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Here’s a great tip from Bargello Needlepoint: Use pinch bowls — flexible silicone cups designed for kitchen use — to tame your tiny stitchery tools and accessories. See the post. Perfect for beads as with a pinch your bowl turns into a small spout to pour.
Circular knitting machines are a lot of fun, and one of the best ways I have found to use them is to make seasonal decor and toys. I guess that’s because these are the kinds of projects that I don’t want to spend a ton of time on but still want to make from time to time.
That’s not to say that knitting machine projects can’t be detailed and time consuming. And really the great ones are those that take the time to add fun details to make the finished project that much more interesting.
Like these adorable dinosaurs from Three Magic Sheep Co. The pattern includes instructions for a triceratops and a stegosaurus. Here they’re shown in coordinating candy colors, which I love, but you can of course make yours in any color you like.
The larger pieces of the body and legs are worked on either a 46 or 48 pin machine, while the smaller parts are worked on a 22-pin machine. I don’t know if a lot of people have both but the 22 pin machines are so inexpensive it’s nice to have both for projects like this. I’m not sure what she used for the triceratops horns, but in customer pictures on the listing it shows people have made them with both knitting and crochet so you can do that, too, instead of buying horns to use.
The details on these are really cute (you will want to buy safety eyes, or you can embroider eyes on if you’d rather) and customers note it takes longer to sew the pieces together than it does to crank them.
This looks like a fun pair of patterns to make for a dinosaur loving kiddo (or adult!) in your life. You can check out the pattern and all the customer comments and photos at Three Magic Sheep Co. on Etsy.
[Photo: Three Magic Sheep Co.]