Mermaid

I made the mermaid from this book recommended by my friend Heather. Dream Toys: A Collection of Knit and Crochet Fantastical Toys by Claire Garland. I used yarn I had laying around, so I had to be pretty creative with colors. Oh, I did buy some clearance yarn from Hobby Lobby while in Lexington, it was $1.99 but originally marked $8.59. I wouldn't have paid that much for this yarn, but it worked well for the tankini and tail ruffles (Yarn Bee Intigue - pink). The body is Knit Picks sock yarn brown tweed (russett), fingering weight, the tail is Knit Picks Wool of the Andes, worsted weight, spruce, hair is Noro Kureyon (yes, still leftover from the fated poncho project), and teh tail flippers are a silk yarn I spun from silk sheets from Robin (thanks Robin for introducing me to spinning!), maybe about fingering weight. I made a few changes, the tail fins were supposed to be worsted weight yarn knitted with size 2 needles, they would still have been so large, I switched to fingering weight on size 2 needles. And then I was running out of my silk yarn, so I made them about half the size of the pattern. I basically cut out a bunch of rows. The arms are i-cord rather than flat, and 6 stiches. I couldn't figure out how to do the knots on her tail and in her hair, so they are just stiched on designs of my own doing.
Heather said the project was very easy. I don't say I agree with VERY easy, the knitting was not difficult, but it was advanced beginner or intermediate I'd say. the hard part was piecing everything together, the part I hate most about knitting. There is a reason most of my projects are knit in-the-round ;-)
Here she is posing next to the lake. I guess she is a fresh-water mermaid. Still no name yet, I think Fushia is the current suggestion.


And here she is posing next to a waterfall in Grandma Bertie's pool: