A few months ago, I was helping my mom through one of my patterns. My mom is an artist and a very accomplished weaver, but she is still a beginning knitter and was struggling with the increases in the pattern in particular. She didn’t understand initially why I had chosen different increases for different parts of the pattern, and I explained that these stitches made it possible for me to “sculpt” the yarn in the directions I needed it to go.

So, I’ve made a couple quick and very* unedited videos to help give a visual to the stitches in this pattern, and to help anyone else who needs a quick how-to/reminder.

Increases: This is where the real action is in any pattern, but especially so with stuffed animal patterns. Think of the square and somewhat flat simplicity (and terrible plush) of mid century stuffed animals for a moment and understand why we’ve returned to shape as an indicator of quality. But I digress.

The stitches we are interested in are M1 or M1L (they are the same), M1R, and K1f/b. Here is an article that describes these stitches and more with great illustrations. And then there’s this-

The decreases for the pattern are SSK, K2tog, and P2tog. The latter two are not difficult to learn, but the SSK (slip slip knit) can be a bit tricky at first. Here is a quick video illustrating each of those.

I hope these help! See you Friday!