Pattern: The Age of Brass and Steam by Orange Flower
Yarn: Caron Simply Soft in colorway "Burgundy"
Mods: None
Knit While Watching: "Vikings", "Game of Thrones", "A Mother's Rage" (don't laugh, Lifetime movies normally suck, but this one wasn't half bad),
Purpose: Project 2 of hopefully 4 for the Game of Thrones KAL
The inspiration for this piece was Tyrion Lannister. He has earned the right as my favorite character for several reasons, a few being: his quick-wit, always interesting dialogues, surprising nobility and kindness, and overall just the fact he kicks a**. Not to mention Peter Dinklage's perfect portrayal and you have a recipe for greatness.
I choose the color burgundy because it reminded me of wine, and that has to be Tyrion's favorite beverage.
As for the photos: The gold coins are supposed to represent the Lannister gold and the gold knights helmet Jamie (Tyrion's brother, for those who don't know) which seemed fitting to me because I do think Jamie and Tyrion, honestly care for each other.
When I think of pirates, I think of the romanticized versions of them. Adventure, sailing the world and daring sword fights, these are what I imagine when I imagine a pirate.
In the movies and books, being a pirate is more than just the biggest adventure you'll ever take; its also the most dangerous, adrenaline laden and fun you'll have either. Who didn't want to be a pirate when they were a kid?
Being a pirate is the most exciting challenge you can take and knitting up this pirate toy sure felt like that just that, a challenge.
Two years ago, I set
out to make a pirate doll for my sister's birthday; except, I couldn't seem to
find a pattern that fit what I wanted. So I set out on a challenge of
creating my own.
Two weeks later, The Pirate in the picture to the left was "born".
You might be wondering why there are two dolls, and the answer to that is: writing the pattern (which I'm almost done with and preparing for test knitters).
You see, when I came up with this knitted toy, my notes were, well to put it lightly, lacking.
I find that when I get inspired to make something, there is very little that stops me from going on a working binge of sorts. I'll become consumed by the project, it will be all I think about and work on, until it gets done. In doing so, I find taking notes to be a hindrance (even if I want to take notes); I get so caught up with creating the project, I just forget to or plan to do it later (procrastinator here).
So when I decided that I might want to write the pattern for The Pirate, I realized that I would have to recreate the toy to make the notes. Thus, Pirate II was born (pirate pictured above to the right).
It's interesting to see how much my techniques have changed over the last two years. How things are just a little more polished, a little more tailored. I still think The Pirate I, has his strong points, like personality, and his hair jewelry is a bit better, but Pirate II looks more realistic.
If you can't tell, I went kind of crazy with the photo shoot, hehe. Who knew I had so much "pirate" stuff laying around?
Pattern: Winterfell Cowl (Game of Thrones) by Fancy Tiger Knits
Yarn: Caron Simply Soft in colorway "Heather Gray"
Mods: Used needle size of 8 instead of 10, also I knitted 15 pattern repeats instead of 12
Knit While Watching (in order): "Vikings", "Game of Thrones", "Red Widow", "Dallas" and "Bates Motel"
I set out to make this for a "Games of Thrones" KAL started in the Ravelry group called the Season 3 KAL: The KnitGuard. Lots of gorgeous patterns have been chosen, I'm so excited to see what others knit up. It's all sure to be, some beautiful work and FO's.
Winterfell Cowl is a, truly lovely and simple pattern. Good tv knitting (because you don't have to look down), even though it was simple, I still found it hard to work on during my favorite shows.
Alas, Winter is not coming in my neck of the woods, in fact Summer is coming, and Summers are humid, sticky and hot, so I don't know how much use I'll get out of this sweet cowl except for the more chilly Spring nights that might pop up ever so often in the coming months.
So excited to get something done for the KAL. My biggest hope would be to complete the maximum 4 projects and earn all the badges, though coming up with GoT themed knits is surprisingly more difficult than one would think.
