As may have been guessable from my last post, latest project here is Kermit the Frog, who is near and dear to my heart. Back in May (at the Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival once again – so much gorgeous yarn, so little time) we stopped in at the stall of Spirit Trail Fiberworks, who had a yarn color called It’s Not Easy Bein’ Green and is fittingly Perfect Kermit Green. I had been eyeing Etsy Kermit patterns for a while, and this was pretty much irresistible. The yellow green was obtained shortly after at Dragonfly Fibers – color Weaverknits Grellow, weight Squishy Lace (which I came to regret since everything else was closer to DK weight and I don’t usually use yarns that fine, but the color is PERFECT. Just I’m pretty sure they had a DK weight in the color there. Oops.)
Kermit’s the same pattern I used before – Siempre Josefina’s from Etsy – but done completely where NACA Muppet didn’t have the collar and flippers. I decided to try wire again in his arms (and then my mom and I thought and realized I can make him accessories with magnets – stay tuned,) which did not go as smoothly as with Belle. Note to self for next time: measure, silly. The wire works still, so it’s all good, but the non-crochet parts of this project gave me issues mostly because I wasn’t thinking to measure properly or other such precautions.
Kermit’s eyes, for instance: Safety eyes weren’t successful, and I still can’t get a French Knot for embroidery, so I decided to use felt. Pro tip: do not try to freehand maybe 3 mm itty bitty circles. (Times like this I remember I’ve been doing this for less than a year.) After the circles were placed I embroidered lines over them.
Kermit’s fingers and toes were tricky too, but for the reason you’d expect – they’re small, fiddle things involving chaining and joining the open rounds of the feet together, and stuff can happen. I do kind of regret not wiring this one’s legs the way I did his arms, but as always, hindsight.
The collar turned out fine, especially once I sewed each of the ends onto his body so they wouldn’t curl up – but man, that yarn was difficult to work with. I think it was the first time in a long while I’ve used a hook bigger than recommended for the yarn. Or possibly ever.
EDIT: I thought I was done but later got some felt to make his tongue and then noticed some Kermits have a black upper-back-of-mouth. Looks even better now!
Kermit will not be alone, though – I’m planning on going back up to visit my college sometime this fall, and am planning on making a couple more of him for some of my faculty. Which is good, because that means I can go through more Kermit songs as blog titles.
Alexa Appel - Blanket Dragon 