Oscar Ook 🦧 the Amazing Orangutan
The making of an orangutan
Quick house keeping note - if you are here for poetry and essays only pop over to my new Substack -The Shadow Mirror where I let all the angst and darkness out of their boxes to run riot.
If this post is too long for email, please click through to see it all
Here is a subscribe button, it helps keep you up to date with my ramblings, click it, go on I dare you! 😁
Dear Knitting Cabbage Heads,
(This is a reworked, repost of a 2 year old post. Many of you won’t have seen it and I’m a bit behind on original stories.)
Once it was suggested I make an orangutan/orangutang/orang-utan (there is no consensus on how to spell it). So is the visual story of how Oscar Ook came into being. Firstly I needed to find a pattern and finding one I felt gave enough character was a task in itself. But find one I did, it’s actually a tea-cosy pattern but easily converted (as the pattern writer Susan Cooper on Ravelry noted). The pattern and yarn required meant this was always going to be a bigger end product than my normal frog. I started with the intent to make the pattern as written and see how I could change it afterwards to make it smaller. The trouble with smaller is finding yarn that will work. For the uninitiated, thicker yarns need thicker needles make bigger products. Thinner yarns are not always available in the fluffiness required for fur etc. and as yet 2 years later I’ve not managed to find the right yarn.
So I started
It was hilarious making up tribbles. Many Star-trek jokes that ensued. I decided to put armature inside him so he is slightly posable, the pattern didn’t allow for this so I had to improvise. I’d like to say I have photos but, alas, I don’t. Anyhow I made his face next. He has lovely deep brown safety eyes, and I needed to experiment with the position of eye brows and mouth etc. I’m sure there are many expressions I could have stumbled upon but slightly bemused seems to have won out.
Then the arms and legs, and the palms of the hands were made. At this point I had to go away for a few days and decided not to take knitting with me. I wanted to spend what energy I had being present for my friends as much as possible (though due to my ME/CFS I was quite quiet.) So I parked him quietly on the window ledge and left.
Once back all I needed to door was knit ten digits, add them to the palms, sort out how to add the armature, add the right amount of stuffing around said armature, add the hands to the arms and then sew on the head. Just a small bit of work.
It was then time to find him a home and where better than looking after my Terry Pratchett books. He was in heaven.
He spent some time helping at Hallowe’en last year, hit quiet demeanour a calming influence of the rather rambunctious frogs.
Come Christmas last year he supervised the Xmas tree decorating, I’ll pop one pic on here, but will repost that story in a few weeks time.
I hope you have enjoyed this photo story of the making of Oscar. So that’s me signing off for now, till next time. If you have any suggestions for photo opportunities for either Oscar or Frog and Toad, or any ideas for other animals you’d like to see let me know below.
And so that’s all folks. Till next time, Tx
Froglets🐸, other animals🐇🦊🦡🐭🐘🦏🦎🦥🦧etc, and other miniatures are (or will be) available from me on here (message me). You can also find them at My Website. They are considered collectibles, are unsuitable for under 14s due to the wires, are not CE/UKCA tested (collectibles do not need to be), and are therefore priced as such. Also contact me here if you fancy something you see or don’t see, I’m always open to suggestions. I do have ME/CFS and making and photographing them etc all takes a lot of energy and is a very slow process. I do knit to order too, but be aware a froglet with a jumper takes up to a week for me to make on average. The smaller they are the longer they take as they are more intricate and fiddly. Thank you muchly.
If you have enjoyed my ramblings I’d love for you to click the ❤️. It pleases the social algorithm, lets others know there’s something interesting here, as well as letting me know you liked it and giving me a little virtual hug. Without virtual hugs I have been know to get sad 😜. Shares are good too and a comment buoys me up even more 😁 A comment of what you liked, what you didn’t etc would be most gratefully appreciated.
Ook is my favourite, though the rabbits are very sweet also. Bonfire Night could be a theme, though whether the frogs could be trusted with matches, who knows?
Lovely to see your process!