Otaku Crafting: An Introduction

A picture of a Granny Rectangle Scarf; pattern here. One of the projects I want to tackle soon.

Define Otaku: "people with obsessive interests, particularly anime, manga, and video games"

Define Crafter: "someone who participates in a particular handicraft, either as a hobby or as a small business"

Some might say, the entire crafting community worldwide is vast and large and undeniably otaku in the "obsessive interests" sense of the word. Fannish arts and crafts are nothing really new. People build models of Gundams and Daleks and Enterprises and the Millennium Falcon - homebrew or not. People sew and knit and crochet and generally create costumes, accessories, plush toys, and all sorts of things associated with their fandoms of choice, all the way up to entire cosplay get-ups and styles. People create doll clothes and accessories for whatever they have: fashion dolls, BJDs, or what-have-you. There are all the fantastic steampunk crafters with their amazing interpretations of such items as watches, coats, goggles, and weaponry.

I guess I'm posting because I really want to join that entire community of otaku crafters. I've already bookmarked no less than two crochet patterns for Jayne Cobb's "cunning" hat (fandom: Firefly/Serenity), and want to learn how to make amigurumi, those uber-cute knitted or crocheted stuffed toys.


R2-D2 in crochet! Credit to jillvedge, posted here

I suppose I could even extend the whole crochet-stuff-for-real-people thing to dolls, i.e. taking a pattern for a human-sized scarf or poncho and reworking it in a smaller size and with finer thread for use by dolls.

That's going to be one of the hot topics on this blog soon. I hope you can stick around for it, and join me as I make my way through the inevitable mishaps and successes, the hunt for thread and yarn, and the hits and the misses alike.