Finished: July 23

This project was inspired by an Edward Lear poem called "The Jumblies." I came across an illustrated edition by Ian Beck in the library last February, didn't take it out, then couldn't find it again for 6 months and coped by reciting it from my Norton's Anthology of English Lit. (Not the most child-friendly of volumes.) Blake, superstar that he is, fell in love with the rhythm & sounds of the words even without the bright beautiful illustrations.

Having the Jumblies so present in my mind and lacking any visuals, I decided to knit one using Jess Hutch's free bunny pattern and a jumble of bright worsted yarns. The hands are blue Mission Falls 1824 Wool (leftover from the Boy's in-progress mittens); the pink feet are Phentex acrylic that hangs around the stash and bums cigarettes off the nicer yarn; the green "hair" is Plymouth Galway that will one day be a felted button-hole bag (you may remember it from the other time I used this pattern); and finally the orange & green of the body are Cascade 220 shades bought especially for this project. Whew! That was exhausting!

they went to sea in a sieve they did

Modifications include the colour changes (obviously), and picking up stitches for the overall straps. Now that I know how to crochet, I'd perfer to crochet them next time as i-cords & garter stitch is too thick and stockinette keeps curling up. I was also going to add buttons, but I got lazy and kind of discouraged by the way the face turned out. Maybe that's why I didn't post pictures for almost 2 months.

Much thanks to the Reader's Digest Guide to Embroidery for the clear instructions I needed to even attempt the face. Not that I think the face is well-embroidered (in fact, I'm not that fond of it), but it would have been a lot worse without the guide.

Blake loves it. This is the best praise I could have ever received.

Far and few, far and few,
Are the lands where the Jumblies live;
Their heads are green, and their hands are blue,
And they went to sea in a Sieve.

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- Rocketbride's adventure of 9/16/2006 02:50:00 p.m.