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Coronavirus stressball plushies

In these strange times, knitting and crochet are a form of meditation for me. So when I heard that my neighbour’s son had his 8th birthday party cancelled due to Covid19 I had a flash of inspiration to knit him a Coronavirus that he could take his frustrations out on.

A Coronavirus!

I hear he has been playing Covid dodgeball!

My cousin, on the otherhand, is finding it really stressful being in lockdown. She has definitely benefitted from an antibody to keep her company.

They are super easy to make!

I have used a mixture of knitting (using my addi pro express) and crochet to make these.

Kevin the Covid:

Body (addi express):

Using Aran Weight wool in grey

Cast on and knit 17 rows.

Cut the yarn and pick up all the stitches from the machine

Pull tight.

You can make a ball in whatever way makes sense to you. Some ideas here for crochet , knitting or loom knitting

Antigens: I made 19 because, you know, Covid 19…..

Using Red Aran weight and a 6mm hook

MR 6SC. Slst to join, ch 1

*SC 1 c1 and turn repeat 3 times

Cast off leaving a long enough tail to attach to the body

Use safety eyes or sew on some eyes, add a smile by going over a knit stitch with black yarn

Sew the Antigens on at random intervals.

Antibody

You can adapt this pattern to make an Adam Ant(ibody).

In Navy DK weight and 4mm hook

Chain 9, sl st in to 2nd chain from hook and slst 3 more loop, ch4.

Use a bright green yarn and join to the top of one side of the Y shape, add 4 SC (weave in your ends as you go). Do the same to the other side of the Y.

(I found these much more time consuming so I stick to a Covid usually)

I hope you have a bit a fun making these…

Keep smiling through the lock-down and help make others smile….

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Addi Baby Jacket

I really enjoy the speed with which things knit up on the Addi. I like that all the boringness of a scarf is gone and I can whip up a quick gift in no time.

By far, the biggest challenge I have faced is sizing. I diligently follow patterns and yet what comes out is rarely fit for a normally proportion human.

It’s so upsetting to put in all the time and effort required for all the separate pieces, only to stitch them together and find you’ve made…….. nothing!

The cycle was never ending: look up a pattern, knit the pattern, realise it looks nothing like a jumper, compare to average “newborn jumper” measurements, compare these measurements to test knit squares…. and so on. Very time consuming.

Only very late in this process did it occur to me to get an actual jumper.

Thankfully, my neighbour recently (and rather conveniently) had a baby. And so, no sooner had this thought occurred to me than she lent me clothes to fit a newborn and a 3-6 month old.

So with a real 3-6m baby sized jumper in my hand and accurately measured, I designed a simple pattern, knitted a test “back” piece on the Addi, compared it to the real top, made the necessary adjustments, re-knitted the back and……

I’d finally done it! A jumper that would fit a real human baby!!!

  • The back
  • 2 front pieces
  • 2 arms

And so, with all the pieces successfully sewn together and a neat little crochet border I can finally say I made something (other than a scarf) on the Addi that I would be happy to give to some I love.

The pattern is available here.

But as a disclaimer I should say, I don’t know the Addi “rules” – if there even are any. Some of these pieces will involve counting rows yourself as the counter won’t tick over once you cast off stitches.

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Buying an Addi knitting machine

I bought myself a new toy!

I debated about this forever. I ummed and ahhed and talked myself out of it. So I thought, before I waste too much money I would test out the idea by first buying a generic brand from eBay.

This was not an ideal introduction into loom knitting machines. Quite frankly, it was a disaster! It was clunky and halting. It skipped and stopped and wobbled all over the place – but it did knit. It was chore and I didn’t enjoy a second of it. I then, with pride and joy, I took the knitting off the machine and it was a hot mess! Skipped stitches, split stitches, ladders…. I was back to my 7 year old frustrated self with a falling apart scarf and no idea how it got like that!

I do have plans to take it apart and see if I can make it run better but it has sat on a shelf since day 2 after it arrived.

I naturally just assumed that loom knitting wasn’t for me but the spark of interest persisted…. I think it must be the lure of knitting something so quickly and eliminating some of the tedious work of plain panels and tubes.

So I bit the bullet and decided to buy an Addi machine – purported to be the best and most reliable and , therefore, comes with the price tag to match!

Well…

How do you decide??

You can get an addi Kingsize (46 needles)

This is ideal for larger projects, particularly adult hats, jumpers, wraps.

Or an Addi express (22 needles)

Ideal for smaller projects – baby hats, mitts and mittens.

Or an egg (for making cord)

I owe my sanity to Margaret Oleander’s blog and YouTube channel:

I watched endless videos and clicked on many other links to different patterns and ideas. I set up a Pinterest board for ideas and “gathered my evidence”. Turns out I want them all!! Why would I not want the Kingsize to knit myself a gorgeous cowl and an Express to knit the matching gloves?

I decided if I was going to do it, I would go big and work my way down…. So now I am the proud owner of an Addi Kingsize knitting machine.

So let’s see how it goes…..