Meet Droddy Pype, the narrator of A Stitch in Rhyme. His name is based on two Welsh words: adroddwr means “narrator” and pyped means “puppet”. A few short steps led me to Droddy Pype, literally your narrator puppet. (Q: Why Welsh? A: I like the sound of it.)

It’s been said that Droddy looks like me. I can’t lie, he does. A bit.

Here he is in a couple more pictures.

His body is made in six parts—head, torso, arms, and legs, are all made separately using an amigurumi crochet style worked in a spiral and then sewn together. His hair, beard, facial features, and clothes are also all made separately.

I plan to make more clothes for him in the future so he’s not always dressed the same. (But I haven’t had time…yet.)

Head and Face

Hair

Hair takes a lot of time, but it’s a huge component of a character so I like to make sure I get it right.

Droddy’s is something of a cross between a head of cropped curly hair and an orange cauliflower:

His hair is a single-crochet spiral bowl with additional spikes spaced every so often to give him his curly-headed look. Once his hair was done, I whip stitched it to his head.

Beard

His beard uses a very similar stitch, just in a tighter, more tubular shape:

He looks almost like he’s breathing fire. (But no, that’s just his scorching wit.)

Face

Character faces are fairly complicated and my process for making faces continues to evolve, so I plan to write a later post about how I make faces. For now, I’ll tell you each part is crocheted separately and sewn in place.

Clothes

Coat

Droddy’s coat evokes a jester’s motley, with its alternating colored panels that are mirrored opposites of each other across the centerline of his body:

I paid special attention to his sleeves. I wanted him to have an extra splash of color and comical style, so I gave each a row of puff stitches in the opposite color of the sleeve itself:

A plain edge would never do, so his collar and cuffs sport a row of picot loops, again in the opposite color of the base fabric:

His coat is separate from his body, but once I dressed him in it I sewed him in, so he rarely gets to take it off. (It’s okay, he doesn’t sweat.)

Pants

I at first intended his pants to match the colors of his coat, but when it came time to make them I didn’t like it (it looked too much like pajamas). So I made him stylish black and burgundy pants with burgundy piping and picot cuffs:

Note his fancy belt buckle!

Truth be told, for the first few months of the project he never came out of his booth because I’d never bothered to make pants for him. (Shocking, I know!)

I hope you’ve enjoyed this closer look at what went into creating Droddy Pype. Want to see him in action? Check out the ongoing graphic novel he’s narrating.

More spotlights on other characters coming soon!