20 to Knit: Tiny Toys to Knit

Sachiyo Ishii was a money broker in Wall Street and London, but discovered the joy of handcraft after her second son was born, and was very much influenced by the Steiner education system. She has been involved in many different creative activities, and her Waldorf-inspired dolls and knitted toys are well known and loved by many. Her work has appeared in knitting and parenting magazines. She lives and works freelance in West Sussex, England.

• Introduction 4Knitting know-how 6Black Cat 8Teddy Bear 10Rocket 12Lucky Owls 14Sheep 16Dice 18Chubby Bunny 20Guardsman 22Pretty Piggy 24Wristwatch 26Cheeky Monkey 28Flying Saucer 30Penguin 32Country Boy and Girl 34Fox 36Skittles and Ball 38Goldfish 40Boy Angel 42Little Beagle 44Clown 46

Spring 2016A small book, reasonably priced , with twenty patterns for charming tiny toys. The introduction suggests they are fun for new knitters; I note that you would need to be happy with increases, decreases and sewing up before tackling them. I have a box where short short odd ends of handspun yarn are collected and here is a book full of suitable patterns. Most toys are around five to eight centimetres in finished size, the tallest due to his ears, is a 9cm tall chubby bunny. All of the patterns in the book were knitted on double-pointed 2.75mm needles and require some sewing up and a small quanitity of stuffing. I tried out the Chubby Bunny pattern, it took a couple of short sessions to knit the pieces and another to assemble the parts. My bunny came out like the picture, a comic book type figure with a large head.