Slowmigurumi

About four months ago, one of my friends asked if I could make her eight little sloths.

Sloths?!? Why sloths?

"Because they have long arms, and I can tuck money in them for my grandkids for Christmas."

So I looked up sloth patterns on Ravelry. Twisted Crocheter won with this pattern.

After finishing my first sloth, which turned out super cute, I did what I normally do when using someone else's pattern, particularly when I do it over and over and over. And over and over and over and over. That's eight, right? I made a few adjustments and finally figured out a method that works perfectly for me by about the fifth sloth.


For my second sloth, I closed the arms and legs, which are worked from the bottom up, at the top with two or three single crochet. Made attaching them to the body SO much simpler.

For my third sloth, I didn't do the increases and decreases to shape the paws; I worked straight 6-stitch legs and 8-stitch arms, using the starting thread tail to pull the leg or arm into a gentle curve or paw when joining to the body just by pulling a little tight.


For my second through sixth sloths, I kept working on a face formula until I got one I liked.

For the face for most of my sloths, I used white and the color of the sloth. By the seventh and eighth sloths I had come up with what I think is the perfect non-embroidered face. Starting with the white, I made a magic ring, then in the magic ring for Round 1, I worked 1 sc, 1 hdc, 1 dc, then with the contrast color 2 more dc, then 2 white dc, then 3 contrast dc, then 2 white dc, then 2 contrast dcs, then with white, 1 dc, 1 hdc and 1 sl. For Round 2 (all in white), I worked 2 sc in next hdc, then 2 sc in each white st and 1 dc in each colored st around to last hdc, then sl st to back of work to maintain face shape. I crocheted over the thread not being used during color changes, and changing color on the final draw through 2 loops of each color-change dc.


I didn't really care for the embroidered eyes on my first sloth, and the beads I used for eyeballs are too big. The seed beads are too small. I couldn't find beads in between size, so I thought perhaps googly eyes might work.


After finishing eight sloths, I confronted the dilemma of arms that couldn't hold onto US currency. Talk about money slipping through your hands...


I thought perhaps if I kept the arms, which in the original pattern are unstuffed) closed in a clip overnight, they might hold their shape.


That didn't work.

I wondered if I could insert pipe cleaners, with the cut edges bent back so as not to cause any injuries to little hands, to shape the arms.

I learned very quickly this might have been a superb idea had I inserted the pipe cleaners prior to closing them and attaching them. I couldn't insert pipe cleaners through my tight stitches in finished arms.

I created a ninth sloth, inserting the pipe cleaners as described in the previous paragraph, and voila! Perfect!


I now had a choice. I could make seven more sloths, which I really didn't want to do because I am thoroughly burned out on sloths at this point, or I try inserting some jewelry wire from my stash. I also didn't know if bead eyes would be appropriate; I didn't know the ages of the recipients. So I asked my friend if any of her grandkids would be too small for bead eyes and wire arms, if I buried the wires sufficiently.

Thankfully, all her kids are old enough to handle tiny animals with bead eyes and wire arms. She said they'd be more interested in the cash anyway.

So I gathered the troops...


... and I gave them the gift of sight.


Then I transformed them from amoebas to vertebrates, and my sloths are ready for adoption!






Linking up with Busy Hands Quilts, Crazy Mom Quilts and Confessions of a Fabric Addict.

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