Hurricane FO: A Pair of Lion Rattles

No matter where you live in the world, you are bound to have some type of potential for nature to try to wipe you off its turf: floods, tornadoes, earthquakes, etc. As far as natural disasters go, I'm ok with the fact that the one I deal with most is the hurricane over most others. Generally we have at least a few days to prepare before the storm arrives, and we are able to hunker down and hope for the best, unlike the spontaneity of a tornado or an earthquake. So we work our butts off for days boarding up, buying supplies, and taking other precautions before the storm comes, then we just sit inside and watch the news until it's safe to come outside again. This means we get a bit of downtime :) As I packed up my possessions before Hurricane Irma struck my area, I made sure to pack a few projects to work on to pass the time if we were stuck inside or if I couldn't return to my place for a while afterward. I packed my sewing machine and a dress project, some yarn (including my swift, winder, and scale lol), and some patterns I've been planning but had yet to make. First off I wanted to take advantage of the downtime to make a few baby gifts for friends who are expecting and/or just had babies. I've really had fun making rattles lately - I mean it's just so much more fun and functional for a baby if it makes noise, right? - so I decided to pack my rattles and try out a pattern I've always wanted to make.

I bought the Vanna's Choice Easy Crochet Critters (Leisure Arts #75266) booklet back when I first learned to crochet just so I could make this adorable lion :) Isn't it the cutest?! It's called Little Amigurumi Lion and I just love the shape of it. This is the first version I made - this is for a baby girl, so I wanted to go with slightly cutesy/girly colors.

I grabbed all these yarns from my stash, and they are: I Love This Yarn in Gray Mist and Ocean as well as some extremely old light purple yarn (like I've had this yarn since high school so I have no idea what it is). I liked the way the colors worked together. The body is basically a ball with a flat side for the face, which is just so cute :)

There is also a little tail on the back with a purple ball - the perfect appendage for tiny hands to grab :) I put a rattle in the belly before sealing this up and it is very fun to shake.

Teal feet! lol I just love how this lion turned out and I can't wait to give it to its new owner. I was so happy with this first version that I immediately started on a second. When I was packing my yarn I couldn't decide which color combo to use for this one, and since the first came out so cute I decided to make another in the traditional colors for a baby boy.

So again it's the same pattern (obviously), but this time I used Red Heart With Love in Daffodil, Red Heart Super Saver in Cafe Latté, and a mystery orange acrylic yarn I got at a thrift store. I love the colors and think it's adorable, but this time the yellow yarn was a bit thicker then the orange so the mane looks smaller. I think this gives the effect of it looking like a yellow cat with a fake mane, lol. Not a bad thing, just something I noticed. I also forgot to mention that I used 9 mm safety eyes on both of these.

Again with the ball body shape - so cute!

And the little ball tail!

And this guy got brown feet. I managed to finish both of these on the first night before the hurricane. I can't remember what day of the week that was now though, lol, maybe Saturday? All the days kind of run together in my memory. Suffice it to say that I managed to make both of these in just a few hours, so I am really liking this pattern, lol. Really these are some extremely simple shapes to make, so if you feel at all inclined I definitely recommend you give it a try.