Giving Stuffed Animals a Try

Since I haven't been out yarn shopping in a few months (thanks to COVID 19) I had been looking at smaller projects. Ones that I could use yarn that I just happened to have around. Right now I have a lot of yarn, so why not try to use up my stash before buying yarn. 

Well around the first month or so of lock down I saved a cute knitted stuffed bear. It was a small project and would be great for using up leftover yarn. A stuffed bear could be any color of the rainbow. It could even be a multicolored bear. If any of you know how Pinterest works you know that right after you save one item you will be shown a thousand and one similar items. All of a sudden I am overwhelmed by the sheer number of stuffed animal projects. There were more than just bears. There were bunnies, foxes, dogs, giraffes, lions and more. And this was just scratching the surface. I am sure that if I were to dig a little deeper I'd find a whole zoo of animals. There are even books devoted to stuffed animals.     

The animal that finally made me decide to give stuffed animals a try were the elephants. After picking the type of creature I wanted to knit, I now had to find a pattern. All of the elephant patterns were cute. However, I was looking for the perfect combination of adorable and free. 

After looking for a bit I found "Bloomsbury the Elephant" by Amanda Berry. Bloomsbury was originally published in a 2016 issue of a magazine called "Knit Now". This magazine and thousands like it can now be found online for free. Some of them are just nice to browse through and look at the different patterns. Although not all of the items are up to date. If you are interested in looking at other publications like this I would recommend going to the Internet Archive. I would not recommend this site if you are looking for a specific type of pattern. But it is great if you are looking for inspiration or a more generic pattern like a sweater or scarf.           

Initially the picture that I had in my mind was that I would make an elephant that would go with this blanket. I would use the same light gray and it would be the perfect set for a new baby or an expecting mother. Right now I know a lot of women who are expecting or recently gave birth. However, these plans quickly fell apart when I realized I no longer had any of this yarn left. These few balls of yarn were all that was left from this project.

But, I was not going to allow this to stop me. I have other gray yarn I could use. Now my only concern was that it still would not be enough. It tends to be harder to gauge when you are using left over yarn. The pattern calls for 100 grams of yarn. I would have no idea where to start to determine if the yarn I have is enough. I didn't want to risk it. Start knitting and find out part way through the last foot that I didn't have enough yarn. 

So I came up with a plan to make the elephant look like it was wearing a shirt. I picked out this kelly green that I had used on a different baby project years ago. To me all colors can be baby colors. Why limit babies to just pastels when there is a wide rage of colors out there? I loved the way that the green pops when next to this darker gray. 

It was not until I was almost finished with this little guy that I realized I had seen a different elephant wearing this same shade of green. Babar the elephant created by Jean de Brunhoff is often dressed in a vibrant green suit. Maybe somewhere deep in my sub-conscience fictional elephants are paired with this shade of green. 

And now I have a little green dressed elephant. One of my favorite parts about this little elephant is that he can sit upright on his own. I for one think he is ready for story time. 

Little Pumpkin Man

Just a happy little pumpkin. 

Near the beginning of October my manager told our group of four that she wanted to do a pumpkin decorating contest. She mentioned this about a week ahead of time, so we had a bit of time to plan. But, I kept forgetting about it. A few days passed and I still hadn't gotten a pumpkin.

I didn't know what I would do once I did have a pumpkin. I started mentally going through my craft box. What did I have to decorate a pumpkin. I have some teal paint and a lot of wasabi tape. My manager only had one rule. We were allowed to decorate in any way we wanted, but we could not carve or cut into the pumpkin in any way. It just makes a mess and speeds up the decomposing process.

I had my own rule. I was not going to spend any money on this contest, other than the cost of the pumpkin. I have enough art supplies that I figured I could come up with something.

 The Thursday before the pumpkins were expected I had a idea. I could make a pumpkin hat and sit it on a little pumpkin. It would be simple, yet cute. I started searching online and on Pinterest and quickly found a few pumpkin hat patterns. I settled on this pattern for a pumpkin hat from DROPS design®. I still didn't have an actual pumpkin, but I figured I could start on the hat and then use the pattern measurements to find a pumpkin the size of a toddler's head. I found some orange yarn and cast on my hat.

Yes this sketch was on a napkin. 

The next day when I woke up I did a quick sketch of what I wanted the finished pumpkin to look like. I guess it had been in my mind all night as I slept. On my lunch break I got a little pumpkin from a shop near where I work. I don't know how many people bring their own tape measures when looking for pumpkins, but no one seemed to question it.

 I found one close to the size that I needed and took it into the office. I drew a little smile on it and told everyone that my pumpkin was half finished. I knew they would be confused and I thought it would be funny. This was my plan to confuse  the competition.

We were expected to have the finished pumpkins by Monday, so all weekend I knitted like a mad woman. As I was starting on the stem I realized that this pattern did not have the curling vine that I wanted. So I went back to looking for pumpkin patterns. This time I extended it beyond hats. I found this pumpkin decoration at www.allfreeknitting.com and loved the way that the vine twisted on the top. The pattern called for pipe cleaners, which I didn't have. But, I do have paperclips which my husband and I twisted. He had the idea to use more than one to give it a longer vine.

Hanging out with his pumpkin pals. 

Surprisingly I had a bit of time left, so I made a couple leaves using this large leaf pattern that I found on Pinterest. It may have originally been from a site called webmail.meta.ua, but I'm not even sure what language that site is in. Thankfully the whole pattern is on Pinterest, so I was still able to use it. Although it was not planned these leaves curl up and I ended up liking that look. It looks more natural. I don't know about you, but most of the leaves than I've seen are not flat.

I ended up winning the contest, but that was mostly by default. Some people didn't bring a pumpkin in and the only other pumpkin didn't last until Halloween. But, a win is a win no matter how it happens.

My little guy doesn't mind that he won by default. He is just happy that some people thought he was cute. He is still going strong and continues to be a work decoration. Maybe I'll bring him home around Thanksgiving.