Glorious Gloria

Glorious Gloria

I had seen photos of lovely crocheted hippos cropping up on Facebook and really wanted to make one myself.  A quick Google search and I found the pattern on Ravelry.  It's by Heidi Bears Design and available as a downloadable PDF.

Having paid for the pattern and downloaded it onto my iPad and I was itching to get started but what yarn to use?  The pattern recommends using sock / fingering weight yarn but I didn't have any of this type of yarn to hand.  I did have a small stash of Stylecraft Special DK yarn and reckoned that this would be fine as I wasn't worried how big the hippo would turn out.

Trial colour swatches

Heidi Bears' Happypotamus uses lots of different colours but as it was my first attempt at making this type of thing I decided to use a limited colour palette. I fancied using the balls of Turquoise and Sherbet in my stash but wasn't sure which other colours to use and in what combination so I did some sample motifs to help me decide.  This was really useful as I really didn't have a clear idea of what I wanted my hippo to look like right at the start.  The combination I chose in the end was Petrol, White, Turquoise and Sherbet, all from the Stylecraft Special DK range.

Doing these colour swatches also gave me the chance to try out different size hooks to make sure my tension was right.  The pattern says to make sure the tension is quite tight as you don't want stuffing peeping through any gaps, with this in mind I settled on using a 2.5mm hook.

Having decided on yarn, hook and colour scheme it was time to get started.

African Flower pentagon

The motifs are all based on the African Flower pattern by Lounette Fourie and Anita Roussouw but instead of just hexagons you are required to make squares, pentagons, heptagons and octagons which are all clearly described in the pattern.

The pattern recommends joining the motifs by crocheting them as you go but I thought it might be easier to sew them together instead.  I did master the crocheted join technique on the second hippo I made but overall I think I prefer sewing the motifs together as you get a flatter seam.

The pattern is very well written with plenty of photos that are a great help and Gloria soon started to take shape.

Halfway stage, body complete and stuffed

At the half way stage, once I had completed the body but not started on the head, I started adding some polyester stuffing.  Gloria took a surprising amount of stuffing and it is worthwhile taking a bit of time to do this to get a nice shape.

It was clear as soon as the body was taking shape that she wasn't going to be a small hippo but that wasn't surprising given I was using a thicker yarn and larger hook than in the pattern. Finished Gloria measures 20cm high, 55cm long and 20cm wide and I think she is a nice size for a child to cuddle.

Adding the eyes and ears
makes the hippo come to life

As Gloria wasn't intended for a small child I used plastic safety eyes, remembering to add these before I finished sewing up her head!  Adding the eyes and ears really does make the hippo come to life.

 My husband was so taken with Gloria that he asked me to make another one for a friend's new baby girl.  He wanted it to be brightly coloured and wouldn't consider using any pink yarn so again I did a few trial motifs and he chose a combination of Pistachio, Cream, Saffron and Spice.

As the friend is German I wanted to give her a German name.  In German hippos are called either Nilpferd, Flusspferd or Grossflusspferd (which translate as Nile horse, river horse and large river horse).  Another friend suggested Frieda and so Frieda the Flusspferd was born.

As you can see from the photo of Frieda, the motifs have a slight ridge around each one, this is the result of using the crochet as you go method.  Although safety eyes should be fine on toys for small children I decided to be extra cautious and embroider Frieda's eyes using black wool and was happy with the result.

Gloria's German cousin, Frieda the Flusspferd