A trip to TOFT and a mini zebra

It's been a while - time flies when you have a toddler!!  I know I've said this before, but I will be updating this more frequently going forwards - if nothing else once my exam next week is over I'll hopefully not have any more exams.  Very excited about that, should mean more craft time!

I'm not going to bore you with details of the last ten months or so (how has it been that long?!?) but I will revisit some of my projects that I finished in that time - mostly because the owl blanket is amazing! (More on that in a future post, I promise.)

So as I'm sure you've guessed from the title of this post, I went to TOFT yesterday for their Easter open day. This is the third open day I've been to, and whilst I didn't get to finish the mini bunny I started in the workshop I did have a fantastic day out.  My toddler loved the alpacas (and the orang-utan example they had - she kept trying to steal it!) and generally she was very well behaved (monkey theft excepted). It was also lovely to speak briefly to Kerry Lord (author of the Edward's menagerie books I love so much) - it was nice she remembered us and commented on how much my toddler had grown (she's been growing non-stop since Christmas, I'm sure of it!)

Here are some cute alpacas:

These are the show alpacas, and apparently most people can tell they're better because they're cuter - they have shorter, fluffier faces for example.

They were not the cutest alpaca there though - one was born at 7.30am and she was so cute:

She's being warmed up by fan heaters in the barn here, after rolling down the dewy hill and getting a bit cold! Definitely the cutest alpaca on the farm, and she came two weeks early as she clearly didn't want to miss the open day. Don't blame her, to be honest.

Anyways, that's probably enough cute alpaca pictures for now - onto the second half of this post. When I first saw the Simon the mini sheep kit, I instantly knew I wanted to adapt the pattern to make a mini zebra. So here he is:

I know I'm biased, but I think he's so cute!  Now I've had permission from Kerry to add the head, ears and tail pattern on here, as those are my designs, but the body and limbs are covered by her copyright so to get the pattern you'll have to buy the mini Simon the sheep kit from TOFT.  Just so you know, I'm not affiliated in any way and I do not benefit from you doing this, but it is really cute so it is worth buying!

Quick note - I've written the pattern in the same way TOFT do. A dc is a double crochet stitch (UK terminology), dc2tog is a decrease and dc2 into the next stitch is how you increase.

To make the head, start with 6dc into a ring in cream.

Round 1 - cream: (dc2 into next stitch) 6 times (12 stitches)

Round 2 - black: (dc1, dc2 into next stitch) 6 times (18 stitches)

Now continue to work in single round stripes of cream and black.

Round 3: (dc2, dc2 into next stitch) 6 times (24 stitches)

Rounds 4 to 6: dc (3 rounds)

Round 7: (dc6, dc2tog) 3 times (21 stitches)

Round 8: (dc1, dc2tog) 7 times (14 stitches)

Round 9: (dc1, dc2 into next stitch) 7 times (21 stitches)

Continue only in black.

Round 10: dc

Round 11: (dc5, dc2tog) 3 times (18 stitches)

Round 12: dc

Round 13: (dc1, dc2tog) 6 times (12 stitches)

To finish, stuff and gather stitches.  To make the eyes, I did two French knots (the same that you do in cross stitch - there are plenty of tutorials for this online so I've not added one).

To make the ears, I started with 5dc into a ring using cream, did two rounds of dc then dc2tog three times (the last of these with the last stitch of round 3 and first of round 4). I then sewed in place.

To make the tail I held two strands of cream together and chained 5, switched to black and did three chain 5 loops on the end (this is similar to the way Alice the zebra's tail is made in the book, just made smaller).

The body follows that of the mini Simon the sheep - the 6dc in the loop and round 1 in black, then alternating cream and black in single round stripes.

The legs also follow the mini Simon the sheep pattern, working in black until the end of round four and then in cream and black single round stripes.

After sewing everything together I made the mane by having chain 5 loops on the back of the head in the same way the mane is done on Alice the zebra in the book, and a little thicker between the ears for a fringe - I wanted it to look like a baby zebra so if you just wanted a mini you could probably use longer chain loops.

I think this could be easily adapted into a horse / pony / donkey or even unicorn by changing the colours - though the last will need a horn...  Think I'm going to have my hands busy, as there's still a certain mini sheep I need to finish and lots of sheep based variations I want to make!

I hope you like the pattern - felt that I needed to post something good after such a long break! Let me know if you find any problems with it, I'm only human after all.  I'll be back soon, once I'm free from those pesky exams...