Craftmas Gifts, '13; Do You Know Who Lives on the Moon?

As I mentioned in my previous blog, not all of the crafting side of Christmas revolved around the presents I gave. Indeed, given that I am now a 'master knitter' (or, more accurately, an obsessive knitter), it seemed appropriate for my family and friends to bequeath more knitty things upon me to keep me busy in the new year (and distract me from obtaining a degree, no doubt).
It'll only be short blog, this one, and mostly about upcoming/current knitting projects. No finished items, I'm afraid.

*Whistles*

Anyway, I found a book sometime in Autumn that I just had to get. Which book? Clangers of course! What else? An entire book on not only how to knit the family of pink moon-mice and the dragon of soup, but how to craft everything from their world. I mean, everything for the original 70s programme was handmade out of bits and bobs so the idea that everything can be crafted by yourself is only reasonable. I particularly like the pattern for the Iron Chicken (although my brother has requested I make him some Froglets; they're just made from orange painted beads and dowling for legs). The best thing about it? It's written by the show's original creators, so a more authentic set of patterns you could not get.

The real Small Clanger and Major Clanger

So my dad, a long time Clangers fan, decided he wanted a little, knitty family of the critters and decided to buy me said book for Christmas. But! Even better, I also received a 'Clangers kit'. Basically a box of all the supplies I needed (so, pink wool, the correct size needles and lots of felt for their clothes). It's one thing to receive a pattern you want, but it's definitely a bonus when you also receive the means to make it! This meant that a few days after Christmas I got underway with making Major Clanger. I've got a head so far (the head, body and legs are knitted in one long piece) and then got distracted by other crafty things (one which I will go into further in a later post, the other, a hooded scarf for myself as the weather is, well, typically, Britishly, miserable.)

Major Clanger thus far; looks a bit pig like.

It's a little difficult, to be honest. DK weight wool and 2.5mm needles? Crazy tiny. It's kinda cute though. Looking forward to the finished product (then I just have to repeat it four times more and the family is complete).

That wasn't all I got on the knitting front though. My boyfriend proved that men do listen, when it suits them, by buying me a pattern for the Lincoln Imp. The what? The Lincoln Imp. So you know there's a rather large (understatement) cathedral at the top of a somewhat steep (an even bigger understatement) hill in the City of Lincoln? Well, there's one part of the internal masonry that doesn't quite match; it's all flowy, swirly bits and what looks like plumes of... Flowers? Thistles? I don't really know. Cathedral stuff. Anyway, amidst all of this there is a small impsish creature, sat on one leg and grinning. Legend goes that two imps were sent by the Devil to wreck havoc upon the cathedral. Here they got up to various mischievousness, breaking things, tripping up bishops, generally being delinquents. So God isn't too happy about them destroying this holy place, so he sends an angel down to sort them out, good and proper. And the angel did just that; after confronting the imps (who showed little respect or fear towards the celestial being), one was shattered into a million pieces and the other was turned into stone, to remain in the cathedral for eternity.

The Lincoln Imp

And that s the Lincoln Imp. It has become a symbol of the City of Lincoln, which makes me rather fond of it. Medieval legendary, impressive architecture and all wrapped up with a devilish grin; yep, that just about sums up my taste in a lot of things. The first time I visited the cathedral I saw the pattern, liked it but did nothing as, hey, I couldn't do any of that knitting stuff! Went up again, about a year later, saw it again, still liked it, realise that now I could knit. But it looked ever so complex and it was pricey for a student budget (when most of the patterns I use are free on the internet). Thought nothing of it. Roll around Christmas and, ding! One Lincoln Imp pattern. And, again, I got the required yarn. Read through the pattern; doesn't look as complex as I originally thought, but I don't think it's going to be a walk in the park, either. At any rate, it isn't a beginner's project. See? I must be getting good.

Once Major Clanger is finished, it may be Lincoln Imp time. Or it may be Mother Clanger time. I haven't yet decided (not that I think I need to any time soon).

Gotta stitch 'em all?

I got one final knitting related gift for Christmas. Not a pattern, not yarn, and not as crafty (at least, not on my behalf). But they are knitting related and they're kinda cool so I thought I'd include them. I needed a set of stitch markers as I lacked any and a few projects (including the one I'll mention in the next blog) really, really needed some. Casually asked my boyfriend if he would get me some for Christmas. Thought he would forget. Turns out he didn't forget, and, instead, I ended up with a set of Poke'mon stitch markers. They were just little figurines originally, so he sort of altered them a bit so they would work.

So, all in all, I'd say this Malice had a very successful Christmas, really. Thank you to everyone, and (albeit it rather late now) I hope you all had a good one, too.

Knitmas '13; Harlequin Slippers

So quite a few things have happened in the craft world of Malice since I last posted, although there iss a good reason I have left it quite so long since updating. Namely, it is because all of my major/interesting crafting projects have been Christmas presents and I know the recipients read this blog so... Couldn't exactly show them what they were getting now, could I? Well, that and a slight case of 'getting a degree', cutting heavily into my crafting time, let alone my blogging time.

The other interesting things have only happened in the last few days. Mostly Christmas presents I have received. However, as there is now (quite rightly) a bit of a crafty backlog, I'm going to update you over the next couple of weeks rather than cram three months worth of crafts into one blog post.

Today, then, I shall begin with the first Christmas project I was working on; a pair of hand knitted slippers! My mother specifically asked for these and I got her to help me choose a pattern that she liked so that I wasn't going to knit her something hideous and then, when I returned to the lands of University, popped over to (one of) the local craft shop and purchased some lovely marbled//variegated yarn; one was a deep plum and emerald, and the other was a pale teal and lilac, I would hazard. Fortunately, I already had the needles I needed. I already have most needle sizes, if I'm honest, due to inheriting a bazillion sets off of my Gran; I just lack DPNs/circulars (truth be told, although I own a couple, I have never actually knitted on the latter).

There's a pair of slippers there, honest...

So the pattern basically wants you to knit out a scarf and then fold it up in this weird way to create a little pointy toed, elfish slipper. The pattern actually called for all garter stitch, but I switched this up a bit by making the plum squares moss stitch and the teal squares garter. Unfortunately, I'd bought chunky yarn, when the pattern asked for super chunky (not the first time I've used the wrong weight, but definitely the least traumatic as this time it was intentional; I just liked the colours too much) so I had to play around a bit to get the sizes right. Each square was meant to be 9x9cm to make a slipper that would fit a UK size 6 foot, but somehow this didn't quite work out and mine ended up being 10x10cm; it all adds up! I thought they would be a little large when I'd knitted them up, but when mum tried them on they rather drowned her feet. Ergo, if I use this pattern again, sizes need to be adjusted. (It's okay, my mum is some sort of master seamstress and, after a little discussion with me on how best to go about it, took five minutes to sort them out to a better fit. You wouldn't even really be able to tell.)

Assembly Pattern

The most difficult part of these slippers was putting them together. I've included the assembly diagram here; for the life of me, I could not get the seams to line up properly. I kept ended up with a twist in the fabric somehow. I don't know if the diagram has a mistake in it, or I was just being a tool that night and incapable of understanding it (probably the latter), but I had to look at the 'assembled' diagram in the end, and fold the fabric around until I got it. Once I started using that part, instead of 'assembly' bit, it made perfect sense and I had it folded and sewn in about an hour or so.

Elfin top!

There was meant to be a crocheted border on the slipper, but I decided against that because I'm not a crocheter, I'm a knitter. Didn't want to ruin all my hard work so close to Christmas (although I finished knitting the first slipper at the end of September, I took a break to knit my next Christmas project and ended up finishing them off in the beginning of December). Now, normally this would be the end of the project, all knitted and sewn but I'd bought a bottle of 'ABS Latex' for another project and figured it would be worth using here, too. For those of you who have never worn hand knitted footwear, smooth surfaces + knitting = falling over and breaking something (yourself, if you're unlucky). I know this from experience; as much as I love the bedsocks I got for my 18th, I daren't wear them in the kitchen. Anyway, this ABS Latex is designed to prevent that; you draw little pads onto the sole of the slipper/sock/whatever and it turns them from 'disaster waiting to happen' to 'grip central'. It's pretty cool stuff, really, and I would absolutely recommend it to anyone who wants to make an article of clothing (hand made or not) non-slip. It's not too expensive, either, providing you have multiple items to use it on.

Pawprint non-slip; best idea ever.

I decided paw prints would be an apt design to have on the bottom (they were made using the included stencil). Painted them on, put them on the radiator, left them over night and voilà. The slippers were done. Then, as custom dictates, I wrapped them up and placed them under a shiny, twinkly tree and waited for the 25th December to present them to my mum. She seems pretty pleased with them and so am I.

The facts of this project then! I needed 200g of yarn for this project (100g of each colour); the yarn was James C. Brett Marble Chunky. The needle size used was 6mm (UK 4), to match yarn weight. I used a free pattern that I found on Ravelry, DROPS slippers in garter stitch. Not including the time out I took to work on other projects (including academic ones), the slippers probably took me about a week to knit. The ABS Latex is by a company called Regia and I purchased it from Dragon Yarns, as I found them to be cheapest (and included the stencil free).