March 1974 Abner the "Alligator"

The alligator was pretty easy to crochet but turned out a little odd.

For yarn, I used Red Heart Super Saver in Frosted Green.   I used black and purple felt for his eyes instead of blue. Black felt for his claws (they suggested green) and red for his tongue.  I used the suggested rick rack for teeth and embroidery floss for the scales.

The crocheting part of this pattern is fine.  It does assume you can do the math on increases and doesn’t give you specifics for each row.  That’s fine for me; I’ve done enough that I don’t need to know how to increase and decrease to get to a specific stitch count. For some reason his tail looks a little stubby.  It’s possible I missed a row or two there.

Stuffing and assembly was a little harder.  Assembly directions for the legs say, “Sew legs to sides of body with claws pointing forward”.  I have them on a little crooked.  And after stuffing, the head looks more like a dolphin than an alligator.

I have a Cricut Maker so cutting the felt parts out was super easy.   Add a little hot glue and all of those parts were on pretty quickly.   Then there’s the embroidery.  This wasn’t hard, it was just a little tedious.   I wasn’t sure I had enough of any one color so I made a design decision and gave him an ombre look with the scales. 
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I think he sort of looks like a lopsided cross between an alligator and a dolphin. 

Abner's good side

Abner's other side

Here's a close up of his eyes, teeth and claws.

Edit:   My sister thought it would be good to have something for a size comparison.  Abner is 24 inches long from the tip of his snout to the end of his stubby tail.   Here's a cat for size comparison.
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Next week I'll have the April voting ready!