This week, Roy has been doing lots of finger-knitting. Some of his friends have been learning how to finger-knit, and now they are hoping for some ideas for what to do with their long strings of knitted wool. Roy has had a bit of a play and discovered that you can make a cool snake with some finger-knitting and a bit of felt. He made a couple of little snakes then decided to 'supersize' the project, and came up with a huge snake which could be used as a draught excluder to stop wind coming under the door. His friends loved the snakes so much that they asked him to show them how to make one of their own, so this week, Roy Creates Finger-Knitted Snakes.
You Will Need:
- Lots of wool. To make Roy's huge snake, he used five whole 100 gram balls of cheap acrylic 'wool', in five different colours. You can make a smaller snake if you prefer though, and just finger-knit as much wool as you think will look good.
- Scissors
- Felt in colours which look good with your wool.
- Red felt (for the snakes tongue)
- Buttons, a needle and thread or googly eyes and glue
Method:
- First, you will need to finger-knit all five balls of wool, making sure to roll the finger-knitting into balls as you go to stop it tangling. If you do not know how to finger-knit, visit Roy's first finger-knitting post, with step by step instructions, by clicking here.
- Now, choose two balls of wool which have colours which look good together. Carefully finger-knit them together so that they are one thick strand. To do this, finger-knit as you normally would, but make sure to lift both strands of wool over your finger each time.
- Now, finger-knit the two strands of wool you just knitted together one more time, so that you have a thick rope of wool. This will be a little tricky to do, but it won't take nearly as long.
- Repeat the last two steps with two more balls of wool.
- With the last ball of wool, double and then tripple finger-knit the wool. If you are confused, visit Roy's earlier post (linked above)
- Now, tie the three thick pieces of finger-knitting together at one end and carefully plait them together. You might find it easiest to lay them on a bed and plait them in sections.
- Draw the shape of a snakes head (making sure it's 'neck' is wider than the plait you have made) onto your two pieces of felt and carefully cut them out. You will need two 'heads'. Cut out a long tongue from the red felt and lay it inside the head. You don't want the tongue to 'stick out' yet as you will sew the head and then turn it inside out and then the tongue will be in the right place.
- Use small running stitches to sew the head, leaving an opening at the neck to put the plait inside.
- Turn the head in the right way, push the plait up inside, add toy stuffing to make the head nicely shaped and then sew the head securely to the plait to stop it coming off.
- Now cut two tail shapes from the felt, and sew it as you did for the head. Turn it in the right way, push the plait inside, add any stuffing you need and sew it to the plait.
- Lastly, sew buttons or glue googly eyes to the top of your snakes head. Roy chose googly eyes because he thought they were cute, but you can use whatever you like. Remember, if you are making your snake for a small child that you will need to embroider the eyes on to make your snake safe.
- Now, have fun playing with your snake!
