Free Pattern: Tiny Hillary and Tiny Trump

Celebrate your favorite 2016 presidential candidate and/or cope with the impending demise of democracy with these free patterns! If you enjoy them, please visit the Mochimochi Shop for more nonpartisan knits.

You’ll need:
—Fingering-weight yarn in small amounts of several colors for skin, clothing, hair, and accessories
—Set of size 1 US (2.25mm) double-pointed needles
—Tapestry needle
—Small amount of stuffing

Notes:
—The finished projects are very small and are not suitable for pundits aged three and under. (You can scale them up with thicker yarn and bigger needles.)
—A list of pattern abbreviations can be found here.

Tiny Trump

Body

With pants color, cast on 6 stitches onto one DPN.
Rnd 1 (work as I-cord): [Kfb] 6 times (12 sts).
Distribute the stitches onto 3 DPNs to continue working in a round.
Rnd 2: [Kfb, k2] 4 times (16 sts).
Rnd 3: [Kfb, k1] 8 times (24 sts).
Rnds 4-9: Knit (6 rnds).
Switch to shirt color.
Rnds 10-14: Knit (5 rnds).
Switch to skin color.
Rnd 15: [K2tog, k1] 8 times (16 sts).
Rnds 16-21: Knit (6 rnds).
Stuff the piece.
Rnd 22: [K2tog] 8 times (8 sts).
Break the yarn and draw it tightly through the stitches with a tapestry needle.

With black, embroider eyes onto the piece with two small horizontal stitches for each, placed 3 stitches up from the last color change and spaced 2 stitches apart.

Arms

With shirt color, cast on 2 stitches onto one DPN.
Knit 20 rows of I-cord, then break the yarn and draw it tightly through the stitches with a tapestry needle.

With the tail still threaded on the tapestry needle, insert the I-cord through the body, one stitch below the last color change. Pull the I-cord halfway through, so that an equal length sticks out from each side.

Weave the loose ends back through the I-cord and body.

Hair

With hair color, cast on 6 stitches onto one DPN to work flat.
Row 1: Purl.
Row 2: Knit.
Row 3: Purl.
Row 4: [K2tog] twice, k2 (4 sts).
Row 5: Purl.
Row 6: [K2tog] twice (2 sts).
Break the yarn and draw it tightly through the stitches, from right to left, with a tapestry needle.

Finishing

Stitch the cast-on edge of the hair piece onto the top of the head, then embroider the sides and back of the hair to the head with vertical stitches.

With pink, embroider a mouth with two horizontal stitches between and just below the eyes.

Embroider a tie with two vertical stitches that span the length of the shirt, topped by two wide horizontal stitches.

Weave in the remaining loose ends.

Tiny Hillary

Body

Work legs
With pantsuit color, cast on 3 stitches onto one DPN.
Rnd 1 (work as I-cord): [Kfb] 3 times (6 sts).
Rnds 2 and 3 (also worked as I-cord): Knit.
Break the yarn and set the piece aside on the needle.
Make another leg in the same way as the first, without breaking the yarn.

Join legs and work torso and head
Hold the legs parallel on the 2 DPNs, with the purl stitches facing each other and the working yarn attached to the rightmost stitch on the back needle.

Rnd 1: Knit the legs together into one round, starting by knitting the stitches on the front needle, then turning the needles around together to knit the stitches on the other needle (12 sts).
Distribute the stitches onto 3 DPNs to continue working in a round.
Rnd 2: [Kfb, k2] 4 times (16 sts).
Rnd 3: [Kfb, k3] 4 times (20 sts).
Rnds 4-9: Knit (6 rnds).
Switch to skin color.
Rnd 10: [K2tog, k3] 4 times (16 sts).
Rnds 11-16: Knit (6 rnds).
Stuff the piece.
Rnd 17: [K2tog] 8 times (8 sts).
Break the yarn and draw it tightly through the stitches with a tapestry needle.
With black, embroider sunglass lenses onto the face with four horizontal stitches for each, spanning 1-2 knit stitches. Space them one stitch apart.
Make one long stitch going under each of the lenses to finish the sunglasses.

Arms

With pantsuit color, cast on 2 stitches onto one DPN.
Knit 18 rows of I-cord, then break the yarn and draw it tightly through the stitches with a tapestry needle.

With the tail still threaded on the tapestry needle, insert the I-cord through the body, two stitches below the color change. Pull the I-cord halfway through, so that an equal length sticks out from each side.

Weave the loose ends back through the I-cord and body.

Finishing

With hair color, embroider hair around the head with long vertical stitches radiating from a side part.
With a contrasting color, embroider a shirt with duplicate stitch, and use small horizontal stitches for the offset suit buttons and earrings.

Weave in the loose ends, stitching up the gap between the legs as you do so.

Still not sure who to vote for? Visit Politifact for help!