As you may already know, my husband really likes robots.1 We have quite a few that share our house, but they are of the 3D-printing kind rather than the anthropomorphic kind one may tend to think of when hearing the word “robot.”2
I came across this book, Crobots: 20 Amigurumi Robots to Make by Nelly Pailloux, and immediately bought it, just knowing that my husband so obviously “needed” a more traditional, human-looking robot. He could put it on his desk, or it could hang out with our other robots. My husband looked through the book and picked the “Babybot” for me to make for him.
The crocheting didn’t take long; it’s a small robot,3 only 5.25″ tall when finished. But the finishing work is extensive for such a diminutive item: there are 6 pieces for the head, 4 pieces for the body, and the 2 arms and 2 legs. Then there’s the embroidery work, on both the face (13 details) and body (4 details).4
I’m embarrassed to admit that it was well over a year ago that I completed the crocheting part. Sometime between then and now I did start the embroidery, but I didn’t get past the four French knots on the face. Pitiful, I know.
I finally resolved to finish this adorable little guy, and to keep the task manageable, I just did a little bit each day over the course of a week. And I let go of it having to be perfect and instead settled for it being cute, and done.
The Babybot’s head is a little crooked, the control panel on the body doesn’t look square, and its legs aren’t even, but does it really matter? I could have spent yet more time resewing and fixing these imperfections, but I chose to accept and embrace these flaws as a testament to the fact that it was handmade, and so that I could finally say I was done and give it to my husband, who is the least-honored but most-deserving recipient of my knitting and crocheting endeavors.
- More accurately, he really likes what robots can do and make. [↩]
- Like Rosie from The Jetsons or those in the movie I, Robot. [↩]
- As its name would imply. [↩]
- Don’t be put off though by how very time-consuming the finishing work is; the completed robot is ridiculously cute and worth the effort. Just look at how the Babybot seems to be smiling in the bottom photo! [↩]