WIP Wednesday

Well, the zombie is coming right along :) I have completely finished the torso, guts and legs - meaning they are completely assembled and embroidered. 

I seriously saved so much time this time around just with rethinking the order of assembly. The pattern has you knit two full leg pieces - an outer and then an inner one for the "wound". The thing is, the only area that you need the inner one for is that big red spot - so why do I need to knit a complete red leg? That's just silly. So I basically just knitted a patch that was slightly bigger than the opening and sewed it on the back. The pattern also has you sew everything completely together and THEN do the embroidery. Again, that's just silly. You have to try to hide your knots and ends after the fact when you do it this way. So, I did all my embroidery before I sewed up the back seam and seriously it was so nice to not have to worry about hiding my knots (I know the patterns always tell you that you don't need to knot it, but for real, I'm making this for a 9 year old child - I doubt she will be gentle). I also sewed the toe nails on one foot before seaming, but it turns out this wasn't a great idea - when I stuffed it the fabric shifted and now the nails are very loose. I will redo them nice and tight, but I'd rather do this with sewing thread than yarn so it's all good.

The intestines were another design choice - I knitted i-cord instead of seaming. The torso is exactly the same as my first zombie meaning it has a dark purple inner pocket. I also tied the cream yarn for the ribs on before I sewed up the seam. I had to embroider the second rib cage twice - I always have trouble trying to match two things side by side - please tell me I'm not alone, lol. I also waited to put the velcro on until I had both receiving sides ready just to make sure they line up right.

I'm really happy with how this is coming out :) And it is so much nicer to work on it for a few hours a night instead of one solid day of assembly like the last one. Incidentally, this pattern has apparently been posted online and you can get it for free! I literally just discovered this today. It's only for the 'classic zombie', so to make the other pieces you'd have to get the book, but most of what I've used is all in the pattern. Just head over here to get it for yourself :)

(sorry for the clothing shaver, lol, it's all stockinette so it just curls up without something to weigh it down.)

I also managed to restart my Myrna cardigan this weekend :) We had some long drives to Orlando and I don't like to take projects with lots of little pieces in the car - that's just a disaster waiting to happen. So, I cast on on my birthday and kept knitting it when I could all weekend. I'm past the would-be-keyhole area and into the main back. It's kind of crazy how simple (and therefor how quick) this sweater is. I'm hoping to get to really devote some time to it soon.

That's it around here this week :) Head over to Tami's Amis' Blog to see what others are working on!