Yarnbombed miniatures

Like many emptynesters we have lots of boxes of "stuff" in the garage that belong to our adult offspring, and were recently going through them with permission to dispose of the contents. I can't bear to throw anything away, so I was really pleased when I came up with a way to upcycle a collection of damaged wooden 

animals!

 

They were a sad little bunch. The crane had a snapped beak, the giraffe had something strange happening with his head, the elephant was chipped and the zebra (is it a zebra?) was a funny shape. I gave them a good scrub and sanded where necessary, then raided the yarn stash.

Time to work my magic!

I started with the crane because he was one of the bigger creatures and I thought his shape looked simplest. 

I'll pause now while you shake your head and mutter "Nifty, nifty" at my foolishness :-)

My first discovery was that wood doesn't bend! Usually when I'm creating I can twist and bend whatever I'm sewing up to "get at" the odd corners....not when I'm yarnbombing wood! 

Once his legs were suitably adorned I knitted the grass and added his toes.

The body shape was NOT simple. Oh no it wasn't! However, his chest took shape eventually, and the wings  (in comparison) were plain sailing - or should that be plain flying? I used a trick I was taught by a friend on twitter (thank you @Thefeminet ) I knitted both wings at the same time on the same pair of needles with two balls of yarn. That way I avoided my usual problem with the second one (what did I do last time??)

Here's the family! I've left the soles of their feet bare so that they can stand up really well - for the zebra, I've even left his little hooves bare. Aren't they cute? They'll be coming to one of my online shops just as soon as I can bear to part with them! Who is your favourite? Don't tell the others, but mine is the giraffe, I love his long flowing ears!