Monday, April 9, 2007

Crab torus

Continuing with the torus-shaped toys, I think a crab would be a nice shape to make.
I'll make the main body to the usual torus pattern, then add on eight legs, two pincers, and two stalks for eyes.
The legs need to have 'knee' joints(do crabs have knees?) which bend at various different angles, the back ones bending quite far back, the front ones point a little forwards.
The claws... I was thinking about adding little pockets you could put your fingers in and move the claws, but I think each claw will have to be just one piece - I couldn't come up with a good way to make them in two pieces that would work once it's stuffed. Stuffing doesn't seem to agree with concavity.
The eyes - anatomical controversy here: I'm convinced crabs eyes are on little stalks, but I couldn't find any pictures that made them look that way. On the other hand, when I tried drawing little designs, the ones with eye-stalks just look *right*. I'm assuming for now that their eyes are on stalks, but because the shell is on the outside they don't stick out much.
To make these, I'll knit some little balls and put google eyes on them. The stalks will be supported with my newest experimental thingy, curtain wire. I'm hoping this'll be more durable, less prone to poking, and more child-friendly than the pipe cleaners I've been using up til now.

I'll try to update this with a diagram to illustrate all this once I draw one. I was going to add a photo of the diagram I'm working from, but it's really shockingly bad. I mean *shockingly*.

Hugh.

1 comment:

Yi Knits said...

Here's a picture of a crab with sticky out eyes...i think it depends on the species...

http://www.flickr.com/photos/boxley/69354849/

and yes, i've eaten many a crab and from what i can see at...

http://www.disease-watch.com/documents/CD/index/images/crab-anatomy.gif

...a stereotypical crab has up to 4 segments and therefore 3 joints per leg :) alternatively you can make the crab with a head and big bulgy eyes like they portrayed in Disney's Little Mermaid.^^