Knitted Toys

One of the things that has struck me since being in Swaziland is how the children play and the toys they play with.  Generally the kids have no toys and are forced to create their own.  It is common to see soccer balls made out of a bunch of plastic bags and toy cars out of dried mud or scrap fencing wire.  And it is uncommon to see a toy that was bought from an actual store.  So I took it upon myself to create some toys to give as Christmas presents to some of the girls that are frequent visitors to my hut.  Thanks to everyone that sent me yarn in care packages.  All of the yarn was given to me and I still have plenty left to make even more fun things!  Hopefully I will be able to use it in my time here.  I started knitting these in September and had them finished for Christmas. To stuff them, I bought a pillow, ripped it open, stuffed the animals, and sewed them all together. It took me four months to make these four stuffed animals.  Now four girls have a toy of their very own.

The monkey is 2.5ft tall.  He took forever to knit!

I made his teeth out by crocheting plastic bags that I cut into strips to make a sort of plastic yarn.

The girls love this doll!

This was the first one I made :)