Crochet Update: Meet Manny! (And I Finished A Craftsy Class!)

This is Manny :) He is the final animal from the Amigurumi Woodland Animals class on Craftsy. Funny story - I hadn't officially planned on making him this weekend, but no joke the first day I had off for the holiday weekend I woke up with a raging cold/stomach bug. So unfair. Needless to say my plans for the weekend changed from being fairly active and cleaning my house to sitting on the couch and feeling gross. While I was sitting, I thought, "I could be making something," so I grabbed my yarn I picked up a while ago for this project and got to work.

I used Vanna's Choice yarn in Taupe for the main body with Beige for the tummy. I accented with Premier Everyday Worsted yarn in Black. 

Check out his cute tail! It's fun to just sit and bounce the tail with your finger :)

I'm really proud of how nice the neck seaming looks on this guy - it looks seamless :)

I did have to do things slightly differently than the pattern and class show you. She has you use circles of felt to go around the eyes to make them pop against the black ovals. Well, I know I have felt somewhere that I bought just for this purpose, but I couldn't find it easily and didn't feel like digging through things further; so I decided to improvise. I used the beige yarn with a smaller hook (size G) and just chained 8 then slip stitched into the first chain to make a ring. I then used a running stitch to attach the ring to the black circles. This worked out great - if I had made a full on circle the usual way (like you do to make yarn eyes), the layers would have been too thick to fasten the eyes on. This way, the ring was just big enough to tuck right under the edge of the 12mm eyes without poking out around them, so there was no extra bulk under the eye.

So, I have now officially completed the entire Amigurumi Woodland Animals class! Woo Hoo! It's fun the sense of accomplishment it makes you feel to complete one even though there's no deadline or anything like that. It's just nice to know that I finished it all :) And aren't my little guys cute?!

I give this class 5 out of 5 stars! I really can't recommend this class enough. When I started this back in August I had only made a baby hat before hand. Now not only have I made all 4 of these animals, but I've made 5 other animals in the meantime (expect a post on that later). The neatest thing is the amount of progress I've made in the quality of my crocheting. My bird (which was the first animal I made) has a several places where the holes are bigger than I would like and his wings aren't sewn on quite so nicely. To compare the bird to my raccoon or another of my more recent animals it's hard to think they were all made by me. There is no doubt on the improvement I made - practice really does make perfect! I learned so much from this class and I have a serious addiction to making these little cuties now. They are a quick project and they are so rewarding to make. Thank you Craftsy and Stacey Trock for giving me a great new skill that will stick with me forever!

If you want to try this class out for yourself, just go here for more info :) You should totally try it! It was so much fun!