Playful Penguin - June 25, 2010 14:19 - By: NoisyPenguin

I may have mentioned at some point (probably in passing, probably buried in some other post, because I felt guilty about it) that in the 2 years I have had a child (and the 9 months I knew he was coming before that) I had yet to make anything for him. Well, unless you count breastmilk, because I made that for a year. A YEAR PEOPLE. I think that should count for something. Where was I? Oh right. I started thinking about things I could make for the new baby (she's coming in six weeks?!) and then felt guilty again as I remembered that I had still not made a damn thing for Mr. Poop. Child #2 should not receive handmade goods before child #1, right? So I pulled out my various crafting for kids books and found a pattern for a knit penguin and declared, "Mr. Poop shall have something handmade from his mom!" (Of course I picked a penguin. Of course.)



When I started I thought about trying to keep it all under wraps so it would be a surprise - hey! surprise! new toy! - but Dr. Pants thought that Mr. Poop might enjoy watching it all come together. Surprising no one, Dr. Pants was right again. The entire time I was knitting it Mr. Poop would run up to me and ask if he could play with his penguin yet, or ask to touch it, or tell me it was "amazin'!" And every time he looked at it he told me, very earnestly, "Mommy, you doin' a good job on my penguin!" His excitement probably kept the penguin from sitting in pieces for a few more years.


"I hug my penguin, okay Mommy?"

I had all the various pieces - the butt, the body, the wings, the feet, the beak - finished in under a week, all done while watching TV or riding in the car. But then I got all procrastinaty. The pieces sat for several days. I'd finish sewing up the sides of one foot, then ignore it for a few days. Why? I really hate finishing knitted goods. I hate sewing in the yarn ends and sewing together the pieces with the giant yarn needle. I hate the mattress stitch, especially on black yarn with increases and decreases so you can't really tell exactly where you need to be sewing. I have stupid fears about sewing it together all wrong and having all my hard work go to waste because my finishing sucks. But I persevered.


Helping Mommy stuff the penguin.

Mr. Poop was so excited about his penguin that when it was time, I decided to let him help me stuff it. "More fluffies in the penguin, Mommy?" he kept asking, as he grabbed handful after handful of polyfil from the bag and pushed it through the hole in the penguin's back. "More fluffies Mommy?"


Posing with the fully stuffed penguin.

Now when he plays with it he can think about watching it come together and helping me make it, and I think that will make him a little more special.


Mr. Poop likes to share with his friends.

Project: Playful Penguin from Nursery Knits, by Zoe Mellor
Needles: Size 3
Yarn: Black - Rowan Cashsoft DK in Black; White - Rowan Cashsoft Baby DK in Snowman; Orange - Debbie Bliss Cathay in Copper. I bought the first two; the Debbie Bliss is from my stash.

Notes: Something about the way the black yarn was wound caused it to tie itself in knots when I pulled the yarn from the center. I ended up having to unravel the entire ball and rewind it. During that process the yarn broke a couple times and I ended up with a severe case of craft rage and several smaller balls of black yarn. The rewinding and untangling took three hours or so. And as a result the black yarn is already pilling a little. RAGE.



It's okay though, because now that Mr. Poop has shared his penguin with George any flaws in the yarn have been masked by cat hair.

Tags: knitting crafty