AFK, whee!

[bunrab]

We'll be away for a few days, attending the wedding of a niece in Omaha, which you'll hardly even notice since I've posted so little the past two weeks anyway. I have been working on finishing assorted RL projects - knitted things, quilted things - and also having a cold. Whee. Anyway, when we get back from Omaha next week, I'll try and catch up.
Here is one of the things I knitted:
Rich's flickr photo of the project

Comments

[momily.livejournal.com]

aww, love the eel!!! Would you sort of share the directions? Was it freehand or did you have a pattern?

[bunrab.livejournal.com]

it was sort of freehand, but here's the general idea:
Wool-Ease Thick n Quick, on DPNs, use waste yarn and cast on enough stitches to make a circle about 10" circumference (3 inch diameter), then change to the yarn you're really using and knit a tube for a few inches. Knit in about half a short-row heel on the left, then a few more inches of tube, then a short-row heel on the right, then another inch or so and start decreasing down to the tail.
Once you've bound off the last 2 stitches together at the tail, go back to the other end and pick up stitches from the tube removing the provisional cast-on, so you can knit in the other direction. For the top jaw, use just over half the stitches, and cast on a few less than that, then knit in the round and decrease to the "nose." Cast off that. Go back to the lower live stitches and cast on exactly as many, so that the lower jaw will be flat, and knit a mitten thumb.
For the fin, just pick up stitches from the back, and do k1, p1 rib for just a couple of rows, and bind off in k1, p1.

Stuff the body and the upper jaw through the mouth opening between upper and lower, and then sew the back of the mouth closed; if you're adding pharyngeal jaws, slide elastic through the back before you sew it completely shut.