Knitted Thomas the Tank Engine - toy not motif

[Pruni]

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[NotQuiteCockney]

Ha! DS1 wanted me to knit a banana the other day.

Seriously, I'd say it was doable. You'll want to use some cardboard inside for shaping (the chimney etc, and the front face), and you'll be doing a bit of intarsia ...

Off the top of my head, looking at a picture of thomas ...

You want to knit the face bit, which is a circle ... you could do it with a pinpoint cast on, then knit a grey circle and embroider on the face? Or you could knit it top-down, but that'd not really be round, but the fact could be intarsia'd on.

Then a black tube (pick up from the edges of circle, or sew together at end, based on your preferences), with a tube going up from there.

The corners are the tricky bit, tbh - Thomas is pretty square. But if you use cardboard or plastic in the filling, then that could be ok ... Oh, and of course it won't be possible to put anyone in the cabin ...

[mumatuks]

found this on ebay, there must be another one out there!

[Miaou]

Oh my word!

The only thing I can think of doing is knitting squares and sewing them together round a foam block, so a big one for the back, then a medium one. Then a circle shape for the face and a cylinder one for the funnel. Then embroider on the details such as the number etc. Sounds horribly complicated and difficult to achieve in time for Christmas!

[mumatuks]

cheaper one here too

[Pruni]

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[NotQuiteCockney]

Ah, on mumatuk's first link, there is a reasonable photo of a knitted Thomas, I'd just follow that. If I had to, anyway.

Embroidered faces is how they've dealt with the face thing. Doubt it's a centre cast on thing, though, really.

[Miaou]

Aw, how cuuuute is the Fat Controller!! I'd knit that...

[mumatuks]

sorry, last one, on a buy it now if you're desperate!

[NotQuiteCockney]

Huh? Intarsia's pretty easy. Annoying and tiresome, but easy.

Anyway, you'll want to intarsia the numbers etc, won't you?

It worries me a bit that the sample knitted ones in mamatuks' first link look ... well ... a bit crap. If the sample ones look crap, that doesn't bode well for normal ones ...

[Pruni]

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[Pruni]

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[tamum]

Oh sweet You do know quite how many engines there are, don't you???

[NotQuiteCockney]

Oh, I think the samples are very well-knitted, I just meant that I didn't think Thomas etc were natural candidates to be knitted. Tricky shapes etc etc.

I'm sure those patterns are as good as it gets for these things - god knows I couldn't do better.

[Miaou]

NQC you have very high standards that we mortals merely aspire to

[Pruni]

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[NotQuiteCockney]

You lot haven't seen the pompom I sent to CF! Trust me, my standards don't always stay up.

I really meant, I don't think Thomas etc are natural candidates for being knitted, and I would probably try to distract your DS.

Ooooh, or could you make a special knitted blanket for his existing Thomas whatevers? With perhaps a train theme? Or [sneaky] train tracks on it?

[NotQuiteCockney]

Look! A pompom on steroids with mange!

[Pruni]

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[NotQuiteCockney]

Pruni, intarsia is not even a skill! It's really really really easy. You just change colours, and keep separate balls for the colours. I avoid doing it because I always get the balls tangled up, and I hate sewing in ends, which of course is magnified by intarsia, but still.

Train tracks are very easy to do, anyway, I'd do 'em with textures, not colours.

[tamum]

It is easy apart from all the yarn getting tangled up, but that would be quite a big problem with a blanket unless you cracked it early on IMHO. Can I do anything to help Pruni? It's a good point about the train tracks, you could just do parallel rows in black (= no intarsia) and then embroider the vertical bits...

[merrylissiemas]

i've just bought 1 from ebay. do you want the link?