I know I’ve touched on this briefly when it comes to my Haro posts but I wanted to spend a little time talking about fandom crafting. We all have something we are a fan of, be it a book series, a sports team, a movie, or a video game. As people who like crafting, we like to make things. It’s only natural that eventually these two points would meet and people start making crafts about their fandoms.
Sometimes this is done in an obvious fashion, such as the Haro amigurumi I’ve talked about before, or the amigurumi teenage mutant ninja turtles pictured above. sometimes it’s more private and personal: a blanket worked in colors that match up with a favorite fandom, or an abstract pattern in a shawl that might not be immediately noticeable to the casual observer. Sometimes you want to happily declare your favorite series bright and bold across your chest, and sometimes you want to carry it around with you as a little secret just for yourself.
I’ve found that, for me, the best and worst part of doing fandom crafting is finding patterns. On the one hand if you can find patterns it’s great! It’s always a blast to see who else you can find that loves the same kind of game or movie as you do, and see what they’ve made. There are some really cool / cute things floating out on the internet, born from nothing more than a love of a franchise and the passion of someone with yarn and needles. Some of them are small, little key chains or pocket sized stuffed animals. some of them are full on tapestries (see my mid month middle earth series). Truly the only limits on what can be made is what you can imagine, so long as you have the will and the material to work on a project.
The downside is if you’re into a niche franchise, or a franchise not exactly common in the knitting / crochet / cross stitch communities, you will find patterns thin on the ground. Sure there are still some gems out there. But there’s nothing so disheartening as scouring the internet for an hour using more and more specific search terms in the hopes of turning up a pattern even close to what you want. More than once I’ve found myself going in circles, looking for a pattern that just doesn’t exist. or finding a pattern that’s close but just off one way or another from what I’m searching for. One thing I’ve been looking for is a shawl pattern with a Legend of Zelda Triforce worked into it. Not something super bold or noticeable but something subtle, that I could wear and not have people immediately know it was video game related unless they actually looked at it.
I think everyone will one day run into the dilemma of finding that what they want to make doesn’t exist, or at least doesn’t exist yet. Then comes the question: what is the next step? Do you give up on the project you wanted to make? Do you shelve it, in the hopes that one day you’ll find that someone else has made the pattern you were thinking of? Or maybe you take the confusing (and a little bit scary) step of trying to make what you want to see yourself. There’s no right or wrong answer, just a hundred different options to choose between.
