Project Profile: El Gazaro, the Parrot

When I finished knitting this parrot Patrick quickly named him El Gazaro. I decided it would be best for him to stay with us. The pattern came from one of my favorite knitting books which is called World of Knitted Toys by Kath Dalmeny.

This is a great book for anyone who wants to make a special toy for a child in their life. There are many animals to knit, with the book broken down into seven sections. The sections are as follows: In the Jungle, Australian Outback, Down on the Farm, The Deep Blue Sea, Forrest Friends, On Safari, and The Snowy Regions. With fourty-seven animals in all, this is a great resource to make some animals that aren't all that easy to find in toy stores.




One cute feature of this book is that each section has a doll of a person who would be found in each particular area and in the clothes that they would wear.




Some of the animals included in this book are: the Gorilla, spider Monkey, Merino Sheep, Koala, Duck-Billed Platypus, Kangaroo, cat, Mallard Duck, Chicken, Dolphin, Shark, Octopus, Turtle, Moose, Zebra, Husky Dog, Walrus, and Chipmunk.





I'm thinking it would be fun, if I ever have kids to fill up their rooms with knitted toys. A very good thing about making toys for your children is that you can control what is going into the toys and with all of the product recalls these days, that can really give you peace of mind. Also, knitted items seem to last a very long time, so they can be appreciated for generations to come.

Here is the technical information for El Gazaro, the Parrot. I used a US 3 sized needle. The yarn is from my yarn stash. The red is a yarn that Lion Brand yarn company used to make. It is called Chunky USA, the colorway is Patriot Red. This is a 100% Acrylic Yarn. I think the brown yarn was Red Heart Super Saver and the white was Wool-Ease Chunky. I was trying to use up some older yarn, that's why it's made of so many different yarns.



Have a great day!