How to make a Ninja Turtle weapon!

Donatello, the first of my knit Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles is complete. I say first because kidster has already asked for the other three guys. I can understand. They are a team. A matched set. Like socks. You wouldn't make just one of those would you (at least not on purpose!)? I told him that I had other knitting to do first. Which I do. But I'm going to try to get the other three guys done and surprise him.

His other request was that Donny have his weapon. What good is a mutated superhero turtle without his weapon anyway? I didn't want anything hard that could cause bodily injury (to his brother, for instance) but wanted it to look like a pole and not a piece of spaghetti. I thought a bit and came up with this solution. I'm already noodling how to make nunchucks, a long sword, and battle forks. Battle forks? Yup. Not sure what the technical term for them is, that's just what we call them.

So if you are making or have a Donatello and want a weapon to go with him here's what you do:

Pierce the end of one arm with your knitting needle. This makes a little hole through the yarn and stuffing. Take a drinking straw and cut off the bendy top portion. If you don't have a bendy straw, just cut down a regular one to about 6 inches. Fold the end a little and insert it into the hole you made. You will just get it through and need to pull from the other side. Straighten out the folded over part. Position the pole how you like. With the needles you used for the turtle (I used 5's) and the dark green yarn for the shell, cast on 5 stitches. Make a 5 stitch I-cord as long as the part of the straw that is below Donny's arm. Cast off and fasten end closed. Set aside. Make another I-cord as long as you need it for the top portion of the pole. Stick each end of the straw into an I-cord. Attach the cast on edges to Donny's arm using the cast on tails.

Viola! A Turtle and his weapon!