Introducing Ben Fox – Cute Crocheted Animals

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Seeing as this week we have had ‘International Pirate Day’ I thought it only fitting that I should introduce you to a star of my new book Cute Crocheted Animals. If any animal has the swagger and daring zeal of a pirate, surely it must be a fox. Ahoy there Ben Fox!

The photo is my original drawing for the design and you can see how he turned out – not too far off the mark.

In the book I introduce both a girl and a boy in each animal. I had in mind our son for the character of this cheeky chappie. Little B has the most amazing playful imagination and can quite happily spend an hour in his own company thinking of stories and adventures to embark upon.

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The head of each animal is worked in the round.  Both fox faces have a more advanced technique of changing the colour mid-way in the round to create the flash of white fur on the chin. Even I need to use stitch markers for this process – so don’t feel discouraged. But the over all look is well-worth the patience.

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The Clothes

I hope you can spot form these photos that the trousers and the shorts have a cheeky wee hole where you can pop the tail through. For climbing the rigging on your pirate galleon you will need a swishy tail for balance.crochet-fox-ben-cute-crocheted-animals

Most weekend I am found in a Breton stripe t-shirt and so this was one of the first garments I made for the new book. Ben Fox also has a rather jaunty pirate bandanna, with handy holes for his ears. If you know me – you would guess that designing these little clothes made me giggle. The basic question; ‘What would a pirate fox wear?’ just tickled my sense of humour.

If you have spotted a favourite animal in the last few weeks do tell me. Indeed if you have any animal ideas for a future book I would love to hear.

 

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14 thoughts on “Introducing Ben Fox – Cute Crocheted Animals”

  1. Audrey McDevitt

    Hi Emma,
    I love how you describe your animals, you have brought Ben to life for me on a dull dreich day in Glasgow.
    I personally would love to see a hedgehog and an otter going about their daily business. I think you could create great stories for my favourite animals. Audrey x

    1. Dear Audrey – these are such sweet ideas! I love them – I will have to tell my publisher! Thanks so much for taking time to leave a comment

  2. Such gorgeous animals….really lovely. I would love to make one but am a little daunted by the move to 3D crochet …I’ve only ever made blankets before. Any advice appreciated ! I wonder if you would be able to show some example instructions, like Amazon’s ‘look inside’ feature so I can see if I might be confident enough to have a go ? Or, being extra greedy, a crochet along with step by step photos / video would be wonderful !!!

    1. Dear Sam.
      Thanks so much for leaving a lovely comment – you have made me think now! I will speak to my husband about recording some video and we’ll see how we get on
      Thanks
      Emma

  3. karena scaife

    Hi Emma, Just thought I would drop you a line to say, Love all the little animals and especially Ben Fox, Loving the Otter idea from Audrey. I teach crochet to our young “out of school club” children, they love making little things, I will have to get your book to progress to animals. Karena xx

  4. Emma, I’ve just making from your book and loving all your patterns. Quick question, how did you get the eyes to indent? It really changes the character of the face so I’d love to know your secret.

    I’ve just finished Emily and although she’s gorgeous I just can’t get the eyes right.

    1. Michelle – think I bee to do a blog post on this don’t I? I just put a tiny stitch under the eye then push the needle through the head and put another stitch under the other eye. Pull the thread a little to create an indent and then thread the needle to the back of the head and fasten off securely – hope this helps x

  5. I’m struggling with some of the gorgeous clothes — do you have any tutorials or more detailed instructions? I’ve never made clothes before and didn’t realise they would be so challenging to join together. Help!

    1. Dear Jen,
      I am so sorry you are struggling with these. In the next few weeks I hope to post some video tutorials. But at the moment I don’t have any. If you tell me specifically what your problem is – I would really like to helps.

      1. Hi, thank you so much for replying – I’ve never made clothes before and the raglan sleeves are beyond me. I tweaked Jack’s duffel coat to normal sleeves but that altered how the hood was attached and oh gosh it was a nightmare. The actual animals are fine, one Ben fox finished (and wearing Jack’s clothes) and one and a half bunnies done too – it’s the sewing/assembly which is muddling me up

  6. Mary Kennedy

    First let me say how CUTE these animals are. Currently I’m working on Evie and Ben for my grandchildren (who are a couple of little cute foxes) and am having a horrible time getting the white part of the head to come out right. It looks spiralled and veers off kilter rather than looking balanced as in the photo. Any tips on how to get this right? Thanks for your help.

    1. Dear Mary,
      Thank you so much for taking time to leave a comment. I am so glad that you like the book. Have you consistently used a stitch marker to count the stitches for the white section. Naturally the stitches on amigurumi do spiral but in the design I tried to ensure that the ears were placed correctly so the spiral did not seem too evident. I have seen some other foxes which seem to have worked. Keep making x

      1. Sarah Merriman

        I too am having terrible trouble with the foxes heads. As this lady has said they are completely off kilter with one side of white pushing over to one side to get the other side of white isn’t as far around as it should be. I get what you’re saying with the stitch marker but still don’t understand why it’s going off kilter. A tutorial online will be so helpful. I have finished the body and just want to get the head done now as an Easter gift for someone. Any help you can give would be gratefully received. I am now onto my seventh attempt at the head and getting very frustrated

        1. Hello Sarah, I am sorry you are having trouble with this. This evening I have made the pattern again myself and it does work and I have made two videos on you-tube (very amateur) which I hope will help you with the process

          https://youtu.be/JOQ-11QrEdc

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