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!

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

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 ^_~