Have you ever wondered how to knit a Giant Clam?

At the beginning of January I was asked by Andrew if I can make a giant clam and a box jelly-fish... By the end of the night I had a long long list of underwater creatures that he would like for his 8th Birthday. I got to work right away but lost interest after one or two weeks and went on to other projects. Since the birthday was this Tuesday I had to get moving on finishing the various underwater creatures requested... And I did.

I already blogged about some of the creatures featured in this birthday present like the Nautilus Shells and Blue Sea Star Others just got done last night. Among those is the beautiful red and yellow sunflower starfish, which is a Hansi Singh pattern and featured in her book Amigurumi Knits. I absolutely love the vibrant color combination, the way how the knitting direction of the arms contrasts with the stitch direction of the body, and everything else about this fun and fast (if you don't hibernate it for weeks) project. I was really surprised at the decorative effect the whip stitch gave the bottom of the arms as well.

Another project that hibernated for weeks and got finished Thursday night is the jelly-fish. It is a modification of Hansi Singh's Pattern. The purple tentacles and navy-blue strings are 100% Hansi Singh while the body is a heavily modified version. The whole point was to make the body as "boxy" as possible. I am still not sure if it is square enough but this is what I got. I could make another one that is more box-like but at this point I really don't feel like making another one. Maybe at some point in the future...

Have you ever wondered how to knit a Giant Clam? Well, me neither. And according to my extensive internet pattern search not many people do in general. So I was on my own. To make matters more difficult I had strict requirements for this knit: You have to be able to open and close it. It needed to be as big as possible. There needed to be a pearl in the middle. I started out casting on with two strings of yarn and then separated the loops into two rows (which gave me a nice strong and indestructible joint for the upper and lower shell). Then I knitted a very basic shape in a rib pattern and ended in an i-cord cast off. (I can write up my pattern if you are interested). I picked up some stitches on the inside outer edge of each shell piece and knitted the inside in a great gray. It changes from light to dark gray which gave the inside a really interesting spiral-like pattern. Then I knitted a little ball in white and attached it to the middle of one side. It is not perfect, of course, and I may experiment with shaping the outside shell with short rows... I think I know how this would theoretically work... But I am sure the 8-year old in question will be just fine with this very basic version of a giant clam.

Now all that needs to be done is the wrapping... and we will hopefully have a very happy 8-year-old.