A Knitted Farm Playmat: Part 1

It was back to work for me this week. (Gosh, those newborns look and feel so small after hefting around my chunk!) That means back to daycare for the boys. Even though they are only there for 3.5 hours, twice a week, it is really hard to leave them. Especially poor Isaac, who will not nap while there. Our kiddos are not the kind of kids that can nap in a bright room with music or talking or other children about. Nope, they require a dark room, white noise, and a tummy sleeping position (a big no-no, I know. But when your baby has reflux, you will do anything to help them sleep). Poor Isaac is an overstimulated mess by the time Curtis picks him up. But, I digress...

Due to working Tuesday and Wednesday, this is my belated 'Work in Progress' post. I have this habit of starting multiple, rather large projects at once. I like to have a few different things going so I can choose to work on whatever project I am in the mood for at that particular moment. I currently have the Tea Leaves Cardigan, socks, and a shawl in progress. Add to that my current project and I will be busy for a long, long time.

The first time I saw a knitted farmyard playmat, I knew I wanted to make one. For those of you who have never seen one, it is a mat or rug that has different fields and gardens laid out for children to play on with toy animals, tractors and such. I got the book, The Knitted Farmyard, but it just looked too overwhelming and actually involved very little knitting and lots of embroidery. Then I saw the knitted and felted version in Living Crafts magazine, but I didn't really care for how the separate 'blocks' were all square-ish. I wanted the more realistic look of the Knitted Farmyard version.

After some thought, I decided to go with the Knitted Farmyard version, but designed my own pattern. I thought if I was going to do this, I might as well do it on a large scale. I drew my pattern on 3' x 5' piece of paper, then laid a 3' x 5' rug canvas (from Joann's) over the top and traced my pattern onto the canvas with a black marker, leaving a 2 inch border all the way around for finishing. After gathering up all my green and brown wool, I got started with the embroidery using 3 strands of worsted yarn in tent stitch.
Oh my. This is going to take forever! BUT... I really, really, like how it looks so far. The fields are latch-hooked, another thing I have never done before.
This is not the difficult project I thought it would be. The only intimidating part is how long it is going to take. But it is actually nice, mindless stitching, and the various textures and colors keep it interesting. I told Curtis that he could work on it too, if he wanted. He declined.

Well, I will never finish anything if I use my precious baby napping time blogging. Maybe Isaac will sleep all day to make up for not sleeping the previous two days? Probably not...
~Jen