Needle felt animals

A little while ago, mainly as procrastination from writing essays in my final year at uni, I starting doing some needle felting. Not exactly the first occupation that springs to mind when you imagine how an undergraduate might be spending their free time, but hey, each to their own. I bought a starter pack from eBay with twelve different coloured wool rovings, ten needles and a spongy mat so that I don't stab myself (it almost worked, but I still managed a couple of bleeding fingers - those needles are sharp!)

Here are a couple of my attempts:

The elephant was for a friend's birthday and the camel was requested my another friend. Camels are such weirdly shaped animals, it was difficult and I had to make it sitting down in the end, the legs would've been too thin for it to stand up, but I persevered because it was around the same time that I found out she was pregnant, and nothing says congratulations quite like a needle-felted camel!

A word of warning if you want to try needle felting yourself: it takes aaaaagggges to finish something. Much longer than you would expect. But if you're like me and quite enjoy repetitive tasks, it can be pretty rewarding. Especially if you have a good TV series to catch up on... I think I got through quite a lot of Nashville while making my camel.

Next time I make one, I'll take photos of each stage and explain my process. It's surprisingly easy, just takes time, as I said.

Any ideas for what type of animal I should attempt next?