This little guy has been in the works for <singsong>eeeeeeeever</singsong>! A couple of years ago my pal Eric discovered Hannah Simpson’s knitted Hellboy action figure, which had us all completely awestruck. Eric blogged that he would love a knitted Claremont-era Nightcrawler, and I filed the thought away, intending to make him one someday.
Last year I realized that it was scandalous that I’d been friends with Eric as long as I had and had never knitted him anything before. It was a situation that had to be rectified. Off to the yarn store I went for the makings of a superhero. I bought a skein each of white and black Classic Elite premier, which is cotton and tencel, and I got red and blue Berroco Comfort, a synthetic (all vegan fibers! w00t!). I had all the supplies…and no pattern. I’d e-mailed Hannah to ask if she had a pattern for the Hellboy figure, but apparently Marvel Comics, eager to protect their copyright, had already contacted her asking that she not share it.
Hannah has done tons of knitted action figures — Hellboy, the Joker, Han Solo, Freddie Krueger, Dawn of the Dead zombies — and I studied her photos for clues. I ended up knitting the Nightcrawler’s body, arms, and legs all in one piece from the top down. After about an hour spent playing with different wires at the hardware store, I made a little poseable wire skeleton. I dropped the skeleton down into the body, added stuffing, and topped it off with a blue head. The black hair is duplicate stitched on, and I added yellow bead eyes, chubby toes, and a wired blue tail. The outfit came last — a red Borat leotard always makes a superhero feel powerful, especially when knitted in garter stitch with wide, pointy shoulders.
It took quite a bit of experimenting — I have a little pile of body parts that didn’t make the cut because their proportions were off. The first torso had a duck butt, so that was quickly unknitted. The first toes were too long and skinny, and the first head was too small. A pair of legs was discarded, along with a leotard that was a couple of sizes too small for the chubby little guy. For the longest time I knew that something was wrong with his head, but I couldn’t figure out what, until my brother pointed out the obvious. The little blue guy didn’t have any ears!
I finally finished everything last night, and after a morning photo shoot on top of the barbecue grill, was able to give him to Eric today at breakfast. I’m so pleased with how well he turned out, and now I’m happily starting a new project that comes with a pattern.
- Monday, April 20
- Posted in Finished Knits
- Comments (2)
