Untangling Knots

Moby Dick, Chapter 93

I had a creative assignment for my Herman Melville class. We had to creatively interpret a scene or theme from Moby Dick. I didn’t have enough time to knit something, but that wasn’t going to stop me from doing something crafty! Inspired by Checkout Girl, I made these companion applique pieces

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I chose the scene where Pip gets knocked out of a whaling boat and left behind while the others pursue the whales. There are some academic explanations for why I picked this scene and laid it out on two hoops, but I’ll spare you because I need to write it in essay form later tonight.

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Here’s Pip. I did this hoop first so I had a few struggles. Luckily I was working with fairly thick 100% wool felt so I could use some discrete needle felting to touch up on small details like Pip’s thumbs.

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I’m really happy with the whaling boat. I drew it out on Illustrator and then printed it to use as a pattern to cut my felt. I embroidered the details. It’s not too shabby for my first real attempts at applique and embroidery

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16 responses to “Moby Dick, Chapter 93”

  1. Psycheknits

    What a neat idea! My roommate is also reading Moby Dick for a class.. odd coincidence

    Reply
  2. Audry

    That is a really cool project! Wool felt is a little hard to come by. Where did you find it?

    Reply
    1. Andi

      It was at my local craft store, Artco, with the needle felting materials. I actually wanted to go cheap and get synthetic felt but I couldn’t figure out where they were hiding it!

      Reply
  3. Donna

    That is awesome!! And kudos to the teacher for assigning something creative.

    Reply
  4. Jules

    That’s so cool!

    Reply
  5. Casey

    you did a great job! Good luck with your essay 🙂

    Reply
  6. Vanessa

    That is awesome! We didn’t get to do anything cool like that in my Moby Dick class but I did do a presentation on minority pirates. I wanted to do a whole thing about scrimshaw but the professor turned that idea down.

    Reply
  7. Erin Kate

    Awe, I love it! What an awesome idea & execution. 🙂

    Reply
  8. Misiula

    I love this, Andi! This is such a fabulous response to the novel! You’ve made me want to design a craft assignment for the class I’m teaching in the fall!

    Reply
    1. Andi

      This is the second time I’ve had a creative project for a Lit class. My initial reaction is always, “Whyyyy???” but once I actually get started I realize that it’s a great exercise in close reading and analysis of structure if you do it right. I love seeing what everyone else does. One guy in my class made a clear whale sculpture because of the whale in the novel is actually empty of meaning and the readers and the characters project meaning onto it. Another guy wrote a song that went with the themes of the novel. It’s pretty fun.

      Reply
      1. Misiula

        Those are all very impressive projects. Wow!

        Reply
  9. Nicole

    These are incredible!

    Reply
  10. Lesley

    What a fun project! This is right up your alley.

    Reply
  11. Jacey

    Very cool! You did an amazing job with the assignment, and I can’t believe it’s your first time with applique!

    Reply
  12. Anna

    Hee, that’s awesome!

    Reply
  13. Katya

    Ahhhh!! This is so cool! I wrote about Moby Dick for my graduate school applications and ever since I seem to be picking up whale novelty buttons and fabric…

    Reply

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