Platypodes are amazing animals. They have bills like ducks, webbed feet, beaver tails, lay leathery reptilian eggs, lactate, and can shoot venom from their feet! There are so many weird facts about platypodes that you'll just have to look them up yourself. I've always been fascinated by the crazy creatures, and couldn't wait to knit one for my reversible egg toy collection.

My biologist husband and I had a lot of reading platypodes while I was working on knitting this toy. The weirdest fact we read is that, although they do produce milk, they lack teats with which to dispense milk to their infants. Instead, the mother platypus secrets milk from glands in her skin. That milk pools up and the babies lap up the milk from the mother's skin. Isn't that wild?

Apparently, when European scientists discovered platypodes a British researcher named W.H. Caldwell sent a wire back to Britain reading simply "Monotremes oviparous, ovum meroblastic" In other words, Platypodes lay eggs and those eggs are reptilian in nature. That incredibly nerdy telegram really amused Collin and me. My knitted egg isn't very leathery or reptilian, but it is nice and yellow like platypus eggs!

In case you're curious, the brown and yellow yarns are recycled yarns, unraveled from a lovely rayon-cashmere-wool blend sweater. The black feet and face are knit with handspun naturally black wool.

... And there you have it. One of the strangest creatures God ever created. And it can be yours for just $16.00! Come check it out at the Bloomington Handmade Market on November 6th.