A New Post - Yay !!

Here is Ollie the Owl - he is my first knitted amigurumi toy - he just loves wool and wishes he could knit too!
Ollie the Owl and his friend Tomaso love to pose for the camera - owls and pussycats are usually great friends!!
Yet another pair of Penguins - these are such fun to knit that I can't stop making them!!
Small elephants are more fiddly to make than their larger cousins but I particularly like the way these ones turned out - here they are doing some tree-climbing!!
I really must knit these smaller elephants more often - I haven't knitted any for years!!
Finally a group photo !! As you can see I love knitting Dinosaurs and Elephants!!
I am hoping I will be able to post more often now that we are well into the second half of the year - with Christmas rapidly approaching (as it always does!!) I should have lots of new photos coming up!! There are the usual heaps of things I want to knit!!

Teddy Bears!!

I started knitting these bears a while ago . I had been thinking about writing a new post for some time but after a very hot summer of practically no knitting , together with computer problems and the passing in mid February of our dear old Hereward, who celebrated his last birthday in my previous post, at the grand old age of 17 years and 3 and a half months, I haven't been motivated until now.

It is now officially Autumn here and at last we are enjoying some cooler weather. I am hoping to complete a few more projects and write some more blog posts now that I have made a start! I have several new projects in mind including crocheted and knitted Amigurumi toys.

We have a lovely Fuchsia shrub/tree in our back yard and the bears took a fancy to being photograhed while exploring it!!

They look as though they had a lot of fun!! There are more more photos on my Flickr site and on Ravelry. More coming soon so don't give up on me!! Lol !

Happy 17th Birthday Hereward !!

Our lovely old moggie Hereward is 17 years old today!! He has survived a very cold winter and we are so happy to have him still with us!! He is our longest-living male cat and we hope he will be around for some time yet!!


This area at the top of the back steps is a favourite of his - there is sufficient shade for him to sleep there during the day when it is hot though he is not allowed out after dark!! He is still eating well and has a nice coat which he cleans regularly!! He gets on well with the younger cats especially our brown Burmese Valentina !! They both curl up together on cold nights and occasionally wash eachother!!

He rarely smiles for the camera though and reminds me of some of the photos one sees of authors on the dust covers of their books!!

I can't believe though how he manages to sleep so soundly on this concrete!!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY darling Herry - may you have many more of them!!

Bright Eyes!!

Our native Currawong has beautiful bright yellow eyes. This bird looks a bit menacing but he/she is not really - well not to us humans at least!! I shall call this bird a "he" as I am not knowledgable enough to discern the difference between male and female currawongs!! Apologies if he is in fact a she!! He doesn't care anyway so long as he gets a treat or two to eat!! He and his fellow currawong friends are very partial to dried cat and dog food!! Goodo Rings are the current favourite!!


It is possible to provide equally bright shiny eyes for knitted and sewn toy animals as well!! All the following toys are featuring some lovely pearl and neon plastic safety eyes from Clara Bowling's wonderful Etsy store at 6060.etsy.com

These acrylic fur hand-made guinea pigs are featuring 12mm round animal safety eyes in blue pearl, red/pink (white guinea pigs)

...............................and green pearl and gold (greyish-brown guinea pigs).

Fred and Ginger (above) are wearing neon yellow and dark blue 7.5 mm round safety animal eyes and Tootsie and Bebe below look resplendent in blue and neon green 7.5 mm ones

Joe and Ben (above) have neon green and orange/red 7.5 mm safety animal eyes!!

They all look very pleased with themselves!!

Nigel and the Dinosaurs

This is Nigel the Yuletide Gnome and he is the first gnome I have knitted this year! He is waiting (almost patiently) for his brothers to arrive and he is getting a little worried! They are running a little late!!

Unbeknownst to him, his brothers are waiting to be seamed and it will take a while before they get here !! He is feeling a little lonely and is wondering what to do. Should he get up and walk around?? Who knows what is out there lurking in the wilderness!!

He decides to stay put !! He is a very brave gnome but little does he know there are beasts afoot; Great big ones!!

Suddenly in the distance he can hear sounds of plodding feet!! Let us hope they are friendly ones!!


Here we have a jolly and colourful bunch of dinosaurs! They are new to this area and want to explore!!

They gather around in a circle to make plans!! They are feeling a bit peckish and so decide to look for food. Nigel need not worry though for these are a vegetarian species of dinosaur!! How lucky can a gnome get!! They decide to set off at once! They are somewhat bemused by the colour of the grass - they had never seen purple vegetation before!! Not a green plant in sight ; not a single tree!!

Suddenly they catch sight of Nigel - help is at hand!! Maybe he can provide them with some food!! How lucky can a bunch of dinosaurs get!!

Nigel is surrounded!! The dinosaurs reassure him that they mean no harm!! Nigel reassures them that he can lead them to some food!! Everyone is happy!! ................

..............most of all Nigel, who is not lonely any more !!

A Bevy of Toys!!

Here are some photos of the toys I have made over the past few months. They should have been posted here before but better late than never!! Elephants have always been one of my favourites - and there are many of those!!

They always look so cheerful in the photos!! Most likely because it takes a while to complete them and they do so like being photographed !!

These happy elephants are wearing candy-striped shirts - very fashionable here this season !! We are heading for summer here so I thought it would make a change from rainbow-striped tees!! The friendly looking people below are looking forward to Halloween and Christmas!!

These are Witty Knits ! Designed by the wonderful Jean Greenhowe, these are so much fun to knit!!

Sally and Sam Scarecrow are also Jean's creations and a joy to knit although they are extremely time consuming and a lot of patience is required when putting them together

Big Top Ted, an Alan Dart design, is another story though!! This bear took me 2 -3 weeks to make!! Knitted with Sirdar Funky Fur, and involving short rows and a lot of shaping, he was a bit of a nightmare to complete!! However he looks very happy to be here (little does he know he is also very lucky to be here - nearly ended in the frog-pond once or twice!!)

Finally some penguins (also featuring a variation on Alan Dart's snowme in the above pic!! These little penguins are always fun to make and I have knitted lots and lots of them over the years. These little birds are only about 5 inches high and very fiddly to put together. I usually knit several of them at a time !!

"What are we doing right down here!! We nearly missed being in this post!!"

Hermione and Cressida

Hermione has grown quite a bit since my last post. She is now four and a half months old and, like her Auntie Cressida, loves to pose for the camera!! In this case, Cressida decided to keep on sleeping and let Hermione grab all the limelight!! They get on very well together and own the house!!

We find them to be very different personality-wise from our two Burmese cats . Lolita and Valentina don't like eachother all that much but then Valentina only has time for Hereward who will be 17 years old on his birthday next week. I will take a photo of him on his birthday and do a special blog post!!