Making another Zebra for my friend Hazel as an apology for her birthday presents being so late. This time I am making a Rainbow Zebra as I know Hazel loves rainbow Zebras .

This is a link to the first Zebra I made for her, this one is in traditional colours of black and white and using the same yarn DMC Natura Just Cotton.

Here is a link to the pattern if you would like to buy it too. It’s from a designer called Aidie and Jellybean and in her Etsy shop she sells crochet patterns of her designs and the patterns already made by her, so if you don’t feel able to make one you can always buy one made by her (she ships worldwide).

Important Note: I am afraid I don’t think my yarn amounts are accurate like they usually are :sad: as when it came to weighing after I finished the results were not making sense to what was logged in Ravelry. I did my best to work out what I used and where I think the discrepency happened but I cannot guarantee these numbers I am sad to say. I do hope should you be making one that you still find them a helpful guide and I’d just make sure you have a little more for leeway. I have definately learnt that if it’s old stash yarn you haven’t touched in ages to spend a few minutes weighing the yarn again before starting a project with them.

••• Making My second Zebra in Multi Colour •••

For this second Zebra I still followed her pattern but I had to make a few changes as her pattern wasn’t written for a multi colour Zebra. Don’t worry though if you’d love to make one like this as it’s easy to adapt . All I did was use different colour yarns where her pattern says black, where ever she says use white I still did this as you need this part to make it look like a Zebra!

I decided I wanted different colour ends to the head (muzzle) and the hands and feet. I generally kept my stripes random, I’d go through the colours I had and then when it came to any repeats I’d do a different order than the last. There are a few important things you need to play attention too though and I’ll list these below in sections of the related parts of the Zebra.

Head and Maine/Hair

I decided that the muzzle of the head would be the same colour as the maine/hair so when I choose what colour to start the head with I bared this in mind. I also made the last two rounds of the head the same colour as the start muzzle and maine/hair. I did this because the very last round in the colour becomes lost in the maine/hair so it looks a lot better if you do the same colour so it blends in. I also did the same colour in the round before as I knew you wouldn’t see the last round, I hope this makes sense? If you want a result like mine the most important is the last round where the maine/hair will be around as you want this to blend in, you could get away with the round before another colour if you want too.

Arms

When it comes to the arms make sure you hold it up to where it will go on the body when choosing your colour rows as you don’t really want the body and arm lines to match. If you look through my photos you will see earlier on I made this mistake with the blue end arm as the last two stripes matched the body, so later on I just switched them around (it’s why you’ll see a random arm photo suddenly further up). If you look at my photos closely I did include photos of the arms pinned in place both before and after correcting this and you’ll see why it’s better to make sure this doesn’t happen.

Legs

Again I kept these random and made the ends a different colour to the arms. All I did was kept the last colour on the leg as the same colour on the body, so in the case of mine that was the green colour. This isn’t a must do like whar I said with the arms but I personally felt it worked well.

Ears

Given the amount of colours I was working with this meant I’d have to choose colours that had been used on the ends of the arms and legs. I just choose what I felt would look right and all I did was try to choose a colour that wasn’t on the right side of the body for the right ear and sane applies for the right.

••• Notes on the pattern •••

Just like my first Zebra so followed her pattern and the only changes I made are to make this Zebra with more than one colour as explained further above. When I made my first Zebra I did have problems doing the maine the way the designer did it, I did try of course but I just wasn’t happy with the results. It was hard making sure my lines remained straight and to get the shape like her diagram. I came up with a great solution to this from making my first Zebra so of course I did the same for this Zebra too. Other than this I DID add stuffing to the arms and legs, the designer does not do this. I only added a little stuffing though to fill the lower part of the legs and arms, this way when I join them to the body I still have a nice flat section to sew down. As a general rule I stuff 3/4 of the arms and legs and I only stuff lightly in these sections so not firm. I am also really glad I did the eyes the way she did as I love how it looks and it wasn’t actually too fiddly to do either. I really love this pattern and I’d highly recommend it.

How I did the maine/hair
(If you’ve read my notes on my first Zebra these are the same)

I took a tip from making an amigurumi Dragon and Iaid down some slip stitches instead so I could work the maine into these. I did the shape on the pattern with slip stitches and then started working the hair/maine just like the pattern, only it was starting from the bottom of the inside line and working out. After completing the slip stitch guide I chained 7 and slip stitches into the second chain and worked down just like the pattern says. I then slip stitched into my guide slip stitch that was next to it and would then repeat with chain 7 and do just like the pattern.

Basically in terms of differences to the pattern it’s just a slip stitch into the guide I made with slip stitches. When I made the guide in slip stitches I generally kept to the same amount asked in terms of the hair/maine strands, occasionally it might include an extra one or two slip stitches just to get the guide shape like the photo but an extra few makes no difference to the finished result. After doing the last hair strand I used the yarn to secure it down, I decided it looked good to have the front hair strands from each row together so it’s why when I did the last strand I secured the yarn this way. I also secure the two yarn tails from making the slip stitch guide.

This way is easy to do and I highly recommend it as it gives a fantastic looking result as well as saving you time if anything. It’s easy to do I promise, just give it a go and you’ll find it’s intuitive. I took several photos as I did this so you could see exactly what I was doing and I hope they help, I made sure to take more photos of this section compared to my first Zebra as I knew it might be helpful for you to see more if you want to try this way as well.

Tips on joining the ears

When I made my first Zebra I noticed when I joined the two colour ear sections together it would give a horizontal type line when I started. I really didn’t like this and when I looked at the photos of the designer’s Zebra I couldn’t see this on hers. I tried a few times to see if I could do anything to stop this from happening as I wanted to get the look of the rest of the stitches around the ears. Luckily I was able too and it was really nice to have a better finish with nothing I felt needed to be hiden/disguised if possible. I made sure to take detailed photos of exactly what I did to start the join of the two ear pieces and that’s why you’ll see more photos of the ears for this project. I didn’t write down what I did at the time but as I took a photo of each step I thought that would be helpful, I will however do my best to describe what I did below.

The first thing I did was to cut my yarn from the purse ear so I could do this method. Try to estimate enough to slip stitch around the edge and have enough left to sew the ear in place. I always say better to leave a bit more than having too little. So after cutting the yarn the first thing I did was use my crochet hook to pull the strand through the stitch next to it in white (the inner ear), remember I am not doing a slip stitch yet, I just want to get the yarn strand through so you could even use a needle to do so. I then took my crochet hook to start using it to join the ear pieces together. I went yo the next stitch after the one I had threaded through the yarn tail, so taking my crochet hook st the back of the outer ear and then through both sections of the ear, I then yarn over with the yarn strand that is waiting for me and pull back through. You’ll now have a chain (one loop) on your hook (Just like the photo), then take your crochet hook and go through the next stitch (remember both stitches from the two ear parts). Yarn over and pull through, meaning you now have two loops on your hook. Yarn over and pull through both loops which leaves you with one. Now carry on around doing your slip stitches and you should find if you look on the white partof the ear it looks the same. To finish off the round you go through the stitch that you originally thread the yarn through, if you look at my photos that start part you’ll see that blue stitch is on a slight angle. You go through that and the white one sitting next to it to do your last slip stitch and you should end up with a really neat result like mine .

I hope this helps and I do suggest looking at my photos taken of these steps as the first thing you do. With those photos as reference and my words just above it should guve you the same result as me. Remember the photo’s show the starting part to get that nest join on the white side and I stop taking photos at the part of doing normal slip stitches around. You then get a few photos at the end just to show how I finish off. I truly hope you find these helpful as I was so pleased whenI found the way to get the same look all around the white part of the Ear .

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I don’t think there is much else to add as I am so happy with my second Zebra, in fact I love this one so much it’s going to be hard saying good bye. Oh I do my usual like with all amigurumi so I use tights/stockings inside the amigurumi pieces before adding stuffing. This way not only does it keep this amigurumi looking it’s best as no stuffing will ever seek through but it also makes it safer for young children should you want to give the finished Amigurumi to them. I also used yarn from my stash and I am so glad I did as it reminded me why I love this yarn and it has given such a lovely finish to this Zebra. Not only is this yarn soft but it also has a lovely sheen to it which added to the lovely finish I have. I’d definately use this yarn again for this pattern and I’d highly suggest it too!

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Photos in this project do include a few of the first Zebra I made, I did this as not only did I often use my first made Zebra as a reference when I made this one but also because they were going to the same time so it was nice to get a few photos of them together too. Any questions please ask I really love this pattern and I know I’ll be making more Zebras again. I really want a rainbow one for me.

Good News Hazel received her presents and loves her two new Amigurumi Zebras. It makes me so happy to get such lovely feedback. Check out my Instagram account or Facebook page to see my re-gramned/re-post of Hazel’s post on the day they arrived in their new home!

☆☆ Blog Post coming soon on making both these Zebras as I loved every moment and then are my favourite April makes! ☆☆