Knit your own Bible!

Nicky Harvey and I have been hard at work over the last few weeks designing and making prototypes for our "knit your own Bible" project.

Seal School and our own Sunday School are in need of ways of helping children explore Bible stories. We discovered that it was easy to find toys relating to the Nativity or Noah's Ark, but nothing much beyond that, so we decided to knit our own.

You can see the result - a great pile of glove puppets - here, along with the pattern and suggestions to create a wide variety of Bible characters.

If you like to knit, why not make some and send them to me to be used in the school and Sunday school. (Of course you can also make the puppets for your own children or grandchildren, or for a project you knit for - we don't mind at all, so long as you don't sell the pattern for gain.)

The pattern is simple - if you can manage basic knitting stitches you can knit these. It is just the thing to occupy those long winter evenings!

UPDATES.

Here are DAVID AND GOLIATH. I made David smaller than the standard pattern (the body was 14 stitches wide, and I cast on 8 rather than 10 stitches for the arms, then cast off 10 for the neck).The belt and pouch (for the sling shots!) were embroidered on afterwards.Goliath's body was 20 stitches wide, 24 rows long before the arms. I cast on 12 stitches for the arms and cast off 14. The armour was made as for the Roman soldier, and I made a separate beard, then sewed in hair and embroidered a sword afterwards.

PONTIUS PILATE/ ROMAN

Basic figure, with a white sleeveless tunic. For the toga I cast on 18 stitches and knitted stocking stitch (with first three stitches each side garter stitch to prevent it curling up) , until it was long enough to go right around body and over shoulder. I finished with a few rows of garter stitch, then sewed it onto body.

LION

Mane is knitted in wispy wool. Tail is a stocking stitch rectangle, folded into tube and sewn on.