Sunday, March 01, 2015

FO: Maurice the Hippopampatus of Love

May I present to you, finished after two years of lingering in a plastic box, Maurice, the Hippopampatus of Love.


I started this little buddy because... well because all the cool kids were doing it, frankly.  This was one hundred percent, unabashedly, product crafting.  Putting him together was essentially constructing a 3-D puzzle where I was building the pieces as I added them in.  Once I got a groove on, it was ridiculously fun.

The main reason I didn't finish this back in 2013 (other than my innate propensity for getting bored and wandering off) was that I was worried I would run out of the Knit Picks Shine Sport I was using to crochet him up.  (Remember the Granny Halter I did?  The one inspired by my buddy Erin?  This was an attempt to use up the scraps from that stash-busting project.)  


Anyway, I was right, I wouldn't have had enough.  So I stopped right there at two back legs and an octo-butt (you've seen that picture like three times, so I won't re-post it here) and I ordered some more colors.  I tried to find things from the current color line that would look good with the colors I already had.  If you know anything about how colors change from season to season, you'll know that was more challenging than it should have been.

Anyway, I packed the Hippo Hind-quarters up and waited impatiently for Knit Picks to send my new colors.   Mind you that was back in 2013.  

Hippopampatus of Love
It will shock no one who knows me to hear that by the time the new yarn came in, I'd moved on to greener pastures and turned my attention to other projects.

Fickle, thy name is crafter!

Long story... still pretty long, I read back through the instructions about a week into February, and started really busting it out.

Dat Booty, Though!
On a purely stash-busting front, this project wasn't that successful, as I think I have as much or more Shine Sport in my stash now as I did when I started -- despite using up over 700 yards.  How does that even work?

Project Notes

Pattern:  Happypotamus by Heidi Bears
Yarn: Knit Picks Shine Sport, in a variety of colors
Hook: 3.75 mm (F)
Yardage: 743 yards
Started: August 3, 2013
Finished: February 28, 2015

See my Ravelry project page here for more pictures.

The minute I finished the kids started arguing
over who got to cuddle him first.
I'll do a February is for Finishing wrap-up post later this week, but I really thought that Maurice needed his own post.

No comments: