This was one of those things where you Google an image, stare at it intensely, gather yarn, and let your instinct take over. My friend used to have the code name of KSB, which stood for “Kitties, Sparkles, and Brony!” As you may have gathered, she liked cats, glitter (eew), and My Little Pony. However, that was only a phase. I have since experienced many of her phases- the Dr. Who phase, the troll phase, the YouTube phase, the demon-weasel-scarf phase, and the Minecraft phase, to name a few. Right now she is in the middle of her Pokemon phase, so I shall simply save time and change her code name to “All the Phases.”
All the Phases’s favorite Pokemon is Altaria, a cloud with a head and tail. I decided to knit her an Altaria as a late Christmas present, even though there are no Altaria patterns. There was a cloud pattern, however, and I thought that could help me a bit, but the person had removed their blog with the pattern on it. (This whole thing of removing blogs and deleting patterns but still keeping the pattern page on Ravelry is quickly becoming one of my pet peeves. Please, please just remove your pattern page. It is really annoying to be let down like that.)
Since SOMEBODY led me on with the false promise of help, I had pretty much no idea how to make a cloud, but I figured that random increases and decreases would produce a lumpy, “fleecy cloud” effect. Also, I was holding the Yarn Bee Cameo double, so no one would be able to see anything anyways. I could have dropped stitches or twisted stitches or made a Celtic-cabled Altaria, and no one would have been any the wiser. So I just had at it, and increased steadily while throwing in random decreases to counteract some increases but not all, since I wanted it to grow. The supposed “wing” became very round, and turned into a bum. Then I did some crazy stuff that involved dividing the stitches in half, casting on across gaps like a thumb gusset, and turning heels. This resulted in two fluffy wings. Then I held the blue yarn double to make the tail, head, and feet, bummed some embroidery thread off my mom (she organizes it by NUMBERED COLOR in a fishing tackle box-looking thing), and created a face. The eyes follow you.
I am very, very proud of my labor. It gives me a certain thrill to check off the box that says, “Pattern not available-I designed this myself.” It gives me an even larger thrill to imagine my dear friend receiving her gift. But this bird’s face!! The eyes- they stare into your soul. At first, the idea of keeping it in my room while I slept scared me. I do not find the appeal in these manga creatures’ large, staring eyes.

Special thanks goes to redsocksrules for her gift of the Cascade Pacific! Without her, the Altaria would be headless (which is almost as scary as it is with its head).