Yarn of the Lion WIP

I love patterns with jungle animals-just the heads though. I wanted to make a wall hangy thing for my daughter's dorm room and I couldn't find a knitty pattern I liked so I tracked down a lion crochet pattern. I made a single crochet rectangular "canvas" and then started cross-stitching the lion. Sounds good, eh? However, I made a few decision-making errors right from the beginning. Firstly, the "canvas" was supposed to be made in a simple afghan stitch. Well, I have never mastered the afghan crap, so I just single crocheted the thing. And, big surprise, cross-stitching over single crochet is akin to all twelve of the labors of Hercules. (Don't try it, just believe). Secondly, I didn't check my gauge and what should have been a twenty-four by thirty-six incher became a thirty-six by forty-four monstrosity. I altered the lion pattern graph and thought, "What the hell, it'll be cool when it's finished." Thirdly, and worstly, I decided to substitute the plain old worsted weight acrylic yarn it called for with some hairy, bulky weight stuff to use for the cross-stitching. The lion would stand out! It would have texture!! All the stitches would fill in nicely and the lion would be more solid looking. Ha! Sheer lunacy. Threading a yarn needle with the hairy yarn was difficult, it would start to unwind and "unbulk" after just a few stitches, and the finished stitches fuzzed from handling. After nearly six months of moaning and bitching and throwing it in the bottom of my project basket, and taking it out again and working on it and throwing it, etc. etc. I have decided I'm not going to let it kick my ass. No sir, I'm going to show it who's boss and finish the damn thing. On the bright side, it does look like a lion. I will prune the fuzzed stuff when I'm finished and, always providing I do finish, I will block it and frame it, and give it to my daughter, who, I've decided, really doesn't deserve it. But, I suppose, a parent is meant to suffer and be driven nuts for and by their offspring. I can always play up the martyr end of the whole mess and hope for better Mother's Day goodies.