CROCHET: Mr Foxy

Meet Mr Foxy. He likes holding odds and ends and hanging out with his new friend, Addie (: I knew that I wanted to make a fox basket when I read Steph's fox basket post on All About Ami - what a cute way to crochet something useful, hey? She found the original pattern on Yarnspirations (Steph finds the best patterns and writes a TON of her own patterns ranging from cute amigurumi to cowls & hats so go check out her blog if you haven't already!).

If you've seen Mr Foxy's Yarnspirations friend that his pattern is based on, you'll have noticed a couple obvious differences. The most obvious being the absence of eyes (which some honest friends have told me is creepy, haha); but when I finished his face and started working on his eyes, I liked him without eyes so I left him as is! Hopefully my niece Addie, to whom I gifted this basket to, doesn't think he's creepy :P 

Now, the colours! My favourite part (: As I was browsing through the aisles of yarn in Michael's (with a 50% off coupon, of course!),  I decided to crochet this basket with typical fox colours...because I fell in love with this orange: Rust, from Vanna's Choice by Lion Brand. Luckily, the couple balls of the lighter, speckled yarn that was left over from crocheting boots for my favourite pair of twins worked well with the Rust. The lighter yarn used is called Oatmeal, also from the Vanna's Choice line. I don't have many progress pictures of this project since it was started last winter, when I didn't know I would be starting up a blog (or that I would invest so much time procrastinating on it!) but here are a couple I found:

Being the detail-oriented person that I am, I couldn't help but make a few tweaks to the original pattern. When I first saw the Yarnspirations fox basket, I was irked by how asymmetrical the fox's face was. I had to try and give Mr Foxy a bit more of a symmetrical face! No matter how I crocheted the lighter area of Mr Foxy's face with half double crochets, I kept ending up with an asymmetrical face. It's because the hdc stitch isn't perfectly straight, but angled so the left and right sides have a hard time looking like mirror images. Double crochets aren't exactly straight either, but using the split dc (see pattern below for details) throughout my pattern seemed to help!

I've flattened him out in the next few pictures to show you his face better. Even after all the trial and error crocheting, make-shifting my own stitch (see Pattern Notes), and unraveling Mr Foxy into a pile of ramen-like curls numerous times, I still didn't end up with a perfectly symmetrical face. I focused so much on creating a mirror image in the centre of his face that I didn't pay as close attention to the sides of his face. I'm still happy with how he turned out, since he ended up mostly symmetrical :P My favourite part is the middle of his face, leading down to his nose (:

In the above picture, he looks pretty symmetrical because I've cut off the sides of Mr Foxy's face. See below, how the left side of his face (on our right) is more rounded and bulbous compared to the right side, which is more of a straight line. Maybe the next person who tweaks this pattern will finally get it! Please let me know if you do (:

Mr Foxy, sunbathing on Addie's Blanket!

Mr Foxy Basket Pattern adapted from the free Foxy Stash Basket pattern found on Yarnspirations

Supplies: 5.50mm hook, worsted weight yarn in three colours of your choosing

Yarns I Used: Lighter colour (LC in pattern) was Oatmeal, orange colour (OC in pattern) was Rust (both from Vanna's Choice by Lion Brand Yarns),  and the brown used for the nose was unidentified, leftover yarn.
*addendum Final Dimensions: basket height = 19cm; full height of Mr Foxy to tops of his ears = 27cm; basket diameter = 21cm  

Pattern Notes:

• Read through the Foxy Stash Basket pattern notes; below are only the changes I made to that pattern.
• The Foxy Stash Basket Pattern says to switch colours by pulling the new colour through the last two loops of the hdc. After some experimentation, I found that using this method throughout the pattern but with dc instead of hdc helps to create a more symmetrical face. I call it a split dc* in the adaptations below. Essentially, it's crocheting the first (bottom) half of a double crochet in one colour and switching to another colour for the second (top) half of the double crochet. 
• *How to Crochet a split dc, spdc:
• With colour A, start a double crochet, dc, normally: ch 3, yo, insert hook into the fourth chain/stitch from hook, yo, pull through first two loops. Tighten the loops on hook by pulling on the tail of colour A and secure in hand.
• Take the tail of colour B and hold it firmly, together with colour A, in your left hand (if you're a right handed crocheter!). Switch to colour B by yo with colour B yarn and pulling through the next two loops (now, the loop closest to end of hook will be colour B while the other loop, which is closest to your hand, will be colour A). It's important that the tails of both colours are held onto firmly so the structure of the dc is maintained. (If these instructions made no sense and you'd like a step by step tutorial with photos, please leave a comment!)

My Adaptations from the original Foxy Stash Basket Pattern:

1. Holding two strands of LC, make a magic circle. (I love the magic circle! It's a quick and easy way to start a project in a round.) 
2. Follow the Foxy Stash Basket Pattern from first round to fourth face round.
3. Face Row 5: Switch to OC. Ch 2, 16 hdc. Switch to LC and 8 hdc. 1 spdc, from LC to OC so that the top loop of the spdc is OC, and continue with OC: 7 hdc. LC 9 hdc, OC hdc to end of row. 
4. Face Row 6: OC ch 2, 16 hdc. LC 8 hdc, 1 spdc LC to OC. OC 8 hdc, LC 8 hdc, OC hdc to end of row.
5. Face Row 7: OC ch 2, 15 hdc. LC 9 hdc, 1 spdc LC to OC. OC 6 hdc, 1 spdc OC to LC. LC 8 hdc. OC hdc to end of row.
6. Face Row 8: OC ch 2, 15 hdc. LC 8 hdc, 1 spdc LC to OC. OC 6 hdc, 1 spdc OC to LC. LC 8 hdc. OC hdc to end of row.
7. Face Row 9: OC ch 2, 14 hdc, 1 spdc OC to LC. LC 6 hdc, 1 spdc LC to OC. OC 10 hdc, LC 6 hdc, OC hdc to end of row.
8. Face Row 10: OC ch 2, 16 hdc. LC 3 hdc, 1 spdc LC to OC. OC 12 hdc, 1 spdc OC to LC. LC 3 hdc, 1 spdc LC to OC. OC hdc to end of row.

Even though the making of this basket was time consuming and tedious, it was a ton of fun to play around with the stitches and colours to come up with the face of Mr Foxy! He didn't turn out perfect, but isn't he still a handsome fox?

Whether you choose to give the original version, Steph's version or my version a try or tweak it to make your own pattern, I'd love to see them! Tag @leehannahj on instagram or include #mrfoxybasket to show me (: