Iron like a Lion in Zion

"Iron like a lion in zion".... I am not an adherent of the Rastafari movement, but I always had a thing for Bob Marley. His songs are just so powerful (swoon!).

Anyway, lions are important symbols in this culture! While Rastafaris see them as majestic creatures, I decided to take another route. Who says lions have to be the kings of the animals? Over the last two years, I made altogether three of them. This time, however, I wanted to increase the cutenes factor. So instead of having just the form, I added paws and I also made a bit smaller at the top. Plus, it has oval eyes ;-)

Take a look:

The new version

The old version

Here's how you crochet it:

You will need

1 ball of yellow / sand colour wool
1 ball of red wool
plastic eyes

Body

The body is done just like I always do it: You start with a ring of 5 or 6 stitches in yellow and increase constantly until you reach the desired width. Then, you continue with one stitch per stitch until you decrease at the necessary distance. However, this time, I decrease earlier and slower, so that the form is small at the top. How you do that? Decrease slightly in one round (e. g. every 4 or 5 stitches) and then continue regularly in the nect round.

Paws

Make a ring of 5 in yellow, crochet one normal round and the decrease immediately. Sew the paws onto the body.

Mane

Crochet a string of crochets and close it at the end. Then continue with two single crochets plus a combination of single - triple - triple - single in one stitch. Thus, you achive the "up-and-down" look. Sew the finished string onto the body.

Finish

Sew on the snout and glue on the eyes. Add a tail by pulling ca. 6 strings of red wool through the rear end. Make a braid aout of them and fixate it by tying a knot at the end. Can you hear the lion roar yet?