You take a hippo head:

Toy_2009_03_22_HappyHippoWIP2

And add a hippo body:

Toy_2009_03_22_HappyHippoWIP3

Plus some other necessary parts:

Toy_2009_03_22_HappyHippoWIP1

Add it up, and you get:

Toy_2009_03_22_HappyHippoWIP4

Wait, that’s not right. That’s not right at all. Hmm. Let’s see… head bone connected to body bone connected to leg bones… How about this?

Toy_2009_03_22_HappyHippoWIP5

I found some buttons for eyes and some ingeo stuffing and the half-head is now rather cute:

Toy_2009_03_25_HappyHippoWIP

But I haven’t sewn her all together yet, so no photos. Plus the body looks oddly small compared to the legs (my gauge is not the same as in the pattern) so I unraveled last night and am adding some body rows. The short ballet skirt only needs the elastic in the waistband at this point, but here’s what I had back when I took photos:

Toy_2009_03_22_HappyHippoWIP61

And I’ve been quite distracted lately because we were working on various non-knitting projects. This is the one I can share. Voila, the new addition* to our household:

2009_03_31_HondaFit_M_shades

*The car is the new addition, not Mr. MmmYarn. He elected to drive it home.