The story of the three knitted pigs

In the last entry I mentioned that I had a stuffed pig on my list of things to knit and that it would be pig number three. This is because I had this small bought of craziness back in December when clearly I did not have enough gift knitting for christmas knitting planned. You see, I knew that I had three friends having babies in April (or thereabouts) and I knew two of them should get baby quilts. The third I knew should get baby socks (this is what she gets for telling me the latest)! For all three of them this was their third baby and this means that older siblings should get something, right? Well what better thing than to knit some stuffed animals! (Clearly, I should have been knitting more things for Christmas--I had too much time on my hands). Hence the idea to make two snakes and two pigs was born.

When I finished the first snake, both my kids became insanely jealous. They wanted one too! And really how could you not--he's cute:


I should probably look back at Ravelry to see if I made the second snake before I made any pigs or not, but I'm guessing I made both snakes then started on the pigs. I told both girls, I would knit them something after I knit these toys for the future big sibs.

Then I checked Knitted Toys out of the library, because I just was not getting inspired by The World of Knitted Toys (which I own). I should really buy Knitted Toys because I want to make about 3/4 of the book. I fell in instant love with the pig and knew I needed to make it. So I did:

Then I made another. The girls at this point were really vocal--they wanted their own toys. One of them really really really wanted the pig. So I bought some additional pink yarn and I'll be casting on pig number 3 as soon as I finish either the hoodie or the ice queen. My other daughter leafed through the book and discovered a pattern for a panda. Since she is a panda nut, I'll be making a panda too.
I'm worried about the panda though because you switch colors mid row. I've done this before, but I felted both pieces which did wonders for the holes I couldn't seem to get rid of. I'll be brave though and probably start it after I've knitted the pig up (but haven't stuffed him--because jealousy is rampant at my house). I'd start it first if it weren't for the color changes. I'd probably have them both done by now if I wasn't so sick of knitting for other people.

I've already sent a pig and snake winging to their destination (along with a quilt). I'll write about the quilt next time.