Knitting Toys for Several Species...

I recently knit this bunny doll for Kiera, Lynda and Andy's little girl, and it was a ton of fun! I have a post about it somewhere back in November's archives.

Something about knitting it, while thinking about the games that Kiera might play with it, the fun it might have, which makes you think of your own favourite toys of the past...

Not only that but it seemed to impress people out of all proportion to the accomplishment - I think the thought of knitting something with all those shapes *seems* really hard, though it was really quite simple, knitting, shaping, decreasing increasing - and after all it was quite forgiving of mistakes or "alterations" - it didn't have to fit anyone like a sweater for example!

Now, "hard" knitting - that is lace... or socks. I have made and continue to make attempts, but no real joy so far... don't know if I'm ever goint ot get it together for those!

I also have alot of fun making cat toys, and recently scored a "basement find" of a ball of real grey wool - I just had to make felted cat toys.

The little grey toy is supposed to be a lamb, but as Pierre said it kinda looks more like a clown mouse or something. The white yarn on the lamb is a mystery cheapo acrylic so no felting, hence the odd look of the lamb.

The grey yarn was quick and easy to hand felt in some very hot water (needed rubber gloves) and some shampoo - Not sure why this worked so much more quickly and easily than for example, the Kitty Pi I did with Lopi yarn in the hot cycle of the washer.. Maybe the lopi is slower? Or the water was cooler? Or the washer just doesn't agitate like my rubber glove-ed hand?

With the grey mousie you can see just how much the felting took, with NO stitch visible and quite a thickness gained.

Ranger is always eager to help with the catnip stuffing and the toy testing - so much so that I have to hide the toys I want to give as gifts before they end up looking like something a cat barfed up rather than recieved as a gift.



The great thing about these little toys are they are so quick to make up and so portable, you can slip one right in your pocket and knit anywhere! When you are feeling discouraged about your knitting or about anything in life, it is great to sit down, and in an hour or so finish a complete project. Makes you feel ready to take on the world. Or at least your favourite cat.

The "lamb" is one of a set of barnyard fingerpuppets from this book:

"Knitted Toys" by Fiona McTague. It has alot of cute things in it. The finger puppets I just knit up as directed, then stuff with catnip and sew shut the bottom where the finger would go, and voila! a cat toy! If you wanted to live dangerously you could use it as an actual finger puppet and still use it as a cat toy, but you would be a braver and more foolish woman than me!


I made a fingerpuppet/cat toy for my sisters cats for xmas, out of blue fake mohair, a little blue bunny. It was quite a hit too.

So, does anyone have a favourite toy pattern they'd like to recommend - or favourite toy knitting books?

I like this pattern and have made it again and again for friend's cats...

Free knitted catnip mousie pattern (felted or not felted, its up to you!) by Jo Chandler.

These also look interesting but I've not tried them yet:

A bunny by Jess Hutchison, who designed the toy featured in this issue of Knitty

Dinosaurs (link to a .pdf file bellow pic) including Bronty, Trice and Mr. Stegs, on Jennifer Thurston's X-treme Knitting Blog

Snakes and much more by an interesting knitter who designs and does her own patterns, but does not use conventional patterns or pattern writing at all!

And finally I just realized I HAVE to make one of these, probably with the remaining grey wool...

Schmeebot, an absolutely adorable quirky creation by a blogger who goes by the same name in her blog The Knitting Chronicles - this toy has been called "the cutest out there" by several bloggers I've read.

I'm going to cast schmeebot on now - anyone tried it? Any hints?