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. 

Mikey's Mystery Crochet Adventures

I love mystery crochet along, and this time I am not the organizer so I have no clue what this will be in the end. That is the fun part, and on the plus side for all those who participate and finish the animal ( so much I do know) there is even a price :) I might consider that for the next mystery CAL I organize. But in the meantime I want to advertise this mystery crochet adventure the crochet crowd and red heart are throwing us this month.

Tuesdays will be known as Cluedays this month, because every Tuesday we will get one more clue and part of the pattern. 

This weeks clue was the head. 

Any guesses? 

Well mine will be a girl, I am still not sure what her name is, any suggetions?

If you would like to participate also follow this link over to the Crochet Crowd

Faux (no chain) double crochet - Pseudestäbchen - Platstuðlar

Click here to go to Thouhts on Thursday post on this topic

In our post about standing dc (link under the picture), we showed a great method to use, when doing a colour change after each row in a flat circle made of double crochet. But when you are doing a unicolour piece, you do not want to be cutting your yarn after each row that way. So what to do? There is a way your work will not get the "ch3-ladder-look" like you see on the picture below, that is actually from a crochet tutorial on coasters. I wish the author who did a great tutorial would have added some informations or links to get rid of this "ladder look". 

picture source

Imagine a polka dot blanket done this way, wouldn´t you too notice the ladders in every dot? Or is it just me and something nobody else would notice? I say if there is an easy way to get rid of the ladder why not use it. So for all of you that feel the same, lets check out some ch3 cheets.

I used this method for the first dc in my magic ring as well, thought securing the magic ring with a ch1 before doing the faux dc. 

I found a great picture tutorial for crochet turning chain alternatives over at Mrs Micawber´s recipe for happiness. The Video down below is however from Sandra Roarty´s Youtube channel, beside this one, you can find more informational and instructional videos on various crochet techniques on her channel.

Have fun watching the video and trying out this method. Before you go on watching, let me show you my flat circle done with it, and compare it to the ladder picture above. I know I would have to look twice to see where each row starts, if the hook wouldn´t be attached. Just like in the first picture of this post, using the standing double crochet method.

So lights out and movie on :)

Kurze Zusammenfassung:

Das Video zeigt wie man die Wendeluftmasche am Anfang von jeder Reihe mit einem "Pseudostäbchen" austauschen kann. Um denn "Leiterlook", wie auf dem zweiten Bild zu sehen ist, umzugehen. Wenn in einer Farbe gearbeitet wird ist dies besonders praktisch. Für wechselnde Farben in jeder Reihe, wie auf dem ersten Bild in diesem Post zu sehen ist, empfehlt sich die Methode, die darunter gelinkt wird.  

Samantekt:

Algengasta leiðin er að nota 3 loftlykkjur í stað fyrsta stuðuls í umferð. Í fyrri pósti, er sýnt hvernig standandi stuðull er gerður í staðin fyrir loftlykkjurnar 3. Þetta er mjög sniðug aðferð, þegar hver umferð er hekluð í öðrum lit. En þegar unnið er með einn lit, er ekki hagkvæmt að klippa frá og tengja aftur eftir hverja umferð. Þess vegna langaði mig að sýna ykkur nýja aðferð sem er hagkvæmari þegar unnið er með einn lit. Þá er heklaður "platstuðull" í byrjun umferðar í stað loftlykkjanna þriggja. 

The Amazing Adventures of a Cat who traveled over 1500 miles

 Today is Bolludagur (Bun Day) in my new home in Iceland

Me in making and my Doctor soon to be called my bro

One last "guys night out" before I packed my bags with my three friends 

to take an adventurous journey and travel over 1500 miles from Germany to Iceland

Here is the whole gang (two of these will later be eaten by a cat, no I´m not the cat)

I have arrived and here I am with my my new best friend and companion

P.S.

I even got a bow tie now, and bow ties are cool

The End (for now)

My friends are Sveppur Sveppason, Best Bunny and the fishy Fish 

last but not least

Amineko the cool cat

Click the names to see blogposts about them