My Wonderland of Toothless Considerations

“There is no use trying,” said Alice. “One can’t believe impossible things.” “I daresay you haven’t had much practice,” said the Queen. “When I was your age, I always did it for half an hour a day. Why, sometimes I’ve believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast.” — Lewis Carroll

The hat bases for the Toothless the Dragon hats are finished. I'm just making tie strings for the earflaps, and then I can start putting the features on them before I line the insides with fabric. They look a little floppy at the moment, but the lining will make them more robust. So far, so good.

It's easy to psyche yourself out when you're making something without a pattern. I started out fairly confident that I could make these, then that confidence wavered a bit as I thought about what this character actually looks like. He's got four horns... does he? Or are two of those ears? What about those things on the sides of his face? Should I make those, too? And are his eyes yellow or green or... what?

In my (rare) idle moments, I've been flipping through my Amigurumi Knits book for inspiration on how to make these things look more like Toothless and less like... well, anything else. I'm torn between using the ears from the Jackelope (and turning them backwards) or the flippers from The Loch Ness Monster (and making them longer) for the "ears" of the dragon. And what kind of yarn for the eyes? I have plenty of yellow yarn from making this sweater, but it's more of a mustard yellow. Will that work?

It's these considerations that give me great pleasure. How will I make those eyes? Will I give him slitted eyes like a cat? Should I make the lining in flannel or polar fleece? Should I hand-stitch it in, or should I try my hand at machine-stitching it? There's nothing that I enjoy more than falling asleep while thinking of what I'm going to make next, or how I'm going to solve another yarn problem. Impossibilities don't have to be negative things.

The great geniuses in history (including the person whose company designed my laptop and who passed away yesterday) were ones that did just as The Queen did in Alice in Wonderland. They dreamed in impossibilities. You could call it mental exercise or brain gym... but I call it escapism, and a wonderful place to be.

Welcome to my Wonderland.