Wednesday, February 25, 2009

Tom-Tom the Leprechaun

It seems Tommy Turkey has a new cousin, Tom-Tom the Leprechaun. This new creation is compliments of April Taylor, one of the creative members of the Yahoo Knifty Knitter Loom Knitting Group. April has morphed the turkey into a leprechaun in time for St. Patrick's Day.

Here are April's modifications (thanks April) to the original pattern in case you want to impress your Irish friends on March 17th:

Leprechaun Hat
by April Taylor

(Adapted from Tommy Turkey Hat by Brenda Myers which is available from Loom Lore at
http://loomlady.blogspot.com).

Materials:

KK 48-peg Adult Hat Loom
Peach, cream or light tan yarn (for face)
Green yarn (for hat)
Black yarn (for hat band, nose, eyes & mouth)
Orange yarn (for beard)
Knitting tool
Plastic yarn needle
Crochet Hook

Instructions:
Using the Knifty Knitter purple adult hat loom, cast on using a peach or flesh colored yarn and knit 14 rows. Change yarn to paddy green (Redheart) and knit 12 rows. To form the leprechaun’s hat brim, bring the first row of green up to the pegs and knit that row off. Form the “hat band” by changing to the black yarn and knitting 8 rows. Change back to green and knit 14 rows. Work a gathered bind off.

Finishing:
Work a single crochet edge around the bottom to prevent it from rolling.

For the eyes, use black yarn and chain 2; work 6 single crochets in the 2nd chain from hook, and join to form a small circle. Make two of the circles and sew to the hat.

For the mouth, use black yarn and chained 14. Sew this chain on with a yarn needle into the smile shape.

For the buckle, using yellow chain 32 and sewed it into a square shape centering in the front over the black “hat band”. (If I would have had a yellow pipe cleaner I might have tried to figure out how to shape it into a buckle and sew it on.)

For the beard, I use a size F crochet hook and chain 50 in orange. Work a single crochet in the 2nd chain from hook and in each chain across. Chain 1 turn and work a loop stitch by wrapping the yarn around the index finger and complete a single crochet while holding the loop.