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This is a little Toy Soldier Christmas Ornament 11cm tall . One of the ornaments I'm making for the Ravelry Christmas Group KAL
Materials
Scraps of 8ply / DK yarn in Black, Red, White, Flesh and a small amount of yellow for his uniform decoration.
Stuffing
Piece of gold thread or whatever you prefer to hang him from.
Pair of 3.25mm knitting needles.
His body is worked in one piece with the seam up the back. The arms are knitted and sewn on separately.
Always leave a a reasonably long thread at the cast on, cast off and colour changes of your work, to use when sewing up.
Body - Make 1
With 3.25mm needles, cast on 16sts.
St st 14 rows Black
Change to Red
St st 9 rows
Next Row - Still with Red, P2 tog to end - 8sts, this makes his neck.
Change to Flesh and K 1 row
Next Row - Increase purlwise in every stitch to end - 16sts.
St st 4 more rows in Flesh
Change to Black and st st 6 rows.
Thread the yarn back through the stitches on the needle, take off, gather tightly and fasten off, leaving enough yarn to sew him up.
Arms - Make 2
With 3.25mm needles and White, cast on 7sts.
St st 2 rows White
Change to Red and st st 10 rows.
Thread back through stitches on needle, gather tightly and fasten off.
Making Up
Sew in any threads you won't be using for sewing up.
With right side facing out, Start at the top of his head and sew down the back seam, using each colour thread, to sew up each colour as you go. Leave bottom of legs open for stuffing.
Stuff him, through the bottom opening. Don't over stuff him, you'll be sewing a line of stitching down the centre to divide his legs.It will be easier if his legs aren't too "fat" :-)
Oversew across the bottom seam, with the body seam running down the back.
Do all his body decorative stitching now before you attach his arms.
With Black yarn, sew a line of backstitching from the bottom, up the middle of his black trousers, pulling the stitches in to define his two legs. Stop about 1cm from the top of his trousers.
With White, sew a backstitch up the outside of each leg.
With Yellow, sew 4 long stitches across his Red coat.
Sew his chin strap on in black, and for his moustache either use a 1ply unravelled from your yarn or some embroidery cotton.
Start in the centre of his face, sew an upside down V to one side, thread back to the centre and do the other side the same.
And no eyes Yay we all hate doing eyes don't we lol.
Arms - they don't need stuffing, with right sides facing out, fold arm in half, sew down seam from the top and across his white gloves.
With the seam at the back, sew his arms to the body at the sides. I started stitching from about halfway up the red on the arm, around the top and back down halfway at the back, and left the rest of his arm loose.
Thread a hanging thread through the top of his hat and he's all done.
© Jennifer Stacey 2013
Twas The Knits Before Christmas-Fiona Goble
I love this next one, I could see all the characters sitting on the Mantlepiece in line, waiting for each of the 12 days of Christmas to pass, or better still in a garland!
Twelve Knits Of Christmas Fiona-Goble
Thanks for visiting
Jen
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ReplyDeleteThank you for the pattern, Jen :o) Can't wait to get started, but first I have to finish some fingerless gloves & practice the increase purl wise bit - I hate increasing purl wise, I always make a mess of it !! :o)
ReplyDeleteI hope to make 2 of these, one for each of my little grandsons.
THANK YOU again :o))
Hi Pat,the increase looks better on the purl row in this case, because it's such a small item and to put a decrease and increase row one after the other looked very messy. Put the needle through the front of the st as you would to purl, then yo and make a stitch, but don't slip it off the needle, so you have a new "stitch" on your right hand. Then purl again in the same stitch on the left hand needle, but this time from the back of the stitch through to the middle, then yo, finish this stitch and pull it off the needle - 2 stitches now on the right hand needle (well that's how I do it).
DeleteAlso If anyone wonders why I use 3.25mm instead of 3mm needles for toys, I suffer from Rheumatoid Arthritis, and I find that 3mm and smaller are just too painful for me to hold and knit with constantly. So years ago when I was diagnosed I started using 3.25mm needles for most toy patterns and found the knit of the fabric was still acceptable for stuffing, but going up just that extra size helped my pain. I hope other Arthritis sufferers feel the same way, but everyone is different :-).I usually explain this every now and then on the blog lol.
Thanks Jen, I'll give that increase way a go. I use 3mm or 3.25mm needles, not because of arthritis but because on fiddly-ness :o) I'm not good with things that need stuffing, I seem to always end up with bits hanging out, so depending what the item is, depends what size needle I use :o)
DeleteI'm glad I'm not the only one who opts for the bigger size. I'll never make socks out of 2ply sock yarn again unfortunately (love crocheting with sock yarn though, I can do that). That's the way my Mummy taught me, you can also "make one" which is picking up between stitches,but not for this one. It's freezing here in Brisbane tonight, rainy and miserable - I know you'd be walking around in a tshirt though :-D.
DeleteCute Jen - your so clever :)
ReplyDeleteThanks :-)
DeleteGreat little soldier!!
ReplyDeleteThanks it's definitely knitting weather in Brisbane tonight!
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