This pattern is a schematic found on the inside front cover of Kiri Kari. The finished horse puppet is illustrated in colour, full-page, on page 81 and a different version in a small illustration on page 7.

The gauge is not extremely important for this pattern; any needle that gives a nice firm fabric is acceptable (the head will be stuffed and too loose a fabric will let stuffing show through). The puppet should also be sized to fit a puppeteer’s hand, whether child or adult is the knitter’s choice. The schematic in the book shows 100 stitches for the body. To obtain a 10” circumference puppet one would need:

Gauge: 10 sts per inch, 40 sts per 10 cm
Needles: Set of 5 double pointed needles, 2mm (US #0) or size to obtain gauge.

The patterns in Kiri Kari encourage the knitter to knit the cuff and body of the puppet in a mitten pattern of choice. Dozens of options for allover patterns are given in the book.

Required materials: One 25-gram skein of a fingering yarn such as Jamieson’s Shetland Spindrift in each colour used (the horses illustrated in the book use 2 or 3 colours - this depends on the mitten pattern chosen for the body of the horse) plus small amounts of any additional colours desired for embroidery. Small amount of wool fleece or other stuffing for head and, if desired, for hooves.