Maybe...No, That Won't Work...How About...?

Yeesh. I've been trying to plan out one of the blankets I am going to make this year and it is being something of a bear. I was talking to a friend and I mentioned that I really should make him a blanket to celebrate something awesome he just did and he asked if it could have a dragon on it. My first thought was, Hell yes you can have a dragon! Then I started looking around for a good pattern to crochet a dragon motif on a blanket and that first thought was quickly replaced by, Oh good lord, what have I gotten myself into?

I surfed around on Ravelry and found a dearth of crochet afghan (or scarf or towel or....) patterns featuring dragons. There were quite a few knitted patterns, however. So after running a few of the types of dragons past my friend, I had settled on trying to just convert the knit scarf pattern to a crocheted blanket.

I sat down over the weekend to do a swatch and see a) how well it would work, b) how it would look, c) how big it would be, and d) to get an idea of how much yarn I would need. The results were...not promising. I mean, it didn't look terrible, but I wasn't satisfied with it. I only got about a quarter of the way done with it, but I really didn't like how the top loop of the previous stitch was carrying over into the next when switching colors.  So then I spent the rest of the weekend trying to think about how I would make a blanket featuring this pattern that my friend had picked out.

I have a few options available to me:

• Just crochet the whole blanket in single crochet and then cross-stitch the pattern on afterward.
• Knit the blanket according to my originally envisioned pattern.
• Knit the blanket with super chunky yarn, requiring one central motif instead of several smaller motifs.
• Knit just the dragon bit in big chunky yarn and then crochet a fun border around until blanket-sized.
• Knit the originally planned number of motifs and crochet the rest of the blanket, sewing all of the panels together at the end.
• Crochet the pattern in individual blocks and sew them together like I did with my Yoshi blanket. 

It's not an exhaustive list by any means, but I think that covers all of the options I have been considering. All of those that involve knitting will require me to learn how to knit color work. Granted, it's on my list to learn, but I wasn't really planning to start with such a big project. It seem like most of the crochet options on the table just have more assembly required than I would like, however.

I am leaning toward going with either option number three or four at the moment, just because knitting goes so much more slowly for me than crochet does. I think I have found a good chunky yarn to use, one that falls within my care, price, and color requirements. My next step will be to go pick up a skein of that yarn (and possibly a pair of the correctly sized needles, provided an inventory check turns up that I don't already have some) and then just knit up the entire ball to see how much finished product it is going to give me, as well as to get an idea of how big the motif will end up. If that works out, I can move ahead with finalizing a plan of attack pattern to use.

Then I will be calling up my mother for a nice long consultation re: knitting blankets and color work. 

Not that I am actually expecting to start this blanket for a good while yet. But once I started planning it out, I couldn't stop. I've got to see this thing through now or it might make my head explode. So...I will let you know as that progresses further.

As far as actual current projects go, I am halfway done with blanket number two (yay!) and only have three pattern repeats left on the scarf (double yay!). Because the blanket's deadline is looming rather more quickly than I had anticipated, I am putting the scarf on hold until that is finished, but after that, it will be the scarf until it is done (with possible breaks for chunky swatching). So hopefully I'll actually have some progress to show you soon!

I guess I should get back to work, huh? Tea, I need tea...

Further Adventures of Mathman and Dragongirl!

One of the great things about any comic convention is that it brings out the cosplayers in droves. For the uninitiated, a cosplayer is someone who dresses up as a fictional character or in a period costume recreationally (i.e., not for Halloween or a costume party). They come in all shapes, sizes, and flavors, and Emerald City Comic Con was no exception.

Some of them are organized, and use their powers of awesome costume assembly for good:

Hubby, me, a Scout Trooper, and Chewbacca

The 501st Legion, Rebel Legion, and Mandalorian Mercs, for example, are three distinct Star Wars cosplaying groups who banded together at the con to run a photo booth for charity. That was pretty spectacular. We saw the stormtroopers walking around on the first day and I decided we had to get a photo with them, especially once we found out it was for charity! Unfortunately, when we made it to the photo booth, there weren't any stormtroopers available (they had several different characters available at any given time, switching out periodically so they could all get breaks). But it was still a lot of fun. They were doing all kinds of crazy poses, and there were props available, though Hubby and I decided we just wanted to be partying with the trooper and Chewy.

I did find a few more Star Wars cosplayers, who may or may not have been off-duty members of the photo booth groups, and managed to get photos with them, too.

I found a stormtrooper, yay!

You know I love me some Mandlorians.

Wickett! I love the Ewoks, always have, always will.

There was also this guy, of course:

Best. Robot. EVER.

While not technically a cosplayer, I thought he probably fit in this section. I am not sure if the guy that built this R2D2 was affiliated with the photo booth groups or not, but he set up his (working) droid behind the photo booth area and then settled himself into a chair in a corner with the remote. We had seen him setting up, but a lot of people hadn't and didn't realize that the R2 was a working model. He was having some serious fun with that, and I have to say, it was pretty amusing to watch as well. Even though he was tucked back out of the way, R2 drew a pretty big crowd. What can I say, he's awesome, we all know that. I think it is pretty safe to argue that R2D2 is probably one of the most competent characters in the entire Star Wars franchise, if not the most competent. In fact, it has been argued, and quite well.

It wasn't all Star Wars, of course. One of the very best costumes is one I saw on the first day that, sadly, I did not get a picture of. But there was a pretty darn good representation of Morrigan from Dragon Age at the con on Friday and it just made me giddy. There were also, of course, a bevvy of super heroes running around, some of them fitting better into their latex/spandex than others.

I had to get a photo with this guy, of course:

Stargate in the house!

His patch was for SG-1, so either he was just a generic SG-1 team member or he was Colonel O'Neill. I think he pulled it off either way, and he was super nice about getting a photo with me. One of these days I am going to get off the lazy train and put together my own Stargate uniform, though mine will definitely be from the Atlantis side of things.

This one was pretty well done also:

It's-a me, with Mario!

The box he is holding is one of the bricks from the game (the question mark is not visible in the photo, alas), and you can see he had a couple of mushrooms to get from it. Also, he's a Guildie (we met him in line for our Felicia Day and Amy Okuda photo op), so he gets extra props for that.

Speaking of The Guild, we did decide to do the celebrity photo op with Felicia Day and Amy Okuda (we missed out on the first day's op which included Wil Wheaton--another convention-going lesson learned there). The line really wasn't that bad, and it seemed pretty well organized. Maybe a little too much so, they just pushed us in there, took our picture, we got to say "hi" and then "bye" and it was done. Though Felicia did tell Hubby she liked his shirt and declared us the t-shirt king and queen. So, that's something, I guess? Both were super nice though, and I am pretty happy with how the photo turned out.

Amy Okuda, Hubby, me, and Felicia Day

(That funky line is from the scanner going before I was ready, not from the actual photo, by the way.)

All in all, I had an absolutely FANTASTIC time at the convention. I got to meet lots of really cool people. I got to spend an entire weekend with my hubby, just the two of us (and a few thousand other nerds). It was just awesome. Hubby is still gushing that he not only got to meet Sergio Aragones, but to actually help him set up his booth (we met him on the first day, not too long after the floor opened). So I think between the both of us, we had a wonderful enough experience that this is definitely something we will be doing again. And as much fun as we had on our own, once she is a little older, Baby Girl is definitely coming along as well. Now I just have to think of a good set of costumes for the three of us...

Real Life Crossovers!

I have mentioned before my love of fan fiction, and I think I have also said that one of my favorite aspects of fan fiction is the possibility for crossovers--when characters from one show or franchise appear on a totally different show or franchise.  It's fun stuff.  Every once in a while we'll get those on actual television shows, but usually within shared universes (the various Stargate franchises, Buffy and Angel, Torchwood and Doctor Who and The Sarah Jane adventures).  In fan fiction though, you can have The Sentinel and Stargate, Firefly and Star Wars, Harry Potter and Star Wars.  I once read a massively epic fan fic that retold the entire original trilogy as if Harry, Hermione, and Ron had somehow gotten sucked into the Star Wars universe just as the story was getting going.  It was pretty freaking spectacular. 

Anyhoo, I like to think of "real life crossovers" as events where I can take two completely different aspects of my life and mix them up with each other.  I am talking, of course, about genre-inspired crochet and knitting projects!  I have quite a few in the pipeline for this year, so I thought I would tell you what's coming up!

First up, after I finish my current crochet project, is, of course, the Doctor Who scarf.  Even if you are not too familiar with Doctor Who, you probably know about this scarf, as it is rather legendary.  Fourth Doctor Tom Baker's costume included a ridiculously long scarf made up of many colors (and different kinds of yarn, I think).  There are many stories about how this scarf came into being, and there were several different versions of it over the course of his time as the Doctor.  There are many websites devoted to recreating this scarf.  It is a nerd knitter's badge of honor to make this scarf.  Many Whovians (fans of Doctor Who) teach themselves to knit specifically to make this scarf.  Many then fall in love with the craft and continue to knit ever more while some, regrettably, do not.  The pattern I would like to make is based (color scheme and length) on the original scarf, that appeared in two episodes. 

You can check out the pattern for the one I am going to be making here:  WittyLittleKnitter's Season 12 Doctor Who Scarf

The yarn for this scarf actually came yesterday, and I was so excited!  Well, most of it did.  The box was full to the gills and was actually one skein short.  But I mailed the site and they responded that they would get the missing skein out to me right away.  I am not overly stressed about this, because I have a sneaking suspicion that whoever packed the box just chose one a bit too small and accidentally left the last skein out without realizing it because the thing was so darn full.  I would probably be more annoyed if I wanted to start the project immediately, but I am working on something else right now, so all is well.

The other Doctor Who project I would like to do this year is also by WittyLittleKnitter (her handle is actually a Doctor Who reference).  She whipped up a lovely lovely pair of TARDIS socks.  The TARDIS is the Doctor's time-traveling space ship (it stands for Time And Relative Dimensions In Space).  One of the reasons I wanted to teach myself to knit was so I could make the Doctor Who scarf, I'll admit it.  But the other was so that I could make socks.  So this works out perfectly.

You can see them here:  TARDIS socks

I will probably wait until later in the year (once I've got some other knitted socks worked up) before I try this pattern, but it is definitely in the queue.

Doctor Who is of course not the only genre I will be knitting (or crocheting) in.  After the scarf is made, my next genre project is to crochet some (several) amigurumi Super Mario Brothers mushrooms.  I can think of several children (and grown-ups) that need these, and they seem like they will be a quick and simple little project.  If I get ambitious, I may attempt to modify the pattern to make a giant one as well.

WolfDreamer's Mario Brothers Mushrooms

Then I will jump back to my Browncoat roots to make Jayne Cobb's hat from the episode of Firefly titled "The Message."  This hat, that appeared on screen only briefly, has come to be just as big a nerd badge of honor as the Doctor Who scarf, actually.  My goal is to get this done before June, when Browncoats the world over celebrate Joss Whedon's birthday with charity screenings of the movie Serenity, because I will totally wear it to that.

The Jayne Cobb Hat

Of course, what kind of Star Wars fangirl would I be if I didn't make some amigurumi for that fandom?  Etsy seller Lucyravenscar has patterns available for many different characters, and I purchased this set of ten.

Star Wars Mini Amigurumi

I am most keen to make R2D2, a stormtrooper, Yoda, and an Ewok.  Once I get the stormtrooper pattern down, I may play with it a little to make my own little stuffed Omega Squad from Republic Commandos.  Just because.

My last genre project will probably definitely not get done this year, but I do think I want to start trying to plan it.  I had toyed with making this in crochet, but it just didn't seem feasible--but I think knitting might make it possible.  What I want to make is a blanket that has on it an accurate depiction of a Pegasus Galaxy stargate (from Stargate Atlantis).  There are different versions of the gate for each series (explained as basically different generations of the same tech, like the different generations of iPods), and I am, of course, partial to the version from Atlantis.

Here's a shot of the gate activating:  Stargate Atlantis Gate Dialing

The thing that makes it so complicated is the glyphs around the inner wheel of the gate.  There are 39 or 36 symbols, and you dial a combination of six plus your "point of origin" symbol to make a connection to another gate.  Each symbol is a representation of a constellation.  That is going to take a lot of planning, and graph paper.  But the color-work possibilities on knitting might just allow for this.  Also, I would probably want to make it with the "puddle" or vortex in the middle that you get with an active gate, and that will be tricky.  I am going to need to find the right variegated yarn or the right combination of two colors worked at the same time to pull that one off.  But I think it can be done.  If I can make that, well, I will consider myself queen of the knitting nerds--at least in my corner of the world.

Heck, I didn't think I would be able to get my Yoshi blanket done in nearly as much time or awesomeness as I did, and look how that turned out:

Yoshi Blanket by Cori 2010 (crochet)

Baby Girl approves.

It is amazing what a determined nerd/yarn-crafter can do when she puts her mind to something, isn't it?

Have a great weekend folks.  Don't forget, new Gronk! Today's guest strip features nap-time teamwork!