Sakamoto-san!

I've been watching a new (to me) anime lately called Nichijou (日常)...I doubt very much that I'm its targeted audience, but it's cute.

The cat, Sakamoto, begins talking after Hakase ties a red scarf around his neck...then we find out he's kinda condescending, yet protective of the 2 girls, and tries to control the goings-on at the Shinomome house.

He would be supercute to do in amigurumi...and I thought it would give me a great excuse to try the Gumball the Kitten pattern I had tucked away on my hard drive a while ago.

I followed the directions for the head and ears as written, but just couldn't get the look I wanted with the body, so I winged a new one:

I magic ringed (MR) 5 sc, then increased every round by 5 sts, until I got to 25 or 30 (yeah, I probably shoulda wrote it down!) stitches, and then just crocheted plain until I thought it was long enough.  If I had to guess, that would be about 10 or 12 rounds.  Finish off, leaving a long enough tail for sewing to the head.

I then stuffed the body with some beans, so I could shape the pose better, and to provide better weight balance.  Then I sewed the body to the head.

Then I improvised a tail...LOL...I have the worst time crocheting small diameter tubes so where ever I could make a stitch, I did.   I started with 4 sts in a magic ring (not a big deal, that), and then decreased to 3 sts after 1 rnd.  I think I short-changed his tail a little--it should be a scooch longer.  You can choose to leave the tip end of the tail loose, or tack it to the body after the scarf is placed.

I then made two front legs by 5 sc in MR, making them long enough to fit under his body.  Don't sew the ends of the paws themselves until the scarf is placed.  Then you can tack the paws to the head.

The scarf is crocheted flat from each end to the middle in rows...pretty much like a red bow tie.  Start with ch2, skip chain closest to hook, and inc by 1 st on each end of row until right around 15 sts (yeah, didn't write this part down, either), then decrease at the same rate until 5 sts and crochet until half the length to go around the neck plus enough for tying a simple knot.  Do the second half like the first and just crochet the 2 halves together (the join is hidden under the paws).  Tie in place around Sakamoto's neck.  Then tack paws to head.

Eyes are small ovals of white felt, edges left free (of course, you can tack the edges in place with white thread), and tacked in place with black embroidery thread.  It gave him this really surprised expression as that's the ongoing joke--what is Hakase going to do to him THIS time?


*Edited as I remembered just a tiny bit more what I did to make this little guy.  After reading the first go around, I was, like, "Wha????".  So hopefully, this will make a lot more sense. :)