amimono no monogatari: The Making of Harinezumi (ハリネズミ)

As you may recall, on one of my days off, I found a harinezumi (ハリネズミ ) (hedgehog) pattern. Here's Part 2 of that blog - the Making of Harinezumi.

First of all, when I spoke to Sue about this, she said that it took her two (2) new casts to finish a hedgehog. That's like 1 - 2 hours! So, I thought: "Cool! How hard could it be?" That was my first mistake. As soon as I finished my last project, I decided that I could start on this one and totally have it ready to be sent out for the holidays (in 2017) to my girls. Never having really knit with fuzzy yarn, I had a difficult time casting on ... it was so hard to tell between the actual skein and just the fuzziness of the yarn. I think I must've dropped a million stitches since I couldn't tell if I was just knitting the fuzz or the actual skein itself.

I had such a hard time, that I must've started and unravelled it at least five (5!) times. After a while, I conceded: I might not be able to finish these babies before the holidays (plus, there were also other smaller projects that I wanted to finish before the year was out). So ... I told myself that I'll finish them before they return back home (next year - aka now this year, 2018).

I tried one more time, casted on, managed to get to Row 5 before putting it down (again) to finish other (quicker) projects.

Then, it was finally time that I hunkered down and picked up (to finish) this project for my girls - they were coming sooner rather than later at this juncture. So, I tried - again.

This time around I was more focused which helped me finish off the first of the two hedgehogs in a record of two weeks (well, I really only spent 3 days working on it)! 🤗 Then, I cast on for the second one and I finished it in a record of 2 (whole) days! *whoo hoo*!

It was time to stuff and finish, finish (aka put on the final touches) these babies. Once I initially stuffed them, they were ... h-u-g-e! They were much bigger than I thought they'd be. And, I could see where I had dropped some stitches since I could see where the fluff was coming out. I desperately needed some old pantyhose and thanks to my mom (who generously donated a whole bunch of old pantyhose), I took out all the stuffing and re-stuffed the hedgehogs with pantyhose covered fluff - much better! 😉 Then, I rummaged through my stash hoping I had a dk/worsted weight black yarn for eyes, noses & mouths but alas, the black I had wasn't thick enough (or long enough for me to double or quadruple it for both hedgehogs). So, off I went to Wal-mart to pick up some Caron Simply Soft black yarn. Voila! These hedgehogs were finally D-O-N-E!

And, here's my final product:

All these two hedgehogs need now are loving sweeties and names! 😍😘

After I finished my intended hedgehogs, I began to wonder what they would look like if I made it with regular (non-furry) yarn. So, I used some of my mystery yarn (the same yarn I used for the hedgehogs' faces) and proceeded to follow the same pattern size I used to the furry ones (I spent a record time of 6 hrs making this one) and found that I could use either the purl side or the knit side of my work (and decided to is the purl side this time). Meet Purl:

Hi, I'm Purl. Pleased to meet you!

(back side)

(under side)

Then, I wondered what if I started to knit in the round after I got to the largest part of the body? So, I proceeded to make another one (spending another record time of 3 hrs making this one). I found that knitting in the round was easier to do but, it didn't come out as nicely nor as structured as Purl was. It was much more rounder (not very oblong) and the head didn't have much (if any) definition at all. To provide it some structure, I used some waste yarn and seamed some structure into it. Hence, Pudgy was born: