Christmas FO: The Mounted Bass

Another project I had to really do some hard thinking on was what to make for my father-in-law. He's a big fisherman, so my husband said I should make him a bass, but I couldn't see him just having a stuffed animal around. I half-heartedly searched Ravelry for patterns and when I saw this one I knew it was meant to be.

This is the Mounted Bass pattern by Amanda Lang. I had seen the faux taxidermy craze with other animals, but I never thought of doing a fish the same way! I had almost all the colors in my stash, and I knew I could slap this out quick enough to get it ready in time. I even had a wood plaque hanging around from my photography days as well as wood-plaque-colored spray paint. This project really just fell into place at the right time :)

That doesn't mean the project was completely easy. I must confess that I am spoiled by the quality and detail given in FreshStitches amigurumi patterns. It's not that I need someone to hold my hand - I've made enough animals by now to know how to put things together and what stitches to use - what  I missed in this pattern were the specific spots to attach the extremities. I take that kind of info for granted when it's available and only seem to notice when it's not there, and that's only because it takes so. much. longer. Seriously, it's much quicker to count out stitches and put things on a certain row than to look back and forth at the example photos and your project to see if you put the piece in the right spot. To me, it all goes back with giving as much info as possible to make sure that customer ends up with a finished item that looks as close to the original as possible - that's why people buy patterns, right? Anyway, this isn't to say that the pattern is bad at all - I still ended up with a passable bass and everyone liked him. This extra info just would've ensured the result and saved me time.

Anyway, I used Vanna's Choice yarn in Olive and White as well as Caron Simply Soft in Dark Sage to make this. Since I planned to mount him to the plaque all along, I only made one side fin and only attached one eye, lol. I kind of wish I had added the second eye now, but it's too late now. He's still cute :) Getting the mouth to lay smooth with the body shape was a challenge, but we got there in the end. I also kind of wish my plaque had been a little bigger, but I'm not worried about it. Again, he's still cute.

So there you have it - a mounted bass! I think it's a really cute idea for fishermen - imagine all the other fish options. You could make a mounted Nemo and really freak a kid out, lol. I'm glad it turned out so cute and my father-in-law liked it :)