Kiwi Crochet Pattern

I agreed to crochet a kiwi (bird) for the college magazine, as kiwi is the magazine's mascot. I had to write out the pattern, so I thought that I would post it here as well. The head+body of my kiwi measures approximately 7in, but gauge is not particularly important.

Notions:

30g of brown yarn (I used Wendy Mode DK)

5g of golden yarn (I used Jarol Heritage DK)

4mm crochet hook

2 black beads for eyes, and a little bit of sewing thread to sew them on

Tapestry needle

Stuffing (polyester fuzz)

Skills required:
Single crochet, single crochet 2 together, crochet in the round, magic ring, slip stitch, sewing

Uses US crochet terms – ch=chain, sl=slip stitch, sc=single crochet, sc2tog= single crochet two stitches together, st=stitch. One stitch is placed in each stitch around unless indicated (such as by 2sc in nxt st).

Body:

Ch6, magic ring.

Increase Round 1: 2sc in each st 6 times round (12 sts total)

Rd 2: *1sc, 2sc in nxt st*, repeat *to* 5 times (18 sts)

Rd 3: *2sc, 2sc in nxt st*, repeat *to* 5 times (24 sts)

Rd 4: *3sc, 2sc in nxt st*, repeat *to* 5 times (30 sts)

Rd 5: *4sc, 2sc in nxt st*, repeat *to* 5 times (36 sts)

Sc around until body is 3 inches long.

Decrease Rd 1: *4sc, sc2tog*, repeat *to* 5 times (30 sts)

Rd 2: *3sc, sc2tog*, repeat *to* 5 times (24 sts)

Rd 3: 6sc *sc2tog, 2sc*, repeat *to* 3 times (18 sts)

Rd 4: sc2tog, 4sc, *sc2tog, 1sc* repeat *to* twice, sc2tog (12 sts)

Bind off

Head:

Ch4, magic ring

Inc Rd 1: 2sc in each st 4 times round (8 sts)

Rd 2: *1sc, 2sc in nxt st*, repeat *to* 3 times (12 sts)

Rd 3: *2sc, 2sc in nxt st*, repeat *to* 3 times (16 sts)

Rd 4: *3sc, 2sc in nxt st*, repeat *to* 3 times (20 sts)

Sc around even for 4 rounds

Decreases: repeat *3sc, sc2tog* until 12 sts remain

Bind off. Stuff head and body. Sew head to body.

Leg:

Ch3, join in 1^st ch

Sc round for 2.5 in. Bind off.

Claw: Repeat as above, but sc round for 1in. Attach to leg 1in up with sl sts. Bind off.

Repeat for second leg. Sew to body.

Beak:

Ch5, sc around for 3 in. Then 2sc in every other st until have 13 sts. Bind off. Sew to head.

Sew on eyes. Marvel at creation.

Alice II

A little update on how Alice is getting on. Mum came to visit a few weeks ago, and so we visited the sewing/knitting show in town and I purchased some buttons. Thus Alice no longer has scary scraps as eyes! I then made a knob of the cream wool as a nose, and used some burgundy for a mouth. I'm still not sure about the burgundy, but I tried the pink (same as hat) and that seemed to be worse, so burgundy it is!

After having the head sitting on my desk for a few weeks, I finally attached it to the body and styled the hair. I've decided, now that I can double crochet, to make the dress 

but that now seems like a long term plan. I'm fairly happy with the way that Alice is now!

Alice looking pensive:

Close up of the face, especially the button eyes. They don't quite match the clothing, but I fell in love with the colour.

Back of the hair, as an Alice I did consider putting her hair in an Alice band before settling on a double ponytail thing. Totally escapist - I always wanted a doll with whom I could fiddle with the hair in this way as a child. 

Sleepy Sarah Updated & A Photo

So I had a brain wave about an hour before I was going to give 'Sleepy Sarah' away. I gave the doll to an English student, and I suddenly thought it would be great if the doll had a tiny book in its hands. Thus:

A book! Quite badly crocheted with 3mm hooks, but it looks fine and is detachable if she wants to get rid of it.

My friend and I also went off being tourists round college and town yesterday, along with many bad photos I took this:

Now I have to wait for springtime proper when I can take that photo with plants that are actually alive!

Sleepy Sarah Doll

Pattern is from Owlishly. It is called 'Sleepy Sarah' but my own attempt has ended up more like an awake gnome, due to using beads for eyes rather than sewing asleep eyes (I don't really have any black thread, which is why I chose to make the doll awake rather than asleep).

I used Stylecraft Life DK Mint for the green parts, which I do like. It's not too rough and not too fuzzy. Patons UK Fab DK in cream for the face. Changing from Mint to Cream was a little difficultand has resulted in mint filtering into the side of the face on the right. The body and arms were fairly simple, and I made it fairly quickly when not procrastinating.

Have just finished the 'body' of the hat that will go with the scarf. Now have to decide whether I want to add embellishments or not. 

Alice

I've been making the amigurumi doll from Stitch for the last couple of weeks, and now it is almost finished. I haven't yet sewn on the head as it needs eyes and other facial features sewn on, and I haven't quite decided if I'm going to embroider or use buttons for eyes. I misread the instructions at the start and made it using 3.5mm hooks rather than 3mm so it is a little larger than I expected. I also chose to make the stripes twice as wide and continue working in spirals rather than rows. I think rows would have looked slightly better, but as I mixed the green (lovely 1/2 merino) wool with the purple then the spirals seem to fade together quite well. The hair took a long time, I measured 25cm strands of the brown half merino wool (same type as the green but a different colour) and threaded them onto a needle, then knotted and threaded them into the head. I tried to work out the shape of the hairline first, and then filled in the gaps. As it was a little uneven at the end, then I cut it to a more V shaped cut so that the strands were styled but also roughly the same length as those around them.

Enough waffle: Pictures!

The slightly frightening looking eyes are just markers of yarn for working out the position of the eyes in relation to the hair.