[d]
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Copyright © 2005-2008, Kimberly Chapman. All knitting graphics/patterns/instructions on this page were created by Kimberly Chapman. You may link to this page, but please do not steal/hotlink the graphics or copy the patterns to other sites without my written permission. Feel free to print graphics/patterns/instructions for personal or non-profit use, but absolutely no for-profit reproduction is allowed, including selling of finished items (except for registered charitable causes).
Yarn: Red Heart Super Saver acrylic and Caron Perfect Match acrylic, in various colours
Needles: US 4 straight, US 3 double-pointed (see my double-pointed needle tutorial to learn how they work)
I invented this toy to serve as a grabbable, multi-textured baby toy with bright colours. You can vary it in terms of size, number of arms, colours, or anything else you like.
The middle ball was made using Val's Original Yarnball Pattern on the size 4 needles, stuffed with cotton. It contains a jingle bell capsule so it jingles softly when shaken. I found that I stuffed it so firmly (in order to hold up the arms) that I had to weave some extra black yarn through some areas to keep the white cotton hidden. Polyfil might be better, but it'll also be more squishy.
The arms are knitted on the size 3 double-pointed needles. I varied them by experimenting with knitting/purling or increasing/decreasing different rows, or separating off sections. To separate, simply leave some of the stitches you don't want to work with right now (i.e. half for the blue thing, one third for the purple thing) on a holder of some sort (I have extra double-pointed needles so I just left the unused stitches on one temporarily), then evenly separate out the stitches you want to work with on your double-pointed needles. Knit or purl as you like, increasing or decreasing as you like, then either finish the section off on its own (as with the purple thing) or go do the same on the other side and then start knitting them all together again at the top (as with the blue thing). Wherever you split or join, there may be a small gap, so you may need to use a scrap of the same yarn to sew that closed later.
The arms are stuffed with cotton to be fairly rigid. They're all about 3-4in/8-10cm long.
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Page last updated July 2 2007.
Email me at crafts@kimberlychapman.com
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