Tips for finishing your Gruffalo knitted toy

Our new Gruffalo knitting patterns are just adorable. To help you complete your Gruffalo knitted toy, we've put together some useful tips.

1 Prickles

When sewing on the 17 purple prickles, make sure you pin them in place first to ensure that you’re happy with how they’re arranged and that they’re evenly spread out. Try to use pins with big heads to make sure they don’t get lost in your knitting (or your carpet for that matter!).

2 Mattress stitch

This looks totally smooth on the surface of your knitting and takes one stitch at each row-end edge into a neat seam at the reverse. Using a blunt-ended needle and matching yarn, place the edges together, right sides up, and starting at the cast-on edge, take the yarn under the strand beside the edge stitch at one side and then the other. After a few stitches, pull up the yarn to tension the seam.

(We've used green yarn for clarity but you will use Chocolate as stated in the pattern.)

3 Oversewing

Unlike mattress stitch, oversewing, or whip stitch, does not take one stitch
from the row-end edge into the seam. For this reason, it’s good to use for your Gruffalo’s fiddly finger and toe pieces, where you don’t want to lose any of the fabric to seaming. Simply insert the needle into the bottom layer of fabric half a stitch from the edge, then bring up through both pieces. Repeat, moving up one stitch each time.

TIP Make sure you stuff all the pieces firmly, so that your Gruffalo holds his shape and stands proud

4 Claws

Each claw is created using
some clever, but relatively simple embroidery – a stitch known as French knot. Start by bringing the white yarn up to the surface of your knitting where you’d like to place your claw, then wrap it around the needle twice before re-inserting it back into the toy. As you do so, carefully pull the yarn through, making sure your two wraps stay on the surface.

5 Stuffing

For the very narrow pieces of your Gruffalo, getting stuffing to the corners can be tricky. Simply use the blunt end of a pencil to push a little stuffing into place before stuffing the bulkier bits. Tweezers or the blunt end of a knitting needle work just as well for this.

6 Indenting the eyes

After stuffing your Gruffalo’s head firmly, you’ll need to make two indents for eyes. It’s easy! Anchor your brown yarn at the underside of the head with a couple of stitches, and bring your needle through to where his eye will be.

Reinsert the needle half a centimetre across, and bring it back down to the bottom of the head. Pull tight, and work another stitch in this way for the second eye. Fasten off securely to ensure the shape holds.

Watch our video for all your Gruffalo toy finishing touches...