Dork Adore » Knitting

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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Bazinga! It’s the best of the craft blogs

Michelle — Fri, 17 Dec 2010 16:00:40 +0000

Another week, another round up of the very best geeky crafts to be found in the blogosphere, and I can tell you it’s all getting a bit stitchy this festive season!

There is still plenty of time to whip up this Space Invaders cross stitch on Sprite Stitch for your favourite geek this christmas
Lego and Star Wars fans will probably want to check out this Lego Death Star Ornament from Chris McVeigh.
knithacker delights us with a fabulous retro video game that combines banjo dinosaurs and hacked knitted machines in perfect harmony!
I am a massive Big Bang Theory fan so was instantly smitten with this Bazinga cross stitch sampler by craftster member LadyLeitzen

Let me know what has been catching your eye on the craft blogs recently!

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Gryffindor scarf knitting pattern: Harry Potter Craft Roundup

Michelle — Thu, 18 Nov 2010 16:20:24 +0000

Even those non-Harry Potter fans amongst us couldn’t fail to have noticed that Harry Potter fever is upon us again! In honour of the imminent release of Harry Potter And The Deathly Hallows: Part 1, here is my pick of some of the best Harry Potter related craft projects and tutorials for your enjoyment.

Want to go around scaring the bejesus out of everyone? Then why not have a go at making a Death Eater Mask from Tektonten Papercraft. Both full size and half size mask templates are available.
Declare your allegiance with these free crest stencils by Jennifer Ofenstein from her blog sewhooked. Simply print out and cut out the gray area and get stencilling!
Instructables has a whole heap of amazing Harry Potter inspired projects, some of the very best are even collected together for you in a handy guide! One of my favourites is this super simple Awesome Harry Potter wand project by KaptinScarlet that requires little more than a sheet of paper, a glue gun and some paint! You can even get fancy and add a UV LED in the tip and then you will have a wand that can reveal all sorts of secrets!
And we couldn’t do a Harry Potter pattern round-up without including a free Gryffindor scarf pattern could we? This rather stylish example was designed by Rachel Alexandra from the bookke werm’s realm.

What wonderful handmade creations will you be sporting when you go see the film?

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Free TARDIS socks knitting pattern

Michelle — Wed, 10 Nov 2010 10:33:59 +0000

Banish boring socks this Christmas!

Grab those knitting needles and whip up a pair of these wonderful TARDIS socks in time for the festive season. Give them to friends and family and you are guaranteed* to be their favourite son/daughter/sister/brother/friend.

The free pattern is available from the witty little knitter website, which is a website dedicated to the knitting of the authentic Doctor Who scarf.

Seriously, if there was ever anything you wanted to know about those scarves, including an analysis of the relative scarf lengths, I’m sure you could find it on there!

Whilst you are on the site I heartily recommend you take a peek at the My TARDISes section and check out her full sized Police Box and TARDIS tattoo!

*Please note this is not a legal binding guarantee!

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Knit your own boyfriend

Emma Cossey — Mon, 04 Oct 2010 09:00:47 +0000

Urban Outfitters has a tendency to stock some slightly odd products at times in their home section. The high street retailer stocks a mixture of unusual gifts, including antique-style teacups, sushi erasers and a tea yellow submarine.

The ‘Knit Your Own Boyfriend‘ kit is their latest addition, appealing to the nimble fingered singletons out there.

Crafters can put their imagination to the test with this kit, which includes knitting needles, stuffing coloured yarn and a instruction manual to get you started.

Coupled up? Use it to create a mini Doctor Who instead. Or perhaps a mini Merlin?

More fun with Knitting? Check out our Free Knitting Patterns section.

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Knit Nation 2010, London: The UK’s biggest knitting show

Katie — Fri, 16 Jul 2010 09:00:01 +0000

We want to go to there!

The UK’s biggest knitting and spinning show is about to hit London and Dork Adore will be in attendance, spending many British pounds on lovely yarn and trying to ignore the fact that crochet appears to be entirely forgot.

Brought to you by Alice Yu (from Socktopus) and Cookie A, you can sign up for the Knit Nation Ravelry group to get the full insider info.

Knit Nation 2010, 29th and 31st of July at Imperial College London

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

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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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Space Invaders from head to toe

Emma Cossey — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 12:30:37 +0000

Space Invaders stole a large part of my childhood with its addictive playing properties. Therefore, it’s only right that I pay tribute to this simple game by wearing the famous icons with pride.

A simple t-shirt just won’t do. A true tribute to this mighty game can only be made through the medium of one particular item of clothing.

Socks.

Knitty has an excellent free pattern to create your own Space Invader socks, complete with game points.

Want to pass the retro gaming theme onto your mini dork?

This cosy little hat will keep your baby’s head warm, and will invite plenty of compliments.

To create the Space Invaders baby hat on the right, head to Instructables, who have a free step-by-step template available to create your very own version for your son or daughter, or even an adult. Simply extend the pattern available to suit the head size.

Have you found any great patterns recently that you think we’d love? Let us know!

More Free Patterns on Dork Adore

More Geek Craft on Dork Adore

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Harry Hill’s TV Burp Knitted Character

Katie — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 18:00:01 +0000

First things first, “Knitted Character” is quite clearly crocheted and if you’re a crafty type (like me) that probably bothers you every single week (a handy reminder that crafty types nearly always need to get out more).

Thankfully, the people who actually made the original Knitted Character toy are equally pedantic, and take the trouble to point out the crafting faux pas on their website. Cloth-Ears sell the Knitted Character (and a bunch of his friends) for £10.99.

However, there’s a bit of a waiting list – unsurprisingly – and if you’re really desperate for your own yarn bunny, some eBay sellers have cobbled together an approximation of the Knitted Character that almost passes for the real thing (if you squint).

If you fancy making one yourself, a pattern like this Amigurumi Crochet Bunny Pattern is a good place to start as is this Easter Bunny Pattern.

Then, all you need to do is add the nose bit (which you can copy from this amigurumi piggy pattern), make the ears a bit thinner, and add in some pink stripes.

If anyone finds an actual pattern for the Knitted Character out there, please let me know!

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Grannies, Inc: A present from Gran you’ll actually like

Emma Cossey — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 08:30:20 +0000

You know that TV advert for the breakfast cereal Shreddies, where a group of grannies knit every single individual Shreddie? Clearly some eagle-eyed marketing mogul noticed the potential and snapped them up for a new fashion venture.

Grannies, Inc is a company that offers customers the opportunity to choose a beanie design and get it customised to their needs by a team of nimble fingered grannies.

The company is actually the brainchild of Katie Mowat, who heads up a team of six grannies and one small and adorable dog.

Katie admits to having a massive passion for beanies, with over 100 different products in her collection.

The beanies range in colour and styles, with prices starting at around £20.

Each beanie comes in three sizes, with the option of choosing the colour of each stripe. You can even add special details, like ear flaps and pom poms to the design.

Fancy a hand knitted personalised piece of head furniture?

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Dork Adore » Knitting

The State of Craft book review

Water Pistol lights

Dazzling 3-D Tee

Mini Protest Banner

Invaders Tote Bag

More stories like this

Bazinga! It’s the best of the craft blogs

Let me know what has been catching your eye on the craft blogs recently!

More stories like this

Gryffindor scarf knitting pattern: Harry Potter Craft Roundup

More stories like this

Free TARDIS socks knitting pattern

More stories like this

Knit your own boyfriend

More fun with Knitting? Check out our Free Knitting Patterns section.

More stories like this

Knit Nation 2010, London: The UK’s biggest knitting show

We want to go to there!

More stories like this

Five cute craft kits for kids

More stories like this

Space Invaders from head to toe

More stories like this

Harry Hill’s TV Burp Knitted Character

More stories like this

Grannies, Inc: A present from Gran you’ll actually like

More stories like this