We did a bit of screenprinting on the weekend to make some clothes for people’s birthdays and the like. The design is based on Kamineko, the biting cat from the manga Azumanga Daioh.
Here’s the screen in action:
And here are the results:
I’ve been meaning to take a crack at amigurumi, but haven’t been able to find a pattern I liked until running across heavens_hellcat‘s crochet pattern on LiveJournal — via CRAFT
Pretty self explanatory, really… some twisted Korean genius has come up with origami versions of pretty much every unit from Starcraft. Some of the Zerg models are quite beautiful.
The paper battle scenes are impressively nerdy.
Cthuhlu Scarf, Now Available in Tangerine!, originally uploaded by redwolfoz.
Malamute watches her favourite human.
I liked the Cthulhu Scarf so much, I made one for myself. Kept the length the same, but still cursed that decision when it came to the felting.
Cthulhu Scarf Felted Detail originally uploaded by Red Wolf
The Cthulhu scarf has been felted and is now ready to take on the world with all his tentacle-y menace. Well, perhaps after he’s dried.
Still a bit iffy on whether the extra length is a good or bad thing. As he’ll eventually make his way to Scotland, I’m sure the extra length will come in handy. For Australia, perhaps not. I may leave the length at two balls of yarn if I do another one.
Cthulhu Scarf Knitted originally uploaded by Red Wolf
As the Yorick scarf has gone off to its happy new home, I thought I’d mod the pattern and go for something a little more tentacle-y. As I know what to expect from the yarn, I once more went for the Jo Sharp Luxury 8ply DK Pure Wool in violet, because you can never have too much purple in your life.
The pattern is based on Yorick from Knitty.
I dropped the jaw and left out the nose parts of the pattern and knitted each half until I ran out of wool. Then I added the tentacles using i-cord, used the remainder of the third ball to lengthen one half and grafted the two pieces together.
Now I just have to felt it. My hands will not be happy.
Pigtail Pilot Hat as Modelled by Disgruntled Malamute originally uploaded by Red Wolf
Malamute grungingly stepped in as hat model for the occasion. Note that she’s wearing it backwards so the hole locations are better suited to the forward position of her ears.
One of the yarns I bought to sample for the Yorick scarf ended up getting used for the final run of the pigtail pilot hat project. Despite the blue colour of the picture, the yarn is actually varigated turquoise and purple.
As I had no set pattern and was cobbling together my own from a few sources, all of which have no concept of proper yarn descriptions, the result was a bit big. The 8 ply yarn, while suited to mild Australian winters, seemed a bit flimsy for the hat, especially after I added the i-cord that holds its structure together.
So, I felted it. Half an hour in the kitchen sink by hand, then it got turned over to the mercies of the hot/cold cycle of the washing machine. It got brushed when it came out of the wash and is quite fuzzy.
The size is now perfect — for a human head, Malamute was underwhelmed by the fit on her head. The ear flaps just cover my ears instead of curling up and the holes at the top could probably hold my dreadlocks up quite nicely without the additional need of hair bands. But as I have a pair of very cute, purple cat hair bands, far be it from me to leave that step out.
Police in China are investigating whether the discovery of more than 120 human skulls may be part of a growing trade in macabre handicrafts — via Warren Ellis
Yorick Sample II Felted originally uploaded by Red Wolf
This is the second Yorick sample. It’s done in an Australian yarn: Aristocrat Heirloom 8 Ply (50% mohair, 50% wool)
The mohair and wool felted easily, quicker than the previous sample. Not as fuzzy as the first sample and the definition is much better, but it’s forming loopy bits on the edges.
Looks like I may need to go looking for more yarns to play with.
Yorick Sample I Felted originally uploaded by Red Wolf
This is the first Yorick sample. It’s done in a New Zealand yarn: Naturally Woodland 12 Ply (77% mohair, 14% acrylic 5% nylon)
The mohair felts nicely. The acrylic/nylon coloured bits come through well. It’s still really fuzzy, so it may need a bit more felting to get proper definition on the eyes. The fuzz makes it difficult to see the row of holes that define the top of the skull.
I think this really needs to be done in a less hairy yarn.
William Morris Fox Tapestry originally uploaded by Red Wolf
The second phase of the William Morris fox tapestry for my mother’s antique chair is completed.
Now I have to start the third and final phase, which means doing another one of these
A subwoofer so powerful it could loosen fillings, shake out the cholesterol from arteries and generally make a lot of noise. It seems that the Death Star, ignoring the weakness that ultimately lead to its complete destruction, was a pretty good design… so someone made his own (with a lot of help from a housemate). The Death Star Subwoofer is currently up for sale on eBay — via Slashdot
The fuzz from Moonbeam’s cat Tinkerbell has finally been plyed with the Tussah Silk and wound into a skein. The larger, lighter coloured skein is baby Camel fuzz plyed with Tussah Silk
The Nazis went to great lengths to encipher their secret messages, building mechanical scramblers. The most famous of these was the Enigma machine, which was secretly cracked by Alan Turing and his team of Bletchley Park codebreakers. Here is a functional papercraft Enigma Machine to print, fold and assemble — via boingboing
The large lump of felted Tinkerbell fuzz has been spun into yarn. The staple was fairly short, but having spun Siberian Husky, I was comfortable spinning the fibre.
The only difficulty was that it had a tendency to felt during handling, so I needed to work on small amounts at a time. The spun yarn was quite unexpected; feeling cool and silky to the touch.
There’s not enough to ply on itself an have enough yarn for a project, so I thought I’d ply it with Tussah Silk. The silk has a natural creamy colour that should set off the grey of Tinkerbell’s fuzz well.
Tinkerbell Fur Ball originally uploaded by Red Wolf
Tinkerbell is Moonbeam’s cat. Moon gathered some of the shed fibre for me and shipped it from Canada to Australia for me to spin.
Tinkerbell’s fur managed to survive the rigours of travelling through Canada Post and then Australia Post and arrived in a large grey felted furball.
I thought that perhaps it had gotten a bit of rough-handling from the postal services, but when I started to work with it I discovered that Tinkerbell fuzz will felt up if you look at it the wrong way.
If you’ve ever wanted a boar-skin rug, but thought that perhaps pink was the colour for you, you may want to check out the DIY tips from Hemi*Housewife’s recent craft project.
I have to wonder if you can statically charge and stick balloons to the result for a more festive look — via BoingBoing
The helpful people at 3M Canada have published detailed instructions for turning gaffer tape into a wallet — via BoingBoing
A bunch of vodka-crazed bloggers (or ‘scienticians’, as they style themselves) have figured out that filtering the cheapest vodka available six times makes it taste better than the good stuff. If you use a stock Brita filter jug (like the one i have at home, hmmmm) the process takes about two hours.
The last of the big green leaves on the left is done. There’s one more really large one to go on the right of the fox, but I’m waiting on the wool I need to get ordered in.
Strangely enough, it seems that every time I go in for wool, at least one of the colours I need is out of stock. Most annoying.
The blue-green leaves on the left have just been started and background around the top left of the tapestry has been done
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