Easter carrots

Hello, my dear bunnies!

Let me introduce one of my oldest projects to you. While working as a language tutor at a leisure centre, I made different things for the littlest kiddos: colourful mittens for colours and winter games, snowballs, puppets, clothing items and THEM. It's funny to learn numbers and addition with carrots :) There are plenty of carrot patterns around the web, but there is always room for another one :) It's a good way to use green scraps (not really scraps scraps but more decent 7 to 10-metre scraps). But enough, let's get down to business.

Carrots measure about 10 cm with leaves or 6 to 7 without them.
You will need some green DK yarn and some orange (or yellow, or red - depending on the amount of carotene in your veggies :)), a bit of fiberfill and a 2.5 mm crochet hook. Or you can use any leftovers and hooks you have, just pay attention to the gauge and tension (rhyme-rhyme).

I write patterns in US terms and abbreviations, so, according to them, you will use:
- ch. - chain,
- sl.st. - slip stitch,
- sc - single crochet,
- hdc - half-double crochet,
- dc - double crochet,
- BLO - back loop only,
- FL - front loop,
- dec. - decrease (2 sc crocheted together),
- inc. - increase (2 sc worked in one stitch),
- Rnd - Round.

Start with green. I plan to use the carrots as decorations, so, they have a little green loop among the leaves. In case you don't plan to hang them, you can omit this step and begin with 6 sc into a magic ring.

Green: Ch. 6, sl.st. in the 5th ch. from the hook and the last chain,

do not finish or turn: ch. 1, 6 sc into the same ch. as the last sl.st.,

sl.st into the 1st sc, fasten off, weave in the end.

Join orange. The carrot is crocheted in spiral rounds. Work the 1st Rnd into BLO and all other Rnds into both loops. There's a nice tip to make the joining almost invisible:
Pull a yarn through the loop, ch. 1

and start work from the next st.

Thus, your last stitches will go into the same st. as the ch. 1, and the first circle will look neat and cute, like this:

Orange:
1 Rnd: inc. around = 12 sc,
2 Rnd: (inc., 2 sc) - 4 times = 16 sc,
3 - 4 Rnd: 16 sc,
5 Rnd: (1 dec., 6 sc) - 2 times = 14 sc,
6 Rnd: 14 sc,
7 Rnd: 3 sc, 1 dec., 5 sc, 1 dec., 2 sc = 12 sc,
8 Rnd: 12 sc,
9 Rnd: (1 dec., 4 sc) - 2 times = 10 sc, stuff now and very firmly, because we're going to distribute this stuffing along the whole carrot,
10 Rnd: 10 sc,
11 Rnd: 2 sc, 1 dec., 3 sc, 1 dec., 1 sc = 8 sc,
12 Rnd: (1 dec., 2 sc) - 2 times = 6 sc,
13 Rnd: (1 sc, 1 dec.) - 2 times = 4 sc,
fasten off, weave in the ends. Now, roll the carrot between your palms to shape it and distribute the fiberfill. Hooray!

Turning to the leaf part. I designed 2 types of leaves, plain and lacy. The first type is easier to make, but the second looks more true to life. However, you can choose either option.

Start by joining our green yarn to the FL of the green stem.

Leaf 1:
*Ch. 10, sc in the 2nd ch. from the hook, 1 hdc, 2 dc, 2 hdc, 3 sc, sl.st. into the next FL*.

Repeat from * to * 5 times more (or as many as you wish :)), fasten off, weave in the ends.

Leaf 2:
*1) Ch. 6, sl.st. into the 2nd ch. from the hook and the next ch. (2 sl.st, 3 chs);

2) ch. 4, sl.st. into the 2nd ch. from the hook and the next ch. (2 sl.st., 1 ch.);

3) ch. 4, sl.st. into the 2nd ch. from the hook and the next 2 ch. (3 sl.st.);

4) ch. 3, sl.st. into the 2nd ch. from the hook and the next ch. (2 sl.st.);

5) sl.st. into the remaining ch. of ch. 4 from 2);

6) ch. 3, sl.st. into the 2nd ch. from the hook and the next ch. (2 sl.st.);
7) sl.st. into the remaining ch. of ch. 6 from 1), sl.st into the next FL*.

Repeat from * to * 5 times more, fasten off, weave in the ends. Phew!

For those of you who prefer schemes and can read them, here's a short schematic representation of the leaves' patterns:

It's been a long and difficult post (I could have made 6 or even 8 carrots instead!), but, I hope, you'll like it.

P.S.: As you might know, my patterns are now available at Amigurumi Patterns. Stripey is quite a popular guy, so, this quick project is partially devoted to him. His leg joining is still haunting me. Is it understandable? Or should I make a more thorough tutorial for this very part?