The first frog was great, but he was more toad coloured than I wanted. So I decided to get on a new frog. This started by dying some yarn bright green and slightly lighter green. I think I measured ten grams from a skein of Titanium Sock yarn and then dropped it into a green bath. It didn’t exhaust entirely, so I dropped 10 more grams in to make some light green yarn.
As usual, the actual knitting time for a frog is very short, however, convincing myself to finish adding the arms and legs took several weeks yet again. I started him on October 22 and finished on November 26. The back, arms, and legs were done with a combination of the bright green sock yarn and DROPS Kid-Silk in 18 Apple Green and the tummy was the light green sock yarn and Søstrene Grene Mohair Blend in 1650 Blanc. He’s got wires in his arms and legs and is posable. I’ve not tried to pose him yet because I still want to make some clothes.
The original frog has since found a new home and I’m more than happy to have this one hanging out on the dinner table!
While I was knitting the Frog, I also investigated the possibility of making Mr Toad by Claire Garland. The toad is meant to be a standing figure that you also make clothes for. After finishing the frog, there was still a lot of yarn left. So I thought I’d use the toad green yarn for an actual toad. The method for making him is very interesting and creates a very strange shape.
Getting those legs to work out wasn’t very easy. You need to wrap them around to the front and then sew them together. One of them ended up a bit higher than the other for some reason. I included wire so he can actually stand up. Still, he also doesn’t look like the original image. He’s way too fat. I didn’t feel like pulling stuffing out (I also would’t know how, he was already so sewn together). So when I wanted to make his clothes, the patterns included didn’t really work out.
For his pants, I chose to use the knitting machine because it would all be straight or near straight anyway. The yarn was leftover from a pair of socks. I completely modified the pants pattern and tried and frogged the pieces several times before they fit and looked decent. I should still make a top of some sort for him. However, I’m not nearly as much a fan of him as I am of the frog, so I’m having a hard time committing to making more for him. He’ll stay pajamaed for a while yet, I think.
Frogs perching on lily pads make the best head gear.
I’ve been subscribed to Dot Pebbles a.k.a. Claire Garland’s newsletter for a few years now, and every so often I get a free pattern for a knit animal. These knits are always very life-like and look insanely complicated. I made the polar bear before and while it all worked out, I wasn’t sure it would while knitting it. So I’ve been eyeing the Frog pattern that’s been making the rounds on the internet recently. I thought I had received it a while ago in my free patterns too. Turns out that I indeed had and I really wanted to have a frog…
Since I really wasn’t sure if it was going to work, I tried to get similar yarns to the ones Claire Garland suggests. I got some drops kid-silk in my mailbox and dyed some fingering weight yarn in ‘toad-green’. The body and legs of the frog were going to be toad-green with apple-green kid-silk. It’s belly was undyed yarn with moonshine kid-silk.
Knitting the body is really fast. I only deviated from the pattern once, by skipping the mouth stitches. I couldn’t get them to work and it just looked awful. Once the body was done, I knit the legs and arms on. At that point, I decided that I need him to be posable so I found some armature wire in my stash and added that. When I make the frog again, I’m going to try to use the wire while knitting, instead of when it’s all done. That way, I can probably hide the ends without having to use so many bits of yarn. With the wire in, froggy can do push ups or sit awkwardly instead of just flop down.
So I had a completed frog when my mother sent an invite for her birthday party. The assignment was to wear ‘your best head gear’. I knew I wanted to wear my green Rita-cousin dress, so I wanted to make some sort of hat that would work with that. I also had this frog. 1+1 = 2 and I decided to make a lily-pad fascinator with the frog pinned to the top. The lily pad pattern was based on the left leaf from an image on the internet. I cut it out from the same green fabric as the dress, stretched over some foam. I then added some hair clips to the bottom. The frog was maneuvered into a normal sitting frog and safety-pinned onto the lily pad.
I love this thing. It’s adorable, it doesn’t hurt while wearing it, it’s got a frog, what’s not to like!
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