I’m guessing at the yardage for this guy. His undercarriage, so to speak, is similar to the construction of Matie Trewe’s giant squid hat. Cobalt is constructed of a bottom piece, on which his eight (wait, is it eight?) longer tentacles were picked up and knit down (my daughter and I spent a good long while looking at pictures of Daleks in and out of casings Doctor Who stills online to guesstimate their relative sizes, then at people next to cases so we could estimate a Dalek’s “true” tentacle length as compared to our body sizes based on the real heights of the various Doctors). A second body piece was made, on which the upper, graduated tentacles were knit, and the two pieces put together and stuffed. Then tons and tons and tons of plain, unbleached/unspun wool was needlefelted onto the stuffed body sections, to sort of flesh out (no pun) the basic body/head shape. After that, I built up tons and tons of roving of the same light pink shade as the body (I’ll have to remember what online store it was that carried it - looked everywhere, it seemed, to find roving of the same color as the Valley Yarn), with a deeper rose color used to make the brain channel details. Cobalt’s eye (is it on in this picture? or not yet felted into place?) was crocheted out of silky embroidery thread in white, cobalt blue, and black, then attached to a felted back piece, lightly stuffed for shape, and given a felted/shaped set of eyelids.

He’s a lot firmer than the real thing, for practical purposes (a more compact body is easier to hug a bunch than a spread out, floppy thing)…that is, I mean, he just works out a lot more than most Daleks, so he’s way more buff than you’d expect. My daughter got to load him into a casing at Britcon 2013; we were pretty pleased by how well his body size (length-wise) fit. I can’t say I’m sorry that he doesn’t have the usual flabby, flaccid, slack, disgusting Dalek body.

I’d like to say it’s borderline creepy how much time she spends with this guy, but if I was being honest I’d probably have to admit that it’s past the borderline and straight into “I think you have a problem” territory.

Here’s the super rough recipe: I used a heavy worsted and needles that are well undersized so that the finished fabric is firm enough not to have gaps in it when stuffed. Start with any basic roll-brim hat pattern (in the round, all knit, nothing fancy). If you want the hat to be flatter (not such a high crown) and less round, use short rows across one side (while continuing to increase). Decide on a final number of stitches based on gauge and how big you want your Dalek to be. I used short rows along opposite sides so that I’d have more of an oval shape. When the piece is as big and shaped as you wanted it to be (there’s no wrong way to do it; hold your “hat” in the shape of an oval to give yourself an idea how big around your Dalek’s belly will be when closed off); keep going if it seems like it might be too small when closed and stuff.

On the next row, knit across 8 or 9 stitches with either a double pointed needle (you’re going to be in the round from here on) or using magic loop, and put the rest of the live stitches onto waste yarn; if you’re using magic loop, pull the needle all the way through so that the stitches are on the needle on the other end of your cable. Turn the work to the wrong side. Pull the needle the stitches were just on around so that is parallel with the one now holding the stitches, with both needles pointing in the same direction, to your left. Use a crochet hook to reach under and through the pearl bump of the stitch all the way to your right; pull a stitch through, leaving original one on the back needle, and place the new stitch on the front (empty) needle; you now have two stitches coming out of one. Keep working toward the left, pulling one stitch through the pearl bump of the remaining stitches on the back needle, always leaving the original stitch on the back needle. You will double your number of stitches and begin with what is in essence a toe-up type of sock beginning. Start knitting in the round. Every 4-5 inches, stop and push some stuffing into the leg, being careful not to over stuff. When the leg is about 3.5 feet long, begin casting off. On your first needle: K1, K2tog, K to end. On the second needle: K to 3 stitches from the end, SSK, K1. Knit anywhere from 3-6 rows, depending on how long your want your taper to be. Keep decreasing until you have four stitches left; knit one or two rows then cut your yarn and pull it through the remaining stitches to close. Do this 8 times to create 8 tentacles; the front center is, obviously, in the middle of the 8.

Knit a bottom piece in stockinette to close off the “undercarriage”. Cast on 6-10 stitches and begin knitting in stockinette, using increases, rows, and then decreases to shape something like a big flat egg; stitch it on most of the way, using mattress stitch so that the edges of the undercarriage and bottom get pulled to the inside as you stitch. Stuff the undercarriage, and close the opening; do not over stuff or your Dalek will look pregnant.

Make a second piece that is smaller around than the first. This time, make 8 tentacles that are shortest in the front pair, and increase in length as they move down each side of the body. The longest one should be about 18”. When you are done, place this second “hat” on top of the first so that you like the way the tentacles look hanging over the bottom 8; stitch it on beginning at the front center, stuffing as you go. This one can have more stuffing than the first, since the front center is going to form the “face” where the single eye will go, and the back is going to hold the brainy body (no “belly” to push out like a baby-bump).

Use waste roving or crappy wool - like, say, a large bag of several pounds of washed but not carded llama wool you got at a fiber festival for $5 because it was the last day and they just wanted to get rid of stuff, or uncarded undyed wool that you can buy at a Waldorf store or craft site for stuffing soft toys - to form the basic head shape by needle felting it into place (Waldorf stuffing is AWESOME as a base for needlefelted shapes, since it’s already almost partially felted and takes shape super fast). When you like the basic rounded brain shape, layer over a wool that goes with/blends into whatever you used to knit the body and begin layering it over to completely hide what you used to build the shape.

After you build up enough color that you can’t see the under layers, begin felting certain areas down harder and building up between them, to make what looks like a foldy, wavy surface of a brain. Monkey with it and just do whatever you like. The final step is to take a good shading color - like a darker version of the main color of the brain, to felt into the channels you created, in order to give texture and pattern to the brain. Be free with it; it’ll look awesome in the end no matter what.

Needlefelt some whitish (or whatever) wool into a large almond shape to make the white of a big Dalek eye. Using something like embroidery wool or silk, crochet (using small stitches) a semi-flat circle to make the iris (colored part); needle felt on a black pupil, or crochet one out of black floss and stitch it to the center. Pick an eye color that feels loveable or filled with hate, whatever kind of personality you want your Dalek to be. Stitch the pupil down to the white of the eye with the same color as the iris, stuffing it very very lightly. Use the body wool to felt a lid over the top of the iris and up over the bottom a bit, giving it a nice rounded lid shape. Edge the lighter color with a thin line of the darker wool to make the edge look like the inner eye. It’s a Dalek!!