Rose and Evelyn's African Flower Ponies

A huge thank you goes out to my old high school friend, Val, for commissioning me to make these African flower ponies for her two adorable daughters.  I have seen many of Heidi Bears' African flower motif patterns float across my Pinterest feed and thought they were gorgeous, but I never found the time to try them out.

Each pony took me somewhere in the neighborhood of 15 hours to make, but that's probably a conservative estimate.  Despite the time invested, the end result was worth it!

I used sock-weight yarn (a mix of Deborah Norville and Lion Brand yarns) for these two little ponies.

Shhh.... Don't tell anyone, but I think the purple one is my favorite.

Here's the pink one!

I don't think I'd use variegated yarn again for an African flower design.  The solid colors showed up a tiny bit better.

Buddies!!  I can't wait to see a picture with Val's daughters holding the ponies.  I love the ears-- each one is made by crocheting a hexagon and then rolling it up.

These African flower designs (made up of triangles, squares, pentagons, hexagons, heptagons, and octagons) appeal to the math nerd in me.  Love how you can use those geometric shapes to fashion such a cuddly stuffed animal!  I want to try more of these patterns in the future for sure.

Sonia was very sad to see the ponies go into a box and get shipped across country.  She would have been very happy to keep them for herself!!

Lauren's Horse Purse

Another one of my favorite little kids in the whole world, Lauren, is having a birthday.... She's turning 2 years old!  I still remember shrieking loudly with joy in a Denny's when I heard the news that her mother was pregnant with her....  Someday I might be allowed back into that restaurant.  Anyway, Lauren loves blue, horses, and purses, so the choice was clear: BLUE HORSE PURSE!

I used this cool free pattern and improvised the mane/tail using a curly-q technique that I love.

The blue yarn is Caron One Pound (plucked from Niki's stash that she unloaded on me when I picked up crocheting again this year) and the rest of the colors are all Red Heart Super Saver.  I used an F hook on all the colors except for the black (it seemed thinner than the blue, so I went up a hook size so the hooves would be the right size in proportion to the legs).

The pattern called for buttons to be sewn on for the eyes.  "Pshaw," I said. "I'll use my beloved safety eyes that I have grown addicted to whilst crocheting my millions of amigurumis."  But because the pattern didn't remind me to attach the safety eyes before I stuffed and closed up the head, I forgot to put them on until it was too late.  Whoops. So, I ended up using button eyes anyway.  Lauren's two now, so hopefully she won't pull off the tiny buttons and eat them.  They're too little to be a choking hazard, anyway!

 
Because I had already used buttons for the eyes, I went ahead and sewed a tiny red heart button on the saddle.  I have no memory where that button came from, but it's been in my button collection for years now and I have always wanted to use it somewhere.  I think it makes for a nice pop of color.

The purse has two uses: You can go out on the town, looking chic.....

....and when you need a little pick-me-up, you can give it a little snuggle.

Thanks for being my model, Sonia!