Chester the Extreme Crochet Cat

Hi there folks
To the very nice lady I met in the yarn shop in Exeter today, if you do stop by to have a look at my blog this one's for you!  Hope you like Chester!  It was lovely talking to you.
Just thought I would update you on Chester's progress.  Yes he has a name now.  I couldn't keep calling him 'the crochet cat' so after much deliberation the name Chester was chosen.
For those of you who do not know Chester, I am in the process of crocheting him on a rather large scale.  I am using a size 12mm hook and 5 strands of yarn at a time.  He will probably be person size when he is finished!  He is based on the book Hello My Name is Amineko: The Story of a Crafty Crochet Cat which gives you several patterns to crochet your own cat.

Here is the finished body.  Not stuffed yet, but you can get an idea of the size.

I have been working on the head recently and have just finished it today.

Although not as tall as the body (obviously) the widest part has 96 stitches in each round!  When it came to decreasing to get it down to about 36 stitches, that was the hard part - well not difficult, hard, but hard on my elbow with all the pushing and pulling of the hook.  I'm glad to have finished that bit I can tell you!

You may notice Chester's head being modelled here by my very helpful husband who has just blown up a black bin bag inside the head to show you roughly what it will look like when stuffed!  He is covering up his pink face after using all that puff!

Need to roll some more balls of yarn now.  Not my favourite job :(  and we are off out to friends for tea tonight so no more crocheting today for me I'm afraid :(  which is a shame as I can't wait to start the arms and legs and see how long they are!!!  But we shall have a fun evening and I can start again tomorrow!

Have a good weekend folks
Catch up with you all soon xx