I wanted to make a lion and I found an excellent
pattern by
Andrea She used worsted weight yarn but I wanted a small lion so I used DMC Coton Perle size 5
.
The crochet hook is an old one of my mum's. It calls itself a 4 but I have no idea what system it is except that it isn't metric.
I followed the pattern almost exactly except that I didn't have fun fur for the mane so I cut threads and hooked them into the stitches of the head as I went along. I hooked the mane threads into the outer loop of each stitch and continued with the single crochet in the inner loop of each stitch.
I have tried to show this in the picture.
Also I wanted to insert joints at the neck and limbs. The neck joint was made of 2 buttons sewn back to back and with a slight neck between them. After finishing the head I stuffed it and inserted one button into the neck opening before sewing it up.
I then looped the magic loop for the body around the outer button and pulled it tight after the first round of sc. Andrea's pattern for the body is worked from the base up to the neck so I did it in reverse order - from the neck down.
For the limb joints I didn't have any buttons small enough so I used a file paper hole punch to punch out discs from a plastic ice-cream tub lid and made 2 holes in each with a needle so they were like buttons.
I hope the pictures show how the limb joints were inserted into the limbs after stuffing and before sewing up and then into the body before it was finished off.
Having said all that, the limb joints make him an extremely floppy lion. I still think he is cute but I shall have to think of something better if I make another one as he really cannot stand up at all!
