Kritter Stories
Every kritter comes with the story of making it — including the bits that went wrong first, which are usually the interesting part.
The Ice Shelf
An emperor penguin, a chick, and the egg the chick came out of.
Pebble the chick tucks into the pouch at the front of the big penguin, and there's a separate egg that Pebble fits inside too — so the whole thing packs down into itself. The egg came first, then the chick, then the parent, which is backwards, but each piece came out better than the last.
cm · 3.5mm hook · 11 hours · Worsted acrylic — black, white, marigold
The Rockpool
A hermit crab who moved into a treasure chest.
The chest opens, and there's a hole in the bottom that Barnaby fits up through — so he can sit inside it or wear it like a shell. Two projects that only make sense together, which is exactly what a hermit crab is.
cm · 3.5mm hook · 5 hours · Worsted acrylic — cocoa, coral, mustard
The Rockpool
Two hermit crabs and three shells between them.
Each crab is really two projects — the crab, and the house it lives in. There are three shells here: the two they're wearing, plus a spare spiral one behind the red crab, worked in multicoloured yarn from the tip outwards. The crabs swap between them.
cm · 3.5mm hook · 7 hours · Variegated cotton, worsted acrylic
The Riverbank
The most relaxed animal in the kingdom.
A capybara is mostly a rectangle with opinions. The hard part was the face — the eyes and nose sit much closer together than feels right until it's finished, and then it's perfect.
cm · 3.5mm hook · 4 hours · Worsted acrylic — chestnut
The Riverbank
A purple hippo with a serious face.
Hippos have almost no neck, which sounds easier and isn't — the head has to grow straight out of the body without a seam showing.
cm · 3.5mm hook · 5 hours · Worsted acrylic — lilac
The Barnyard
Two black cats with blue collars.
Black yarn is genuinely hard to work with — you can't see your stitches, so you count everything twice and trust your fingers. These two took longer than anything else their size.
cm · 3.5mm hook · 9 hours · Worsted acrylic — black, cobalt
The Barnyard
Small, round, and quick — the ones that started it all.
Once you've made one you can make one every evening. That's how a barnyard happens. The comb and wattle are tiny separate pieces sewn on at the end, and they're fiddlier than the entire rest of the bird.
cm · 3.5mm hook · 3 hours · Worsted acrylic — oat, cream, scarlet, gold
The Meadow
White, with a mane of absolutely everything.
The mane is the whole point — dozens of lengths of yarn in every colour in the basket, knotted in one at a time and then trimmed. It took longer than the body and it was worth it.
cm · 3.5mm hook · 7 hours · Worsted acrylic — white, plus the whole basket
The Sunning Log
Two, and no two the same.
Made from variegated yarn, so the colour changes on its own as you work and you never quite know what you're going to get. The curled tail is worked as a long tube and then bent into shape.
cm · 3.5mm hook · 6 hours · Variegated acrylic — 'lagoon'
The Old Oak
Big ears. You know the one.
The ears are worked flat and then shaped over the edge of the table, and the robe is a separate garment that comes off. Made for the fun of it, and the hardest face to get right so far.
cm · 3.5mm hook · 8 hours · Worsted acrylic — sage, cocoa, oat
The Barnyard
A whole set, seven pieces, worked over one December.
The most ambitious thing here by a distance. Seven separate figures that all had to look like they belong to each other — same yarn weight, same hook, same proportions — and a manger that had to actually hold the smallest one.
cm · 3.5mm hook · 26 hours · Worsted acrylic — stone, sage, slate, cocoa
The Rockpool
A very small, very red crab.
Not a hermit crab — this one grew his own shell. Eight legs and two claws, each a tiny tube sewn on separately, which is a lot of sewing for something that fits in the palm of a hand. He lives in the rockpool with the hermit crabs and doesn't seem to mind that they keep swapping houses.
cm · 3.5mm hook · 2 hours · Worsted acrylic — scarlet
The Ocean
A stingray, and the pup that tucks inside her.
The mommy is worked in thick chenille on a 6mm hook, so she's soft all the way through and stitches up fast. The baby is a different, finer yarn on a 3.5mm hook, which is why he's so much smaller. The trick is underneath: there's a pouch in Marina's belly, and Pip the pup fits right inside it — so it packs down into one stingray, and then there are two.
cm · 6mm for the mommy · 3.5mm for the baby hook · 5 hours · Two different yarns — chunky chenille for Marina, a finer one for Pip
The Sky
A small black crow with a grey beak.
Black yarn again, which means counting every stitch twice because you can't see them. The wings are worked flat and sewn on so they stand a little away from the body, and the beak is a tiny grey cone that took three tries to get pointed enough.
cm · 3.5mm hook · 3 hours · Worsted acrylic — black, grey
The Riverbank
A white goose with a very orange beak.
Mostly white, which shows every bit of fluff and dust, so she gets a brush before every photo. The beak and feet are the only orange in her, and they're what make her a goose instead of a duck — long neck, held up, slightly disapproving.
cm · 3.5mm hook · 3 hours · Worsted acrylic — white, orange
