But instead, I got something done. This is the beauty of knitting toys - they are so fast, they are almost instant gratification. (Which is something I need, occasionally). I started this yesterday afternoon and finished it this evening.
I used Spark's pony pattern, this time with the "normal head" variation:
It does give what I consider more pleasing proportions, especially for the worsted-weight sized toy. (A fingering-weight one, with the "big head" modification, can be seen here (my "Scholastica" pony).
This one is an actual show character - Scootaloo! (The title of this post is a joke related to the show).
I had been thinking about making a Scootaloo for a while and just decided to sit down and start her yesterday afternoon. This pattern knits up really fast, especially in a worsted weight, and it takes very little yarn - it took MAYBE 30 g, but probably less than that. (30 g of worsted weight would be, let me see, somewhere on the order of 75 to 80 yards, maybe less).
The hair was difficult. For one thing, it's hard to get a yarn the right color. I thought Scootaloo's hair was purple, but after perusing the MLP wikia, I decided it was more of a magenta. The closest yarn I had on hand (a Wool-ease sportweight) is a little bit too dark, I think, and it's also hard to capture her funny spiky hairdo in yarn. But I tried.
She's a pegasus, but one who can't really fly. She can sometimes hover a bit, or at least delay falling, but for some reason she can't fly. (Either pegasus development is very variable - one of the Cake babies was a pegasus but could fly at a couple months old - or else there's some other problem. It was rumored that the idea was to give Scoots some kind of disability, but that's not been explored, and given the level of alpha-mom and other outrage over Derpy speaking (even though it was later reported that her "dumb" sounding voice was due to a misunderstanding), they may well not explore it.)
Whatever. Of the Cutie Mark Crusaders, she's my favorite, both for the color scheme and for the mysteries about her origins. (Is she an orphan? Does she have family we just never see? Obviously she doesn't have a big sister, given her level of excitement over Rainbow Dash's willingness to "adopt" her as her little sister....actually, early on in the show I know some fans speculated if RD was actually Scootaloo's older sister, even though nothing was done in the show that suggested it)
A big part with these for me is the face. I tried hard to get the face "right," or at least appealing. (Again, checking the pictures on the MLP wikia helped me choose the right iris color....I was thinking it was darker and more magenta, but no, it's more of a lilac).
Bonus picture showing her wings. These are pretty clever in the pattern - done with wraps and turns so you get "bumps" to represent feathers.
And because it's just fun to pose these ponies, here she is looking at the Christmas tree. I actually started on a miniscarf for her. (Derpy and Fluttershy have their scarves....and I should probably make one for my Lyra and my Pinkie Pie.)
As I said, her hair may not be quite show accurate, but what really matters is that she's cute and cuddly. And yeah, as I've said before - my stuffed critters are kind of pet-substitutes for me. I can't have a cat or a dog because of my allergies (and because I'm never home) so the stuffed toys kind of stand in for them.
And yeah, I don't think at this point I'll ever grow out of them. But I guess that's OK.
After all, if Abby Sciuto can have a toy hippo that breaks wind, I can have a little flock of yarn pegasi.....
Edited to add, about 1:30 Monday afternoon:
I rewatched the episode from this weekend (they re-ran it on Hub today at 12:30). I like it even better upon rewatching - I think it shows the "heart" that that show has. There's sweetness there, but it's not saccharine, and there is an addressing of some of the real concerns children have (being afraid of the dark, hearing a scary story and getting frightened....). And I like how Scootaloo felt like she had to be tough, until finally RD sort of confronted her.....and then RD confessed (though "If you tell ANYONE, I'm gonna deny it") that she had been afraid herself. (Again: Rainbow Dash is such a well-rounded character. In the first episodes she kind of came off as self-absorbed and maybe a little boastful, but she's matured a lot and that compassionate streak she has is just such a nice thing to see.)
Also - the point towards the end where she helps Scoots "fly" - OH SO MANY FEELS.
I also looked carefully, trying to decide "did I make the hair on my Scootaloo too long, do I need to trim it?" It's really hard to get the hair "right" on these, and I know a lot of the people who make toys of the ponies go with "hair" that is cut and sewn "shapes" of fabric rather than trying for hair-made-of-individual-strands.
In the end, I decided that just pushing most of it back behind her ears (except for the bangs and that one funny long forelock) worked okay. (I never liked trimming my dolls' hair when I was a kid; it was too permanent if you messed it up. And while I could re-do the hair if I had to on a handmade item....I'd rather not have to). In the end, I concluded she possessed enough verisimilitude to please me, and that's what's important.
It's still not the perfect color (a bit too dark) but there's no way to change that.
And I also feel like I should redo that last photo, perhaps for a future Ravatar:
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