The Walrus

Each summer, I have two interns learning how to be leaders and work with kids.  At the end of their month of learning, my co-leader and I give them a thank-you gift based on what we've learned about them or the inside jokes that developed with the kids.

For my second one this year, we had absolutely nothing.  It was the night before the last day and the only idea I had was to get her a stuffed walrus (because she was on her school's swim team and the kids had taken to calling her a walrus), but I couldn't find one anywhere.  Not Toys R Us, not the local drug stores that always have an odd selection of animals, not any of the specialty toy stores.  I even checked the local Petco on the off-chance they'd have a walrus chew toy.  Nothing.

So at about 8p, my mother dug out some brown yarn (I had none, which is why this wasn't my first idea) and I got working.  I worked it much the same as the head of a cthulhu plush, in rounds starting at 6 st.  I increased until 54 or 60 (really whichever one looked better) and instead of doing the curled tentacles, I ch'd 4 or 5 and hdc'd my way back; each new ch was connected to the previous row of hdc.  It didn't look the prettiest, but it worked.

When the body was stuffed and finished, I made a couple small triangles for flippers and a rough trapezoid for the tail.  Then I dug out some thin white and made some quick tusks (ch 10ish, sc back), sewed them under the lip bit and called it done.

She absolutely loved it.  Everyone was very taken by it.  I will admit it was rather adorable.  And it was then I got the request for a manatee.  But that's for another day.