Anyone in South Jersey wanna do me a favor? (Yarn!Chesters and Sekrit Project)
I am trying to get my hands on an item that I need for the Sekrit Project of Doom, but turns out it's more rare than anticipated (and thus more expensive when I can find it.) Found one on Craigslist for a decent price, but it's in South Jersey. (Why was I looking at a South Jersey Craigslist? 'Cause it popped up when I was actually looking at a Pennsylvania one, 'cause in PA I could have asked my parents or Moobie to help out, you see.)
Sigh. I think I need to replan my Sekrit Project of Doom. S'okay. Back to the drawing board. Le sigh. :(
On the bright side, ami!Bobby now possesses (in separate parts:
one (1) head (bald, featureless, but attached to body)
one (1) torso (attached to head. green shirt, blue jeans bottom)
two (2) legs (feet attached! dark brown shoes, blue jeans)
two (2) arms (with hands! beige sleeves)
one (1) overshirt (beige. Currently has the tail-bits like you see in this picture but I'm not sure I like them. Might remove them for a shirt more like you see in this picture. Have not yet decided.
So, other than putting it all together (obviously), and the hair (usually second-last) and in this case beard (see also: hair), and the eyes (very last), what's left?
Well, obviously his baseball cap. I had planned originally to use his pig!hat, but have decided instead to make the one he wears more often, as seen in that second linked picture (blue in front/brim, white 'round the rest) partly because it's most common, partly because it's easier than finding felt (somewhere in my craft closet there might be pink felt...) and making a pig, and partly because I already have the yarn for it. (The pig!hat was rust colored.)
Also, I'm making his vest, as seen in the first linked picture. He has a few, it seems, but they tend to be dark green, and I have the yarn for it.* Plus, this is a step towards making the layers upon layers all the characters on the show wear (for versions 2.0, you see.)
Ami!Bobby won't be done tomorrow (even if I don't have to do anything after proctoring the Shax final exam-- but I do, as I still have grading to do. Le sigh.) but I'm making such progress that I may post some in-progress pictures on Flickr. If so, I'll link from here. The vest should be an interesting challenge since it's different than any piece I've made thus far (arm holes!), even if it has similarities to the overshirts of the boys, and a collar sort of like Castiel's.
I have discovered, however, that I'm really quite awful at the math involved in making crochet patterns. I've been writing down (mostly) what I've done to make ami!Bobby, but because I always went by feel before, instead of maths, it's a mess. I'll have to revisit all of this. Writing (patterns) is hard! /the Prochet Chuck :)
OH! and I think I should probably add Bobby's kiss the cook apron to my (short) list of crocheted accessories. Bwahahaha.
Once I've got this first set of four finished (ie: finish Bobby) and feel that I've got a handle on version 2.0, I'll start thinking about other characters. Originally I felt pretty adamant about only doing this four, but now I honestly can't recall why. I'm now also strongly considering:
-Mary (after all, she set things in motion in so many ways. Also, I'd enjoy the challenge of a nightgown.)
-John (mostly because I feel if I make Mary I have to make John. I don't feel the connection to John that so many fans do. I don't hate him, and I think his relationship with the boys is fascinating and continues to both influence and explain the boys, but ... ::Shrug::)
-Henricksen (a really interesting character of color who wasn't evil? awesome!)
-Lilith (in her creepy creepy child form, not in her dental hygienist form.)
-Meg
-Ellen (man, they so should not have just dropped her from the show, at least not without some sort of explanation as to what Ellen's up to)
-Jo (Am I the only fan who didn't hate Jo?)
-The Prophet, Chuck (dude! how awesome would it be to make him in his bathrobe??)
I will make no decision about even the potential of making Anna and/or Ruby until season's end. At the moment, Anna seems too useless to bother with. And my irritation at Ruby's two season opaque agenda knows few bounds. Also, I'm not sure if I'd do version one (Katie Cassidy) or version two (Genevieve Cortese). I feel like GC is more canon, she's had more influence over Sam. But by the same token, I despise her acting (at least on this show, having never seen her anywhere else) and really the only way these are fun for me are if I'm making them with loooove. Loathing, I think, would be a difficult emotion to channel into creating a project. (And I am not so petty as to make a voodoo doll.)
If I get good at these guys, I'll consider Andy, Ava, the YED and Jake. And Ash (mullet!)
Oh hells, I want to make everyone. But since it takes between 1 and 3 weeks for me to make one (depending on how much experimentation I have to do, and what else my life is currently requiring-- I am not a swift crocheter), that seems unlikely...
BUT ANYWAY, my point here is that when the time comes to start thinking about Yarn!Chester #5, I'll probably post a poll for input. :)
-----
*The reason I have so many skeins of various shades of green acrylic yarn is because my grandmother took to crocheting afghans when she broke her leg in a car accident in the 1970s and ordered kits, several of which had never been completed and therefore had many, many skeins of yarn in them. Actually, this yarns might even be from my great-grandmother, who passed away in 1978. She knit and crocheted (and tatted I think). The family joke is that somehow I inherited the fiber gene, after it skipped two generations. I also have an equal or greater number of various purple skeins, also from a never- completed afghan. Those will be far harder to use up both in general (I like purple in very specific hues and in limited quantities) and on the Yarn!Chesters. (Other than Sam's greyhound shirt, I can't think of any significant purple clothing on any SPN character.) Why do I have yarn older than myself? Because my parents are cleaning out my grandparents' house, the same house in which my great-grandparents lived. They have been sending everything fiber related to me. I will never run out of acrylic yarn. Some of it, if you haven't dealt with yarn from the 1970s (and lucky you if you haven't) is sort of nasty. At least acrylic nowawadays can feel nice. Some of this does. Some of it doesn't. But because amigurumi needs to be crocheted up tight (so as not to have stuffing leak out) it works really well for this project.
Sigh. I think I need to replan my Sekrit Project of Doom. S'okay. Back to the drawing board. Le sigh. :(
On the bright side, ami!Bobby now possesses (in separate parts:
one (1) head (bald, featureless, but attached to body)
one (1) torso (attached to head. green shirt, blue jeans bottom)
two (2) legs (feet attached! dark brown shoes, blue jeans)
two (2) arms (with hands! beige sleeves)
one (1) overshirt (beige. Currently has the tail-bits like you see in this picture but I'm not sure I like them. Might remove them for a shirt more like you see in this picture. Have not yet decided.
So, other than putting it all together (obviously), and the hair (usually second-last) and in this case beard (see also: hair), and the eyes (very last), what's left?
Well, obviously his baseball cap. I had planned originally to use his pig!hat, but have decided instead to make the one he wears more often, as seen in that second linked picture (blue in front/brim, white 'round the rest) partly because it's most common, partly because it's easier than finding felt (somewhere in my craft closet there might be pink felt...) and making a pig, and partly because I already have the yarn for it. (The pig!hat was rust colored.)
Also, I'm making his vest, as seen in the first linked picture. He has a few, it seems, but they tend to be dark green, and I have the yarn for it.* Plus, this is a step towards making the layers upon layers all the characters on the show wear (for versions 2.0, you see.)
Ami!Bobby won't be done tomorrow (even if I don't have to do anything after proctoring the Shax final exam-- but I do, as I still have grading to do. Le sigh.) but I'm making such progress that I may post some in-progress pictures on Flickr. If so, I'll link from here. The vest should be an interesting challenge since it's different than any piece I've made thus far (arm holes!), even if it has similarities to the overshirts of the boys, and a collar sort of like Castiel's.
I have discovered, however, that I'm really quite awful at the math involved in making crochet patterns. I've been writing down (mostly) what I've done to make ami!Bobby, but because I always went by feel before, instead of maths, it's a mess. I'll have to revisit all of this. Writing (patterns) is hard! /the Prochet Chuck :)
OH! and I think I should probably add Bobby's kiss the cook apron to my (short) list of crocheted accessories. Bwahahaha.
Once I've got this first set of four finished (ie: finish Bobby) and feel that I've got a handle on version 2.0, I'll start thinking about other characters. Originally I felt pretty adamant about only doing this four, but now I honestly can't recall why. I'm now also strongly considering:
-Mary (after all, she set things in motion in so many ways. Also, I'd enjoy the challenge of a nightgown.)
-John (mostly because I feel if I make Mary I have to make John. I don't feel the connection to John that so many fans do. I don't hate him, and I think his relationship with the boys is fascinating and continues to both influence and explain the boys, but ... ::Shrug::)
-Henricksen (a really interesting character of color who wasn't evil? awesome!)
-Lilith (in her creepy creepy child form, not in her dental hygienist form.)
-Meg
-Ellen (man, they so should not have just dropped her from the show, at least not without some sort of explanation as to what Ellen's up to)
-Jo (Am I the only fan who didn't hate Jo?)
-The Prophet, Chuck (dude! how awesome would it be to make him in his bathrobe??)
I will make no decision about even the potential of making Anna and/or Ruby until season's end. At the moment, Anna seems too useless to bother with. And my irritation at Ruby's two season opaque agenda knows few bounds. Also, I'm not sure if I'd do version one (Katie Cassidy) or version two (Genevieve Cortese). I feel like GC is more canon, she's had more influence over Sam. But by the same token, I despise her acting (at least on this show, having never seen her anywhere else) and really the only way these are fun for me are if I'm making them with loooove. Loathing, I think, would be a difficult emotion to channel into creating a project. (And I am not so petty as to make a voodoo doll.)
If I get good at these guys, I'll consider Andy, Ava, the YED and Jake. And Ash (mullet!)
Oh hells, I want to make everyone. But since it takes between 1 and 3 weeks for me to make one (depending on how much experimentation I have to do, and what else my life is currently requiring-- I am not a swift crocheter), that seems unlikely...
BUT ANYWAY, my point here is that when the time comes to start thinking about Yarn!Chester #5, I'll probably post a poll for input. :)
-----
*The reason I have so many skeins of various shades of green acrylic yarn is because my grandmother took to crocheting afghans when she broke her leg in a car accident in the 1970s and ordered kits, several of which had never been completed and therefore had many, many skeins of yarn in them. Actually, this yarns might even be from my great-grandmother, who passed away in 1978. She knit and crocheted (and tatted I think). The family joke is that somehow I inherited the fiber gene, after it skipped two generations. I also have an equal or greater number of various purple skeins, also from a never- completed afghan. Those will be far harder to use up both in general (I like purple in very specific hues and in limited quantities) and on the Yarn!Chesters. (Other than Sam's greyhound shirt, I can't think of any significant purple clothing on any SPN character.) Why do I have yarn older than myself? Because my parents are cleaning out my grandparents' house, the same house in which my great-grandparents lived. They have been sending everything fiber related to me. I will never run out of acrylic yarn. Some of it, if you haven't dealt with yarn from the 1970s (and lucky you if you haven't) is sort of nasty. At least acrylic nowawadays can feel nice. Some of this does. Some of it doesn't. But because amigurumi needs to be crocheted up tight (so as not to have stuffing leak out) it works really well for this project.