Knitting

Free Patterns, Tutorials and Project Ideas

Book Review: Knitted Wild Animal Friends

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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.

 

Have you read?

Patchwork Blanket Knitting Patterns

Any time of year is a good time for stash busting, but if you can combine it with knitting a blanket that will keep you warm when it (finally!) gets cooler that’s even better. Let’s take a look at some fun patchwork blanket knitting patterns. 

If you want to keep it super simple, you can just make blocks of garter stitch and sew them together, like the beginner’s patchwork baby blanket from Mini Baa Baa or the color block blanket from Make and Do Crew. Both projects are worked in strips and sew together, with the baby version calling for two strands of DK or light worsted weight yarn held together and the larger one using bulky yarn. 

Add a little more texture with the mixed blocks of the cottage quilt throw from Mama in a Stitch. This one combines garter stitch and seed stitch and uses worsted weight yarn. She used a crochet join to make the chains on top of the blocks, but you can join them however you like. It calls for eight colors but you can use what you have, and there are three size options. 

Get a real sampler style patchwork blanket with this design from Knit Sew Make. It calls for worsted weight yarn and has four size options. All of the patterns just use knit and purl stitches so this one is still pretty easy for beginners. 

If you want a more complex colorwork project that will keep you entertained all season, try the Peace by Piece blanket pattern from Needle and Feather. This one is made up of two color colorwork blocks and calls for worsted weight yarn. You can choose to use just a few of the blocks and repeat them more often, or make multiples of the whole set. 

The knitted patchwork recipe from Martine Ellis (free on Ravelry) uses mitered squares in fingering weight yarn, so it’s perfect for using up all your leftover sock yarn and mini skeins. This one is a tutorial more than a pattern so you can make your blanket as big as you like or keep going until you run out of yarn. 

Susan B. Anderson’s 100 Squares blanket (find it on Ravelry) has a lot of mitered squares, too, but they’re arranged in fun ways and includes some quilt inspired designs as well. This one also is a bit of method more than pattern but it sure looks like a lot of fun for using all the leftovers. 

Of course you can totally improvise a patchwork blanket using the yarn and stitches you like, but I hope these patterns inspire you to look at your leftover yarn in a new way.