Knit an Adorable Tiny Shrew

I’m going to admit up front here that all this time I thought a shrew was a bird. It’s actually a mole-like mammal that wort of looks like a mouse, but it isn’t a rodent. They live most places in the world (other than New Guinea, Australia, New Zealand and South America, thanks, Wikipedia!) and, at 385 known species they are the fourth-most species-diverse mammal family.

They’re also really cute.

Claire Garland reports that she had a shrew visiting her garden throughout the summer, and while it was too quick to photograph, it could be immortalized in knitting.

The real one probably didn’t have a tiny striped sweater, but I’ll allow it.

Claire says the design is “a little fiddly” as its worked in several tiny pieces (which are joined as you go) on the smallest knitting needles she could find (US 00, or 1.75 mm). The completed creature only stands about 3 inches/8 cm tall.

The good news is you might have stash yarn you can use to make this little one, as it only takes about 50 yards total.

She used tiny glue-in eyes, but you can embroider eyes instead (with French knots or just a little stitch). The sweater pattern is included in the pattern for the shrew.

The pattern is available for free on Ravelry but you really need to check out the Instagram Reel she shared when the pattern was released, because it’s super cute and tells a bit more of the story of the shrew in the garden.

Claire’s patterns are so sweet and this would be a great addition to or start of a collection of tiny woodland creatures to knit and create a little world for.

In the meantime, does anyone know what kind of bird I was thinking of when I was sure a shrew was a bird? That’s going to keep me confused for a while.

[Photo: Claire Garland]

There are two schools of thought when it comes to instructional books about knitting. Either focus in one particular technique or kind of knitting (stranded knitting, say, or brioche) or try to cover a little bit of everything in a reference book that knitters will use throughout their careers.

The Knitting Book by Frederica Patmore and Dr. Vikki Haffenden aims to be the second kind. The subtitle is: a step-by-step guide to creating imaginative projects for the home and to wear. I’m not sure it does that, exactly, but it does include a quick look at a lot of different techniques and stitch patterns you might use in your projects.

A “guide to creating imaginative projects” sounds to me like it’s about design, but this book is not. There’s 1/3 of a page about altering patterns that only talks about how to add length to a sleeve and adjust where the increases go.

There’s nothing about measuring your body (the section on choosing a size in a pattern only suggests measuring a garment you already own), general garment construction, ease or stitch pattern multiples. The section on gauge (which is the last third of the page with choosing a garment size and altering patterns, discussed above) just says to knit a swatch, block and measure it to compare to a pattern, with no discussion on how you might use your swatch to design your own project or alter a pattern to meet your gauge.

If you ignore the subtitle, what you will find is a lot of information about different kinds of knitting and various techniques you might want to try on your projects. There are 20 cast ons and 15 bind off options, for instance, all discussed before you learn how to knit or purl. (Another quibble I have with this book is the order in which things are presented, but that’s relatively minor.)

You’ll find quick hits on increases and decreases, twists and cables, lace, colorwork, textured effects like fisherman’s rib and brioche, loops, mosaic knitting, double knitting, decorative stitches, shadow knitting, bias knitting, mitered squares, entrelac and more. There are tips for selvedge stitches, knitting with beads, adding buttonholes, picking up stitches and more.

A few patterns at the back give knitters a taste of some of the techniques included, but they’re not rated by skill level and the first one is a bias knit gradient scarf worked in six different colors of mohair, which isn’t a thing I’d wish on any beginner.

And I guess that’s maybe what my issue with the book is. I don’t know if it’s meant for beginners and it doesn’t seem to, either. I feel like this book would be overwhelming to new knitters and doesn’t really give you a place to start or all the information you might need to do projects well.

The variety of techniques included is fun, and there are also stitch patterns in the back you can use on your own projects, but again it doesn’t really provide any guidance for how to design your own projects so I don’t know how helpful all of that is.

I want to like books like this because having one reference that helps you with a lot of different things is great, I’m just not sure this is the one. If you can find it at your library or local book store and flip through it before buying, I think that would be a great idea to see if it’s a book that would be helpful for you.

And if you have this book and love it please let me know! I’m sure it’s good for someone I’m just not sure who.

About the book: 336 pages, hardcover. Published 2026 by DK. Suggested retail price $40.

Have you read?