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I was so extremely excited to start this crochet project, Murray the Sea Otter, from Yan Schenkel’s Animal Friends of Pica Pau.
My friend, Montse, who showed me my very first few crochet stitches, had been crocheting and collecting all of Pica Pau’s animal friends for her baby that was on the way. Montse also gave me some yarn for making one of the adorable amigurumi from the book, but I was holding off until I felt a bit more confident with my crocheting skills before I started.
I felt now, however was the time. I started making adorable Murray the Sea Otter on Saturday, 7 March, and had him completed a little under two weeks later on Friday, 20 March. I am so extremely proud of how he turned out. I just love him!
Meet Murray the Sea Otter
Murray is quite a quiet boy who loves to read, and spend time with his family. He has also received lots of compliments from his little amigurumi siblings about his wee vest top. Now, they’re all asking for one…
Murray absolutely loves the sea, but given our current situation of being stuck indoors, he has taken to the bath quite nicely! I think he is becoming quite accustomed to home living.
Details to help you crochet Murray the Sea Otter
If you’re considering making Murray, I’ve listed some extra details below, along with some lessons that I learned during the crocheting process. I hope this helps you too.
Crochet pattern for Murray the Sea Otter
Okay, seriously, this pattern book, Animal Friends of Pica Pau by Yan Schenkel, is AMAZING! I couldn’t recommend it more.
You’ll find Murray the Sea Otter in pages 66 – 69. Murray is super cute, but honestly, ALL of the amigurumi in this book are absolutely adorable. Can you tell how obsessed and passionate about this crochet pattern book I am? Just click here to see a post from Yan on Instagram with all the animals you can crochet from this book. It’s honestly incredible!
Other than including a load of amazing amigurumi patterns, the beginning pages of this book include extremely helpful how-tos for beginners. They explain everything you need to know in detail and with pictures on how to crochet all of these gorgeous animals.
If you fancy buying a copy for yourself, just click this link here.
Yarn
The lovely yarn Montse gave me as a present was from a Danish Yarn company called Søstrene Grene.
As always, I went against the grain and changed up the colours I used a little bit for this pattern. I used Søstrene Grene’s Anna & Clara’s 8/4 Organic Cotton in Black, Navy, Off White, Red & Brown. The pattern however suggests that Murray’s top should be made in white and blue, and his jacket should be in yellow. I used red and navy instead and think it worked quite nicely.
If you fancy purchasing this yarn, you can take a look at Søstrene Grene’s website here (just be sure to change the country on the webpage, depending on where you are based).
Lessons learned from crocheting Murray the Sea Otter
Most of the resources I used for completing this pattern were all in the front of the book, so instead I’ve just focused on lessons I learned while crocheting Murray.
The invisible decrease
This is something I’m now obsessed with. Although Yan says she normally doesn’t use the invisible decrease, she shows you how to do it at the beginning of the book in case you want to. I did want to. I tried it, and absolutely loved the result. Go on, google ‘invisible decrease’ now, I know you want to.
If you don’t succeed, pick yourself up and try again
Or in the case of crocheting, don’t be afraid of undoing your stitches. I would honestly avoid undoing stitches when I first started crocheting, and I really don’t know why. This pattern however, made me want to make sure I got everything right, so I forced myself to undo stitches when I knew I’d made a mistake. Honestly, please do it. You’ll feel better for it once your project is completed. I sure did!
Crocheting in spirals
Do you remember how I mentioned the little line that appears in crocheted amigurumi when you use a join stitch? Just in case you don’t, head over to my blog post about Max the Monkey here, which will bring you up to speed. In the past patterns I’ve worked on, including the Boobs that I designed myself, they all used joining stitches. I think these patterns are great for beginners, but not so great for the aesthetic of your finished piece of crocheted work. Yan’s Animal Friends of Pica Pau require you to work your crochet rounds in a spiral, which means continuing on through your crochet project without any joining stitches. This means no lines, but more work counting (and using awesome stitch markers like these from Kraftiara Markers). I honestly think the end product looks amazing, and now this is my go-to kind of amigurumi pattern.
Splitting your crochet work
Okay, this was a new one for me. In this pattern book, the majority of the animals are crocheted all in one go. Less sewing at the end automatically makes me a fan. In Murray’s case, his head, body, and legs, were crocheted all in one go, with his ears, arms, and snout being the only parts that you needed to sew on at the end (his little vest is removable, so no sewing required!). The technique I learned here, which I’d never done before, was splitting the crochet work in two, and then continuing to crochet in two parts. These two parts were Murray’s legs at the end of the body. It confused me at the start, but after re-reading the pattern a few times and the instructions at the beginning, I got the hang of it, and it was actually way easier than I thought. Wow, all I can say is, I much prefer crocheting all in one go, than having to stitch loads of parts together at the end. I also just love the result. I mean, you just have to look at Murray to agree.
Final thoughts
Murray the Sea Otter from Yan Schenkel’s Animal Friends of Pica Pau is 100% my favourite amigurumi I’ve crocheted so far. Just don’t tell the others, I don’t want them to get upset!
Have you tried making Murray or any other amigurumi from Animal Friends of Pica Pau? If so, I’d love to hear from you. Let me know your thoughts, comments, feedback, or inspiration in the comments below, or feel free to email me here. I hoped this blog post helps you in some way, or brings some inspiration to your day. Thanks for reading!
Until next time, happy crocheting,
Cilla x
