Mmm, Foxy Craig.

First up, please excuse the makeshift hat display thingies. I don't have an actual one, so this was the best I could do to get some quick photos to email, showing what the hats looked like.

The girl that I made Mr. Otter for emailed me and asked if I would be able to knit another two hats for her, one for her flatmate, the other for a friend of hers. She attatched to pictures to the email;

Craig from South Park

Red Fox, sewn from fleece

She wanted the fox ideally knitting. So, armed with these two pictures, I set off to my LYS, armed myself with wool, and a fortnight later the hats were ready to post.

'Scuse Momma photobombing. Although, I did encourage her...

Foxy is up there with Mr. Otter in my 'Jeebus, that's so awesome that I made that' stakes. The ears were devised by myself, the insides were two strands of DK, and one of fun furry stuff held together. I wasn't sure about whether they would stand up on their own, so considered using thin gauge wire to support them, but luckily they didn't need it.

Back of Foxy

The other hat was pretty straight forward. In fact, it was incredibly straight forward. The hardest bit about it was having to explain to people that I wasn't making it for Craig The Butcher, (someone I fancied at the time), but that it was called Craig's hat because it was the hat the character Craig wore in South Park.

Craig's Hat

The hats aren't that long in real life, it's because it's on one of those mahoosive balls of aran.

Craig and Foxy, chillin'

I have it on good authority that the hats were well received, which I'm very pleased about. 

Mr. Otter Moves House

A while ago, okay, maybe 6 months back, when I knitted my Cunning Hat, I asked on Twitter if anyone else wanted something knitting, totally not expecting a response. Two of my friends on there responded along the lines of, "Oooh go on then". One asked for a Cunning Linguist hat, (go on, say that one fast), the other didn't know what she wanted, but knowing that she loved otters, I offered to knit an Otter hat. 

I had an idea of what Mr. Otter would look like, but no idea of how to go about making him. I knitted a basic hat with ear flaps, using the same pattern as for my Cunning hat, then knitted ears doing a really simple decrease to make semi circle. The muzzle was what was concerning me the most. I didn't want to knit it directly in the hat as I went along, as I've never done intarsia before, and didn't want to risk screwing it up.

I tried lots of ways, knitting it as a shape from the top, from the bottom, as two halves, each time it was lopsided, or just wrong. In the end I knitted a rectangle in stocking stitch, then drew the shape I wanted onto a piece of paper, pinned that onto the rectangle, then sewed over it with my sewing machine, using a tight zigzag. I then Swiss darned that onto the front of the hat. The nose and mouth were Swiss darned on top of that, and the eyes are buttons.

Mr. Otter, pre-journey

Everything was sewn together, the ends darned in, then Mr. Otter was ready for his Trans-Atlantic flight to his new home, in NY State, USA.

I waited with bated breath for the day that he'd arrive, and for the reaction of his new owner. She had seen pictures already, but I was still nervous. He arrived safely (phew), and his new owner was positively ecstatic. 

Mr. Otter in use

 He is by far one of my favouritest things that I have knitted so far, and I'm so glad that he is loved.

Pretty cunning, don'tchya think?

I have a confession. I have never actually watched Firefly all the way through. I own the DVD box set, but I've never sat down and watched them completley. I have seen Serenity, however, and know it off by heart.

That said, the one episode of Firefly I HAVE seen is The Message, guest staring Jayne's amazeballs hat.

Adam Baldwin as Jayne Cobb. From here

90% of people who know ABOUT Firefly, know about Jayne's hat. His Ma sends it him, to keep him warm on his travels, and Jayne being a good lil' mama's boy, puts it straight on.

One day I decided I needed that hat. I don't remember when... but I know that I thought about it for about 3 years. Always, "One day, I'll knit me that hat". This year, I finally bucked my ideas up. I found a pattern (this one, sort of), I went to my LYS, and got me some yarn. (Rico Aran for Kids. The softest snuggliest wool I've felt in a long time. And the colours. SO BRIGHT!)

The pattern calls for a 6 1/2mm circular, but I hate the damn things. Seriously. I own half a dozen, but I just want to poke people in the eyes with them when I use them. Instead, I used DPNs. I much prefer them, even though I constantly poke myself with them.

'Scuse morning face. Wanted to take advantage of the sunlight, and didn't think to do something about my face first. D'oh!

It knitted up so quickly. I did double strand the wool, as it wasn't quite chunky enough, but I think in total it took me about 6 hours. I'm not the fastest knitter at all, so I'm sure for someone who is faster, they can do it in no time.

I luffs me my hat. I just wish it would get cold enough for me to wear it. At the moment, it only really gets that cold in the middle of the night. And what good is that?

Cunning hat, seen here with Mum's Cunning Tester hat