Crafts – Page 16 – Beastie HQ

Beach Beasties Take a Weight Off - CrawCrafts Beasties

Summertiiiiiiime… And the livin’ is Beastieeeee!

Posted on July 5, 2016June 19, 2021 by crawcraftsbeasties in Beastie Family, Commissions, Crafting

Happy Tuesday, everyone! And look, I’ve some new Beasties for you to meet!

I’m delighted to introduce you to Beach Babe Beastie and her new Beastie hubby, Outdoor Adventure Beastie!
The person who requested these two little monsters wanted them as a wedding gift for a couple who she described as “summer people” – when the sun starts to shine, they’re the first to dash outside to soak up some rays on the beach or seek out adventure in the countryside! So rather than dress their Beasties up in stiff, formal wedding garb, we decided to go for outfits and accessories that would reflect their love of those long, hot summer days.

Ready for the guided tour? Great – ladies first, then!
With her sunkissed blonde hair and Beastie-sized bikini, Beach Babe Beastie is all set to spend her honeymoon basking on golden sands somewhere in the tropics. And look, someone has brought her a cocktail to sip as she sunbathes!

Then once the sun slips below the horizon, she can pop on a cute floral-print skirt and head out for a relaxed dinner with her Beastie Beloved!
I also gave her a little tote bag, to hold her sunscreen – she needs to preserve her lovely rose-pink complexion, after all.
And of course, she needed a pair of film-star sunglasses to complete her look!
Now, where’s that husband of hers got to? Oh, there he is!
He’s a real outdoors enthusiast, who loves keeping fit and camping under the stars. All this activity has helped him grow a bit taller and musclier than your average Beastie!
While I was making these Beasties, I thought it might be a good opportunity to redesign my Beastie backpacks – the new-style ones close with Velcro instead of snaps, and I think they’re a better, more realistic shape and more sturdily constructed.
They still hold everything an adventurous Beastie needs for a day away, too – in this case, a big bottle of water and a tasty cheese sandwich!
And finally, this guy had to have a pair of sunglasses!
All we need now is a bright sunny day for them to enjoy! But until then, they’ve managed to find a decent substitute…
Hurry up, summer… I need my desk back!

Hope you’re enjoying less apocalyptic weather where you are – my must-have summer accessory this past week has been my umbrella! What do you keep in your beach bag or backpack?

A Pint of Plain is Your Only Man!

Posted on June 28, 2016June 19, 2021 by crawcraftsbeasties in Crafting, Ideas, Knitted Beasties

Happy Tuesday, everyone!

Well, I promised you a new Beastie today, and here he is – another Barróg (that’s the Irish word for “hug”, if you haven’t seen it before) Beastie, proudly holding a pint of the very finest felt porter!

Some of you might be thinking, “Big deal! We’ve seen Pint Beasties before!”… But let’s take a closer look at that pint, shall we?
Here at Beastie Towers, we’re always on the lookout for new ways to make some of the Beasties’ favourite accessories! So I decided to put my recent obsession with needle felting to good use, and rework my existing pint design. You can see one of the old-style ones in this photo…

The stitched head on the pint has a tendency to pop up a little bit once everything is sewn together – fine for Eastern European lagers or some Belgian-style ales, but if your pint of Guinness looks like that when it’s served, you should probably send it back. Being something of a perfectionist/masochist/certifiable basket case, especially when it comes to the accurate portrayal of fine ales, I’ve been working on seeking out the perfect Beastie-sized pint. And that’s where the needle felting came in.

Behold! Smoother sides! A flatter top! And a texture that more closely resembles the creamy surface of a freshly-poured pint of the black stuff!

All that adds up to a better pint – and a happier Barróg Beastie! Cheers!

In fact, he’s so delighted that he’d like to share one of his favourite books with you… Now you’ll see where we got the title of this post from!

As for me, I’m looking forward to brewing some more reworked Beastie pints soon – I might try a nice red ale next, or perhaps a summery Weissbier. Any requests? Let me know in the comments!

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A Busy Beastie Weekend!

Posted on June 21, 2016June 19, 2021 by crawcraftsbeasties in Crafting, Explorer Beastie, Info

Wow! Once again, it’s been a busy old week here at Beastie Towers – so much for those “lazy summer days” I keep hearing about. Still, we wouldn’t have it any other way… Especially since Explorer Beastie and I were invited to TWO crafty parties this past weekend!

The first one was a complete surprise – in the middle of last week, we got an invitation to the official opening of a new fabric shop just across the river in Dublin 7. Of course, they had me at “new fabric”, but once I found out that The Fabric Counter was just down the road from the neighbourhood where I used to live when I first moved to Dublin, I had to go and check it out!

Explorer Beastie and I had a great time looking through all the fabrics and trimmings… ALL OF THEM.
There’s also plenty to keep upholsterers and interiors enthusiasts entertained…
…Plus a selection of haberdashery, patterns and a few quirky details to help this lovely spacious shop feel more homely!
You can find out more about The Fabric Counter (including upcoming sewing classes) here, or why not pay them a visit in person?

Thanks so much to Cayeleen for inviting us, and good luck with your new store! Cheers!
And that’s only half the story! Saturday was World Wide Knit In Public Day – a perfect opportunity to catch up with some fellow woollyholics in my local yarn shop!
The Constant Knitter is right in the heart of Dublin’s antique quarter in Francis Street, and is surrounded by galleries, independent cafés and quirky boutiques. Since I’m all about embedding maps today, you can find them here…

… Or non-Dubliners can browse their selection of yarny goodness online!

The Knit in Public event was organised by Dublin Knit Collective, and although I will knit in public pretty much any day of the year, it’s unusual for me to get the chance to knit in company! I had loads of fun chatting with other knitters – including some I hadn’t seen in years – and enjoying lashings of tea and cake!
(In case you were wondering, I tested this cake thoroughly and can confirm that it was as good as it looks!)

There were also PRIZES!
Better yet, I actually won something! (This is NOT normal!) I picked up a lovely Stolen Stitches pattern in the raffle, which I will use as my motivation to someday try my hand at lace knitting.

For the less lazy knitters, there was a speed knitting competition as well – you can find out who won here – but most of us were just happy to take it easy.
Thanks to Dublin Knit Collective and the Constant Knitter for a fun morning!

After that flurry of activity, we’re probably going to put our feet/paws up and get on with some new Beasties over the next couple of days… but don’t forget to pop back in on Friday, when we’ll be catching up with some monster news from overseas! See you then!

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May in Beastie Towers

Posted on June 14, 2016June 19, 2021 by crawcraftsbeasties in Beastie Family, Info, Knitted Beasties

Wow, May was a busy month for us this year! It feels like the Beasties and I were on the go all the time, taking full advantage of all the fun and games that the crafting and blogging communities have to offer! So, today I’ve decided to follow the lead of Jem Arrowsmith Knits and Claireabelle Makes, and do a roundup of everything we got up to last month. I’d like to relive every moment in glorious technicolour – and hopefully it will keep you all entertained until I can share the top secret projects I’ve been working on lately behind the scenes!

First up, new arrivals! May saw the addition of two new Beasties to our worldwide monster family – another Diver Beastie and a sweet little Fairy Princess Beastie!
We also got updates from a few Beasties abroad – Antonello and Tiziana Beastie headed to Perugia with their Beastiekitty in tow, MiniBeastie discovered some appropriately teeny alpine plants at Wisley Gardens, and Finn McSpool settled into his new home in Portland, Oregon!
Oh, and of course Paddy and Plunkett were out and about!
But for once, they weren’t the only ones living the high life! Explorer Beastie and I ventured out of the Beastie Towers craft lab and learned about taking better photos, met some fellow bloggers over dinner and took some time out in the countryside!
We also enjoyed meeting up with some of our crafty colleagues – it’s always fun for me to talk shop with other people who find wool and fabric as compelling as I do, and Explorer Beastie likes making new friends too! Here he is hanging out chez Guadalupe Creations, and getting up close and personal with some felt viruses at Niki Collier‘s studio!
You’d think after that little lot, we’d be ready for a rest… but no! Here’s a taster of one of the Beastie projects we have in the pipeline for the coming months…
…AAAAAND I’m really excited to announce that, for the summer at least, I’ll be cutting back on the amount of time I spend in Other Work to focus more on all things Beastie! As well as working through my latest batch of commissions, I’m hoping to convert some of this extra free time into market appearances, testing out some new designs and, dare I say it, starting to get ready for Christmas! That, and we might finally squeeze in a holiday somewhere!

(I wish… :D)

We’ll be back on Friday with more monster shenanigans! See you then!

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A Sprinkle of Fairy Dust…

Posted on May 31, 2016June 19, 2021 by crawcraftsbeasties in Commissions, Crafting, Knitted Beasties

Hooray! It’s time to spread a bit of new Beastie magic here at Beastie Towers!

This friendly little monster may look like any other Beastie…
… But her accessories might give you a clue about her special secret identity!
Crown, sparkly wings, tutu, wand… Yep, I think we might have a Fairy Princess Beastie here!

All her accessories are handstitched and embellished by yours truly… Well, apart from the tutu. I’m proud to announce that, for once, I embraced 20th century technology and used my sewing machine for the waistband!

So, without further ado, let’s see how Fairy Princess Beastie’s outfit comes together.
Beautiful!

This little monster lady also marks another step forward in Beastie-volution – look at her paws, specially adapted to help her hold onto her wand without help.
As we’re now just heading into summer here in the northern hemisphere, Fairy Princess Beastie should definitely be warm enough in her elegant floaty skirt. But what happens when the weather starts to get colder again?

Don’t worry, Fairy Princess Beastie – we’ve got you covered!
I couldn’t resist knitting a couple of Beastie-sized sweaters in colours that would complement her lovely fuschia-pink skin tone. The blue one even has sparkles!

And of course, these open up all sorts of mix’n’matching possibilities…
This Beastie has already headed off to Germany, to help her new best friend celebrate her birthday! She made sure to bring along a gift, too… Beastie colouring-in pages!
Here’s wishing them lots of magical monster adventures together!

We’ll be back on Friday to share more tales of Beasties abroad… In the meantime, if you’d like a special monster friend of your own, give us a shout. We’d love to hear from you!

The Voyage of the "Beastie" - FocalHeart/CrawCrafts Beasties

Beasties Ahoy!

Posted on May 20, 2016June 19, 2021 by crawcraftsbeasties in Beastie Family, Commissions

Attentive Beastie fans will surely remember this guy from last Tuesday’s post! Diver Beastie headed off to join, of all things, a marauding crew of pirates across the water in the UK. Incredibly, his arrival coincided perfectly with his new pirate captain’s birthday… They even had a portrait photographer handy when they met for the first time!
As you can see, he made his journey in a treasure chest – I figured it was the best way to help him fit in.
It looks like he’s got on the Cap’n’s good side already!
I reckon it’s time to meet the rest of the crew! All aboard the good ship Beastie!
Pirate Beastie is on the lookout for treasure in the crow’s nest, while Diver Beastie has found himself a comfy seat in the stern…
It looks like the hold is already packed with pieces of eight… But is any pirate likely to pass up the opportunity to find MORE TREASURE?

Nope, I didn’t think so! Off we go!
But wait a second – the ship seems to be riding low in the water. What’s going on here?
Eeeeeek! A stowaway! Looks like Pint Beastie might have had one too many bottles of grog and fallen asleep in the hold. Well, it’s probably too late to turn back now, so… Congratulations Pint Beastie! You’re the newest member of this happy band of buccaneers! Now it’s time for them all to sail off in search of adventure – and yes, more treasure!
Who knows where this boatful of brigands will wash up next?

Thanks to Noémie at FocalHeart for sending me her photos, including some taken by the Cap’n himself! All of us here at Beastie Towers love to see how our monster friends around the world are getting on.

As usual, we’ll be back on Tuesday – stop by to find out what Explorer Beastie and I have been up to over the past week! And in the meantime, have a great weekend!

Explorer Beastie at the Etsy Offices - CrawCrafts Beasties

Ready for your Closeup?

Posted on May 17, 2016June 19, 2021 by crawcraftsbeasties in Crafting, Explorer Beastie, Info

Explorer Beastie and I have been quite the social butterflies recently – we started with the Irish Blogger Conference at the end of last month, and then last week found us hanging out at the Etsy offices in Dublin city centre! We were there for a one-night Product Photography Course, organised by the Etsy Ireland team. When I heard they were running this, I jumped at the chance to go – my own Etsy shop has a hard time competing with my market setup, so I was hoping to pick up some tips to make it a more fun place to visit!

That, and Etsy’s HQ is an excellent place for an adventurous Beastie to explore…
Once everyone had arrived, and helped themselves to some cake…
…We got started! We all had a chance to introduce ourselves, and talk about what we make, and then we tackled the tricky subject of lighting.

We’re always told that it’s best to take photos in natural light, but in Ireland this poses something of a problem. I’m certainly guilty of holding out for a sunny day to take my pictures, and it seems I’m not the only one! Even in the middle of summer, a rainy day here can mean really limited daylight… and correspondingly dark and unimpressive pictures! Some of the others also pointed out that it’s difficult to get consistency in a set of photos, because natural light changes so much from season to season – or sometimes from one minute to the next! Gaaaah! How do you fix this?

Why, you build a lightbox of course! So we did – well, two of the team members took on the task of transforming a simple cardboard box (free from your local supermarket) into a glamourous miniature photoshoot setting!
Here it is, being used as a backdrop for a couple of beautiful Brookwood Pottery mugs! If you’d like to have a go at making your own, YouTube is just brimming over with “how-to” videos… We watched this one before we started. And most of the things you’ll need are either free, cheap or something you’ll already have at home! We all had fun testing it out, too…
…And here’s Cheerleader Beastie enjoying her moment in the spotlight, as Explorer Beastie watches admiringly from the sidelines!
But of course, he couldn’t resist the lure of the limelight…
The light in this lightbox still has a bit of a pinkish hue, but this can be fixed by using daylight bulbs instead of standard lightbulbs. Javier from CartabanCards showed us another way to make a lightbox, this time using LED camping flashlight tubes and pieces of a simple slot-together storage unit. I think the lighting in this one works much better for showing off Beasties in their best light!
Doesn’t Explorer Beastie look handsome? And look at how well this setup worked for this stunning vintage-style doll’s dress from DinahsDolls…
… And how it makes the colours pop in Maeve Croly‘s embroidery sample!
All in all, we had a great time and learned loads! It was super to make contact with some other local Etsyans as well, and swap tips and stories. I’m especially interested to try out Snapseed, which allows you to edit photos on your phone or tablet!

Thanks to the Etsy Ireland team for organising the course, and especially to Claire from mIrishDublin and Javier for teaching us! Claire also put together an Etsy treasury afterwards featuring some of the goodies from each of our shops… if you’re in need of a treat for someone (or for yourself), you could well find it there!

We’ll be back on Friday to check up on a Beastie abroad… in the meantime, if you have any top photography tips of your own please share them with us in the comments!

Have a great week!

Who's That Beastie? - CrawCrafts Beasties

In Search of Sunken Treasure…

Posted on May 10, 2016June 19, 2021 by crawcraftsbeasties in Commissions, Knitted Beasties

Regular visitors to the BeastieBlog might remember Pirate Beastie, who went to live with Pirate-in-Training Thom last Autumn.
They’ve been having some great adventures together ever since – they even got to meet Captain Jack Sparrow at Hallowe’en! But it seems like these two daring buccaneers have run into some difficulty lately – namely, how do you get at treasure that’s trapped in a sunken shipwreck?

So a special request was put in, and this little monster answered the call!
Um, can you really get down to the ocean floor like that? Where’s all your Beastie dive kit?

Oh, super! There it is. Don’t forget your flippers, too…

And now it’s time to put it all together! First of all, he has a belt with a felt dive knife…

…Then it’s time to put on the flippers!

His oxygen tank is mounted on the back of his BCD (buoyancy control device, the black vest-like thing), and it’s connected to his regulator and dive mask…
…So it’s really easiest to put everything on at once!

And that leaves just one more thing to do – a little research on some of the interesting creatures he may encounter on his underwater travels!

(Diver Beastie is reading “Unusual Creatures – A Mostly Accurate Account of Some of Earth’s Strangest Animals” by Michael Hearst. Great fun for those of us interested in nature’s oddities!)

I can’t wait to see how this Diver Beastie settles into his new home. And thanks to Noémie from FocalHeart for welcoming another Beastie into her family!

Don’t forget that Friday posts are back, so we’ll see you later in the week for more Beastie antics with Paddy and Plunkett!

RED-dy, Steady, GO!

Posted on April 19, 2016June 19, 2021 by crawcraftsbeasties in Knitted Beasties

I promised to introduce you to a new Beastie today, and here he is! Fresh from the Beastie barber, it’s… Redhead Beastie!
If I asked you to describe what a “typical” Irish person looks like, chances are that bright red hair would feature in there somewhere. Here in Ireland nearly half the population carry the gene for red hair, and around 10% of Irish people have hair that falls in that auburn-to-strawberry-blonde range. So I thought that a Barróg Beastie (my most Irish Beasties, made from 100% Irish wool) with luscious fiery locks would be an excellent addition to the family here at Beastie Towers!
I used a wool and mohair blend yarn to get the perfect combination of vibrant colour and awesome curls – which means this Beastie’s hair is enviably soft and strokable!
This little monster also insisted on getting his own teeny Aran jumper. Oh, okay then.
(Any excuse…)Sharp-eyed readers will notice the lovely bright green stripes on this dark green Beastie’s legs, too – a perfect colour combination for this time of year. The trees here are bursting with fresh spring leaves, and Dublin seems to be getting greener by the hour!
I still have a few Barróg Beasties to kit out with accessories, so you’ll get a chance to meet them soon! And don’t forget to pop back next Tuesday, when we’ll be seeing what Paddy and Plunkett have been up to lately…

Enjoy your week!

Hooray! New Beasties!

Posted on April 5, 2016June 19, 2021 by crawcraftsbeasties in Knitted Beasties

We’re taking a leap forward in time on the BeastieBlog this week – after meeting a prehistoric proto-Beastie in the last post, you’re probably ready for something new and exciting! So here they are… the first two Barróg Beasties of 2016!

For anyone who doesn’t yet have a working knowledge of the various species of Beastie out there, Barróg Beasties are a subspecies native to the island of Ireland. Their skin is made from 100% Irish wool, and they can be recognised by their slightly smaller size (we Celts are generally a diminutive people) and their typically Irish accessories… Like Irish humans, they’re prepared to travel pretty much anywhere, but they always like to bring a piece of home with them. And that word “Barróg”? That’s Irish for hug, which seemed to sum these friendly little monsters up perfectly!

So, first up from this pair is Aran Beastie!
Remind you of anyone?
I’ve noticed that a lot of Irish knitwear companies have started to think outside the woolly box lately, and make traditional-style Aran sweaters in colours other than cream! So I thought I would hop on the bandwagon myself, and give this Beastie a jumper in fresh spring green…
And as for his friend…
Meet Leabhar Beastie! “Leabhar” is the Irish word for “book”, and this literary little monster has taken on quite the reading challenge…
Yes, that is a hand-embroidered copy of the rambling Beastie yarn “Spin-egans Wake”… This monstrously convoluted, near-impenetrable book is loosely based on James Joyce’s novel “Finnegans Wake”, often cited as one of the most difficult, complex pieces of fiction ever written. In fact, there’s a book group in Cambridge, Massachusetts who have been reading “Finnegans Wake” for the last 18 years! They’re currently on their second read-through, which began in 2010… Their first reading took 13 years. I wonder if we’ll have to set up a book club here to help Leabhar Beastie tackle his own literary adventure?He seems to be getting on fine so far though – just look at that contented smile.

There will be more new Beasties joining these two soon… And tune in next week to see another hidden Dublin treasure with Explorer Beastie! See you then…

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