Monday, January 31, 2011

An Angry Bird!

I finished my angry bird! Or rather, the Imp's angry bird.







I may (or may not) felt the whole thing. It turned out to be a combination of knitting and needle felting. Overall I'm really happy with it.

This is the pattern I used for the ball base.

For the top feathers I picked up four stitches and knit in stockinette for four rows, k2tog twice, and pulled through. On mine, the not-stockinette side is visible because the other side naturally laid back.

For the beak I cast on 18 or 20 (I don't remember now) stitches and knit in stockinette in the round for two rows and then switched to *k1, k2tog* repeated (if I had extra stitches at the end of rows that didn't fit in that pattern I just knit them), and finally pulled through and sewed it on (with stuffing).

For the eyebrows I cast on four stitches, knit in stockinette (seeing a trend here?) for a couple rows and the k2tog, k the rest for each row (purling in between). After ending up with just one stitch (for three rows) I switched the pattern to increasing (kfb instead of k2tog) and worked it in reverse order. I needle felted the eyes and then sewed the brows on.

The tail is: cast on 4, knit in stockinette for four rows, k2tog twice, purl a row, knit a row, pull through. I did that three times and then sewed them together at the small end before sewing them onto the bird. Then I needled felted the belly and voila!

Blerg. People who write patterns must have a lot more patience than I do. I winged most of it and probably typed half of it wrong.

4 comments:

  1. A knitted angry bird - I LOVE kids! And the bird looks convincingly angry. Well done!

    I received your package last week. And did a happy dance. The yarn is just dreamy. The calendula butter is already in heavy use what with all of this cold and dry weather. I love how creamy it is - and nice labels, hello. And such a lovely mushroomy surprise you included! Many many thanks for sending such a package full of smiles my way!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Oh oh oh! I love it! Amazing!

    ReplyDelete
  3. These are great! My honey would love an Angry Bird (he's a bit obsessed!)

    ReplyDelete
  4. waldorfcreative: Thanks! (: If you'd ever like to do a swap, I'd be happy to make one for you.

    ReplyDelete