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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In celebration of the fact that I finally learnt all the words to the theme tune (I am shamefaced to admit ‘Maths, Science, History…’ had me stumped) and because I have a whole lot of love for those lovely geek boys from The Big Bang Theory, I have decided to dedicate an entire Etsy Finds to them.

Although I must confess I have sneaked in one non-Etsy item in the shape of the Mrs Sheldon Cooper necklace which I just couldn’t resist (a big thanks to my fellow dork Tamsin for bringing it to my attention.

Top Row (L-R) Mrs Sheldon Cooper Necklace, £7.95 from Sugar and Vice; Dino Tee (as worn by Sheldon), $16 from Happy Family & Bazinga Coasters, $9.50 from Pinky Crafts

Bottom Row (L-R) Big Bang Theory  Pixel People Finished Cross Stitch, $45 from Wee Little Stitches*; Rock, Paper, Scissors, Lizard, Spock Cross Stitch pattern, $5 from Robin’s Design and it just wouldn’t be a geeky etsy finds without some Big Bang Theory Peg People, $55 from Randomly Generated

*Psst. If you would prefer to stitch the Big Bang Theory Pixel People yourself you can grab the pattern for just $6

Recommended reading: More Etsy Finds | The Big Bang Theory on Dork Adore

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Always wanted a zombie, werewolf or yeti to pet and call your own? Well then you need to get your mitts on the new craft book Beasties: How to Make 22 Mischievous Monsters That Go Bump in the Night by Diana Schoenbrun, and you can create your very own menagerie of magically mythical creatures.

‘It’s Alive’
As the title would suggest the book contains 22 stash-busting projects, ranging in difficulty from those perfect for the beginner right through to advanced projects for more skilled sewers.

And because a lot of the beasties are pretty wee creatures, it is the perfect way to use up all those fabric scraps that you can’t bear to part with.

The instructions are clear and easy to follow, and there are some great tips to help you customise your chosen beasties. In fact, the book will provide you with such a vast array of patterns and inspiration, you will no doubt be able to get really creative and dream up some of your very own monsters.

Monster Magic
Aside from the projects themselves, one of my very favourite things about this book is the selection of handy Beastie Tips.

I now feel perfectly safe in the knowledge that should I ever be captured by a Fish-Head Alien all I need to do is tell a tale full of intrigue to secure my release.

My other favourite thing is that Diana has crafted the most intricate and inspired habitats for each and everyone of the wee beasties, such as the wonderfully odd chicken legged cabin in which the Baba Yaga resides.

Conclusion
Beasties is an absolute corker of a craft book, and whatever your skill level you will have lots of fun breathing life into your very own mythical beast. I highly recommend you go and buy it right now.

Beasties by Diana Schoenbrun published by Perigee Trade (Penguin Group) is available from Amazon for just £8.44. Which mini monster will you be making?

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As a child of the 80s I was obviously fairly obsessed with the Rubik’s Cube for a small period of my life, despite never managing to complete it without resorting to cheatery. So I was delighted to stumble across this free pattern for making your very own fuzzy Rubiks Cube on Obsessively Stitching.

Unfortunately, it is not functional — in other words you can’t twist it round and solve the puzzle, but you could totally make a solved cube and beat the darn thing at its own game!

Personally I think it would make an awesome pincushion for your favourite geeky sewing pals. And if you have a car in need of a bit of pimpin’ you could do worse than whip up a pair to hang from your rear view mirror just like the author of Obsessively Stitching did.

And once you are done with this project then why not try out Obsessively Stitching’s other monster sized Rubik’s Cube projects, the Rubik’s Cube Ottoman and  Rubik’s Storage Cube.

Related: Free Patterns on Dork Adore

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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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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

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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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