Recently I have been mesmerised by the new studio Ghibli film Ponyo, the work of anime genius Hayao Miyazaki. Miyazaki's films are pieces of animated magic and well worth casting your eyeballs at. As Ponyo is a bit too new for a wave of crafty creatures to appear from its underwater depths I thought I would share this pattern for Totoro mittens I found while we wait.
My Neighbour Totoro is the tale of two tiny girls and a giant rabbit/cat creature that lives in the woods nearby their new house. It has inspired these amazingly cute Norweigan Totoro mittens by Ravelry's Brella.
The pattern is free to member of mighty knitting social network site Ravelry, so you'll need to sign in to get your claws on it. Signing up is free and the site is amazing so quite frankly if you're a knitter and not on Ravelry already you certainly should be.
There are also tons of other Ghibli goodies on there too. So go wild with your Mayazaki makings.
"Luuuuuuuuke, I crocheted your father..." was possibly what crafty crochet wizard Lucy Ravenscar uttered as she finally completed her excruciatingly cute Star Wars set. She'd be perfectly within her rights to break into an Ewok Celebration too as they're Death-Star-explodingly fantastic.
Lucy's creations make me suspect that she may have trained for many years on the swamp planet of Dagobah with some manner of hook-handling Yoda. Her Vader is dark and sweetly forbidding, her Ewok sports his hood at the perfect jaunty angle, her Chewie has his own man bag for keeping his stash of wookie essentials in, and her Han Solo has just the right amount of Devil May Care about his crocheted person.
You can buy the patterns for the characters individually from her Esty store or go wild and buy the whole set of patterns in one go.
May the force be with you and your crochet hook, Ms Ravenscar. Keep up the good work.
If you're a LOST fan then chances are you're, like me, knee deep in the Final Season, and have been running around a mysterious island being chased by a column of black smoke for the last month now. You know who you are. You have theory-battles over your cornflakes of a morning and you possibly use 'the numbers' for the lottery each week.
For all of us LOSTies with crafty leanings I've dug up a handstitched LOST cast to distract you in those empty days when you wait impatiently for the next episode.
Crafty McGee creates applique and embroidered LOST figures which she shows off along with her ideas on where the final season is heading. Warning: there are spoilers ahoy for those who haven't yet caught up with the island action.
You can see the process she uses to make some of her fabulous fibre figures here.
The figures are even backed with a Dharma-printed fabric she made herself. Something I fully intend to track down and make myself an entire wardrobe full of LOSTness with.
Inspired by this example of LOST craft dedication you could make your very own LOST ensemble. Acting out your own ending in the medium of felt and thread, with a stitched Sawyer and handmade Hurley, may be the only way of getting through when it's all over in May.
Is there nothing that the wonder of Lego cannot do? Those clever folks at Portland's Twisted yarn store have married the crafty beasts of Lego and yarn to create a robotic wool-slinging wonder: the Lego ball winder.
Witness as it spins and spins. Never again will those with access to bricks, a motor and a little ingenuity have to wind our own balls of yarn. Sit back and relax with a nice slice of battenburg and a cuppa as your Lego friend teams up with a yarn swift to do all your winding for you.
See the video of the winder here with a rather blurry preview of its first incarnation also available.
After it's done winding you can build yourself a Lego Godzilla and rain Lego lizard death and destruction on a carefully constructed Lego village too. Legotastic.
Those of you sitting on the cutting edge of technology (ouch) will no doubt be drooling into your keyboards watching adverts for Apple's shiny new iPad. Flying in the faces of those who prattle on about knitting being an art more apt for grannies and people who really should get out more, Lion Brand have released a pattern for a knitted iPad cosy before the product is even released.
The cosy pattern is adjustable too in case the iPad drastically changes in size when it hits the shops, and it's easy enough for even the least knitterly iPad user to stitch up. If anyone does find themselves in a bit of a tangle Lion Brand also have their own iPhone app.
You'll have to sign up to Lion Brand's website to get the iPad cosy pattern. No big hardship as the site has thousands of free knitting patterns to make it worthwhile.
We're sure you can knit it is less eye-aching yarn than the yarn pictured above. Knitting is all about being innovative. The parallels with knitting and Apple are endless.
Not bad for an 132-year old handknitting yarn company, eh? Yes, we're here, we're knitters and we'll have cosy iPads and know how to use them. Be very afraid, stereo-typing craft sneerers.
"Mmm hook you a home I will!" may possibly have been the very thought that was going through the head of current contender for the Geek Craft throne, Jatoha, who has used her awesome crochet hook powers (and possibly 'the Force' as well) to create a little handmade hut for her daughter's Yoda figurine.
The Yoda hut, complete with gnarled tree roots draped across the roof, was improvised by the crafter with a flap at the back so it can be used in a doll's-house style. It certainly looks like a cosy home for your plastic heroes, with a little light inside to give it that log-fire and meditation glow.
She's quick to point out that "It is NOT a dollhouse, it's for ACTION FIGURES, not dolls!!". Which is probably best as you really shouldn't go around calling anyone wielding a lightsaber a doll.
Unless you want to get your hand chopped off.
I don't know about you but I'm always under the impression, living in London with its underground unknown miles, that eventually a time-machine with a giant drill on the end will burst through the paving stones outside St Paul's, inflate into a dirigible and whisk me away to steampunk heaven. A place where everything is covered in cogs and pipes and smells like engine oil and incense.
When it does happen it helps to be ready for the event, and wouldn't you know it Instructables leap to the rescue once more with their Steampunk Airship goggles tutorial.
The goggles cost their creator less than $30 to make. Sourcing the bits sounds like a challenge too as you'll go from seeking charity shop leather shoes to plumbing couplers. All a bit steampunk before you even start crafting.
Watch out for those sneaky flying Glass Pirates though. They'll have them off your head if you don't keep them strapped tight during a sky battle.
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