knitting – Page 16

My Biggest Monster Challenge Yet!

Posted on April 28, 2015June 19, 2021 by crawcraftsbeasties in Beastie Family, Knitted Beasties

Regular visitors to the BeastieBlog will have noticed that I’ve been a little quiet of late. And for good reason! I’ve been inundated with commissions over the last month (what a nice problem to have!) and for fear of spoiling surprises, I haven’t really wanted to post any pictures. Now I’m finally in a position to start sharing the products of all my hard work, and I thought I’d start with Dog Lover Beastie.

Dog Lover Beastie was the brainchild of the very lovely Daphne, who I met at a market last month. She generously bought a pair of Beasties that day to give away as gifts, but she got in touch with me a few days later to see about getting one for herself too! As the proud owner of a gorgeous Old English Sheepdog called Crumble, she requested a Beastie kitted out with all the accessories she needs when she and her pooch head out for walkies. So I started out by making a pair of wellies, a grooming brush, a motivational bag of treats and a fetching scarlet polka-dot raincoat!

So far, a pretty standard day’s work here at Beastie Towers. But I figured that I could hardly have a Dog Lover Beastie without a dog… that would just be mean. So…

The dog is, of course, an Old English Beastdog – a very popular breed with Beastie owners! His lead can be unclipped from his collar, and that pink bone-shaped pouch attached to it is a bag dispenser – for, um, taking care of business. Dog Lover Beastie is one responsible dog owner!

Oh, and I also made a Beastdog-sized replica of Daphne’s dog’s favorite football, to keep him entertained.

But wait, folks! There’s more! Daphne’s also training to be a neurosurgeon, and she hoped that her Beastie could have some extra accessories that reflected this. Hey, no problem! All she needs is a sneaky costume change…

… And Neurosurgeon Beastie is ready for work! As you can see, she’s now sporting some hand-stitched felt scrubs…
… A pretty cotton scrub cap, and a felt head torch!

She may have a busy day ahead of her at the hospital… but she always has time to hang out with her pup after work.

And Daphne was kind enough to share photos of Dog Lover/Neurosurgeon Beastie in her new home! Here’s what happened when Crumble met his Mini-Me…

… And here are the two of them helping her out on the computer!

I’m looking forward to seeing the crazy canine capers they get up to!

We’re in a Treasury!

Posted on March 9, 2015June 19, 2021 by crawcraftsbeasties in Crafting, Knitted Beasties

In some ways, Etsy is great. It’s so massive, and I’ve spent many a happy hour looking through pages and pages of handmade goodies that are breathtakingly beautiful, unbelievably cute or laugh-out-loud funny. I love the idea that I can buy just about anything from just about anywhere without ever having to stir from the comfy couch in Beastie Towers… and that I have the power to run a market stall that remains open whether I’m at work, asleep or busily knitting away with some choice murder mysteries playing in the background.

That said, it sometimes seems VERY big. Like “playground on the first day of primary school” big. And that’s why it’s extra rewarding when a complete stranger not only finds your little shop in amongst all the thousands of others, but likes something enough to tell other people about it. So thank you, Terra K Chi, for including Gardener Beastie in your treasury “The Essence of Kawaii” – this is the first time a Beastie has made it into an Etsy treasury, and we’re all thrilled!

What’s Cooking at Beastie Towers?

Posted on February 22, 2015June 19, 2021 by crawcraftsbeasties in Knitted Beasties

Yes, you’ve guessed it… CUPCAKES! And not just any cupcakes… Baker Girl Beastie has mastered the art of making lovely little buns that are light, fluffy, fat-free and full of fibre! Of course, that’s because they’re made entirely from felt and polyester stuffing, but at least they look the part. Here, help yourself to an extreme close-up… YUM!

Baker Girl Beastie was created specially for Briege, whose company Bee’s Cakes makes divine cupcakes that would melt the resolve of even the most hardened dieter. If you need a Sunday morning cake fix, take a look at her Facebook page – after much deliberation, I decided that the chocolate ones with coffee buttercream were probably my favourite, but it was a close call!

Baker Girl Beastie has lovely copper coloured hair to match her new mum’s, and she’s made in Briege’s favourite colour combination of pink and purple. I came across this gorgeous rich aubergine shade in my local yarn shop – what a find!

She’s also wearing a sweet little floral-print dress (any excuse to pick up some new fabric!) with box pleats in the skirt to give it a bit of oomph…

…And eagle-eyed readers will also spot the little hand-embroidered bee motif on her apron!

Baker Girl Beastie arrived safely in her new home last week, and is apparently settling in well! I can’t wait to see what tasty treats she cooks up next…

Are any of you planning some Sunday baking? Let me know in the comments!

Have a cake-tastic weekend!

Is it a Bird? Is it a Plane?

Posted on February 2, 2015June 19, 2021 by crawcraftsbeasties in Knitted Beasties

No, it’s SuperKatie Beastie!

SuperKatie Beastie was commissioned as a gift for a girl called Katie who is super-into superheroes. Since I couldn’t choose just one superhero to Beastify for her (and because I have a mortal fear of copyright infringement), I thought it would be fun to make her own personal hero. And here she is!

Like all good superheroes, SuperKatie Beastie has a mask to keep her real identity a secret! And I had great fun designing a logo for her superhero costume, too…

As you can see, she also has a utility belt aaaaaand…

… a classy satin cape to help her fly!

Katie and SuperKatie Beastie met for the first time on Saturday. Since then, I have learned that this talented little monster is demonstrating an uncanny range of superpowers, including telekenesis! She also has a cover name (which I can’t reveal in case the forces of darkness are monitoring this blog) and has taken a day job as a vet. Oh, and her superhuman (or should that be superbeastie?) abilities came about after she took a school trip to a nuclear power plant and it was struck by lightning. That’s some origin story!

Hopefully Katie and SuperKatie Beastie will keep us up to date with their crime-fighting adventures… bad guys beware!

Beasties, Beans and Banners… My Market Day!

Posted on December 11, 2014June 19, 2021 by crawcraftsbeasties in Info, Knitted Beasties

Yikes! I can’t believe it’s been so long since I last posted something! I’ve been pouring all my days into preparing for my latest market, and it didn’t leave much time for anything else… between the knitting, stitching and coming up with some new ideas to freshen up my display, I’ve been somewhat reclusive these last few weeks!

But the madness is over, and now that I’ve taken a couple of days to catch my breath, tidy up the stray balls of wool and (GASP!) start my Christmas shopping, it’s really high time I sat down and shared all my news.

First of all, for any of you who haven’t stumbled upon the Beasties’ Facebook page yet, I’m proud to introduce my new Santa Beasties – freshly arrived from Lapland!

We’ve been experiencing some pretty polar-type weather here lately ourselves, so I’ve also been wrapping up some of my new Beasties in cosy hats and scarves…

…And I couldn’t resist making a Christmas Fairy Beastie to sit at the top of my Christmas tree!

But the surprise hit of the day was my new range of cuddly toy beans!

I got the idea for these from my friends Stephen and Yayoi. Before they picked out a name for their baby girl, they called her “Mame-chan”, which means “little bean” in Japanese. I thought it would be fun to make a little toy edamame (soy) bean from some lime green fleece fabric I had in my stash, and I actually sold a couple of “Mame-chans” at my pop-up shop back in May! For this market, I decided to add a couple more characters – a sassy pink Jellybean and a Chilli (or, more correctly, chilly) Bean with a woolly beanie hat and a big chilled-out smile. And the kids loved them! I’ll definitely be making more of these… I’ve already got a few ideas for some more beany friends!

While I was getting my team of Beasties and Beans ready to go, I started thinking about my display. A while back, a friend of mine suggested I make a banner to help make my stall more visible. I liked the idea, but hadn’t a clue what to put on the banner. Then finally, inspiration struck…

… and after an afternoon of literally watching paint dry in the freeeeeeezing underground car park of Beastie Towers, I came up with this!

I’m still trying to convince Boyfriend that this masterpiece of monster art deserves a place on our living room wall…

Aaaaand finally, something else I’ve wanted to do for a while is to try my hand at making some Beastie t-shirts. What better opportunity than the flurry of activity/panic that comes with preparing for an upcoming market? Since my mum had very kindly agreed to help me on the day, and had said, “Yes, I’ll wear anything!” I went ahead and created these…

And here I am modelling mine on market day! This won’t be the last time I wear this shirt… I kinda love it!

Thanks for stopping by… more Beastie adventures coming soon (I promise)!

My London Yarn Haul

Posted on October 16, 2014June 19, 2021 by crawcraftsbeasties in Crafting

By popular demand (well, one person asked… thank you, The Snail of Happiness, for this idea for a quick’n’easy blog post!) I thought it might be fun to share my recent yarny purchases – souvenirs from the trip Explorer Beastie and I took to London recently.

By the way, let’s keep these delectable fuzzy goodies a secret from the Beasties – I’m going to be using this yarn to make something for ME!

First up are a couple of skeins of oh-so-lovely Mirasol Sulka… a tasteful mix of merino wool, alpaca and silk. How could I leave THAT in the shop?

Try as I might, I couldn’t get the photos to show off the incredible glossiness of this yarn – but at least you can get a feel for the colours. I love the bright orange, and when I pair it with the super-classy raven’s-wing black it will really pop! That’s this autumn’s neckwear sorted, then.

Because funds and suitcase space were limited on this trip, I had to curb my (natural) impulse to buy one of everything in the store. After much deliberation, I chose this little beauty…

I Knit stock a range of their own hand-dyed yarns, which I wouldn’t be able to pick up at home, so that was all the incentive I needed to put a skein into my shopping basket. I picked this one because its cheerful yellow hues look like spun sunshine… perfect for getting me through the Irish winter!

Ready for the extreme close-up?

Lovely stuff!

If Explorer Beastie is very good, I might consider making him a scarf out of my leftovers… Here’s another photo of him with one of the dogs at I Knit, just to keep this post vaguely Beastie-related!

Has anyone else some classy yarns that I need to know about?

Wool! Needles! KNIVES!

Posted on September 22, 2014June 19, 2021 by crawcraftsbeasties in Knitted Beasties

Anyone who keeps up with the Beasties through Facebook will already know that over the weekend, my Mum got in touch with me to tell me that she’s been having trouble visiting the BeastieBlog lately. Why? Because her ISP is blocking this site due to its references to (and I quote) “VIOLENCE and WEAPONS”.

I’ve been so tickled by this that I couldn’t resist mentioning it in my post today… and using it as an excuse to do a retrospective of some of my choicest armed-to-the-teeth Beasties. Those of a sensitive disposition should probably look away now… Here we go!

First up is one of my early creations – Guerrilla Woolfare Beastie, who left Beastie Towers more than a year ago. Although he isn’t armed, he is considered highly dangerous… Just look at that incendiary literature he’s carrying around with him!

The new year ushered in a new crowd of bad-to-the-bone Beasties! We started out with Pirate Beastie, whose razor-sharp felt cutlass could probably do some serious damage…

…Then Ninja Beastie made an appearance! He refused to settle for “just” having a sword, and insisted I make him a pair of sai and a shuriken (throwing star) as well!

Oh, and then he called for reinforcements.

You’d think that would be enough, but…

…Soon afterwards, Rambo Beastie came to town. That’s a close-up of his knife in the picture at the top of this post – a lethal-looking piece of feltwork, I’m sure you’ll agree. And who could forget Viking Beastie, recently off the longship and ready for battle with his round shield and prestigious Ulfbeast sword?

Hmmm… is it possible that the powers that be are right? Even my Chef Beastie is carrying a knife!

I’d better keep an eye on these critters… if they weren’t so gosh-darn cute they could probably land me in some serious trouble!

Thanks for checking out BeastieBlog… officially the most violent knitting blog on the whole internet!

Making Sweet Beastie Music!

Posted on September 10, 2014June 19, 2021 by crawcraftsbeasties in Ideas, Knitted Beasties

Yes, I know Indie Rock Beastie already got a good bit of airtime in my post last week. But I figured that since he is currently involved in helping out with some fundraising, that more than justified giving him a second guest appearance on the BeastieBlog. Plus, we really didn’t get a chance to talk about his guitar.

Guitars are one of the most labour-intensive Beastie accessories to make… every piece is hand cut and hand sewn, and their small size makes this one fiddly task! Also, no two guitar-toting Beasties have ever been given the same instrument. My first one got a bright pink flying V…

…Then I had to make a more Robert-Smith-esque guitar for my Robert Smith Beastie!

I had originally intended to use the same basic template for Indie Rock Beastie’s guitar, but somehow it just didn’t look right. Since I am a stickler for such things/a masochist/insane (delete as applicable), I decided to embark on some research. And I came across this…
Gibson ES 325

(Image from en.audiofanzine.com)

It’s a Gibson ES325, as played (and, I found out later, smashed onstage in a fit of pique) by Kings of Leon frontman Caleb Followill. The one shown in the image above perfectly fitted with my idea of what Indie Rock Beastie should play… and the colour of the body rather conveniently matched some felt in my crafting stash too! How could I resist?

I started by modifying my template to reflect the deeper, more symmetrical shape of this guitar…

… and raided my scraps bag for teeny pieces of felt to make the details! When I’m cutting out felt, I always keep any offcuts – they’re so useful for projects like this one because I can trim them to the right shape by eye, rather than cutting out tiny circles and rectangles from a larger piece of fabric.

Once the guitar body was finished and lightly stuffed, the last stage is to add the strings!

These are run from underneath the piece of grey felt at the end of the guitar’s body, and tied off along the headstock. Then all that was left to do was to place it carefully in the paws of my finished Beastie, and let him do the rest!

Come dive with me…

Posted on August 6, 2014June 19, 2021 by crawcraftsbeasties in Info, Knitted Beasties

Every now and again, Beastie development takes a bigger-than-usual leap forward – often when I take on a commission, which pushes me out of my comfort zone and gets me thinking of new methods and accessories. And this was definitely the case with Diver Beastie! He taught me a lot about diving equipment, and encouraged me to experiment with some new materials in my quest to shrink human-sized tanks, regulators and dive masks to Beastie proportions. So, without further ado, I’m delighted to introduce Diver Beastie! Let’s take a look at all the cool stuff he has…

Diver Beastie lives in his wetsuit. You can just about see the snazzy yellow flashes down the side of his legs in this picture! The red thing hanging from his belt is a line cutter – although he’s also carrying a dive knife (inspired by every James Bond film I’ve ever seen), knives aren’t permitted in some diving sites. The line cutter is a safer tool, which can be used to cut through tangled or snagged lines. It’s always best to be prepared! Diver Beastie is also very proud of his watch/dive computer, which you can see on his left wrist. He also has…

… Felt flippers…

… An air tank…

… A dive mask and a regulator! Put all that together and you get…

One Diver Beastie, ready for action!

Then it was time to send him off to his new home… in Texas! He was very keen to swim there himself, but I managed to talk him out of it… the last thing I wanted was for him to end up as a shark’s lunch. Also, going by plane is a lot quicker. And it looks like he arrived safely! He now lives with two fellow diving enthusiasts, and enjoys borrowing their equipment…

…Marvelling at their enormous human-sized dive tanks…

… And scooting around in a conveniently Beastie-sized Landrover, which also came over from Ireland!

Thanks to Tracy for sharing photos of Diver Beastie in his new home! And to everyone else for keeping up with the Beasties and their adventures – talk to you again soon!

Exciting News!

Posted on July 29, 2014June 19, 2021 by crawcraftsbeasties in Info, Knitted Beasties

Oh dear! I have been a rather lazy blogger these last couple of months! But there has been a lot going on behind the scenes, and now I have news aplenty to share!

First of all, a while back I selected an elite Beastie crew, which included most of the monsters you can see in the picture above, and sent them off on a top-secret mission. After bundling them up in bubble wrap to protect them from the whims of the Irish weather (and also to keep them entertained on their journey)…

…and tucking them in with plenty of colourful tissue paper…

…we were ready to take a trip on the Dart!

The team was dropped off at a strategic location, and then all I could do was sit back and wait to hear whether or not their mission had been successful. There were tense moments, sleepless nights… but hurrah! On Friday I received word that all has gone according to plan.

And what was this top-secret mission, you ask?

Only a move into the world of high street and online retail! The lovely people at Opening Minds are now selling Beasties on their website, and will be introducing them into their Dun Laoghaire store in the next couple of days! I could not be more proud of my little monsters!

Meanwhile, all has not been quiet on the home front either. Because Beastie Towers has relocated! Beasties, Boyfriend and I have been settling into our new home in a surprisingly quiet part of Dublin’s city centre. We are now enjoying an unprecedented amount of natural light (excellent for making fiddly Beastie accessories), greenery and – SHOCK – birdsong instead of traffic noise! I’ve also finally been able to liberate the rest of my crafty supplies from storage, giving me so much more fabric and yarn to play with. I can’t wait to get started!

Speaking of which, my knitting needles are calling… I should have a heap of new Beasties to share with you soon!

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