FO: A Crab For Easter

It seems that "created a monster" (lol - sorry, I've literally created monsters so I find that phrase funny) with making my nephew an Easter gift each year. According to my sister (his mother), it's a tradition. Now my goose is cooked for the rest of my life it seems, ha ha. So, this year when we brain stormed about what to give him, I used the opportunity to make up a pattern I've always loved.

This is "Grab Crab" - according to my nephew, any crab is called Grab Crab. It was a character on WallyKazam and he thought that crab was hilarious. So, considering the fact that the pattern Susan the Social Crab by Retro Lemon has been on my favorites list forever, I used this to my advantage (she bought the pattern, I made the crab). This pattern was just so adorable I couldn't pass up the opportunity, you know?

I had an interesting tale to go along with making this little cutie. At first, my sister requested a more "huggable sized" crab, meaning bigger. So, I decided to just double up with 2 strands of my yarn (I Love This Yarn from Hobby Lobby in Fire Red) and knit it with a size 13 needle. I started knitting and it looked like a good tension, so I just made the whole body. I thought everything was fine ... until I started stuffing it. Apparently two strands of worsted yarn creates a much stretchier fabric than a super bulky weight yarn, so I kept stuffing ... and stuffing ... and stuffing .. and it kept stretching.By the time I sewed up the body, I hated it - you could see stuffing all over the place. I even showed it to Luke just to see what he would do (there was no sign of what this red blob was at that point), and he immediately started pulling stuffing out between the stitches. Not good. I was pretty bummed, but just cast on another body in the original pattern size (one strand of worsted with size 6 needles). Happily, my dad saw the big body and mentioned how he would love a pillow like that. Done! I sewed a "Handmade by Megan" tag on it and now he uses it to take naps, lol. So I got 2 gifts out of this project.

Once I made the crab to the patterns specs, it worked out just fine :) I really love the shaping on the claws - very inventive and mine came out great plus they weren't hard. The yarn is really nice and soft, and he's squishy but firm now with no stretching out. Yay!

I used 15 mm eyes and they filled the eye pieces perfectly. I free-hand cut a piece of felt for the mouth and I hand stitched it one instead of gluing it like the pattern recommends. No glue on my lovely knitting! 

So there you have it - a Grab Crab for the Easter bunny to give Luke :) I really liked making this pattern - it was quick, simple, and satisfying, yet it was still constructed in a way that kept me interested. I definitely recommend this pattern if you're an animal knitter.