In this lesson, you’ll learn  a few more techniques & hone some of the skills you’ve been building in the previous lessons.  Everything is nature based & you’ll find quite a variety in complexity & shape.  It’s time to add even more personality to your playscape.

First, you’ll start with an easy project – Straw Bales.  Knit flat, stuffed & sewn up – super fun!

Next, you’ll knit up your own forest of Evergreen Trees.  Use these to give your Playscape added vertical levels.  Vary the colours & sizes to give your children somewhere to hide when they’re playing hide & seek.

Moving into another fairly simple project, the Garden Path features a new stitch, the Sand Bar Stitch.

The Lily Pond is the perfect place to sail a tiny paper boat or give your animals somewhere to swim.  Adding the lilies makes it even more enchanting.

Finally, saving the most elaborate project to last – the Fire Pit & Logs.   The logs are really simple, you could knit up a stack in under an hour while the Fire Pit will take a little longer.  Composed of fairly easy pieces, it looks pretty impressive.

To inspire you – I recorded a video which shows you each piece & I give you some hints & tips.

Watch it first (don’t forget to hit FULL screen to see the details!).

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In Lesson 5, we’ll use the following techniques:  * NEW

• Cable Cast ON
• Picot Cast ON *
• Sand Bar Stitch *
• Stocking Stitch
• Garter Stitch
• Seed Stitch
• Slipped Stitches
• K2TOG Decrease
• Slip Slip Knit Decrease
• KFB Increase
• 1×1 Ribbing
• Sewing pieces together
• Sewing in Tails
• Embroidery Stitches

. VISIT the Gallery to see close up pictures of the various projects from this lesson.

Let’s begin!

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Straw Bales.

. Straw Bales are fun & easy.  Start your child knitting them & you may have a barn full in no time!

Vary the colour to make hay bales, construction blocks or blocks of ice.

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Evergreen Trees

The Evergreen Trees are quick to knit & fun to play with!

They stand on their own without any stuffing & make a great hiding place for little animals & other treats.

If you like, you can FULL your trees.  See below for the link to a Fulling Lesson.

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Garden Path

The Garden Path is simply a wider version of the Connectors you made in Lesson 1.

You can knit it using the Sand Bar Stitch as in the pattern or substitute another stitch you prefer
such as Garter, Seed or a combination of all 3.

If you wish to use the Stocking Stitch, make sure that you keep the Garter Stitch border to ensure
that the piece doesn’t roll up on itself!

This piece can be used as a road, path, river or even a railway (if you used the Welt Stitch & then embroidered
“rails” along the piece lengthwise).

Change the colours or mix yarns to create many different effects.

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Lily Pond

The Lily Pond is a wonderful addition to the Playscape.

Adding water allows children to take a completely different direction in their play.
They can float boats, ducks or gather water for their animals.

The Lily Pond may be FULLED (see above for a link to a lesson on fulling).
It is very easy to do & changes the look,size & shape of your pond.
( It took me less than 15 minutes to felt mine.)

If your pond isn’t quite as rounded as you’d like, you can shape it while fulling.

Add any details AFTER fulling – so they stay more 3-D.

Sew your pond to a Playscape square or leave it loose.

You could also make an entire aquatic square, with water plants all around the pond
& a stream leading away from it!

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Fire Pit & Logs

The Fire Pit & Logs may look complicated but they are just several fairly simple pieces
which are knit separately & assembled afterwards.

Start with the Yellow Cone of Fire, then knit the Orange Flames & finally
the Stone Fire Pit Surround.

The Logs are great mini-projects for your kids – either when they are first learning to knit or
when they want to make something quickly.

If you have a “construction” kid,  the logs may end up in dump trucks or diggers or you may
find that they’ve opened a logging camp!  Make them really long & float some down the river….

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