Two years ago, I knitted Albert the Magic Pudding. I decided to continue the theme by this year knitting Sam Sawnoff, a penguin and loyal member of the Noble Society of Pudding Owners.

As before, I based this toy off the original Norman Lindsay watercolour. I started with the Fairy Penguin pattern in the “Wildlife in 8ply” book, but I changed the colours to match the painting. The instructions for the feet were completely incomprehensible to me, so I made my own up instead. Seaming the wings together was also really annoying. (Overall, I have to say I dislike these older patterns where they go to tremendous effort to avoid circular knitting, having you knit all these little bits and seam them together.)

For the eyes, I sewed on pieces of white, blue, and black felt. I also made him a pair of calico trousers with a brown felt belt. The trousers came out a bit more “nappy-like” than I wanted, but given the realities of penguin anatomy, I don’t think it could be helped.

As I opined on Twitter one night: I don’t think Norman Lindsay ever even saw a real penguin!