Anyway, I thought you might like a glimpse into how my hedgehogs are born. The birds and the bees, hedgehog style, you might say!
First of all and probably most importantly, I select yarn colours. Here I've chosen cream for the face, and some gorgeous pink yarn I just bought that also has fuscia and peach in it. Sometimes I use several colours to create completely unique combinations.
I start at the bottom of the hoggy....
...and knit the body.
Then I break off the body colour and continue with the head.
Head complete. Rather than casting off, I run the tail of the yarn through the stitches so I can pull them up later.
Next, eyes. I make these by knotting yarn (here I've used a navy blue). the knots are complicated to explain, but very easy to do - I learned this technique as a child from my knitted animals book. I like these eyes for hoggies, they look much better than embroidered ones.
The eyes are added by first threading one set of yarn ends through the piece from front to back, then threading the other set in the same way but one stitch lower. The ends are knotted very tightly behind the eye, on the wrong side. Each eye is added separately, then the ends are trimmed close. The hog looks so funny at this stage!
Next I pull up the stitches at the nose, and sew the face closed. I add a nose which is made in exactly the same way as the eyes, but positioned horizontally rather than vertically.
I sew up the body, leaving the bottom end open, and stuff the whole thing with polyester stuffing before gathering up the cast on stitches and fastening off.
...who are waiting to go off to new homes!
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