Since I have a real liking for nature’s most peculiar, weird, mysterious or misunderstood underdogs I decided to design some of them for anyone who wants to get to know these natural weirdo’s a little better!

The tarsier (Tarsius sp.) is an alien looking island resident from South East Asia. If you were to mix up E.T., Yoda and a monkey in a batter, your cake would come out looking like a tarsier. Tarsiers can rotate their heads a full 180 degrees, making them great candidates for a remake of “The Exorcist”. Maybe that supernatural ability accounts for their Dutch name: they are called ‘spookdiertjes’ or ghost animals. And then there are long, sticky horror-movie-fingers, with the middle finger about the same length as the upper arm. Despite all these seemingly frightening attributes, the overall combination makes for one cuddly, cute critter, as you’ll find out when you finish knitting your tarsier!

For this tarsier 2.25 mm double pointed needles (UK 13, US 1), Lana Grossa Ragazza Voi (10) brown mottled, Scheepjes Merino Soft (606) Da Vinci and soft toy filling were used. It measures 11 cm with a 22 cm tail, making it pretty much life-size. Pipe cleaners can be used to make the limbs pliable and prehensile. This makes the tarsier able to grab hold of things.

This is an easy to medium project that requires some flat and round knitting, short rows, an instance of intarsia color work and the picking up, transferring and retaining of stitches. The tarsiers’ features are embroidered onto the face.