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Beastie Spa Day - Stuffing Transplant - CrawCrafts Beasties

How Explorer Beastie Got His Groove Back

Posted on April 30, 2019June 19, 2021 by crawcraftsbeasties in Explorer Beastie, Life at Beastie Towers

Hi there Beastie friends! As you can see, I’m getting back to my usual blogging routine – hopefully Tuesday posts will once again be the norm after a couple of disrupted weeks!

Now, at the end of Sunday’s post, I mentioned Explorer Beastie’s beauty regime. You might be surprised that he even has one – perhaps you pictured him as a more rough-and-tumble kind of guy.
I can’t imagine why that might be.

Anyway, for the last little while, he’s been feeling a bit… Flat. Life hadn’t literally knocked the stuffing out of him, but his adventurous ways were taking a toll on his insides, and he’d lost the winsome plumpness of his early years.
Poor Explorer Beastie!

Fortunately, monster-making skills aren’t just good for creating new Beastie friends. They can also be applied to help cure serious Beastie medical conditions! And so, I formulated a surgical strategy…

Surgery Plans - CrawCrafts Beasties — Like all reputable surgeons, I sketched out my plan on the back of an envelope first.

…Then I performed my first ever stuffing transplant!

Afterwards, to help him during his recovery, I treated Explorer Beastie to a spa day. You know, to help restore his youthful vitality.

Now, Beastie beauty products are a little different to what we humans use…
… But Explorer Beastie really enjoyed his therapeutic bubble bath!
“Aaaaah! We should do this every week!”
Whiter teeth and a nice clean beanie hat were just an added bonus!

Then, it was time to snuggle up in a big cosy towel and dry off.
And now he’s ready for action again!
Beastie Hospital services are available to all Beasties, too! You only need to reach into your pocket to pay postage back to Beastie Towers – we’ll take care of the rest. Contact me here to make an appointment!

Finally, before I go – thanks to Melissa for sharing this pic of Cookie Beastie on Twitter last week – ain’t she a cutie?

Happy Beaster! We’re having cookies…as per usual. 😉 pic.twitter.com/0YAI8WPs4Y

— Melissa Bruner (@MelissaABruner) April 21, 2019

https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js

That’s all from us for this week – see you next Tuesday!

A Beastie-Size Tardis! CrawCrafts Beasties

Knock knock! Who’s There?

Posted on January 31, 2017June 19, 2021 by crawcraftsbeasties in Commissions, Crafting, Knitted Beasties

– Doctor.
– Doctor who?
– Exactly!
Aaah, they say the old jokes are the best… but perhaps that one might be the exception to the rule!

That said, the new Beastie I’d like to introduce to you today ties in quite well with the retelling of a corny old joke. The character he’s based on is known for his ability to regenerate and reappear as essentially the same person… albeit in a different body, with different personality traits. And even the tales of his adventures have made a comeback and evolved in recent years, creating a whole new army of fans!
Yes, you’ve guessed it – it’s Doctor Who Beastie!

Some of you might remember that I already made a Doctor Who Beastie, back in December 2015… But given the original Time Lord’s continuing popularity, I figured it was only a matter of time before I was asked to “regenerate” Doctor Who Beastie!

Of course, in keeping with the tradition of Doctor Who’s various distinct regenerations, and the fact that all Beasties are unique, there have been some subtle changes between this Beastie and his previous incarnation…
As you can see, his complexion has changed to a bright sunny yellow, and he’s clearly visiting a different dentist! But his tailor and hairdresser did such a good job last time around that he’s decided to stick with them…… And underneath his practical tweed jacket, he’s still rocking the same bright red braces and matching bow tie!Finally, I kitted him out with a Beastie-sized Sonic Screwdriver – essential for getting a teeny Time Lord out of all sorts of intergalactic scrapes!But surely you’re not going to walk to the furthest reaches of the galaxy, Doctor Who Beastie?Aha! I thought not! A cosy felt TARDIS will work much better.Perfect!Well, almost… Even though I gave him strictest instructions to head directly to his new home, and to be sure to get there in time for Christmas, he took it into his woolly head to go adventuring instead!

Days passed, then weeks… And still no Beastie! I didn’t know what to do – contact NASA and see if they’d noticed anything whizzing past the Hubble space telescope? Ring the BBC and ask for Professor Brian Cox? But then…
He popped out of whatever black hole he’d vanished into, and arrived on his new doorstep apparently none the worse for wear after his longer-than-anticipated journey!

Even better, although he wasn’t home for Christmas, with uncanny Time Lord timing he did manage to pick the next best date for this grand entrance – his new buddy’s birthday!

Here’s a taster of what he discovered when he started exploring his new home planet…… And don’t forget to stop by Tatie’s World to see more of this Beastie’s antics!

Thanks to Tajana for sharing her Beastie pics with me… And for being so patient while we waited for the Beastie Tardis to find her house!

Next week, we’ll be finding out what Paddy and Plunkett have been up to in their first adventure of 2017… See you then!

The Making of Justin Beastie

Posted on December 23, 2013 by crawcraftsbeasties in Ideas, Knitted Beasties

It seems I haven’t had much time for blogging over the last couple of weeks. I figured that my days were mostly being absorbed by festive pastimes such as card making, scoping out craft markets and attempting to find presents for my impossible-to-buy-for nearest and dearest, but now that I think about it, a huge chunk of time went on doing commissions.

Because I’m still quite new to the world of crafting for an audience, I didn’t think there would be any difference between making a Beastie that I had thought up myself and making one based on someone else’s imaginings… but weirdly, there is. When I’m inventing something myself, it’s not much of a leap from having the idea to making it. Sometimes the idea and how to make it surface almost simultaneously, or the whole process turns itself on its head and the method inspires the idea, like I was saying in this post. But with a commission, I feel like I need to consider what the person who made the request is expecting to see in the finished article, as well as what I want to do. Also, a lot of the commissions I’ve made over the last week or two have introduced new elements to my Beastie wardrobe, things I might never have considered trying myself. So, they’ve taken a little longer to make, but on the plus side, I’ve stepped out of my comfort zone and learned how to do a whole lot of new things. And that’s always good.

So, that brings me to Justin Beastie. Requested by my friend Adele as a Christmas gift for her boyfriend, she asked for a Beastie with “blond hair, boxy glasses, stubble and some kind of games controller”. I’d already made a Beastie with hair (the Punk Beastie, in this post), but the rest of the project was real “here be monsters” uncharted territory.

As usual, I started off by knitting a Beastie body (with black feet, which would later become a pair of monster-sized Doc Martens boots) and then set about fitting it with a pair of glasses:

Figuring out the size on a paper Beastie head meant I had a handy template to use when I got around to cutting the real glasses out of felt. Once I had all the facial features sorted out, it was time to tackle the stubble. I needed to figure out a way to secure “hairs” so that I could cut them short without making them fall out. My solution? Fix lengths of fine yarn to a piece of material inside the head, and then pull them through. I did a test run first…

And then did the same thing to Justin Beastie’s face!

Following a much-needed shave, and the addition of some hair made from chunky merino yarn, we were almost there!

I gave him a scarf which is a miniature version of one which Adele made for him when she first learned to knit, too. Then he got a haircut, some bootlaces and the requested games controller – a simplified take on the classic NES one. And here he is!

	Simon on Falling For Autumn
	crawcraftsbeasties on Falling For Autumn
	crawcraftsbeasties on Falling For Autumn
	crawcraftsbeasties on Falling For Autumn
	crawcraftsbeasties on Making Time for A Day Out