Koala Ears and Other Details

I'm in the process of working on the Yarnspirations' Bernat Koala Crochet Basket for a friend. As I mentioned in a previous post, I've substituted Red Heart Soft Essentials for Bernat Beyond. Soft Essentials is a less tightly-spun yarn than Beyond, which means that I have to be more careful about the yarn untwisting and splitting — but I can also use that quality to my advantage to improve the appearance of my koala.

If you Google images of (real) koalas, you'll note that they have kind of fluffy ears. Both the inside and outside of the ear seem to have long furry hairs which are missing from Yarnspirations' pattern. With an easily-untwisting yarn like Soft Essentials, I'm able to add that effect back in.

Here's how:

Fluffy Koala Ears

Step 1:

Once I joined the inner ear to the outer ear and sewed it onto the head, I threaded a long length of yarn (about a yard or so — it really doesn't matter if it's too short; you can always thread another length to complete this) in the color of the inner ear. At the edge of the ear where I joined the two pieces, I stitched a number of individual double buttonhole stitches, close together.

Double buttonhole stitch:

• Start in the direction from the inner ear to the outer ear, leaving a 1" tail.
• Hold the yarn tail so that it lies parallel to the seam, the end laying on the outer ear.
• The second half of the stitch goes right next to the first, going from the outer ear to the inner ear. Keep the stitch above the loop of thread from the first half of the stitch.
• Pull the yarn taut, creating a knot with both ends of the yarn lying along the outer ear.
• Cut the needle yarn about 1" from the knot.

I did this for the outer edge of the ear, using a photo of a real koala as a guide.

Step 2:

When I finished making my knots, I used a wire brush to untwist, despin, and fluff out the yarn tails, creating a fur-like, hairy ear.

Step 3:

I trimmed the edges of the "fur" roughly even. 

Unfortunately, my first go at this was a bit too short, and I should have probably started with a row of double buttonhole stitches in the outer-ear yarn, just outside of where I added the inner-ear stitches.

More Details

I'm added a bit more detail to my finished koala by using my dark nose color to stitch claws at the end of the koala's paws as a finishing touch.