Monday 16 June 2008

Cuisses de grenouille

Cuisses de grenouilleSorry about the fuzziness - my cheap, elderly digital camera struggles with medium close-ups, and it's too late now to take another because I didn't get round to posting at once. These are the legs of a frog. It's a present for my friend's baby. Her blog is called "Puddock" - a Scots word for frog. The baby is due in a couple of weeks.

To the right is the rest of the frog - currently hind-legless. I made the pattern up as I went along, but I did take enough notes to write it up if necessary. He has a simple cable pattern down his back. I used the Magic Loop method to knit him circularly, so there are no seams on the body. All the sewing-together is grafting ends, like sock toes, or fake-grafting to join legs to body. I also made the joints of his legs by sewing through both layers - the legs are just tubes.

Puddock faceI started behind the eyes and made his body, then stuffed the body, picked up my provisional cast on, leaving buttonholes for the eyes, and knitted and stuffed his face. Finally I grafted his nose. Now I've made two front legs and two hind legs, and sewn on the front ones with fake grafting. Here is his little face. He needs eyes, and I think they are going to be crocheted, and probably yellow.

6 comments:

La Tanguerita said...

AAA! how cute!I want one too!!

msHedgehog said...

If you want to make one, I think I have enough notes to write a detailed pattern. It involves:

Provisional cast on (I use a crochet chain but there are other ways)
Circular knitting using the Magic Loop method (you could knit it in flat pieces, or use double-pointed needles, but either would be a lot more effort)
Increases and mirrored decreases
Simple 6x6 cable
Quite a lot of grafting - nose, tail, all toes ('Kitchener Stitch')
Fake grafting
Making two crochet circles for the eyes.

There are three things in there that aren't in Debbie Stoller's basic "Stitch n Bitch" book, I think. The provisional cast on, the magic loop, and the crochet circles. I also used an invisible increase from TechKnitting, but you don't have to.

Anonymous said...

The bulbous eyes are just perfect.

Mtnhighmama said...

I am always so in awe of people that can just whip out a project without a pattern. I can't do it, and I totally bow to your ingenuity.

And, it's super cute.

msHedgehog said...

MtnHighMama - it's not as complicated as it looks. I had to do quite a bit of thinking over several weeks about what makes a cuddly frog, frog-shaped. I decided it was sticky-up eyes, long back legs, and webbed feet. But all animals are basically tubes, so I already knew I would be making a tube, just increasing and decreasing to shape it a bit. Then, I have default numbers and relationships in my head so I don't have to make all the decisions at once. For example, I always cast on 60, because it's a reasonable sized tube and factors into lots of convenient numbers so it's easy to distribute increases, decreases, and patterns so that they make the shape I want. Heads and tails and feet are basically the same as hat-tops or sock toes. You have to think like an artist or an anatomist - not things as specific things, but as combinations and adaptations of shapes you already know how to make.

La Tanguerita said...

hey:-)thank you very much.I saved it for the better times. Unfortunately (due to the huge amount of work) I haven't been knitting at all lately. Nor dancing for that matter.