My hand was really stiff and swollen after my the cast for my fracture was removed. But I had good function in my first and second fingers. They hadn’t been in the cast like my 4th and 5th fingers, but their mobility was definitely impinged by it!

One Saturday morning, walking home from the Farmers Market, I stopped in at Tight Knit, a new knitting store in the Square. There, on the front counter, were 2 small knit hedgehogs, made by a client. They were adorable! And small! I figured that my hands were probably up to knitting a tiny hedghog!

I asked the owner if she had a pattern and was told the pattern was “Hans the Hedgehog”, and could be found on Ravelry. Turns out the creator of the pattern is someone whose work I know well. Margaret Bloom is the author of two awesome books on about making peg dolls. Both of which I have in my crafting bookcase and have used extensively. Old friend, new medium!

Ravelry will redirect you to Margaret’s website, “We Bloom Here”, and the pattern I used to knit the Hans the Hedghog {Sic} is in a blog post from November 25, 2013. As I would expect, the pattern’s directions are excellent. It takes me a bit over an hour to knit the tiny hedghog (2.5 inches) plus a bit more time to embroider the eyes, nose and sew on the felt ears.

My occupational therapist was delighted when I told her I’d been able to knit and totally smitten when I showed her the picture of what I’d made. I didn’t think it was a big deal to be knitting because my thumb, first and second fingers were doing most of the work. But she told me it was great therapy for my affected 4th and 5th fingers as they are used for balance while knitting. Fascinating! I knit the larger green hedghog for her, just because she loved them so much.

Googling Hans and Margaret Bloom today, I discovered that Margaret has written a new pattern for a BIG Hans the Hedghog! He comes out at nine inches! He’s pretty cute too, but my favorite Hans is the little 2.5 inch fellow!

If you fall down the Google rabbit hole, looking for more about Hans the Hedgehog, you’ll discover that he is actually a Grimm Fairy tale. It’s a bit peculiar. But that may just be me…I’ve always found Grimm fairy tales to be, well, grim!