35 slugs (16 per colour, plus 1 backup in each colour, plus 1 green prototype) in this project. 84 magnets used (2 per slug for 34 slugs, plus 1 per hat for 16 hats).

chessboard: double knit & felted in brown & ivory.
checkers: 16 green slugs & 16 black slugs. stack slug on top of each other to indicate king pieces.
chess: add hats to checker pieces for rook, knight, bishop, queen & king.

photos by my super awesome friend, furrricane. I LOVE the pictures!

time estimate:
35 slugs x 1.5 hours
1 board x ~ 60 hours
16 hats x 0.75 hours
finishing x 5 hours
~= 129.5 hours

26june2012
this project won first place in the “anything but a sweater concept knitting” category at the Kitchener-Waterloo Knitters Guild 2012 adjudicated show. adjudicator Fiona Ellis commented:

“AMAZING. Adorable. And the execution of it is just… Oh my goodness. Oh my gosh, that’s so brilliant. It’s just so appealing, I want to take it all home. Is it published? It would make amazing note cards, photographed. Oh, I just want to play. These are just too much fun.”

see all the talent in the guild here!

8may2012
all the hats are done. may redo the crowns at some point, and may redo the rooks so the slugs stand on them instead of having them on the head. not sure yet. the knight helmets looks awesome and I used another technique I learned from Lucy Neatby’s Almost Saintly Knitting class. the magnets stick to the washers on the board, but only very lightly. tried shaving them down a bit and may want to do a bit more.

I used a whisky tin as the container for the pieces. worked out really well as there was just enough room to fit everything (stick the slugs via magnet to the inside walls), and when taking them out you can put the slugs on the outside of the tin so they don’t get lost!

I think I’ve peaked. I will never knit anything this awesome again.

8may2012

finished and felted the board. board is double knitted with metal washers in the pockets. my first double knitting project after taking Lucy Neatby’s class for the bubble scarf! I sealed the bottom of the pockets by crossing the yarn in the colour switching rows. I made a mistake in at least one of the squares and had to cut the yarn so I can fit a metal washer in. fortunately, the cascade was pretty grippy and held. the 2 cascades felted in slightly different way, the brown (heathers) is puffier somehow. tacked down all the washers with crochet cotton and also the side seams to try and make the edges felt more evenly. I love that I can just tuck the ends in the middle bits! worked out really well except the felt is too thick for the magnets to stick well on the washers. may try to shave a bit off. threw the board in the washer on hot once by itself, and then once on cold with a bunch of jeans, and almost no felting happen… then I realized I forgot to rub it with dish soap, so I slathered the board with dish soap generously and threw it in on cold a couple more times. voila! very clean pants and a very felted board. finished board is approximately 18”x18”. forgot to measure the size before felting, but if the swatch didn’t lie, each square was 12stitches x 21 rows, 2.5”x3.25” and felted to 2”x2”. border was 11 rows high, 6 stitches wide, with a thin line that is 2 rows high and 1 stitch wide.

new plan. instead of chess & checker pieces (and having to knit another 8 slugs of each color for the non pawn chess pieces), I have knitted hats for the slugs as identifiers for the chess piece, attachable by magnets. the kings in checkers can be distinguished via a hat or another slug sitting on top. 5 games of checkers was played with this set yesterday!

still need to do 4 knight hats, and felt in a few more eyes & pupils. apparently it is odd to say “they are so cute!!” while stabbing the slugs in the eye with a felting needle..

18apr2012
5 rows & a bit on the board. and found out checkers only need 12 pieces of each colour…

4mar2012

16 greens with11 row body, plus prototype. next size up 15 row body.

20feb2012

using this method to do short rows. I think this is my go to method for short rows now. no pins, no wraps, and looks great. if my shadow ends at the left, I do a k2tog for the 2 stitches. if its ends the right, I do a ssk.

http://www.socktopus.co.uk/2011/02/short-rows-shadow-wraps/

30jan2012

used just under 5g of yarn, less than 2g of stuffing. 10 rows for the body.