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Forget Penguin Jumpers, Knit a Marsupial Pouch!

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Knit pouches for orphaned marsupials.I don’t know how great a demand there really is for handknit marsupial pouches, or if it really is like the sweaters for penguins thing that comes around every couple of years when in fact sweaters for penguins are not really needed (charities sell them on stuffed penguins, so they do help, but not in the way you might think).

So I was a little skeptical when a link talking about knitting pouches for marsupials appeared in my Facebook feed, but it looks like there are a few wildlife rehabilitation places in Australia that use the bags to keep babies warm.

Take this, for example, from WIRES Northern Rivers‘ donation site:

Having joeys in care not only takes time with chores such as feeding many times throughout the night and day, cleaning enclosures, making bottles etc etc. Each joey be that a possum, glider, macropod or tiny Bandicoot needs a pouch.

and

The size of pouches vary greatly depending on the stage of development of the joey in need and unfortunately with washing regularly, the life span of a pouch is not unlimited and as such the need for pouches is always great for marsupial carers.

While they say they have dedicated sewers and knitters who regularly provide pouches, more are always needed. The Kangaloola Wildlife Shelter also mentions pouches (though their patterns are for the fleece lining only).

If you want to knit a pouch for a joey, they like 100 percent wool outer parts lined with washable fleece or cotton. You can find more information here. They like them just in garter stitch, so knitters of any skill level can help.

[Photo via WIRES.]

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Comments

  1. There was a need for penguin jumpers after an oil spill. To clean it off they have to use detergent and it removes the natural oil that coats their feathers keeping them water-proof and cold repellant. Joeys pouches (all marsupial animals grow in a pouch) are needed by all kinds of rescue groups in Australia

Have you read?

Book Review: Cable Knitting Stitch Dictionary

Stitch dictionaries are a fun way to learn new-to-you knitting stitch patterns or to take a deep dive into a particular technique. Debbie Tomkies offers 100 cable stitch designs and thoughts on how to incorporate them into projects in her Cable Knitting Stitch Dictionary.

Each stitch pattern is shown in a large swatch photo and with written and charted instructions. Any special stitches are included on the page. The stitches are rated on a difficulty scale of 1 to 3, and the pattern notes also indicate how many extra stitches you should add to a project if you’re going to work this cable (since cables pull the fabric closer together you need to compensate for that) as well as how many stitches and rows are in the repeat if you want to design a project yourself.

The cables are arranged into sections: classic cables, combinations, all-over panels, creative cables, motifs and panels and cabled edges and borders.

It’s fun to flip through the designs to think about projects you can add a single cable or two to or make with an allover cabled design. Or you could make swatches of different cables and sew them together into a pillow cover or a throw.

At the back of the book there’s a section on general cable knitting techniques, reading charts, working swatches and avoiding errors (though it mentions working the wrong number of rows between cable turns, it doesn’t share how to count rows between cables to avoid this mistake).

It also talks about how to design your own cables, combine cables in a project, choose the right yarn and needles and determine how many more stitches you need to cast on when working cables instead of stockinette stitch. There’s also a glossary of symbols and abbreviations you may find in cable knitting and other patterns.

The book provides a good overview of things you can do with cables, as well as some fun things you might not have tried like infinity cables and horizontal cables. It’s a great book for a designer who likes to work with cables or a knitter who wants to play with different stitches in their projects.

About the book: 176 pages, paperback, 100 stitch patterns. Published 2024 by David & Charles. Suggested retail price $26.99.