After 54 years, she’s closing the sunporch — and letting her last little critters go.
Lorraine Whitfield (76) has hand-crocheted her goofy animal coasters in Woodstock, New York for over half a century. Arthritis is finally telling her hands it’s time — so her final run of critters is going out the door, one set at a time.

On a sunporch just outside Woodstock, New York, Lorraine Whitfield has spent the better part of fifty-four years doing something most people have never watched up close — crocheting little animals, one stitch at a time, by hand. Not for a factory. Not from a pattern off a screen. Just her, a hook, and a basket of cotton. Now the 76-year-old is setting the hook down for good — and letting her last batch of critter coasters go. Why are these funny little things suddenly getting so much attention? Because this is the last run Lorraine will ever make.

Woodstock, New York. Late winter, on the sunporch. The room smells like cotton and coffee. Baskets of yarn line the windowsill — sage, cream, soft grey, a little pink. On the worktable sits a small crowd of finished critters: a frog with his tongue out, a turtle mid-grin, a grey mouse splayed flat like he’s had a very long day. Lorraine picks up her hook, just like she has nearly every morning since she was a girl. But this winter is different. It’s her last.

“I learned on my grandmother’s back step,” she says, “working my first rounds out of whatever cotton scraps she had left over. Somewhere along the way the rounds turned into animals — and the animals ended up under half the coffee cups in town.” She looks down at her hands. “My fingers still work most mornings. But the tight centre rounds — the part you can’t fake — the arthritis has finally reached those. So this is the last of them.”

54 years, more critters than she can count — every one made by hand

Lorraine doesn’t know exactly how many she’s made. “More than I could ever count,” she laughs. “At the start I was just making plain little cotton rounds for the church ladies to set their cups on. But a plain circle was boring. I wanted the thing to make somebody smile when they picked it up.”

That’s how the critters were born: a sturdy, thirsty little cotton coaster with a face — a frog, a turtle, a mouse, a wide-eyed opossum — built for the morning coffee, the desk, the windowsill. For most of her life Lorraine sold them at Catskill craft fairs and by word of mouth. “Then people started mailing me photos of their critter under a mug at the office, on the porch, in their kid’s dorm room. That’s when I knew these silly things had found their people.”

What makes Lorraine’s critters different

What sets these apart isn’t just the googly eyes — cute as they are. It’s how they’re built: as useful as a good cotton coaster, as honest as a piece of real handwork .

Each body is crocheted in a true spiral, worked in the round and turned by hand as it grows — which is why it lies flat and never curls at the edges. A factory knits a flat panel and stitches it shut; you can feel the difference the moment you pick one up. The coasters are 100% cotton, not acrylic , so they actually drink up the ring of condensation off a cold glass instead of letting it run across your table — and they rinse clean and soften with every wash. Worked extra-thick right in the centre, where the cup sits, there’s real body under the heat.

And the faces. Every eye, every leg, every little tongue is set by hand — so no two critters wear quite the same expression. That’s the part people fall for, and the part a machine simply can’t fake.

The best part? They look hilariously squashed under your cup

Here’s the thing nobody expects: set a hot mug down on one, and the critter flattens out underneath it — eyes bugging out to the sides, little legs splayed, like he’s been comically squished flat. “That’s not a flaw,” Lorraine insists. “That squashed look is exactly what makes a coaster do its job. And it makes people laugh every single morning. That was always the whole point.”

It’s a small thing. A daft little face under your coffee. But it’s the kind of small thing that turns “just a coaster” into the one you reach for first — and the one your kids fight over.

The end of an era — Lorraine’s final run

When the last sets leave the sunporch, that’s it. “I don’t have an apprentice. Nobody wants to spend years learning to do this properly anymore,” she says. What’s left are the critters from her last good winters — a counted number, sitting in the baskets on her porch. Her life’s work. The last batch that will ever come off her hook.

The set of four goes for $49 — down from $64. “I’m not in this for the money anymore,” she says. “I just want them out there — under somebody’s coffee cup on a Tuesday morning, making them smile. That’s what they were made for.”

What sets Lorraine’s critter coasters apart:

• 100% handmade: Every critter is crocheted, shaped and finished by Lorraine herself — no assembly line, no factory knit, no printed circle of acrylic.
• Worked in the round: A true spiral, turned by hand, so it lies flat and holds its shape under a cup instead of curling at the edges.
• Thirsty 100% cotton: Actually absorbs the ring of condensation off a cold glass, rinses clean, and softens with every wash — unlike acrylic, which just pushes water around.
• Hand-set faces: Every eye, leg and tongue is placed by hand — so no two critters wear the same expression, and none of it peels or washes off like a printed graphic.
• A little family of four: The Frog, the Turtle, the Mouse and the Opossum — four characters in every set, each with its own daft charm.
• Truly final: Only the sets from Lorraine’s last working winters remain. Once they’re gone, there’s no restock — she’s retiring the hook.

Lorraine’s final run — only the sets from her last winters remain, and there’s no restock once she retires.

What people are saying about the critters

Where you can get a set

Lorraine’s critter coasters are available only through her shop at Marlow Market — the one place you’ll find the real, hand-crocheted sets straight from her sunporch. Every order is hand-packed and ships from the USA within 2–3 business days, with free US shipping and tracking.

This is Lorraine’s final run before she retires the hook. Once the last sets are gone, there are no more.

The short version

These are the coasters you’ll actually want on the table.

Each one is crocheted entirely by hand, drinks up the drips a bare table can’t, and makes you laugh every time you squash it flat under a hot mug.

Useful every single day — and every time you set your cup down, or somebody asks about the goofy little face, you get that small “oh, that’s lovely” moment all over again.

Thank you, Lorraine. 🧶🐸

Try them with Lorraine’s 30-day money-back guarantee

Lorraine puts it simply:

So she backs every set with a 30-day money-back guarantee . Put one under your morning cup. Set the little family out on the table. If they don’t make you smile every day — and soak up every drip — send them back for a full refund. No questions asked.

Final run — no restock once sold out. Ships within 2–3 business days.