Fuzzy Felted Hedgehog

This weekend was our annual trip to Ocean City, MD to go to H2O International, a VW/Audi car show. This year I went to Annapolis for a day to visit my dear friend Kristin starring in the play Incorruptible. She did great. It was really neat to see her in a play again. I look forward to her next performance (whenever she happens to get the acting itch next).

I had to do some serious arm-twisting to get her to take me to a yarn shop (ok... maybe there was no twisting involved). So we went to The Yarn Garden, a nice little shop in Annapolis. They had a nice selection of patterns. The store could have benefitted from a bit of organization, but most stores do. They had a bunch of finished items around the store, including this adorable felted hedgehog. Kristin helped me find some great colors to make it out of. I'm really happy with how it came out. (Thanks to Simeon who immediately noticed the similarity to Sonic the Hedgehog, I honestly didn't pick up on it).

My felted hedghog	The original Sonic the Hedgehog (TM)

• the materials
  • 1 ball Galway worsted weight 100% wool yarn by Plymouth Yarn Co color 137 (210yds/ball)
  • 2 balls ONline yarn's "Fantasy", color 4 (45m/ball)
  • a few dozen yards of other worsted weight wool yarn for the paws (I used some white scrap wool yarn)
  • a couple yards of other yarn for the eyes/nose (I used some black scrap wool yarn)
  • lots of polyfill
  • size D crochet hook
  • tapestry needle
  • some scrap cotton yarn for basting
  • washing machine
• the size
  • about 10 inches x 10 inches x 10 inches
• the pattern
  • Huggable Hedgehog by Fiber Trends
• the modifications
  • eyes: The pattern recommends buttons, but this being for a baby, I didn't want the choking hazard, so I crocheted some eyes (following the same pattern I did for Sheldon the turtle), and sewed them on with way too much yarn.
  • nose: Again the pattern recommended buttons but instead, I just used some black worsted-weight wool yarn to needled point the nose using a simple straight back-and-forth stitch (I'm sure that's the "proper" term for that stitch).
  • felting: I've found that adding a heavy color-safe towel to the washer when I felt something helps to get the item to get some fore friction and thus felt better.
  • before stuffing: I used a crochet hook to pull out some of the "fur" to the right-side of the work... it seemed like he was very furry on the inside and all of that fur would just be wasted.
  • finishing: I actually closed the seam using a simple single-crochet stitch using some of the yarn I used for the body. I was a bit paranoid that I'd end up hating the eyes/nose, so this way I can somewhat-easily undo the seam, unstuff the hedgehog and redo the eyes if they really start bugging me. But also - the seam is totally secured.

Responses[2]

Posted by Jessica on October 3, 2007 7:40:15 PM EDT #