Wednesday, May 4, 2011

Yarn Along: Barnyard Stuffies

Today I am knitting along with Ginny from Small Things and many other crafty bloggers in the weekly Yarn Along! (a post showcasing your current WIP's and the book you're currently reading.)
For the past 2 weeks, I have been knitting up a set of barnyard stuffies for W and the playschool children. During the summer, we spend many days at some of our local farms....picnicing, playing, exploring, and meeting some very sweet animals!

Klein Farm, Pennsylvania

Klein Farm, Summer 2010

In addition to squirrels, rabbits, cats, and dogs, barnyard animals are about to be commonplace for W. I happily aim to introduce playthings that the children can have real life experiences with. For example, an elephant or giraffe generally wouldn't be familiar to a young child. A child sees a squirrel hopping through the yard and birds flying through the sky...they are familiar with their movements, and these animals are very real to them. Really, they're are a part of a child's neighborhood!


To better clarify, I once heard a Waldorf Early Childhood teacher explain the reasoning behind the name "Garden Gate" for a parent-child class..."A young child plays in the garden every morning. He sees familiar flowers, bugs, birds....the gate to the beautiful garden is as far as he travels for now." The gate will be opened in time, but there is no rush.


I completed our barnyard animal set late last night (ahem, saving all of the seaming until the very end!). The patterns are from Freya Jaffke's Knitting With Children, which is a fantastic resource.


The horse is my favorite. He's also the project which proved to be most difficult!


I'm currently reading Jane Healy's Endangered Minds: Why Children Don't Think and What We Can Do About It. The author speaks very clearly about the serious choices we, as parents, have to make today in regards to schooling, media usage, and lifestyle. It's an eye opener, for sure.
Ps-Entries for the Finns and Flowers Spring Giveaway  will close on Friday! Good Luck!

30 comments:

  1. Your barnyard animals look great! Maybe I can borrow your pattern book a little bit before Christmas. : )

    And PLEASE take me with you to farms this summer! Nathan LOOOOOOOVES animals, and I do too.

    Had a wonderful time with you guys the other day.

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  2. Your animals are adorable! I think the horse is my favorite too.

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  3. Oh my goodness! Those animals are adorable.

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  4. very cute animals - will have to check out that book!

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  5. I love them!!! I bought a horse like that on Etsy awhile ago. I would love to be able to make some chickens, sheep and pigs to go with him. Thanks for the inspiration! You are quite the knitter.

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  6. Adorable! I've been knitting a lot of barnyard animals myself, lately. Another good book of patterns is "Knitted Animals" by Anne-Dorothe Grigaff. There are wonderful patterns for a hen and chicks, cat and kitten, bear, dog, squirrel, fox, and even a hedgehog! I completely empathize with your difficulty with the horse. It looks like you had the same problem I had - the belly was sewn too tight (so the stuffing wouldn't show), and so the legs point inwards. I would love to know how to fix this!

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  7. that sounds like a very interesting read...will hvae to look it up :-)

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  8. I love the farm animals that you made, so creative!

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  9. Those barnyard animals are fantastic! I have made chickens and a rabbit. Maybe I should move on to others!

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  10. The piggy is wonderful, and I love the sheep (we have none on our little farm)!

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  11. I love the animals! I made a felted stuffed piggy for my baby's first birthday...making a set would be a great idea for their play time.

    Thanks for visiting my page!

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  12. Thank you for your visit!
    Your little animals are so cute....
    :)))
    i would made some animals for my child but i think that is too difficult for me...
    sorry for my bad english;))
    valentina

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  13. Very sweet animals! I made my W a knit chicken family for Easter. We love our hand knit chickens and I'm feeling inspired to knit some other animals now!

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  14. your horse looks great! We are most certainly on the same page with our knitting today:)

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  15. Loving the animals! So cute :)

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  16. Oh how I love farm animals - especially donkeys - and the ones you've knit. Very special (oh, and I always leave seams to the moment when I'm desperate to wrap up a project).

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  17. Love the little animals. I have to go check out your knitted flowers link. i have been wanting to knit flowers.

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  18. I made the same knitted animals for my daughter's Christmas present this year (Papa made a cardboard barn) and they are so sweet, just like yours. I love how much you emphasize the simple, homemade toys here.

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  19. these look great! I love them all:)
    I made a candle with a pressed flower on it like your tutorial a little while ago. Yesterday while we were having our snack Cameron said to me 'theres two candles!' (there were two flames, one from the wick and one from the flower which had caught on fire!) so we had to peel it off. It looked so pretty though, i might add some to the bottom of our next candle

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  20. Oh Rebecca, This is soooo funny! I just posted about some sheep i made and here you have some as well! I love them...such fun! I agree, these knitted animals are so sweet and I've always wanted to look at Freya Jaffke's book. Our patterns are slightly different, but both are wonderful! Love making these toys:)
    xo Jules

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  21. These are adorable! I'll have to see if I can find that yarn pattern for a rooster for you. I have one around here somewhere; but it might be the wrong size. Take care.

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  22. Your animals are wonderful!
    What a great gift.
    Warm wishes, Tonya

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  23. Great job on your barnyard animals.

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  24. Love the animals! I was hoping to make Sapphire a bunny similar to yours but from the book "creative play for you toddler" only problem is, my city has no brown/white/grey (aka natural coloured) yarn, cotton etc anywhere! Is it waldorf to knit a blue bunny??lol

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  25. Oh, the animals are beautiful - beautifully made and beautifully thought up too.

    And no wonder they love the horse. I can see why!! It looks very cuddly-able!!

    Sarahx

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  26. Just beautiful. They look like they'll be well loved. xo m.

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  27. Super Yay for Klein's Farm! They have the most mooooovalous milk ever. And so happy to Awakened Heart win the giveaway. Love her blog!

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  28. adorable animals! your words have got me wanting to make squirrels!

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