Knitting safari

Hey!
After a short break while I was avoiding doing the sewing up, the safari animals are now done!
I'm very happy with how the colouring turned out, I think they're very recognisable. I decided I was doing the stranding wrong though, I think you should really carry the yarn to the end of the row each time, even where the colour stops earlier, this seems to make the tension more even.

I'm very happy too with how the shaping turned out, they're nice and simple but I think they look a lot like the animals they're supposed to be. Particular thanks to Cathy for the suggestion of using drinking straws in the legs and neck of the giraffe - they make it good and strong while still being child-friendly.
I'm really pleased with their little faces too - I'm told safety eyes might not be too good for very small children, so they're just a couple of sewn stitches, but I think they work really well, and they both come out looking very cute.


The zebra, unfortunately, didn't go so well. I made a couple of attempts at getting the colour pattern right, but I wasn't happy with how either came out, the patterns in the stripes are just too subtle to knit well. And then I decided I didn't particularly like the shaping either. After the fun with the cow patterns I'm a bit wary of trying to put in a very prominent neck, and that's really a big feature of zebras. So the zebra is on hold just now. Maybe I'll come back to it when I'm feeling in need of a challenge, or maybe I'll just let it go.

More knitting in the near future!
Hugh.