Felted Turkey

Here's a front view of the turkey. I think his Pilgrim hat may be a bit too small ... I may try to knit another ... in the meantime, I will work out the details on this pattern and post it soon.

Felted Turkey with Face

I wet felted the beak and gobbledy-thingy (what is that called, anyhow??) and stitched it onto his face with one strand of embroidery floss. Then I used black yarn and satin stitched his eyes, but they didn't look right. SO, I then outlined them with white yarn. I'm still not thrilled with this look. Any suggestions?? I used a piece of chunky, black yarn for his tie.

Added Color to Wings

I went back and folded his wings in half each, then used mattress stitch with the same yarn I used for his tail on the edges of wings to close them up. They didn't really need any stuffing. This yarn is very thick. I'm considering needle felting his features. I'll see how that goes.

Felted Thanksgiving Turkey (First Attempt)

Here is my first attempt at making up a knitting pattern for a Thanksgiving Turkey (note his Pilgrim hat). I'm still working on how I want to do his face/beak and red gobbledy-thingy, so sorry he has no expression as yet!

For the tail, I just used a multi-colored yarn that looked Fall-ish to me, but you could easily change colors and knit a bit of brown in the center, then red, then orange, then yellow, or any other combination you like.

For the end of the tail, I increased in every stitch, as if for a ruffle, then on the next row I knit two together all around. I ended with crochet bind-off, but you certainly wouldn't have to do that. In fact, if you just knitted two or more rounds before you decreased, then went on to bind off in the usual way, you should still get a ruffle.

Again, if anyone is interested in the pattern, please let me know. I'll be happy to post it.

If you have any thoughts/suggestions, also please email me and let me know! I wasn't sure if I should try for legs ... Any opinions would be welcome. I'm also thinking maybe I should embroider something around his wings, as they sort of fade into his body ... and a tie around his neck or maybe embroidered buttons? hm....

Jane West Compared to Humpty Dumpty and the Funny Face Soft Drink Cups

I found Jane West this afternoon up in the attic. As you can see from this photograph, she is in pretty good condition. She's almost mint. This is because, as you might remember from my previous post about Jane, that I never played with her. On the other hand, sitting next to her is my favorite stuffed toy of all time. Humpty Dumpty. When Humpty was new (I got him when I was about 4 years old ... I needn't mention how old he is, but let's just say he's definitely 40-something), he sported a small, golden felt crown, felt hands with five fingers each, a darling little felt face and inside were chimes! Behind his crown he had an elastic band from which you could bounce Humpty up and down and his chimes would ring merrily.
He looks a lot different now, obviously, but like the Velveteen Rabbit, he certainly was loved.
In front of Jane and Humpty are what's left of my Funny Face "soft drink" cups. Remember Funny Face? Kind of like Kool-aid. Here we have (from left to right) Freckle Face Strawberry, Goofy Grape (1969) and a later addition (from 1974) With-It Watermelon (however, I remember him being Wacky Watermelon, but all my research says otherwise). Sadly, we never got Jolly Olly Orange or Rootin' Tootin' Raspberry. As you can see, these are badly dishwasher scarred. My own children loved to drink out of them. One day, I realized they were starting to lose their color and sprout tiny cracks in their plastic ... so I retired them to the upper shelf of the cabinet.

The Return of the Pumpkin People

Well, last summer I rescued the pumpkin people from the trash. Yes, I almost threw them away. The first year I made them and put them up, they looked great. They were based on directions given in a Martha Stewart Living Magazine (or maybe it was her Halloween book). Anyhow, that year, I was so proud of them. A neighbor even told me that her child's walk was not complete until she took him to look at the "pumpkin people." Of course, that year I also put them up at the beginning of October so there would be lots of time to enjoy them.
Then last year came and nobody helped me. My eldest daughter was off at the university ... and she was the one who usually would help. I went ahead and bought the bales of straw, but I just couldn't do it all by myself. I put them up without stuffing, but they looked terrible.
Then, this summer, as I was cleaning up the yard, I found them behind some bushes. I went so far as to put them directly into the trash can (sans heads, though, which I thought I'd keep anyhow) ... but then, as our garbage day approached, I couldn't do it. I pulled them out of the trash and set them behind our privacy fence. Well, they did take an incredibly long time to construct! How could I just stand there and throw them away?? What was I thinking? Was I crazy or something???
Anyhow, I was sure this year the ground would be too hard for me to even try to get them in ... then it rained last week! It rained for four days straight!
SO, today, with Kent's help, we stuffed their outfits and put them up! They are extra scary this year, too, as they had stayed outside all year (and not in the shed as usual). Lots of spider webs and roly-poly bugs and earwigs and coccoons are in their clothing. The straw, a year old, is full of strange creatures, too!
If you look closely, you'll notice the pumpkin woman wears a purple scarf. This is one of the first things I ever knitted! She's missing all her stuffed crows, as they looked too gruesome to use. I left them outside all year, too. What a shame! I was just too tired last year, I guess ... I think her broom is up in the attic. I'll have to go check. The first year, I also hung a battery-operated lantern on her arm. This was great Halloween night so nobody would walk into the pumpkin people on the way to our front door.
Happy Halloween!

Still Working on Rebecca Doll ...

I have now finished knitting Rebecca's body and have started an arm ... and ... well, yes, I admit, I started one of her socks, as well. Hopefully I will finish her socks more quickly than Randy's socks (which I have been working on now for almost a year). I have confidence I shall finish Rebecca's socks, though, as they are only about 8 centimeters long. Aside: She has shorter legs than Randy (as one would expect, seeing as how she's a doll and not a real person).
And speaking of centimeters, I really don't like metric measurements. I have no reference points for them. I remember in the 1980s there was an enormous push to get the metric system going. I am reminded of this daily when my son and I use his earth-science text recommended by our umbrella school. The book was written in the '80s and every page is peppered with metric measurements ... so many, we feel as though we're having our own mini tectonic-plate movement colliding and re-dividing our brain waves. AAACKKK.
I remember walking 17 kilometers from a bus stop to the beach when I was in Spain. I knew this, you see, because a big, green sign said so. I had no idea how far 17 kilometers was. I only knew that, at the end of it, when we finally reached our camp site, I had blisters on my feet from wearing thin alpargatas. Hm. They were very cute, but the insides were woven in rope. Not very suitable hiking shoes, to say the least.
Anyhow, most of the British patterns are kind enough to use inches (or at least put them in parentheses). But this German pattern likes to use centimeters only. Fortunately, I have my handy measuring tape that came free with one of my Simply Knitting magazines. (It has centimeters on one side and inches on the other.)
My arms hurt last night from knitting so much. (As my daughter noted, "That doll is big!") Yes, Rebecca is much bigger than Miss Sophie. She's more the size of a Raggedy Ann, I guess. The two dolls are currently sitting next to each other on the dresser (well, Miss Sophie is sitting; Rebecca has no legs yet) and poor Miss Sophie looks quite small. In fact, I think, no ... I'm quite sure, Rebecca will be even bigger than my Funky Fur bear.
The Lulu doll, pattern for which I'm anxiously awaiting, looks an awful lot like the character Bangwell Putt to me (not the real Bangwell Putt doll, which looks rather sad), but the character in the book "The Journey of Bangwell Putt" by Mariana (see photos above). I probably will knit her once to see how she goes, then try again to make her more Bangwell Putt-ish. She obviously needs to be more chubby and have less hair. I'd also like to knit Bangwell's travelling case. My own copy of The Journey of Bangwell Putt, which my eldest brother gave me in 1968, I kept in pristine condition, despite the fact that I read it almost every day. I say it was in pristine condition, including dust jacket, except for my name and date in the upper right-hand corner of the inside page (which you can almost see in the photo above. It says June 21, 1968). Well, all that changed when a bearded collie (which we co-owned at one time), ate most of the book over the Christmas holidays that year. *sniff. The insides are still fairly intact; however, the dust jacket was terribly torn and, for some inexplicable reason, this dog (who was no more than a puppy at the time), ate the entire hardcover!!! Both ends!
Well, back to knitting ... at some point I'd love to knit all the characters from my favorite books! (Yet another project!)
Speaking of which, one of the toy books by Jean Greenhowe has some elephants that look suspiciously like the Babar characters ... especially Cousin Arthur!
Well, I better get going for now. More later ....