Character Name: Declan Buchanan
Fandom: Realms of Peril & Glory, Liminal London campaigns [Podcast]
Played By: Pip Gladwin
Yarn Used:
Hair: CraftSmart Value - Taupe
Skin: CraftSmart Value - Mushroom
Antlers: CraftSmart Value - Coffee
Shirt: CraftSmart Value - Grey Ombre
Trousers/Soles: CraftSmart Value - Wine
Shoes/Belt: CraftSmart Value - Dark Chocolate
Basic pattern here.
Everybody’s favorite pathetic wet cat of a man depressed alcoholic fae-cursed private investigator! While I was frantically crocheting Monty to get him ready in time to hug him when he really needed it, I was not expecting Declan to need the hugs more. Damn the shiny math rocks, but holy hell, what a way to play that. Anyway, before Series 5 drops and we find out who’s going to destroy this man first, Zack or Pip, I wanted to get him done. (And I did - with a whole four days to spare! Go me!) He varies from the basic pattern as follows:
Shoes: Hey, I remembered the different colored soles again! Declan is described as tall and thin, so like with Mini, I did another round of decrease at R7 of both shoes (sc in first 7 st, inv dec 3 times, sc in next 2 sts, join) to make his legs twelve stitches around. I then did R8 as straight stitching with the shoe color before I switched to the trousers. (The other thing I did, which I should have been doing long ago, was the round before I changed color, I did the sl st to join in the color of the next row.)
Trousers: Again, tall, thin Declan. Mostly I worked his legs the same as usual, just in rounds of twelve instead of fifteen, but I also made them longer, so they went from R9 (the hdc row for hem) to R34 before I joined them together. I only used a chain of three to connect his legs, too, giving his waist a circumference of 30 stitches as opposed to the usual 38. For the belt, I went five rows above the…well…groin, switched to the belt color, and did a round of fpdc around the round two below like I did with the hem of Joseph’s hoodie. Then I switched back to the trousers color and did a round of sc in the back loop of the fpdc and front loop of the last round of trousers. For the belt loops, every four or five stitches I inserted the hook into the row below the belt, drew up a loop, and then pulled the next stitch through both that loop and the loop already on the hook. (I was kind of pleased with that, actually.)
Shirt: Hey, kids, know what the difference between variegated, self-striping, and ombre is? Ombres go FOR-FUCKING-EVER before they change color! (: Oh, well, it worked out, I guess. I didn’t really vary him all that much here except that I just went straight up with rounds of 30 (and also made his torso a bit longer) before decreasing at the shoulders.
Head: I frogged it. Several times, actually. I wasn’t happy with my stitches and I definitely wasn’t happy with my initial color choices and I also did what I consider the worst attempt at “a sort of perpetual five o’clock shadow” in the history of crochet...
...and the second time I accidentally added an extra round of increases and several extra rounds in between the increases and decreases - as I put it in the official Realms of Peril & Glory Discord, “He head too big for he got damn he” (remember this meme, guys?)...
...but eventually I got it right. I added one (1) extra round between increase and decrease in the final version as well to give him a slightly longer face, and I think it worked. For the five o’clock shadow, I just used the hair color for part of his face in a pattern that looked and felt right to me, leaving space for the mouth. Once again, I used safety eyes; the pack I bought has basically clear eyes and a bunch of discs you can put behind them to customize the colors, so I decided to give him pink eyes like they’re bloodshot.
Hair: I tried a new technique here. For each stitch beyond the hairline, I did a two-strand puff stitch (insert hook in next st, yo, draw up loop, yo, insert hook in same st, yo, draw up loop, yo, draw through all loops on hook), and I really like the effect!
Arms: There was just enough of the next color in the ombre to make it almost all the way up both arms and I’m trying not to be annoyed about it. Anyway, I started his arms on a base of four sc instead of five, then otherwise proceeded the same way I did for Joseph and Monty’s except that I made them longer (29 rounds total, I believe).
Antlers: I can’t share the exact pattern here because it’s copyrighted, but I used the pattern for jackalope antlers in Crochet Creatures of Myth and Legend by Megan Lapp (and if you click that link, check out her other patterns - they look AMAZING and if I wasn’t already approaching PELE I would be buying some of those). Declan usually grinds them off as soon as he wakes up, so this is just-woke-up-from-a-nap-and-can’t-find-his-angle-grinder-yet Deccy Boi.