Nonavee’s Creatures

22/01/2026

It’s pretty crazy, a bit bald, but it’s a knitted three toed sloth. This Is Lou. For a best friend in Canada, Lulu for whom it’s her spirit animal. Sending love from afar. Will post soon.

Knitting is wonderful thinking / dreaming time. Listened and imagined the first 5 billion years on earth listening to an amazing story by Dr Henry Gee, on the Ancients podcast.

21/01/2026

Whale family made a few years ago for special family members.

10/10/2024

10/10/2024

Fresh sloth! For my niece Brianna. A sloth prototype made with one ball of stripey wool I brought from NZ, and materials I could find on hand, including using at a Walmart.

First I knitted the face starting with 9 stitches cast on 3 needles, kfb increases to each one to increase rapidly. When I knitted the cranium I expanded at the top of the face sculpting in a 90° fashion. Really hard to describe so I will just do a diagram. Do the arms by leaving a gap and then picking up the stitches around the hole, like a button hole. The legs were the remaining stitches divided in half.

Sloth claws are made from a sour cream container, cut then pierced with a needle to make them into beads. I bought a cheap dog stuffy at Walmart to steal the eyes and a bit of the black fabric for the sloth eye patches. I pulled stuffing from a pillow I bought for five dollars (heaps left).

Now I know how to create the shape it’s time to experiment with some wools for the big one! (Real sloths are very hairy!!)

07/10/2024

Found Plasmo! Living happily with Mark’s kids as Sea Monster. Must have forgotten I gave him or lent him to them but happy to know with loving children.

A elasmosaurus variety of plesiosaur.

My favourite knitted creature so far.

28/05/2023

So many dolphins!

28/05/2023

I have created unicorns with wings (this was the 5th and least weird iteration), and one fantail bird (intended as Kohanga Reo education toys) bunnies and so on. These were difficult and I found in the end that sea creatures - dolphins, whales, and reptiles were best represented by the knit texture. Other animals were not! (Well the fantail was pretty cool.)

28/05/2023

Turtles - a lot of planning. But turtles are the most special.

Shell had to be planning on a graphics program and knitted in one piece. Can be pulled off like a jumper.

This is Chi, and the prototype, Isodora.

28/05/2023

But first, there was the plesiosaurus. Some of these ancient water dinosaurs that actually existed once on the Earth looked like Nessie, the mythical Scottish lake creature. The elasmosaurus, and the tuarangisaurus (even in the region of New Zealand!) as featured in the series, narrated by David Attenborough, Prehistoric Planet, look like we imagine Nessie to be like.

As a child, I would have loved imagining riding on this creature’s back as she swam through the water 💦 as a friend - never mind that she would have eaten me in real life!

This is imagination land….

28/05/2023

Early work for my daughter, Troy.

Troy wanted the orca to have full predator capabilities! The orca is hollow inside, so can eat seals (I made 3), as they are its prey item. Educational!

Did you know orcas are a type of dolphin?