FO: A Lovebot for Valentine's Day

Well, it hit me on the Sunday before Valentine's Day that I didn't have a gift yet for my husband. Our finances being what they are, I knew I wouldn't be running out to buy anything, but having the ridiculous stash I do I figured I would make him something :) I went through my library on Ravelry (seriously Ravelry is the best thing ever for staying organized), and narrowed things down to a few possible candidates. Then I remembered that he mentioned his long time love of robot related films a few weeks ago (it was completely random too, lol), so I put two and two together with this pattern I've always wanted to make and a lovebot was born!

This is lovebot747 (named by my husband when he received him on Valentine's day, lol). I used the Louie the Lovebot pattern by Rebecca Danger. He's a super simple shape, but he does use some fairly advanced techniques as far as toy making goes. I did try to do the heart on the body by stranding the gray behind it, but this was my first try with stranded colorwork ... and I am a notoriously tight knitter ... so it didn't work out so well. After spending my first night making the whole body, I pulled it all out until just before you start the heart - I just knew it would drive me crazy. I decided to knit the body plain gray and then duplicate stitch the heart back on according to the chart and it worked out great :)

 The other slightly tricky bit is making the feet/legs. The pattern has you knit the foot as basically an egg, but one section you knit on a scrap piece of yarn, then pull it out and open the hole up to knit the leg. It's nice and seamless, but if I hadn't done it before when I made my Wee-Ones Elephant along with the Craftsy class, I doubt I would have understood how it works. Just something to keep in mind if you decide to make a bot of your own :)

I used Vanna's Choice yarn in Charcoal Gray and Colonial Blue from my stash, and I went with a pair of 12 mm safety eyes. I figured the gray/blue combo wasn't overly girly so my husband could be seen with his gift, lol. I do love the example in pink and red though :)

I love how skinny and long the limbs are, and I think the selective striping is really nice. I also love how this guy is so pose-able! I was worried he wouldn't want to cooperate, but I just love how this pic came out, so please forgive the poor quality.

I call this photo "The Doctor Is In," lol doesn't he just look like he's saying, "Go ahead, tell me all your problems." He's such a nice lovebot.

He seemed to be a big hit :) My husband likes to make him dance while singing the music from the Mountain Dew Kickstart commercial. It's pretty funny.

For our Valentine's night out, we used some gift cards we had saved up for a long time and splurged at Longhorn Steak house. We got the porterhouse for two (did you know such a monster existed?!) - it was a 30 oz steak! Craziness! We went really wild and had them put a gorgonzola crust on the top. It was delicious and certainly worth the 1.5 hours we waited to be seated (yes, you read that right, lol). I got to have the leftovers for dinner the next night, and Gordo helped me clean that bone off. I think he did a pretty good job, don't you? All in all a good time and a successful Valentine's Day :)

Did you make any of your Valentines this year? Let me know, I'd love to see them!