Introducing Marigold the Moose

Marigold the Moose

Marigold the Moose got her name because marigolds are her favourite flowers. To eat, that is. She likes to keep one behind her ear as an emergency snack!


Marigold's history
Who would have guessed that making a moose could cause so many unexpected problems?

One day I started knitting a moose, and while knitting I was pondering a suitable name. "Marigold" popped into my head. Perfect! Mr Morrgan also thought the name would suit a moose and suggested that she got the name for liking marigolds so much for lunch. Even more perfect!

After that it was settled. The moose called was Marigold.

Only a little later did it occur to me that a lady moose doesn't have antlers. D'oh! Some biologist I am. By this time it was too late. The name Marigold was so perfect it had to stay. I decided she just belongs to a special species of plush moose, where every individual has antlers. So there.

The second uh-oh occured when I was trying to place the ears. I put them between the antlers. ...No, that didn't look right. I put them behind the antlers. Nope, didn't work either. I put them below. Still looked wrong.

There was only one way to solve this: searching for moose pictures online! I discovered something interesting. Plush moose often have the ears below the antlers, whereas live moose have them behind and often showing between the antlers. No wonder I had trouble placing them.

After the gender/antler trouble from before, I felt my integrity as a biologist (ahem) would suffer too much if I'd bend reality twice for the same creature. Hence Marigold's ears are behind and between the antlers, unlike most other plush moose.

Marigold the Moose is available as a pattern via Ravelry (or click here to buy now - no Ravelry account needed) and from my Etsy shop.

Marigold is an intermediate level pattern. Marigold is knitted both flat and in the round, with the stitches knit, purl, lifted increases, knit/purl 2 together and slip stitch over. I-cord knitting is used for the flower (the pattern has brief instructions on how to do that).

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