Making Critters

One of my pieces of very good fortune is having a lot of small children to supply with knitted things.   Stuffed animals are always good.   This is also the time for fanciful hats as it is easier to put the hats on a person too young to object.   This summer, the focus is on critters.

For a long time, I have been looking at Little Cotton Rabbits patterns.  A quick search on Pinterest (Hahahahahaha.....there is no such thing as a quick search on Pinterest.   May I say that it is like going down a rabbit hole in which time has no meaning?) will show many versions of the animals and the clothing.   Knitters do such marvelous work and I stand in awe of the outfits designed and knit for LCR animals.

For one of my favorite little girls, I decided to do Girl Bunny in a Dotted Dress.   The pattern is very, very good.  Not only are the explanations extremely clear, but the explanations are accompanied by very good pictures.  As I worked this bunny, I learned a lot!

Head shaped and ready for features.

Exactly how the head is stuffed and shaped taught me a lot about how to do this to give the face character.  Though I have done many stuffed animals in the past few years, the approach used for the bunny head was a little different, and much better, than the way I have done this before.    

My favorite improvement was that the spots to attach the ears are marked with reverse stockinette stitches.

The head is stuffed with small pieces of poly fill.  Exactly how to give the bunny really chubby cheeks is explained.   I did a bit of that but did not want the bunny to have chipmunk cheeks.   Stuffing this way also allows easy shaping of the head to give a good nose area instead of just an egg-shape for the head.   This in turn makes adding the facial features easier.

Julie William's instructions on how to embroider the facial features were MUCH easier than what I had been doing.   Her anchored french knot

The bunny head completed.

instructions are very clear and allowed me to do a much better job on the eyes than I would have otherwise.

When I saw that the ears were done in seed stitch, I was just not sure how well that would work out.   Always open to new ways of doing things, I cast on.   The shaping was interesting.   The ears were a quick knit.   Once the ears were on, I did the facial features.

One of the things I really want to improve is my embroidery skills for the animal faces.  This was not a perfect job, but I am pretty pleased with the result.  I am glad I could give the bunny a little smile......

 The body of the bunny is an easy knit....requiring minimal attention.  The first body was fine but I wanted to do better.   The second body came along nicely.   Next time, will make the "body" color portion longer as I prefer that look.  Pinterest is very educational on these matters.

A stuffed bunny leg.

The legs were a challenge.  The first set did not please me.   The second set was definitely better.   As I wanted black shoes, I had to make sure that I could actually see what I was knitting.  Ever heard the phrase "A gift of knitting shows you like someone.   A gift of knitting that is black shows you love someone." ?    It is true.   While I am not entirely (or much at all) pleased with my french knots that are shoe buttons, I decided to press on.

One of the instructions for stuffing the leg was to leave the top part empty if the bunny was meant to sit down.   I should have left a little more empty but am generally pleased with the way the body looks completed. 

I did have some reservations about adding the tail as I thought from a

The back of the bunny.

quick glance at the pattern, that the tail was a pom pom.    While I try to make pom poms indestructible, that is not always achievable.  Last fall I made a Halloween hat for Owen that was grey with black and white skulls and an orange pom pom on top.   He insisted on wearing it to bed.    In the morning when my sister when to get him up, the bed was covered orange fuzz.  During the night his clever little fingers totally picked apart the hat.  Now...now....the top of the hat just has a sad orange loop.  To my great delight, the tail was actually knit and I could sew it down VERY securely.

The next step of this project was to make bunny outfits.  The pattern instructions suggested using cotton yarn as it does not curl up as other fibers tend to.   As I did not have any  fingering weight cotton, I thought sock yarn would be good enough.  It's not.  Fortunately, Knitpicks was having a sale on their fingering weight cotton yarn, Comfy. I looked over the available colors and picked a few that would work well with the sweater, the dress, and the pinafore patterns that I was thinking about using.

The front view of the bunny.

As the first dress the bunny will have made is best done with intarsia, I decided that I would do a project with some easy intarsia to get a little practice.   Barbara Prime is another toy designer whose patterns I really like to knit.    Her Scrap Chaps pattern features several critters.

The cat was the option I chose as I wanted to make a cat in the same tones as a cat, Mr. Sandwiches, that the expected baby's family lost last year.   The yarn was already in the house so there was no stopping me.

Like Julie Williams, Barbara Prime writes a good pattern.   Though I have been knitting long enough to be able to figure things out if the instructions are not clear, I don't want to do that most of the time.   The cat, I think, will be a quick knit.

The body of the cat is the first piece knit.    Kitty's belly is a patch of off white.   This is intarsia at its very simplest.  As is the case with any intarsia project, there are many unruly threads that must be managed.    I did spend some time detangling every couple rows to lower the frustration level that the tangles can cause.

Whenever I look at the back of my knitting, I think of Mrs. Gaspar, my 4-H sewing leader.  She

The front.

taught us to look at the inside of a garment to determine how someone had taken care or not in its construction as well as if the garment was sewn correctly.   The back of the work should look as tidy as the front.   Mrs. Gaspar taught me many other things.....not the least of which was how to be a more generous soul and what makes an excellent teacher....but this is the point that most remains in my mind.   In this spirit, I will reveal the back and the front of the body partially knit.

As this is a stuffed animal, I can get away with a bit more than I could of the project was a hat or a sweater.   As I have been taught better, I chose to do the best job I could do.  My early attempts at

The back.

intarsia were not nearly this neat.   I think Mrs. Gaspar would be proud.

Instead of waiting until all the pieces are done to stuff the cat, I am following instructions and stuffing the pieces as I go. Doing this I have the joy of admiring the shaping that Barbara Prime

The body knit but not yet stuffed.

figured out for this body.  I have stuffed this piece keeping in mind what I learned from Julie Williams while doing the bunny.   I love the way the cream colored patch (I have it stuffed now.) makes a great cat belly.  This makes me eager to apply what I learned doing the other body parts.

I am excited about this project and am really enjoying doing it.

Progess - At Last!!!!!

For the last few months, the knitting slump had me in its grip.  While I knit, it was not what I felt like working on at all.   It was hard, with the past winter, to be enthused about anything.

A year or so ago, I started a throw to commemorate Lisa and Nick's marriage.   It languished in the active basket for several months.   Every few weeks, I would pick it up and put on a few rows.   Talk about slow growth!   Then, then the real winter hit.   Ice and snow kept me home and indoors a lot.

A chilly view from the department lounge.

 
The throw seemed like a great project...knitting and keeping myself warm at the same time!  Netflix, Amazon Prime, the throw, and I spent a lot of time together for a month or so.  Using...well me....as a measure of length, I kept draping the throw over me to see if I had gotten to a good length.   Lisa is tall so I wanted to make sure the throw was a good length for her too.  I kept knitting....and knitting....and knitting.  Finally about a week and a half ago, I declared the throw done.

Now, after a trip through the washer and dryer, the throw is resting in my cedar chest waiting for its trip to its new home.

When I started this project, bought a good supply of Willow Burrow Chunky.   As I wanted this to be a "no think" project I decided to use the prayer shawl pattern I learned awhile ago.   Doing each row as K3, *P3,K3 I could do this for as long as I wanted or needed to and not

The completed throw.

having to worry about breaking up the pattern.   I find this really useful if I have not bought enough yarn or want to...unexpectedly...make the project shorter or longer.

Of course, while this was being knit, I was working on other projects.   Socks are one of the most frequent projects that I make as gifts.  There are several people in my life that get a new pair of socks every year.  

My friend Rob is one of those people.  He wears the socks and wears them out.   I am happy to keep him supplied.   Rob cannot wear wool without itching.  Fortunately, I can still find some good work-arounds.

My love of vintage Paton's Canadiana is as great as is my regret that it is very hard to get.  The new version of Canadiana is good, but just not as good as the first version.  I hoard the scraps.   This year,

Rob's vintage Canadiana socks.

for Rob, I put together the leftovers from two projects to make striped socks.   These are bright and cheerful and I hope very much that he will like the brighter colors.

This picture was taken in low light in my dining room and simply does not do justice to flash of bright color!   The pooling the variegated yarn created made me really happy.  I love the "strips" of the red and orange through the green and yellow.   I could not have done this as nicely if I had planned it.

There are socks, toys, hats, and some baby things waiting for my attention.   Summer is a great time for smaller projects....and portable projects.   I may even knit outside this summer.....before it gets really hot. The best part is that I feel my knitting joy creeping back.  It doesn't matter where I knit (okay, so I have knit in church...) but that I do.