Duck the Giraffe
Monday, October 12, 2015
Another day, another ta da! This is Duck, the Giraffe. Raveled here.
Duck is a completely posable free-standing giraffe, with a jingly bell in his neck and a really cute twisty tail.
His legs, attached through buttons, are moveable, so he can sit or stand or lie down atop your sofa. As he does.
I used this pattern for Gerald the Giraffe by designer Sharonlee Holder. The pattern was a pain, as I had to stop regularly to re-read things and figure things out a bit. Some instructions were clear, others were sparse and barely there, some details were omitted, and some were just plain annoying (like the fact that I ran out of yarn about two-thirds of the way through the giraffe). Overall it was fine, and it helped that I had another one of her patterns on-hand to compare notes.
The yarn. Oh. The Yarn. I used Vinni's Colours in Serina, 100% bamboo yarn that is oh-so-soft and just lovely to work with. It gets a bit fiddly when you only have a little left but it the final result is so worth it.
I ran out of yarn about 2/3rds of the way through and had to arrange for a second ball of yarn to be purchased and sent over from South Africa (there is but ONE supplier of Vinni's yarns here in the UK, and they didn't have stock of sunshine yellow. Blegh. Someone is missing a real business opportunity here!).
Because.
I was working on attaching all the giraffey bits together, slowly piecing them together one afternoon while Isla was playing next to me. I put him down for a moment, within reach. She picked up the leg-less giraffe, looked at me with huge eyes and a massive smile, and said - at the top of her voice - duck!
Isla's vocabulary is somewhat limited, being not-yet-one. "Duck" is by far her favourite word at the moment, but she is quite precise as to what is a duck and what is not. It must be yellow. It must make a duck noise.
Apparently giraffes-without-legs qualify.
Just two more hand-made gifts to finish in time for The Birthday. Almost done. Am sure I will like them more than she will, but when you're one, everything is amazing and wonderful and perfect so I have high hopes. (Just make sure that there are balloons on the day and whatever you choose will be fine.)
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