New Animals Coming Soon!

Two NEW original animals are coming to The Kotton Kaboodle soon! I'll give you some hints...

What has 8 tentacles, lots of sparkles, and is full of stuffing and tons of fun?

ORLANDO THE OCTOPUS!!!

I am in the process of finalizing and testing the pattern for Orlando!

Orlando is made up of over 10,600 stitches! I even incorporated puff stitches to the underside of his tentacles, which creates the sucker texture.

The tip of his tentacles curve up automatically, so his arms have a realistic twist!

This cutie is LIFE-SIZED!! He is 38 inches from tentacle to tentacle, and he weighs almost 2 pounds!

Stay tuned for the pattern AND physical Orlando stuffed animal on my Etsy page!

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For the next animal, here's another riddle...

What did the tropical bird say when the monkey stole his fruit?

TOUCAN play at that game!

Introducing Aria the Aracari Toucan!

This Toucan is the first original tropical bird I've crocheted from scratch (and I'm hoping to crochet more in the future 😉)!

I got a request from a super sweet lady on Etsy asking me to replicate her pet toucan. Of course I said yes!

Her beak gave me quite a lot of trouble, because I had to find a way to shape it to look like a toucan—curved on the top, flat on the bottom—and also crochet a color pattern into the beak. I was tossing around the idea of crocheting strips of color I would sew on later, but I decided against it; I wanted it to be as realistic as possible and smooth to the touch.

I used a variation of my "sc STW" stitches introduced in my Whale Shark pattern, and instead of hiding the opposite color of yarn inside my work, I resolved to cut the yarn after each color change, and secure it with knots when I've finished the round.

This technique allowed me to shape the beak while I stuffed it, and deal with multiple strands of yarn with more ease—sometimes I would be changing colors 7 times! 😅

I am also in the process of testing/finalizing the pattern for Aria.

Check back soon for the pattern on my Etsy shop!

Happy crocheting!

—Julia from The Kotton Kaboodle