A while ago, okay, maybe 6 months back, when I knitted my Cunning Hat, I asked on Twitter if anyone else wanted something knitting, totally not expecting a response. Two of my friends on there responded along the lines of, "Oooh go on then". One asked for a Cunning Linguist hat, (go on, say that one fast), the other didn't know what she wanted, but knowing that she loved otters, I offered to knit an Otter hat.
I had an idea of what Mr. Otter would look like, but no idea of how to go about making him. I knitted a basic hat with ear flaps, using the same pattern as for my Cunning hat, then knitted ears doing a really simple decrease to make semi circle. The muzzle was what was concerning me the most. I didn't want to knit it directly in the hat as I went along, as I've never done intarsia before, and didn't want to risk screwing it up.
I tried lots of ways, knitting it as a shape from the top, from the bottom, as two halves, each time it was lopsided, or just wrong. In the end I knitted a rectangle in stocking stitch, then drew the shape I wanted onto a piece of paper, pinned that onto the rectangle, then sewed over it with my sewing machine, using a tight zigzag. I then Swiss darned that onto the front of the hat. The nose and mouth were Swiss darned on top of that, and the eyes are buttons.
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| Mr. Otter, pre-journey |
Everything was sewn together, the ends darned in, then Mr. Otter was ready for his Trans-Atlantic flight to his new home, in NY State, USA.
I waited with bated breath for the day that he'd arrive, and for the reaction of his new owner. She had seen pictures already, but I was still nervous. He arrived safely (phew), and his new owner was positively ecstatic.
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| Mr. Otter in use |
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