Arabelle

First I saw this. Which led me to this. And that led me to this. So, of course I had to buy this.

Then, I made this!



I can't tell you how much I love this bug. It was so fun to make and I think it came out so well! I may need to knit more of them, in different colors. It hardly took me any time at all to whip this up. The felting was a little tedious, but somehow also rewarding when it came out so well.

I made a few changes to the pattern after reading Grace's blog post about her ant. The pattern calls for the head of the ant to be huge. But I liked how Grace's looked better, so I swapped the butt and the head. I also put bent paperclips into the legs to make them a little sturdier. I made the antennae a little longer than the pattern called for. One of them also seems a little thicker than the other. So I may have cast on one too many stitches for one of them!

The eyes are needle felted on, using a bit of fiber from one of the needle felting kits I purchased at MDS&W. The needle felting tool actually turned out to be quite handy. After I hand felted the knitted pieces, there were a few little holes here and there. I used scraps of yarn and the needle felting tool to fill them in. It worked perfectly.



I suppose I should mention that the yarn was some leftover Cascade 220 that I had in my stash.

I'm not quite sure why I'm obsessed with making knitted toys, but I am! I think I may need to make the bee next. I am also loving the lobster. I may have to get that pattern too!

My latest baby sweater is almost done. Many thanks to Jolene, who very kindly sewed all the seams for me last night at knitting group! She's the best! I finished the button bands and the collar this evening at work, but there is still a few ends to be sewn in and I need to find buttons for it. I shall reserve pictures of it until it is finished. Besides, I want to gripe about the pattern in a full post!