A Thought to Create

I had made knitted kiwi bird stuffies for my two older kiddos before my youngest was born and wanted to make something for all of them. My (then) two-year old son has some speech issues, so when he shows or expresses interest in something that he verbalizes, I pay attention.  I was noticing that anytime he saw the Sesame Street show or something related, he became very into it.  When the Yip yip characters came on he couldn’t help but giggle.  They were silly to him with their ‘yip’ sounds, wavy moves, googly eyes, crooked antennae and large, gaping mouths. These silly alien monsters have been around for a very long time-even before I was a child watching Sesame Street!

Pattern Found

I decided to research Ravelry and Pinterest for a pattern. To my pleasant surprise, I found a pattern on Ravelry. The pattern is available in both knit and crochet, by Carissa Browning. I made this with blanket yarn, for a hanging bag.  After looking over the supplies needed list, I headed to JoAnns for blanket yarn.  It just so happened that some bright colored blanket yarn was on sale!  I picked out a few large skeins and headed to the fabric section for the liner inside. 

Mistakes Made

Knowing my middle son’s favorite color was orange, that was the color I used first. I followed the pattern and had a little difficulty deciphering the part of the head/nose that comes together.  With the orange, and with the next color, aqua, I misinterpreted that top section and it came out wonky.  My son decided that he liked the color green better, so when I made the next Yip yip (in green) I did it the right way.  My other two sons chose blue and red for their Yip yips.  As I made them I did not let my boys see them, hoping they would forget about them and be surprised when I gave them the finished projects. 

I made the finishing touches of the knitting portion, making a loop in the back so it could be hung somewhere and adding the fringe along the base.  Then I continued on to the other parts of the Yip yips; sewing in the liner, making the ping pong ball eyeballs and attaching the pipe cleaner antennae.  My wonderful husband pierced holes into the ping pong balls and fed the antennae through, so they were ready for me to attach them onto the knitted piece.

They were finished right around Thanksgiving. I decided to present the projects to their owners at the beginning of December.  They were filled with one piece of candy for each day of the month until Christmas. This was an advent candy holder.  My kiddos were so pleased with the finished products and were very excited to accept them.  Now my 2 older kids keep their Yip yips hanging in their room. My youngest fills his with small stuffies.