If you've ever longed for a pet giraffe, meerkat or crocodile, your wait may be over. And once you've finished creating these animals, you don't even have to feed them (or build zoo cages in your backyard).
Sally Muir and Joanna Osborne, the creators of Knit Your Own Cat and two "litters" of Knit Your Own Dog designs, have come out with a much more diverse--and wilder--collection this time around. Knit Your Own Zoo features 24 colorful knitted zoo animals, ranging from a cuddly koala and a sweet elephant to a family of nosy meerkats and a toothy (but cuddly) crocodile.
Muir and Osborne include plenty of helpful tips, explaining how to create a lion's magnificent mane or knit the spots right into a leopard's fur. Fun facts about every animal accompany the instructions and photos: who knew, for example, that a group of anteaters is called a parade? Each design features charmingly accurate details, from the mandrill's red-striped face to the panda's small green bamboo stalk. Some of the patterns are simpler than others, and all require a bit of detail work at the end, but there's something here for most knitting skill levels, from the straightforward camel to the complicated giraffe.
For the knitter who loves animals or simply enjoys a challenge, Knit Your Own Zoo will provide hours of wild, woolly, crafty entertainment. --Katie Noah Gibson, blogger at Cakes, Tea and Dreams