Another pattern that, as soon as I discovered it, knew I would have to make. What else do you give a fellow fan of Hilda?
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| Nothing for scale! He's about a hand high. |
Yarn: Berroco Vintage DK in Oats, about 15 grams/44 yards, black scraps
Hook: E (3.5 mm)
Pattern: Transatlantic Crochet's Woodman [Ravelry link]
Mods: as is my practice with such figures, I inserted (in this case, folded over) chenille sticks through the body for his arms and legs so that he would be posable
This was a deeply satisfying project. I've had the pattern bookmarked for quite a while, and when I realized I had a Christmas recipient all lined up, I ordered the yarn. I made it with worsted weight instead of DK, and on 5s instead of 3s (the yarn is held double throughout). I had 6s on hand when I cast on, in case the fabric turned out too stiff, but it was perfect on 5s, soft but dense, so that no stuffing shows through. I sewed it up with the yarn held double as well.
I nearly gave up on the project when I read the first line of the instructions: cast on 10 stitches. That doesn't sound alarming, does it? I knew I was starting with a leg, and not the body, but I was imagining that this piece would be folded in half, and I could see for myself in the photos that there were more stitches than that in the leg. I took a look at other people's efforts on Ravelry, and was alarmed that there were so few of them. And of those, hardly any looked like the original pattern. Now deeply alarmed, I read through everyone's notes. One photo cleared up the mystery of how the thing is constructed, and a quick re-read of the instructions showed what I had missed. You start at the front of the legs, knit up the body, over the top of the head, and back down to the legs again. Arms happen by magic at some point. And the whole thing is sewed together at the sides. I could see where others had strayed from the designer's intent, and I thought I could avoid the pitfalls. First and foremost, NKD's earliest doll was knit in garter stitch, and she delighted in giving him "growing lessons" until he was quite a lanky fellow. So I knew that I had to stuff carefully so that the tiger filled out instead of just growing taller.
Getting the face right on toys and dolls is immensely important. The face in the original pattern was perfect, so I zoomed in and counted stitches and placed markers, all to make sure it had the personality it deserved.
I nearly forgot the tail, but the entire household kept reminding me.
Needles: US 5 (3.5 mm)
Yarn: Knit Picks Mighty Stitch in Satsuma, White, and Black
Pattern: Lyn Livingston's Tiger in Garter Stitch
How much did I love this pattern? So much that without pausing, I cast on the leftover black and white yarn for another friend (who didn't need a tail):
Recently I acquired two skeins of this lovely -- but sadly discontinued -- yarn, Rowan's Wool Cotton 4-ply, in the Butter colorway.
I looked around on Ravelry and saw that someone had made that exact yarn into a pretty little fichu using two skeins.
Needles: US 5 (3.75mm) and US 3 (3.25mm)
Yarn: Rowan Wool Cotton 4-ply, 307.3 yards
Pattern: Sarah Hazell's Short Row Shawl
Mods: a lot of people had trouble with this pattern. The version I used seemed to have all the corrections. It still took me a fair bit to understand that the K2togs and P2togs in the short row section referred to picking up wraps, not to actual decreases.
Recipient: KD
So I did that, only to discover that they meant they had not used more than two skeins. So I still had pretty yellow yarn left.
Next, I made a produce bag, a Christmas gift for the household, as we are trying to use less single-use plastic in our lives. Although it looks small, it holds a decent amount of fruit.
Needles: US 5 (3.75mm)
Yarn: Rowan Wool Cotton 4-ply, 78 yards
Pattern: Julie Tarsha's Weightless Produce Bag, available here
Mods: Used figure-8 cast-on to avoid sewing the seam at the end; used dpns instead of circs; used 3.75mm instead of 3.00 mm needle for end; used Double-Chain bind off and Chinese Waitress cast on; cast on 30 sts for each strap.
Recipient: R
Speaking of small, that left enough yarn to make part of a tiny Christmas gift.
Needles: US 1 (2.25mm)
Yarn: Rowan Wool Cotton 4-ply, 8 yardsl Lang Yarns Jawoll Magic, 9 yards
Pattern: Anna Hrachovec's Cat in a Bag, totally delightful
Mods: I started with a figure-8 cast on
Recipient: M
And that is the end of the Butter Yellow yarn.
Last spring, some household pets escaped in our neighborhood. Most were quickly recaptured or made their way home at feeding time, but one adventurous black bunny moved in under our neighbor's back porch, and worked at keeping our front lawn trimmed all summer. I tried to convince him to just work on the edging, but had no luck. The kids named him Bunnicula, and by the end of the summer he would eat carrots from NKD's outstretched hand. He was too canny to get close enough to be picked up and returned to captivity. I worried that he wouldn't survive the winter. In fact he disappeared in late fall, coincidentally the same time a fox appeared in the neighborhood.
Needles: US 4 (3.5mm)
Yarn: probably about 85 yards of no idea what in Black
Pattern: Sara Elizabeth Kellner's Henry's Bunny
Recipient: NKD
