I tried to find a yarn that was really close to the TCU purple and settled on Lion Brand Heartland in Hot Springs. I really liked the heathered look of the purple with a touch of black and felt it would be perfect for my toy. As this is for a baby I also needed something soft, but easy to clean. I also picked up some 9mm safety eyes and a couple of 38mm jingle bells. I wanted the toy to jingle gently when shook to be like a little rattle, but also something you could use to make noise while watching the game.
I used the Texas Horny Toad pattern by My Fingers Fly on Etsy. Over all the pattern was pretty fun to make up. I really loved the look of the spikes along the back and that when you seamed the back and belly together, you used that join to add more spikes to the toad. It was perfect.
I do think that the head was a bit too small as written and a little flat too, so I made my own up. I didn't write it down of course, but worked in a spiral from the nose point out to the back of the head, and used her back half of the head pattern to finish it. The look of the back post double crochet to make the face ridges is awesome. And I tried to add spikes around the face like the TCU mascot has with the two large horns over the eyes and on the top of the head.
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| Head from the pattern itself. Kind of flat and small... |
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| my new and improved head |
For a gross frog that shoots blood out of its eyeballs, I think it came out pretty cute and it would make a totally fun thing to help get the kids into the college football fandom.
Completed Size: 12" nose to tail, 8" wide in the belly
Time to complete: 15 hours since I reworked the head
Difficulty; Easy +
