Convert Knitting Patterns from Flat to Round

I love knitting in the round. It saves time and there are no purl stitches unless you want something to stand out on purpose. Best of all, if you hate sewing pieces together, then you will love knitting in the round. You really need to master the basics first. And you need to be able to pick up stitches because that's how you add on instead of sewing pieces together with a ladder stitch. 

When you knit in the round, you can add things on similar to crochet construction only better because knitting looks smoother and the stitches are straight so patterns look better. Once you get the hang of it, you won't go back.

I use 5 needles on the body from the leg tops and 4 needles on everything else. I also use a stitch marker to mark the rounds in places and I re-write the pattern from the bottom up, just reversing the increases and decreases. Also, since there is no seam to sew, I take off 2 stitches from each row when I rewrite the pattern. It comes out the same size as the flat pattern. Anything that calls for knit on the purl side, I just reverse and purl on the knit side to make the same pattern. I also use M1A (make one away) to increase in a project this small because it does not add bulk to the knitting especially in places you want to lie flatter, like the bottom of the feet. Unless I'm making clothes, I almost always use M1A but I do use it too on the other side of arm holes for adding stitches back on.

I've taken a flat pattern and converted it to knitting in the round. Without showing you the pattern, I will show you the highlights of how I did it. I love to make little animal dolls but some of my favorite patterns are all done in flat. So I had to convert them to make them more fun for me to want to make. I started with the bottom of the foot. After finishing each foot and stuffing them, I leave them on the needles until I need them. Instead of casting off, I divide my 14 last row stitches on DPNs for each foot into 7 front stitches on one needle and 7 back stitches on another. So each foot has two DPN needles at the top with seven stitches on each. You'll need DPNs with five needles to make it easier. Easy so far, right? The only thing I knitted flat on this bunny was the ears.

Now I want to add the body but the stitches are greater than the 28 stitches total of the legs. So I need 32 stitches for the bottom of the body. I decide to add the four stitches difference by making two stitches each side between the legs. I knit the front seven stitches of the left leg, add two stitches by M1A (x2), knit across seven front stitches of the right leg.  That gives me 16 stitches across the front. 

Then I knit across the back right leg, add two stitches M1A (x2), knit across the left back leg. Now I have 32 stitches total in the round. Then I just place a stitch marker and knit in the round for as many rows as I need to make the body before I start decreasing toward the neck. The pattern will tell me where it was increased when knitted from the top down and that is where I decrease the same number of stitches from the bottom up (and minus 2 stitches on each row still). 

You can pick up stitches for the arm tops on the animal's body and knit down to the hand in the round or just make them separately in the round (minus 2 stitch count) and sew them on with a few stitches. If my head pattern starts in the back of the head instead of at the neck, I just knit the head in the round taking off 1 stitch from each end in the instructions and just attach it to the body when finished. Or you can just do it flat and seam it if you want. It's up to you.

I pick up 5 stitches at the increase point on the side of the body. Then I work (M1A, k1) 5 times to put 10 stitches on the needle. Then I separate the stitches onto 2 needles every other stitch (5 stitches on each needle) to make 10 stitches evenly spaced when I knit them in the round adding stitches if the pattern calls for it. You could do this with 8 stitches divided into 4 on each needle also if you prefer.

Then I just knit them all and divide on three needles around. 3-3-4. And keep knitting the number of rows in the round. It is easier to knit the arms on in the round before you attach the head. You can still do it but the head gets in the way a little. It's just easier before adding the head.

I stuff the arm lightly leaving room at the top so the arm will fold down the body and finish the hand off. Using these guidelines you can convert just about any pattern from flat to knitting in the round. If you love knitting in the round, you won't want to go back to knitting flat and seaming all the pieces together again!

As far as I'm concerned, there are no disadvantages to knitting in the round. You don't need to block the animal bodies and textured sweaters anyway and that is where you will save a lot of time. You can shape the head in the round just as easily IMO. Just stuff it full and shape it before you close the nose end. If you need to manipulate it further you can insert a crochet hook and pull the stuffing into place on the inside.

Testing the fit of the parka on my bunny knitted in the round before he got his nose and ears. It fits! But doesn't he look cute with a face and ears!

You will love knitting in the round. It will save you all kinds of time better spent knitting rather than having to sew it all together later! I would rather be knitting than sewing. 

All of the LCR patterns use a similar boy feet and body pattern and similar girl feet and body patterns so once you convert these two body patterns to knitting in the round, you can make all the LCR patterns from them. You don't have to convert them all!

What I like to do is buy either the boy or girl pattern of one animal (depending on if I like the dresses or sweaters better) and just use my other boy/girl feet and body patterns to make both. Really only the heads and sometimes hands will be changeable for different animals. I also sometimes use Mary Jane's Tearoom small bear pattern in the round for the feet and legs because I like the way the shoes look when it's all knitted together. But after converting a boy pattern to knitting in the round, I can make girl shoes and removeable unders to make a girl any time I want with just this one pattern. ENJOY!

Valentine Love Soldiers

I was pretty busy with the nutcrackers I made for Christmas and I liked them so much that I carried them over to Valentine's Day.

They have such funny faces that I just wanted to keep making them.

I made four for Christmas and I could have made more but I wouldn't have known what to do with them if I did.

Now that Christmas is over I have Valentine's day on the brain. I've been making little decorations and just thought they would look darling as soldiers for love.

I've never seen nutcrackers done up for valentines' day that I can remember. I got to drag out my heart bling and my red and pink sparkles for these.

I've been working on a few other little projects but not too much to brag about so far. I've also been doing a lot of reorganizing and cleaning out my stash of die cuts. I've had a lot of creative blocks so far so maybe it's time to just rest or do some old fashioned house cleaning.

But I'm still looking forward to Valentine's Day!

Christmas Nutcrackers 2024

Everywhere I go this year I'm seeing nutcrackers. I don't think I have even one of them in my Christmas decorations. I'm not a collector of these things but this year I'm going to make a few. So that's this year's theme. I like to DIY my decorations whenever I can.

So I guess these things have been popular this year because they keep popping up on my pages. People actually have a group for collecting these seven foot tall plastic ones that they paint and post online. I don't have anywhere to store anything that huge so I'm not interested in those.

But I do see a lot of DIY ones on YouTube. Bargain Bethany has a huge nutcracker she makes out of Dollar Tree laundry baskets for about twenty dollars in materials. Go watch that here, it's amazing.

I'd like to make one but I don't want to tear them down or store them anywhere so I ran across a tutorial to make smaller ones. And they are so cute. They are made of all Dollar Tree finds! Araceli Chan has a great small nutcracker DIY that you can use to make your own little decorations. 

And that's the one that I used. I think I added a little more bling to mine though. I also drew and painted a face for mine while adding a few personal touches. I didn't want mine to look scary.

I love the way they turned out and they are the perfect size. I can easily store these without breaking them. Overall it cost me about five dollars to make one. I already had all the bling and glue in my stash. I recycled the base of the doll from a screw on plastic lid and I already had the white and gold spray paint for them.

All I had to buy was the plastic pieces from the plasticware section of DT. I used six different packages to make two nutcrackers. I used the shot glasses, mini round glasses, clear plastic tumblers, cordial glasses, wine glasses and medium round clear ornaments or any smooth plastic ornament 3-1/2" in diameter would also work.

You need a glue gun, tacky glue and a soldering iron for melting the pointy crown out of a tumbler if you're going to make that one. You also need some zip ties and some fuzzy yarn, acrylic paint, a feather duster or refill pack, ribbon and a lot of bling. And you might need two packages of the cordial glasses if you are going to make two nutcrackers. One package is only enough for one set of arms and legs.

Basically I just threw the decorating kitchen sink at these and made them with whatever I already had like metal ribbon and various assorted metallic bling strings. You can make the hands out of wooden balls or glue stick lids or just paint the bottom fourth of the shot glasses with flesh colored paint. Just use whatever you have and do whatever you think looks best.

I loved the way mine turned out. Even after spraying all the pieces with white, I had to give them two and three coats of acrylic paint. These would make pretty table centerpieces with greenery around the bottom or a nice decoration to include in a gift basket with some fruit and nuts! 

Fairy Doll Frenzy

I haven't been posting but I have been busy... real busy. Too busy to post until now. I got into these dolls because I was fascinated with their eyes and making them.

But it took much longer to make the dolls themselves, their clothing and to put them together. 

I guess it took me three to five days to get one done from start to finish. There are a lot of details on these dolls.

The prairie point skirts were very detailed and time consuming but the look was worth it. They have so much texture and add a layer of depth to the dolls that any other skirt just wouldn't be able to achieve.

I loved making the shoes and each one was a little different than the last so they held my attention from start to finish.

I also got to use my special fibers for their hair. I have a whole container full of zany fibers but projects where I get to use them don't come along very often.

These quirky dolls took up most of a whole month but if that wasn't busy enough, I decided to paint my entry and living/dining room walls. I do love to paint. My house needed a deep cleaning anyways so I cleaned, organized and painted at the same time. It took me over a week to get it all done.

I'm not much for Spring cleaning but I often do my cleaning before the Holidays in the Fall.

So now I'm on to the next project. I suffered through a creative block for several weeks after these dolls were done, but now I'm back into it. I've decided to sew a little more with a new project and then the Anna Griffin Create 10 will be here in the middle of November and that will keep me busy up until the end of the year and beyond.

I wanted to at least get something posted for this month since I've been so busy. I'm pretty much all caught up now!

Fairy Doll for Summer

I don't know how many people still make art dolls but I have a sizeable collection of the old Art Doll Quarterly magazines. I used to look forward to buying one at ten dollars a pop four times a year. That was quite a few years ago. They are not publishing any more.

I remember doing a Humpty Dumpty doll years ago by a doll artist Suzette Rugolo and she still has patterns on Etsy. So I fell in love with this one. I love making fairies and I've made several dolls from Patti Medaris Culea patterns back in the day too. I have all her books. And I still have the dolls I made.

I never sold them, I never got that good at making them but I really loved learning new skills and watching them come together. No two are ever alike as each one takes on its own personality. 

What I really like about them is that you use every craft and skill you can imagine when making them. So each time you make one, you learn something new. 

The hardest part of making a cloth art doll for me is always... the hands. Most people think it is the face and head but for me, that's easier because I also sculpt. But those tiny hands and finger turning are a trick. Sewing them is intense. And when they come out right, it's quite an accomplishment.

I started with the wings on this one because it takes a while to dry, then you flip it over and do the other side too. 

Then I knew I needed some eyes and these are 8mm. I've made eyes for sculpts before so I got busy. I had to throw the first batch away, they were so awful. Then I made several variations. I finally got something I could use. 

Then I moved on to cutting out all the fabric and organizing all the pieces. Once that was done, it came together really quick. The only problem I had was with the instructions for the skirt. I had to figure out how to make those prairie points because the instructions were not very clear. I just couldn't figure them out from the instructions (and I didn't want to cut out over a hundred squares) so I did some research and figured out how to make endless prairie points the size I need for eight rows of 12. Very easy, very fast. Once I got that, then I just painted the lace with some metallic acrylic paint and was good to go.

It still took me half a day to make them and sew them onto the skirt. Putting the body and head together didn't take that long. The rest went pretty quick but I saved the hat, shoes and arms for last. I had some Tibetan wool for the hair but I didn't have pink so I just used some fluffy pink and white yarn instead.

 

Another Unfinished Find

I hand sculpted this little folk art fairy out of paper clay a few years ago but I never finished her. So when I ran across her again, I decided to bling her up and finish her out.

I cut her green overdress into little points all around and made her a longer paper skirt.

I dragged out my flowers and shaped them with a large ball tool to give them dimension and I cut her a pair of wings. I used leftover scraps of AG paper and flowers.

I decided to repaint her face and smooth it a little and to put some Swarovski crystal jewels in her hair. I also added a little pearl necklace. 

To finish her up I trimmed her all in gold and hot glued everything on her skirt.

She has a secret though. she is glued over a little bottle and the lid unscrews to revel a hidden compartment. She stands on her own and looks perfect hiding under a colorful plant. So glad I finished her up!