Chichester the Pig on two needles

Jen Sloan got in touch with me to share her adaptation of the Chichester the pig pattern for knitting on straight needles. Here it is! (and thank you Jen)


Make bobble (ear): Kfb, turn work, purl 2 sts, turn work, k2tog
Make bobble (leg): Kfbf, turn work, purl 3 sts, turn work, knit 3 sts, turn work, purl 3 sts, turn work, k3tog
Kfbf: knit into front of next st, then knit into back of the st, then into front again. Makes 3 sts from 1.

Row 1: On 3.25mm (10) needles and using DK yarn, long tail cast on 6 sts.
Row 2-3: Purl 2 rows
Row 4: Kfb whole row (12 sts)
Row 5: Purl row
Row 6: (Kfb, K1) whole row (18 sts)
Row 7: Purl row
Row 8: Knit 6 sts, make bobble (ear), knit 3 sts, make bobble (ear), knit 7 sts
Row 9: Purl row
Row 10: Knit 2 sts, make bobble (leg), knit 12 sts, make bobble (leg), knit 2 sts
Rows 11-13: Purl row, Knit row, Purl row
Row 14: Knit 2 sts, make bobble (leg), knit 12 sts, make bobble (leg), knit 2 sts
Row 15: Purl row
Row 16: Knit row
Row 17: P2tog whole row (9 sts)

Run yarn through remaining sts with tapestry needle and leave long end so as not to lose stitches.
With pig inside out, join seam from nose to tail.
Turn right way in
Stuff
Fasten loose end. Poke the yarn end out of the pig's bottom and cut it short to make a tail.
Sew eyes with black thread.

AntiCraft AntiCraft

So I hear there's some awesome Evelyn Evelyn related amigurumi over at The AntiCraft...

Knitted chinchilla repost

Reposting this on my craft blog, as Livejournal doesn't seem to be playing nice these days.

I wrote this pattern in 2006, and I suspect I have got better at pattern writing since then. Any errors are therefore because of History.

Knitted chinchilla pattern...

Materials:

Fun fur/eyelash yarn of your choice (uses about 2/3 of a 50g ball)
Base colour DK or aran yarn (same as above)
Pink DK yarn for ears (not much)

2 soft toy eyes, or buttons
Stuffing
A jumbo pipecleaner

Set of 4 6mm DPNs
4mm straight needles

Body

Knitting with the fun fur and base colour together (this makes the fluffy stuff _a lot_ easier to knit) CO 3sts (I used long tail cast on, but if you use another method just add another knit row after the cast on row). Put one stitch on each needle and start working in the round.

All odd numbered rounds - Knit
Round 2 - Kfb every stitch (6sts)
Round 4 - Kfb every stitch (12sts)
Round 6 - Kfb every stitch (24sts)
Round 8 - Kfb every stitch (48sts)
Round 10-14 - Knit
Round 16 - [K2tog, K14] three times (45sts)
Round 18 - [K2tog, K13] three times (42sts)
Round 20 - [K2tog, K12] three times (39sts)
Round 22 - [K2tog, K11] three times (36sts)
Round 24 - [K2tog, K10] three times (33sts)
Round 26 - [K2tog, K9] three times (30 sts)
Round 28 - Knit
Round 30 - K2tog x 15 (15sts)
Round 32 - K2tog x 7, k1 (8sts)

Stuff body firmly. Draw wool through remaining stitches.

Ears

Make 2 in pink yarn. I used two strands at once to ensure the ears would stand up on their own (although my wool was quite thin). Slip the first stitch of every row for a tidy edge.

CO 12sts on 4mm straight needles.
(add an extra k row here if you're not using long tail cast on)
Row 1 - Sl1, Kfb, K to last 2 sts, Kfb, K1. (14sts)
Row 2-5 - repeat row 1.(22 sts)
Row 6-9 - Knit.
Row 10 - Sl1, K2tog, K to last 3 sts, K2tog, K1. (20sts)
Row 11 - Knit.
Row 12 - K2tog x10 (10sts)
Row 13 - Knit.
Row 14 - K2tog x5 (5 sts)
Row 15 - BO.

Tail

Use same yarn as body.

CO 7sts on DPNs. The tail is worked in i-cord.
Row 1-10 - Knit.
Row 11-15 - Increase 1 every row to 12 sts
Row 16-17 - Knit two rows.
Row 18 - K2tog x6 (6sts)
Row 19 - Knit.
Row 20 - K2tog x3 (3sts)
Row 21 - BO.

Assembly

Tail - Fold your pipecleaner in half and stuff it into the tail, poking the pointy ends into the body to anchor it (ow!). You don't need to put stuffing in the tail. Stitch in place.

Ears - Now the ears are very important. The placement and shape of them is important to stop the chinchilla looking like a Furby. I used a real chinchilla for reference, but if you don't have one to hand then I recommend either looking at the picture below or looking at some pictures of chinchillas to figure out where their ears should be :) Attach ears to body.

Eyes and nose - Either embroider, or attach soft toy eyes or buttons (I'm rubbish at embroidery, so I did the latter). Again, have a look at pictures of some real chins for reference.

And you're done!

	Where to attach the ears and tail...
	Nibbler refuses to play nice.

I'm happy for you to share the link to this pattern and knit them for charity or for personal use. Please don't sell my chinchillas or my pattern for profit or reproduce my pattern without my permission :)

Do let me know if you have any suggestions or amendments that you think I should make. I'd love to see pictures of your finished chinchillas! x

Frog!

 

Oh, forgot to post a picture of this one. Made a little frog for Flick so she can pretend to be Malificent, or something.

Let's hook up...

Let's hook up..., originally uploaded by blackic.

Stitched this for Zabet of The AntiCraft because I adore her.

Cylon Centurion

Little BSG Centurion, for Phil's birthday. He's less than 3 inches high!

Purplethulhu

I made Purplethulhu for Abigail, who repaid me with tasty biscuits. I never fancied crafting for money, but crafting for biscuits, that's something I could get behind.



I'm working on a amigurumi ukulele at the moment, because I thought it was tragic that a Ravelry search for ukulele resulted only in a pattern for a pair of slippers.

I should post here more, shouldn't I?

H

Chichester the Pig

Chichester the Pig was born when someone asked me for 26 knitted pigs for an event and I was forced to come up with a pattern that I could knit 26 times without it making me crazy. For me, this means no sewing. I'd just finished making some Mini Aliens from Barbara Prime's pattern and thought her no-sew techniques would be excellent for the borrowing for this project.

A German translation by Julie Röder is available here, and Jen Sloan's adaptation for knitting on two needles is here.

This pattern assumes you know how to knit in the round (using your favourite method, be it DPN, two circulars or magic loop), purl, increase (kfb, kfbf), decrease (k2tog, k3tog), and long tail cast on. I used DK but you could use any yarn, just upsize (or downsize, if you're a masochist) the needles appropriately.

Make bobble (ear): Kfb, turn work, purl 2 sts, turn work, k2tog

Make bobble (leg): Kfbf, turn work, purl 3 sts, turn work, knit 3 sts, turn work, purl 3 sts, turn work, k3tog

Kfbf: knit into front of next st, then knit into back of the st, then into front again. Makes 3 sts from 1.

Round 1: On 3.25mm needles and using DK yarn, long tail cast on 6 sts.

Round 2: Purl around

Round 3: Knit around

Round 4: Kfb around (12 sts)

Round 5: Knit around

Round 6: (Kfb, K1) around (18 sts)

Round 7: Knit around
Round 8: Knit 2 sts, make bobble (ear), knit 3 sts, make bobble (ear), knit 11 sts

Round 9: Knit around

Round 10: Knit 11 sts, make bobble (leg), knit 3 sts, make bobble (leg), knit 2 sts

Rounds 11-13: Knit around

Round 14: Knit 11 sts, make bobble (leg), knit 3 sts, make bobble (leg), knit 2 sts

Rounds 15-16: Knit around

Round 17: K2tog around (9 sts)

Stuff

Run yarn through remaining sts with tapestry needle and fasten. Poke the yarn end out of the pig's bottom and cut it short to make a tail.

I stitched the eyes with black yarn but you could use beads or little circles of black felt glued on. Or googly eyes.

Variations:

Pig Pig (yes, I'm still conjoining everything. What of it?)

Follow the pattern as above until the end of round 14. Then:

Round 15: Knit around

Round 16: (K2tog, K1) around (12 sts)

Round 17: Knit around

Round 18: K2tog around (6 sts)

Round 19: Knit around

Round 20: Purl around

Run yarn through remaining stitches. Use the yarn tail to try and make this snout look like the snout at the other end.

Baby Pig for Piggybacking Purposes (OK, I think this is the smallest I can make pigs)

Make bobble (baby leg): Kfbf, turn work, purl 3 sts, turn work, k3tog

Long tail cast on 3 sts

Round 1: Purl around (this is fiddly. Persevere.)

Round 2: Knit around

Round 3: Kfb around (6 sts)

Round 4: (Kfb, K1) around (9 sts)

Round 5: Knit around

Round 6: K1, make bobble (ear), k1, make bobble (ear), K2, Kfb, K2 (10 sts)

Round 7: knit around

Round 8: K6, make bobble (baby leg), k1, make bobble (baby leg), k1.

Round 9: knit around

Round 10: K6, make bobble (baby leg), k1, make bobble (baby leg), k1.

Round 11: Knit around

Round 12: K2tog around

Stuff (with a pointy thing)

Run yarn through remaining sts and make tail as per big pig.

Wingalid Pig

For the wings, with DK yarn and a 3mm hook:

Ch 4

Skipping first ch, sc 3 into ch, turn work

*ch3, sc*, repeat twice more

fo, attach to side of pig

Please let me know if you're interested in selling Chichesters, I'll probably say yes in exchange for a credit and a link. You can email me at shinyfeline[at]gmail.com .