handmade by stefanie

Those of you who know me well are quite used to the fact that I rarely take requests. More specifically, I don't knit for hire in the sense that I will make you a sweater or (insert any handmade item here) for any sum of money. As most of you can probably commiserate, this policy is in place simply because I don't have enough hours in the day - I barely get enough time to make/design all of the things I want as it is! However, when your young nephew mentions (well in advance of his birthday, might I add) that he'd really love a hand-knit Pikachu , exceptions must be made! I used a free pattern  which I designed several years ago when his older brother requested the same - back then, I didn't know how to crochet, and those were the only patterns I'd come across on Ravelry, so I decided to come up with my own knit version. It's knit with Shine Worsted from KnitPicks, which is an incredibly soft blend of pima cotton and modal. I loved the yarn, but it p...

Both of my nephews are really into Pokemon (I suppose if anyone has kids under the age of 10, this is a ridiculously obvious statement, but bear with me), so for my nephew Jake's birthday this month, I thought I should knit him his very own Pikachu. Even though there are loads of cute Pokemon crochet amigurumi out there, I consider my newfound crochet skills remedial at best. Yep, better stick to the knitting on this one! Of the very few knitted Pikachu patterns I found, I couldn't find one that looked quite right, so I set to work making up my own. This necessitated a lot of research via google image search (and resulted in this pinboard of some of the crazier things I came across along the way) and lots of trial and error. I did write down the play-by-play of what I did and hope someone finds it helpful. Please be my guineau pigs (as in, test knitters) by downloading a free PDF from my Ravelry pattern store if you fancy! Should you find any errata, please kindly ale...