Arty in Progress

What do you think so far? You're thinking I need better lighting when I take pictures, right? I'll work on that. Anywho, I got as far as Ridge 7. What you can't see is his belly, left dangling while you work the shell, like this: which reminds me of a moose-head.

His little self looks a lot like a hedgehog to me, the way the head with it's pointy nose is dipped a little as you go up toward the shell. (I think I un-dipped it when I took the picture, because it doesn't look like I remember.) If you used furry yarn, and just did rows of dbl crochet without doing the Ridge thing (not that you could tell in furry yarn if you did, but the ridges take more yarn), and did tiny little rounded ears, and no tail, I bet it would make a nice little hedgehog. Tempted to try that? I know I am...

(Actually, with the ridges looking to me like someones head all done up in curlers, well, you could skip the furry yarn, and just say her fur is up in rollers.)

Some helpful pointers if you're making this little guy:

1) When you work the first Ridge of his shell, the designer directs you to "figure 1" for how you're doing the second row of the Ridge. However, her photo appears to be her work on a later Ridge, so I found it confusing. On the first Ridge, you would be picking up an unworked loop of TAN, not grey. I considered photographing my own "figure 1" for you, but was too caught up in crocheting, and decided you'd understand if I just mentioned you should picture to yourself that the loop is tan, and not grey as the photo shows. (see my pinkish arrow and circle in her photo? That's the loop that should be tan. And in fact, the entire row below, where you're picking up the loops, is tan. because it's your first Ridge.)

2) The first Ridge of the shell says you do 19 dbl in front loops only, and work back in sc through loops and tops of dbl (when you see her directions and try it, you'll get what I mean here), ending with 19 sts. The second Ridge has you increase 3 times, ending with 23 stitches. Do the math.... Got it? Yup, no matter how I try, I only get 22 stitches (19+3=22). I'm not sure what she intended, and there are no corrections to her pattern. I just fixed that myself by doing an extra sc on the second row of Ridge 1, on top of the chain where you joined the grey yarn. Do that, and you're all set for the rest of the shell as far as number of stitches.

3) On any ridges where you have either increased or decreased, in order to not end up twisting your ridge to one side, make sure you are working your second row the same way. If you increased in that stitch, use that unworked loop twice when making your sc. If you skipped a stitch on the first row, skip that loop on the second as well. That may sound like basic logic here, but I had to work this fella 2-3 times on that first ridge to get it right, until I realized that was my problem. (yup, I had to frog him. more than once. enough, in fact, that I might have been able to FINISH him in the same amount of time I started over again. and again. grrr.)