monstrously cute

I know what you are all going to say. But trust me when I say this, I really do not like knitting toys. To say that I like knitting toys would imply that I enjoy the process, and that couldn’t be further from the truth. I can say, with no exaggeration, that I pretty much hated every single stitch I knitted for these. The tight gauge. The small circumferences in the round. The constant colour changes. The endless number of ends. The fiddliness. Blargh.

But the product, aah the end product, is the reason I keep going back to them. They are just monstrously cute. So there you have it. It can’t always be about the process. Sometimes the product is worth it.

(Don’t get me wrong, this is not in any way a difficult pattern. All the techniques are simple, well explained, and accessible to slightly adventurous beginners. The pattern is great and delivers just what it promises. I recommend it.)

If, like me, you are swayed by wanting to get to that end product, my main piece of advice to make your life easier is to knit the baby first. It’s smaller, quicker, and less fiddly because there are no colour changes. But the overall construction is the same, so you can use it to test out the pattern, experiment with any modifications you might want to make, and get ready for the bigger monster. I found it very helpful.

In the end this was one of the gift knits which I got to deliver in person. It was very enthusiastically received by both the 6-month-old to whom it was gifted and her 4-year-old sister, who immediately started playing with the pocket, putting the baby in and out, and seeing if her other dolls could fit in there as well. As I watched their smiling faces, I forgot all the pain… Yes, it was worth it. :)

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