Last fall, I came across this project and knew that I had to try it out once I felt comfortable with my knitting skills to try something as complex as a plushie (and also once I had some sets of DPNs). My sister-in-law is a fan of Totoro, and when her birthday was approaching, my husband encouraged me to at last tackle this project and present it to his sister as a birthday gift.
Since I had only tried to use the DPNs for small finishing details on a hat once previously, I had a bit of a hard time getting started. For the first few hours, I was repeatedly knitting about 2 rows, then pulling it out and starting over because a stitch had been dropped, twisted, or something else disastrous. Once I finally understood how to keep things straight, the project flew across my needles with relative ease.
I did make a couple of changes from the original pattern to my implementation of the project: 1. Rather than using a plastic lid, I created a beanbag "hockey puck" to weight the bottom down. I felt this would make the plush feel more like a loveable toy and less like something just to sit on a shelf and stare at. 2. I knit the eyes rather than crocheting them. It doesn't look quite as interesting as it did in the pattern, but I'm no good with crochet. 3. I put a bit of fiberfill behind the eyes and tummy circle to make them stand out a little more.
Here are the pictures of the project (I forgot to get a picture of the "hockey puck" before I put it into Totoro):
