Bubbles, realistic crochet otter pattern

I finally took on the challenge of making a realistic crochet pattern one of my ultimate favourite animals, the river otter. Meet Bubbles!

Some of you may think, ‘But you already made a river otter amigurumi’, and you are right. The first otter I made was Basil, and I later replaced Basil with Bubbly. They both are standing otters. Bubbly is a cute otter, but he didn’t turn out as realistic as I hoped.

And since then I have never dared to make a new version. Somehow otters are so difficult to capture in yarn … I even found that a badger pattern was easier to design. Otters have a special kind of face, with a very cute big snout. I had never managed to find a way to capture that.

This summer I was just playing around with some yarn and I suddenly had an idea for a muzzle: two bobbles above each other, one pushed in, one pushed out … It created a funny mouth that looked rather ‘ottery’. ‘Eureka’! I thought.

But even then I felt hesitant to make a new crochet otter pattern. The body was a dilemma too. Should I use the technique I used to make Bolthus the polecat, or could I adjust the dachshund body so it would resemble an otter’s body? I kept doubting what would work best.

In the end I preferred the technique used for the dogs on all fours. I could easily alter that shape to create an otter body with a high back and a wide tail. It’s surprising how much difference a few changes can make. I love this otter!

Here are some more pictures of this slippery but soft little otter and below them you can find all the info you need.

For an experienced crocheter this is an easy pattern, and I always try to write it so that beginners can make it, too. The otter’s body is rather small, so once you’ve connected all the pieces, it works up pretty fast. I explain very thoroughly what stitches you need to work with, and I’ve added extra images to make sure you understand how everything works.

This crochet otter is made with Istex Lett Lopi, a 100% wool with a lot of fuzziness. It’s 9 inch / 23 cm long from the nose to the end of the tail and about 4 inch/ 10 cm high from the head to the ground. The pattern contains a clear and colour-coded description of how to crochet and assemble the doll, instruction images with notes next to the text, and pictures of the finished doll at the bottom. In the pattern you can also find out what materials you need, the yarn colour numbers — in short, everything you need to know to make your own realistic crochet otter amigurumi. All the additional information you need to know about this pattern you can find in the shop listings. You can purchase it in my shop at Ravelry or Etsy.

And heads up! This pattern has a one euro release discount till the 22nd of March.