Friday, May 30, 2014

FO: Dancing Octopus

As of yesterday, I am officially finished with all of my dance-related knitting gifts!  I can't even tell you how excited I am about that.  Last on my list to finish was the Dancing Octopus for the head of my studio, Stacey!

Pattern: "Octopus", from Hansi Singh's book Amigurumi Knits
Yarn: Finally starting to use up the Turquoise Heather colored Cascade 220 from my Vivian sweater, oh-so-long ago.  The underside was in Cascade 220's Hot Pink, and I'll be using the rest of that skein for future projects!
Timeframe: May 18th-May 29th, though the bulk of it was knit over the last couple of days or so.
Worst Part: Nothing, really.  I was nervous that knitting the 8 legs would get long after awhile, but they were short and quick and easy, and I was done before I knew it.
Best Part: I love that the pattern calls for putting the little fuzzy chenille rods in each of the Octopus's legs, allowing one to pose his legs however one sees fit.  Super adorable, and I love the outcome!

This was a fantastic pattern, easy to knit, easy to understand, and fun to watch take shape.  I'll definitely be knitting it in the future.
I think I'm going to take a break knitting stuffed animals for now, though I've already had a request for a flamingo from a certain Jamaican friend of mine, as well as various golf club covers from family members.
With the octopus finished, I only have a couple of things on the needles right now.
I started one of two Fornicating Deer Hats for my two guy cousins for this Christmas.  These guys saw this hat and requested it for this year's holly jolly holiday.  Unfortunately, my brother requested a full sweater of this, which I've yet decided whether or not I'm going to do it.  Maybe just a hat- we'll see.  Anyhow, I got a lot done on the long highway of South Dakota, and I'm almost finished with the first hat already!

(Modelling at one of the lovely South Dakota rest stops along the way...)
You can kind of see the mildly inappropriate part of it has already emerged, and I'm starting the decreases on the top already.  I think the second hat will omit the ribbing on the bottom, and instead perhaps start with a Latvian braid.  We'll see.  I like the colors already!
Other than that, I have a few options from here for what to knit next.  I know I need to take out my Dad's Dale of Norway- a longtime nemesis- and figure out what's next on it.  I also need to cast on (again) for Brit's Narwhal mittens.
But I'm pretty sure I want to start a project that I already have the yarn for- a Coastal Hoodie!

It's been in my queue for a long time, and it looks like the perfect summer cover-up for me.  I want to make at least one sweater for myself this year, since the last time I made one was forever ago.
Since I need to expand my teacher wardrobe, other sweater considerations I'm thinking about are:
1- The Everyday Cardigan

Seems like a great cover-up for all the dresses I wear to teach!
2- The Blair cardigan from Twist Collective


Another simple sweater to layer over dresses
OR
3- The Velvet Morning cardigan!

I love the colorwork charts, though I'm not terribly keen to get back to doing colorwork on the wrong side.  Maybe this would be my chance to try knitting something in the round and steeking it... eek!
I'll probably start a couple of other small projects to knit, but the real big projects around here so far are going to be organizing the house for the summer, getting all of my dance gifts prepped for my end-of-year presents, and working more on my syllabus for next fall already.
After all, a Europe vacation that will take up all of August means I won't have time then... :)

2 comments:

Mark said...

looking at your photos, apparently nobody offered to model the deer or moose hat (whatever it is), so when you are done, perhaps all of your knucklehead cousins or brother should be photographed so that other knitting blogs can show the type of people to whom that pattern might appeal to.

Mark said...

Given that the giraffe was named Gerald, I'm surprised the octopus was not named Ole... or Olivia if it's a girl, which it probably is, given the color choices. Given what else you are knitting these days, perhaps somebody with carnal knowledge of octopuses could tell the sex of your knitted octopus by inspecting its appendages (or lack thereof) closely. Given your degree, I defend my plural via... http://www.wimp.com/octopusplural/