Erica - a Scientific Frog

The birthing of a froglet

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(I have been using patterns by Claire Garland from Dot Pebbles Knit for most of these little animals. She has a fab Instagram account. Shoes are sadly not made by me but from various sellers.)

Hello Knitting Cabbage Heads,

(I write up the story of these froglets because their stories happen mainly over on Notes, and I know some people only see emails not Notes)

Whilst I’ve been busy with my secret project 🤫 (Franklin frog book) the tadpoles in the Pool of Life have been a little neglected. And when I wasn’t looking a new one became more than an idea and swam from the bottom to the top of the pool. A rather vibrant green frog, with very particular ideas and a very persuasive manner so that I took her on even though being busy. Here she is pushing her way through the other to get to the top.

She immediately told me that her name was Erica and she was a scientific researcher. So,I started on arms and legs. I was pleased with that arm, I slightly changed the pattern on the fingers gain and was happy with the result without even having to block. And then she chose some really snazzy shoes.

And then she needed a lab coat - that she was so insistent on that she even raided my fabric scraps and grabbed a notebook and pencil to show she meant business.

So I grabbed my notebook and set to work. Designing a paper pattern, altering that pattern, cutting it out and making a fabric mock up, hand sewing little stitches, and all to find I didn’t like it. The fabric was too stiff, and turning out the sleeves ripped the sleeves, and other than reverting to muslin which would be see through and needing a lot of rolled seams to stop it fraying I was stumped on the fabric front. (And I’d need to buy the muslin, wait for it to be delivered etc and I’m WAY too impatient for that.)

This was just way too hard and I really didn’t enjoy doing it. I’m definitely not a natural seamstress. So next I embarked on a late night knitting session, taking a cardigan pattern and radically altering it. Just because I could. I wanted a cotton yarn really but didn’t have any in white in the right thickness so I stuck to the old fluffy alpaca yarn. The basic pattern turned out okay, though Erica was getting rather impatient and urged me to hurry up. Hence the late night knitting session. So pockets, a belt thing at the back, collar white buttons and a defluff later- Erica was quite adamant about the defluff.

And now something was missing. And one of my lovely followers suggested a lanyard ID. So I gave it a try free hand, hard when you are working on a 1.5 cm sticker. And I blooming smudged it being impatient.

So off to Canva instead. And after a couple of attempts I made a decent one. Printed it out and made a lanyard. I crumpled an edge very slightly (again rushing using too dull a pair of scissors) but Erica said it seemed more like old usage and asked me to keep it.

And lastly, for her outfit, a pair of glasses.

Then she’d needed to wait for her lab to be set up. But disaster happened and when she arrived the test tube holder was broken.

Luckily none of the glass tube were broken and once Erica overcame her upset she got on in her resourceful way and set to mending it.

It was a bit of struggle with the huge tube of glue, but she eschewed help and managed all by herself. Holder mended she was then able to do her experiment and it was even mildly successful!

I have had to have a stern word with Erica. I came home to find her playing with her new purchase - paid for on my card 😳. Tut tut tut.

Erica has still to find her new home. If you are interested in adopting her message me.

So that’s all folks. Till next time peeps, Tx

☕️ buy me a coffee here ☕️

Froglets🐸, other animals🐇🦊🦡🐭🐘🦏🦎🦥🦧etc, and other miniatures are (or will be) available from me on here (message me). They are considered collectibles, are unsuitable for under 14s due to the wires, are not CE/UKCA tested (collectibles do not need to be), and are therefore priced as such. Also contact me here if you fancy something you see or don’t see, I’m open to suggestions. I do have ME/CFS and photographing them etc all takes a lot of energy and is a very slow process. I do knit to order too, but be aware a froglet with a jumper takes up to a week for me to make on average. The smaller they are the longer they take as they are more intricate and fiddly. Thank you muchly.

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