Gatomon!

so, I recently introduced Shannon to Digimon, and with her current obsession with pets, Gatomon is her favorite. I happened to locate a pattern for a crochet one, and made it for her for Christmas.

The pattern is here: http://milayou.deviantart.com/art/Gatomon-Plushie-288628972

I made a few modifications.  first, she's made with super bulky yarn and an 8mm hook, cuz I wanted her to be huge.  I'm not unhappy with how that worked, but I don't think I'll do it again because of the size of the gaps between the stitches.

eyes are cut out of felt, which took some time to get right. They are very important to make sure she looks right.  And I know she should have whiskers, but nothing I could do could make them look good, so I gave up.

The biggest change is the shape of her nose and chin.  I crocheted a circle for her nose-
             6 sc in a magic circle
             6 sc around
             inc 6 times (12 sts)
            12 sc around
            *inc, sc* rpt around (18)
sewed that on with the nose attached, and stuffed lightly before sewing closed.  That left almost no chin shape though, so I made another triangular piece:
           ch 2
           sc twice in the second chain from hook, turn (2)
         ch 1, inc in both sts, turn (4)
         ch 1, inc, sc, sc, inc, turn (6)
         ch 1, inc, sc, sc, sc, sc, inc (8)
         finish off
               (I'm pretty sure I only went to 8. I didn't take notes and I can't remember.  If this looks too small, just add another row following the same pattern, inc on first and last st.  I was making this up as I went along anyways.  There's probably an easier way to shape her face, this is just what I did.)

I sewed this on where her chin would be.  it just added a little more shape, so that she didn't have a sunken in chin.

the pink in the ears is pink felt glued to a stiffer white felt and hot glued to the ears to make them stand up.

the claws are just cones of black felt sewn on.  I tried to crochet something, I normally hate to use felt for details, but I just couldn't make anything that looked good.

her tail ring is a tube 10 sts around and three rows tall, with a row of sts done through the front loops of the top and bottom round, and then curled outward slightly and stitched down to make the raised edge.  It's just stitched to the tail.  I also added another repeat of the purple and white rows to the tail, just cuz I wanted it a little longer.

There she is.  I think Shannon will be excited.