All the Totoros!

I love the Miyazaki/Studio Ghibli film My Neighbour Totoro, and the Totoros themselves, adorable monsters with features reminiscent of rabbits and cats, that come in three different sizes and colours. A giant grey one about twice the height of a person, a blue one about the size of a cat and a small white one about half that size. If you haven't seen the film, I urge you to give it a try, it's totally delightful.

A few years back I made a blue and a white Totoro, and wrote up the patterns on my livejournal (White Totoro , Blue Totoro ). Since then I've been wanting to make a grey one, and to perfect the original two patterns. In the end I did that, and also adapted the pattern for the white Totoro to make a small blue one to go with the grey one, and a tiny white one to complete the set.

This might be easier to explain in photos!

Here's the large grey Totoro, which is about 9" tall, with the small blue Totoro (4.25" tall) and the tiny white one (1.75"). To be honest, the two smaller ones aren't quite to scale with the grey one, but it would have been too difficult to make a white one small enough without changing the type of yarn, which I didn't want to do.

These are the updated blue and white Totoros. The blue one is about 8" tall and the white one is 4.25" tall. When I started remaking them I changed them quite a bit - I obviously crochet a lot tighter now that I did when I made them originally. The grey Totoro and this blue one have a similar pattern, the grey one is a bit taller but the ears are shorter.
The white Totoro and the small blue one are the same pattern, just with extra elements (tummy, arms) for the blue one.

Here you can see the two different sizes of blue and white Totoros, I'm happy that I got the scale pretty much right for both sets.

I also made a little leaf for the grey Totoro, to help keep off the rain.

You can download the patterns free from Ravelry:

 Grey Totoro

Blue Totoro

White and Small Blue Totoro

Tiny White Totoro (the leaf pattern can be found with the Grey Totoro)

You can also download the patterns from Craftster 

Dusk and Hedgerow Spirits

Over the last few months, whenever I've been going somewhere I might have a bit of spare time to crochet (like visiting relatives for a few days), I've taken a bag with an interesting furry yarn, a couple of contrasting yarns and my faithful 3.5mm hook. I take my scribbled notes for a creature I've made before (it's too awkward to make up an entirely new pattern and make notes when I'm on the go) and make a different version.



Here are the two creatures that I made: a Dusk Spirit and a Hedgerow Spirit. I made them then decided what they were once they were completed.



The little Hedgerow Spirit reminds me of the colour your fingers go when you pick blackberries, and the fur around his face looks a bit like Old Man's Beard, so I felt that he belonged in the hedgerows. He lives there and looks after the all the small creatures that live there too, with his horns helping him push through the undergrowth.



The Dusk Spirit matches my Dawn spirit (appropriately enough! See a picture of her here: http://lucyravenscar.blogspot.com/2009/07/earth-spirits.html). The colour of her fur seemed right for that time of day, and her face seemed very calm. Since dusk is when many animals feel safe to feed, I think of it as a quiet safe, time, and it seemed right that she would be their guardian.