Spaceman Spiff's Sidearm

My latest finished project....the raygun. Being a total dork for all vintage sci-fi pulp, I decided that no rocketeer could be without his trusty sidearm. In fact, no fantastic voyage is without a little 'species unknown' drama requiring some serious pulp armory. Or at least, that's what my kids keep telling me. And so I became 'Mom, the make-believe weapons designer'. I suppose I'd lump that torch under this job title as well. Truth be told though, I wanted to do the raygun just for me.

I knew in my head how I wanted it to look, but I didn't know how I was going to construct it. I thought I might start with the same basic pattern that I made for the body of the rocket. But that idea was tossed out when I realized that I couldn't do the intarsia panels along the sides if I worked it in odd numbered panels. Goodness knows, we all need to learn intarsia on the fly, right? So I frogged it...a couple....er, a few times. In fact, I threw the whole charted pattern out; the very one that I diligently tried to put together. It just wasn't working for me.

Instead, the project became one big experiment. Surprise, surpise. I ended up stitching the body as one continuous piece that folded at muzzle and was seamed up the sides, adding the various other parts one idea at a time. I'm not sharing with you all, how rushed and poorly constructed the back looks, currently. I attempted the technique of knitting a small, tight round on two circular needles vs. using the tried-and-true method with a set of double-point needles. Needless to say, it looks awful and mental note to self: find a mentor. I did the whole thing in kitchen cotton this go 'round, because 1) the colors are easily accessible (and cheap!) and 2) it's just another prototype, meant to learn from. And lesson number one, I have decided that, indeed, this is a prime project for felting.


Overall, I'm pretty happy with it, though. Just like the rocket, it needs some more precise shaping and little extra care given to seaming. And while normally, I'd rely on my husband's astute eye for what just looks "wrong", this time I happily took the advice of my 8 yr. old son to guide me through the details. I must say, it tickled me to watch him get more and more excited about whichever new element we made a joint decision on. Sure enough, it had star appeal with all the kids once it was finished. Too bad I can't convince any of them to dress up as Buck Rogers for Halloween...maybe I'll convince the hubby. Hmmm.....