Book Review: Faux Taxidermy Knits by Louise Walker

I bought this book on my own - no one asked me to review it :)


I haven't knit anything out of this book yet but I have many patterns marked. This book is too adorable for words but I'll try to form the words to do a review because, well, the review would be weird without words.

I found out about Louise Walker through her Etsy shop because I was looking for taxidermied animals. Fake ones, for my office at work, as I'm wont to do. I still plan on buying one of the kits because they come with everything you need, including the backing. I'm leaning towards the T-Rex head, personally. But check out her shop for kits and patterns, every one more awesome than the last.

Her book came out in 2014 and includes 2 sections: Wearables and Habitat. We have 15 patterns, ranging from basic knitting level to advanced. The basic patterns are just as entertaining and intriguing as the advanced and intermediate patterns. Take a run through the patterns on Ravelry here.

I'm going to run through my absolute favorites that I plan on casting on soon:

The fox stole, which is also the cover photo, is a must have for me. I love my scarves but the thought of wearing this foxy fox around my neck in the winter makes me very happy! It's an intermediate pattern with quite a bit of sewing (the body, ears, legs, tail are all separate pieces) but I'm quite ok with that.

The Polar Bear Paw Mittens are a must for the cold Midwestern winters (with this winter being the exception to that...weird weather). These are 2 color mittens with afterthought thumbs.

The Mink Wrap is another awesome scarflike wrap made to look like the fancy pants mink stoles. Made with 3 different colors you are basically knitting 2 minks and putting them together with a hook and eye closure. Very high society!

We move on to the Habitat patterns. Naturally I want the moose head and will most likely buy the kit to get the backing and such. My wall is begging for this guy. Yours probably is too. Even without the kit, the book gives pretty detailed finishing instructions on how to get your moose properly put together and mounted.

My kitchen is begging for some pheasants! Knit with super bulky yarn and being a beginner level pattern, I should be able to get a nice line of pheasants knit up quickly

The Bear Coasters are also on the list. They look like tiny bearskin rugs for your mug. Love them!

While I don't plan on knitting this one, the one advanced pattern in the book is impressive. The Tiger Rug. This is rug-sized for your floor and is really well done. Magnificent beast!

All in all, this book is well done with beautiful photographs, detailed patterns and lots of instructions. Love animals! But knit them, don't hurt them.

Purchase from Amazon

Selfish? Or just really thoughtful to yourself....

February really got away from me! I finally got some down time this weekend where I could just knit, read and watch movies. Be a vegetable. And it's been lovely.

 I had wanted to write up some goals for this year but I guess my first goal should be to get motivation to write my goals. Regardless, I believe this year will be a stay at home year working on my house and myself. I only have 2 trips planned: a weekend in NYC and a week in San Francisco. Just two? We might throw in a trip to Chicago as well, since it is so close :) Next year, though, my friend and I are talking about a cruise to Italy and Greece and I'm all over that one. That makes my mantra this year "Do you need that? Or can that money go to Italy?". See where this is going? YARN DIET.

I started myself on a selfish kick as well. Which leads me to ponder why knitting is called selfish when you knit for yourself but no other hobby is called selfish. Is there selfish crochet? Selfish crossstitch? Selfish woodworking? I don't think so. In fact, in Buddhism there is a saying

This is the truth. You cannot care for others if you don't care for yourself. So instead of selfish knitting, I'm going to engage in zen knitting.

I'm kicking off my zen knitting with Yarngasm's Box O'Sox KAL. Kristin organized this to be selfish knitting so, at the end of year, we, for ourselves, are the proud owners of 12 new pairs of handknit socks.

On The Needles

I started a pair of vanilla socks just because the yarn I had bought (yarn diet? what?) was so beautiful laying there in the skein. I need to see what it could do. I found a group on Facebook called Addicted To Sock Knitting and have been using that as inspiration. Witch Candy Yarns posted some photos about her shop update and her yarn was amazing. I ran right over and purchased Indian Bead Belt. It's sparkly and gorgeous

I know how many WIPs I had but I'm tearing through these socks so it's ok :)

I also started back on my Boneyard Shawl by Stephen West. That was a WIP from a while ago but it has been languishing. It's an easy knit and I usually work on that while watching movies.

Off The Needles

The narwhals are done!

I really wanted to make narwhals for my niece and nephew once I saw the pattern. Rebecca Danger has the cutest toys and they are pretty easy to make. I'm really happy with how these turned out although as soon as the kids got them, they started poking everyone with the tusk :)

The kids picked their favorite colors and those are some fine looking narwhals!


With the Spring-like weather coming in, I think my mood will approve and creativity will come out. It's not been a bad winter here in Indiana but Winter tends to bring me down. I can't wait to fling open the windows and welcome in Spring!

Until next time....