Nothing says Christmas like...

Ant Mus-i-ic

... festive anteater on the tree.

This seemed like a good idea at the time. When a poster on Mumsnet asked whether anyone could make her 4 year old daughter an anteater Christmas decoration, I sat on my hands. With good reason.

As a group, the Woolly Hugs team had made her daughter a blanket to take into hospital when she had life changing surgery in September. As part of the crafting process, her daughter had been asked what her favourite things were, with the answers expected to be stuff like fairies, flowers and butterflies. But no. Top of the list was a Giant Anteater and it seemed I was the crocheter for the job.

I had a vague idea what an anteater looked like, brown with a long nose, but on googling them, I was in for a surprise. They have stripes! They have huge bushy tails! What the hell had I agreed to? Regardless, a flat anteater, complete with stripes and bushy tail, was soon attached to a crocheted blanket square and winging it's way to be included in the blanket. He was called Anteater Dec (think about it) and was very well received by the aforementioned anteater fan.

So, I was a little reluctant to commit to a full blown 3D anteater, especially considering the complete lack of a free pattern on Ravelry. Like I said, I sat on my hands.  Unfortunately I couldn't sit on my brain and it was soon working through the intricacies of long pointy snouts and huge bushy tails and, whilst I wasn't looking, my brain engaged my hands and typed a response saying I'd do it.

I had to forgo the stripes but I did include the huge bushy tail. And a long red scarf. Having seen the anteater in his new home with his new owner, I can honestly say it was worth every frogged stitch and every piece of individually sewn on tail fur and I can feel a little smug that Woolly Hugs haven't yet found something I can't make.