Australian Animals

I can now release my mini Australian animals pattern. The pattern has been published in Australia in Homespun, which you can read about here. After a bit of negotiating Homespun have kindly let the copyright return to me. I have been waiting for my little animals to return, mainly because I needed to take my own photos for the pattern. Kind of chuffed that my little creatures have actually done the journey to Australia and back. (Because of some trouble with customs charges they have actually been there and back three times, which is why hubby refers to them as the jet set.)
 

These animals are really tiny. So I recommend the pattern only for those that are fans of the fiddly and little. There is quite a bit of sewing up in the attachment of legs, ears and beaks. 

The pattern contains instructions for all four mini creatures. Homespun presented them as mini pendants, though I think they are also cute as little toys.  

This Blue Kookaburra was my first try. He is native to Northern Australia and New Guinea. Homespun decided to go with the traditional brown Laughing Kookaburra, which is the one most people have heard of, though I think visually I prefer my distinctive blue one.

The wombat was the design that I worried about most. I was not sure than I could make him distinctively wombatty enough. I even toyed with the idea of replacing him with a crocodile. But in the end he turned out just fine.

Kangaroo and Koala just flew off my needles. It would have been nice to have given Kangaroo a pouch and a joey, but given the size this just wasn't possible. So I have just googled "Do male kangaroos have pouches?" and found out they do not. So I guess I can say that he is a boy.
 

I enjoyed the challenge of making these little creatures so much that I am currently working on another set from a completely different part of the world.

The pattern, which contains instructions for all four, is available on ravelry, Love Knitting and Etsy.