marmot

What a number of names this silly animal can be called by! I proudly present to you Monty II! In Europe we call them marmots, and I believe in the US people also know what animal you mean if you are talking about marmots, but they are also called groundhogs, woodchucks, or whistle pigs there. Yes, whistle pig is my favourite name from now on! Look at this new Monty, isn’t he a marvellous, cranky-looking crochet marmot? Perfectly suitable for Groundhog Day, I would say!

amigurumi groundhog

Many years ago I designed a marmot amigurumi pattern after a holiday in the Alps. During our hikes, we often heard a strange high whistle, and after longing to find out what made the noise, we finally saw the culprit. It was the first time we saw Alpine marmots, and I absolutely loved them. Such funny-looking fluffy beasts. After seeing the marmots, of course I had to make a pattern for them. I later realised that the silly animal in the much-loved movie “Groundhog Day” is a marmot, too, how perfect!

Last year I updated many of my older patterns. Some crochet animals got a little makeover, and others stayed the same but got an updated pattern with more pictures and a better layout. There were a few patterns I skipped, and Monty was one of them. I realised that I had learned so much in the past few years that I would make him quite different if I redesigned him. I decided to temporarily put his pattern on hold till I found the right moment to design a new one. And because at the beginning of the new year it always is a bit difficult for me to start something new, this seemed the perfect moment to make Monty II.

And look at him! He looks so much more like a marmot than Monty did. When I made the beaver pattern, I realised that proportions similar to that would be very suitable for a marmot. I designed a new head for Monty with little crocheted-in eyebrows and a new body with a much better shaped yellowish belly. The first Monty was a cute little doll but this one has much more of the marmot attitude, don’t you think? Check out these pictures of this cute marmot/ woodchuck/ groundhog/ whistle pig amigurumi; below them you can find info about and links to buy the pattern.

Info about & links to buy the pattern

Monty is made with Istex Lett Lopi, a 100% wool with a lot of fuzziness. I chose to make the ears, hands, feet, and tail a little bit darker than the body and head, but doing them all in one colour works perfectly well, too. Monty is 5.5 inch / 14 cm high when made with this yarn.

The pattern is written in US terms and contains a clear and colour-coded description of how to crochet and assemble the animal, with extra illustrations and example pictures at the bottom to help you get everything right. In the pattern you can also find what materials you need, the yarn colour numbers, in short, everything you need to know to make your own fluffy marmot amigurumi. All the additional information you need to know about this pattern you can find in the shop listings. You can buy this pattern in my shop at Ravelry, Etsy or order it here.

This pattern has a one dollar release discount till Monday the 28th of January.

A while ago, someone suggested that I should make a marmot. I agreed with her and already had thought of making an Alp marmot. It was after my vacation to Switzerland, where I had seen and heard, many of these adorable little fellows.

However, I never actually got to making one, because I simply had other animals in mind to make first and was not quite confident about the shape I should give a crochet marmot. I decided to wait until the period around Groundhog day, which I thought to be somewhere in the end of February or begin March. I should have Googled it.

Last week I discovered it is Groundhog day the 2nd of Februari, oops. Nevertheless, I am working on a marmot pattern at this very moment. I’ve already made some sketches and picked suitable yarn colours. There is one dilemma though, I don’t know what kind of marmot I am going to make, in colour that is. There is the Alp marmot, the woodchuck, the groundhog and my favourite but more uncommon variation, the Vancouver Island marmot with its bear-ish appearance.

The Vancouver Island marmot is an endangered species and has beautiful chocolate brown fur and contrasting white patches. I think he’s absolutely stunning, but I am afraid many people won’t immediately recognize my crochet version of one to be a marmot. So I think I will stick to a more traditional coloured marmot and make the chocolate brown coloured one for myself.

Here are some pictures of this lovely animal. The first picture I have found online and in it you see the stunning Vancouver Island marmot. Look at him, what an absolute beauty! The second picture is made by my boyfriend. This marmot we encountered in Switzerland at the Abula pass. When we passed him after we had just started our hike, he quickly fled into his hole, which led into a cold war shelter. When he called out to warn his friends, he made our ears ring. Anyway, we knew where he was, so on our way back, we silently approached his little territorium and there he was. We quickly took his picture, he fled into his little dug out again and made our ears ring some more. We enjoyed ourselves very much.