A friend from the Phoenix Sci-Fi group pointed me towards the Extermiknit website, and it looked like a really fun toy to make. My knitting isn't, on the whole, hugely successful; to my name, I had one hat (which I do wear fairly solidly during the winter), a pair of gauntlet gloves which I knitted on the wrong size needles, and therefore have yet to be joined up (I have buttons to do so, just haven't yet got round to it), a cardigan which is the back and about half of one of the sides complete, and a shawl which needs a lot of tidying up before it is wearable. Plus four or five patterns which I haven't yet started!
And now, this:
It took me about 30 hours, all told, mainly in front of the TV (of course, watching Dr Who, but also rewatching my Planet Earth DVDs, which I adore) or listening to the radio and comedy CDs, and a chunk of that was learning how to make the bobbles (once I'd memorised the pattern for those, it got a lot faster). In fact, I learnt a lot of new techniques on this, including knitting on double pointed needles (I had attempted to do so on one hat, which didn't get past about three rounds, but that was because the wool I bought was completely unsuitable and kept on snapping), making the bobbles and making an I-Cord. My Stich 'n' Bitch and Knitters' Bible came out very frequently!
He is very cuddly (given that this is NZ, I managed to get some cheap washed wool for stuffing it with - no factory-made stuffing here!) and rather enjoys his lordly position on top of the book case. He's not perfect - I made a couple of interesting errors on the way round (including managing to twist the knitting at one point - but in the end that helped as I needed to add some extra stuffing after I'd closed him up - the twist made the ideal opening!), but I'm very proud of him. And, not counting the time, he cost me $2 for the wool (I bought a bulk lot for pretty much $1 each ball, including postage) and about $3.50 for the stuffing (again, that includes postage).
3 comments:
My first thought Jo was that it was an interesting tea-cosy, LOL.
but well done you. I'm sure he'll grow up to be a really responsible ---- and make his parents right proud!
XO
WWW
It could very easily be adapted into a tea-cosy :-) (start with a couple of rounds of K Black to give it a base, then go into the pattern :-)
A sci-fi club friend suggested adapting it into a beanie...
Hmmm, interesting! I agree with WWW, it would make a great tea cosy.
On a more serious note, we've just heard of the devastation in Christchurch - a terrible disaster. So glad you decided to emigrate to the North Island.
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