Otis Redherring

This is a double-post day because I think Otis deserves his own blog post. I showed him off at the office yesterday, because a few people had been puzzled when I started wiring his armature on my lunch break last Wednesday. He was universally declared a cutie (did that make him blush?) even when he was briefly mistaken for a space alien.

A la the Peacock Chic blog, here's his G-B-U breakdown:

The Good: Cute, pose-able, and he's made of a really fun yarn my mom sent to me. Its label says "Pokeberry Shetland" and it's a hand spun yarn she saw at a fair a few years ago. A wonderfully bouncy, varied texture, perfect for giving a small project loads of visual interest, and fun to touch. (Ya, my mom's great, and she's been spoiling me by sending lots of goodies to play with, so I'm glad I finally have a finished product to show her.) And I'm glad someone was inspired by pokeberries to make something so nice- so many would just see poke as a weed.

The Bad: It's not as elegantly simple as the wool bears. The project needed a wire armature, and the eyes took a lot of stitching with sewing thread. My original idea was for much simpler eyes, but  when I had the yarn and embroidery thread, it just didn't happen. The eyes were so frustrating that I had to put the project down at one point, reminding myself that this was supposed to be fun.

The Ugly: The wire shows through at the end of his little tentacles! I knew this would be an issue, and tried to wrap them tightly, but it wasn't enough. Next time I try to wrap a wire like this, I'll try doing two layers over the folded tips. Also, he has no suckers as I couldn't think how to make them.

I feel sated with wool wrapping projects now. One of my colleagues suggested making a copyright infringing Kang or Karg doll, and another suggested making lots of fish friends, making me think of the possibilities of using two different colours of yarn to make a stripy fish. For now, I'm happy to be weaving on the bus.

And I need to put a BIG THANK YOU to my P, for the photo shoot! His hobby is so convenient for me.