My Red Squirrel Brooch pattern is out in the wild! It's published in issue 6 of the Journal of Scottish Yarn
Tiny things are often the fiddliest to make but this squirrel is surprisingly easy. You just knit it as a length of i-cord from tail tip to nose, knitting the legs and ears as simple short rows loops as you go. They’re stuffed with scraps of the same yarn and only need the tiniest bit of sewing up. You then wet felt them down to sweet miniatures of themselves (very roughly washing them in alternating very hot and cold water). The face is made with a couple of tiny beads or embroidered French knots for eyes and a few simple stitches in black embroidery thread to sew the nose. Tarrah! Less than an hour of hands-on time, start to finish.
Because you’re wet felting the squirrel, you do need to use 100% wool that hasn’t been superwash treated (care instructions should say handwash). You only need about 9m (10 yards) to both knit and stuff it. I used Jamieson’s Spindrift in ‘Paprika’ and ‘Burnt Umber’, both of which made great Eurasian Red Squirrels, Sciurus vulgaris- although they'd also work for the other three red squirrel species in the Americas.
It’s a versatile little thing- you can sew a brooch pin on the back to make it into a brooch, stick it on a pinecone or bauble as a hanging decoration, sew or glue it onto something as a decorative motif. The pattern makes a climbing squirrel but I give minor modifications to turn it into a sitting squirrel- you can give it a little metal charm in the shape of an acorn or cone to eat. I gave one of mine a tiny holm oak acorn. There is a beautiful veteran Holm Oak in university quadrangle in St Andrews, Scotland, dated to c. 1740. Far north of its natural Mediterranean range, it can only produced tiny acorns, which my children and I collected every year. Fast forward a good few years, I finally found a way to use them (rather than just treasure a tiny handful), as they scale perfectly with these little squirrels (although the acorns do grow a little wizened over time and fall out of their cups unless glued in).
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