This autumn brings another 3D animated extravaganza with Despicable Me, a movie about a supervillian (Gru, voiced by Steve Carell) who hopes to pull off a heist involving the moon. The only thing that stands in his way? Three little orphan girls who wish to adopt him as their new dad.

Gru has an entire army of minions, who resemble this cute little fella on the right. Looks like a baby version of Beaker from The Muppets to me.

Despite the fact that the film has only just been released in the US and won’t be released here until October, WolfDreamer has already been able to create an amigurumi of the quirky character, and provide a free pattern for those of you who want to recreate him.

Want to see the character in action? Here’s a short trailer from the upcoming animation.

Proper gaming fans scoff at the idea of luxurious long bubble baths. Why waste valuable ass-kicking time, right?

Because you can wash with a retro games cartridge soap!

I came across these Games Cartridge Geeksoaps on Craftster. The range includes an 8-bit, 16-bit and 64-bit cartridge, and they’re all lemon scented to keep you wide awake for a further gaming session.

They start from around $2 each for the smaller cartridges.

Social Media geeks might prefer the Twitter, Facebook and RSS soaps for $5 each.

We want to go to there!

Lauren over on Stitch London has done a full over-view, with much talk of cake and debauchery.

Domo-kun is a popular character in Japan where he acts as the mascot for their NHK TV station and the star of his own TV show in the US. According to the stories, he hatched from an egg and suffers from a locked open mouth, hence the crazy look.

He’s become a bit of a cult-figure now and the crafting community has really got behind him.

The rather brilliantly named Nerdigurumi has created an amigurumi pattern to create this angry-looking fella, which they’ve kindly offered for free.

You can find more amigurumi patterns here, including Lemmings, Mario and Astro Boy.

Scott Pilgrim, everyone’s favourite happy-go-lucky 20-something comic book hero, will soon be with us again.

The sixth and final book — Scott Pilgrim’s Finest Hour — is out on the 20th July. Meanwhile, Edgar Wright’s movie – Scott Pilgrim Vs The World — will be released on 13th August.

The film stars Michael Cera as our hapless hero and Mary Elizabeth Winstead as Ramona Flowers, Pilgrim’s baggage-laden girlfriend. And of course, Ramona isn’t the only one with a selection of deranged exes: Knives Chau is Scott’s love-stricken kick-ass ex, who spends a lot of time dangerously waving aroud the torch she still carries for him.

Dork Stitch

Needle-wielder extraordinaire, Allison Bates, has done a brilliant bit of cross-stitch in homage to the lovably unhinged Knives. In fact, Allison has done all kinds of marvellous bits of geeky, pixellated cross stitch on her EXCELLENTLY named blog, Dork Stitch.

Free Patterns!

Even better, Allison takes the time to make FREE x-stitch patterns so that others may enjoy the nerdy wonders she creates.

As well as a free Knives Chau pattern, Allison has worked up a free Ramona Flowers pattern – though we’re still waiting on a photo of the finished piece.

She’s done tonnes of other dork patterns, including retro computer games characters like Hero from Dragon Quest VIII and a cross-stitch Pikachu. If you check out the categories, you’ll see all kinds of other wonderful geek fodder.

Take a look! Dork Stitch. Allison’s DeviantArt Page.

Pre-order Scott Pilgrim’s Finest Hour: Amazon | Signed copies on Forbidden Planet | eBay

Scott Pilgrim Comics | Scott Pilgrim The Movie | Scott Pilgrim Ning group

Here at Dork Adore, opinion is still divided on the iPad. Susi has learned some big iPad lessons, and I really, really want one…although I’m still not completely convinced why.

If you’ve already got your iPad, you’ll probably want to keep it in the perfect, glossy condition it arrived in. We looked at some of the early iPad cases a few months ago, and an eco-friendly range last month. Now our friends in the crafting community have caught up with a selection of handmade cases and sleeves.

Emporium Of Geek over on Folksy have this hand-tailored pinstripe iPad sleeve for £19.99. A white-collar dream.

Here are four more crafty sleeves and cases for your Apple tablet.

Part teenage boy’s duvet cover, part grandad’s pyjamas, this cover should be really wrong. I quite like it though, especially as it did in fact start its life as a pair of retro curtains. It’s from Folksy seller toggle for £26.

This sparrow and leaf design is a bit pricier at £65, but it’s 100% leather. The range is by Beautiful Skin, who will also adapt all of their current iPod and iPhone designs to an iPad size.

One for the geeks now, a Gameboy iPad Sleeve ($34). It’s by Etsy seller Yummy Pocket, who also has Etch a Sketch, cassette and personalised cases.

Finally, we’ve got a luxurious-looking case from Janine King Designs on Etsy ($39.99)

Seen any good crafty iPad cases or sleeves? Let us know in the comments

You know you’re a child of the 80s if you….spent hours addicted to the platform game Lemmings.

For those of you who didn’t whittle away large chunks of your day playing this PC game, the concept was to persuade a line of green-haired little people to make their way to the target whilst avoiding fires, blades and gaping holes. For those of you having a nostalgic moment, you can play the game online here.

Crochet fans can now recreate the game at home with this free Amigurumi pattern from PlanetJune. She’s even uploaded the patterns for each of the different tools for the little fellas.

Mama Mia! One of the most famous gaming characters on the planet has been recreated in crochet form.

This Mario Amigurumi has been created by WolfDreamer off the Hook as part of a set of SuperMario characters including Goomba, Luigi and the Mushrooms.

This is a free pattern, so you can get cracking on creating the whole cast of Super Mario, which would go nicely with the Mario wall decals we covered recently.

Wolfdreamer has some great dork-inspired free patterns, including several Sonic and Pokemon characters, so it’s worth a bookmark.

The latest animated series to get a big screen makeover is Astro Boy, a sort of modern take on the Pinocchio story. The film follows Astro Boy, a robot created to replace the son of a scientist who died in a tragic accident, rejected for his lack of emotions.

The original Japanese Manga TV series of Astro Boy was shown back in 1963, and various versions have been seen across the globe since.

The craft community are clearly fans of the robot boy too, and Etsy seller CraftyisCool has created a pattern to make the Astro Boy Amigurumi ($5) on the right.

You can find more information on the animated movie here.

Fancy giving your progeny a passion for crafting? Have a look at these craft kits for inspiration.

Step-by-step Sewing

This Mini flower and butterfly cushion sewing kit (£6.96 from Baker Ross) on the right will teach your child the basics of sewing, allowing them to create their own flower or butterfly cushion.

The needle is plastic and the shapes are pre-cut, so the set is safe for little hands too.

Crafty creations

This Crafty Apron set on the left (£11.99 from minimakers.com) comes with various bells and whistles to allow your child to create an apron suitable for baking or safely storing scissors, knitting needles and various other crafty supplies. It’s suitable for 7 years and up.

Clever crochet

Perhaps they would prefer a craft where they can make their own Amigurumi?

This Crochet Art kit on the right (Amazon for £9.77) has enough wool and supplies to create a coaster, handbag, place mat or belt, and eventually their own cuddly toy.

The kit is simple enough for a child of 8 years plus to pick up, and there are plenty of tutorial books available too.

Nuts about Knitting

Think they’d prefer to try knitting? They could try out this Knitting for Kids – Starter Gift box on the left.

The set comes with a 99-minute DVD, animated story to help with the learning, three different coloured balls of wool, knitting needles and a tutorial from seven-year-old knitter Ryan Anderson. The gift set is available from Amazon for £12.98.

Potty about Pirates

All a little too girly? I spotted this ‘Create Your Own Pirate Kit’ on the right on littlecraftybugs.com for only £1.99.

The kit comes with everything you’ll need to create a hat, flag, eye patch, moustache, sword and treasure chest.