Mr. Oogie Boogie

This is Mr. Oogie Boogie from Tim Burton's The Nightmare Before Christmas.  He's for my coworker, JS, who is freakishly obsessed with the movie and this particular character.

The green yarn (which should be a more saturated lime green than pictured--thanks to impatience and phonecam) is Reynolds French Floss, quadruply stranded to be knit on US8 dpns.  The rest is scrap yarn.  To make the bedbugs leeching from his belly I single-crocheted some ugly, self-striping sock yarn into French knots.  The pair of red dice are plain, medium seed beads from the stash. 

He's about 6 inches tall from tip to toe, and while I would've liked to knit him a little taller, frankly, I got bored with it. He's ugly (being the boogieman and all) and shapeless (he's a potato sack).  The only fun thing was figuring how to create his face, the bedbugs and the dice.  I guess I'm all about the details.

November Knitting

I normally love the summertime; warm weather, sunshine, cool drinks and good bbqs.  But, as a knitter, I eagerly await the fall and winter weather and I get really excited when the seasons turn and the days become chilly and gray.  Hello, knitting!!!


The project on top is a woven stitch cowl inspired by Cosmicpluto's Woven Stitch Wrap which, by the way, she hasn't even posted a pattern for yet but I was completely awestruck by the design and the colors that I immediately wanted one for myself in cowl-form.  The yarn, which I inherited several skeins from my aunt's massive de-stashing, is vintage Aarlen Royal Tweed in a gorgeous heather gray-brown with flecks of green, orange and burgundy. The purple yarn is some boring Vanna's Choice acrylic that was an impulse buy at Michaels for a mere $1.49, and all's I can say is you get what you pay for.  Aside from my dislike of the huge acrylic content, it's knitting up fairly quickly and I'm excited with each row.  I continue to wonder how scratchy it will be, but I kind of don't care because it's going to look amazing.

The project below is a pair of fingerless gloves in Reynolds Royale Crylor, also vintage and also from my aunt's de-stash.  This is one of my favorite shades of blue; a sort of saturated light sky blue.  I needed a pair of gloves for my morning commute but all I could find were my first pair of mittens I knitted for my first winter visit to NY.  The lack of grip (hello, steering wheel) and some fingers (hello, radio), made me rethink my glove situation. I had intended to knit Toasty, but instead I forged ahead with my own pattern aka designing as I went along.  I finished the first glove at work, and hopefully I can get the second one finished without too much second-sock/glove/sleeve syndrome.

Free Pattern: Bender

Bender is started at the tip of his antenna and worked down to his body.  His face, arms and legs are made separately and sewn on after. He was heavily improvised as I went along because that's just how I roll so if you're a seasoned knitter and comfortable with small diameter knits, you shouldn't have too much of a problem. The reason I say this is because I didn't keep track of specific stitch counts unless they are specified in the pattern. Also, this is my first written pattern, and I use "written" extremely loosely as you'll see when you read through the pattern.






YOUR TOOLBOX
Set of 5 US3/3.25mm DPNS 
Sts markers to mark the beg of rnds
Blunt embroidery needle to weave in ends
Stuffing
Gray yarn for body
Yellow yarn for eyes and mouth
Bits of black yarn for pupils
Sewing needle
Matching gray thread
Crochet hook (to pick up sts)

THINGS YOU SHOULD BE COMFORTABLE WITH OR GOOGLE BEFOREHAND
inc
dec
m1
i-cord
cable cast on
knitting in the round
picking up stitches
making a bobble
sewing with a blunt embroidery needle and a sewing needle
small diameter knitting

HEAD
With gray yarn, CO 4-sts and begin i-cord for four rounds
Purl two rounds
Inc 1 in every stitch for top of head
Knit to mouth
BO 8-sts for top lip
Knit back and forth for two rows
Starting on RS, cable CO 8-sts for lower lip and join back in the round
Continue knitting in the round for four rnds
BO loosely
DO NOT break yarn

BODY
With same gray yarn still attached to his head, pick up stitches for body
K one rnd
Inc 1 in every other stitch
Knit two rnds
Inc 4-sts evenly around
Knit body until it's the same size as his head
Purl one rnd
Start decreasing evenly for the flat base of his shiny metal ass
Close up the hole
Break yarn

MOUTH
His mouth is basically a 9 sts/5 row rectangle with yellow yarn that I sewed into his face with matching gray thread.  You can knit it into place via intarsia or fair isle method but I wanted his mouth to be dimensional. Also, if you choose the sewn in route, you'll want to knit this BEFORE you close up his body so you can sew it in without having to make any crazy dexterous maneuvers.

ARMS & LEGS (2 of each )
With gray yarn, starting at the base of his foot CO 3, knit back and forth until stated
Inc one on each end until 7 sts
Dec back to 3 sts
Pick up stitches all the way around the base
Starting in the round, knit two rounds
Dec for however many rnds required until you have 5 or 6 sts left (it took me two rounds, dec every sts)
Begin 5 or 6-sts i-cord as same length as body
Break a tail of yarn enough to run yarn through the leftover sts and sew top of leg to the base of body

EYES & EYE CASING
For his Eyes, with yellow yarn, knit a 12 sts/5 row rectangle and sew in or knit in the small amount of black yarn to make his pupils.  As you sew his eyes to his face, take a bit of stuffing to make his eyes dimensional.

For his Eye Casing, with gray yarn, cast on 30 sts and knit 2 rounds, BO.  Sew the casing around his Eyes.

STOMACH DOOR
With gray yarn, CO 12
Knit back and forth for 4 rows
K3, make bobble, knit remaining sts
Knit for 4 rows
BO and leave a long tail
Sew door to stomach with the long tail

Please note that I chose not to stripe his arms and legs to simulate the sections of metal plates that make his limbs because I didn't like the VVVVVV looking stripe as is typical with single rows. I used only one shade of gray yarn throughout because this Bender is only 11 inches tall and I felt that less is more.  But, you know, feel free to stripe if you please.  Hey, feel free to modify this pattern as you go along... just don't be a jerk and claim it as your own or do something jerk-y.

"Oh. Your. God."

STATUS REPORT:



Bender is nearing completion.  I love how his eyes came out, and his belly door actually opens.  However, his stomach isn't hollow. All that's left are his arms, and maybe a stogie and a bottle of booze! 

Next up on the list: Mr. Oogie Boogie from Tim Burton's Nightmare Before Christmas for my coworker, JS.  Her right arm is sleeved with a Nightmare Before Christmas tattoos with a giant, green Mr. Oogie Boogie at the top of her shoulder so I know she'll dig him PLUS I can use up one of the many skeins of green yarn I rescued a few months ago.

"I'm Bender, baby, please insert liquor!"

My friend, Teej, is a big fan of Futurama. It's one of those things he can't live without. Recently, he asked if I would knit Bender for him one day.

Bender Bending Rodriquez? Lover of insults, hookers and all things alcoholic? GLADLY!

I jumped on the Ravelry search engine about five seconds after I read his email and found only two. They were inspiring to say the least. One was a knitted Bender toilet paper cover and the other was a crochet Bender amigurumi, something I haven't tried yet which is quite baffling because amigurumi is FRICKING AWESOME and the possible toys are endless...but I digress. As per my norm, I ended up constructing a loose pattern in my head, and knitted top-down and in the round because I like everything to be as seamless as possible.



Head. Check! Body. Check! I only just finished attaching his legs and eyeballs a few minutes ago and all that is left to make are his arms and the casing that surrounds his eyes. Can I tell you? Once I attached his eyes, I got all excited because he was all, like, real. I also remembered why I wouldn't want to do this for a living: the tiny knitting would cripple my fingers in no time.

A free pattern will be available, however it will be extremely rudimentary considering I made it up as I went along and I never write the specifics down.

For now: more Bender quotes!