Knitting Warm Fuzzies for Australia’s Animals

I told you last year about a story calling for people to knit marsupial pouches for animals in Australia who might need a little extra help and warmth after being injured or when babies aren’t with their mamas.

I said then that I didn’t really know how much of a need there was for such a thing, but it turns out the pouches are actually used, as seen in this story about a group of knitters who make 24 pouches and delivered them to Australia Zoo’s wildlife hospital.

The knitters said they had knit jumpers for penguins after an oil spill, and they wanted to do something to help other animals.

“The handmade pouches will be put to good use right away for the smallest, and often most threatened, native wildlife that are admitted to the wildlife hospital,” said Cynthia Thompson of the zoo.

This picture of a wee possum in a knit cozy might be just the thing to change my mind about possums, too.

[Photo from the Australia Zoo, via Brisbane Times.]

Next Pattern:

If you’re looking for a sweater knitting pattern that uses up some of your stash and allows you to make just the sweater you want, the Marlina Rib by Shay Johson might be just the thing.

It’s worked with two strands of fingering weight yarn held together to make a DK weight gauge, so you can use the same two yarns throughout or change one or both regularly for an even more colorful look.

The pattern has options to make it either a crewneck or a henley style with buttons, tapered or relaxed sleeves, and a straight hemline or a split hem with buttons (which sounds so cute if you do the henley with split hem and match the buttons on both parts).

It’s also knit from the top down so you can make the body and the sleeves as long as you want. There are 10 sizes available in the pattern, with a chest circumference ranging from 32 to 68 inches, or 81.5 to 172.5 cm. It’s meant to be worn with 4-6 inches/10-15 cm of positive ease at the chest.

The pattern page on Ravelry includes tons of measurements and yardage estimates so you can make sure you’ll get a good fit for your body before you even buy the pattern. Shay also shows a few variations of the sweater so you can see how different options look before you decide how you want to put them together.

The stitch pattern is 1×2 ribbing, which is really easy to do and gives a look almost like fisherman’s rib that’s relaxed and easy to wear.

This sweater looks like a great option for people who are somewhat new to sweater knitting or those who love to have lots of customization options (because it’s like getting multiple sweater patterns in one!).

Check out all the details and grab a copy of the pattern for yourself at Ravelry.

[Photo: Shay Johnson]

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