Kitten (Jean Greenhowe)

This is another project which I started some years ago. I don't know exactly when, but probably about ten years ago.  It's called, simply, 'kitten' in the Jean Greenhowe 'Knitted Animals' booklet from which I knitted many toys for my sons, back in the 1990s.

I knitted this not with the recommended double knitting yarn, but with some rather thicker wool I had bought for something else. At the time, living in a new neighbourhood, I had no idea where I could buy yarn other than random small balls from the thrift store. But I had some thicker wool in cream, and used that. I don't remember what size of needles I used.

For some reason I had mostly finished the kitten body, and had stuffed and sewn it together, even including the facial features which I tend to leave until the end. But I had not sewn the tail in place, nor had I knitted the cushion.  Perhaps this is because I don't like pink, but couldn't decide on an appropriate colour for the cushion.

Whatever the reason, the unfinished kitten sat in in my knitting box until I decided to finish it today. I used some turquoise double knitting wool for the cushion, which I was able to knit in about half an hour. It's in two square pieces, so was very quick to knit. I used 3.25mm needles rather than the recommended 3mm, to make it slightly bigger.

Sewing it together and finishing the kitten took about ten minutes. I used the same turquoise yarn to make a twisted cord for a bow around the kitten's neck. I thought the result was rather cute.

I have no idea what I'll do with it, but it's joined my other completed projects and is one I might do again, experimenting with different colours.  

Knitted girl elephant (Jean Greenhowe)

I knew I was going to knit a specific toy for my nearly-three-year-old grandson, so wanted to make something small for my four-month-old granddaughter.  She has some teddies and other soft toys, so I decided to try the girl elephant from Jean Greenhowe's 'Knitted Animals' booklet, something I've had for many years, and used extensively about twenty-five years ago.

The finished elephant is only about 15cm (6 inches) high, so it was fairly quick to make. The pattern shows four elephants: a girl in a pink stripy dress, a boy with a stripy top, a sailor with a blue outfit and cap, and a bedtime elephant with a nightcap. The girl elephant was the obvious one to choose, and I decided immediately that I would not include the twisted yarn bow that's by the toy's ear (I was going to say 'hair' but elephants don't have hair!)

The instructions, as always with Jean Greenhowe's patterns, were straightforward and everything worked as expected. The body is nicely made with undergarments in white (I used cream).  Rather than bright pink for the dress, I used a purple-pink, with stripes in cream.

The face was straightforward. This author has developed an excellent method of using knots of varying sizes, and threading each end of a piece of yarn through an opening to secure it. I don't like embroidering faces, but this knot method for eyes works very well. Since the elephant has a trunk, there were no other facial features.

I thought the end result was rather sweet: