Tiny Frog

My boyfriend has this strange obsession with frogs. It could be worse - at least it's not monster trucks or World of Warcraft. Besides, frogs are rather cute, and I can handle our house being filled with plush frogs and beanie babies. So, anyway, for Valentine's Day I decided to knit him a little felted frog. I call him Croaky.



Materials: Worsted weight dark green 100% wool yarn.
Scraps of red or orange wool yarn.
U.S. size 6 double pointed needles (4)

Gauge: Not too important, but about 6 stitches per inch.

Finished size: About 3 inches across and 9 inches from nose to toes.

Terms:
kfb: knit into the front and back of the stitch
k2tog: knit 2 stitches together
icord: Cast on 3-4 stitches. Knit. Slide all the stitches to the other end of your dpn and knit them again. Repeat. (it's like working in the round on a really tiny scale)

Body:

Cast on 6 stitches, divide 2 to each needle.

Round 1: Knit
Round 2: kfb 6 times (12)
Round 3: (k1, kfb) 6 times (18)
Round 4: (k2, kfb) 6 times (24)
Round 5: (k3, kfb) 6 times (30)
Rounds 6-13: Knit
Round 14: (k3, k2tog) 6 times (24)
Rounds 15-17: Knit
Round 18: (k2, k2tog) 6 times (18)
Rounds 19-21: Knit
Round 22: (k1, k2tog) 6 times (12)
Round 23: Knit
Round 24: k2tog 6 times (6)


Break yarn. At this point you can stuff the frog with some fiber fill, or just leave it be. Sew the yarn tail through the 6 remaining stitches and weave in the end.

Hind Legs: (make 2)

Cast on 4 stitches leaving a long tail.
Work in icord for about 5 inches.
Foot:
Row 1: (WS) purl
Row 2: k1, kfb, kfb, k1 (6)
Row 3: Purl
Row 4: k2, kfb, kfb, k2 (8)
Row 5: Purl
Row 6: Knit
Row 7: Purl
Row 8: k3, kfb, k4 (9)
Row 9: Purl
Toes:
K3 stitches.
Turn work and purl back.
Turn again and k3tog.
Break yarn.
Reattach yarn and work two more toes the same as the first.

Front Legs: (make 2)

Cast on 3 stitches leaving a long tail.
Work in icord for about 1.5 inches.
Foot:
Row 1: (WS) Purl
Row 2: k1, kfb, k1 (4)
Row 3: Purl
Row 4: k1, kfb, kfb, k1 (6)
Row 5: Purl

Bind off.

Use your cast-on yarn tails to sew the legs onto your frog body.
You can use scrap yarn to embroider some froggy eyes, or glue on some plastic googly eyes after felting it. I chose to embroider the eyes and then feed the leftover yarn through the nose end to create a little tongue.
Placement of the limbs:


Felting:
Since Croaky is so leggy I didn't want to risk felting him in the washer and ending up with a big frog knot, so I decided to try hand felting for the first time. The thing about hand felting is... well... it kinda sucks. But if you are willing to suffer sore fingers to avoid the risk of having a frog knot here's how I did it:
Fill a sink with water as hot as you can stand it. With your fingers, scrub the frog with mild soap. Now, don't be shy about it. It takes quite a bit of elbow... er... knuckle grease to get the fabric to felt. Once you've got some feltage going on (or your fingers are too cramped to continue) rinse your frog in very cold water.
Repeat the above steps until your froggy is as felty as you want.