Sue's Knitting Projects

My three-year-old grandson watched me knitting soft toys for friends, and paged through my patterns. Then he asked me if I could knit the scarecrow shown on the front of Jean Greenhowe's 'knitted toys' book. I gulped a little - it's quite a complex and highly detailed pattern - but said I probably could. He's quite keen on scarecrows, and although I did suggest various alternatives, he stuck to his choice. I said I would send it to him for Christmas. The first part to knit was the trousers, which are done as two pieces in sideways stripes in stocking stitch with the purl facing outwards. They were easy enough. The main body part is knitted with the head as a single piece, and also proved relatively straightforward. Then, keen to see how it looked, I started sewing it together... unfortunately, I was quite tired, and forgot that the trousers were 'inside out', so to speak. So I then had to un-stitch it, by which time I was fed up of sewing. I decided...

I had knitted toys or ornaments for four siblings, and just one birthday remained. This was for a girl soon to turn nine years old. She paged through all my patterns, before deciding she would like the one labelled, simply, 'puppy' in the Jean Greenhowe Knitted Animals book. I didn't have any yarn of the colour shown in the book, and couldn't find any at the local shops. Eventually I found quite a nice tan/brown, and my friend said that would be fine. I didn't start knitting it until a couple of weeks before her birthday. The body and front legs are all once piece; a bit fiddly, but not too time-consuming. The head wasn't then too difficult, either. My heart always sinks when I see instructions that begin, 'increase in every stitch' right after casting on. I knit quite tightly, and never like increasing in every stitch. However, there weren't too many stitches, and it wasn't too painful. When I got to the collar piece (in red) I was...