Written by Maz from The Knitting Times

Being a new grandmother, I have decided to have a go at knitting some toys. I’m not usually a toy knitter, to be honest. I remember knitting a Jean Greenhouse duck toy, and some sort of dinosaur when my daughter was a baby, but I think that might be it knitted toy wise.

Anyway, I wanted the review the Knitted Wild Animal Friends toy knitting pattern book because it is simply stunning. The book contains knitting patterns for 12 beautiful wild animals, and a wonderful collection of clothes and outfits to dress them in.

Yes, Edward the Sloth really does need to be dressed in a funky fur jacket!

The knitting patterns for the following cute wild animal toys can be found in this beautiful book

• Olivia the Elephant
• Henry the Rhinoceros
• Isabelle the Giraffe
• Theo the Lion
• Charlie the Chimpanzee
• Sophie the Tiger
• Hugo the Zebra
• Edward the Sloth
• Poppy the Koala
• James the Bear
• Elsie the Hippopotamus
• Mia the Panda

Please see the photo below for some of the animals mentioned in the list. Aren’t they simply stunning? All of these knitting patterns and more are featured in the book.

The book also contains knitting patterns for a whole wardrobe to fit the super cute wild animals. Slippers, trainers, jackets, dresses, even handbags. You could create an amazing mix and match collection of wild animal toys for you or a lucky child to dress up, display, play with or simply collect.

Review of the knitting patterns inside the book

As a novice toy knitter, I have had a good look through the patterns to see whether or not they are accessible for all levels of knittings.

The toys are knit on fairly small needles with fine yarn, so you need to bear this is mind. There is some use of dpn needles for knitting in the round, but the toys are mostly knit on 2.75mm straight needles.

The knitting patterns come with plenty of excellent photos, and the instructions given are very easy to understand. A technique section at the back of the book clearly illustrates how to shape and attach ears, tails and other body parts. The required knitting colour work skills are included in the book, and you are shown how to sew up your cute animals.

I am definitely going to cast on one of the toys from this amazing knitting book soon. The sloth, I think. He is just too cute to resist!

I really do love this beautiful to knitting book and recommend it to anyone who likes to knit animal toys, or to those like me who fancy having a go at a new type of knitting but don’t know where to start.

You can find Knitted Wild Animal Friends by Louise Crowther at Amazon (#ad).