Hedgehog, Ho!

There's something amazing yet slightly terrifying about felting something that you've knitted. I still feel a bit of worry, a moment of hestitation, before I 'casually' toss the pillowcase in the water and hit the buttons to start things churning.

Granted, most of the items I've felted to date have only taken four to ten hours to knit, meaning I won't be losing a month's worth of effort if something goes wrong. Still, there's that moment, however brief it may be.

I think that feeling is worse with the felted toys. By the time I'm done knitting and seaming them, they have already begun to develop a sense of character, of "personality" if you will, that I would hate to lose.

Fortunately, watching the piece literally take shape during successive progress checks quickly replaces any concern with a real sense of excitement and accomplishment. It's that process, that transformation, that makes felting so very appealing to me.

Hedgehog Notes

Knitting this little guy was fun and rather satisfying. The front is completed first, which means that almost immediately you can begin to see a reflection of the final character.


Then, after picking up the stitches all the way around, the ordering of the short rows means that you are basically knitting the back from the top down, as if your hedgehog pal were growing a shell like a turtle. It makes it very easy to tell how far you've come (and how far you have to go!).



The piece knits fairly quickly, with total knitting time around the 5 1/2 to 6 hour mark. Best yet - there's no real seaming to do before felting - just baste the opening closed.

I finished and felted the little guy on Wednesday, and he's been patiently drying in the spare bathroom since then. I still need to add eyes and a nose - either buttons or crewel work - then restuff him and sew his little behind closed.