Armadillo Wrap from Wild Knitting

Armadillo Wrap from Wild Knitting

Thompson, Suzann

2021-2024

67 inches long, tip of nose to end of tail Body: 12 1/2 inches wide Legs: 7 1/2 inches long

The Center for Knit and Crochet’s July 2021 newsletter, In the Loop, invited readers to join a “What’s Your Favorite Vintage?” make-along. My mind immediately went to the knitted Armadillo Wrap from Angela Jeffs’ book, Wild Knitting (1979). I had wanted to make that wrap since first seeing the book decades before. Wild Knitting was a formative book for me. The designs in the book confirmed two things: a person can knit all manner of garments and accessories, and knitted items can be fun and silly. Sally Kindberg’s illustrations added to the charm of Wild Knitting. Her drawing of the Armadillo Wrap was what inspired me to make it. Sally is on Instagram.com @skindbergia. She wrote about Wild Knitting in an October 26, 2018 post: “…The publishers biked dozens of knitted pattern samples for me to draw over a period of weeks. I’m not a knitter btw… A winter of several migraines I seem to remember” In a January 21, 2024 post, Sally wrote about how her small daughter was delighted by the bike messenger deliveries of knitted samples and finished projects. She ended by saying, “It was … a challenging commission.” So after all those years, I gathered wool and wool-blend yarns from stash for the Armadillo Wrap in August 2021. I knitted the small pieces by hand and the longer stockinette stitch pieces on the Ultimate Sweater Machine. By November the pieces were finished and the legs and tail were assembled. Then I hit a roadblock. The top of the head was bigger than the bottom of the head. I couldn’t quite figure out how to sew it together. Besides I wanted to change the ears’ position on the head to be more like ears on armadillos that live in my neighborhood. To add to my troubles, the knitted armadillo body and lining were not coming together the way I expected them to. The unfinished Armadillo Wrap went into a project bag to wait. I finally decided to get over myself and finish the Armadillo Wrap early in 2024. It went together more easily than anticipated.

Suzann Thompson