Pokemon #58 - Growlithe [Part 3]

And here we are continuing with the journey to a completed growlithe! I'm actually really enjoying this make so I think he's progressing a lot faster than I believed he would. To make my pokemon, I rely on a lot of sources! Firstly, I am constantly on google, looking at official art and fanart to see if there are any little details I may have missed but I also use the pokedex pro on my 3DS. I really like this app. It lets me rotate the pokemon 360 to make sure I see all of the details.

This also lets me be a teensy little bit more anal about my pokemon as well. Haha.

The hardest thing about writing this pattern? Is counting the stitches and making sure I tell you guys the colour change at all the right places. Usually I just eyeball it. This colour changing won't be perfect...I might change colour in some random spots leaving a few colour spikes. The way I fix that is in one of the later colour changes, I leave a slightly longer tail and then I go backwards and sew over the rogue coloured stitches to make the colour change in the body more in one straight line as I like it.

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

The colour changes in this body might seem a bit strange. But working in the round, the rounds tend to shift as you go along and this causes the colours to shift where you don't want them to. So that's why the colour changes don't happen in the same place each round. If this annoys you, you can just make the whole body in orange and then glue/sew on a white piece of felt which matches your fur. This is just how I made the body :)

Body (This is worked from the back towards the chest)
Start with white
Round 1. In the 2nd ch from the hook, SCx6 (6)
Round 2. 2SCx6 (12)
Round 3. [2SC, SC]x6 (18)
Round 4. [2SC, SCx2]x6 (24)
Round 5. [2SC, SCx3]x2, Change to orange. [2SC, SCx3]x4. (30)
Round 6. [2SC, SCx4]x2, 2SC Change to orange. SCx4. [2SC, SCx4]x3 (36)
Round 7. 2SC <- one stitch orange and second stitch white. [SCx5, 2SC]x2, SCx2 Change to orange. SCx3, [2SC, SCx5]x3 (42)

Round 8. 2SC, SC Change to white. SCx5, 2SC, SCx6, 2SC, SCx3 Change to orange SCx3, [2SC, SCx6] x3 (48)
Round 9. SCx2 Change to white SCx20 Change to orange SCx26 (48)
Round 10. SC Change to white SCx21 Change to orange  SCx26 (48)
Round 11. SCx3 Change to white Scx20 Change to orange, SCx25(48)
Round 12. SCx3 Change to white SCx20 Change to orange  SCx25 (48)
Round 13. SCx4 Change to white SCx18 Change to orange SCx26 (48)
Round 14. SCx4 Change to white SCx19 Change to orange SCx25 (48)
Round 15. SCx4 Change to white SCx19 Change to orange SCx25 (48)

This picture is after I'd gone over it with a long tail fixing up the colour change spikes.

Round 16 - 17. SCx5 Change to white SCx18 Change to orange SCx25 (48. 2 rounds)
Round 18. SC2tog, SCx3 Change to white SCx18 Change to orange SCx6, SC2tog SCx7 SC2tog SCx8 (45)
Round 19. SCx5 Change to white SCx18 Change to orange Scx22 (45)
Round 20. SCx4 Change to white SCx18 Change to orange SCx23
Round 21. SCx5 Change to white SCx18 Change to orange SCx22 (45)

There will be a little dip which I always like in the bodies of my pokemon with this shaped body.

Round 22. SCx4 Change to white SCx18 Change to orange SCx23 (45)
Round 23. SCx5 Change to white SCx18 Change to orange SCx22 (45)
Round 24. 2SC, SCx4 Change to white SCx17 Change to orange SCx7, 2SC, SCx5, 2SC, SCx9 (48)
Round 25. SCx6 Change to white SCx18 Change to orange SCx24 (48)
Round 26. SCx7 Change to white SCx17 Change to oramge SCx24 (48)
Round 27. 2SC, SCx6 Change to white SC, [2SC, SCx7]x2 Change to orange [2SC, SCx7]x3 (54)
Round 28. SCx8 Change to white SCx19 Change to orange SCx27 (54)
Round 29 - 30. SCx7 Change to white SCx21 Change to orange SCx26 (54, 2 rounds)
Round 31 - 32. SCx8 Change to white SCx20 Change to orange SCx26 (54, 2 rounds)
Round 33. SCx9 Change to white SCx19 Change to orange SCx26 (54)
Round 34. SC2tog, SCx7 Change to white  [SC2tog, SCx7]x2, Change to orange [SC2tog, SCx7]x3 (48)
Round 35. SC2tog, SCx6 Change to white [SC2tog, SCx6]x2 Change to orange [SC2tog, SCx6]x3 (42)
Round 36. SC2tog, Scx5 Change to white [SC2tog, SCx5]x2 Change to orange [SC2tog, SCx5]x3 (36)
Round 37. SC2tog, SCx4 Change to white [SC2tog, SCx4]x5 (30)
Round 38. [SC2tog, SCx3]x6 (24)
Round 39. [SC2tog, SCx2]x6 (18)
Stuff - if it's easier for you, start stuffing as the tube body gets longer. Make sure you don't overstuff so you lose the definition in the back of the mon. 
Round 40. [SC2tog, SC]x6 (12)
Round 41. SC2togx6 (6)
Round 42. Sew closed.

Sew the head to the body so the white of the head matches the start of the white for the front. Round 42 is the front of the body.

Now you have the major parts of the growlithe done. Just the legs, tail and chest fluff to go. Oh and all the black stripes too.