Puppet Parade

At last, my version of the panda and zebra puppets by Itty Bitty Toys

I saw how Mary at Ravlery had used the pattern for a pig and soon realised how easy it was to knit a whole array of puppets to portray all manner of characters ..............

Before each one is finished there are already ideas for many more ..............

Oh yes, there's more too but I won't bore anybody with numerous photos of similar stuff all of which will eventually find their way into a Christmas shoebox .......... and can't promise when I'll be posting anything different as, even though I'm no great knitter, these things are somewhat addictive!!!!!
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A Bit of Catch Up

I did a couple more pages for Gina's Sketchbook Challenge before putting the art stuff away for a bit.  I kind of started losing my way but have a better idea of where to go next when I get them out again.  This was an enlarging experiment - large scale isn't really my thing but I've had to do it in the past so I did just the one for now ............

 

Out and about, I did actually have the camera in my bag to capture (in a fashion) these mixed media wall hangings at Sheerness Library :

My paternal ancestors came from the Midlands.   Grandad was killed in WW2 whilst my dad was a baby and his parents parted company when he was a babe himself so I started off knowing very little about them when I got into family history back in the mid 80s.  Finally, as an anniversary treat, we planned a short trip to the Black Country Living Museum and the Back to Backs in Birmingham.  Sadly we didn't get to the Back to Backs as they were closed for longer than stated on the NT website and we didn't find this out until phoning to book AFTER we had booked our accomodation.  Never mind, we had a brilliant time and for me it felt like going home despite never having been there and my grandad moving down south with his mother as a baby c1910.  I have Romany ancestry but I do not like camping, I have conjuring ancestors but magic bores me, lots came from London but the City scares me a bit, I go the Midlands and, well, what can I say except I loved every minute of it and it felt like going home as soon as we saw "Fort Dunlop"!!!!

We took numerous pics so just a couple of textiley bits ..............

Back to now, knitting is good for me at the moment.  I need to concentrate enough to stop me thinking about other stuff and I can do it on the sofa in the same room as my husband for the evening.  Being no great knitter, I'm ok with small items and have knitted up the panda and zebra puppets mentioned in the last post and also used the basic patterns for Dennis the Menace, Piglet, Pooh, pig, rabbit (and a yet to be decided) puppets too ......... will post pics when I (eventually) get them all stitched together and finished!  Am miles behind with catching up on fellow blogs so hope to find some time for light reading before too long too!
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Glove Puppet Knitting Patterns and Tutorials

Knitted items are very welcome in the shoeboxes sent abroad with Operation Christmas Child each November but they must be unstuffed.  Hand puppets are ideal so long as any bits of filling are left out where applicable and they can make lovely "friends" for often traumatised and lonley children.  I've listed some of my favourites from the free puppet knitting patterns online.

Susan B Anderson's panda and zebra puppets from Itty Bitty Toys
 

Mary at Ravelry has combined the panda and zebra patterns to make a pig puppet

Turtle from Mavis at Sheep and Shepherd with the pattern at Ravelry
Knitting in the round and quite complex but beautiful!

Clown, elephant and teddy at the OCC website

Janet from Musings of the Puppet Lady has been knitting 100 puppets a year for the Christmas Shoebox scheme for several years now and has shared patterns for her variation on the OCC clown and Mickey Mouse.  Do have a look around her blog at ideas for other variations ie. snowman, duck, Father Christmas, Penguin etc..  Photos on Flicker too.

Twins at Melodiesplus

Girl at Creni (pdf)
Girl, fairy, prince and rabbit at Knitting and Crochet
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See also this post for more links to free patterns for puppets to knit, sew or crochet.
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More Christmas Shoeboxes

The last of our shoeboxes for OCC this year all packed and ready to go:

Boy 2-4

 Girl 2-4

Girl 5-9
 

 

 

 Girl 10-14