Knitted Klingon!

As masquerade photographer, I often get to view a costumer's creations before the convention public, and many of them just blow my mind of the craftsmanship, creativity, and effort that these costumers put into their outfits. It's a little perk, but I enjoy it immensely.

This WesterCon had a motley of spectacular costumes, and I enjoyed every single one of them. However, when someone mixes my two loves -- crafting and science fiction/fantasy -- and bring them together in a grand mash-up of creativity -- well, I just have to stand up and take notice. And this particular masquerade entry just blew my mind as a knitter!

IT'S A KNITTED KLINGON!

Yes, you see that right! It's an entire Klingon outfit that has been knitted head to ankle.

The costumer in question (Shael Hawman) knitted an entire Klingon outfit --- from her cabled hat to mimic the Klingon forehead ridges, to her braided yarn wig, to her simple ribbed dress. This Klingon is dressed head to foot in yarn-y goodness! And her bat'leth was knitted out of yarn over a bat'leth form! (Or at least I think so -- I'm not quite sure how she created her bat'leth.)

This costume was something that I hadn't even conceived of creating, but now that I see the finished object, it is definitely a marvel to behold. She knitted the whole thing out of acrylic yarn -- as she told me it would be much too expensive to knit completely out of wool. Even so, she said was very warm underneath all those knitted garments.

I found out later that she won Best in Show - Workmanship at BayCon2013. So much kudos to Shael on her amazing outfit.

(I'm still working on getting the rest of the Masquerade photos up, but I thought you guys might enjoy a sneak peak.)