THE FLINTSTONES

Whoever thought there would be a need for something to be knitted for The Flintstones movie?  I don't remember seeing anyone knitting back in the Prehistoric Age.  Not that I was there.  All they wore was fur.  

The costume designer on this film was very creative and asked me what I thought I could knit that would look like fur. 

This was years ago, before there was such a thing as fur yarn, so it was quite a challenge.  After lots of experiments we found something that worked very well.  We used 2 colors of Peluche yarn from Silk City Fibers, one light, one dark, from which we made an irregular leopard like spotted pattern.  Peluche is fuzzy and soft so when it was knitted up it really did look like fur. 

We made tunics for Fred and Barney.  After they were dyed and washed and scrubbed and brushed they looked like the real thing. 

That's Show business!

 

 

UNDERDOG

Underdog to the rescue! 

Usually when I go to a meeting to talk about a project I'm shown photos of the star(s) for whom I'm to make knits.  When I went to my first meeting on this project the designer showed me pictures of a dog. 

They'd need a red sweater with an off white letter "U" on the front.  The red had to be a very particular red, not just any red.  It couldn't have too much blue in it, nor could it have too much orange in it.   And, it would  be many sweaters because of all the flying the dog would be doing. 

I got busy researching yarn.  My first choice was Softball Cotton  from Silk City Fibers, but it was too thick.  Then I tried  Perle Cotton from the same company, but that was too thin.  At last I tried Cotton Fine, a Cotton/Wool Blend from Brown Sheep, and that was just right.

I was given a sweater that supposedly fit the dog, and we went to work.

One of the photos shows the dog at his "fitting" wearing the first Softball Cotton sweater made to the measurements I was given.  The lines on the photo show where the changes had to be made for the correct fit after the yarn was changed.

After the corrections the sweater we made was approved and we were good to go on the rest of them. 

Most of the sweaters had to have an opening down the back, where they would put the wires that the dog was attached to, for the "flying" scenes.   In all, there were about 30 sweaters made for the dog and a few matching sweaters for the dog's owner to wear.

That's Show business!