Planet M Files

If you have a young child that you need a gift for this holiday season here’s an idea.  This year my husband’s nephew turned one.  I wanted to give a unique gift that didn’t take up a lot of space (they live in a small apartment) and that would be fun and imaginative.  I had made a couple of crochet finger puppets for my children when they were little and knew that they were quick projects.  Also, there are great free patterns on the Internet for finger puppets.  I found some patterns and started making farm animal finger puppets.  I figured I would buy a farm animal book to go with the puppets.  Don’t do what I did!  Buy a book first, then make the animals.  After I had made several animals, I started looking at books and found the strangest animals in Farm Animal books.  Donkeys?  Guinea Pigs?  Frogs?  On a farm?  I hadn’t made any of these animals!  Finally, I found a book that had the majority of animals I made.  I did however have to make a donkey to add to the collection!  I snapped a couple of quick photos before we wrapped them.  They are in order, duck, pig, goose, donkey, sheep, horse, rooster, dog, cow, and in front – mouse.  As you can tell, I wasn’t concerned with the animals being to scale!

We wrapped a shoe box and it’s cover so that it could be used as a storage box for the puppets.  It would be so cute to decorate the box as a barn, but I wasn’t feeling that creative at wrapping time!

If you are making these for a small child, be sure to embroider or use French Knots for the eyes, not beads.  I did French Knots.  Check out the Free Finger Puppets page at Crochet Pattern Central for some really cute patterns.

Oh, and while you’re crocheting for that special child, make them a monkey or two in their favorite colors!