I made this for a commissioned project. I combined the blanket from It All Started with a Square and the head & paws of the lion from Tau: Crochet Lion Lovey. I ultimately deviated pretty far from the original lion lovey pattern in some areas - I mostly followed the nose/snout/head shape portion of the pattern, and then created my own ears & mane.

Rather than making separate ears to sew on (I really hate sewing separate parts together), I made the ears as part of the head pattern by putting (hdc, 3 dc, hdc) in the front loop of a stitch in the approximate location of each ear. Then I ultimately covered both of them with a mane, but you can still occasionally see them when the yarn mane falls the right way.

Yarn held double on the head and paws, which is why it’s so large (approx 36 inches across the blanket when spread out and 24 inches tall).

Finally, I took all the yarn colors I had used for the blanket and attached them to the head as the lion’s mane. I made them all uniform length and then individually attached them (the same method that you would use to attach doll hairs, like this tutorial: http://www.thefriendlyredfox.com/2016/09/how-to-attach-ha...) around the head, and then I trimmed them to a length that I liked.

Hands down my favorite lovey that I have ever made. The recipient loved him as well. <3