Edward's Menagerie - Rufus the Lion

Never one to leave my hook idle for long, and hot on the heels of Caitlin the Giraffe came this fellow...

I know. I could die too. 

That face.

Rufus worked up incredibly quickly, especially compared to Caitlin the Giraffe as there were a lot less colour changes happening and it was almost before I knew it that I was on to his head and that amazing mane of his.

The mane definitely requires a closer look...

It's so clever (and simple) although time consuming and a bit of a yarn guzzler. You just make a simple chain and then slip stitch the end of it back into the head, make another chain, slip stitch it back into the head further along, and so on and so on until you have lots of chain loops which look rather marvellous once you're all done.

At the beginning it does look strange and doesn't look as if it's going to come together and look right, but carry on with it and trust me it all starts to fall into place. But definitely leave time to do it - I spent a couple of evenings working on this fabulous mane of his.

I'm annoyed I didn't take a closer picture of his tail which is also worked in a similar fashion to the mane, with chain loops stitched back into the base of the tail.

He does have a very long snout which I've gone back and forth about whether I love it or not. It looks completely right when you see him in real life but I don't think that profile shots are his best angles. But then I could say the same about myself.

My love for all things from this book continues unabated, so much so that I have already completed my next item from it and hopefully by the time you are reading this, it is with its new owner and ready for a reveal on the blog.

Now if only I could make something from this book for myself...

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Pattern from Edward's Menagerie. My review of the book can be found here.