FO Friday: Zombie 2.0 and Comrade Ratlovich

Today, my friends, is a momentous day - I can finally reveal my finished Zombie! And he's very photogenic :)

This is Birthday Zombie 2.0 (I know - really creative name, right?) and his partner in crime, Comrade Ratlovich. We had a ridiculously fun time with out little photo shoot together, if you couldn't tell :)

As requested, I made the zombie the same as my first zombie just with a blue coat (the recipient's favorite color) and adding his rat companion.

I know I've talked about this project a ton on the blog over the last few months, but I figure I'll mention the specifics again for anyone just tuning in. I used the Classic Zombie pattern by Fiona Goble (available free here) along with the brain and brain pocket instructions from the book Knit Your Own Zombie. The glory of the book is that you can pick and choose which elements you want to add. 

The yarns I used are Red Heart With Love in Lettuce (skin/body); Vanna's Choice in Cranberry (anything blood looking), Purple (stomach pocket), and Charcoal (eye socket and nose); Caron Simply Soft in Raspberry (intestines and around wounds), Chocolate (hair and rat), and Black (pants and mouth); Red Heart Soft in Cream (rib cage); Bernat Softee Baby in Soft Peach (brain); Lion Brand Microspun in Fuchsia (brain squiggles); Patons Canadiana in Gray (eye socket); and Premier Everyday Soft Worsted in Royal Blue (jacket).

I also used red velcro at the torso and head, metal snaps at the shoulders, gray bugle beads for the nails, and a glass bead for the eye ball.

Comrade Ratlovich says, "Oh, hello there folks. Don't mind me!" - in a Russian accent, of course.

Here's a little crime scene photo, lol. Everything is stitched and embroidered by hand.

"Oh, you don't need these intestines anymore, do you?"

Anyway, lots of photos. Just like last time, the amount of photos in this post directly reflects the amount of work involved in making it, lol.

And now for detail shots. I only had one issue come up this time - the blue yarn I used must be slightly thicker than the orange I used last time for the first zombie, because the coat came out bigger. This isn't really an issue except that it made the arms longer, so I had to roll up the sleeves like cuffs - easy fix. 

lol This is seriously one of my favorite angles to photograph these guys.

I really love how Comrade Ratlovich came out - so much so that I think my brother will be getting a rat of his own for Christmas to complete his zombie set. This guy certainly took a long time to make - the only pieces that are knit are the actual body (2 pieces), everything else is embroidered on.

I borrowed back the original Birthday Zombie so I could officially give him an eye ball, and I couldn't resist a photo of them all together. Just imagine lots of groaning and it will complete the picture.

And here is a closeup of the new eye ball in action :) It's pretty crazy how it make the face look so different.

I packaged up Zombie 2.0 and Comrade Ratlovich and delivered them last night. Yesterday was Eryn's birthday, so she will probably already have them by the time this post goes up :) I've been promised photos of Eryn with her zombie (and quite possibly her new favorite shirt - it says If Darryl Dies, We Riot, lol).I'm beyond thrilled with how this guy came out and I really hope Eryn loves it!

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!

FO Friday: Zombies and Turtles and Mysteries Revealed

This past week was filled with far too much knitting than is good for anyone, lol. I've had to promise my husband that I will cut back a bit just so the house doesn't get covered in funk. At least I got everything finished by the time I needed to :) I warn you - this post is very picture heavy. I look at it as the amount of pictures is in direct relation to the amount of time the items took to make. So without further ado ... I present the most complicated item I have ever knitted: Briggs' Birthday Zombie.

I used the Classic Zombie pattern from Knit Your Own Zombie by Fiona Goble. I just love that shot above, lol, I had a lot of fun with my little photo shoot.

The cool thing about the book is that the zombie pieces and parts are designed in a pick and choose fashion, so you can mix and match patterns at will. I stuck to the Classic Zombie pattern except that I added a brain and a brain pocket.

lol As you can tell - my photo shoot was a lot of fun especially when I realized that he would stand up on his own. The eye sinew will soon have an actual eye ball on it. I checked everywhere for an evil eye bead like the book uses, but in the end I had to order some online and they hadn't arrived by Sunday. I'll update with a new pic when it's on :)

And here are all the pieces I made. The brain is removable, as are the stomach and intestines. I made the hole in the torso a deep purple color (to keep with decaying body realism, lol). The pattern calls for velcro that matches the yarn color for the head and torso, but in a design decision to keep it gruesome I hunted down some red velcro instead. I love the effect of it! Much more gory. The arms have metal snaps to join them together so they come off as well. The arm and one leg have nasty wounds on them. These are made by actually knitting a red limb, then the green outer limb, sliding the red inside the green, then embroidering with a burgundy yarn around the edges of the wound to attach them. This guy also has toe nails and finger nails that are long black bugle beads. The rib cage is (again) embroidered. The pants were knitted like normal, then I embroidered around a spot I wanted to make a hole and then (gasp!) cut the knitting! It was a scary moment and it didn't really work out as easily as the pattern made it seem and I had to whip stitch around the edge to keep the knitting from unraveling, but the effect is awesome.

lol I love this picture with the nubby arm and the guts sticking out. So gross. The entire face is embroidered on - no easy feat, let me tell you. It took a lot of time, but I really do love how it came out. The teeth are more bugle beads. I decided to use the black instead of white like the pattern calls for because, duh, dead and decaying body!

And here are all the parts laid out. The body parts are all sewn as separate pieces and seamed - holy crap did that take forever. Then I had to embroider everything, sew on beads, sew on velcro, sew on snaps, and make clothes. I had knitted all the body pieces over the course of about a week and then used my day off to put it all together. I'm not kidding when I say that this is almost all I did all day! And I still had to make the clothes!

I had to include this shot ... because it's awesome.

My brother definitely loved his gift, which made it worth all the work :) We kept teasing him that he got a doll for his 15th birthday, lol, but it was all in fun because everyone had to agree that it was gross and awesome.

I am super proud of how this project turned out, I can't lie. It was a crazy amount of work and the pattern certainly doesn't help in that. I'm used to American patterns that include a certain amount of (sometimes unnecessary) hand holding. This British pattern did nothing of the kind, and I've now discovered that this is common with British patterns. For example it would just say, "Seam pieces together. Embroider rib cage.," and the like. No walking you through how to do it, just referring you to a one picture diagram at the beginning of the book. In spite of that and in spite of how sick I was of making this thing when it was done, I would not be opposed to making another. The response from everyone who sees it is really great :) And even though it's gross, it's just so cool that it 's interactive. Even my 1.5 year old nephew loved to take the brain out (in fact we had to force him to give it back, lol). So, I would say there will be other zombies in my knitting future :)

But my making didn't stop there! I was also participating in the Fuzzy Mitten Mystery Knit-Along and the final clue was released last Friday. Now that the mystery is over, I am left with a super cute ... kangaroo!

This was my first ever Fuzzy Mitten project and it did not disappoint. How cute are they?! When I finished them, my husband said that she should be named Charlene (only to be read with a heavy Aussie accent), so this is Charlene and Jake :)

This project was made over the course of a month for me (it was actually 6 weeks with 1 clue each week, but I came in late). I used Vanna's Choice yarn in Toffee and Beige for the body - both were in my stash and they seriously turned out to be the perfect colors.

The cardigan comes off and all the limbs are jointed, so I can make her sit or stand or put her hands up - so cool! I will say, she didn't really like to stand up without her tail on, but that's a non-issue now since she has a tail. The joey was part of the final clue and you want to know what is the coolest thing about him? ...

He's a finger puppet! This is pretty vital to the design because it makes it possible to shove this little guy into the mom's pocket. And the body is made all in one piece! No sewing on teeny little arms and legs - so cool! I'm now obsessed with the idea of making lots of finger puppets, lol. The joey has 6 mm safety eyes and the mom has 10 mm ones.

The obligatory back view :) I love that it's really a little play set. I imagine that I kid would love to play with these. And most of the Fuzzy Mitten animals have similar sized bodies, so you can mix and match their clothes. I would have been all about that when I was little.

The cardigan is made from Red Heart Pompadour in blue and Aunt Lydia's Iced Bamboo in Icicle for the white stripe (it has just a tiny bit of sparkle in it). The cardigan was the first item to make, but it sat unfinished because I was waiting on buttons. I had to order these from Joann's and they are 7mm size. At least now I have a bunch more for the next project. I love that the cardigan only has those two buttons at the top so it can be worn and still see the joey :)

I had loads of fun making this set! I really love the fun of a mystery knit or crochet along, and the Ravelry groups always make it 10 times more fun. I'm so glad I was able to participate, and I have already almost finished my next Fuzzy Mitten friend. I know that I will be making plenty more of Barbara Prime's designs!

And there's one more item! This wasn't really anything I had to make, but it was just too cute and I have a feeling it will be useful and fun at the same time. I've had Ana Paula Rimoli's book Amigurumi On The Go since my birthday last year and hadn't made anything from it yet! I had to remedy that :) So my nephew now gets a super cute turtle tote!

Isn't he fun?! This is made just like any other crocheted amigurumi - you just add a long bag part to the top :) The whole bag is just hdc and then you add the stripes. Originally I didn't know if I wanted to add the stripes since it looked cute without them, but I am so glad I did!

I think the stripes really take this bag to the next step and make it less homemade looking (not that 'homemade' is a bad thing!) I made my stripes in dark red, yellow, orange and gray - all yarns out of my stash. The green and blue are both Red Heart Super Saver. 

The top cinches in with the pull cord. The bag is much bigger than I thought it would be! He is 9.5" tall and  5.5" wide, but it fits a surprising amount of stuff. I hope that my nephew enjoys putting things in, and then taking them out, and then putting them back in again :) He likes to do this with other bags, so now he will have one of his very own that no one will mind when he unloads it, lol.

Phew! That's all my projects from the past week. Crazy! If you have endured this entire post, thank you! I know it was really long but hopefully the pictures were cute enough to stay interesting :) If you're still interested (lol), head over to Tami's Amis' Blog and see what others managed to finish this week!

WIP Wednesday

 Well, this week has held quite a bit of knitting :) Clue #5 for the Fuzzy Mitten Mystery Knit-Along came out on Friday and it looks like this:

This is my kangaroo's body. I got it knitted, but I have yet to sew it together. Just for a visual, here it is with the other pieces:

Pretty cute, huh? I'm excited about the pocket :) I've also finally found and ordered mini buttons for the cardigan. They are called micro mini beads and I got them from Joann's (they had $1 shipping yesterday!) - Joann's was literally half the price of even Amazon, I was quite surprised. I got a few different color packs so I can decide once they arrive.

I started a last minute birthday gift for my brother last week too. I borrowed Knit Your Own Zombie  from the library just to give it a look through. When I showed my mom, she started talking about how much my brother would love something like this, and I knew she was right. His birthday is April 6th and he will be 16 - what 16 year old doesn't need an interactive zombie doll?! lol So, I raided my stash for the perfect colors and got to work knitting.

I have all the body parts and pieces knitted - now I just have to start sewing and embroidering - yikes! This just goes to show that I love my little bro - look at all those seams! The pieces are all assembled like if you were folding a box out of paper - there are tabs that wrap over the edges and miter at the corners to for a box. The limbs then have red sleeves that will poke through holes in the "skin" layer to look bloody. I went with green for the skin to be more decomposed looking, lol.

I seriously love all the holes. It made for a ton more work, but the fact that you can see bloody wounds makes it all worthwhile.

I also combined the Classic Zombie pattern with part of the Zombie Rockstar pattern to include a removable brain. This is the head pieces and the "brain pocket" along with my partially finished brain. How cool is that? You can have the brain pop out! Or you can have a rat crawling out of its head!

And here is the stomach set up - the purple is the "stomach pocket" - I made it purple to add to the rotten effect. I made the stomach and intestines out of burgundy yarn to differentiate between the "blood" and the "organs". I'm going for authenticity here, lol.

Another awesome aspect of this project is that the head and torso are attached with velcro - so you can remove the head or rip the body in half! To add to the gross-factor, I hunted down some red velcro, lol. The pattern also has you use bugle beads for the toe and finger nails, so I got black ones, lol. One of my favorite parts of the pattern is its eye ball - the original uses a glass eye bead and it's attached with red embroidery floss - so it looks like the eye has popped out and is barely hanging on! I searched all over locally to find the eye beads, but even Joann's didn't have anything close. So, I turned to Amazon. I have some beads on order, but I don't think they will arrive before Briggs' birthday - so I'll just have to improvise a severed sinew in the meantime. Anyway, as you can see I have great plans for this project. To be honest, it's much more involved then I anticipated when I began. Also the directions are really not that great. Mostly I just have to look at the picture and break down the best order to attach everything myself. I'd better get cracking though since his birthday is on Sunday! Lots of work...

I finally had the crochet urge again this week - the zombie proved to be more thinking than I wanted to do, so I started a nice brainless crochet project. This will be the Turtle Lunch Tote from Amigurumi On The Go by Ana Paula Rimoli. I've had this book almost a year an still hadn't made anything from it! A sin, I know. They are all so cute! My nephew has reached the age where he really likes putting things in bags and then unloading everything, so I figure this would be a useful gift for him.

Just to warn anyone else who is making any projects from this book - you have to stitch through both loops. I've gotten used to stitching through the back loop only like I do all my animals, so I made the whole base that way ... only to get to the part where it changes from the base to the sides and read "crochet through the back loop only". This is why we read patterns through before beginning, folks. The switching from regular stitching to back loop only gives the turn definition and without this the base was just a big dome. I had to pull out the entire thing and start again. Live and learn.

I also just started reading Anna Karenina today and I'm already impressed with the writing style. I've read lots of other "classic" novels before, but they always have a tone that is typical of their time. Not so with Anna Karenina. It's written just like any modern book I've read. I really like it thus far :)

So that's what's going on with me this week :) I'd better get to stitching! Head over to Tami's Amis' Blog to see what others are working on.