Virginia if you are out there, I'm finally ready to start the next Totoro toy. Here is what I have and what you will need if you are going to play along! (Well, you'll also need knitting needles and a darning needle and scissors and all the other bits and pieces you usually need for a knitting project.)
First, some yarn in the appropriate colors for your toy - one color for the body and white for the belly. You can use any size yarn you want. Your toy will be bigger if you use thicker yarn and smaller if you use thinner yarn. Needle size will, of course, depend on yarn size. I'm using Galway Worsted Wool because it's inexpensive, nice and easy for me to get. This is not a felted toy, so the yarn does not have to be wool - it can be acrylic, bamboo, cotton, alpaca or whatever you can lay your little fingers on. I don't know exactly how much it takes, but I used a 200 yard ball of galway last time and had a lot leftover (wish I could find it, cuz I'd use it again).
You will also need some eyes. You can embroider them on with black yarn if you like, but I use safety eyes because I don't like to sew. You can get almost any size and color eyes from
CR's Crafts and they are far less expensive than any you buy on Etsy or at any local Michaels or Joanns.
You are going to need Rududu's notes from Ravelry. She's the one who came up with this creation by manipulating another pattern. I sent her a message suggesting she turn it into a pattern, but she was worried that whoever wrote the pattern it was based on would not like it, so all we have are her notes. They came from
here.
And lastly you are going to need the
Kate pattern from Knitty.com. Kate is a cat toy and is listed under whimseys on the website. We aren't going to follow the pattern exactly or we'd come up with a Kate. We are going to knit part of it and then change it and then add other bits and pieces to make a Totoro.
I have all of this now and am ready to start our knit-a-long. So, when I hear from you that you've found this post and that you are ready, we can begin.
2 comments:
I have the eyes from CR Crafts.
I have the knitting needles.
Does the yarn have to be wool, does it have to be feltable wool, or can it be any yarn?
I don't know if I have any yarn - I might have to go buy some. There is not a single scrap of yarn anywhere in this house. None. Nowhere. No stash. Nothing.
I edited the post to say that the yarn does not have to be wool. This little guy is not felted. I should also say that because this is not felted, you want to knit very tightly. I use needles about two sizes smaller than I normally would for the yarn to make it tighter.
It's funny. I have a ton of yarn in this house. Huge stash. Many kinds and many colors of yarn. But I never ever seem to have what I need for whatever project I'm about to begin. I also never seem to be able to come up with a good project for any of the yarns in the stash.
Why is that?
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