I’ve always been a big reader. Even as a kid – in fact, I have a memory of being at nursery, about four years old, and being asked to read out loud while me and another kid were waiting for our parents to pick us up. The wee guy was quite upset and, given that I was a shy child, this felt like a big responsibility.
I clearly remember reading The Very Hungry Caterpillar, both on my own and with a parent. The mingled bright colours, the counting, the tactile holes in the pages, and the delicious foods (I, too, loved watermelon) combined to make it a winner in our house.
So naturally, when the first of my friends to have children told me they were expecting, I wanted to knit the caterpillar who’d given me so much enjoyment.
I have absolutely no idea where I got the hat pattern from, and I know for a fact I didn’t use a pattern for the body. I just bought a load of green yarn, in different weights, and knitted them up until I thought that strip was wide enough.
Did I use decreases to shape the body? I don’t know. I think I might have just pulled on the yarn to over-tighten the last row. That light khaki at the bottom seems shaped – but the top green stripe is as rectangular as can be. It’s a mystery.
Fortunately, the recipient was such a gorgeous child that the knitting couldn’t fail to look amazing.
I can get a little more insight by looking at the side of the body – maybe I sewed the shape in on either side? I certainly seamed it, because I didn’t learn to knit in the round until years later.
I do have a note from my Ravelry project that the eyes on the hat are i-cord, wrapped into a circle. I also recall much debate about the fact that caterpillars don’t have noses, but the one in the book does so on one went.
I look back on early projects like this with a mix of admiration that I achieved them at all, and amazement that I knew so little, including fundamental things like yarn weight. It’s only been in the last year or so that I’ve learned to do a mattress stitch so to an extent I’ve been freestyling it for ten years.
At the end of the day, though, none of that matters when faced with a joyful wee pal like this.
The Crafty Yarnster 