Forest Play Mat Set

I have finished the forest play mat set.  It has been an interesting project.  I located a book of patterns for these adorable forest animals that had all but one of the requested animals for the set.  I was confident that I could turn the squirrel into a skunk, so I bought the book and was excited to start creating the animals.  The problem is, the patterns are for larger animals than will fit in a hanging play mat set.  I have halved patterns before, so I thought it would be no problem to do the same with these animals.  How do you half an odd number?  That was the problem, but because I wanted the animals to be smaller than larger, I always opted for the lesser number of rows, stitches, repetitions, etc.  Sometimes it works, but other times it gets off quite a bit.  All in all, they look okay.  I like the way these patterns give the animals more of a real animal look than do my other patterns for little animals.

This is the top of the mat.  The baby's room is being done in a fox theme with the colors of gray and navy blue.  I downloaded a picture of a fox and enlarged it by graphing 1/2" - 1".  It made it perfect for fitting on the mat.  I cut the fox out of orange fleece and white felt for the face and white fur for the chest and tail.  I used black felt for the feet, nose, and ears. I found this great fox print for the edging.

This is the bottom of the mat.  This fleece material with the adorable owls is perfect for a forest theme and a gray room.  I decided to stitch through all layers of the mat so that the fox outline would show up on the back of the mat as well as the front.  I usually just appliqué the top and then I have to tie the rest of the mat to keep it in place.  By doing it this way, the mat stays in place without tying it.   

This shows most of the animals as they are hanging.  I was unable to get a good angle to get all of them.  The bear is the most hidden of them all.  

This is the bear as will be seen by the baby as he lays on his back and looks up at the animals. This was the first animal I made and was surprised at how large he still turned out to be. I usually have my animals hang from their heads, but it was suggested by my sister-in-law that I should put the hanger on the back of the animal and have it face downward.  I hadn't thought of that, but that is what I did and it worked. The yarn I chose for this bear is really soft, but does not look as nice as I thought it would.  It was also very hard to work with.  One good thing is that it doesn't show mistakes. It was very difficult to get the straight needle through to sew the seams and to add the details like the eyes and toe nails.

A fox themed play set certainly needs a fox and this was the
reason I needed for buying the book of patterns. His nose is
a little shorter than it should be, but he sort of looks like a fox.

This shows the bottom of the fox and more of what the baby will see.

This is a squirrel/skunk.  I used the squirrel pattern and widened the tail and used fun fur to get the furry look. His front legs do not show up, but he does have them.  They just came out a little too short.  Another of my miscalculations.The problem I had with this skunk is that while most of the animals had patterns for 14"-15" animals, he was only about 9". I automatically started him with the half pattern like for the other animals. It wasn't until I had gotten the head done that I realized he was going to be much smaller than the others.  I thought I would need to do another one and just use this one for something else. When I got the tail on, he looked big enough and so he is it for the skunk that was requested.

Just wanted to show the stripe down his back.  I was able to use a pattern for another skunk pattern that I have to do the stripe.  I didn't just want to use that pattern for this skunk because the face is not done in the same manner as these animals. It is just a round head with the snout added.  This one has a more realistic looking face and fit this set of animals better.

This bunny was so hard to knit. I wanted to use this
super soft yarn, but it is not easy to sew together.
All his parts are sewn on so crooked, but it is almost
impossible to take out, so one arm is higher than
the other and one ear is lower. You can say he
has character.

See how lopsided he is?  I made the pom pom tail
with a different yarn so it would be easier to
work with.