winter fox

This is my second attempt at a homemade stuffed animal. When I showed it to my husband he said, “It’s cute. What is it?”
Okay. I can take it. It was supposed to be a fox. I saw a pattern for a knitted fox but I don’t know how to knit (yet). As usual, I just drew a pattern on an old paper bag that looked something like the picture in the knitting book and fidgeted with the pattern, pinning the paper and re-cutting until it looked about right. I used machine felted wool sweaters as the fabric but could have used anything really.

The story on the sweaters is this: I went to “the bins” last week and bought this huge stack of wool stuff. In case you’re not from around here, “the bins” are the last chance stop for merchandise donated to Goodwill. I think what happens is that stuff that sits too long at all the regular Goodwill stores is shipped to this big warehouse where people dump random truckloads onto these huge 12 foot by 4 foot bins. The bins, full of a bizarre mix of clothes, blankets, tennis rackets, shoes, trinket boxes, shower curtains and whatever then gets rolled out onto the floor where freakishly frantic folks, who have previously picked over the other 20 bins already standing on the floor, wildly rummage through the fresh booty. Where one might find a sweater at the regular Goodwill store for anywhere from $4 to $16 (which I find shocking when recollections from my youth reveal great buys for a mere quarter from thrifty thrift stores) at the bins, sweaters (and all other merchandise) are sold by the pound. I figured from the felted sweaters I could make any number of exciting crafts. Depending on the size and thickness, I got these babies for an average 50 cents each.