Sheep Shots: A Fish Called Wanda

Saturday, May 28, 2005

A Fish Called Wanda

I have been working feverishly on fish.

Once I had the pattern committed to memory, it was an easy task to knit fish while watching TV, reading, taking notes for another project. Each one takes roughly 30 minutes to complete, which means that a 30" square (roughly) baby blanket will take about 22 hours (plus finishing time). So far, I have completed 22 in navy, 10 in the Canadiana variegated (salmon, while, blue, olive). I will need 13 more of the variegated before I start sewing them together. Because the Other Half wasn't so crazy about the vari yarn, I also started and 7 in a solid called "mint" that looks a whole lot like "teal."

They'll be paired with another "navy" called "marine blue" in a second blankie.

The navy and the vari will go into blankie #1:

Of course, a mind is seldom at rest and I am looking at these shapes and thinking "scarf" and other articles of clothing:

Wouldn't that be cute on a little kid? A single row would make an interesting scarf for a grown up. Hmmm, wonder how making it in one piece would work?

It seems that I am not the only knitter/blogger who is looking at these pieces and playing around with them. Joan is considering vest possibilities, for example (see entries beginning on May 18 to follow her thought process), and one of her readers suggested using the fishies as patch pockets on a sweater. Appliques would be cute, too.

Just some random fish thoughts.

// posted by Ann @ 5/28/2005 07:54:00 AM

Comments:

I'm making the fish into a toddler sweater. the bottom ribbing and a 'layer' of 1/2 fish in dark blue, then 2 or 3 'layers' of colored fish, another 1/2 fish layer in a light blue, sleeves and yokes in plain garter (probably) in the light blue. Haven't decided yet if it'll have a zipper or buttons.

I use a provisional cast-on and don't cast-off the end. Then I use the Russian Grafting cast-off to attach the fish, I'll need to sew the rows together though. I've tried knitting them as one strip, but didn't like having this long strip of knitting flopping around.

# posted by

Anonymous : 1:43 PM

Pictures! We wanna see pictures!

Are you appliqueing, or is the fish layer the body.

# posted by

Ann : 2:59 PM

The fish are the sweater body. As far as pics, that's a bit of a problem - first I need to finish the sweater :) and 2nd I don't have a digi-cam or scanner or other photo-to-net toys.

# posted by

Anonymous : 3:29 PM

Dang! Okay. Now I'm intrigued by the half-fish. . .

# posted by

Ann : 3:47 PM

I've got the fish "bug" too. I'm knitting them at the moment for a large afghan. But I think they would be cute, knitting two together and stuffing for soft toys - or hanging them from the ceiling of a kid's room with fishing string. Wallhangings...the possibilities seem to grow as one knits these.

I am enjoying the knitting of the fish, not sure how much I will like assembling them.

# posted by

Anonymous : 11:19 PM

I am ready to start the assembling of fish today.

Will keep you posted.

# posted by

Ann : 6:59 AM

attaching them together is easy with the 3-needle bindoff, not so good with the Russian grafting (unless the fish are the same color or you don't mind the braided look the grafting ends up with) After making a bunch of fish yesterday, I think the toddler sweater will just have one layer of fish. 2 will make the sweater too long. So far. Subject to change....

And figuring out the half fish wasn't hard - just chart out the pattern in excel and separate the fish into halves. You need to do some of the right, and some of the left so they fit together.

# posted by

Anonymous : 10:14 AM