Harriet the Hippo, times two

I previously mentioned that I was inspired to take the (not so) itty bitty giraffe Craftsy course by Rebecca Danger's ‘Harriet the Hippo’ pattern from the Fall 2011 Knit Simple magazine. Buoyed by my giraffe success (if I do say so myself!) I did move on to making Harriet as well (and also signed up for Susan Anderson’s other Craftsy course – Wee Ones). Here is the first version:

There were a lot of similarities between the two projects and I incorporated some of my giraffe learnings into the hippo project. For instance I stuffed as I went, rather than leaving it to the end and I embroidered the face instead of using safety eyes. The only additional skill that this project used was kitchener stitch – which to be honest isn’t that hard.

Again, I used stash yarn. You may recognise it from my mitred baby blanket project.

I found I needed to really work the stuffing to get a nice fat tummy and good shape. Fortunately this was covered thoroughly in the craftsy course so it wasn’t daunting at all.

This is another success – such a cute project and really quick and easy to work.

My second version is a gift for my friend’s new niece, all the way in New Zealand. I offered to whip up a second hippo as a pressie and in a flash of inspiration decide to try my hand at converting the design to a ballet dancing hippo. You can see this is yet more destashing in action – using leftovers from my giraffe  project. Hurrah, it arrived in Dunedin two days before my friend’s sister went into labour so just in the nick of time!

I worked the skirt separately and worked the body in a ‘leotard’ pattern then knit the skirt onto the body at the approximately right level. I wrote a little tutorial on my ravelry page if anyone is interested in making the same modification.

If anyone is interested but hasn’t tried making knitted soft toys I highly recommend it. They make great gifts, are quick and easy, and aside from stuffing can usually be made from stash (or at least don’t require more than a ball or two of yarn). As a bonus, if you are wanting to post internationally they weigh next to nothing!

Up next, my last couple of work outfits and some crochet/knit baby clothes.