henry

Here is Henry the bear; I have been known to refer to him as "Henri" or "Hank". I am so pleased with how he turned out, I knitted his head and body together as one piece. A pattern for Henry will be in the booklet (can I call it a booklette?).

Kate (who linked to minimiam and rocked my world, thank you so much) asked about black safety eyes so I thought I'd share some toy knitting resources:

*I get my safety eyes from CR's Crafts. They say they have the "Largest variety of doll and bear supplies ANYWHERE!" and I'm inclined to believe them. They have every kind of doll and bear eye in every size and color. Including black 9mm, the ones I use most often. You can buy them in bulk or in smaller sets (of 6 or so), but the bulk ones are so cheap I buy 'em by the hundred.

*Lamb's Pride Worsted by Brown Sheep is my toy knitting yarn of choice. They have an incredible range of colors, and I love that the resulting fabric is firm (it holds the shape of the toy well) but still very squishy. And the 15% mohair content makes for a very fuzzy doll. Fab.

*A few months after I learned to knit, I decided that I really wanted to try making some toys. I looked far and wide for toy knitting books and found World of Knitted Toys by Kath Dalmeny. There are some really amazing patterns for dolls and (realistic-looking) animals in there, it's where I learned that if you increase and decrease regularly over many rows, you can make all kinds of odd shapes. I think that's when I decided that Knitting is Pretty Darn Cool. Thanks Ms. Dalmeny!

*There's a toy pattern in the new knitty, check it out!