Hello everyone!
Back with the next part of growlithe. Please refer back to part one of Growlithe for the guide for the start of the head.
Legend (This is all US crochet terminology)
* SC - Single crochet
* SC2tog - Single crochet two stitches together
* SCx[A] - Single crochet A amount of times
* [SCxA]xB - repeat whatever is in the bracket B amount of times
* [A]SC - single crochet A times in the same stitch
* LS - loop stitch
* SS - Slip stitch
* HDC - Half double crochet
* CH - chain
* When I write my colour change, I will write "change to <colour>", that means the next stitch is the new colour.
Eg, SCx3 (change to white) SC
It means on the last stitch of the x3 you will change to white and the SC is the first stitch in white.
* The number in the brackets is how many stitches should be in that round
Before I started the ears and the mohawk, I stuffed the head because I to have a nice hard surface to sew other parts onto. You can stuff the head whenever you want to. One tip is to try not to overstuff it. For Growlithe, you would want a nice stiff head but remember where you decreased for the neck, try to keep the definition there. It'll look nicer later.
Ears
Ch 9
Row 1. Start with 2nd Ch from the hook, SCx8. Ch and turn. (8)
Row 2 - 5. SCx8. Ch and turn. (8, 4 rows) - 123
Row 6. Sc2tog, Scx4, SC2tog (6)
To finish off the ear I then continue in the direction that the hook is heading and SS around the three edges of the ear that don't have the SC2tog and then leave a tail to sew onto the head. Weave in the loose tail. Use the tail you left to sew it onto the head.
Tip: With the slip stitches, where possible, pick up the back loop if you can find one. This makes sure the ear edging stays right around the edge or it'll sit in a bit from the edge and look a little bit funny. This round gives the ear the nice curve that you can see on the growlithe.
Now for the fun part. His mohawk! This is where all of your loop stitch skills will come into play.
With the white bulky weight yarn, you want to crochet an oval with lots of loop stitch.
Mohawk
Ch 11
Round 1. Starting with the second ch from the hook, LSx9, 3LS (crochet around that last chain so it continues in an oval shape and pick up the leftoverloops on the other side), LSx9, 3LS (24)
Round 2. LSx24 (24)Leave a long tail and sew the shaggy hair to the head.
Don't you think he looks adorable with his hair like that? We can just leave him like that I'm sure. But we're not done yet. It's time for him to go to the hairdresser and give him that fluffy mohawk look. The first thing to do is to cut the loops. The trick is to pull the loops as high as it will go for each loop so that you are leaving an even amount of yarn on each side.
Then when you have done that, he will look a little more closer to where you want, but you're nowhere near the end yet. You have to grab a cheap hairspray (don't use your expensive stuff, because that's full of nice vitamins and whatnot that makes your hair nice. You don't need that when you're working with something like this, cheap and with good strength is good.) You will need a good wide toothed comb, if you have something that's got thin teeth then it might catch and pull too much fluff out. Then you also need a hairdryer and a hair straightener.
First thing you do is brush out all of the hair. You might find some loops you forgot to cut, that's cool. Just go back and cut them now. I think I missed about three when I did this. You will want to do this step over a piece of newspaper or over a bin as you are going to pull tufts out. Don't worry, some will come out. You don't want to be too rough and pull it all out though but a bit here and there is okay. Most of it should stay attached if you did your loop stitch right.
Now...pull out your hair straightener. I swear my poor hair straightener has never actually straightened hair. I did actually buy it for this purpose. ...I don't think I've ever needed to do my hair but my long black asian hair tends to stay straight on its own. So I don't think this straightener will ever touch hair.
When you've straightened it enough, the next step is to go at it with the hair spray, the scissors and the blow dryer. Just keep going until you think it's sitting the way you want it to sit. Don't be too crazy about it though, if you take off too much, you will need to unpick this piece, make another piece and start again. You can always take more off if you slowly trim it.
Back with the next part of growlithe. Please refer back to part one of Growlithe for the guide for the start of the head.
Legend (This is all US crochet terminology)
* SC - Single crochet
* SC2tog - Single crochet two stitches together
* SCx[A] - Single crochet A amount of times
* [SCxA]xB - repeat whatever is in the bracket B amount of times
* [A]SC - single crochet A times in the same stitch
* LS - loop stitch
* SS - Slip stitch
* HDC - Half double crochet
* CH - chain
* When I write my colour change, I will write "change to <colour>", that means the next stitch is the new colour.
Eg, SCx3 (change to white) SC
It means on the last stitch of the x3 you will change to white and the SC is the first stitch in white.
* The number in the brackets is how many stitches should be in that round
Before I started the ears and the mohawk, I stuffed the head because I to have a nice hard surface to sew other parts onto. You can stuff the head whenever you want to. One tip is to try not to overstuff it. For Growlithe, you would want a nice stiff head but remember where you decreased for the neck, try to keep the definition there. It'll look nicer later.
Ears
Ch 9
Row 1. Start with 2nd Ch from the hook, SCx8. Ch and turn. (8)
Row 2 - 5. SCx8. Ch and turn. (8, 4 rows) - 123
Row 6. Sc2tog, Scx4, SC2tog (6)
To finish off the ear I then continue in the direction that the hook is heading and SS around the three edges of the ear that don't have the SC2tog and then leave a tail to sew onto the head. Weave in the loose tail. Use the tail you left to sew it onto the head.
Tip: With the slip stitches, where possible, pick up the back loop if you can find one. This makes sure the ear edging stays right around the edge or it'll sit in a bit from the edge and look a little bit funny. This round gives the ear the nice curve that you can see on the growlithe.
 |
| I think he's ready for some hair. |
Now for the fun part. His mohawk! This is where all of your loop stitch skills will come into play.
With the white bulky weight yarn, you want to crochet an oval with lots of loop stitch.
Mohawk
Ch 11
Round 1. Starting with the second ch from the hook, LSx9, 3LS (crochet around that last chain so it continues in an oval shape and pick up the leftoverloops on the other side), LSx9, 3LS (24)
Round 2. LSx24 (24)Leave a long tail and sew the shaggy hair to the head.
Don't you think he looks adorable with his hair like that? We can just leave him like that I'm sure. But we're not done yet. It's time for him to go to the hairdresser and give him that fluffy mohawk look. The first thing to do is to cut the loops. The trick is to pull the loops as high as it will go for each loop so that you are leaving an even amount of yarn on each side.
Then when you have done that, he will look a little more closer to where you want, but you're nowhere near the end yet. You have to grab a cheap hairspray (don't use your expensive stuff, because that's full of nice vitamins and whatnot that makes your hair nice. You don't need that when you're working with something like this, cheap and with good strength is good.) You will need a good wide toothed comb, if you have something that's got thin teeth then it might catch and pull too much fluff out. Then you also need a hairdryer and a hair straightener.
And with all of this, we are ready to go!
First thing you do is brush out all of the hair. You might find some loops you forgot to cut, that's cool. Just go back and cut them now. I think I missed about three when I did this. You will want to do this step over a piece of newspaper or over a bin as you are going to pull tufts out. Don't worry, some will come out. You don't want to be too rough and pull it all out though but a bit here and there is okay. Most of it should stay attached if you did your loop stitch right.
Now...pull out your hair straightener. I swear my poor hair straightener has never actually straightened hair. I did actually buy it for this purpose. ...I don't think I've ever needed to do my hair but my long black asian hair tends to stay straight on its own. So I don't think this straightener will ever touch hair.
When you've straightened it enough, the next step is to go at it with the hair spray, the scissors and the blow dryer. Just keep going until you think it's sitting the way you want it to sit. Don't be too crazy about it though, if you take off too much, you will need to unpick this piece, make another piece and start again. You can always take more off if you slowly trim it.
And that is it for part two!
Next is time to work on the body. After that I may make a separate part for the legs, tail and chest fluff.
I hope you're all enjoying yourselves!
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