet Crowd Mystery CAL

Mystery revealed - it was a giraffe. She got the name Gwynn. Here she is enjoying the sunny day in the garden. 

For those who want to make their own there is a full pattern with a video tutorial inclusive over at the Crochet Crowd Homepage. 

I gave her a little pep, by adding eyelids and white around the eyes as well. The pattern asks for some embroydery hair, but I didn-t have any space left for that and think she looks better without it.

I used cottone from Lana Grossa and needle 2.5mm for my giraffe. I love this yarn for my amigurumis. Instead of the chain 2 start and working all the first stiches in the second chain from hook, I startet with a magic ring, I find it is the best start for any amigurumi, since the "hole" will not be as big, and I think it is necessary for the dots on the giraffe too. I highly recomend using the magic ring for amigurumis. You can find a great tutorial on how to do a magic ring here on this blog as well.

Back side of the giraffe. 

Pros and cons about this pattern. 

First off as I mentioned before, I find starting with a magic ring much easier and gives a better finished look.

The fact that the body and neck is worked in one piece is great. If I make this giraffe again I would probably start at the bottom and work my way up and do slight changes at the top of the neck. I find it a bit too big and i don´t like the finished look of the neck area from behind. If you start at the bottom you could also add some pellets to it too for extra weight if you like and stuffing would be alot easier. 

Same goes for the head, I would start at the nose part and end at the top of the head, 'cause decreases with sc2tog never looks as neat as magic ring start and increases.

Mikey uses small security eyes, I would pick bigger ones and thats also the reason I added the white around mine and some eyelids, it gives the creature more character. By looking at the pictures of the finished giraffes from this challenge, I see many of the participants do alot of extra work for the eye-area as well. So I guess I´m not the only one who felt the face needed a bit of a pepping up.

But all in all I am happy with my little giraffe girl and who knows, I might get lucky and get picked for the award. How cool would that be.

Best thanks to the crochet crowd and Mikey for this Mystery adventure crochet along.

P.S. I only took pictures after the first clue, the head you can see here. At first I thought it could be a Dino but as soon as the dots came I was pretty sure I was making a giraffe.