Thursday, July 21, 2011

By Popular Demand: TARDIS Costume for Timmy, the Think Geek Monkey

A month or so ago, ThinkGeek put out a call for handmade cosplay costumes for Timmy, their Monkey Mascot. I signed up and decided to make them a TARDIS costume. Of course, when I started it, I had no idea how it would turn out...
As you can see, he turned out pretty awesomely :D After many requests, I have put together... I can't really call it a pattern, so we'll call it guidelines for making your own TARDIS costume for your Timmy Clone :D

Monday, May 2, 2011

Taking Commissions for Chibi Doctor and Chibi Amy Dolls



Ladies and Gentlemen, I give you Chibi Amy Pond and Chibi Eleventh Doctor! These two are of my design, are doll house sized (6 to 7 inches) and are being made on a commission basis. Each doll takes about a week to make and are selling for $12 each or $20 for the pair. There will be a Rory soon, I just need to construct him first :D When he's ready, the trio will sell for $25.

Any interested parties can email me with their orders. Thanks for looking!

Tuesday, April 26, 2011

BEHOLD! It is a commission post!

Want something crocheted? Here is the place to get it done! Commission prices are based upon:
  • Degree of Difficulty for the project
  • Time it'll take me to make the project
  • Cost of materials
For those of you who have seen my versions of Tracy Jen's or Pixelated Mushroom's Doctor Who dolls and want me to make one, I regret to inform you that I will not be taking commissions for those- both have asked that dolls made from her patterns not be sold and being that they are made of awesomesauce for creating these patterns, I plan to abide by their wishes. The same goes for any one who has made similar requests with their patterns.

To commission me, please send me an email with what you'd like done, when you need it and any questions you may have. If you have any general questions that you think other people might have, feel free to post them here and I will answer them!

Friday, April 22, 2011

Earl Grey: The Dalek Teapot

So, I was trying to figure out things to put into my etsy store (Look to your left. No, seriously, there's a link there) and my friend Jenn suggested putting in a few of the teapots I've been making. Being that I had just mentioned making daleks to sell... well...

Sunday, April 10, 2011

Fandom Pic Spam: Doctor Who

As some of you may know, I'm a huge Doctor Who fan. Today's post is dedicated to the many Whovian Crafts I've made over the years. Beware, there's a lot of them.

Sunday, March 27, 2011

I'm not so good at this "Blogging" thing...

I'm trying, really I am. So what am I working on now? Well, I've got a couple Secret Projects that I can't really say much about, as they're both for friends that follow me on Twitter and Facebook. Something I can post about, I made a teddy bear:

The pattern can be found by googling "basic teddy bear pattern". =D I've made a couple out of fleece scraps and felt and they're really quick and easy to hand sew :D

I also made a tea pot! This pattern is from the Red Heart collection, Tea and Cookies Party Set. Let's give it the rundown, shall we?

The Pros:
THE PATTERN IS FREE! That's a big selling point for me, as I'm on a tight budget. Also, the pattern has instructions for more than just the teapot; there is also instructions for a tea cup, saucer, cookie plate and two different types of cookies. I will be honest, I haven't made anything besides the teapot yet, but I'll cover the other items when I get them done ^_^

This project is also perfect for scrap yarn, as it takes minuscule amounts of all the yarns used. It's also nice for variegated yarn, either on the main part or as one of the accents as I did above. Did I mention it was quick? I made and assembled the pictured teapot in about four hours. Pretty cool, right?

The Cons:
I'm still not sure what you're supposed to do after you finish making the teapot! Are you supposed to stuff it and sew it shut, is it to be left open and hollow? I couldn't tell you, because the pattern DOES NOT SAY! The picture in the pattern looks like its stuffed, but perhaps it was just stuffed for photographing purposes? I don't know! *flail*

All in all, I think this is a good, easy pattern. It might be a little hard if you've never worked in rounds before, mostly because of the color changes required and the fancier shell stitches, but it's not impossible. On a scale of 1 to 10 (10 being Robert Downey Jr and 1 being the Crypt Keeper), I'd give it a 9. That's roughly a John Barrowman. I'll be waiting on your emails telling me how much hotter Barrowman is than RDJ.

Saturday, February 26, 2011

Brigadier the Dalek

Those of you who follow me on Twitter know that I've been working on a dalek plushie for Chris Hardwick, aka @nerdist. For those of you who don't, here's the whole story:

My buddy Carole informed me last week that Chris Hardwick, whom I used to watch on Singled Out as a kid and have had a slight crush on since then, was going to be in Chicago March 16-19th. She also said that if I wanted to make something for him, she would do her best to get it to him. Chris is a Whovian like me, so the obvious thing to make him was a Dalek. Not only a Dalek, but one made out of Knit Picks Felici Sock Yarn in the Time Traveler colorway. Why? Because Time Traveler yarn is self striping and those stripes look like the Fourth Doctor's seasons 12-18 scarf. It doesn't get much geekier than that, folks.

So, I started on the Dalek, who was originally named Baker because of the yarn I was using and posted to my twitter that I was starting it. I got a DM from Chris Hardwick saying that he approved and to let him know when it's done :D

On 2/22/11 Nicholas Courtney, known to Whovians as Brigadier Alistar Lethbridge-Stewart of UNIT passed away at age 81. It was my second day working on Chris's Dalek and when I found out, I started to bawl and I'm positive that many of my tears ended up on the yarn. Because of this, I changed the dalek's name from Baker to Brigadier. Of course, if Chris wants to change his name to something completely different, that's his choice :D

And now! After almost week of work, here he is:

The Front
The eyestalk, "plunger" and "egg beater" (anyone who watches Craig Ferguson should get that) were not part of the pattern I used, by A.M. Downs; I had to MacGyver them and I think they turned out well.

The Side
I have nothing to add here.

The Back
Behold the Dalek Bumps!
 "...my bumps, my bumps, my lovely dalek bumps!" (This is to be blamed on Michelle =P)

Doctor: What the bloody hell did you do to my scarf?!

And so, you have the complete story of Brigadier the Dalek, who will soon be on his way to his new home... I better get on setting that up... Allos-y!

Monday, January 24, 2011

Free Pattern Review: Striped Fingerless Gloves

Sometime last week, I posted on my twitter that I'm taking commissions for crocheted items and I would be willing to do trades for them, rather than get paid cash. A few people responded and one of which was my friend Joanna, who asked for a pair of green and black wristers, which are also known as fingerless gloves. I have a pattern that I'm using for my own pair of wristers (which will be finished someday, I swear), but is for sock yarn. I don't have any green or black sock yarn. I do have a lot of green and black acrylic yarn, so I needed a pattern that worked with acrylics.

Enter FaveCrafts, which I found via internet search. A cool thing about FaveCrafts: they don't have just crochet patterns. They have knitting, paper crafts, candles/soaps and quilting just to name a few. Also, unlike most craft sites I've seen, they don't direct you to another site for your pattern/instructions. Everything is right on that same site, so you're not waiting for the page to load, only to find out you have to click a separate link to get to the actual pattern. Some of you may be asking why that's such a big selling point and I'll tell you: some people still have dial up. I don't personally, but I do live in an area where you either use dial up or mobile broadband, which means you have an alloted monthly GB download limit. I have mobile broadband. I also have other things to do on the internet, I don't want to be wasting MBs downloading a pattern, no matter how good it is. Long story short: I like this site.

Lets move onto the pattern, Striped Fingerless Gloves created by Berta Gilholm.

The Pros:
First off, this pattern is really easy. It uses basic techniques that most beginning crocheters know and the instructions are split into 3 (really 4, but keep reading) sections: Cuff, Glove & Thumb Hole and Thumb Area. Each section details how many rows should be in that section. Cuff has 18, Glove & Thumb Hole have 20 all together (look at the pattern, the thumb hole is a separate section, but the row count doesn't restart) and the Thumb Area has 4.

This pattern is super easy to customize; Berta suggests using a self striping or variegated acrylic yarn to create the stripes. I don't have any green and black self striping or variegated yarn. What I have is what once was a giant skein of black and two skeins of green, different shades; I did the striping myself and it was no problem at all :D

The Cons:
The only cons I have here are really just personal quirks; when I made the first glove, I freaked out because it didn't fit on my hand. After a massive worry over whether or not these too-small-for-me gloves would fit Joanna, I realized that I'd neglected to notice instructions for making a small and large sized gloves (the pattern makes a medium sized glove). The reason I had missed it was because it looks like an after thought, tacked off after telling you not to count the ch 1 at the beginning of the round as a stitch. Personally feel that it should have it's own header, but that's just me and I'm willing to admit that I may be the only one who misses such things.

Still on the subject of sizes, there are no measurements saying what constitutes as a small, medium or large. All I have to go on is that my hands are too big for a medium, but they do fit my mom okay. Hopefully Joanna's hands aren't bigger than my mom's.

All in all? This is a really good pattern; if you're looking to make your first pair of wristers, this is a good place to start. Over all score on a scale of 1-10 (10 being the best cookie you've ever had and 1 being the vegetable you hate the most), I'd give this an 8. On my scale, that'd be about a good burger from your favorite dive.

Oh, you want pictures? You'll have to wait then :D I'm not posting any until after the wristers get to Joanna in Chicago =D

Friday, January 21, 2011

I don't care what the Dough Boy says, I prefer Pop Tarts

Hello and welcome to the obligatory new blog welcome post! I'm Paxie and this blog is my blog. This blog is a blog about crafty stuff, because crafty stuff is stuff I enjoy =D

Okay, enough talking like that.

When I was young, I want to say seven or eight, I first learned to crochet. I don't remember who taught me, but I remember there being this stereotypical pink, blue and white variegated yarn and a crochet hook involved. I don't know whatever happened to that first thing I made, but I do know that I stopped for some reason. When I was ten, my great-grandmother Edna retaught me how to crochet; my first boss helped me learn a few things as well. Fourteen years later, I'm still going strong =D

I've tried making craft blogs before, but have never been able to keep up with them. Hopefully, this one will be better. I plan on posting projects I've made from free patterns found online, my own original designs and links to my etsy store. I hope you like it... I think you will ^_~