God of War Beanie

bernie b : That aran wool beanie must surely be very hot to wear in the summer?

Games geek: Yes, maybe make a different one for the warmer climate.

bernie b : A wool/cotton blend would work better and maybe a lighter colour. Grey would be a nice colour, but might wash out your light skin colour. How about a hint of red in places as you like that colour.

Games geek : I was just thinking that, you know how Kratos from God of War is grey skinned and has red markings on his skin….

Well, I couldn’t copy the markings to be exactly the same as it went all around Kratos’ body, so I took the more distinct parts and worked it around the hat. The part on his face and the spiral around his arm.

God of War Beanie - front view

The closest grey yarn I found in terms of colour and best composition was Rowan’s Belle Organic DK shade 017 Zinc which is 50% organic wool 50% organic cotton. It is a lovely soft comfortable yarn and I loved knitting with it. The red yarn I used was Debbie Bliss Prima shade 06 which is 80% bamboo 20% wool as I couldn’t find the right shade of red in the same range as the grey.

My first attempt, I tried a faggoting rib pattern on the hat itself so that there would be more air flow, but it turned out terrible with the intarsia knitting for the red marking not really showing through the rib pattern. Also due to this pattern being more holey the colours of the beanie were not as bold as I wanted them to be.

Second attempt, used stocking stitch and intarsia for the red marking, but I still wasn’t happy. The red marking was not quite right, didn’t stand out like I wanted it to and difficult to get markings in right place as not working on a flat piece.

Third attempt, used stocking stitch and knitted red marking separately. It was the best solution.

God of War Beanie - side view

I like it that the marking is mostly on the front and left side of the beanie, from the right it just looks pretty ordinary.

Although the design isn’t exactly as Kratos’ markings, most gamers can tell straight away the reference and on it’s own makes a rather interesting design.

Darth Sackboy

So far the Sackboys I’ve made are characters on the side of good, but I was tempted to the dark side this time.

I really wanted Darth Sackboy to be all black, so his facial details had to be quite obvious as there weren’t different colours to distinguish what’s what.

Working out the helmet was quite tricky, I had to redo it a few times to get the shape I wanted. Once I did I realised that Darth Vader’s outfit is based on a Samurai’s. It is so similar in shape, but due to the colour I did not see it at once.

Darth Sackboy has had some positive feedback when I posted him on some flickr forums, so I am very happy with him

Darth Vader Sackboy

Darth Vader Sackboy with his Lightsabre

Round 1. Fight!

After turning Dan from Street Fighter into a sackboy, I wanted to have another go at other Street Fighter characters. The obvious choice was Ken and Ryu, the two main characters of the game. This time I also decided to make a bigger size doll (these dolls came out about 12 inches tall, small ones about 5 inches), working with a similar pattern to the smaller size ones but using an Aran wool rather than the 4 ply I had used before. The wool I used was Rowan Magpie Aran, a yarn that I really love knitting with (unfortunately it is discontinued) because it has a very firm chunkyness to it, I find new wools tend to be spun more loosely.

Street Fighter Ryu & Ken Sackboys

I am quite happy with the outcome of them. As you can see I opted to make their tops and trousers with fabric rather than crochet it. I thought this worked better because you can achieve that tattered uniform effect.

Street Fighter Ryu Sackboy

The most difficult part is doing the hair. With a character whose hair is tied up this would be easier, but both Ryu and Ken have choppy stylized haircuts. I tried to use Little Big Planet’s Street Fighter Pack as a guidance, there is only a Ryu and no Ken. As you can see the hair is quite different, just because when I tried to do it the same way it looked too weird and couldn’t be styled the same as wool hair has a life of it’s own.

Street Fighter Ken Sackboy

Ken’s hair worked better, maybe because he has a scruffier hairstyle. His red outfit and blonde hair also make for a more vibrant doll.

But who’s your winner?