FO: Pinglewin

There are many reasons to make toys, usually involving a gift idea or an occasion. Other times you see a pattern and it just needs to be made for no good reason. This is one of those patterns that was just so crazy that it needed to be made.

Pinglewin by Anna Maltz is much more than just a normal, cute but derpy looking penguin. At first glance, all seems normal, right?

But it's not! This penguin can remove her black parts! Isn't that just the most ridiculous idea you've heard in a long time? I just love it for the mere novelty of the thing, lol. The black piece is knit as a "hoodie", and it can be removed from Pinglewin at will. I saw the cute penguins others had made and just jumped right into making my own without looking through the pattern first. I made the penguin itself first, which was pretty straight forward as far as knit toys go. Then I started on the hoodie. Holy cow, was that the craziest shape I have ever knitted! But I got there in the end, so clearly this is a good pattern.

Here's the front and back view. It's hard to see here, but the back has really neat shaping lines created by the knitting itself. It almost looks like a spine on the back center with black undies at the bottom (you can kind of see some white at the line I mean on the bottom). Another interesting thing is that you knit the hoodie right side out, but you weave in the ends on the knit side, flipping the purl side out for the finished item. This gives the penguin a neat texture.

 Pinglewin herself is knitted in I Love This Yarn from Hobby Lobby in their Antique White color while her beak is Red Heart Super Saver in Gold. You knit the body first, which looks like a bowling pin with feet, then you knit the arms. Interestingly the pattern has you knit the entire thing, leaving a hole in the crotch between the legs which you use to stuff the piece at the end. This made the knitting much less fiddly then if you would stuff as you go, so I really appreciated this. Adding the arms was interesting because you just have to finish everything else, then put the hoodie on and eye ball where you think they should go to fit the hoodie. Also I opted to knit the beak right on the penguin's face instead of sewing it on separately. It was a bit of a wrestle to make this way, but I love the result. The toy is a bit bigger then I thought it would be, but that makes it much more hug-able.

I seriously love the derpy face mine has, lol. Once you knit the beak, you embroider the eyes and give a little facial definition. Then you put the hoodie on and mark where your eyes should go there. The pattern has you use buttons for eyes, and I liked the pattern example with the little buttons but hers had 4 holes in the buttons and the only ones I found in my stash in that size only had 2 holes. I decided to just go with it, so now my Pinglewin looks a bit confused, lol.

And here's the hoodie without the penguin. It's pretty interesting looking by itself - kind of like a hoodie bathing suit with eyes, lol. It also made for a bank robber look before the bird had a beak die to the ski mask effect of the beak hole. Basically this thing was ridiculous all the way round the entire time of making it. I love it. You can kind of see the design lines better in the back photo here. Pretty cool. 

Derp!

So now I have an awesomely interactive penguin in my collection :) Anna made a pink bunny suit hoodie for Easter, and I'm really loving the idea of making different outfits to make Pinglewin a seasonably appropriate decoration. We will see if that happens. In the meantime I'm just enjoying that judgmental face in the corner of my sewing room.

Crochet Update: Meet Petey and The Purple Stitch Project!

So, I know I haven't been th ebest when it comes to blogging of late. This doesn't mean I haven't been doing anything, in fact that's the reason I haven't been able to post :) So, here is a little something I made a few weeks ago (and for a very important cause). Meet Petey!

Petey was made with a very specific purpose - he is going to be my donation to the Purple Stitch Project. For the past 2 years, Vicky Howell (of crochet world fame) has helped organized Camp Brainstorm which is a summer camp for children with epilepsy. Last year, she held a drive to collect purple ninjas to give to all the kids. Sadly, I wasn't crocheting back then so I couldn't participate. This year, she held another drive (witht he help of Craftsy) and called for Purple Plushies. Any knitted, crocheted or sewn animal that has at least some purple in it was eligible (since purple is the epilepsy awareness color). As soon as I saw the call for animals, I knew I needed to participate :) Thus, Petey was born.

To make Petey, I used a combination of 3 patterns: Amigurumi Penguin from Lion Brand (a free pattern), Jay the Bird from Fresh Stitches, and Nelson the Owl from Fresh Stitches. I started off just using the Lion Brand pattern (by the way you can access it on their free app! That made it very convenient), but once I got going I realized how small their pattern come out. Since he was just a ball style animal, I used the Jay the Bird pattern to make him a larger size. Also, I didn't like how the lion brand pattern didn't give it a body verses belly color (like a real penguin). The Lion Brand pattern just had you use the body color for the head and then the entire bottom part was white for the belly. So, I used the Nelson the Owl pattern for the color changes in the belly. The beak, eyes and feet were from the Lion Brand pattern, but they just had you make circles and attach them to the sides for the wings. I like a more "wing" looking wing, so I smade them in the style of the Jay the Bird pattern, but I just eyeballed the size.

Doing all these alterations definitely took more time (and more brain power) to make, but I really love how Petey came out :) It makes me want to make one for myself.

 So, Petey is officially packed up and left with the mailman today :)

He is on his way to Texas today to be given to a kid with epilepsy. I hope it can bring them a little more comfort and let them know that people really do care about them. Epilepsy is such an unfortunate disease and it's such a shame that so many kids seem to have it. Even though it was such a small thing, I'm glad I could contribute to this great cause!

If you want to make an animal, there is still time if you are speedy! All of the info is on this website and they would be extremely happy to receive your donation as well!