My father was fond of telling me "Your eyes are too big for your belly" - meaning I put more food on my plate than I could eat. I think I should now adapt that to "My eyes are too big for the hours in the day"! In recent weeks I have fallen for some well targetted bookshop marketing of knitting books.
One of these is a book called Tiny Mochi Mochi, which features little figures - animate and inanimate - knitted on four tiny needles. Since I had bought some sets of 4 x 4 inch knitting needles last year when knitting the Andean bags, I thought I'd give this a go.
My starting project was two elephants, using bright acrylic.
You begin by casting on 6 stitches and distributing them over three needles. You increase and then decrease to form a ball shape.
You then stuff it before decreasing and sealing the ball.
The ears, trunk and feet are added by picking up stitches on the ball.
The instructions are pretty clear.
I stitched safety pins on to form little brooches. They would make fun necklaces as well - or a mobile for young children.
The first one took me 2 hours, the second one about 80 minutes. I reckon I'd make a third one in an hour.
My next attempt was a mermaid. I used two-ply wool for this. It would have been better doubled, I think. The very fine wool doesn't quite cover the joins between the three needles and needed to be over-stitched. Easy enough to do, but better to get it right first time.
The mermaid is very cute - especially her long hair and her bra!
She took me a couple of hours in front of TV. I reckon I could do it in an hour with no distraction - and she was a hit with my granddaughter!
When I have a break in the projects lined up on my priority list I might make some more of these!
I used safety pins stitched on the back since I didn't have brooch fittings on hand over the long weekend.
