I was excited to further my knitting skills and so looking at some pattern books, I find these cute little creatures - animaguri. I bought the book, some yarn and some knitting needles.
The first one I made was the monkey. It wasn't perfect but I enjoyed making it. His head turned out a bit flat, I colored his eyes with a marker and his shorts were a little hinky :).
The next one I attempted turned out a bit better, I think. A kangaroo and joey. I used safety eyes for the mama. The gauge on the bag strap was not good - it ended up being too short but I just added some more length. The joining point for that extra piece doesn't look great - I may go back and redo the entire strap. However, I just want to keep making them - they're so cute!
Then I made a polar bear. The stripped hat was my first attempt at changing colors while knitting. I cut the yarn for each change instead of carrying it across the rows. I ended up knitting some of the straggling ends into the next row and had to pull it out to restart that row. A bit frustrating for sure - but I learned. BTW - that's my sock loom at his feet in this picture - more about that in another post.
The latest one is my favorite so far - the lion. Although his nose needs tweaking and nobody is allowed to look at the wrong side of the vest, I like him! When my grandma taught me embroidery, she told me the underside needed to look as good as the top side. Not true for this vest! Hey I'm trying here 🙂
Some of my friends are asking me what I'm going to do with these - sell them? I don't know where these little friends will go but I just can't wait to make some more of them!
Update 6/13/2020:
I made several more of these. All these I put into a grab bag of gifts for the annual family Christmas party along with my dishcloths, a few baby sweaters and socks. It was a big hit and lot of fun.
 
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