Baby Nemo
On the (very rare) occasion, I take a special request.
This time I said yes because the woman asking was one of my favorite people in the entire world...someone I look up to and admire a very great deal.
My friend had a photo of a Nemo costume for a newborn, and she wanted to know if I could make something similar. Easy enough...at the very least I knew I could work up something based on the shark hats I made a while back.
The problem was the yarn. I spent about a week poking around online, trying to find just the right yarn - something heavy enough that it would knit up quickly, but not too expensive, in just the right color. I'll be honest, this was a lot harder than I thought it was going to be. In fact, I gave up and emailed my friend to tell her I just couldn't do it. (Time was also a constraint. I have another gift to make with a deadline, and was rapidly hitting the point where I had to focus on it.)
Then...inspiration.
Years ago I had bought a whole bunch of KnitPicks palette from a friend at $1/ball. I've used quite a bit of it, but there were 4 skeins of bright orange sitting in my stash that were driving me crazy. The orange was a totally obnoxious color for most anything else....but, it was perfect for a clownfish costume!
In further good news, there was a perfect pattern available through Ravelry, so I didn't have to reinvent the wheel. After a quick consult with my friend Sunday morning, I even dropped the scale-like stitch pattern to make it a faster knit. I had a bit of trouble with the row gauge and the proportions for the length (since I didn't use the stitch pattern, it was off), but that was minor. For the most part, it was a super quick and easy project.
I finished everything and delivered it this evening. I left yarn with my friend, who will be adding crocheted fins - including Nemo's lucky small fin - for some extra fun. She's happy with how it turned out, and thinks that her friend will love it!
Truth be told, I will be paid for this project. It's not much, but it will reimburse me for all materials and will help pay for that other baby gift that I'll be working on, which helps.
by Angie Hartley
Knit Picks Palette (held double)
2 skeins orange, 1 skein white, 1 skein black
Addi Turbo 16" size US 7
Knit Picks Harmony DPN's - US 7
January 6 - 8, 2017
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