These little pandas were made with a kit from Barrett Wool Co. The pattern is by Susan B. Anderson and it’s lovely to knit! The kit comes with black, cream, and red yarn, as well as some safety eyes. I bought two kits because I assumed each kit would have just a little more than enough yarn for one panda. However, I was surprised to find that I made both bodies easily out of one kit. I don’t know if I would have been able to make two red hoodies. I didn’t try because I knew I would be making different hoodies for each panda so there would be some way of telling them apart.

The mint green hoodie is leftover Kelbourne Woolens Scout in the mint heather colorway. The red yarn is fingering weight held double. The Scout is DK weight, but I decided it was close enough. It worked pretty well, but sometimes the hood on the Scout hoodie droops whereas the one made with Barrett Wool Co. Yarn does not.

The Panda pattern is well written and very easy to follow. The designer, Susan B. Anderson, has the knitter put in purl bumps to designate where limbs should be picked up afterward. After knitting the first one and following the instructions exactly I decided to pick up and knit limbs on the second panda before stuffing the body. I found it much easier to do magic loop on the limbs and flip it around without the body being stuffed. I took a break on the body when I was at the bottom of the face portion to do the limbs.

I haven’t knitted toys in a loooooong time and these were really fun and fairly fast. They were presents for the little ladies for Christmas, so I had to knit them stealthily in bits when they were engrossed in something or asleep at night. I did knit the first hoodie right in front of them, pretending it was a gift for a friend’s new baby. I have enough yarn to knit two more pandas, so perhaps more will appear at some point!