Erst-whale

Hey again!
This project is a definite contender for "worst pun I've com up with for a while". It started with one of the PhD folks mentioning how cool a word "erstwhile" is. I then decided it would be fun to make an "Erst-whale"- "erste" being german for "first", this consists of a whale with a large number 1 on the side.
I tried to make the pattern good and simple, the knitting starts with two flaps at the back of the body, then joins in the round and then continues up the body, finishing at the nose. The tail and fins are then made seperately. I'm very pleased with how the tail worked out - the idea was that once you'd made the tail, the two flaps on the back would form a nice join onto it, and I think that came out really well. I also put in a couple of short rows to make the tail curve upwards slightly, and am very happy with the effect there too - it's quite subtle, but I think it adds a lot to the look.
The '1' I duplicate stitched on, which is a bit of a new experience for me - I've tended to do these things with stranding, but am very impressed with how easy this was, and how well it came out. I'll definitely be using that more in future.

I kinda realised part way through too, that this doesn't really line up with any particular species of whale. I hadn't realised there was such a variety of shapes to the different species either - I've always thought this was kinda the 'normal' shape for a whale. I'm quite keen to try making a more realistic sperm whale at some point, mostly because the sketch I drew of one turned out really well, but also because I'll be able to make some kind of a Moby Dick reference out of it.

So yep, awful puns and a whale - woo!
Happy knitting!
Hugh.

Bee-hat

Hey!

So, this is a quick little project, based on an awful awful pun.
A little while ago, our preacher-guy had a series on "big hairy audacious thoughts", or "B-HAT"s, the kind of really big simple ideas behind christianity which are so big and obvious we can kind of skip over them.
So, I was a little slow, but I suddenly decided I absolutely had to make a little bee with a hat on. Given my taste in puns, I guess this was kinda inevitable really. So the plan was to just make this quick and simple - the head and body are just ellipsoids, the hat is just a cone with a ribbed brim(actually this idea is kinda borrowed from some awesome gnomes we had knit at city knitty a few weeks back), and the legs are based on the ones from the badger torus, long long ago.

I decided to make the legs quite long and dangly, and I really like how that turned out. You can kind of play with them, and they somehow seem really expressive. The wings I made a bit lacy, to make them look a bit filmy and light. The Mighty Nuala helped me out with that, and I'm very happy with how they turned out. So yay, I'm really very happy with how this turned out.
Slight problems, sewing up the body was a bit of a pain, with the stripes. I should really have knit it in the round, but hey. Also, sewing the wings on was a little tricky, I hadn't left much of a border at the bottom and it was kinda hard to tell which edge was which. But it seemed to work out ok, and hopefully noone will look too closely.
So yay! I'm just wondering now if the hat would look better with a little pompom? And after the fun I had taking photos, I'm not planning to take it around the botanical gardens and take many more. Oh, and more photos on ravelry!
Happy spring!
Hugh.

Boba Fett

Hi folks!

I've been forgetting to update this for a while now, so I've got a couple of designs and even some finished objects to post, so look out for those in the next few days. For today though - Boba Fett.
A member of the local scifi society pointed this comic out to me, and knowing that I like to make odd toys, challenged me to make a Boba Fett like the one shown there. It looked like fun, so I decided to give it a go. To my shame, I didn't actually know who Boba Fett was - I haven't actually watched the star wars films, so I had to do some research. Hopefully I've got all the important features.
The plan is for this to be just a small, quick thing, using nice simple shapes and very little planning. I want to say "amigurumi-style", but I'm not sure if that's specifically crochet. I think this will be a particularly suitable character for this, because I suspect almost all of the recognition comes from the helmet, so as long as that's there I suspect it's be pretty instantly identifiable.

So yeah, happy geeking!
Hugh.