Nerd Wars 2!

The second round of the Nerd Wars over on Ravelry began on June first & this my first time ever participating in such an event. I have been blogging some of my contributions to the Guild Wars over at Ravelry's Ankh-Morpork Knitter's Guild (such as Nanny Ogg's Best Hat Tea Cosy, Granny's Frogs, Magrat's Amulets, Granny's Shawl, and Perdita's Shawl) & have had a great time dreaming up Discworld-inspired creations. It's really fueled my creativity. One day, while perusing the forums at the A-MKG, I found a link to something called "Nerd Wars". Life hasn't been the same since... I'm lucky to have found the Nerd Wars between rounds because, although you can jump in & participate as  Ninja Warrior, I am having a lot of fun participating as a member of a team.

To rewind a bit, the Nerd Wars is set up as teams of various nerdy fandoms, like Star Wars or Dr. Who, or video games, and then during the 3 months of the Wars you are presented with 6 challenges every month on various topics like "Giving Geeks" (giving to charity) or Science (making something to illustrate a scientific principle). The topics stay the same throughout the Wars, but the specific challenges change every month, & each challenge must be submitted within the calendar month. Still with me?

There's also another category called "Dissertation" where you can propose a challenge for just you to complete that you think will take you 3 whole months to do. These have to be approved by the mods in that thread. All completed projects are scored, with points going to your team. You get extra points if you can theme your projects to your particular team's fandom, which sometimes requires a lot of creative thinking :) The folks over at Nerd Wars are a lot of fun, & although I don't post as much as some on the forums (I get a bit tongue-tied when posting on forums- sounds weird, but it seems to bring out the worst of my aspie-tendencies) I really enjoy reading the forums, especially the Otaku Lounge & the Photo Dominos threads. I really am in awe of the organiser, Eyeamelise. I can't imagine what it took/takes to put together such an amazing event.

The team I was assigned to (I got my first choice!) is Team 4-Panel, which is dedicated to comics & manga. It may seem that the Star Wars team was a more natural choice (& it was my second choice) but I felt that, due to my present immersion in manga & anime in both Japanese & English (see my left sidebar for more info on this :), I thought I'd find more inspiration on Team 4-Panel.

So far, I have submitted (& had approved) a dissertation & also 2 completed projects. I am really excited about all of my projects because I decided, after talking to my friend Momo in Japan, that I would donate the bulk of my Nerd Wars 2 output to the Touhoku earthquake survivors through Knit for Japan, a charity I found on Ravelry.

For my dissertation I proposed to knit 14 (one for each week of Nerd Wars 2) children's hats to send to Japan for the earthquake survivors. I will theme all of the hats to various manga. Pictured above is my dissertation swatch, which I'm calling the Yotsuba Hat :) Yotsuba is the name of the manga right below the hat, as well as the little girl on the cover. Her name means "4 leaves" & I picked the colour pattern because it reminded me of Yotsuba's hair (green & in 4 ponytails) & name. I made the hat from KnitPick's Swish DK yarn with size 1 & 2 needles, & my own pattern.

This is my contribution to the "Giving Geeks" category, which this month asks us to contribute an item of baby clothing to a hospital or charity. I made an infant cap & mitts set to send to Japan (the challenge asks us to include the package you'll be sending in the picture). The yarn is shibori-dyed Knitpicks bare sock wool that I dipped in indigo. The knitted-up yarn makes me think of a starry sky, which works beautifully with the manga "Twin Spica", about young people training to be astronauts.

And here is Pikachu, whom I made for the scientific challenge on the topic of lightning. My son wanted me to make a Pikachu, so this little Pokemon will hang around with us as a souvenir of the Nerd Wars :) I used the book you see behind him in the picture, which is from Japan & just full of Pokemon-inspired patterns for kids' clothing & toys. I'll be using it again for my dissertation, I'm sure! The Pikachu I made is a mini version, crocheted with KnitPick's Palette fingering weight yarn & a size c/2/2.75mm hook. The pattern has you make his tail & feet from felt but I crocheted them instead. He really looks like he's going to give you a hug, doesn't he?

I'm looking forward to posting my further adventures in Nerd Wars 2 creations. I've got a Naruto-inspired hat for my dissertation started, & I think there's a pair of child's mittens on board next for one of the challenges. Stay tuned...!