I just thought I’d make a small something for my mother’s birthday tomorrow (well, really – in about 30 minutes). I won’t be able to see her on her birthday, but a bit of cake would be nice, right?

When we were in London, many years ago, we bought a stuffed snake. Years later, both our children love it and fight often over who gets to play with it. When my daughter went to day care, and I made her a snake to take with her. So, of course, my son wanted one too.

When I made hers, I still had a small amount of Etsuko Furuya Glasses fabric in pink (from our local fabric shop budulina), so I decided to incorporate that in the design – her snake got glasses. When I made the manly version (also with fabrics from budulina) I didn’t have any left, so I drew on plain eyes.

All the sizes given in this tutorial are appropriate for fitting a pair of glasses on the snake’s head, but of course – you can make it any size you want!

A while ago I got a truck load of yarn from my mother. The black yarn is always useful, and the turquoise and light blue were used in a boy’s baby blanket I made as a gift. Here I am, “stuck” with about 5-6 balls of grey yarn, without an idea what to make. I asked some friends and readers, and everyone suggested various grey animals: mice, elephants and cats. I already made an elephant once and wasn’t happy with the result (I need to think of a better design than the pattern I used). Mice can be cute, but I really like cats, so I decided to go in that direction. Maybe I’ll make a mouse for the cat to play with next…

I made the body flat because I thought it was softer and more cuddly that way, but it can also be made into a cute scarf if you make the body long enough. You could also make it into a pillow by making 2 body pieces, stuffing them and sewing closed.

So, here’s how to make her (it’s definitely a she):

My son loves Timmy the Lamb. I agree. Stop frame animation is one of my favorite animation types, and this one is styled so nicely. The stories have little or no speech, so they are appropriate for younger ages, but the story has enough nuances to be interesting to older children and grownups as well.

Timmy the lamb is not to be confused with Shaun the sheep, who may or may not be related to Timmy. They are similar, but Shaun has wool on his head and Timmy does not.

No sheep were harmed during the making of this project. The Timmy doll is made entirely with synthetic yarns.

So, let’s get started.

Materials

• 1 set 4mm double pointed needles
• About 1/3 ball of yarn (33 grams)
• Some black yarn for the eyes and nose
• Tapestry needle
• A ribbon for the neck.
• Polyfill (or other) stuffing

Abbreviations

• K: knit
• Kfb: knit front back: knit in the front of the stitch, and another in the back of the stitch to increase.
• K2tog: knit 2 together
• […] instructions inside the [..] should be repeated as many times as specified.

I used worsted weight yarn and 4mm crochet hook, but really – gauge is not important for this project. Just make sure the stitches are tight enough so that the stuffing doesn’t show through. You can change colors at any point to make an interesting pattern.

Abbreviations

• ch – chain
• sc – single crochet
• st – stitch
• idec – invisible decrease. Instructions for this can be found here.
read more →