Sunday, November 1, 2015

Ace-cephalopods

 The aim here was to make an ace-cephalopod, an asexual octopus, after seeing these awesome LGBT marine animals.

They're modelled on the giant pacific octopus, the main features are the head part, which leans backwards and has a slight fold where it attaches to the body.  There's then a bit of a waist, before it separates out into the arms.


The first one turned out a little more cute and cartoonish than I'd hoped - its body is too big and round, and the tentacles are too short.  I think the big problem though is that the eyes don't point outwards, so it's natural to see it as just having a big face, rather than seeing the eyes pointing sideway.  Regardless, it's pretty cute, and reminds me a lot of the dumbo octopus.  I really like how it stands up too - I'd consider adding a suction cup to the underside so it can be attached to things.

The second one I'm much happier with!  He has a real angry glare to him, and his features look great.  The main differences here are the tentacles are much longer, the head is a bit narrower and the waist more pronounced, and I've reworked the colours to give a bit more emphasis to the head.  And of course the eyes now come in little capsules so they protude and point outwards properly.

I had great fun wandering around out local docks taking pictures of them (and explaining to passersby what I was doing) - you can see the rest of them here: http://s12.photobucket.com/user/griffiths_hugh/library/Ace-cephalopods

Knitting these did make me realise quite how often the things I knit seem to end up having tentacles.  Going to try knitting a few more land-based things next!

Happy knitting,
Hugh.