Deramores Woodland Creatures Savannah the Squirrel Knitting

Deramores Woodland Creatures Savannah the Squirrel Knitting Pattern

What is Being Made

Savannah the Squirrel is an advanced-level knitted toy designed by Amanda Berry as part of the Woodland Animals collection. This stuffed animal squirrel stands 23cm tall including the ears and is constructed by knitting individual pieces that are then sewn together to create a three-dimensional plush toy.

Craft and Techniques

This is a knitting project that employs several intermediate to advanced knitting techniques. The pattern uses stockinette stitch as the primary fabric construction method, worked by knitting right-side rows and purling wrong-side rows to create a smooth, even surface suitable for a toy. Additional techniques include:

• Decreasing stitches using k2tog and k3tog methods to shape the squirrel's head and body
• Increasing stitches using kfb (knit front and back) for shaping and creating volume
• Loop knitting to create textured details such as the squirrel's characteristic bushy tail or facial features
• Intarsia colour-work to incorporate multiple yarn colours into the design seamlessly
• Mattress stitch seaming to join the knitted pieces together with an invisible, professional finish

Stitches Used

The pattern primarily relies on stockinette stitch (st.st.) as the foundation fabric. Shaping is achieved through knit (k), purl (p), knit two together (k2tog), and knit three together (k3tog) decreases, as well as knit front and back (kfb) increases. Specialty stitches include loop stitches for textural elements and intarsia techniques for colour changes.

Materials and Yarn

The squirrel is knitted using Deramores Studio DK yarn, a double knitting weight (light worsted) yarn. The project requires 1 x 100g skein in each of three colours:

• Orange: Deramores Studio DK in "Burnt Orange"
• White: Deramores Studio DK in "Pearl"
• Beige: Deramores Studio DK in "Oatmeal"

Needles and Notions

The pattern calls for a pair of 3.75mm straight knitting needles (US 5). The tension is approximately 22 stitches by 28 rows per 10cm x 10cm square in stockinette stitch on 3.75mm needles, though the pattern notes that tension is not critical for toy construction.

Additional notions required include:

• A darning or tapestry needle for sewing the knitted pieces together
• 2 x 6mm domed black buttons for the squirrel's eyes

Pattern Structure

The knitting pattern is organized by body sections, beginning with the squirrel head. The head section starts by casting on 9 stitches in orange yarn and working 32 rows of stockinette stitch as the foundation, with subsequent rows incorporating shaping decreases and increases to form the three-dimensional head structure. The pattern uses standard knitting abbreviations and includes row-by-row instructions with stitch counts provided in parentheses at the end of each instruction for easy tracking.