I have been involved with textile design all my working life, starting my career as a Jacquard designer based in Yorkshire, creating elaborate, woven cloth designs for the corporate market and high street fashion retailers.

Louise’s attention to detail means that every outfit fits perfectly and you will enjoy creating all the details that make each one so distinctive. There are instructions for how to construct the animal dolls and outfits as well as step-by-step photography for the techniques. Louise also explains how to follow charts for the colour work details in the outfits, as well as step-by-step tutorials for any special stitches. Although I will always be a Yorkshire girl at heart, I now live in a lovely little town in Northamptonshire, where I divide my time between looking after my family, designing and knitting. My work has been featured in various magazines including Making Gifts and Simply Knitting and my first book My Knitted Doll will be released in October 2016. To celebrate this amazing new book from Louise Crowther, we’re giving you the chance to knit up Theo the Lion! This roar-some pattern will take you on a wild journey and once you’ve made Theo you’ll be able to knit up his super cute outfit too because even lions can be stylish! I love this book! I only bought it a few weeks ago and have knitted 6 already and already have the wool to knit the other 7.”

Christmas Cards & Gift Wrap

Go wild with this brand new collection of adorable knitted wild animal toys and their clothes and accessories by best-selling author Louise Crowther. A review by Dee Dee Chainey: The Time Traveller’s Herbal – Stories and recipes from the historical apothecary cabinet by Amanda Edmiston, published by David & Charles. Louise’s first book Knitted Animal Friends was a worldwide hit and it’s easy to see why! This is what knitters had to say about Louise’s book: Join the Boo-Biloo group and show off your finished Boo-Biloo projects, ask questions, get advice and join our knitalongs.

The animal dolls have the same basic body shape and are the same size so that all of the outfits are interchangeable (they also work for the dolls in Knitted Animal Friends too), so you can mix and match your favourites. Or you can just make the animals: the animal patterns and a lot of the clothes are knitted flat and then sewn together but some of the clothing is knitted in the round. All of the techniques for making up the animals include step-by-step instructions and photography.After the success of Knitted Animal Friends, Louise has created knitting patterns for 12 new, wild animals in their own wonderful wardrobes. This collection includes a zebra in dungarees, an elephant in a tutu, a lion in jeans, a tiger in a party dress, a chimpanzee in a rainbow cardigan, a sloth in pyjamas (of course!), a koala in a furry gilet, a bear in a fair isle sweater, a hippo in overalls, a panda in a duffle coat, a giraffe in a pinafore and a rhinoceros in a day dress – all with their own distinct personal style! I don’t usually knit for kids, but I was very impressed with the layout of this book. It’s well written, the layout is inspiring. I’m pretty fussy about the books I buy, and not normally buying books for knitting kids things, which means it has to be a good book.” I am Louise Crowther, a British knitting designer who loves knitting dolls, toys and decorations – basically anything that is small and neat and you don’t need to worry about whether it will fit you or not when you’ve finished!