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Sunday 19 July 2009

Mervin the Molar - Knitting Pattern.


Ok, so I've joined Ravely.com. For the uninitiated, it's a community for knitters and crocheters; you can display your work and view the work of others, search patterns...etc. Whilst pottering around the site looking for something to knit from the hundreds of free patterns, I came across a few designs for a tooth fairy pillow; a little tooth shaped stuffed toy that stores a tooth overnight before it gets sneakily swapped over for coinage by mum or dad whilst 'gappy' is sound asleep. I loved the idea but wasn't so confident about knitting any of them as the patterns all looked awkward, most needing circular needles or the dreaded set of dpn's. I set myself a challenge; this was to be the first thing I would knit from scratch, no pattern....just me, my size 3mms, a ball of white and a pen and paper to write it all down if I got lucky!! Needless to say, I'm over the moon with the result hence it's apperance here. I hope you enjoy the pattern! - Please let me know if you use it - I'd love to see the results :-)


















Mervin the Molar ~ The Tooth Fairy’s Friend.


Abbreviations:
Inc Increase
K Knit
P Purl
St-st Stocking stitch
K2tog Knit 2 together
B&T tightly Break off yarn leaving a long end for sewing up later, thread it through the stitches on the needle, pull to gather tightly and fasten off.

**Where you see a hyphon foll0wed by a number at the end of a row, eg) -44, it's telling you how many stitches you should have after carrying out the instructions for that row**

Materials required:
3mm [no 11, USA 2] knitting needles, stuffing, white DK [ 8 ply]
Spare needle or stitch holder

Roots
You will be making 2 the same.
Beginning at the lower end of the first root, cast on 6 sts (using white unless you are making a rotten tooth!)

1st Row - Inc Knit wise into every stitch - 12
2nd Row - Purl 1 row
3rd Row - Inc Knit wise in first and last stitch - 14

Repeat rows 2 & 3 until you have 22 sts.

Next Row - Purl 1 Row
Next Row - Beginning with a Knit row, st-st 6 rows

Break off yarn and leave the stitches on a spare needle or stitch holder. Repeat the above steps for a second root.
Once you finish your second root, do not break off yarn. Knit across the 22 stitches you have on the knitting needle and then across the 22 stitches on the spare needle - 44

Next Row - Beginning with a Purl row, st-st 3 rows
Next Row - K1 inc1 to end -66
Next Row - Beginning with a Purl row, st-st 3 rows
Next Row - K8, inc1, K16, inc1, K14, inc1, K16, inc1, K8 -70
Next Row - Beginning with a Purl row, st-st 17 rows
Next Row - K34, K2tog, K34 -69
Next Row - Purl 1 row
Next Row - K33, inc1, K1, inc1, K33 -71
Next Row - Purl 1 row
Next Row - (K2tog) 17 times, K3tog, (K2tog) 17 times -35
Next Row - Purl 1 row
Next Row - K2tog, K14, K3tog, K14, K2tog - 31
Next Row - Purl 1 row
Next Row - K2tog to end
B & T tightly.

To make up
Join row ends of each root starting from the tip upwards. With the right side of your work facing outwards, stuff roots firmly. Add your eyes to the front side of your tooth, wherever you feel it looks the cutest! Using a new piece of yarn, mattress stitch the row ends from the top of the tooth downwards, leaving a gap in the piece for stuffing. I say a new piece of yarn as you need to keep the existing piece of yarn (the one that you left when you B&T’d) for use a bit later on. Be sure to keep this earlier thread on the outside of the work and not stuff it into the toy. Now stuff your tooth firmly, padding out all the lumps and bumps until it looks suitably crown like. Once this is done, close the remaining seam with mattress stitch. Now go back to the thread protruding from the top centre of the tooth; using a needle, take this thread back down through the centre of the toy and out between the two roots, pull to indent the top of the tooth, then sew into place when happy. Bury the remaining thread back into the toy.
Now you can add a pocket to the back of your toy to place any teeth that are awaiting collection by the tooth fairy. You have a few options here, you can either keep it simple and st-st a small rectangle which you can then sew to the back, or you can do what I did;
I picked up 15 stitches where I wanted the bottom of my pocket to start and st-st’d 14 rows, giving me a flap which I've then sewn down on each side with mattress stitch. The first option is easier and far less fussy, but I prefer the neatness of the latter method.

That’s it!!


Enjoy knitting up Mervin the Molar :-)

Kat x

18 comments:

Marshmallow said...

That is absolutely DARLING!!! What a clever idea, and I LOVE that you did it on straight needles instead of dps -- hate them! But the most amazing is that this was your first original! Congratulations and FABULOUS work! Thanks for sharing. ;o)

Chillikat said...

Thank you Tracy! You are welcome - There's something really exciting about the idea of other people knitting up something that I have designed... I have 3 patterns up on Ravelry.com now and they are really well liked; they are also listed as projects, so people have started knitting them, but I've not seen any results yet...I'm waiting to see the first finished one and it's so exciting, I'm glued to my pc!! :-)

Stephanie said...

Wow! You did that from scratch? It's great! I needed a tooth fairy pillow for my little one and this is perfect. Wish me luck - I'm very new to knitting. I don't even know what dps is!

Emilie said...

This is so cute and clever ! Might be a good help to make children understand that their theeth are very important and that they have to brush them ! I'm going to check your other patterns on ravelry ! Thank you.
The French Frog

elsnana said...

Thankyou so much for sharing this pattern i have searched high & low for a pattern for tooth fairy pillow.. cant wait to start it just hope it turns out as good as yours.. will post a pic if its good enough!!!!!

Becky said...

Thanks for the pattern! I'm knitting it right now for my daughter who just lost her first tooth. I'm hoping to have it done by tonight when the toothfairy comes.
I found one mistake in the pattern that I thought I'd let you know about.
On the second "Next Row" after joining the two roots, instead of k1, inc1 to the end, it should be k2 inc1 to the end to give you the correct number of stitches.
I'll send a picture of our finished tooth. Thanks again!

Unknown said...

Finishing the tooth now! Everyone at my knit club is jealous because I have this cool pattern to give to one of the ladies in the club for her shower! So cute, and I am glad to give something that the child won't "outgrow" in 2 months!

Unknown said...

This is absolutely adorable and want to make one for my g'daughter who is about to loose her lst tooth (her mom is so grossed out with the wiggles and oozes - makes me laugh)! anyway, question re size needles - 3mm or USA #10? Maybe a silly question but I don't see a conversion from metric for a 3mm. Thanks for your help and I definitely need to get some of my pics up on Ravelry - slow going tho as busy knitting instead!

Unknown said...

knitting is really wonderful, i love to spend my time snitting gloves, dress, or wherever i can do. I really love it because i feel relax when i am doing this activity.That is why i liked this blog very much. I think i reached what i was looking for.
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Unknown said...

That's so cute! And you even gave the instructions on how to knit it, too! I really wish that the dentist in Schenectady, NY would have stuff like those. Well, that's because I think it can be used as a form of "therapy" for children, if you know what I mean. In my case, I just like cute stuff, that's why I want to see one in the clinic.

I'd usually see wacky stuff on the clinic walls whenever I visit the dentist. Schenectady, NY's dentists have great clinics with a nice atmosphere. Very contrary to the typical dental clinic where you hear kids crying. Anyway, I'll show this knitting pattern to my dentist! Thanks for sharing this with us!

Unknown said...

Nice post!! thanks for sharing!!
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DeeB said...

Mona Larr (call her "Mo," everyone else does) is going to be my six-year-old's Assistant Assignee from the Tooth Fairy Bureau, Midwestern Regional Office. :) Thank you so much for this!

Unknown said...

Hi Kat:
what are the approximate finished dimensions of Mervin the Molar? Thank you!
Lilgirl47

lorie said...

I think there is a problem with your pattern. after you have completed both roots it says you should have 44 sts. the next row is st st for 3 rows, and then the next row says K1 inc1 to end, and it says you should have 66 sts. how do you get 66 sts out of that.

Unknown said...

Lorie, If in that row you are talking about, K2 inc1 instead you come out with 66 sts. Hope that helps.

Unknown said...

Thank you so much, great pattern!

Jackie said...

Loved this pattern thank you

Unknown said...

Thank you so much! I am making this for my grandson, So cute!