kits at knit picks

You can now find kits for my Pookies pattern at Knit Picks! I was super excited when they said they were interested in making kits from my pattern. I love making kits, but it's hard for me because of the expense and time involved. This was a perfect solution. You can get the kit in two colour-ways: Hobbit and Baby. They include the yarn, 4 pairs of safety eyes, and the pattern (the other materials are not hard to find). The kits are even on sale (when this was posted, but I'm not sure how long the sale lasts).

holiday mice kits

With no time to spare, I've added a few Holiday Mice kits to my Etsy shop. For $10 US you get all the materials you'll need to make two 3" mice: wool yarn, stuffing, eyes, and embellishments. You'll just need the right size knitting needles and a tapestry needle. A printed copy of the pattern costs $1 extra, since I assume most people will be happy to download it and print it themselves (also saves on shipping). I hope you enjoy making or giving these little gifts!

Kit in grey and blue

yarn stores and kits

I've had a few yarn stores ask me about making up kits with my patterns. In the past, this was a bit difficult because I don't keep a stock of printed patterns and I don't have a distributor. However, the In-Store Pattern Sales program on Ravelry has made this so much simpler! You can go here to read all the details about the program. In brief, you ask to be added to the list of participating stores, Ravelry reviews your request, and upon approval you can then sell patterns from a wide range of designers (the designers also have to sign up for their patterns to be sold this way). The store gets a percentage of the sale, and can either print out the pattern for the customer, or email them a copy.

If you're interested in making kits from my patterns, here are some other helpful tips. I don't list a specific yarn for any of my patterns, since toys can be knit from a wide variety of yarns. I always give accurate amounts and colours, so you can use whatever yarns you would like to promote. If you need more information on what yarns I used for a particular pattern, you can send me a message, or check my Ravelry projects. I usually use polyester fiber-fill for the toys, which is inexpensive and easy to find at fabric or craft stores. I sometimes use wool roving, which makes very nice stuffing, but costs more and can be harder to source. I use plastic safety eyes for all my toys. Etsy is a good place to find a wide range of sizes and colours, but you may be able to find them at craft stores. I also tend to use vintage buttons on the clothing, which helps keep the costs down.

Feel free to use my free patterns for kits as well! The Fuzzy Lamb, Holiday Mice, and Mini Alien are some of my most popular patterns. Besides, if someone really likes the toy they make from a kit, perhaps they will come find out what other toys I've designed.

The In-Store Pattern Sales program is good news for other people as well! If you would like to buy my patterns, but are hesitant to purchase something on-line, talk to your local yarn store about signing up for the Ravelry program. As well, if you would like to teach a class using one of my patterns, the yarn store could use this program to purchase copies for your students.

baby orangutan kits

I've listed 8 kits for the Baby Orangutan pattern in my Etsy shop. There's only a few because they take a lot of time to put together, and I sell them at cost (since I can't get the yarn wholesale). You'll get enough yarn to make 1 toy: it's a lovely soft single-ply wool. It's not too fuzzy, but should brush up quite nicely to give your toy the right look. You'll also get enough fingering weight yarn to knit the rucksack, and a vintage button from my stash. There's a lot of fun colours to choose from! I also included precut kerchiefs, since the toy in the pattern photo looked so cute that way. The fabric is unfinished, so you might want to finish the edges with a bit of hand-sewing or fray-stop liquid.

These kits include a copy of the pattern, since I no longer sell patterns in my Etsy shop. If you've already purchased the pattern, just let me know, and I'll refund the price from the cost of the kit.

kits and pouches

My Etsy shop update is finally done! You can find kits here, and zip pouches here. I know the Mama and Baby bunny kits are a bit pricey, but there's a lot of stuff in them! I half thought to separate the Mama and Baby supplies so the cost would be more reasonable, but since the patterns come together, it made sense to sell the kits together. As always, the patterns are sold separately from the kits because so many of you already have the patterns (saves us both the trouble of a Paypal refund).

I'm really happy with this batch of pouches too. I usually want to keep at least one, and this time that turquoise with brown dots is really calling me (good thing I have more of both those fabrics)! However, I am running low on nice fabric, so it might be a while before I have a chance to sew some more.

in between

As the weather warms up here, and there are so many things to do outside, I will likely be writing here less and less. But I'm sure you're all busy too! I love this time of year, with the sunshine and rain, the fresh green leaves, and all the noisy birds. It's been exciting to introduce the outside world to Lev - last year he was really too young to do much more than pull up grass to put in his mouth. Plus, I have new flower and veggie gardens to watch and fuss over. Once things start to flower I'll have to get some photos to share.

In between the playing, gardening, visiting, and knitting I've done this past week, I did manage to fit in a bit of time to make some more kits for my Etsy shop. I've got 2 Mama and Baby bunny kits, 2 Owl and Baby kits, and a Pug kit all made up, just waiting for me to get photos. Plus, I have 6 zip pouches I sewed weeks ago. I had all this planned for a big Mother's Day shop update, and I'm glad my planning worked out for once! I'll be sure to post here when everything is in the shop and ready for you.

Anyway, with the sunshine peeping out between the showers, I think I need to dash outside for a bit of gardening. I hope you're all enjoying your Sunday in the ways you like best!

puppet kits

 The Bunny Puppet kits are now available for purchase on Etsy. I'm trying something different this time, which will hopefully save me a lot of time. There are 3 kinds of yarn available for the kits, with one listing each. You just need to send me a message with the yarn colour of your choice. As each colour is sold out, I will update the listing. However, this means that I can only list one kit at a time. If you don't feel like checking back all the time, you can subscribe to my shop updates (there should be an link at the bottom right of my shop page, under Shop Tools,  which says "subscribe to shop feed").

I will do my best to keep on top of things, but I may be away from the computer sometimes (I do need to sleep!), so I ask you to be patient.

Please note that all the kits are for size small-medium puppets only. It was just much simpler this way! If you would really like a large kit ($10.50 plus shipping) send me a message on Etsy, and I'll see if there's enough yarn left to make you a special listing.

shop update

In case you missed the notice on Facebook, or don't check up on Fuzzy doings over there, I had a nice little shop update last Friday. There are still several kits and zip pouches, so go check them out! I love the kitty print fabric so much, I nearly kept one of those pouches for myself. But Mr. Mitten reminded me that I have half a dozen knitting bags littered around the house, so I put it up for sale after all.


In other news, I was working on the very last pattern for Fuzzy Knits this morning. Woo hoo! A few days of knitting should get that critter done. Then it's just a matter of kicking someone in the butt to get everything formatted (I really love him, but he can procrastinate with the best ;) Oh, and take all those photos (though the photo editing takes twice as long as actually shooting photos)! Hopefully we can get all the individual patterns updated soon too, but those are more work.

handspun and bunny tails

There are still a bunch of Scraps Chaps kits in my etsy shop, for anyone who would still like one! However, if you'd like something a little different, Sheepshape Spinning has a kit of hand-spun alpaca in just the right weight and yardage to make a Fuzzy Mitten toy. She tells me there should be enough to make a bunny or teddy or other regular-size (8") toy, and it comes with a set of safety eyes too. The photo below is a bunny she knit from some similar hand-spun yarn. I think she plans to add some more kits as she has yarn ready for them. Read more about what she's up to on her blog.

She also shared with me this pattern for a little pom-pom you can knit for a bunny tail, if you're worried about little fingers pulling apart a regular pom-pom.

Cast on 5 stitches. Purl next row.
Next row: K1, M1, Knit to last stitch, M1, K1.
Purl next row.
Continue the last two rows until you have 11 stitches.
Next row: K1, K2tog, Knit to last two stitches, K2tog, K1.
Purl next row.
Continue the last two rows until you have 5 stitches.

Break off yarn and thread through stitches on needle. Continue threading yarn through the edges of the shape, all the way around. Press some stuffing material onto the centre of the wrong side of the fabric and pull the thread tight around it to form a ball. Secure the edges of the ball together and attach the ball to the rabbit as a tail.

love my ball-winder

I've worked so hard the last 2 days trying to get these kits ready! I wish the yarn had come sooner, so I could have taken a little more time with them, but am I ever glad I bought a ball winder! Otherwise, I would have taken a week to make them all, instead of 2 days. I've had to raise the price by $1, since most of the yarn in these kits is new, rather than mostly left-overs, as in the previous ones. I'm off to list them now, and hopefully Lev will stay asleep until I can get them all done!

hurry up canada post

Just a quick update on the Scraps Chaps kits. It looks like the yarn was shipped to me on Monday, so it should get here before the weekend. I think I'll be spending my weekend winding little balls of yarn! I will probably list them in a couple of batches, so if you miss the first lot, don't worry! (listing stuff on Etsy takes a while, and I don't usually get more than an hour uninterrupted these days) I'm crossing my fingers that I have enough yarn for everyone that's requested a kit through the poll. In fact, I might put in a second order of yarn, and I'll put the poll up again next week to see if anyone else still wants a kit. Looks like I should have been doing the kits this way all along, you guys like them so much! Well, at least I learn eventually.

they flew off the shelves!

Okay, I really didn't expect the kits to sell that quickly, or I would have made more! There's just one puppy kit left, after a day! So, I'm ordering more yarn today, and if everything goes well, I should be able to get more kits ready in about a week. I'm kicking myself now, that I didn't order more yarn and make a bunch more in the first place. I went through most of my yarn stash to make those already sold, and I'm not sure if I could scrounge up enough nice stuff to put together a few kits in the meantime. I've put a poll up, just to see how many of what kind of kit people might like. While I like input, please don't vote if you really aren't going to buy one. I need to know how many people are interested, so I get enough made this time! I've set up the poll so you can vote for more than one, if you want.

Hugs, everyone!

scraps chaps kits etc

Okay, everything is listed, although a bunch of the kits have sold already! Thanks! I listed the kits without the pattern after all, since so many people had already bought it. I figured that would save us all a bunch of trouble. I forgot to mention that if the kits sell really well, and there's still interest, I'll make more. It will just take a bit of time, since I'll have to order more yarn. Look for an update on that next week. I also listed a few of the patches, in case you'd like one, but aren't buying a kit.

Have a wonderful weekend, everyone! Hugs!

nearly there

Ugh! I just spent the last hour and a half processing photos for the shop update tomorrow. That was after spending about the same amount of time taking photos! It's definitely more work doing the kits this way, but hopefully it helps you to get exactly what you want. Anyway, I'll leave you with this peek at one of the bunny kits. I kinda wish I was knitting this one for myself :)

scraps chaps kit giveaway

Holey moley! I must say, the last three days have been rather spectacular in my shops! I wanted to say thank you, and send out a huge hug to all of my wonderful customers. With a new baby, and having just bought a house, a little extra money is much appreciated in our house. I never thought that I could design and sell knitting patterns for a living, but my loyal customers have made my wishes real. I hope you all have tons of fun knitting scrappy chaps of your own, or for your loved ones. And if you need a little extra money too, remember our policy on selling toys made from my patterns.


Also, I've put together an extra kit to give away, as a thank you for supporting my little business! I don't have a photo of it, but it contains yarn and the extra bits to make a chocolate-coloured Scrappy bunny or puppy. I might throw in a few other fun things too. To enter, just leave a comment on this post, and I'll draw the winner on Friday morning (March 27). Include your name, and email address if you like (if you don't leave an email address, please remember to check Friday's post and email me if you get picked).

Edit: the giveaway is for anyone to join, Canadian (I'm in Canada, btw), American, and international too.

As for the kits and things, I have the tote bags all cut out now, so I should be able to find time to sew them this week. Maybe we can tentatively set Friday as the date for listing everything? We'll see. I'll let you know all the details when I have them ready. But I did want to say now that if you've already bought the Scraps Chaps pattern, but decide you want a kit too, I will refund the price of the pattern from what you pay for the kit.

Finally, I forgot to mention in my pervious posts about the Scraps Chaps pattern that the finished toys are bigger than my usual toys - about 27 cm (10.5") instead of 20 cm (8"). This means the clothing patterns probably won't fit them, unless you feel like trying to make the arms and body of pull-overs etc. long enough to fit. Because I designed the Scraps Chaps to be fun and interesting just as they are, I decided to not cover them up with clothes like my other toys.

yay dairy!

Oh man, have I been lax about blogging lately! But really, you can blame it on Lev. He's been changing up his sleep schedule over the last week, and not only is he awake more hours in the day, but he's decided that some of those should be in the middle of the night. Mr. Mitten and I have been taking shifts, so we both get enough sleep, but it leaves a lot less time for Fuzzy Mitten work. I really hope we can get his schedule sorted out better before Mr. Mitten goes back to work in June, or I am going to be one tired and grumpy mama!

On the plus side, Lev is finally okay with dairy! In fact, he seems to do much better with the dairy formula than with the hypo-allergenic stuff (daddy gives him one bottle during the night so I can sleep longer). I have been taking full advantage of this, and thoroughly enjoying milk on my cereal, and cheese on pizza! Maybe I should even treat myself to some super-yummy 8% milk-fat yogurt, which is more like eating ice cream than something that's good for you. Of course, I still can't touch caffeine, or Lev spends all day spitting up everything he eats. This includes chocolate. I'll just down my sorrows over chocolate with a tub or yougurt, thanks.

Enough baby talk, I'm sure...

All this aside, I have found time to work on the new pattern and the kits. We just need to take a few photos, and Mr. Mitten needs to take a few hours to format the pattern, but it should be all ready soon! I'm hoping we can get it done for Friday. The kits should be ready for you next week sometime. I have the zip pouches made, and most of the kits put together. I just need to find time to sew a few tote bags. Oh, I also meant to ask whether you like the idea of getting a printed pattern with your kit, or if a pdf is okay? If I send you the pdf, you can get started on one animal while I send your kit for another. On the other hand, a printed pattern is nice to work from. (Although, no printed patterns means I can keep the kits a little cheaper). I think I'll stick up a poll for a couple days, to find out what you think.

help from my mom

I thought I would share with you two of the toys made by one of my test knitters - my mom! She was visiting when I first had the idea for the pattern, and listened patiently while I jabbered on about how I write patterns. I thought she might like to try out the pattern, and maybe wouldn't mind doing me a favour! I think her toys turned out pretty cute :) She said the feet are like big paws a puppy needs to grow into.


Also, I've been watching the poll for the last few days. The results don't seem to be changing much, and actually gave me a very god idea. I think what I'll do is sell the kits with just yarn and the pattern. I'll make up some tote bags and zip pouches, and list them separately. Then, if you buy a kit and a bag, I'll give you a discount on the total! How does that sound? That way you can buy the kit with the bag you want, or just the kit, or just the bag. It isn't much more work for me, I just need to take a few more photos.

poll for raggedy pals kits

I've put up a little poll for kits, since you mentioned lots of different options. So far, the options seem to be with a tote bag (like those I've made before), a zip pouch (my idea, like this), a drawstring pouch (for easy gift-giving), or no bag at all (to cut down on the cost). All of these would come with a printed pattern, enough yarn to make 1 toy, buttons for eyes, and some stuff to embellish the finished toy (like ribbon). I've put price estimates there, in case that helps you decide (the estimates are not final). Also, you can choose more than one answer to the poll, if you like. Hopefully this will give me a better idea of what people want, so I can make that, instead of trying to guess and have nobody buy the kits!

I went through my yarn stash the other day, and I have lots of parcel out into kits. I did have to order a little bit, though, since I was missing a couple things I used in my toys. Now I just need to wait for your answers to the poll, and see if I need to find time for sewing.

new kits, maybe

Having a little baby sure doesn't leave a lot of time for blogging! I have been thinking about you guys, though. Thanks for all the lovely comments on the new toy! I really love them too, and can't wait to share the pattern. I'll be deciding this weekend how to organize the test knitting, and hopefully I can get the pattern all ready for you by mid-March. I think Spring solstice would be a fitting date for the pattern release.

I've also been thinking about putting together some more kits. In light of the difficult economic times that are affecting a lot of people, I'm thinking of making some less expensive kits. What would you think of kits with a tote bag or zip pouch, a single pattern, and yarn for the pattern? I'm not quite sure of the cost right now, because it depends on the cost of the materials for the bags. I will probably redesign them to use less fabric, but they will still be sturdy and well-made, as before. I was thinking it would be fun to make up a bunch for the new pattern. I would include a bunch of fun yarns for one raggedy toy, which you could use all up for one toy, or put together with your own yarn to make 2 or 3 toys. Please let me know what you think in the comments, so I can start planning what to do next week!

festive knits kits

This is just a quick note to let you know I listed three Festive Knits kits in my Etsy shop. I wanted to make more, but sewing has become a little difficult with such a big belly to get in the way! There's a kit to make an Owl and Baby, a Fuzzy Farm set, and a Baby Penguin. Each is a little special and different.

It seems people like the Felted Stars pattern I posted! I can't believe how many copies have been downloaded from Ravelry already (you can find it through the Ravelry Shop link there on the right). I wish I could have taken better photos of them, since they are super cute and fuzzy (just like the other things I knit!). But, I didn't want to put up holiday decorations yet, and we just had our first snow today. Which, by the way, is nasty and wet and not at all nice to be out in. Anyway, this left few options for cute holiday photos. I've knit bunches of the stars myself, since they will most likely be gifts for my family this year, and there's something addictive about their simplicity, pretty colours, and playing in a sink of hot water when it's cold out.