Neighborly Gift

I have been meaning to post this for a while, but I delayed the posting because I didn't want my sister-in-law to happen upon this before her birthday and spoil the surprise.  After her birthday passed and she loved the gift, I have to admit that I forgot about posting it here.  I finally remembered, though, and I edited the date to the date-of-completion.

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):