Meet Mrs Peacock in the Library with a Butter Knife! Ha!

Made this for a friend to give to her granddaughter. Peacocks are their special “thing!” This little girl named it “Ruby!”

Using an assortment of Palette I have in my stash and will hold it doubled to approximate Worsted weight yarn.

Colors: Calypso (blue), Canary (yellow), Orange, Alfalfa (green), Eggplant (purple), Mist (gray)

Many of these pieces could be worked in the round, eliminating the need for seams -- just remember to remove the two stitches for the seam allowances, one per edge. I did knit the eyes and wings in the round. Crest pieces became 3-st icord. And so on… So, if you prefer projects that require minimal seams, translate this into in the round knitting and save yourself time and even a bit of yarn.

I decided to block the eye circles so they would lay flat but then they were way too large. So I hand felted them and trimmed them down to the size and shape I wanted. I also flattened them as much as I could with a hot steam iron. While I was at it I applied a good bit of steam and pressure to the bottom of the body to make it flat and stand up better. I also pressed out the toes on the feet.

Will use a blanket stitch to sew the eye ovals on using a single strand of the blue.

Tail feathers were knitted in the round in one piece (after making each of the tips). I used a CDD between each feather and slipped sts down each line to outline the feathers, tweaking stitch counts a bit to omit selvedges, etc. Wet blocked into shape, and, once dry, compressed the whole tail piece with shots of steam and hand pressure to flatten and sharpen outer edges.

The tail weighs as much or more than the rest of the piece! And it doesn’t stand up very securely. I did use the pellet beads for toys in the body’s bottom, hoping to provide some ballast. Could have used more, maybe.

The eye spots on the tail were knitted with a single strand of yarn on a smaller needle to keep them compact. And I tacked the tail to the back of the body in the center along the first row after the purple color change. The tail flops down otherwise.

Fun but fiddley project. Most toys are. Ha!