Orcas are awesome!

Since I was about 7 years old I have been in love with orcas. It all started with a trip to Sea World. Growing up, I had many stuffed orcas, orca print pillows, even a border of orcas around my bedroom wall. So, I was pretty excited when my favorite designer of crocheted stuffed animals released an orca pattern yesterday. You can read all about the pattern on her website, Planet June. Just like her other patterns, you make pieces and sew them together. In this case there is the body, tail, dorsal fin and two fins.

The color changes really weren't too bad to crochet and the end product looks great.

Here's a shot of the color changes along the belly:

A long time ago I found an orca pattern that I crocheted, but I really didn't like how it turned out. (In fact it now belongs to Lily and she loves walking around the house with her orca in her mouth.) It was made in pieces also, but this one involved making the white areas separately and sewing them onto the body of the orca, I didn't like how this looked, and wasn't a big fan of the fin shaping. Here you can see the old one on the left and the new one on the right.

Again, old one on top, new on bottom. I love how nice and smooth the color changes look on the new orca.

Now Lily can have her crocheted orca and I can have my own. :) (Along with a few others.)

Crochet German Shepherd

Last Christmas I had an idea to start making the dogs and other animals from Planet June (my favorite crochet designer). I wanted to make them in a smaller size then loop a ribbon through the back and make it into a Christmas tree ornament. I thought of the idea too late though and only got a few made in time. I did end up selling a dachshund:

So, I had decided that I would make a bunch throughout the year and have a collection of them to put on my website this Christmas. So, how many do I have done? As of today I have 1! He is a German Shepherd. Although he already has a future home this Christmas I hope to make some more to actually put up on Etsy.

These patterns are super easy to make. It is all in single crochet and works up pretty fast. I started this guy last night and finished him up when I got home from work today. Here is the collection of parts: Head, nose, 2 ears, body, front legs, back legs and tail.

For me, the worst part is sewing all of these together. I started with the head. First it was stuffed, then the nose was stuffed and sewn on, followed by the ears being sewn on. Once these were attached the eyes were added.

Then came the rest of the body. And once everything was attached, a German Shepherd was born:

Hope you enjoy him. I have a lot of projects to get done, but hopefully I will have more puppies for you soon!