Monster?

It's hard to be afraid of this little guy when his teeth are stitched out of yarn.  

Perhaps he'll just felt all over you, which sounds worse then what it is.  

This is my version of Baldwin from The Big Book of Monsters by Rebecca Danger.  Overall I liked the basic designs laid out in the book but they all start to look the same after a while.  Personalizing your monster is the most fun.  I dabbled with stripes and color blocks.  The instructions cite being about to use remnants to make the monsters as they take up very little yarn.  In my opinion, the more you can scrap them the better they look.

The patterns are incredibly easy to follow but making the arms and legs was a little bit of a tedious construction.  This is probably due to my choice of yarn and needles.  You drop down sizes from the recommended gauge so as to tighten the stitching but I don't think I dropped enough sizes.  The body is still very open.  That coupled with using metal needles with Cherub Aran yarn and knitting 9 stitches in the round on the arm on double points had me watching as a bunch of "sleeping" needles went sleep walking!    

Some of the smaller ones run to about 8 inches tall while the bigger ones are pretty much a throw pillow.  The larger Baldwin was supposed to be 17" tall!  

There is a lot that can be done to personalize these monsters.  My favorite part about making this monster was messing up.  I was stitching the top closed and threading the yarn through the body to then snip on the other side and let the tail pull back in so as to be forever lost in the stuffing.  I pulled a little tight and distorted the body, a recoverable situation but it gave me an idea... hmm... it would look neat if this guy had ears, then a nose, then I pinched the mouth on the sides and tucked it back into the body a bit.  Now I'm thinking of making Baldwin a girlfriend, the base monster is already pear-ish shaped.  Shouldn't be too difficult to give him a love of his life.

It was a little bit a challenge finding a place to display the little guy at work.  He tends to just fall over.  His legs are rather stubby and he's very lightweight.  I have a few neodymium magnets that I can slip into the hands so he can put a hug around objects to hang on.  

If you've got a bit of time, knit up one and enter it into the shop contest.  They work up fast and are addictive.  I keep thinking of which one I'd like to make next.  Perhaps we need a coffee monster... to protect it not drink it as that is my job!