Who doesn’t love otters? This little chap is simple in shape, but you’ll need to concentrate on making him slender and thin for swimming down the river.
50g brown merino roving
2 × size 40 triangular needles, for shaping
1 or 2 × size 42 triangular needles, for surface finishing
Small amount of buff or cream roving
2 × 3mm black glass eyes or seed beads
Thick black cotton thread
Finished size: 12cm tall
1 Take a length of brown roving measuring 40 × 4cm and fold it in half. Take another piece of roving measuring 25 × 4cm, fluff it up to the size of an egg and insert it into the fold. This is the main body and head of the otter. With two size 40 needles, work the larger lower part until you have a long teardrop shape with a flat base, approximately 11cm tall.
2 There should be about 6–7cm of loose wool left at the top. Bend it over and shape a flattish head, that points slightly upwards.
3 You might like to go down to one needle at this point, to achieve finer detail.
4 When you’re happy with the main body, add the tail. Measure out a 10 × 3cm length of wool and shape a thin, tapering tail on your mat. Keep the fibres at the thicker end of the tail loose and when you are ready, splay them out and fix the tail to the bottom.
5 With one size 42 needle, finish firming the felt. Squeeze the tail as you work, to create a slender, whippy rudder about 7cm long. It should be sinuous and curve upwards.
6 Form the legs from small scraps of roving, making little spade-like paws. The bottom legs should be slightly larger than the top legs, so that your otter can sit up properly. I make legs in pairs so that I can judge whether they are of equal proportions. Join the legs to the body, with the end wool splayed out as you did for the tail.
7 Use two equal-sized, very small amounts of roving and needle them directly onto the head, shaping them into tiny round ears.
8 Cover the whole otter with a thin covering of wool to finish the surface neatly.
9 Add a chest patch onto the otter’s tummy; a piece of wool measuring about 10 × 2cm will do. Use half the wool to establish the basic shape, needling it directly onto the body, and then use the rest for layering and tidying. Where possible, make sure the covering fibres follow the same direction as the body fibres.
10 Finally, sew in the eyes using the front-facing method and stitch a broad, inquisitive nose using black cotton (see here).