Crochet Shark Attack!

After I successfully made a cactus, I was no longer afraid of amigurumi projects. So when I began looking for crochet projects to do for this month, I decided to hit up my Pinterest Crochet Board and began looking through some of my earlier pins. And way back, near the end of my board I found a crochet shark pattern. And since June is Blue's birthday month, I thought it would a great project to for him. Unfortunately it took a little longer to make than I thought, so it took me until July to finish it. But Blue loves it all the same!

The Project

Crochet a Shark

Instructions From Karen's Knittin' Crap

Supplies Needed:

Gray, White, and Red Yarn (Or I used Sweet Roll Yarn Ice Pop for the back, fins, and body and Sweet Roll Yarn Cherry Swirl for the mouth.)
Yarn Needle
Fiberfill Stuffing
Buttons
Plastic Needework Canvas

Results

So right off the bat, I decided to switch up the colors from the a gray shark with a white belly to a blue shark with a gray belly. My theory was that this would make it not just a great white shark, but more of a megalodon. (They think megalodons were blue on top, so prey would think there was just ocean underneath them and lighter on the belly so prey underneath them would think they were near the surface.)

So this pattern is fairly easy to follow. I actually enjoyed it because the counts were easy to follow and it really made me focus on what I was doing. And well there were several times I had to pull out rows because I had missed counted somewhere along the way. Eventually I was able to finish the body and the belly.

The interesting thing about using Sweet Rolls yarn is where the color change will happen in the project. Normal I wouldn't have cared much, but since the back and the belly are worked separately and since I wanted my shark to look like a continuous piece, I actually decided to make two sharks. This way I would be able to work the color change easier into the sharks.

Here is a shot of two sharks and how I reworked them to deal with the color change.

It was such an easy thing to do and I really think I made to very different, yet interesting sharks!

Once I had all the shark pieces crocheted and matched with the proper shark, I started putting them together.

First I had to learn how to sew a mattress stitch.

I'm not sure why its named that, but really its just a slip stitch for crochet items. I t was easy enough to work around both sides of the shark.

For the mouth I decided use Sweet Rolls Cherry Swirl. I thought the hot pink would add a pop of color to the sharks. I found crocheting the mouth was no problem, the teeth however were a little tricky. And I'm not sure I crocheted them right, but the looked enough like triangles that I just went with it.

The best part of making the sharks is stuffing them! The instructions save stuff to the gill and I did just that! However without any fins on the shark, it just looked like a evil worm. Not cute at all!

Once I put the fins on it finally looked like a fierce shark!

As a special touch for my sharks I marked one with Blue's initials and the other with Mike's. (And when I make one for Lion, it'll have Lion's initials down the side as well.)