Oh man, did these ever take forever for me to finish. According to my Ravelry records, I’ve only been working on them since mid-April, but it feels much longer.
But without further ado:
Fish to sushi, a clever pattern from Irene Kiss, AKA Irka. She also has a chicken-to-egg pattern and a rags-to-ballgown Cinderella pattern. The post is in Spanish but there is a link to an English pdf at the top.
I just had difficulty, unrelated to the complexity of the pattern. The first sushi rolls I made were too tight, so I remade them in a soft acrylic instead of cotton. Then I apparently miscounted drastically on one of the seaweed wraps, because when I went to sew the rice on it was way too short. I decided it was easier to start over on that one (and I’d only sewn the solid rice side onto it, the easier one to redo).
I did have trouble with the fin and tail patterns, and ended up designing my own instead.
Then, of course, there was all the sewing. So much sewing! Four fins and two eyes per fish, all the way around twice plus the seaweed seam per sushi roll, and finally sewing the roll to the fish. I don’t think you could achieve the same effect without all the sewing, but I have trouble forcing myself to sit down and just do it.
A note of advice to anyone who wants to make this pattern: crochet loosely. Go up a hook size from what you would usually use on the yarn at hand (actually, lately I use an E hook with worsted weight, and used an F with this – and I wish I’d used a G or H). Nothing has to be stuffed, and looser, more flexible fabric will make the transformation much easier. Mine are kind of hard to stuff back and forth, though I’m hoping they will ease up with use.
