The Struggles of a Muggle....

So, my daughter has gotten into Harry Potter...Like over the moon crazy in love with the books and movies...So I thought I would be an awesome mom and buy one of those awesome pattern collections and make her a Dobby hat....She was very upset that I would do such a thing because apparently, all Potter fans would only get depressed if they saw that hat.  Such a shame too because it is awesome....

So then I thought, SURELY she'll want a mandrake...Those things were super awesome and every Potter fan needs one of those!  Duhhh...So I made one...Um ya..she was having none of it..She did, however, get in costume and take a few photos with it just to be a good sport! :)  If you want to know how I did it, this is what I did-it isn't a true pattern though...just a recipe. :)

I'm not going to work up a whole pattern as I sort of freeform knitted it...BUT if you want to sort of follow what I did here are some random little notes:

On waste yarn provisional CO 18...Then in the round for as long as you would like your head portion-increase two stitches about every inch or so...As you are knitting in the round, randomly bind off some stitches here and there-when you get to those stitches you bound off simply pick up the same amount of stitches by using the purl bumps two rows down (that gives you the nice little wrinkle look)..

Just before you get done with the head section start increasing for the arms on either side-every other round I did an increase round as if I was working a raglan top (I gave each arm 8 stitches) then put the arm stitches on a holder and continue working in the round for the lower body, but you will start decreasing two stitches every inch or so...continuing to put your wrinkles here and there...I ended with 18 stitches so I could put 9 per leg....I worked the arms and legs in the round-decreasing as I went and then finished off with icord and then a few chains with a crochet hook...

After I undid the provincial cast on, I made the branches by making icord out of them in sections...Then I stuffed and sewed closed and then I used a crochet hook to make even more branches and leaves...

I just tied some loose yarn strands to the ends of the legs and arms and frayed the ends for the little 'root' look and embroidered on the face with some black..I had actually done colorworking as I went for the eyes and mouth in dark brown but didn't think it showed up too well so I went over it with black. :)

So there you have it...my recipe for a mandrake.