Enterovirus D68

During my pediatrics rotation, Enterovirus D68 (the new, slightly terrifying pediatric respiratory/neurological virus) made landfall in Florida. I was able to see one patient with this virus in my tenure in the ER, and my preceptor was amazing enough to let me follow the case. This inspired me to make a crochet plushie of it for him as a "Thank You" gift for being an awesome preceptor.

Please use as you wish, but do please credit me for the pattern.

Pattern:

I used a size E (3.25mm) hook and just some scrap yarn that I had lying around. Color doesn't matter, as it's not like we actually know what the virus really looks like anyway. Blue is my preceptor's favorite color so I used blue. This pattern is worked in the round.

Stitches/Abbreviations

Magic Ring (use google for some awesome tutorials)

Single crochet (sc)

chain (ch)

increase (inc) - 2 sc in same stitch
decrease (dec) - Use this tutorial, if you are unsure
Slip Stitch (sl st)

Body

6 sc in magic ring

Round 1: 2 sc in each stitch around

Round 2: (1 sc, inc in next stitch) around

Round 3: (1 sc, 1 sc, inc in next stitch) around

Round 4: (sc, sc, sc, inc) around

Round 5: (sc, sc, sc, sc, inc) around

Round 6-9: sc around

Round 10: (sc, sc, sc, sc, dec.) around

Round 11: (sc, sc, sc, dec) around

Begin stuffing and continue to stuff and shape to your desire as you go

Round 12: (sc, sc, dec) around

Round 13: (sc, dec) around

Round 14: dec around

Finish off, leave a long tail, weave around and use to close this opening. 

Receptor Flags

I made 16 of these, but you could probably get by with as few as 12 or as many as you'd like.

Chain 5

sc in first ch from hook, chain 2, sc in 2nd chain from hook

go back to the main chain, and slip stitch through the remaining 3 chains. Tie off.

Attaching 

I honestly just tied the flags on sporadically, making sure they were evenly spaced. 

 

More pictures of the finished product!