But York Unleashed fueled this desire further. And I began to wonder what I could do for 2016...
It was hard to decide what to do, but I love dragons so I don't know why it took me so long. It was a little general and of no particular show, just a love of fantasy and costume in a welcoming and accepting environment.
Oh and I would make it out of crochet.
Well, at least it would be unique, thought I, now where do I start?
A bit of tape, some wire and a baseball cap. Oh and some cheap wool. I hadn't decided on a colour for my crochet dragon head, but the bargin bin solved that.
And a shape was born.
Then I made a beanie hat.
Now I needed to work on the detail.
I had to learn a new stitch called crocodile stitch, which really did my head in for a while, but once I got the hang of it, it looked ace, like dragon scales.
I started on the spine/tail next. A tube of pipe lagging covered in more crochet all the way down to my toes. It took a while, and more wool than I expected but as my dragon was going to be a mishmash of colours that didn't matter so much.
And every dragon needs a belly to store fire in. I used a large mandala pattern I found shared by Moogly from Lion Brand lion brand archives
And with a sinking feeling I realised my wings needed more than struts and I had to find a way to fix them onto my top so they could sit closed so I didn't poke anyones eye out while I walked around.
This was a very freehand sort of crochet and worked very well for wing membranes.
On the morning of the comic con I was still crocheting triangles for my spine scales, another amigurumi increasing half circle flattened and sewn together at the open end. But I never had time to put it all together and see what I looked like until I got round to my sisters an hour before.
Think it worked.
And to prove I really walked around in this costume, a couple of photos from the York Unleashed site that other people took of me. (If I have put photos up here and I do not have permission, please let me know and I will take them down.)
Amy Oatway took a couple of amazing ones. amyoatway photography Thank you.
And now, my dragon stretches out on the back of the sofa, while I rack my brains for what I could possibly think of doing for next year...
Any one?