Book Review: Knitted Wild Animal Friends

Sweet stuffed animals turn a little less wild in this cute book full of patterns for animals along with clothing and accessories.

Knitted Wild Animal Friends by Louise Crowther features patterns for 12 different animals, as well as a closet full of clothes, shoes and more that you can mix and match to dress your dolls. The animals included are:

elephant
rhinoceros
giraffe
lion
chimpanzee
tiger
zebra
sloth
koala
bear
hippopotamus
panda

The animals generally use the same pattern pieces for their bodies, arms and legs, though some have contrasting paws, for example, or stripes or other embellishments. Each animal is shown in a unique, multi-piece outfit. The elephant is a ballerina with a leotard, tie-front sweater, three-layered skirt and ballet slippers, for example, while the sloth has tw0-piece, striped pajamas with a star on the shirt, a fuzzy bathrobe and slippers.

The book is listed on Ravelry but the photos from the book aren’t there. You can look in the projects to see images of the animals that other people have made.

All of the clothing is designed to be interchangeable. The bottom parts of the garments are worked flat and closed with buttons that make it possible to wear with different tail positions. In fact, most of the knitting on these projects is done flat, but there are lots of detailed instructions with photos at the back of the book to help you with the seaming and other techniques needed to complete these cute animals.

This book is a good introduction to knit amigurumi (or knitting animals and toys) if you’ve never done it before. You’ll get a good grounding in colorwork techniques, too, as there are stripes, fair isle (one very cute sweater), instarsia and duplicate stitch projects. All of these are explained in the back as well. Most of the patterns that include charts have written instructions as well if you need a little help with that.

About the book: 128 pages, paperback, 12 animals and more than 40 patterns total. Published 2022 by David and Charles. Suggested retail price $24.99.

Next Pattern:

Sometimes I feel like knitters get intimidated to try new things because they think they need to start with a big project. Your first time working in the round doesn’t need to be a sock, and your first colorwork doesn’t need to be a sweater, for example. You can find little projects that use the skills you want to learn to build your confidence before you move on to something that requires more time commitment.

This adorable knit bunny, for example.

The colorwork bunny from Knit Picks was designed by Amy Munson and is a kind of bowling pin shaped bunny complete with a knit hat, contrasting inner ears and a little stranded colorwork on its body. Note that the ears are attached the the hat not the bunny, but you could stitch them to the bunny if you’d rather.

It’s worked from the bottom up and also has a tiny pompom tail you can’t see in the picture but it’s a really cute touch. There are a variety of little fair isle patterns to choose from to make the best bunny for you.

The bunny comes out about 8 inches tall (or just over 20 cm) and use several colors to complete the colorwork, depending on the design you choose.

You can purchase the pattern by itself from Knit Picks, or make a kit that includes sport weight yarn in all the colors you need for your creation. There are gray and brown options for the main body of the bunny, but of course if you’re using your own yarn you can make it whatever color you like.

Once you’ve tried colorwork (maybe also working in the round and shaping if those are skills you haven’t used before) in a little project like this you’ll be ready to take on something bigger in no time.

Check out the pattern on Knit Picks.

[Photo: Knit Picks]

Next Pattern:

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