Dork Adore » Crochet

The State of Craft book review

Dork Adore — Tue, 20 Dec 2011 10:00:00 +0000

I’m a huge fan of the home-made gift at Christmas. For Christmasses past I’ve received hand-knitted mittens, homemade plum chutney and wallets with Manga characters stitched on.

Meanwhile, I’ve inflicted on loved ones gifts such as garishly striped scarves, a tie – covered in sequins and the word “DAD” in felt appliqué – and C90s with painstakingly detailed inlays.

As the last order-in-time-for-Christmas dates approach in shopping sites, I’d much rather spend a day cosy indoors hand-making presents for the geeks in my life than face the horror of Christmas shopping on a real-life high street.

New book The State Of Craft (edited by Victoria Woodcock, Cicada Books) offers plenty of inspiration for presents.

The book is a mix of crafting tutorials (knitting, French knitting, sewing, cross-stitch and crochet), interviews with professional British crafters, and craft projects.

The tutorials are probably a bit too brief for someone with no previous experience, but they’re a good reminder if you know the basics. Of the actual projects, there are some seriously geeky treats amongst the sixty-plus illustrated instructions and patterns.

Water Pistol lights

Maris Schiess contributes a tutorial on making festive decorations using fairy lights and cheap water pistols. Quick, colourful, and Christmassy.

Dazzling 3-D Tee

Next up, something to wear on Christmas day. Mr Wingate has provided a tutorial on making a brilliantly eye boggling, screen-printed t-shirt. It’s a little unclear from the tutorial whether it’s actually 3-D, but certainly the layering of yellow, pink and blue prints make for a striking geometric print.

It also requires more specialist materials than some of the other projects – a proper silkscreen is required – but it seems like a good intro to printing your own graphic t-shirts. Which seems like an eminently useful skill to me.

Mini Protest Banner

Cross-stitch, cross-stitch! Something about the combination of embroidery and pixellation makes this seem like the geekiest of the crafts.

Craftivist Collective are producers of handmade mini banners for non-violent activisim, and for this book have provided a brilliant pattern for a Superman cross-stitch, with the words “Good planets are hard to find & I can’t f*@king save you this time”.

Again, this looks like a quick project to whip up in the evenings leading up to Christmas – if you can’t face any more drunken office parties.

Always useful to know how to embroider an “@” symbol, too.

Invaders Tote Bag

My absolute favourite piece from the book has to be Urban Cross Stitch’s Invaders Tote Bag featuring – you guessed it – an embroidered Space Invaders screen shot, complete with high score, credits, and laser beam.

The project also features water-soluble cross-stitch canvas, which I’d never heard of before but am now dying to get my hands on.

The finished bag looks brilliant in the photos, but it also inspired me to think of what else could be improved by the addition of hand-stitched aliens. There’s a whole world of fabrics looking mightily in need of some boxy alien spacecraft to me now…

State Of Craft is a fun, easy-on-the-eye craft book with plenty of nerdish treats between its covers.

But, to be honest, if the handmade present idea seems a bit too much like hard work this Christmas, there’s still time to go to Amazon – or a lovely local bookshop – and just give the book itself to any craft fans in your life.

State Of Craft is out now (£14.95, Cicada Books)

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Etsy Finds: Prim and Plush amigurumi molecules

Michelle — Thu, 21 Apr 2011 11:00:29 +0000

This is an Etsy Finds with a twist as it is dedicated in its entirety to a single Etsy store. Prim and Plush have brought together science and craft in perfect harmony with their rather wonderful amigurumi molecules.

Let me introduce you to Mr Ethanol, or CH3CH3OH as he is known to his scientifically minded buddies, costs $25.

Or maybe you would prefer Mrs Methane, aka CH4, or her close friend Mr Carbon Dioxide who both cost a mere $15 each.

And if all this talk of science has left you thirsty then grab yourself a small cup of water for $18. Never has science looked so cute!

Which molecule would you like to see immortalised in crochet?

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Free mini Mario Mushroom & Invincibility Star amigurumi patterns

Michelle — Mon, 06 Dec 2010 16:00:54 +0000

Earlier this week I gave you a roundup of some of the best Christmas decorations for geeks. However, as wonderful as they all are, it can’t be denied that us crafty types can never resist the opportunity to do it ourselves! So I give you, not one, but two free patterns to get you crafting up a storm this festive season with these mini Mario mushrooms and invincibility stars from Amy’s Odyssey.

Who could possibly resist the sight of these cute little crochet fellas peeking out through the branches of their Christmas tree this festive season? If you make plenty you could even string them together for some totally dork-tastic Christmas bunting!

But please do remember, mushrooms are for life not just for Christmas, so be sure to find them a new spot to live once the tree comes down!

What are you waiting for — go get hooking right away!

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Star Trek Potholders and Buffy Love: the best of the craft blogs

Michelle — Thu, 25 Nov 2010 08:40:25 +0000

I am starting to imagine a very Harry Hill-style jingle for this weekly roundup of the best projects and news from the craft blogosphere. Let’s all sing it together, it’s time for ‘craft blog highlights of the week’.

Thanks to the fab folk at Geek Craft I’m able to sneak in yet another free pattern this week with these crocheted Star Trek potholders from Off the Hook Astronomy
Although not strictly crafting, this week Craftzine have been treating us to some rather tasty treats featuring some gluten-free Thanksgiving recipes from new book Cooking For Geeks by Jeff Potter. I think I will be giving the Butternut Squash Soup and Sage Rush Cocktail a go!
I am totally smitten by the uber-geeky Roses are #FF0000, Violets are #0000FF cross-stitch by innergeek which I stumbled across in the Geek Craft Flickr group pool
And finally over on MrXStitch, beefranck gave us an almighty stitchgasm sharing this Buffy the Vampire Slayer cross stitch by buffyfan1977

As ever, don’t forget to let me know if you are blogging about craft or sharing projects and maybe you’ll see yourself in our craft blog roundup next week!

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Free Despicable Me minion amigurumi crochet pattern

Emma Cossey — Thu, 19 Aug 2010 18:55:44 +0000

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.

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Free Lemmings Amigurumi crochet pattern

Emma Cossey — Fri, 16 Apr 2010 09:41:34 +0000

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.

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Dork Craft: Mario Amigurumi

Emma Cossey — Wed, 24 Mar 2010 09:00:54 +0000

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.

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Astro Boy gets the amigurumi crochet treatment

Emma Cossey — Thu, 11 Feb 2010 09:00:33 +0000

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.

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Five cute craft kits for kids

Emma Cossey — Fri, 05 Feb 2010 10:00:00 +0000

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.

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Dork Craft: Wicket the Ewok Amigurumi

Emma Cossey — Mon, 21 Dec 2009 13:19:20 +0000

If, like me, you’re extremely disorganised and you’ve left most of your present shopping to the week before Christmas, you might want to consider getting a little crafty.

I loved the Ewoks in Star Wars, so this crochet Wicket the Ewok Amigurumi really caught my eye when I was reading through Geek Crafts.

It’s by mum and crafter Lucy Ravenscar, and she’s shared the PDF pattern, so you can create him at home.

Have a browse through the rest of her patterns too, they’re all influenced by her children’s requests.

More free patterns on Dork Adore
More crochet on Dork Adore

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Dork Adore » Crochet

The State of Craft book review

Water Pistol lights

Dazzling 3-D Tee

Mini Protest Banner

Invaders Tote Bag

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Etsy Finds: Prim and Plush amigurumi molecules

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Free mini Mario Mushroom & Invincibility Star amigurumi patterns

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Star Trek Potholders and Buffy Love: the best of the craft blogs

As ever, don’t forget to let me know if you are blogging about craft or sharing projects and maybe you’ll see yourself in our craft blog roundup next week!

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Free Despicable Me minion amigurumi crochet pattern

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Free Lemmings Amigurumi crochet pattern

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Dork Craft: Mario Amigurumi

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Astro Boy gets the amigurumi crochet treatment

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Five cute craft kits for kids

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Dork Craft: Wicket the Ewok Amigurumi

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