Its been years since I have posted here, but that does not mean I haven’t been knitting. As a matter of fact, I have been knitting quite a bit off and on over the years and as I have been knitting, my knowledge has increased tremendously about it. For example, always swatch and swatch in the way that you would be knitting…swatch in the round if you are knitting in the round, swatch flat if you are knitting flat. I have made many an error just from bad swatches. Not that swatches can be bad, but bending the swatch to what you want to hear to start a project faster or to use that yarn that you think you want to use with the project is just bad practice…lets not lie to ourselves, trust the swatch and take note of what it is telling you. More on that in a future post.

My last project I knitted was Ysolda’s Smith. I have a four year old daughter now, and she got into my knitting books a couple months ago and requested that I make her a hedgehog. She loved him in the Whimsical Little Knits 2 Book and begged me to get started on it.  Although I have knit many toys, I had not knitted a single one for my own child.  So of course, I started it immediately!  Here’s my finished product.  It turned out beautifully and the pattern was super simple to follow.  This requires a set of sock needles, I think it was too tiny to magic loop, but you could certainly try it.  I was able to knit it in the span of a few days.