As there are a lot of bird spotters among my friends and family, I’ve had quite some appeals for knitted birds. So I’ve taken up the venture of cloning different species in a knitted collection. Nowadays, the kids in my family actually collect these birds and I’m always delighted when they can actually spot and identify a species without even leaving the house!

Flamingos are wading birds found on large shallow lakes, lagoons, mangroves, swamps and sandy flats around the world. The word flamingo comes from the Latin word ‘flamma’ meaning flame or fire and refers to the flamingos bright red-pink plumage.
The flamingo lays a single chalky-white egg between May and August and the chicks are born grey or white. It takes up to three years of munching and crunching on their splashy banquet for their flashy costumes to develop! You don’t have to wait that long for your knitted flamingo to show its true colors though, because luckily it’s born this way!

This flamingo is a medium level knit and measures 27 cm from head to feet (with its neck bend). Pipe cleaners and/or skewers can be used to make neck and legs pliable and sturdy. The project asks for some knitting in the round and flat, intarsia color work, short rows and i-cord knitting.
The flamingo was knitted on 2.25 mm double pointed needles (UK 13, US 1) in Scheepjes Stonewashed (821) pink quartzite and (835) rhodochrosite, Scheepjes Soft Fun Aquarel (807) bodyscape, Scheepjes Riverwashed (946) Mississippi and Phildar Laine Mohair Soie (101) noir and yarn of a lace gauge, Rico Luxury Lace (002) pink, for the legs.
It is a great project though to use up all kinds of scraps of (pink and red) yarn!