Ladybug antennae

#1

i am currently knitting a ladybug-themed sweater for my friend’s baby, improvising on a basic hodded sweater pattern from lion brand. my plan is to knit two icords and attach them to the hood to make antannae. someone had suggested to me that i put pipe cleaners inside the icords so that the antannae stick up, but i am afraid that the metal inside the pipe cleaners could poke through the knitting and injure either the baby or someone holding the baby. (i don’t want to be responsible for someone’s eye getting poked out!)

has anyone here made something similar before? what did you use to keep the “antannae” rigid? i don’t really want them to stick straight up - i liked the idea of pipe cleaners, because they could be bent in all kinds of cute shapes. any ideas for an alternative?

#2

I wouldn’t use pipe cleaners. They wouldn’t survive a washing and could poke through the knitting and hurt the baby.

If you use thin i-cords they will tend to fall over and be floppy. Really, anything that is long will be floppy, but if you make fatter ones… maybe 4 stitches (?) they might stay up a big better if they are short. :shrug:

#3

i didn’t even think about pipecleaners not surviving a wash - good point!

short and fat may be the way to go. i thought it would be cute to have longer ones that could be bendy, though.

#4

It would be cute, but not practical especially for a baby.

#5

i am still interested in suggestions, if anyone has any…

#6

Do they really NEED antennae? A ladybug is a ladybug, and I don’t think there will be any question about it! Any chance you could leave them off?

#7

if i leave them off, the sweater will just be red with black polka-dots - i don’t think it will be as obvious that it is supposed to be a ladybug!

#8

maybe rubber tubing like one would use in an aquarium, run inside the i-cord? If it was short, maybe an inch or so, they might stick up.

#9

You could always make a tube and stuff it with quilt batting. Just a suggestion. Maybe if it’s knit real tight and stuffed they might stand up but still be flexible enough so they won’t hurt anyone. Don’t forget about a pom pom on the top. Some felt might work, too.

#10

Your ladybug sweater idea sounds so cute. I second the idea of stuffing an i-cord or other small tube with batting of some kind. I think that would stiffen it quite a bit. Another thing that might work would be to put some pellon inside it. Pellon (facing material) comes in many different weights and you could make it quite stiff that way I think.

#11

just in case anyone was wondering how this turned out - i decided to just do regular icords (six stitches) without putting anything inside. they are a bit floppy, but they stick up pretty well and look super cute! i will update the thread with photos later this week, if anyone is interested.

#12

I’d love to see a picture! Post it in What’cha Knittin’ so more people will get to see it, too. :thumbsup: