FO: A Rattling Shadow

I had a baby shower to attend a few weeks ago for the daughter of a coworker of mine. I've known their family since I was a kid, particularly their love of horses. They have a few horses of their own and used to let us come and ride them as kids. We always loved to visit :) One of their horses in particular is their oldest and he was the soon-to-be-mother's horse, so I knew exactly what would be the perfect gift to make: a small version of her horse, Shadow.

My youngest sister still visits their horses once a week, so I started by asking her for pictures of Shadow. He's 29 years old, and getting a bit gray. He's mostly all black but with some gray-ish splotches on his legs and face. I decided to use the Giddy-Up pattern by Monster's Toy Box since it's just so cute.

The yarn was a hard choice. I couldn't recreate those little spots in crochet like I could with knitting, but I didn't have time to knit the horse. I had popped in a local thrift store the previous week, and randomly bought a mystery ball of black-ish yarn not knowing what I would use it for (I mean, you can't pass up 50¢ yarn, right?!) and it just happened to be the PERFECT yarn for this project. It's mostly black with little flecks of white and gray throughout. I couldn't have found better if I trolled the craft stores (which I wasn't able to do). I used the whole 80 gram skein of this yarn, so talk about this being meant to be! The only draw back to this yarn is that it's definitely some type of wool, and it shed quite a lot. Oh well, it looks great so I had to use it.

I used come Vanna's Choice in black for the hooves and hair. I also had to use a tiny bit of the black on the base of the ears since I just barely ran out of the body yarn. The black hair covers this part of the ears anyway, so no one will know. I embroidered little nostrils with the black as well, but it's incredibly difficult to see, lol.

I put a rattle piece inside Shadow's belly, just since it's for a baby and I figured it would be extra cute that way. My only regret is that I didn't weight the hooves with something since he's a bit top heavy and wants to tip forward if you don't get him standing just right. Other than that, he came out super cute :) I even made baby safe eyes.

To add to the adorable-ness, I made up a little "Hello My Name Is.. " tag and printed the washing instructions on the back. I tied it on with pink yarn since it's for a baby girl (in case you couldn't tell, lol).

Here he is with the mommy to be! He was a big hit :) She even carried him around the party for a while afterward. My coworker even told me that my gift was the best (sshhh... don't tell the other party guests!) I love that it was a meaningful gift and they liked it so much. Now this new baby can have a Shadow of her own just like her mom did.

Crochet Update: Meet Quincy the Giddy-Up Horse!

As you can see, when I am sick all weekend, I crochet. Not that that's very different from other weekends as I crochet a lot lol, but I do more of it when I don't feel like moving - which is how I felt most of last week. I'm finally over the worst of it, but by no means better. Anyway, I just finished this little lady up last night. Meet Quincy!

Is this seriously not the cutest stuffed horse you've ever seen?! I absolutely LOVE this pattern. This was the first pattern released by another "online friend" of mine through Ravelry - Monster's Toy Box. She is an awesome amigurumi maker who just started designing her own patterns. This was her first release - Giddy-Up the Horse. I instantly fell in love with that super cute face. This is another of the patterns that my sister bought me for my birthday and I couldn't wait to make it!

The cool thing about the pattern is that the head and body are made as two completely separate pieces and then you sew them together. Who'da thunk? For Quincy, I used all yarns from my stash - Red Heart Super Saver in Cafe Latte for the body, Everyday Soft Worsted in black for the hair and hooves and a scrap of Bernat Softie Baby in Soft Peach for the nostrils. I also used 15mm eyes for my horse - a little larger than my usual 12mm ones.

Each strand of the hair is put on individually! It took a little time, but honestly I was so excited to have it nearly finished that I didn't even care how long it took. It wasn't difficult at all just so you know.

Another cool thing is that the legs are all joined together and then the body branches off of them. Very different from the other  animals I've made where you sew on the legs.

And look at that bulbous nose! The pattern does warn not to stuff the head too much or it will be too top heavy, which I was guilty of. Luckily it's just slightly off balance so I can just spread the back legs a little more and she stands up. Next time I will put some of my new polly pellets into her feet to make them heavier and avoid the problem. Another change I made was I chopped the forelock off.  The pattern calls for it to be the same length as the rest of the hair, but I thought it obscured the cute face too much, so I made bangs :) I think she looks sweet.

I seriously have nothing but great things to say for this pattern. I've already planned at least 2 more, so you will definitely be seeing it again in the future!