Saturday, March 8, 2014

Drifblim - The first pattern I ever wrote - Pt. I

Holland here :)

Amigurumi is just about the only thing I knit, and this is mostly an amigurumi blog since Jazmin is the same way.  The subset of amigurumi that I love the most is the pokemon plushies.  Most pokemon patterns are written for crocheting, and there was no pattern for Drifblim, one of my newer favorites.  I had to do it, I had to take the plunge.  After eight years of following other people's patterns to a T I had to dive in and make a pattern myself.

First, I spent a lot of time looking at photos of Drifblim.  Here he is:
 
I gazed for hours at his spherical but not quite spherical shape.  I thought about proportions and color placement.  His butt crown was especially intriguing.
 
I knew that I wanted the body made in segments, and that there would have to be 8 of them, 4 legs with a segment in between each.  I decided how big around I wanted him, sketched out 8 segments on paper, and taped them together.  It looked okay.
 
Much graphing and sketching and re-sketching commenced.  I understood gauge for the first time.
 
I consulted patterns of flippered animals to figure out how I wanted his legs to go.  His cloud was the only thing I didn't know how to deal with.
 
Here are some photos of Drifblim I.  He only has 1 leg because I know I'll have to fix him.  I plan on putting this original pattern up for free because it needs editing in several places.
 
Here is the full Knitblim (minus 3 arms):

 

The face came out okay, but I'm contemplating making the mouth out of felt, or else embroidering it with something thinner.  Felt appliques are totally Jazmin's department, not mine... Look how cute his evil little eyes are!
 

The color change on the body is one of the biggest things to bug me.  It needs to be moved down a few rows, and not have an increase row in it.  That little stitch of light purple drives me nuts.
 
Lets talk about the cloud.  It's cute, but it's not quite big enough.  I like the shape though.  Also, I might make a pattern for that ice cream cone pokemon based on it.
 
The butt crown was probably my favorite part, but it does need to be longer to cover the butt nub better.


 
And the flippers/legs/arms.  They do need to be longer.  I really like how the color change came out though.  Notice that they're stockinette stich on both sides (they were knit in the round) but that they toes are knit flat.  The awkward corner that that leaves needs to be tweaked just a bit.
 

 
So yeah!  That's Drifblim.  Here is the pattern pdf, free, with all of its flaws:
Drifblim UnEdited


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