SOCK DRAGON! Part 3 - Tail and Neck

Yo! So, after telling you guys I'd stop when it became impractical to turn the heels on the tail, it then became impossible. So there are now 6 heels to the body section, before I reduced down to 16 stitches and started knitting on 2 needles again. I did about 10 rows of that, then down to 12, another 10 rows, and so on til I got to 4. That whole section will need to be sewn up along the sides, as it's not in the round, but it did leave a useful hole for stuffing his back half through :)

At the head end I did something rather cunning which I should probably illustrate. I orientated the knitting so that I could tell which was the back of Socky and which was his tummy, and found that the first tail-end from my casting-on was at one side of his tummy. I counted 10 stitches back from this point all along his tummy ('bottom' on the diagram) and picked-up-and-knit them so that there were 10 new stitches on needle 1. These stitches were in the same direction as the other tummy stitches, unlike most pick-up-and-knit, which made a nice neat join.

Now I counted up the left and right sides of his body, and saved another 10 stitches each on needles 2 and 3. I didn't pick up and knit these, yet, I just slipped one of the loops from the cast-on stitches onto the needle (which is awkward) so that I could identify and count them.

Now I had 10 stitches left, opposite the first heel I had made, and I slipped these onto needle 4 without knitting them.

Having identified the sides of the body, I could now begin to knit the neck piece! Starting with needle 1, I knit 10 and then picked-up-and-knit an extra stitch from the side-needle before turning the work so that I had 11 stitches. I was using a fifth needle for these rows, at the same gague, but in fact once the top 10 are defined I found it was also fine to take the side-needles out, use one of those as my working needle and just pick-up the likely-looking stitches.

Purling back across the 11, when I got to the end I picked-up-and-PURLED a stitch from the second side-needle to get 12. I found (because of where I put my working yarn to begin with) that I would pick up extra odd stitches on needle 3 (11, 13, 15, etc. up to 29) and even stitches on needle 2 (12, 14, 16 up to 30.)

Once I had knit all the side-stitches, I was left with 30 stitches on my working needle and the remaining 10 on the top needle; I'd created a big flap of chest! After dividing my 30 again between the DPNs, I picked-up-and-knit the last 10 stitches on needle 4 to start knitting in the round again to do the neck.

I'd also nearly run out of wool. I'll need to get at least another ball for his head I think to be sure, and some for his legs as well. Wings are apparently obligatory; they're probably going to involve a lot of black felt and pipe-cleaners! Socky has been mostly stuffed this weekend though and looks amazingly fat and wibbly, just how I imagined, so I'm satisfied at the moment!

SOCK DRAGON! Part 2 - The Wiggling

So, yesterday I started on my sock dragon, and it's been not that long and he's already a foot long. Wow! The wool is so much fun, and the DPNs are easy to work with because it divides the knitting into nice chunks, so I've been going really fast. The downside is I'm definitely going to need more wool - I've used 2 1/2 balls out of my 4 already and he's only half-done.

I didn't bother to draw a pattern for Socky, because it would be too complicated, but I can and will talk you through the process I'm using. With the sock tutorial as a basis, I started by casting on 40 stitches and dividing them between my needles as suggested. I did about 4 inches of stocking stitch in the round, just to get used to using the needles - I wasn't going to compound my problems by trying to do ribbing, and it might have looked weird for his neck to have columns on it.

The above picture is Socky: The Vision, clumsily completed in MS Paint. Look the colours! shiny shiny! Because of how his body relates to his head, I had to start at his shoulders rather than his nose, so the 40 stitches formed the first section just above his front legs. When I got bored of going round and round and wanted to do the first wiggle, I followed the sock tutorial right up to the end of the 'gusset' section.

My formula for creating Socky's wiggles is as follows:

• 'Ribbing' section; 20-ish rows of stocking stitch.
• Heel flap 1, using 20 stitches.
• Turn Heel 1.
• Pick up 10 sts on each side of Heel 1 to begin Gusset 1, which when knitting is re-divided will have 16 sts per side.
• Knit one round on these stitches, and then decrease according to tutorial on even rows until there are once more 10 sts per gusset-needle.
• On the next round, instead of starting the next section of the tutorial, KNIT TWO TOGETHER. Then knit 9 sts, and then knit two together again. Count 9, knit 2 tog, count 9 and knit two together; knit any remaining sts. That's 4 decreases quite evenly spaced around the knitting.
• You should now have 36 sts in total, and 18 on one needle, which will be opposite the turned heel you just did. On the next round, knit the 9 sts on the first needle, and then on the second needle, begin the SECOND HEEL FLAP opposite the first.
• Heel 2 will begin with 18 sts. Your gussets will therefore have 15 sts each, decreasing down to 9 again. Once you have got to 9, go round once more putting in evenly-spaced k2togs every 8 sts. Knit the 8 sts on the first needle, and then begin HEEL 3 with 16 sts.

Keep going indefinitely! I am currently on Gusset 5, working up to Heel 6 which will have 10 sts to start with. I'm anticipating a point when it'll be too silly to actually turn the heel, and i'll just decrease his tail every 10 rows or so until it gets to a point. I'm not sure what point this will happen. Hopefully soon, given the wool situation.

I wanted to distinguish between Socky's spiky back and his voolnerable underbelly, so on every even heel I am using stocking stitch rather than the slip-one-knit-one recommended by the tutorial. The slip stitch makes ribs and changes the gague and tension completely, so it looks quite like a lizardy roughness, sort of.

The legs will be separate tubes, and for his head I will probably do a breastplate-piece on 2 needles which will develop into a proper sock-shape on 4 needles. Crossing that bridge when I come to it....

SOCK DRAGON! part 1

Look at the shiny! I got 4 balls of that at Kemps Wool Shop online for less than eight quid, including postage and a pair of 6mm needles to practise on. bargain! and very dragony, I'm sure you'll agree. In fact it was so dragony just by itself, I thought it would be silly to make things difficult for myself by doing fancy stitches. Instead, my sock dragon will use a simple sock heel to wiggle up and down and be plain stocking stitch all the way along.
I decided to follow this sock tutorial to make the kinks in my dragon's body, as they had nice pacing and diagrams. First though I had to get used to knitting on 4 double-pointed needles or DPNs. Before that, I had to get some DPNs.

The sock tutorial said that the best DPNs were bamboo, because the stitches were much less likely to slip off the needles that you weren't using at the time. I can confirm this, having decided to make my own out of Wagamama chopsticks. By comparing with my 6mm normal needles I decided that despite the elliptical shape it would be fine to whittle the ends off them to make super-cheap dragon-making equipment.
I got a penknife for my 11th or 12th birthday, Swiss Army actually, and of course the first thing I did with it was take the end off a pencil. This wasn't that unlike, although the glued ends were considerably more difficult to carve than the pointed ends, in terms of density of grain. To stop them splintering so much I sanded the ends viciously with my everlasting emery board, though normal ones would do if you don't have real sandpaper I can tell you. I can also tell you if you haven't used a woodcarving knife before that you will be tempted to use your thumb to push the blade away from you. This is all very well if you're using a straight blade, but if it can fold back into the handle like my Swiss does then ON NO ACCOUNT push too far along towards the point as it will flip back into the handle, which, of course, has your hand on it. Believe me this is all from bitter experience.

I am pleased to say that despite the fanciness, thick-and-thinning and ribbon-entwined nature of the wool, beginning on Socky has not been a bitter experience. I am building up to the first heel, and very excited! as he is about 4 inches long. I will have to do his head separately, but that can wait until I've really mastered the technique I think, as his head will probably be one, smallish, actually toe-tied sock.

Watch this space...

Lizard

After the Space Inavders, which gave me an opportunity to practise casting off and on in the middle of rows, I decided I wanted to develop more techniques. My final view is towards making a dragon toy, with multicolours, scales and ridges, which wiggles along in his body like a Chinesey one. I haven't started on him yet due to time constraints and having a cross-stitching phase, but little creatures are how I taught myself knitting in two colours, moss or seed stitch, and making bobbles, all of which I intend to use for the dragon eventually.

Lizard - Moss Stitch and Two-Colour Knitting

You Will Need: some wool in 2 different lizardy colours, and felt and thread for eyes, tongue and feet! Mine was green (from Clanger-wool) and purple (from Kangaroo-wool); the felt was also acquired for Clanger and there was plenty left over. Lizard is a tube; the whole body is knitted as a piece, decreasing and increasing again to make the division between head and neck, and then rolling him up like a cigar.

The easiest way for me to lay out the pattern for you is as directions as to what to knit and what to purl on each row, using symbols K for knit and P for purl, changing colour when the wool does. It looks complicated, because it's moss stitch, but once you realise that all you're doing is knitting all the knits and purling all the purls in big stripes, it doesn't look so bad. I wanted his tummy to have a different texture to his back, so the sides of the piece are in stocking stitch which comes out smooth on one side and wibbly on the other (the inside when he's all stuffed.)

You'll need to know how to increase and decrease at the ends and beginnings of rows. The easiest way to increase is to have the first or last stitch on your right or left needle respectively. Stretch the knitting apart, and pick up a loop from in between the two stitches with your left needle. Then work that stitch, and carry on as usual. To do it twice at the beginning of a row, just do that twice. On the end of a row, leave two stitches rather than one on your left needle and put an increase between each of them in turn. To decrease, just slip one stitch over the other as though binding off. You'll need to slip two stitches onto the right needle first at the beginning of a row, and the last stitch onto the right needle at the end of a row.

Casting On: This is a bit complicated. Cast on 2 stitches with your main-body colour. Then make a slipknot in your stripe colour and add that. Then cast on another two stitches of body colour, being careful not to get the ends tangled up in each other. You should now have 5 stitches like this: SSSSS. I was greatly helped in my understanding of this pattern by remembering always to 'purl the purple.' I knew that there would always be a knit and then a purl on either side of the purple one, so I could keep track of everything easily. When you're not knitting the stripe-stitches, let go of that coloured yarn and only use the main one. When you need to make a stripe-stitch, drop the main yarn and pick up the other one. If you keep hold of both all the time, you get a weird interlace effect, which I only noticed halfway down the tail. Remember always to pass the yarn you're using to the back or front of the work, depending if you're knitting or purling with it at the time. This is tedious but it stops you getting in a muddle.

Here we go!

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Casting on is fiddly - make two stitches in main colour, then add a slipknot of the stripe colour, then another two main colour. Increase at both ends of rows 15, 22 and 23; then continue for 20 rows; decrease by one at both ends at rows 43 and 44, and 50, 51 and 52. When you need to increase again to make the chin piece, drop the yarn for the stripe and continue in main colour only; cast on a stitch at the beginning of row 53 and increase into that in the usual way.

To make up, fold the chin under the head and sew along the sides. Now roll the body into a tube and sew all along the tummy, from the tail to the neck. Stuff with cotton wool as you go, or lentils if you want him a bit floppier and weightier. Tuck the flaps of stocking-stitch under the chin to attach the neck to the head. Now cut out and sew on tiny circles of felt or beads for eyes, a forky tongue and splayed little legs :D

Fin!

Space Invaders

Hey there!

I've been teaching myself to knit for a while now. I started with a kangaroo plushie pattern borrowed from a friend, as a christmas present for Dad's aussie girlfriend. Then I invented a pattern for a pair of ravens for Dad himself, which didn't work out so well - they did look a bit like whales really. After that I made a zombie Clanger for the boyfriend, which worked out very well and combined knitting with sewing and creative felt-work. I'll post the patterns for those as soon as I can scan them in, and get pictures! But right now I'm going to tell you how to make Space Invaders.

After the success of Clanger, I started looking for geeky things to make and stumbled across someone's attempt at a knitted Space Invader plushie. Now, in all fairness, I admired them for trying but it did look a lot like a beanbag with legs. Mine turned out just like the real thing, and I had some lovely green wool left over to make them with. The best thing about this pattern is that it can be sized up or down very easily. Each 'pixel' in these patterns is five stitches wide and deep, but you could make one with three, four, six, whatever, depending on how big you want the finished Invader to be.

All you need to know to make these is how to knit, purl, cast on and cast off. If you have trouble understanding how to make the eye-holes, I can recommend this link which explained how to cast off and on in the middle of rows to me : http://www.knittinghelp.com/forum/showthread.php?p=1066850

Good luck! pew-pew...


To make this little guy, the most iconic of the Invaders, takes a bit more patience than his friend, especially when you get to the stuffing stage.

First, cast on 5. Knit 10 rows of stocking stitch (knit one row, purl next row.) Bind off. Repeat another 3 times so that you have 4 pieces of knitting. Fold them in half lengthwise to make 5x5 'pixels' and sew up with the ends inside. These will form the Invader's 'antennae.'

Cast on 10. Knit 10 rows of stocking stitch, (or st.st.), bind off. Repeat. Fold each of these two pieces in half and sew them together to make 5x10 'mandibles.'

The main body is a bit more complicated.

• Cast on 35. Knit 5 rows st.st. , starting with a knit row.
  

• At row 6, cast on 5 at the front end of the work. Purl 10 stitches. Cast off 5 stitches in the middle of the row, remembering to purl two first, then pulling the first of those over the second one. You should still have 10 stitches on your right needle, and 30 on your left. Purl the next 15 stitches, then cast off another 5, remembering to purl the first two and bring the first over the second. You should now have 10, gap of 5, 30, gap of 5, 5.

• At row 7, cast on 5 at the end of the work and knit 10, up to the gap. Now turn the work and work another 3 rows st.st. as though the piece was only 10 stitches wide. After these 3 rows, break the yarn leaving a long tail. Pick up the ball-end in your left hand, holding a good amount, and begin knitting again after the gap on the block of 15 stitches. Knit 4 rows st.st., then break the yarn again, leaving a tail and pick up again with the last block of 10 stitches. Knit 4 rows st.st. on this block. You should now be ready for Row 11.

• At row 11, you will join all the blocks together again. First, cast on 5 and then knit 15 until you run out. Now cast on another 5 from the end of the middle block, and knit these with the first block so that the gap closes up. Be careful to count here how many stitches you actually have - depending on the cast-on you use, you sometimes have to do one more stitch than you think. At the next gap, cast on another 5 and knit 15 to the end of the row. You should now have 50 stitches in total.
• At row 12, cast on 5 at the end and purl the whole row, 55 stitches. Knit another 3 rows of st.st.
• At row 16, you begin making the arms. Purl 5. Cast off 5 to make a gap. Purl 35. Cast off another 5. Purl 5.
• Row 17 onwards is worked in 3 blocks again. Take the first 'arm' and knit 14 rows of st.st. on those 5 stitches. Then bind off. Pick up the ball-end and begin knitting the block of 35. Knit 4 rows of st.st. Then knit 5 stitches, cast off 25, and knit 5 again. Knit 4 rows of st.st. on each of the sets of 5, binding off to leave 2 little stumps divided by a 25-stitch gap. Now pick up the ball-end again and knit the second 'arm,' 14 rows of st.st. and bind off.

Repeat this pattern again exactly so that you have two Invader shapes with no antennae or mandibles. 'Block' the pieces; this means soaking them in warm water, then flattening them out on a surface (kitchen towel on a table works well) blotting out most of the water and leaving them to dry. This stops them curling up as stocking stitch is wont to and makes them easier to sew together.
Now you are ready to stuff your invader. This is pretty self-explanatory except that around the eyes is difficult - there will be a loop across the bottom of the gap, which you should carefully tuck in before sewing the eye-seams together. Stuff the top of the head first, before you finish going round the eyes. After stuffing completely, stitch the mandibles diagonally to the inside corners of the tabs on his bottom, and the antennae-pieces in pairs to the top seam in line with the eyes and diagonally from the outer corners of those.

Fin!


The more octopoid Invader is much quicker and easier to do than his brother, and uses the same technique for the eyes, so although I made him second you might want to do him first as practice.

Cast on 5. Knit 10 rows st.st., bind off. Repeat another 5 times, to make 6 pieces total. Fold in half to make 5x5 pixels and sew together.

Cast on 10. Knit 10 rows st.st., bind off. Fold in half and sew together to make 5x10 joining-piece.

For the main body:

• Cast on 10. Knit 5 rows st.st., starting with a knit row.

• At row 6, cast on 5 and purl the whole row. At row 7, cast on 5 and knit the whole row (20 stitches.) Knit another 3 rows st.st.

• At row 11, cast on 5 and knit the whole row (25.) At row 12, cast on 5 and purl the whole row (30.) Knit another 3 rows st.st.

• Row 16 adds the gaps for the eyes. Cast on 5, purl 10, cast off 5 to make a gap, purl 10, cast off 5 to make gap number 2, purl 5.

• At row 17, cast on 5, then knit the rest of that row and the next 3 in st.st. on the set of 10. Break the yarn and resume knitting the middle block, adding another 4 rows st.st. Break the yarn and resume knitting the final block, adding 4 rows of st.st.

• At row 21, DO NOT cast on 5. Knit 10, then cast 5 onto the middle block and join the two together by kntting the resulting 15 stitches. Cast another 5 onto the end block and knit the rest of the row. You should now have 40 stitches in total.

• Knit the next 4 rows in st.st.

• At row 26, cast off 10, purl 5, cast off 10, purl 5 and cast off 10 leaving two stubs. Break the yarn and pick up again on the first stub of 5, knitting another 4 rows st.st. and binding off. Do the same for the other stub.

Repeat the whole pattern again to make two pieces, and block them flat. Sew up and stuff carefully, remembering to tuck in the loops around the eyes as you hem them and stuff the head first. Now sew the joining piece between the corners of the stubs so that they are connected. Sew on the small pixel pieces carefully, following the picture.

Fin!

If you have any questions about these patterns or have any problems, please leave a comment. I promise to have photographic proof of the Invaders' existence up soon! In the meantime, make your own and send me pics of yours!