On the go #15: Kpop Demon Hunters Edition
My creative outbursts are currently completely devoted to Kpop Demon Hunters.
My nieces and nephews have been in the thrall of this Netflix film for a while now, and yes, thanks to them, I also ended up on the sofa on a summery Saturday evening to watch the film.
I must admit that I completely understand the hype. The film was super fun and the songs so catchy that they still regularly pop into my head. Ridiculous how well the whole film is put together.
That hyperfixation of my nieces… okay, okay, (busted!) my hyperfixation 😅 … makes me really want to create those characters in one way or another. My head is buzzing with ideas: dolls, keychains, bags, cuddly toys… and Instagram and Pinterest keep overwhelming me with people who have already made loads of beautiful fan creations.
Of course, I’ve already shown my nieces various ideas, just to gauge their reactions. The result? Naturally, I want to do far too much all at once. And as always, I have to steer myself to focus on one thing at a time if I want it to become more than just collecting ideas.
First focus project
The first idea I’ve actually started working on is a jumper inspired by the girl group Huntrix. While browsing ideas and merchandise for the film, we came across this purple hoodie with the Huntrix logo. When I said that I thought I could knit a jumper with such a logo on it, this was met with a resounding “yessss!”. My brain immediately sprang into action and generated different options and variations.
My original plan was quite simple: knit a basic raglan jumper and then embroider the logo on it with duplicate stitch. Similar to what I did at the time with the dinosaur jumpers. But this time with a different base model of jumper, just to keep it interesting.
While waiting to find the perfect pattern, I started tinkering in Excel to turn the logo into a pixel design. I tried different versions: the symbol on its own, the symbol with the capital H, and even the full group name in the recognisable font. As much fun as I found this tinkering and generating, I soon realised that it actually led nowhere. It made no sense to generate a pixel pattern for the logo if I didn’t yet know what my canvas (a.k.a. the jumper) would look like (for instance, how many stitches wide and high).
So I shifted my focus to finding a knitting pattern for the perfect basic jumper. Eventually, I found the Youth Fern Cropped Sweater by Amanda Morse.
It was mainly the pretty lace details at the shoulder increases that caught my attention. That was something different from the usual straight lines in the standard raglan, which would make the knitting a bit more exciting. I went through the pattern and also dived into the notes of other makers on Ravelry.
As for the colour, it was clear from the start that the base colour would be purple. Not only was this the colour of the hoodie that sparked the inspiration, but it is also the colour I associate with Rumi, which happens to be the favourite character of the niece for whom I’m making this jumper. Since my yarn stash remains enormous, I really wanted to try making the jumper without buying new yarn, and so I finally settled on a darker mauve shade (specifically “Grape” in Stylecraft Special DK).
From calculations to brainstorming
While going through the notes other people had made for this pattern, I read that the neckline comes out narrower than in the photos. That’s why I decided to adjust the pattern. By casting on more stitches at the start and doing fewer raglan increases along the way, I hoped to get the right size. So Excel was brought back out to process these adjustments, so that I wouldn’t have to think too much while knitting. Once everything was calculated with my gauge, I was ready to cast on!
Thanks to all my preparatory work, the knitting went fairly smoothly and almost brainlessly. Ideal for my mind to be busy spewing new ideas at the same time.
“That raglan detail is actually quite nice.”
“That yarn really looks like Rumi’s braid.”
“With a bit of imagination, you can kind of see a braid in the lace holes.”
“How cool would it be if that raglan wasn’t lacework but a kind of cable? That would really look like a braid!”
Instead of continuing knitting, I switched back to research mode. After a few hours, I ended up with the Cherry Cuddler by DROPS design. Exactly what I had in mind! The front still had a nice blank canvas for the logo, but even without the logo the jumper, thanks to the colour and the cables, would already refer to Rumi.
But my head wasn’t done buzzing yet. Okay, yes, the front had to stay in simple stocking stitch for the logo, but the back didn’t. What if I added a motif down the centre of the back that made it look as if Rumi’s braid literally fell down the wearer’s back? How cool would that be?
I immediately thought of the central motif I knitted long ago for my Snow Tracks jumper, but that motif would be just a bit too wide in terms of stitches for a child’s jumper. So I searched for a similar but narrower motif. I think I could have distilled a narrower motif based on the one from my pink jumper, but luck was on my side, because in one of the projects for the Cherry Cuddler on Ravelry I saw that someone had used the cascading leaves motif, which is EXACTLY what I wanted. It feels as if it was meant to be!
One last hurdle
While making a new Excel sheet to work out this new jumper idea, my mind also kept circling back to the neckline.
The yoke of raglan jumpers is simple in construction, essentially a doughnut shape, from which the four parts (the two sleeves and the front and back) of the jumper are formed. This means the neckline is also identical front and back, whereas normally a front neckline needs to be a bit deeper so that it doesn’t sit too tightly. In principle, if you make the neckline wide enough it will never feel too tight, but you might still get that choking sensation at your throat.
I’ve already knitted a few patterns where this is solved with the help of short rows at the back. The first that comes to mind is the Bulle, which I’ve knitted several times. That dress, however, starts as a back-and-forth pattern, with the back closed off with a button. But further research showed me that this technique can also be done in a pattern knitted entirely in the round. So now I’m actually considering trying this in this project, but for that I’ll have to go back to the drawing board and recalculate my pattern. And that’s the stage I’m at now.
And what about the Youth Fern Sweater that I’ve already started? That one is now on a holding thread, waiting for my verdict: either I just keep knitting it and use a different yarn and colour for my new idea, but honestly, I find the colour too perfect for the braid jumper to seriously consider that. Or I unravel the knitting entirely or partly and start again with the Cherry Cuddler variant, which is currently my preference.
To be continued…
And voilà, that’s my thought process over the past few weeks. The other Kpop Demon Hunters ideas (dolls, keychains, bags) will no doubt come eventually as well. But for now, I’m completely absorbed in the process of making the ultimate Huntrix/Rumi jumper!
Cheers,
Charlotte
