Lion and Pig Loveys

This past Christmas, in anticipation of her friends gaining a couple of new grandchildren, Jenni (my mother-in-law) asked if I could crochet two loveys for her to give as baby gifts. In all the amigurumi work I've done over the past year, I hadn't made any loveys, and now I'm kicking myself for not making more because they are so much fun!  Basically, you make the head and the arms of any stuffed animal (or human character) and attach it to the middle of a small blanket.  Loveys are helpful because they don't tend to roll out of the stroller as easily as stuffed animals.

For the first lovey, which she wanted to be for a baby boy, we went with a lion.  The free pattern for Tau the crocheted lion was amazing-- perfectly written even though it used several slightly tricky techniques.  Look at his handsome little nose!

A short tangent: When I started crocheting the blanket part, I laughed-- this was the same pattern (alternating single crochet stitches and double crochet stitches) as the very first afghan I ever crocheted.  I need to take a picture of that monstrosity and post it on the blog some time because it is hilarious.  I was having trouble figuring out how to begin and end rows, and I felt there were too many stitches to count as I made each row (WHY did I choose an afghan as my very first project?!?!), so I didn't notice until about 40 rows into the afghan that I was losing a stitch or two after each row.  Also, I had mis-read the pattern, and the afghan was turning out really skinny and long.  Did I rip out the bad rows where I lost stitches at the turning point?  No.  I just then started adding stitches to try to get back to the original width.  Did I leave out rows and turn the skinny afghan into a baby blanket?  No.  I just decided I'd still make it adult afghan length but I'd have to stretch out underneath it and not move around too much.  I'm an idiot.  I still have the afghan because I can't stand to throw it out.  I still bring it out and laugh at it every once in a while.

Anyway!  Here's a bird's eye view of the lovey all spread out.  I love it!

For the other lovey, which Jenni wanted to be for a baby girl, we chose this adorable Piggy Lovey pattern.  I love the little bow on her head and the granny square blankie!  So adorable.

I went with the same colors as the pattern originally suggested except that I swapped out the beige for gray because I had a beautiful heather gray that I thought would coordinate nicely.

The granny square pattern looks like a cute little dress (well, more of a ball gown, really).  Jenni had me add a few extra rounds to increase the size of the blanket part in proportion to the piggy's head

So much fun to make!  Great pattern.

Welcome to the word, babies!