Miyazaki's Studio Ghibli is well-known for their whimsical creatures. The susuwatari is one that most Ghibli fans will recognize and love! In My Neighbor Totoro, they inhabit unlived-in places and the girls discover them when they move into an old house. In Spirited Away, they are conjured from soot by a spell; they must work carrying coal for the bathhouse or they will turn back into soot.
They are hard to catch, but now you can knit your own! I've kind of been on an eyelash yarn bender lately and realized I could knit some of these guys up pretty quickly. I had some black Bernat Boa yarn on hand (given to me in a bag of specialty/novelty yarn by an aunt) and when I paired it up with some black Caron Simply Soft, these little fluff-balls worked up in no time. There are some lovely free crochet patterns out there, but finding stitches in fuzzy yarn is a downside to crochet. With knitting, all the stitches are right there on your needles!
My soot sprites are knitted in the round to avoid sewing seams (the bane of my existence) and are about 3 inches in diameter when completed. If you aren't a fan of double-pointed needles (and not bothered by sewing seams) you could knit them on straight needles by purling every even row and then sew them up at the end.
Click to queue pattern on Ravelry!
Materials:
Black eyelash yarn for body (ex: Lion Brand Fun Fur, Ice Eyelash, etc)
Black worsted or DK weight yarn (ex: Caron Simply Soft, Red Heart Soft, etc)
US 5 (3.75 mm) double-pointed needles (dpn)
Poly-fil or similar stuffing material
6mm safety eyes with backings
White felt, cut into a circle of approx 5/8-inch (15.8 mm) for the eye
Abbreviations:
K: Knit
Kfb: Increase by knitting into the front and back of the stitch
K2tog: Knit two stitches together
Eyes:
To make the eyes I use 6mm safety eyes and about 5/8-inch circle of white felt. You can experiment with different sizes and even oblong ovals to create susuwatari with a variety of personalities and looks.
I use a circle template and a soft graphite pencil to make cutting the felt easier and faster. After cutting out the circle, use your tapestry needle or sharp knitting needle to puncture a hole in the felt. I pierce slightly off-center to create a cute cross-eyed look in my sprites. A US 3 needle creates the perfect hole for my 6mm safety eye posts to fit snugly. Make sure that your pencil line is hidden on the back side of the felt when inserting the safety eye.
Body:
Holding the eyelash yarn and your worsted yarn together, cast on 6 (2 sts on each needle) and place marker. Body will be worked in the round, with the first stitch of Round 1 made into the first cast-on st to join. I like to position stitches on my needles as follows when working Round 1: first kfb on Needle1, next two kfb on Needle2, next two kfb on Needle3, last kfb on Needle1. (3 double-pointed needles with 4 stitches on each needle)
Rnd 1. *Kfb* repeat around (12 st)
Rnd 2. Knit all stitches
Rnd 3. *K1, kfb* repeat around (18 st)
Rnd 4. Knit all stitches
Rnd 5. *K2, kfb* repeat around (24 st)
Rnd 6. Knit all stitches
Rnd 7. *K3, kfb* repeat around (30 st)
Rnd 8-12. Knit all stitches (5 rounds total)
Rnd 13. *K3, k2tog* repeat around (24 st)
Rnd 14. Knit all stitches
Place safety eyes (with white felt as directed) at approx Rnd 11, about half an inch apart. Exact placement or centering isn’t important, as you are knitting a sphere and the cast-on and cast-off points will be hidden under the fluff. Play around with the placement of the eyes to get different personalities for your soot sprites.
Rnd 15. *K2, k2tog* repeat around (18 st)
Rnd 16. Knit all stitches
Start stuffing loosely. Too much stuffing now will create pressure that makes gaps in the live stitches between your needles. After adding stuffing, be sure to maintain adequate tension on the final rounds to avoid gaps between your stitches.
Rnd 17. *K2, k2tog* repeat around (18 st)
Rnd 18. Knit all stitches
Rnd 19. *K1, k2tog* repeat around (12 st)
Rnd 20. Knit all stitches
Stuff until you have the desired amount of squish in your soot sprite.
Rnd 21. *K2tog* repeat around (6 st)
Cut yarn, leaving a tail. Using a tapestry needle, draw that tail through the 6 live stitches. Remove those stitches from the needles and pull on the tail to close. Fasten off securely, then sew the tail inside body to hide it.
Sprite got some bald spots? Easily fixed! Using your tapestry needle or dpn, gently scratch the tip back and forth over the surface to release any eyelash strands that have been trapped by knitting. They should release fairly easily and you don’t need to get every strand.
If your sprite will be sitting on display and will not being handled much, you could insert black pipe cleaners to create pose-able arms and legs! Just remember to keep them well-fed with Konpeito star candy!
Enjoy! You are welcome to gift or sell anything you make from this pattern. If you do sell items made from this pattern, I would love it if you could link to me as the designer of the pattern. Thank you!