Knitionary: toys

The Friendliest Snowman and my own Paw Patrol

April 30, 2025
5 Comments

Topsy Turvy Bunnies fun and more!

April 12, 2025
9 Comments

I wanted to make this post to share the free template for the lamb pattern, but I've looked for over an hour and cannot find it for the life of me. Edited, a kind reader found it for me right here! I also have a few others that I plan to make in the future and have those links below. I love making tiny felt animals and very pleased with how lambie turned out. I prefer stuffed animals to be three-dimensional with head gussets and underbody gussets, and I prefer patterns that are not cartoony. I shared that odd picture of lambie laying down so you could see his underbody. This little lamb will be hidden in one of my vintage cardboard Easter egg boxes for Carter to find on Easter Sunday.

We baked Easter cookies with pretty sprinkles on Tuesday and dyed Easter eggs today. Two hugely messy projects to do with a three year old. Today I sent him home with blue/purple hands as he could not keep his fingers out of the egg dye.

Those gorgeous fruits are a trade from a neighbor, tomato seedlings for a bag of fruit. The lemons are the pink lemonade lemons I told you about and I'm happy to have them for my Easter buffet. The dark purple leathery fruits are passion fruits. They are perfectly ripe and so delicious. Carter and my husband turned up their noses, but I thought, OK, more for me. I think I'm going to have to look into planting a vine.

Take note about the following free patterns: Some of these are downloads from sites I'm not familiar or comfortable with. If I don't want to download, I copy the template image and enlarge and print. Sometimes the quality is not the greatest, but it's certainly good enough for our purposes. Most don't come with directions because they assume you'll know how to put the pieces together. They are all pretty simple. I use high quality wool blend felt from Benzie for my animals and if there is a seam allowance I cut that off. If using felt, it's best not to seam and turn inside out as it will be too bulky. Instead seam on the outside with embroidery thread using the buttonhole/blanket stitch. I used buttons for eyes but if you are gifting this to a child who may pull buttons off, you can embroider the eyes. I embroidered the mouth and nose. Most of the patterns below make small, hand-held toys.

Lambie in felt or fabric. (Link takes you to a free PDF from Pattern Bee)

Love this bunny and duckling from Creativity in Pieces (safe site)

Sitting dog template (The link takes you to an image. Copy the image and enlarge to print.)

The following three links are safe Pinterest links. I'll be making this elephant for Carter's birthday this summer. I did not want to go to the website and instead just copied the image from Pinterest and enlarged to print. Same thing for this sweet fawn and this giraffe.

Look at this bonanza of patterns from Pinterest! Again, if you don't feel comfortable going to a site, go to the Pinterest site, copy the image, enlarge and print.

Happy Easter! I hope you're surrounded by sunshine, flowers, chocolate bunnies, and family on this happy day.

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April 01, 2021
4 Comments

pink elephant

knitting

August 27, 2016
2 Comments

Rene's Menagerie

knitting

My friend Rene gives a terrific party, whether in her vineyard-adjacent home (posted about here, here and here) or her San Francisco apartment surrounded by spectacular views (here and here). But today she's the creative source behind a toy party populated by a menagerie of adorable knit critters. Lots of critters. Why so many? Well, Rene has five grandchildren who know that snuggling up on her lap and sweetly asking their Zaza for an octopus with orange spots, a pink Teddy bear or any other manner of whimsical creature are requests she can't resist. Who could?

She started knitting as a youngster in her native Scotland, where most girls learned to knit and sew as a matter of necessity. "We needed those warm wool jumpers because it was so cold," she says. 45 years of living in far-warmer California have only increased her love of knitting, quilting and other sewing arts, and her skills levels are impressive. An avid gardener, she also has developed a bold sense of color. It won't surprise you that she is a major fan of Kaffe Fassett.

Her first knitted toy was a noddy with big ears, a gift for a niece. "She had it until she was an adult, when it finally fell apart!" Nowadays, all the toys are for her grandchildren. "Some of the toys seem to have disappeared into the toy box. Of course my grandchildren have their Lego sets, computer games and building sets, but when I ask them if they actually play with the knitted toys they always say, "Oh, yes, Zaza; we love them!'"

Can you mentally fast-forward 20 years with me and see these grandchildren passing their wooly toys on to their own children? What a legacy!

If you'd like to knit your own menagerie, Rene shares her sources:

Most of the toys came from this highly recommended book, Knitted Toys by Zoe Mellor.

Nellie the Sheep is from Debbie Bliss Baby Style and the lamb is from Fiber Trends Felt Flock.

The other patterns have been found on Ravelry: Ribbit Frog is a free pattern by Susan B. Anderson and had to be knitted 3 times for the the 3 children of her youngest daughter, seen below with Rene. There is a tennis ball in the body which gives them a big, full tummy. As with all of the knitted toys, Bunty Bunny was fast knitting, but the assembly took time and getting it to look like a rabbit was the challenge. Golden Bunny by Madmonkeyknits. Octopus Plushie by Alison Kao is free.

Rene chooses her yarn mostly for the color and also pays attention to the gauge. Her yarn preferences when knitting toys are Rowan All Seasons Cotton, Encore, Jamiesons Shetland DK, plus Baby Ull and Rowan Pure Wool 4 ply for the finer knits.

With all this toy knitting experience under her belt, Rene shares a few tips when making up the toys:

1. I have discovered in assembling a toy that I often want to adjust something after having just sewn it onto the body! Now I sew it on lightly and leave the end of the yarn hanging so I can go back and change something if needed. Often when I look at the almost completed toy again I realize that the ears (for example) need to be up higher and more jaunty! Leaving a long tail allows for a change if needed, and if it's not needed, I just weave it in.

2. I use a smaller needle size to make the knitting tighter so the stuffing doesn't show or start to come out.

3. I save all ends of balls of yarn and try to use them when possible.

4. I tell the kids to bring back the toys if they start to fall apart, and you can see that some have been mended.