Crochet Animation

It's been a while since I've posted. I wish I could say I have been making awesome new things to show you all, but alas, I can't. I took a part time job at a museum to earn some extra cash, and it turned out to be a bit more work than I expected. Still I'm learning heaps, and this week they let me play with glitter! Well not so much play with it, as clean it off tables, floors and pretty much every other surface in the museum.

Instead of posting something new, I thought it was time I posted an animation I made while I was studying. I was in a class with heaps of talented animators, and needed to do something that made my work stand out. What can I do better than most people? Crochet! So I combined the two and this is the result.

Ravelry



It took 16 weeks to make. That's roughly 4 weeks coming up with an idea and writing the script, 8 weeks madly crocheting everything, 3 weeks in a dark room animating and one week editing together the final footage. As you can see from the credits I had some help too. Some very friendly ladies from Crochet Lovers Victoria donated heaps of crochet flowers and I recruited some work colleges to make all the leaves.

Photo shoot with U2

Just before Easter I was lucky enough to attend a photo shoot with U2. Okay so it wasn't the actual rock band, just my crochet version. But there was a camera, lighting and a set.

One of my animator friends, Justin, is also a photographer. He agreed to take some more photos of crochet for me. I think he was influenced by the fact he can now tell all his friends he's photographed U2.



And if that wasn't cool enough here are photos of the individual band members.









And one more of the complete band, this time with guitars as well. I especially like the way Bono is gazing moodily into the distance.



I think the photo's have turned out really well. Never have 3 inch high dolls looked so awesome. To check out more of Justin's photos visit his blog. He can photograph real people too.

Getting Ready for Winter

Every year when autumn arrives I start to think about knitting. Must have something to do with the evenings getting colder. Although I suspect the sudden bounty of yarn at the craft shops plays a large part.

In the past I've knitted vests and jumpers, but this year I felt a new scarf was in order. Two and a half large balls of 8ply yarn later and this is a result. A brown and blue pinstripe scarf. Why brown and blue pinstripe? Because that's the colour of the tenth doctors suit. Well one of his suits anyway.



The scarf is knitted in brown rib-stitch with the blue stripes embroidered on afterwards. Crocheting the whole thing would have been easier. I could have worked the stripes in as I went. However crochet uses more yarn, and I don't like the look of it for large flat surfaces.



Now I just need the weather to get a little colder so I can wear it.

Crochet from my warped imagination

In between work I've had quite a bit of spare time on my hands. I've put it to good use though, the bathroom is sparkling clean, there's some fresh herbs planted in the garden and I've been crocheting.

I thought it was about time I crocheted something from my own imagination. This little dino-bug guy is the result.



He started out life as a scribble on the edge of a payslip, (yes back when payslips were paper and not electronic). Since then he's appeared numerous times in my notebooks. And now he's a yarn toy.

Pin Cushion

I have had a bit of spare time on my hands lately. Which means I have more time for crochet. To fill in my time I made a new pin cushion.

Does this make me a Crazy Stalker Fan?

December was a big month for concerts in Melbourne and I found myself at two of them: U2 and Muse. My flatmate is a huge fan of U2 and because the tickets were cheap I went along too. It was an awesome concert, even though we were sitting in the highest row behind the stage. During the concert I had the idea to crochet the band. So with the help of some hastily scribbled notes and some photos that my flatmate took, here is the result.



A few weeks later my favorite band Muse were playing. Having already started making U2, I thought I might as well make Muse too. Of course the lead singer was wearing a suit that made him look like a human mirror ball. A really hard effect to duplicate in yarn. But after some experimentation with metallic thread, I think it turned out okay.



And what am I going to do with all these little guys? I gave U2 to my flatmate for Christmas. Muse I am keeping for myself.

Christmas Stars

I know Christmas was three weeks ago, but I've been busy. I ended up working full time right up until lunchtime on Christmas Eve. Any spare time was spent making Christmas presents and churning out these:



Star Christmas Decorations.

I try and make them as gifts for all my family and friends. The first few years I used patterns from the internet. After that I started designing my own.

This was my first attempt:



Okay it was more like my fifth attempt. The rest didn't really look like stars.

The next year I made these:



And here is a slightly different version of this year's design:


For scale here are all three stars together.


I've had a bit more time on my hands lately, so hopefully I'll have some new stuff to post soon.