More and more bats are being recognized as the beneficent creatures they are, chowing down on mosquitoes and pollinating flowers. Brown Bats are common in the US, and so I decided to design a Brown Bat rather than a fruit bat even though they have beautiful big eyes and adorable faces.

This is a fairly challenging pattern that uses many techniques, and at times is a bit fiddly, but with patience, an intermediate knitter could tackle this. The pattern uses fingering weight yarn. You can hold lace weight mohair thread together with the yarn to add ‘fuzz’ to the body, but it is not required.

Gauge: 28 sts and 30 rows / 4” (10 cm) in unblocked stockinette. Note – row gauge is not important but it is important to have a fairly firm fabric so that the stuffing does not show through. The body should be knitted on smaller needles to keep it firm.

Each segment of the Beneficent Brown Bat is knitted on so that none of the body parts need sewing together but it is necessary to sew the chenille sticks in place and to tack down the legs and arms to the wings.

There is some embroidery. The fingers and the back of the arms are outlined with chain stitch, and the thumbs are made with half hitch knots.

Use any fingering weight yarn, but it is necessary to block the wings into shape, so cotton or wool is the best choice. If you decide to use acrylic, you will need to steam block the wings and they still may not hold the correct shape.