Who doesn't love a bit of kooky crochet? Well whoever you are turn away now because Knot By Gran'ma has kooky crochet by the stashload, with free patterns to boot.
She makes painfully cute and often slightly unsettling weird but wicked wool-based beasts. Her creations include wailing ghosties, a disgruntled green frog, and bizarre fibre-freakshow people such as Jen the Tri-Headed Cheerleader. Her Etsy shop offers patterns and the option to buy some of her more complicated finished products.
There are also free pattens for you to try. Check out the boundless joy on the crocheted face of Johnny Heart and the rock-star fun fur of her Baby Bootie Socks.
Her blog offers links to useful crochet sites too. Encouragement for even the most unsure of happy hookers to get their own crochet creatures on the hook.
Marvel at stitched squid and handmade haddock when you cast your eyes over Stitchin' Fish. The project is an Ecology Action Centre celebrating the beauty, diversity and fragility of our Northwest Atlantic sea floor.
The project is based in Canada's Nova Scotia and features all kinds of fibre-based fish and stitched sealife. The very cool thing about the project is that the blog dips your brains in brine-based facts as well as showing you some fabulous sea creatures in craft form. You can find out what the world's largest seafloor organism is (Bubblegum trees!) or check out the (rather icky) underbelly of the Aphrodite aculeate, then marvel at its yarny doppelgänger.
It isn't clear if the project itself is still running but there is a huge list of links to all manner of fish-flavoured patterns (either free or on for sale online). So if you're up for crocheting a crab or breaking out some intarsia for some octopi it's the perfect resource.
Since the chill is still with us and looks set to stay all winter crafting something cosy looks like a good bet and the Crochet Me Retro Scarf pattern is perfect.
A Crochet Me reader spied the scarf in one of their newsletters and asked for a pattern. Hey presto the talented Marcy Smith put the pattern together for anyone who stumbles across it to use.
The scarf is done in diagonal stripes with repeats. The original pattern is from the seventies so it has a real retro look to it while still being simple enough for beginner hook-wielders to try out.
The full free pattern is on the Crochet Me site here. Easy, cosy and crafty; an excellent start to a bit of selfish crafting after all that Christmas craft you gave away.
Super Mario: what's not to love? Who wouldn't fall for the charms of a portly Italian plumber with a bristling moustache and bright red dungarees? He's got job security, he possibly has a nice holiday home back in his native land and he has the power to take out bad guys with a flick of the tortoise shell.
Well now you can drape yourself in one of the awesome little guys conquests with the geek chic Super Mario Piranha Plant Scarf.
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Carrier bags are soooooo last season when it comes to being green and crafty. Who on earth would be been piling their groceries into something with a shop name on the side when you could be chucking your cheese and chopsuey into your Linen Grocery Tote crocheted with your own fair hands?
The Purl Bee, Soho's swish little knitting shop, have come up with a lovely pattern for all your grocery tote needs and, as usual, it's free. Clear text and picture instructions lead you gently by the hook through the whole bag-creating process from the first stitches to handles.
Get practising telling the person at the check out that you have your own bag and don't require one of theirs. Feel free to look a little smug too. It is a lovely bag.
Let's face it, grannies are where it's at. They were getting down to the crafty life when we were still in nappies and many of us owe our crafting skills to stuff we have learned from them. Accused of being bit of a granny with my knitting I am rather pleased. To me it's a compliment. Both of my grannies are amazing ladies.
So when I stumbled across the Purl Bee's Granny Square Slippers I had to share. For a start the Purl Bee's patterns and tutorials are all kinds of amazing. They can make anything look stylish or sassy or cosy. Something I learned when I visited their shop Purl Soho in New York and wanted to stay there all day.
Wander over to the Purl Bee blog for the Granny Square Slipper pattern and don't blame me if you find a few more things you are desperate to make.
It's the time of year to monster yourself up and this is one of the coolest patterns I have seen so far. Bellana's Monster Hat and Craft on Craftster gives the wearer that 'just devoured by a bugged-eyed beast look'.
The pattern is fairly easy to follow and is a mixture of knit, crochet and embroidery so you're getting all your crafty skill in there at once.
The monster hat consists of a simple knitted tube which is sewn at the top; the eyeballs follow an easy crochet pattern, and the scarf is just knit and purl with a little crochet embellishment for those monster teeth.
Hop over to the Craftster site to see the full pattern.
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