When my nephew Henry was just seven years old he asked Santa for some laying hens for Christmas. According to Henry, Santa in New Lanark was so shocked he almost fell off his sleigh. Henry had to wait a few months but he finally got his Christmas present and he called his three hens Rosemary, Sage and Thyme. Henrys hens started laying eggs immediately and Thyme became Henry’s favourite because she laid beautiful brown eggs with lovely orange yolks. Henry became very popular at school because he often gave his teachers and friends a box of his wonderful eggs.

Everything was fine for the first few years and the hens were completely free range and slept in a coup at night. But then the fox came! First he got Mr Pumper the rabbit and then Sage and then Rosemary. Henry was devastated and got his dad to immediately build a huge electric fenced enclosure to keep Thyme safe. A neighbour kindly gave Henry some brown hens to keep Thyme company and so keep her laying those fantastic eggs. Sadly Thyme died peacefully this summer of old age and Henry asked me to knit him a lifesize replica so that he would never forget her.

So I did and as a surprise I also made him a matching beanie hat to wear when collecting the eggs before school each morning.
Designing the hen proved to be more difficult than I imagined, I knew they had red bits but was not sure where exactly.
I went to my local butcher and asked to buy a chicken head. The butcher said “You won’t get much meat off of that love” and I said “That’s O.K. I’m not going to eat it I’m going to knit it!” The head turned out quite good so I then went on to design the body.

Henry had helped by sending me a very detailed diagram with all the relevant measurements, he also sent me some photos of his hens but I had trouble with working out the shape due to all the feathers.
I decided there was only one way to go so I went out and bought a chicken for our tea. Before roasting it I took all the elastic rings off and turned it upside down and positioned it in a standing position and this really helped with the design. Just don’t tell my husband what I did to it before serving him his dinner!
I designed the hen to stand free yet retain its delicate feet.
I designed a feather but realised single feathers would take forever so I made a row of feathers in ascending size and that worked very well with the tail.
Henry’s Hen Thyme is knitted in dk on 3 mm needles and is 45 cm long and 45 cm high.This pattern costs £1.95 for a pdf download or £3.50 for a printed copy with free worldwide postage. Just click on the relevant button.
TOY HEN KNITTING PATTERN

Henry’s Hen Thyme beanie hat is knitted mainly on 4 mm needles in the same dk and the pattern covers 4 sizes XS,S,M & L so can be made for anyone mad enough to wear one with a head circumference between 14-24 inches.

The Henry’s Hen Thyme Beanie Hat knitting pattern costs £1.95 for a pdf download or £3.50 for a printed version with free postage.
HEN BEANIE KNITTING PATTERN

Henry is delighted with both his hen and beanie but is thinking of asking santa for a cock this year so that he can start breeding his hens.I get the feeling I may be getting requests from henry to design some eggs and chicks aw well as a cock so keep a lookout on this page.
Why not take advantage of my special offer and buy BOTH the hen toy and the matching beanie hat knitting patterns for just £2.95 as a pdf download. Just click on the special offer button to get this great deal.
BUY BOTH TOY HEN AND HEN BEANIE PDF PATTERNS FOR ONLY £2.95

Here we have Lucy Llama who is proudly showing off her new baby Lulu.
Lucy llama stands at 60 cm high and baby Lulu llama is 40 cm high.
Lucy is knitted in wool boucle using my Superfast technique which is four times faster than normal knitting because it uses 8 mm knitting needles and Lulu is knitted in Sassy on 4 mm needles. Both are very quick and simple to make.

You can buy this pattern for £2.50 as a pdf download which I will email to you asap after payment is received or £3.95 for a printed copy with free postage worldwide.

This is my Micro Chester Chimpanzee Toy knitting pattern. Its knitted in an amigurumi style or micro format as I prefer to call it on 1.00 mm needles with no8 perle cotton. Micro Chester is only 10 cm high and the pattern provides full instructions to make a jointed version with moving head, arms and legs (as seen here) or a simpler non-jointed version.

This pattern is available to buy here for £1.95 as a pdf download which I will email to you; or for £3.50 as a printed version with free worldwide postage.

This is the micro version knitting pattern for Tracy Triceratops. As you can see Micro Tracy is an exact miniature copy of the original Tracy Triceratops yet she stands at only 10 cm high and 21 cm long.

Micro Tracy is knitted in an amigurumi style or micro format as I prefer to call it on 1.00 mm needles and in no 8 perle cotton.
You can buy this pattern here for £2.50 as a pdf download which I will email to you once payment is received or for £3.95 for a printed copy with worldwide postage included.

This is my Micro Malcolm Monkey knitting pattern. Micro Malcolm is only 12 cm high yet he is a perfect copy of the original Malcolm as you can see here.
Micro Malcolm is knitted in an amigurumi style or micro format as I prefer to call it on 1.00 mm needles using no 8 perle cotton,the pattern provides full instructions to make a jointed version (as seen here) or a simpler non-jointed version.

This knitting pattern costs £1.95 for a pdf download which I will email to you or £3.50 for a printed copy with free worldwide postage, just click on the relevant button.
You can also buy the entire Micro Malcolm kit which consists of the printed pattern, the 1.00 mm needles, the no8 perle cotton, the black stuffing and the eyes for £9.95 with free U.K. postage or £12.95 including overseas postage.


Spring is in the air and all my toy dinosaurs are having babies.Here we have Tracy Triceratops proudly showing off her new baby.
The Tracy Triceratops and Baby toy dinosaur knitting pattern provides full instructions to knit both of these amazing creatures.
Tracy is knitted in dk on 3.00 mm needles and stands at 20 cm high and 43 cm long ,whilst Baby is knitted as a micro version (amigurumi style) in no 8 perle cotton on 1.00 mm needles and stands at just 10 cm high and 21 cm long.You can buy this pattern for £3.50 as a pdf download or for £5.25 as a printed copy including free post in the U.K.
If you only want to knit one triceratops in your life then there is a pattern for each sold individually. Thanks for looking.

Just click the relevant button and follow the checkout instructions.

Here is Spencer the Spinosaurus. This is the fifth maddinosaurknits knitting pattern to be released. When made up he stands at 50 cm high and is 65 cm long.The Spencer in these pictures is fully jointed so that he can stand on two legs or all fours but the pattern also provides full details for a simpler non-jointed version.

This knitting pattern costs £2.50 for a pdf download or £3.95 for a printed version inc free post in the UK.

Here is Oscar the baby orangutan .Oscar stands at 35 cm high when made up and the knitting pattern provides full details to make either a jointed version with moving head,arms and legs or as a slightly simpler non-jointed version as shown here.He is really quick to knit and make up and is one of the simplest of my toys to make so would be very good for a beginner who wants to knit something and quick which is more exciting than a scarf.

Oscar is named after my niece Lucy’s first child but I was nervous about telling her because I thought she may think that I thought her baby looked like an orangutan! Of course he doesn’t he’s beautiful.
My Oscar has a big brother Ollie and their dad is the very hairy Ozzie.
Oscar now has a snuggly sleeping suit to keep him warm whilst asleep in his tree nest, its called Oscar’s monkeygro.
All of these knitting patterns are now available to buy.
Oscar the Baby Orangutan is knitted in dk on 3.00 mm needles and I would classify him as easy to make.
The Oscar the Baby Orangutan knitting pattern costs for £1.95 for a pdf download which I will send to you by email or £3.50 for a printed version with free worlwide postage.
Simply click on the relevant button below.

This is a knitting pattern for a micro meerkat. When knitted he stands at just 10cm high if using 1.00mm needles or 12.5 cm high if using 1.25 mm needles. This is the first of my madmicroknit patterns and I’m hoping that you will soon be as addicted to this kind of knitting as I am. I always use good quality perle cotton no 8 thickness for these knits and once you get yourself set up each item you knit usually costs less than £1 for materials.
It really is now possible to knit a meerkat of any size as the range of patterns now goes from as small as 10cm to as big as Mike at 70cm.
This knitting pattern is available for sale as a pdf download at £1.95 or printed and posted at £3.50 including post in the U.K. The 1.00 mm needles cost£2.75 and the perle cotton 12g reels for £1 each including post in the UK. The colours needed are Brown, Cream and Dark Brown.Overseas customers will be charged any further postage cost at time of dispatch.
As a special introductory offer to micro knitting I’m selling the micro meerkat pattern and the Sunny Spider Monkey patterns as pdf downloads, the 1.00mm needles and the 3 coloured reels of perle cotton for the SPECIAL OFFER price of £6.95 so click that button while stocks last.

Due to popular demand I have designed a monster sized meerkat knitting pattern. This is Mike The Mega Meerkat. Just look how he towers over buildings on his recent holiday in New York.
He is knitted in any Aran thickness wool of your choice on 4.00 mm needles.I made mine in 100% pure Aran thickness wool which knits up beautifully. I buy mine from Edge Fold Wools and Yarns and would like to thank Elaine for all the help she has given me in finding the right yarn for the job.You can buy Elaines
yarns on Ebay, her seller ID is 7632elaine or email her at elaine.robins@talk21.com.
There are 3 mega meerkats in existence to my knowledge already and they are multiplying fast.The second Essex mega mike is nearing completion and will be wearing a santa suit,there’s one on the way in Swindon and a man in Cornwall is making 3 as Christmas presents. Another pattern went to Cornwall today so that could be the first county to be overrun with them.
This pattern is available as a pdf download for£1.95 or printed and sent by post for £3.50 in the UK. You can buy the nose for 50p and eyes for £1.00 per pair inc post in the UK.Overseas buyers will be charged the extra postage at the time of dispatch.