Ruthless Knitting

Remember back when I told you that I was working on a Secret Design Project, and I hinted that it had something to do with this picture?

I can finally tell you what I was going on about. Way back in the spring, I was commissioned by Knit Picks to develop a set of special “shells” for Sheldon that they could sell on their website. They also asked me to rework the pattern so that it could be knit in Shine Worsted as well as Shine Sport (which is the yarn I used for the original pattern). And so I did that, and Super Sheldon was born. He looks just like Sheldon, only bigger.

Okay, this is where the pig comes in. In my middle school art class, we were required to make these clay pigs. Everyone’s pig followed essentially the same template, but we were supposed to customize our pigs so that every pig had a different outfit reflecting its unique character. There were basketball-playing pigs, ballerina pigs, and so forth. My pig, for reasons that I don’t remember, was dressed up as the Easter Bunny. No, really — see its little bonnet with bunny ears? And the eggs? And the Easter basket?

I saw my bunny pig while visiting my mom’s house at Christmas, and it gave me the idea to dress Sheldon up as other animals. Voila!

Knit Picks is selling the patterns and yarn together as a kit here. They also have some interviews with me and a very adorable photo gallery of the various animals in their natural habitats.

Which one is your favorite? I am very fond of the bat.

This entry was posted on Thursday, October 2nd, 2008 at 12:59 pm and is filed under Design, Finished Objects. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.