on the 7th,8th and 9th day of christmas....

I crocheted something I made up as I went along so a pattern is a little bit tricky....

For starters...check out the work of Camilla Engman.  She has a pattern printed in The debbie Stoller Happy Hooker book...which I have to say thoroughly confused me till I noticed the (admittedly it was in bold type) line that says....stitches worked in back loop only.  Duh.  Lesson learnt - Read the instructions.

So, to start with sl.st is used and work in back loop only!!!!  there..I added exclamation marks to make it stand out more for idiots like myself.   Also,  I found doing 2 sl.st in one hole for increases a bit messy..could just be me but I found increases more attractive if I did a sl.st then a ch.  So in this case 'inc' means 'sl.st, ch1' righty ho.  To decrease (dec) I put the hook through one sl.st, then the next, yarn round and pull through all three loops on the hook.  Word of warning....this method of working is really, really, really slow...

Head
ch3 and join with sl.st to first to make a ring
inc (sl.st, ch1) in each ch (6st)
6sl.st (6st)
inc 6 times (12st)
12sl.st
12sl.st
(sl.st, inc) 6 times (18st)
18sl.st
(2sl.st, inc) 6 times (24st)
24sl.st
(3sl.st, inc) 6 times (30st)
(4sl.st, inc) 6 times (36st)
change colour....36sl.st
36sl.st for 4 rows
(4sl.st, dec) 6 times (30 st)
(3sl.st, dec) 6 times (24st)
(2sl.st, dec) 6 times (18st) fix eyes in and stuff
(sl.st, dec) 6 times (12st)
(dec) 6 times (6st)
pull up to close.

Body

ch3 and join with sl.st to first to make a ring
inc (sl.st, ch1) in each ch (6st)
inc 6 times (12st)
(sl.st, inc) 6 times (18st)
(2sl.st, inc) 6 times (24st)
(3sl.st, inc) 6 times (30st)
30sl.st for 10 rows
(3sl.st. dec) 6 times (24st)
24sl.st
(2sl.st, dec) 6 times (18st) might want to poke the (eye) leg joint through at this point as it is ridiculously fiddly later.
18sl.st
(sl.st., dec) 6 times (12st)
12sl.st
leave long enough end to sew to body.  Don't sew on just yet as need it open to fix legs in.

Legs

ch3 and join with sl.st to first to make a ring
inc (sl.st, ch1) in each ch (6st)
inc 6 times (12st)
(sl.st, inc) 6 times (18st)
18sl.st for 5 rows
change colour then 18sl.st.
(sl.st., dec) 6 times (12st)
12sl.st for 8 rows
Now the fiddly bit.  With the eye part of the safety eye poking out of the body where the leg is to pivot from, push it through the top part of the leg and fix the safety eye back inside the leg. Stuff.
Do a kind of running stitch through the top half of the sl.st and pull up to close

Arms

ch3 and join with sl.st to first to make a ring
inc (sl.st, ch1) in each ch (6st)
inc 6 times (12st)
12sl.st for 7 rows
(2sl.st., dec) 3 times (9st)
9sl.st for 4 rows
I'd lost the will to joint things by this point but you could if you wanted...or just pull up to close as the leg and stitch onto body.

and....I've made a really fugly little er...woodland creature

Well...it's a potentially interesting base for something else.  I may make him some ears and a little jacket or something.

The 'fluffing' incidentally is done with what my mum calls a teasel brush, think its something to do with felting. You attack the piece with this evil wiry brush thing (bit like one that's used to detangle dog fur!) and it pulls the fibres up and out.  It only works with proper wool, acrylic fibres just break off.

I honestly cannot recommend working in slip stitch...maybe just for sculpted faces or something but it's sooooo slow to produce anything.  Next time, it's back to good old single chain.