I have finished knitting my first ever stuffed toy! It is Louie the Lovebot by Rebecca Danger.
I absolutely loved knitting Louie, and I think knitting toys may be a new found favourite!
Rebecca's pattern was very clear and easy to follow, and had lots of photos demonstrating what she means. I would really recommend this pattern to anyone wanting to give toy making a go. I liked the pattern so much I went and took advantage of the 5 pattern discount she offers!
Whilst knitting this I learnt:
Magic Loop
Some intarsia (although this did go a bit wrong!)
Picking up stitches
Kitchener stitch
And knitting with waste yarn to expose live stitches later.
As much as I love Louie, he is far from perfect:
His eyes are wonky
I struggled a bit with knitting intarsia in the round, luckily it is all hidden inside because it became bit of a mess! After finishing him I found out that I should've knit a row of the heart, then purled the next row of the heart and just slipped the stitches on the next round (sorry if this makes no sense!)
His stripes on his arms are a bit wonky where I pulled the yarn too tight.
There is a slight gap on one of his feet where the leg connects because I didn't pick the right stitch up.
I made him out of Patons DK 100% acrylic yarn, which I have loads left of and only cost £1.69 a ball, bargain!
I knit on 3.5mm needles and used my Knit Pro Spectre needles. I think my needle and yarn choice was probably the only thing I didn't really enjoy whilst knitting this. I have no problem with acrylic yarn and think it works great for toys, but if you don't know, Knit Pro Spectra needles are also plastic. Plastic yarn on plastic needles? Not a nice combination at all, and lots of squeaking!
Because Louie is a robot, of course he likes Xbox!
