Jean Greenhowe Designs Official Website - MacScarecrow Clan knitting patterns, knitted dolls, toys

Jean Greenhowe Designs

Jean Greenhowe's MacScarecrow Clan (20 pages)

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Welcome to Glen Sunnybogle, Highland home of the Clan MacScarecrow, Scottish branch of the Scarecrow Family.

While working on her designs, Jean often makes up stories about her characters. But with the MacScarecrows something extra special happened and a whole magical world was created in the far-away Highlands of Scotland.

Scotty is keeper of the wild haggis - the cheeky little beasties who roam the hills of Glen Sunnybogle. His wife Morag is an expert knitter of the MacScarecrow tartan. They have two children, Wee Sproot and Baby Bonnie and a little dog called Scamp.

The oldest member of the family is Great Uncle Angus, bagpipe-playing Laird of ancient Bogle Castle. And last but not least, there is Big Bobby - the lovable green monster of Ben Bogle mountain!

Jean and her daughter Victoria wrote many stories about the family and their adventures. One of these is included in The MacScarecrow Clan knitting booklet. The tale of how Wee Sproot and his dog Scamp befriended Big Bobby, the great green monster who lived on Ben Bogle mountain. This proved to be so popular that Jean and Victoria eventually published a storybook titled ‘The MacScarecrow Clan, Stories from Glen Sunnybogle.’

The adult dolls measure about 34cm (13½in) in height, while Wee Sproot is a wee 24cm (9½in). Big Bobby is 38cm (15in) high.

Knitters will be intrigued to find that Uncle Angus ’ Bagpipe is a perfect tiny replica of the real instrument, complete in every detail.

You may imagine the kilts with all the checks would be tricky to produce on so small a scale. Not so. The horizontal stripes are knitted-in on the front pieces and the vertical stripes are worked in Swiss darning. Precise Scamp instructions and a photograph show just how simple this is. Jean has also devised a superb method for working the back pleats, based upon a simple rib pattern.

Also for Scamp, Jean designed the body and legs in just one piece of knitting, no separate gusset for the underbody and the sewing up couldn’t be easier.