Toe-Up Teddy Hints and Tips

The Natty Knits pattern Toe-up Teddy is now available on Etsy, Ravelry and LoveCrafts. Here are some hints and tips to help you get the best from this pattern.

Choosing a Yarn

Toe-up Teddy is designed with very little children in mind, the whole thing is knitted in one piece, so it’s impossible to pull off an arm or chew off an ear. So I chose an easy care yarn with lots of color options. All the bears in the pattern are knitted in Knit Picks Swish DK, which fits the bill nicely. But any squishy yarn with plenty of loft works well. And if you’re a sock knitter you might want to try to knit the Teddy with left over yarn and much smaller needles.

Gauge

The gauge for toys should always be tight so that the stuffing doesn’t come through the stitches. That’s particularly important here. A tight gauge will help the ears to stand up and to define the neck.

Toe-up Cast On

There’s a whole blog entry about my favorite toe up cast on here, but there are plenty of other options you’ll find some in this Interweave article. If the toe-up cast ons are not your cup of tea, you could always cast on in the round and close the arms and legs with fake grafting later. If you decide to do that, then don’t knit Rnd 1.

Double the DPNS

The pattern calls for one set of five DPNS, however if you have two sets of DPNS on hand you can use them instead of stitch holders which will help you keep an even tension when knitting in the arms.

Closing Holes

Some parts of the Teddy, especially where the arms meet the body may have a few loose or baggy stitches. There’s an instruction in the pattern to “Close up any holes under arms”. You can just sew the holes closed or adjust the tension in the row to make the stitches more even. But here’s the quick hack I use for that.

Start by pulling the loose stitch back behind the work. Sometimes, this can result in a very large loop, don’t panic, you can fix this.

Next, insert a large blunt sewing needle into the loop and twist the yarn by rotating the needle. Thread the needle with a yarn end (this one is from attaching the arms) and pull the needle through the twisted yarn. Then sew the twisted yarn loop into the seam. This tip is also useful for tightening up loose stitches in a sock with a peasant heel.

Stuffing

When stuffing knitted toys it’s important to have a plan about how to stuff it to get the shape you want. Knitted fabric is stretchy, so if you stuff the Teddy until it’s ready to burst, it will look strange and lumpy. For this teddy, I would suggest over-stuffing the belly and head, under-stuffing the arms and neck.

Short Row Shaping

There’s a longer explanation about picking up the loop created by turning the work, just here. But you might also want to try German Short Rows, I just heard about them from one of the pattern testers and I tried them out on the nose for this cream colored teddy below. The German Short Rows definitely give a smoother finish, but I prefer my wrap & turn method for the Teddy, because it gives more definition between the nose and the face.

Kitchener Stitch

You’ll find my tutorial on Kitchener Stitch here. When you get to the end of the closing seam on the top of the Teddy’s head pull the bind off knot back into the ears to hide any unsightly bumps.

Sewing on Features

The Teddy’s pictured here have 1/4 inch circle eyes and a triangle nose with 1/4 inch sides, both are cut from black felt. The eyes are sewn on with a few stitches of white embroidery floss. The nose is sewn on with a line of black embroidery floss and the mouth is sewn in black embroidery floss. Of course, there are plenty of ways to sew faces onto knitted toys, but I would recommend that the eyes should be lower and closer together than you might first think and that a big smile on the Teddy is always a good idea.