Blue Castle

When I read about the yarn contest, the image that came to mind was a castle.  The first thing I did is gather together a pile of materials that could possibly be used for building.   Having no clear idea how this was all going to come together, I wasted a lot of time and yarn on trial and errors.  Eventually it occured to me that if I got all the boxes and things I wanted to use and stacked  them all up into a 'naked' castle (no yarn), it would prevent me from going on anymore yarn tangents.  The main problem for the whole project was the difficulty getting the yarn to stick to things.  For broad flat surfaces, rubber cement worked well, for details, white glue was o.k.- didn't occur to me to use fabric glue- maybe that would work better.

All the stuff in this instructable are things I had around already- I didn't buy anything- you can really use just about anything for this kind of project.

Materials I ended up using:

yarn
white glue
rubber cement
scissors
tubes from p. towels, t. paper, whatever
cardboard
boxes
skewers
tape
paint & brushes
ribbon
wire
toothpics
pins
yarn needle
wire cutters
ruler
pencil, sharpie

I made a pattern for the skinny building with the peak- you can use the basic idea and tweak the shapes to make one for whatever kind of structure you want to make.  I left it open on the side that meets the larger building. Also, the top is cut off as it's easier to wrap, and I like the way it looks as a separate thing.  The far left piece is the side I didn't use- to make that side correctly, it should be the same size as the square in the center

I used a sturdy box and cut the top off and  folded the bottom into it for extra strength.  To make the door, after marking the inside, put some tape in for reinforcement, and scored the inside so the doors open outward, then cut up the center and then the sides.  Because the yarn takes up space, cut down the tops of the doors a bit so they'll be able to open and close. 

Because the box has all four sides, I cut off long pieces of yarn to wrap it with as it was easier than passing the bulky skein around.  Also, in this case, the glue (rubber cement- it dries pretty fast, so just put down enough to wrap about i- 2" at a time ) went on the inside because I wanted to add some decoration on the outside and needed the yarn to be loose.  Wrapping is wrapping- I didn't take pictures of all the castle pieces- they were all done the same way.

Making the turrets- used a tube a little larger than the one used for the tower, slathered it with lots of rubber cement, wrapped it tightly with yarn, and let it dry overnight.  I cut off a thick slice, marked off where the cuts go, and snipped them.  The unused pieces  got tucked inside, and the turret slips over the tower.  Because they were a little loose, I wrapped the towers with a little extra yarn the same color as the turrets to take up the space.

Wrapping the tower tops was a bit tricky- the yarn didn't want to lay down closely, so after a few coils around, I had to push them all together, do some more, push together,etc..  After it's all done and dry, I painted a couple pins red to top them off with.

Every castle needs a flag!  On a piece of blue ribbon, using some guache (sp? opaque watercolor) I painted a crest.  The flagpole is wire, and after trimming the flag to size, it's glued on.  The clamp didn't stay on too long. as it might have gotten stuck on the flag.  This went on the tallest tower.

To make a base for the castle, I used a box that was a little too large and cut it down.  This got glued and pinned to some foam board.
I had dreams of making an outer wall, moat, drawbridge and so on, but just didn't have enough time, that's how come the base is like it is. Anyhow, I made another little platform on the base from some cardboard scraps to raise it up a bit.  So now it's time to start putting it all together. I had to paint the cardboard where there were gaps in the yarn- should have used dark board.

The 'landscape' is made from a mesh bag that held melons with yarn woven in and out of it.  I painted the base brown so no
white wouldn't show through.  A skewer works well to push the 'grass' under the castle- this got pinned as well.

It's all in the details.  To make the roof beams, I used BBQ skewers and wrapped them with yarn.  It was easier with these to start somewhere in the middle and work out to the ends.  This wire cutter worked very well to cut the beams to size.

After all the pieces are put together with yarn, glue, spit, sweat, and pins, You should have something like this.