Amigurumi Discworld
In general, I’m not one for picking favourites, but ever since I was first introduced to Terry Pratchett’s books at age 11-ish, I have bought and loved every single one of his books. I even have two copies of some of them! In my student days, while I still lived in the UK, I queued for hours at book signings so I could spend a few seconds with the man himself, and he was unfailingly nice every time.
Since I made my sea turtle in March, I had a feeling it reminded me of something… Then it came to me: most of Terry’s books are set on the Discworld: a flat world carried through space on the backs of four elephants who themselves stand on the shell of the giant star turtle, Great A’tuin… (Google image search if you don’t know what I’m talking about 
)
The idea to make a crocheted Discworld has been running around inside my head ever since. I thought it would make a wonderful art piece, so I’ve been slowly designing and assembling the pieces to create my Discworld model. I made sure the size for my small elephant design would fit on the turtle’s back… I spent hours studying, sketching, simplifying and photoshopping the Discworld Mapp so I could recreate it in cotton yarn (and my process for that would take up a whole post by itself)…
And, finally, today it has all come together with the finishing touches to the fourth elephant. Drumroll please… In honour of the genius of Terry Pratchett and his books (and totally unauthorized, so I hope he won’t take offence), allow me to present the Amigurumi Discworld:
Small print: Discworld is © Terry Pratchett. I have made my homage only for fun, not profit. I don’t have the rights to create a crochet pattern based on the Discworld, so please don’t ask me to do so
Please leave me a comment if you like my work – your words mean a lot to me!
UPDATED 5 Sep 08: I have just posted a Discworld update. Terry himself has seen the pics and commented! And I have added some details on how I made the Disc.
dawn said
Awww so cute!
XxxxxxxX
Julia said
Ohhh!!
I love Terry Pratchett´s books too!!! and it is sooo nice and beautiful your work!!!
Thanks so much for sharing with us!
Congratulations!!!! : )))
Hugs
Julia
Lindy said
Absolutely brilliant! I love it!
Robyn said
Cute! But oh no! the world is flat! Won’t we fall off? Just kidding! Love it!
Jupiter said
That is AWESOME! I am a recent Terry Pratchett convert and becoming addicted.
maevedragon said
An amazing piece of artwork.
Diane said
That is truly amazing,you do wonderfull work. Thankyou very much for sharing
val said
so neat! I was one who had to look it up. Very interesting! I love your twist on it with the amigurumi…….how could he not feel honored?!
Kari said
That is so frakking AWESOME! I absolutely love it!!!
You *have read* Good Omens, right????
Jessica said
Yessssss! This. Is. So. AWESOME! It’s been far too long since I’ve visited Discworld. . . .
Pattie said
Terry Pratchett’s books are brilliant and so are you!! This is amazing! Such a great idea! It is absolutely perfect. You should send a photo of it to Mr Pratchett’s people.
irmata said
This is a fitting and worthy and downright flipping fanTAStic tribute to a great series by a great author. Even when he can no longer write, his fans will keep the series alive. This is awesome <3 <3 <3
Josefin said
It looks great!! I will show this to my lil bro who is a big fan of Pratchett! I have read some of his books, but havent become a fan :$ Maybe I should read them again.
Anway, the world is so cool!
danaeL said
amazing!!!
great idea..
I love Terry Pratchett
dL
Ann-Mi said
Aah! It’s fantastic! I just finished reading The Light Fantastic and The Color of Magic in graphic novel form! I hope you don’t mind me linking to you…
Lovely stuff!
Carina said
So what’s that word, I can’t think of to describe you… awesome? amazing?.. oh I think Genius fits much better. Well done, you! (-:
Michelle said
Very very unbelievably wonderful. I’ve never heard of Terry Pratchett (don’t hiss at me, please! I’ll check him out right away…) but I think he would be absolutely honored beyond belief to know that you did this because of him.
maizee said
Lovely, lovely work. You interpreted it wonderfully. And at the same time have opened my eyes to a new author. I love all types of books and I think I’ll have to add this author. I’m calling my local bookseller om Monday and having her ordr it for me. Thanks for the introduction.
amber said
That’s awesome. I’m an occasional reader of Pratchett, but I’ve always loved the cover art on the books. This is a great interpretation of the world. I’ve been admiring your elephants for a while now, but this makes them even cooler!
Without sharing the pattern for this, is there any way you could talk about how you made the flat planet? I’m just curious how you got a circle to lie flat like that (without starch), not so much the placement of the continents, or other stuff that would related to the “copyrighted” Discworld.
Kefka said
Love it! That’s amazing… Would love to have one!
Big Pratchett fan
futuregirl said
AMAZING! So wonderful. I, too, love Terry Pratchett. I was introduced to him by Bad Omens, which he wrote with Neil Gaiman. I haven’t read any of the Disc World books lately, but about 5 years ago, that was ALL I was reading.
I’m also a big Sandman fan. 
Blue said
June, as always, you amaze me. That has to be one of the coolest things I have seen. Ever. My man is a big fan of the author and was also mightily impressed. Fantastic job!!
Misty said
Wow, that is just fantastic! I love seeing how you are inspired by different things in your life that you love and then you recreate them. Great job!
tamdoll said
This is a riot. I started reading the books a while ago and this is definitely an image that sticks with you!
Rayleen said
OMG!!! I love it! It’s perfect! And I liked you before, but you’ve just jumped about a hundred points on my esteem scale, I love finding people who understand, lol.
Lori said
Fantastic work and a brilliant homage to a great writer. I am a Pratchett fan too! This makes me happy just looking at it.
Samsara said
Wow! this is amazing! I’ve always wanted a little table in the shape of the discworld, but until I could carve wood, that was never going to happen! I love your amigurami version though!
Induline said
That is the most amazing, awesome thing I’ve seen in a long time. I’m a huge Terry Pratchett fan and this totally made my day! I had to come out of lurkerdom to let you know you did a totally fantastic job of this. :>
El Mundodisco, de Terry Pratchett, en ganchillo said
[...] (0) Si has leído las novelas de Mundodisco escritas por Terry Pratchett, te sorprenderá esta réplica de MundoDisco hecha en ganchillo por [...]
Queta said
Wow! Lovely!
Es de los mejores trabajos que he visto en crochet… Congratulations!
Liane said
Ahhh! This is awesome. I am 100% positive that Terry Pratchett would love this, and I suggest you email him a picture! This looks really great. I’ve always adored your style, and it works so well for the Discworld! Very nice job.
Ruth N said
This is amazing!
Ian said
That is simply wonderful! covetcovetcovet
Em Stronach said
Wow, that’s so cool, props to your mad animaguri skillz. I think you should send him one, with a letter explaining how it came about. He’d love it I’m sure.
I saw his hat once, but that is as close as I’ve gotten. When I was 16 my family did the big European Vacation (we’re Australian). We were staying in London, around the corner from Harrods, and our favourite living author was appearing there the day we arrived. The rest of the family succumbed to jet lag, but I took myself up to the book department and almost died at the coolness of being in the same room with the guy that wrote so many of my favourite books. I’m glad to see someone else loves him as much as I do
Jen said
This is incredibly awesome and hugely worthy of the Discworld and Pterry. If you haven’t already, you really should send pictures to him. He would love it. Did you hear about the “Pratchgan”?
http://woolly-knit-bits.blogspot.com/2008/08/pratchgan-2008-mission-accomplished.html
Sam said
Absolutely love it! It looks just as I always imagined it – except a bit smaller, obviously. Now I know why I’ve taken up crochet again, lol.
Shanna said
This is so awesomely amazing. I really think you should send it to Terry Pratchet. I bet he would absolutely love it! Or if you can’t part with it, make a second one for him! -__^
PlanetJune » Discworld update said
[...] you so much for the Discworld love; I’m so happy you get what I was trying to do here. I also have some news: I contacted [...]
Katherine said
Wonderful! It goes very well with my Discworld Dolls in Crochet.
http://upislandeggs.com/discworlddolls.html
LookToWiddershins said
Really well designed, and accurate too.
Oustanding work, I’m sure if Terry ever sees this, you’ll have made him smile =]
A. P. said
This is just great! Love it!!
Ivy mango said
Amazing! You should angua and carrot next!!
Fairy Tales and Fantasy Literature » Blog Archive » Discworld said
[...] To read more about it, her blog post is here [...]
Rachel said
Oh, my great god om (heh) i LOVE LOVE this, is there anyway you have a pattern? i would adore doing this!
Rachel said
Ever since i saw this i’ve been dying to make one of my own, would you be upset if i made my own version? I’m fairly positive it won’t be anything like yours, other than the discworld it’s self of course. Oh, and it’ll be just for my own use!
And thanks for the link you e-mailed me, very informative!
Julia L said
That is so totally adorable! I discovered the Discworld when I was 10, and your amigurumi representation really captures the magic, or Majik, of it!
Lizz said
That is SO cute!
valtricot said
I absolutely love it! I am a big fan of the Discworld series too.
How about asking the rights for the pattern?
If I were Pratchett, I’d say yes!
(I wish I were him)
Angela said
OOOHH!! I know you said you can’t post the pattern, but I want it so bad! I want to make this for my friend.. she’s in love with his books… maybe if you just posted the sea turtle and disc pattern? I can make the elephants…. wishful thinking @_@
June said
Angela, the Sea Turtle and Elephant patterns are my own designs, and both are available in my shop
It’s only the Disc itself that has copyright issues. You can read more details and get the links to my patterns in my Discworld Update post: http://www.planetjune.com/blog/discworld-update/
charlie said
i have read Terry Patchett books since i was about 10/11 and also own every book he has written, i love what you have managed to create is so awesome cute and skilled i m very envious of your talent! keep up the great work!