Brought to you by the letters H & M

Remember that Alphabet Project I was making for my grandchildren?   I gave them the first part last Christmas (posted about it here) - the middle part will be one of this year's Christmas pressies - from H to M.   And it was those 2 letters that I hadn't yet made the toys for.

H - what animals have names starting with H?   Hippopotamus is definitely not Australian so I settled on Horse.

An easy pattern from Sarah Gasson's Knitables and very cute.  Am not a fan of eye-lash yarn but it does make a good horse's mane and tail!


The letter M simply had to be a Marsupial Mouse - remember The Muddle Headed Wombat  by Ruth Park?   Wombat's friend Mouse was a Marsupial Mouse ... she had a pouch.  Well, marsupial mice are not nice at all - they are carnivorous marsupials related to Tasmanian Devils - they just happen to be mouse sized; the Latin family name is Dasyuridae.  We have the Antechinus and the Dunnarts - I tried to make a Dunnart because they look so cute - I think this is a White-Footed Dunnart.  And here is a Wikipedia article on the Dunnarts.

Used Marisol the Mouse pattern (link is to Ravelry) because Dunnarts have a pointy slightly up-turned nose - just like Marisol.   Adapted the limbs by making them shorter & in the pale yarn, the tail is shortish and fur-colour, the ears are larger with pink linings, nose and eyes in black and quite large (Dunnarts are nocturnal).

The body is very adapted - to give her a pale tummy and a pouch (made like a pocket) and there are babies in that pouch - 6 bobbles in pink yarn, I even stitched eyes on them …. none of which can be seen :-)


The pale mouse on the left is a Marisol Mouse unadapted … a regular Mus musculus.  They seem to be friends.