I blame the Yarn Harlot

The wonderful Yarn Harlot was recently in my old home town of London, adding to my high regard for her by writing about the place so well that it made me proud to have lived there and also very homesick.

On top of that, she showed a knitted Dalek that someone had brought to her talk at Lindley Hall and I just had to make it. My friend Katie, who despite 1.) living in London, 2.) being a knitter (currently not so much, but she claims she'll re-start) and 3.) having my serious suggestion she go to the talk, completely missed the opportunity. She redeemed herself by tracking down the pattern in record time.

Naturally, Exterminknit is on ravelry too, so I could look at what colours other people had used. For me, the classic is red with black spots. I remember them as being the ranks. Black with gold was the chief. Clearly, there is a whole sub-culture of Dalek denominations that even I am not quite sad enough to spend too much time exploring online.

The Dalek fits one of my requirements for day-to-day knitting projects in that is is easily portable. Sadly, it has too many parts where a little attention is required, making it harder to fit in a quick row while waiting at the doctor's office, or while reading on a train. Bobbles, colour changes, ribbing with colour changes - it all takes time and occasionally glancing at the work.

The whole thing took less than a week, although that included a weekend where very little else but knitting got done. At the very least, it made 'Im Indoors laugh like anything, and that's always good.