A very special FO Friday today

A little late today with my FO Friday post, but I couldn't post earlier on today as I hadn't taken pictures of it yet!

Drum roll please......

It's the Clown Fish!!

Yes I finally finished my clown fish amigurumi this week. I actually finished him on Saturday, last weekend, and have been excitedly counting down to this post all week.

Here he is in all his glory:

I decided against putting a mouth on him, like the pattern suggests. I think he looks just fine without one. It'd make him look too cartoony.

So, the project details. The pattern is from Mausica's Magical Menagerie, and can be found on her blog, or in pdf format as a free Ravelry download. The yarn is Sirdar Bonus DK, the same orange, black and white used in the tiger starghan. I used a 4mm hook for the main body of the fish, and a 3.5mm hook for the fins.

Now, here's where it gets interesting. The fins are four different variations on a similar theme, coming out in different sizes. The ridges are done by crocheting into the back loop only, which I didn't have any trouble with (although my first few attempts with the 4mm hook came out really loose, hence the switch to the smaller hook). What stumped me, was the fact that instead of having a lovely fan shape like I was expecting, halfway along the fin it was switching to fan in the opposite direction.

I eventually figured out the problem - in the Dorsal/Pectoral fin section (which is the first fin section), the pattern is wrong. The rows go ss, sc, hdc one way, then hdc, sc, ss the other way (so all the ss height ends are at the bottom of the fin, and all the hdc height ends are at the top). But halfway through the dorsal fin pattern, are two rows going ss, sc, hdc one after the other. For some reason, the rows have ended up the wrong way around. Once I had my epiphany, I started ignoring the pattern stitches, and just paid attention to how many stitches I was supposed to have in total, following the basic alternating pattern laid out above.

Worked like a dream. I can't believe, now, that it took me so long to realise what the problem was! Once I'd worked it out on Saturday evening, I was determined to finish it as quickly as possible, so stayed up watching Interview with the Vampire while I made all the fins and attached them.

The small fins underneath the body have been attached kind of wonky. Which is fine, if you don't look too closely!

I need to get on and finish my Tiramisu Baby Blanket this week, as the baby it is now intended for has been born a whole 2 weeks ahead of schedule! So I shall mostly be concentrating on that this week; who knows, maybe it will be next Friday's FO.

Done with my fish? Head on over to Tami's Amis to see some other awesome FOs.