Monday, March 4, 2024

Scared of Faces

Last Sunday I started knitting a toy.

 


I have attempted to knit this pattern several times but I always found fault with my results.

Coincidentally my friend Karen had been working on the same pattern and she encouraged me to watch Patty Lyon's Youtube tutorial "Jogless Join: 2 Row Stripe". Well, that helped take care of the wonky color changes and it was an easy peasy technique to learn.

It came out cute but the cast on edge - aka the feet - were a bit too bulky for my liking.

 

Raccoon #1
 

So I made another one. I changed the cast on color to dark gray and thought I could seam the feet differently but it didn't seem to make a difference. Also, there were bigger problems with this little guy: the jogless join was coming apart and the back of his head was splitting open. The more I tried to fix it the worse it got.

 

Raccoon #2 front view

 

So I made a third one.

This time I used a provisional cast on for the feet and before adding the stuffing I wove in the many yarn ends securely. After stuffing I removed the provisional cast on and grafted the feet. Now the bottom of the feet matches the same smooth surface as the top of the head. Much better.

I had knitted three softies in four days and then stalled till today because I didn't know how to embroider a face on knitted fabric. What yarn do I use? The same thick worsted yarn, sock yarn, or embroidery floss?

I consulted my knitting library* and opted for black fingering-weight (sock) yarn.

 


 

 

The best thing about having made three raccoons is that I practiced making faces on the first two before starting the third face for reals.


Raccoon #3
 

 

* References

Susan B. Anderson Topsy-Turvy Inside-Out Knit Toys

Esther Braithwaite Forest Friends Dolls

Dani Church The Secret Lives of Letters

Anna Hrachovec Teeny-Tiny Mochimochi