Walking with Bronto

Specs:
start: June 10, 2007
end: June 21 (embroidering the eyes)
yarn: less than 2 skeins of green acrylic yarn and a bit of the darker green for soles and white and black for claws and eyes
stuffing: more than 1 bag of polyfill. This thing just ate polyfill -- I'd stuff and stuff and it would look all lumpy, I would pull it all out, and then refluff (and do what I think spinners do, I think) and connect more fill with that so that it's one continuous stuffing process and more stuffing would go in. This seemed to do the trick and definitely less lumps.
final size: 27 inches (head to tail), 9 inches (back to feet) and 12 inches (at his widest point)

modifications/comments: Loads! As I said in previous posts, I made Bronto less long, and in the round when I could. These patterns are chock full of errors, but my goodness, it's a darn stuffed toy! I didn't stress, and when numbers didn't match up, I said, oh well.

The seaming of the body was pretty easy, since the body was done in the round. I just had to seam the head gusset and the back of the neck when I was done doing the face. The pain was doing the feet, and 'catching the claws' as you seam...yeah, right. I had crazy Howard Hughes nails on a bronto originally. I had to take it apart and move the claws in (since this is a herbivore) several times until I was happy with them. But once that was done, it was okay. Yes, I know, they're still crazy claws, but what the hey. There were no pointers as to where to place legs on the bronto, so again, I just winged it. It does seem to me that the back legs are way longer than the front legs ---hmm, I hope I didn't skip a line in the pattern that said 'knit 7 rows' or something...

Final thoughts? I did enjoy knitting this guy, and I enjoyed it lots more when I could knit in the round. It's pretty mindless knitting. Would I knit him again? Why yes I would. But this time, I'd do more of him in the round!

The best part? Z loves him. He was very happy to get his bronto.

My only hint to folks contemplating this knit is to make sure you've got a good project bag where all the little fiddly pieces can go in when completed. I used a lovely grocery bag, and I did regret it when I realized I lost a completely knitted foot. Ask z. I was so bummed I almost didn't finish bronto. Apparently, this foot piece jumped from my bag to the clean laundry that had been put away. Whew! Good thing I found it.

Cool stuff and Happy Father's Day!

Last week, I was surfing the Destash Blog (RIP) when I came across yarn that I thought I'd be interested in. So, I clicked onto the blog to check it out and was looking at the very cool knit bowling set when Z walked in and said ' ooh, Mom. Can you make that for me?'

What's a mom to do? I emailed the blogger with the question and she promptly emailed me back w/ the answer. The pattern's in Vicky Howell's book, by the way.

I went back to her blog and began reading it...hmm...something sounds familiar...wait a minute...I KNOW her. I met her awhile back at the local coffee shop -- I didn't even know she knit. How weird is that?! Anyway, I emailed her back and thanked her for the info and she has very graciously lent me her book.

I love knitters! How kind. How cool.

On a separate note. I actually broke my first needle (bamboo) the other day. I emailed Crystal Palace and guess what came in the mail yesterday? yep, not one, but 2 needles. That's what I call a good company.

On the knitting front, still working on bronto. The time consuming parts are the legs/feet. Four legs has (seriously) TWENTY EIGHT separate pieces!!! argh! 16 of the 28 are toe nails, so I'm going to see how much of a pain it is to knit little itty bitty triangles for claws...or whether I can embroider them on. Okay, that's not too cool, but the fact that I'm at the feet part is cool.

Dino Progess, with a picture

Okay. I am cranking. Okay, not so much. But look at this:

Does it look like a brontosaurus --which is the incorrect name, btw. It's apatosaurus, and there is no such thing as a 'thunder lizard'.

Anyway, I've altered the body drastically. And there seems to be a slight hump, but I'm thinking it'll squish down. I knit the body in the round, but I realized I had to stuff the body before I knit the neck 'cause otherwise, I would get a lumpasaurus.

So, I knit the tail, then body, then stuffed, then knit the neck, then stuffed. The head I did not knit in the round. I have not sewn the last bit in case I need to do something in the head region (like sewing in eyes).

The legs I'm having issues conceptualizing. There were random (to me anyways) decreases and increases. So to be on the safe side, I'm knitting the back legs (so far) flat, like the pattern. But oh, like sweater sleeves, I'm doing both at the same time. As I'm knitting the legs, I'm super glad I didn't knit the body in pieces. I'll post finished pictures when I'm done.

Then the next request is for spinosaurus -- at least on the dino knitting front.

Did you KIP?

No, I didn't either.

No, I take that back. I took Z to soccer practice and managed to cast on and knit one row of a bib for A. That counts, doesn't it?

I meant to do more. There was no way that I was going to make it up to Berkeley for their event. I would have loved to, but I'm playing single mom this weekend whilst z&a's dad is off doing some guy time w/ his buddies. Next year. I'll try harder next year.

Besides soccer, we had a nice lunch w/ grandma at our favorite dim sum place. And then we had a relaxing afternoon (okay, it was relaxing for me because Z took a nap!). So, of the 5 items planned for Saturday, we managed to do more than half. That's not too bad. The 2 things we didn't do? Go check out the Sand Castle building contest and go to a picnic at the park.

However, this morning...woken up at 4am by A, who woke up Z. And yes, they're still up...

On the knitting front, I got the very cool Patons Dino pattern (thanks so much to the wonderful chemgrrl) and have started brontosaurus. I've managed to completely change the pattern to knit it in the round and I 'm hoping this will work. Maybe I should have read all the directions first, but I thought I'd wing it. The finished dino is huge, so I sort of am making him shorter. I'm using my Crystal Palace US2 dpn with a green acrylic worsted weight yarn (speckles) . When I find the tag, I'll let you know. As this is a toy, I stash bust some acrylics. (did I mention that the cotton knitting so traumatized me that even acrylics are feeling pretty okay?!).

I believe that for at least one of the dinosaurs, I will make as per instructions...and if bronto turns out wonky, well, I'll be remaking it in the flat (but I'd rather not).

btw- I was bummed when I got these dpns because they were longer than other dpns I normally use, but this has totally worked out for toy making in the round because you've got to increase to large number of stitches from small number, and while magic loop rocks, it's kind of a pain to do unless you've got a fair number of stitches to work with.

So, for example, the pattern goes from tail to head, so I decided to use dpn's for an I-cord that I increased to knit in the round...

So, how many WIPs?
stalled out yoga bag
market bag in cotton
luna moth shawl
bib
dino

*these are just the 'active' ones. There's a serious bunch of WIPs that need to be worked on.
Have a good Sunday!