realistic crochet otter

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.

And here he is, my whimsical looking crochet otter amigurumi called Bubbly.

It felt like I have been working on this pattern for ages. That’s probably because of all the free days we are having this time of year. But that doesn’t spoil the fun of publishing something new, on the contrary, I was looking so much forward to writing this post.

What do you think? Did I manage to capture the thing that make otters the popular and much loved animals as they are? I think I did, I’m so happy with this otter. Bubbly looks like an enthusiastic, funny young otter, who’s up to many tricks. Designing crochet animals and creating a doll that resembles the real animal in a basic way is a challenging thing, and for some animals it is harder than for others.

Otters are the kind of animal that need a bit of extra attention to give the doll the spirit real otters have. For example, my previous otter pattern looked like an otter, there’s no question about that and it is a lovely looking doll, but it missed that extra bit of character. This otter contains the sense of humor I like to add to my designs, his quizzical expression is priceless! I love Bubbly and hope you will love this otter amigurumi too.

Here are some more pictures of this funny looking crochet otter and below them you can find info about and links to buy the pattern.

Info about & links to buy the pattern

Bubbly is made with Istex Lett Lopi, a 100% wool with a lot of fuzziness. He is 6.2 inch/ 15,5 cm tall when made with this yarn. The pattern is written in standard American crochet terms and contains a clear and colour coded description of how to crochet and assemble this 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 funny looking crochet otter amigurumi. All the additional information you need to know about this pattern you can find in the shop listings, like the yarn you need etc. You can buy this pattern in my shop at Ravelry, Etsy or order it here.

This pattern has a one dollar release discount till Tuesday the 29th of May!