One thing that is important to remember is that if you find a nice basic pattern for a body, you can add features that will make it look like different animals. For example, if you find a pattern for a horse, you can add antlers of various kinds for different kinds of deer or moose, larger ears to make it a donkey, or stripes to make it a zebra.
The same can be done for smaller animals. By changing the color, shape of the nose, or size of the tail, you can adjust the pattern to be a whole Noah’s ark full of animals. If you are finding it difficult to conjure up the basic body in knit, it may be even easier done in crochet. Just make the basic animal shape, and let your imagination be your guide as to what animal it will turn out to be.
Always make sure that nothing can be detached from your toy that a small child might swallow. Make the eyes out of yarn and sew them directly on the face. This saves using buttons or other extra pieces. While this may not be quite as important for older children, I always do it anyway. Also try to make the stuffing soft and allergy free.
If you don’t have any small children in your family right now, you can still find a home for your stuffed animal toys by donating them to a local hospital or homeless shelter. The little ones that are staying in these places probably need a stuffed friend even more than others. Every yarn animal can have a good home.
Consider starting to knit your own menagerie. You might want to add birds and reptiles to go with your four-legged additions. This is a good way to use left-over yarn, and it can make a child happy. It is both fun and useful to construct a Noah’s ark full of animal toys for the youngsters and the young at heart.
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