tegerio

Commencing the last leg of our journey

Added 2022-04-30 23:56:54 +0000 UTC

Kind of a blunt little foot there, but I didn't want it to be too long.

I took up knitting back in the 2000s after the TV station where I worked ran a fluff story about Hollywood stars knitting on the set between scenes. Movie acting involves a lot of sitting around, waiting for the crew to set up the shot. Anyway, Russel Crowe knitted and I decided that meant it wasn't unmanly. I had always wondered how you got fabric coming off of these two straight needles, so after seeing that video story, I bought some supplies and an instruction book, and learned how to do it.

One of the first things I tried after mastering scarves & hats was an attempt at a female "sock monkey." It didn't work out. Knitting is great for garments but horrible for plushies & figures. Knitted material is stretchy & supple; it won't compress the foam and hold it in shape. Also it's looser and the holes are larger so you don't get a nice smooth surface. The biggest drawback is that knitting is linear (it's difficult to go off in different directions and make three-dimensional shapes) and the entire edge of your work is "hot" i.e. the whole last row has to be held on the needle. After a while I got bored with knitting and didn't do it for many years.

A crochet hook is part of the set of knitting tools because you need it for pulling the ends in and hiding them when the piece is finished, as well as a few more advanced techniques. Since I had one, I thought, well why not give this a try? So I looked up how to do the basic chain stitch (that is still the only one I know) and immediately realized this was a truly sculptural technique. You can work in all directions, and only one stitch is "hot" rather than the entire edge. The stitches are close and tight and it holds its shape well.

I learned how to crochet reusable shopping bags out of old plastic shopping bags, and gradually developed the techniques that you're seeing finally come to fruition in this mousebabe.