little chestnut

This tiny knitted Chestnut is Baby Hedgie’s little forest friend - round, cheerful and much more adventurous than its size would suggest. The Chestnut is part of my #nopressurepatterns series: small projects made for using yarn scraps, experimenting without pressure and giving tiny knitted objects their own personalities. The construction is very simple. The body is knitted in the round, beginning with Judy’s Magic Cast-On, and shaped into a small ball. The lighter chestnut face or belly - I am still not sure which one it is :) - is added afterwards using duplicate stitch. Several charted versions are included, so you can choose a shape or use them as inspiration for your own. The legs are made from the yarn tails left after knitting the body, while the arms are formed from the ends used for the duplicate-stitch section. The eyes and mouth are embroidered at the very end. The removable spiky shell is knitted separately. It can be worn with either side facing out and can become a shelter, a chair or even a hat if you position it carefully enough. I prefer using the wrong side on the outside because it creates a lovely texture and shows the subtle light-coloured edge. The pattern is suitable for an adventurous beginner and includes instructions for: • working a small toy in the round • Judy’s Magic Cast-On • simple increases and decreases • duplicate-stitch embroidery • making limbs from yarn ends • embroidering the facial details • knitting the removable seed-stitch shell Gauge is not important. The finished size depends on your yarn and needles: thicker yarn will create a larger, rounder chestnut, while finer yarn will make a very tiny one. Use needles smaller than those recommended for your yarn to create a dense fabric and help keep the stuffing inside. The Chestnut pattern was released together with Baby Hedgehog. They work as separate projects, but they are happiest when they get to meet each other. :)