FO: Vernon the Winter Walrus

Well, it's a Friday and I actually have a finished object I can show you! It's a small miracle, folks. The last few weeks have found me in a peculiar situation - I finish a gift item, I know I have others I need to finish, but I just want a break to make something frivolous for myself. It's childish, sure, but sometimes you just need your hobby to be a stress reliever, amiright? This little guy ended up being just what I needed :)

 Meet Vernon. I made him using the Deck the Walruses by Anna Hrachovec, which you get free right now with any $5 purchase on Mochimochiland.com until January 1st. I never have a problem finding one of her patterns to love during this yearly freebie-type-sale (last year I got the Teeter Totter Reindeer pattern for free with the same deal), so I grabbed the Pile-Up Pups pattern and got this one for free :) Yay for half price on two designs I wanted anyway! Anyway, the pattern includes the walrus and 3 hat options to "deck" him out in. My favorite was easily the ear flap hat.

I kind of pulled my stripes a bit too tight on the hat - oh well, he's still adorable :) I made Vernon last Sunday during a Lord of the Rings view-a-thon with my husband. I used Vanna's Choice yarn from my stash in Dusty Rose and Linen along with a mystery blue acrylic yarn I picked up at a thrift shop. I really love how quirky the color combo turned out.

Vernon's hat is removable, but not tie-on-able. My nephew loves to play with Vernon ... until his hat falls off. It's pretty funny how distressed this make him, lol. If you were making the pattern up yourself, you could make the ties maybe double their length and then you could tie a cute bow to keep the hat on, just so you know.

The pattern was pretty good - I could have done with a close up shot of the back or side especially considering the pattern tells you to place the tail at a 45 degree angle, but I was able to figure out the tail and flipper placement. I did put the tail lower than the pattern tells you because he kept falling forward the other way. His mustache is just the linen colored yarn tied to the bars between the stitches macramé style, then trimmed and untwisted.

The only other change I made was to use size 6 dpns instead of the called for size 5s - I knit tightly, so I figured it would help. The only spot this made a difference is at the increasing on the head - the holes are a smidge bigger than I'd like. Oh well, that's what cute hats are for :) His stuffing still all stays in just fine - it's really a nit picky thing on my part, not that big a deal. Also I had to look up how to do a 3 needle bind off to make the separation in the tail - again, not a big deal, but I had never needed to do that before. You Tube came to the rescue, as ever.

So, there you have it :) I'm really happy with this cute little guy. He makes for a nice holiday decoration, but I will certainly keep him out year round. Vernon turned out to be just the break I needed to get my head back in the gift knitting game. Huzzah! 

*I am not being compensated for mentioning the Mochimochi Land sale at all - I just thought you might like to know about it too :)