Friday Pattern Collective: GotG-Inspired, part 2

When I was three my aunty presented me with a choice. She put two well-wrapped gifts in front of me: one was thin and a little taller than the other, while one was plump and wider. I chose the taller one and still remember making that decision so my younger sister, then eighteen months, could have the bigger one. This turned out to be my first memory and it’s one I remember vividly.

I mention this because the tall thin gift was a Steiff raccoon who bore a tag on his belly proclaiming his name to be ‘Raggy’. I still have him in the bed right now. He began a lifelong adoration of the maligned creatures.

Rocket may not know what a raccoon is but he steals the show nonetheless. Even seeing the Guardians of the Galaxy trailer made it clear we would all love him. More surprising was Groot, the pure-hearted tree creature who is a surprisingly dazzling dancer. Between them they took our hearts and in return I give them patterns.

As ever I don’t own these patterns and all the photos come from the Ravelry project page for illustration of their loveliness. Go peruse. They’re gorgeous.

Raccoon Scarf Crochet Pattern

by Bees Knees Knitting

The first time Rocky sees someone wearing this he almost fell straight over onto the fugitive he just caught at the pizza place. When he saw the same item later he was flattered and a little disturbed. I mean, who does that? Really big fans of Rocket, that’s who!

Rocky Raccoon

by Sweet N’ Cute Creations

Want your very own Rocket to hug? Yeah, me either; that sounds potentially painful. But maybe we could keep one of him at a safe distance. It’s easier to keep an eye on him that way. The only thing this cute little crocheted raccoon needs is a massive gun and maybe some blood stains.

Magischer Baum

by Regina Satta

Groot cares. He may not have the words to say so but he protects those who are close to him. Honour that protective nature with these socks with beautiful leaves and winding vines. Sure, Groot wouldn’t be able to wear them, but he’d like them anyway.

Tree of Life Mittens

by Janel Laidman

Considering Groot’s role in the film (trying not to be spoilery here…) he definitely deserves the title of Tree of Life. These mittens, aside from representing Groot in a very elegant way, are thoroughly gorgeous.

While typing up this post I got the mental image of Rocket sitting down to knit something using needles created from Groot’s wood. This image will stick with me.

These two characters made the movie for me so I hope you enjoyed some patterns representing them. Stay tuned next week for some Captain Marvel-eque patterns, purely because Carol Danvers is freaking amazing!

Friday Pattern Collective: GotG-Inspired, part 1

Who’s been to see Guardians of the Galaxy yet?

If you have been already, I won’t be surprised if you loved it. The oddball choice confused me when they announced it and yes, it annoyed me a tad when they still haven’t made any prominent female-centric Marvel movies in this run. However, Captain America 2 was basically the Black Widow, Falcon, and Fury Movie With That Steve Guy A Bit so that placated me somewhat.

Then we went to see Guardians of the Galaxy and were treated to a couple hours of hilarity, sadness, beautiful graphics and hilariously inappropriate music.

There aren’t many patterns out for the franchise on Ravelry as it’s so new. Instead I’m going to put together a collective of patterns representing each of the characters and the movie as a whole.

To accurately represent their awesomeness, Rocket and Groot will be getting their own (combined) post next Friday. Stay tuned for tree and raccoon themed hilarity.

As usual, these patterns are not my own and the photos are taken from the Ravelry pages to illustrate their awesomeness.

Star-Lord

Cassette Tape iPod Cover

by owlinstitches on Ravelry

Of course Quill would need to make this pattern slightly larger to shove in his cassette player but that’s fine. After many long nights in space he has had plenty of time to hone his knitting skills so adapting a pattern will be nothing. On top of that, there’s something pleasingly meta about putting a cassette player in a cassette player pouch.

Gamora

Green Goddess Socks

by Nancy Whitman

Above all things Gamora is practical. She does not have time for things like dancing or cold feet. Though she may be swayed (literally) on the first thing, the second is a no-go. These socks will blend in to her skin tone and are just as weirdly classy as she is.

Drax

Snowbound Hat

by Justyna Lorkowska

Drax has a lot of bald head going on and let’s face it, our guys are unlikely to stick entirely to the temperate zones. Perfect for when Drax takes a trip somewhere with snowfall this hat will keep the chill off him and the subtle design will complement his tattoos nicely.

The House of Geeks

Say you put two geeks in a house and tell them to make it their own. What do you think will happen?

My girlfriend and I have been living together for over a week now, but we cohabited for the entirety of 2012 too so we’ve had some practice. The most stressful transition by far has been trying to figure out which comics to keep and which to ditch for now on our budget. I instantly said I wanted to keep:

1. Black Widow
2. She-Hulk
3. Ms. Marvel
4. Captain Marvel

They are my favourite comics apparently, or at least the ones that mean the most to me. Because if pressed I would say Matt Fraction’s Hawkeye is my favourite. We’re keeping that too, along with Young Avengers and Iron Man. But it’s the female-fronted comics that mean the most to me because not only do they have good stories (at least these ones do, especially Ms. Marvel) they also stand for increased diversity in Marvel comics and I’m a feminist as much as I’m a nerd.

Aside from masses of comics, there are a few other signs around the house that we might be of a geek persuasion.

Hawkeye and Cyclops are hanging out there happily. If we had a little more cash during our trip to Toronto on our 4 year anniversary, I’m sure my girlfriend would have brought home the Daryl (from Walking Dead) bust we saw at the Silver Snail.

In terms of knitting, I’m currently job-hunting (read: unemployed) so I’ve had a little extra time. I’m most of the way through a bright pink sock for my girlfriend which really just shows how much I love her since I really, really don’t like knitting with pink. The only one who has been granted such an honour before was my little sister who is awesome.

The pattern is Hermione’s Everyday Socks by Erica Lueder. If you’ve been on Ravelry you’ve seen them; they’re the most popular sock pattern, at least in the free category which is all I can look at until I get a job. It’s such a simple pattern but very satisfying.

As for the yarn, it was my last purchase from The Knit Studio in Newcastle. It’s Lang Jawoll Superwash in brain-searing pink which will go quite nicely with most of my girlfriend’s clothes, including her work uniform. And I’m the feminine one.

In a final bout of exciting news, I finished the Avengers blanket of doom. It took me a year but I did it. I also realised I spent about three months knitting the thing and then, in an absolutely nonsensical chain of events, took nine bloody months to sew it together and weave in the ends. I never thought of myself as one of those knitters but apparently I am.

I’ll be posting pictures of that next week when I can talk someone into helping me. It’s almost as tall as me.

Pattern Gathering: Bookmarks

As often happens when you’re in the middle of something big that should be taking up all your time, I spent a lot of time reading as a good escape from worrying about going through immigration in Canada. There are so many things I want to read at the moment that I can’t swallow books quickly enough.

In case you’re wondering, immigration was surprisingly easy.

In honour of reading, my first and most long-running love, I’ve collected a few awesome patterns to show you guys. Go check them out and all the others, too, since Ravelry is full of amazing ones.

Squashed Rat Knitted Bookmark

I have a sick sense of humour. This has tickled me greatly even though I love rats.

It is by Amalia Samios and is a $3.50 USD over here.

And it’s not even the only one of its ilk.

Flat Rat Knitted Bookmark

This one is by the designer Susan Glinert Stevens.

This one’s free! I love the little pokey noses.

If you’re not such a fan of the rodents, how are you with snakes? Look at the face on this mister and tell me that you can resist him. Go on, I dare you.

Crochet Snake Bookmark

By Little Owl’s Hut on Ravelry, $3.75 USD. You can try the first page free.

I think that’s a really lovely idea if you’re not sure on a pattern. It will reel people in.

This designer has all sorts of fabulous patterns. I’d recommend looking them up.

Crocheted Granny Bookmark

Now here’s something a little more traditional. Granny squares are classy (in moderation) and they’re easy, too.

Look how cute this one is in a variegated yarn. AND it’s free!

That should get you started. I’d recommend having a look at all the cute bookmarks you can find on the Ravelry pages; just think how perfect they would be for quick gifts. Most of these I plan on making for myself, though. Selfish knitting and all that.

Of course 90% of the time I try knitting something for myself and it ends up being for someone…

Friday Pattern Collective: Hitchhiker’s Guide

DON’T PANIC.

Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy was one of the first super geeky things my Dad suggested to me. Let’s just say that my Dad is the reason I believe in the geek gene – we have very similar obsessions with very nerdy things (and we both yell at politicians on the TV, but that’s another story). It is very close to my heart because of that.

Here are some glorious patterns I’ve stumbled upon while looking for awesome things.

Babel Fish

Picture copyright and pattern here – Ravelry link

Fancy being able to understand all known languages? Yeah, I thought so. Just squish one of these little beasts in your ear and you’ll be chatting to penguins in no time. (Um, don’t actually do that though… penguins are mean.)

Hitchhiker Shawl

Picture copyright and pattern here, Ravelry link.

This is one of the first shawls I knitted, though I never actually finished it so it really doesn’t count. I think it was the first (set of) patterns I ever downloaded. They’re simple and versatile and great for beginners. The Hitchhiker pattern is the most popular pattern on Ravelry at the moment and the others in the collection are lovely too.

Marvin Knitted Plushie

From here.

Life? Don’t talk to me about life. How about you cheer up these grumpy little plushie with a good cuddle?

Marvin Crocheted Pattern

Picture copyright and pattern here, Ravelry link.

Don’t knit? Still want to make a depressed robot? Here you go then. A crochet alternative.

Finally: A Picture Post!

So it came to pass that the people did gather around an indoor tree piled high with generous gifts and then did celebrate the acquisition of new shiny things with the consumption of copious amounts of food. Yes, Christmas has been and gone (thank goodness) and it’s time to wind down from the crazy-fast knitting most knitters dread.

I kind of love it though.

This year I didn’t gift presents to just anyone. Not handmade ones. My departure from Canada and my charming girlfriend coincided horribly with the lead up to giftmas so my energy was limited.

Still, I have tiny relatives to indulge. Beware the brilliance of crappy iPhone photos. (The worst part is it’s not even my iPhone… I am burdened with a Nokia held together with masking tape.)

My niece is a little cutie. I crocheted her a scarf out of hot pink malabrigo.

It’s easy to knit and crochet for most little girls thanks to the awful pink stereotype. I try to avoid it the majority of the time – there are so many other colours out there! – but I had the perfect amount of malabrigo leftover from another project and I couldn’t resist the snuggability.

Find the pattern here on Ravelry.

This failed.

My first attempt at a sweater seemed to be going wonderfully. I was knitting at a rate of knots (har har har) and I finished the pocket and body in no time. However the rest of the pattern was horribly vague and assumed previous knowledge of knitting raglan sweaters which I did not have at that time. After fretting a while I abandoned it and started again with only a week to go until Christmas.

Find the pattern here on Ravelry.

Somehow I managed this without completely destroying all of my tendons.

I succeeded! This may be my proudest creation. I got to squish my nephew in it and it was glorious. It’s nothing special in terms of yarn (there’s not much variety around here, especially if you’re skint as I am) but it’s soft and easy to care for which is important for toddlers. Jayden is a bit fussy (understatement) so I’m glad he wore it all day without complaining.

Honestly I still can’t believe I knitted this in less than week. Best thing is my almost-forgotten aim for 2012 was to knit a sweater. Level up!

Find the pattern here on Ravelry. As you can see I completely ignored the colourwork.

I also knitted a cowl for my sister but forgot to get photos of that. Aside from the above (and a leaf scarf for a dear friend of which I have no photographic proof) I didn’t give any other handmade gifts.

Well, not until I spent all of Christmas Day knitting.

This hat was originally meant to be for me…

…but ended up being filched by my big sister.

It turns out I can knit an entire hat in a day if I’m avoiding thinking about the fact I’m thousands of miles away from the person I adore on Christmas Day. I got this done in about six hours I’d say, maybe a little more. I spent a huge chunk of the day with the yarn at my side. When I finished, my sister had expressed such adoration for it I just chucked it at her and said Merry Christmas. It’s nice to have a creation appreciated and I think it made her happy so that’s a little more important than keeping my ears warm!

On Boxing Day I settled down to knit through slightly awkward human communication as is my wont. Also, it counted as a sort of physical exercise while I was eating my weight in cheese and Christmas Pudding (or that’s what I’m telling myself).

I got this done in the early evening and gave it to my mum who had expressed displeasure that Sandi had got a knitted hat and she hadn’t.

My mum seems pretty pleased!

The pattern for both these hats is wonderful and you can find it here. It’s the most popular hat pattern on the site and I can see why.

That’s a satisfying bounty if I say so myself, but I’m not done. Right now I’m sitting watching Avengers: Earth’s Mightiest Heroes which is a cartoon I’ve been coerced into watching by my girlfriend, not that I took much persuading and to occupy my hands I’m whipping up a hat for myself, since I gave away my store-bought bobble hat to my little sister who didn’t want to be left out. I started with a pattern but I seem to be thoroughly deviating from the plan. At the moment I’m deciding whether to keep it as a padded headband or whether to pick up some stitches and make it a hat. THEN I have to decide whether to make it fitted or slouchy!

It’s a hard life being an unemployed knitter.

I Made a Purchase

On Saturday I headed to The Little Green House in Whitby with a rather fabulous new friend to buy the yarn for my first wearable garment (Coachella, though I’m doing a modified version found on Ravelry). It took a while to pick the yarn of course. I went with Cascade 220 Superwash in a greeny-blue flecked colour. I’m quite pleased with it and apparently I really like Cascade yarns. The last three projects I’ve done have been by them.

Like this one, a scarf made of lovely rich red cotton.

They had a little workshop going on where, for two dollars, you could try out needle felting and jewellery making. We decided to go ahead and try it, resulting in a cute needle-felted bookmark (or potential cat toy) and a pair of earrings. I spent rather too long trying to find the right beads and now I want to do this all the time.

Bad idea. I have enough hobbies already that I struggle to decide what to do when I have a moment not working.

Still, maybe one day I’ll have even more free time and can do it.

I’ll start hoarding any pretty beads I find just in case.

Anyway. At this point it was time to go and pay for my yarn, which was 15% off like everything in the store. Very exciting. I picked out some cotton to make more washcloths with and then looked for circular needles in the size I needed. Alas, there were none.

Except… well, except a set of KnitPro interchangeable needles that were, before discount, around $70. I picked them up. I stared. I wandered back upstairs to see my friend. I gave in and went back downstairs, debit card in hand, and put the cotton back as if that would somehow make a huge difference on the price. Fortunately this paycheque I had a little extra to spare so I don’t feel too badly about it.

From my excitedly blurry photo you may deduce I was definitely not feeling badly about it. Holy crap I am so in love with these needles. One is broken, but Martina from the store is replacing it when she can. This does not deflect from the glory of these needles. Knitting on them is delightful. They’re smooth and slick and pretty. The cords don’t twist like my cheap plastic grey circulars. There’s lots of sizes and lengths and I am SO EXCITED.

So I cast on my Coachella. I’m about 25 rows in now and getting more and more excited the further I go.

These needles? Definitely worth it.

What I Do In My Free Time: A Picture Post

I knit Dalek washcloths and discover that knitting bobbles is a pain in the arse (but worth it).

From the pattern EXFOLIATE!

I make smoothies out of vanilla organic low fat yoghurt, frozen organic blueberries and cherries, plus a big slightly overripe banana. Oh, and cardamom and cinnamon which these days I put in everything, especially milk.

I knit socks for my girlfriend. These were done a while ago and are much prettier in person; unfortunately my camera is shite. It’s Tosh Sock yarn so very soft and comfortable, or so I’m assured. I didn’t use a pattern and successfully did kitchener stitch which made me rather smug.

I continue matching my nail varnish to my knitting projects.

This scarf got frogged since I couldn’t be bothered with the lace any longer – it wasn’t pretty enough to hold my attention. I knitted a different thing with the yarn which I shall be sharing at a later point. I also plan to write up the pattern which is quite simple but I love it.

The nail varnish is called ‘Keep It Real’. Yeah, man. Innit.

Yes I did hunt down the perfect colour to go with this yarn.

Me and my girlfriend buy fish to stop ourselves adopting a cat instead.

Honestly though we’d have got the kitten if he hadn’t been adopted while we were busy watching Hunger Games at the AMC. Which was fabulous by the way.

Saturday I am going to Kniterary (The Little Green House in Whitby) and buying the yarn for my first sweater, plus some more of the cotton above for another project.

Now back to knitting a washcloth decorated with leaves.

Vintage Knitting Magazines Amuse Me

Knitting is such an old tradition it would be strange, nay, insane not to dip one’s toe into the history of it. Especially if you are a bit of a nerd. Sometimes I read up on the ancient history of it; I enjoy feeling like the latest knit stitch in the vast fabric of life. Today though I’ve been reading a little closer to home.

You see, my good friend Frankie gave me some vintage Vogue Knitting Books. I’m not sure when they’re from but the prices are displayed in shillings and pence, so it’s been a while. At

first glance, I’d say sixties at the very latest but probably earlier. So far I can’t find a single date anywhere in the rather tattered and well-loved magazines. Laziness stops me from trying too hard.

Who needs to be precise when they’re full of amazing gems of a time gone by? I’m not even talking about the knitting patterns which are generally quite shapeless and stiff-looking. No, I’m talking about the adverts. The awkwardly posing women with heavily-lined eyes and bright red lips looking vaguely amused at the cameras. Serious-looking men with big watches. Some of them have cigarettes. Even more astoundingly, some of the women have wrinkles.

The adverts are usually quite wordy and laced through with rather forceful heterosexuality. Take a gander at this example, shown below a jaunty couple sporting rather ugly jumpers (sweaters for you North Americans):

“Here’s Wendy M1 the super-speed quality that beats everything in sheer speed and ease of knitting . . . a superb pure wool that’s new, modern and exciting to use as the new M1 Motor-way itself.
In a couple of evenings you can now knit this glorious, open air sweater which is all the vogue for outdoor occasions – and has a carefree fascination for chilly days within. Chunky. Bulky. Deliciously warm. Knit it in that special colour he loves to see you wearing. And what better than to knit him one too!”

And it’s only 8d post free!

That was from the 59th in the series. I have another one that’s much earlier – 37th. Some of the designs are quite pleasant in an angular sort of way. Obviously this edition was published before the prohibition of visible waistlines.

Most of the adverts are illustrations rather than photographs. One picture has an impossibly thin woman reclining over a slightly nonsensical attempt at literary seduction:

“On being Sophisticated.
An obvious but unaffected air of quality with a nonchalant acceptance of current fashion lines is essential.
The unselfconscious air of quality in Marriner’s Heritage wool places it way up top and the latest fashion trends in Marriner leaflet design show the way to sophistication.”

Perhaps they were hoping to stun their audience with the sparkling (and repetitive) vocabulary so that they don’t notice the complete lack of substance. Which, to be fair, is the general idea of most advertising.

One column advises customers to enquire to “J. & W. Bastard Ltd. at Frog Island Mills”. Teehee.

BREAKING NEWS! I found a date as I was scanning the tiny print for more hilarity. The 37th is from 1950. That’s the earliest I have. The others are the ccc45th, 51th and 59th. By flicking through the magazines you can see time ambling casually by. Restrictive women’s underwear slowly disappears, abandoning the defined waist somewhere in the 51st edition. There are fewer ads for baby-related products the further you step into the latter half of the twentieth century. Nylon is introduced to wool and they hit it off right away, embarking on a glorious and long-lasting romance that ends in fabulously wearable sock yarn. Everyone faints as machine knitting becomes popular, a sure sign that we’ll be living on the moon a few years later.

And, over half a century later, I get to sit here (on Earth, since there’s no yarn on the moon) giggling and sharing it with you.

New Year’s Resolution

So here’s my knitting resolution for 2012:

Knit a sweater.

Yeah. Pretty simple, but I’m determined to do it. I’m going to work up to it in a couple of stages since I usually tend to jump into things and rip them back twenty times before I get anything acceptable and I don’t want to do that this time.

First up, I’m going to knit a little baby cardigan for my nephew who is two years old. This way I use a whole lot less yarn and yet get to understand the structure of the thing. I’ve had my eye on this jumper for a while for Jayden and I’m sure he’s going to look adorable in it.

Isn't it cute?

Once this is done and once I understand the construction and logic behind knitting something this shape, I’m going to take a giant leap and knit something for myself. It’s going to have to be something simple and not too fitted – or at least something with a lot of ease, since I have a very defined body type (read: I have big bra size and a small waist). I may be able to find something easy to adjust but I’ll probably just find something quite stretchy in construction.

One creation I’ve been thinking about for a while is this charming and very simple pattern from Knitty:

Isn't it lovely?

Of course, I have a tendency to make things for other people even when I intend it to be for myself so the chances are it’ll end up being for my girlfriend. Besides, she’s smaller than me so I can make it with a little less yarn! See me and my devious ways… I’ve groped handled Debbie Bliss Cashmerino Aran yarn before in a store and it is lovely so ideally I’d like to knit it with that. However, the pattern requires at least a thousand yards of yarn which is over half a mile of the stuff so it might have to wait until I have, y’know, a job.

Which hopefully shall be soon. Oshawa, here I come!

The final stage is going to be to knit something that DEFINITELY shall be for me. I’ve lusted after this for a long time and it’s one of the most popular patterns on Ravelry.

It’s the Owls sweater and it is SO CUTE.

Oh, the shiny goodness...

It uses less yarn (a minimum of 560, though for me it would be more – probably about 700, though I’ve lost a lot of weight so who knows what size I am these days) and it’s in bulky-weight yarn so it could be argued that I should do this before the previous. This is not just two knitted tubes like the other sweater though and the owls will be a challenge for someone like me who finds it difficult to keep track of rows and cables etc, which I shall be working on this year.

Owls it is then. By the end of the year, I want to have knitted this sweater. I want to be wearing it.

Can I just take a moment to be amused that ‘sweater’ comes more naturally to me than ‘jumper’ already and I’ve only been living in Canada for less than a month? Ditto on ‘eggplant’ instead of ‘aubergine’. I still struggle with the word ‘chips’ to mean ‘crisps’…

Back on topic. What are your projects you’re desperate to do this year? I’d love to hear what other people have planned!