DIY Life

Over at her Sucka SC knitblog, Arlette Thibodeau offers this awesome "Dead Kitty" chart to use in knitting and crochet projects.

The chart features a cat's head with crossbones, a play on the traditional skull and crossbones motif. Think of the irony of it, a cat, normally cute and cuddly, now the symbol of death, evil, or pirates. It is pretty funny if you think about it.

She designed it for a double-knit scarf (shown in photo), but you can use it for just about anything! Stuff made with this chart would make a great present for the punky teen girl in your life... even if that girl is you.

Have you ever been on your way to a party, then realized that you didn't have a card or a gift box for the gift you'd planned to take? Are you getting married, and want to make your own invitations? As long as you have printer-ready card stock, a craft knife, and a bone scorer/folder around the house, you're covered.

Ruth Ann Zaroff's Mirkwood Designs is a site that was once known for its excellent hand-carved rubber stamps (no longer made), but is currently known for its wide variety of printable card, box, and envelope templates.

Among the 50+ templates you'll find: the center-tie card shown above, a heart card, a butterfly card, a paper doll, a trapezoid box, a library card book pocket, faux postage, a milk carton box, a take-out box, a mug card, and much more. Instructions for using each template are included. Most projects can be completed in under half an hour.

Last week, we talked all about amigurumi, crocheted and knitted toys and dolls. Anything goes in amigurumi, as long as it's as cute as humanly possible.

This week, I've written an exclusive free pattern for our DIY Life readers: it's a Bomb Pop Amigurumi! (PDF download, 250K.) This pattern is written as an easy knit/crochet combo, though it can be knitted all the way through. I hope you like it!

What's a Bomb Pop? It's a delicious frozen treat that looks like a rocket with grooves on the side. The bottom is blue raspberry, the middle is white and lime-flavored, and the top is cherry red! It represents instant summertime nostalgia for millions of people.

(If you link to this pattern, please link to this post rather than to the PDF itself. Thanks!)

Edited to add: There is an error in the knit medallion base instructions (which are listed as "not recommended" in the pattern, because they are untested). Increasing on every row will not give you a flat circular medallion. Knit one plain row around the circle between each increase row, and you'll get the shape you need. (That is: cast on, do increase row, plain row with no increases, increase row, plain row, and so on.) Sorry about that!

Gallery: Bomb Pop Amigurumi

In the last couple of days, we've taken a long look at amigurumi and discovered some darling patterns for animals to crochet or knit. Today, it's all about food.

Amigurumi food tends to skew cute, childish, and sugary: for several reasons, you're more likely to find a pattern for anthropomorphized vegetables or frosted cupcakes than for a juicy steak, though steak wouldn't be out of the question if it had big eyes and a tiny smile.

• Hannah at BitterSweet has done many free patterns for food, always accompanied by evocative stories, like One Bad Egg and Two Peas in a Pod. She designs for both knitters and crocheters. (I neglected her in the animal pattern roundup yesterday: please check out her other patterns!)
• Ana Paula Rimoli has a frilly cupcake and a happy fried egg to crochet.
• Peachcake Knits has designed a whole bowl of knitted fruit people: apple, banana, peach, lemon/lime, and pear.

More after the break! And join us tomorrow for the wrap-up of my Amigurumi-o-rama: pop culture amigurumi.

Amigurumi have been a hot Internet craft topic for the last few years, with plenty of patterns and tutorials available on nearly all the popular sites, so it's surprising that almost no English-language books on the topic have hit the stores before now. That's about to change, with four new books scheduled in the second half of 2007.

What are amigurumi? Well, nuigurumi (noo-ee-goo-roo-mee) is a Japanese word that means stuffed doll, but it refers to sewn fabric items. Ami (ah-mee) is from a word that means crocheted or knitted. So, an amigurumi (ah-mee-goo-roo-mee) is a crocheted or knitted stuffed doll.

Join me after the break to learn much more about amigurumi, including links and a detailed tutorial for Nekoyama's Amineko cat, shown above. And join me over the next few days to see what else the web has to offer on this topic!

Gallery: Amineko amigurumi tutorial

So his name's not Teddy.

Berroco is one of America's leading fashion yarn companies; most knitters know that their website is full of free patterns. One of the free patterns Berroco offers is for this sweet, cuddly Harry Bear. He's 12" tall and made from a single ball of their velvety chenille yarn, Chinchilla. I want to make one just so that I can hug it!

There's an intentional Harry Potter reference on Berroco's part, but the scarf is purely optional on yours. Check out the Kathryn Ivy blog to see Grace Schnebly's version of Harry Bear, done in soft beige, with some notes on the project. In short, she says that the bear wouldn't be too hard for beginners, but that Chinchilla is not the easiest yarn to work with, something that's true of any chenille yarn.

[via CRAFT ]

J. Caroline Creative has a basic apron pattern for you that is cute, easy, and best of all, free. It's not the easiest kind of apron to make (that would probably be a towel with a waistband tie stitched onto it), but it's close. Aprons like this one aren't only for cooking: they're useful for housework and crafting, too.

The pattern uses just a yard of fabric, plus some ribbon, d-rings, and a small piece of contrasting fabric for the optional front pocket. It would be a great beginning sewing project, particularly if you've become bored with making pillow covers. Using a gridded fabric like the one in the photo will help you line up all your elements evenly.

If you're more experienced, this apron could be a fast, inexpensive, and stylish housewarming gift, or just a low-stress project to use up stray bits of your fabric stash.

J. Caroline Creative also offers other tutorials on their site, and sells all the yummy fabrics you'll need to make them.

[ via Craftster. ]

Last week, I made a little post called Pottercraft, which some of you seemed to like. But no sooner had the post gone up than I discovered a whole new cache of Harry Potter-related projects to delight and amuse... or bemuse, depending on your personal feelings about rampant fandom.

Many of the following projects were found on Instructables, and most are costume-related. A few are quite technical. While it's too late to work them up for a book release party, you can still get a head start on a cool Halloween costume or a present for your favorite Potter fan. There's also a contest where you can vote for your favorites (though not, alas, SophieAngele's dragon wheelchair, which she posted on Craftster).

Join me after the break for more wizardry!

If you know that you're a geek, or if you know that someone you know is a geek, or someone you know knows that you know you're a geek, or you know that being a geek is cool... well, you're a pretty knowledgeable person. Which probably means that you're smart enough to wear a scarf when it's cold outside.

Why not try Binary, from Knitty's archive? It'll keep you warm and keep your busy brain happy. Why? Because you can encode 122 bytes of information in it, that's why. Use this binary encoder as your first step towards putting all your secrets out in plain sight, or sending cryptic messages to unsuspecting passers-by.

Yeah, so, it's summer, you say. I won't need a scarf for months, you say. Ah, I say, small items like scarves make great summer knitting, because they don't behave like a blanket while you work on them (unlike sweaters and actual blankets). Binary is a complex scarf-knitting project, and you'll need some time to finish it. Then, when the cold weather comes, you won't be caught out without a scarf. And that's really what it's all about.

It's a banner week in media: the fifth Harry Potter film, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, rules the box office, and the final book in the series, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, is just days away. A huge fan culture has grown up around the books and films, and when the fans aren't creating stories and art dedicated to their favorite characters, many love to craft.

After the break, you'll find a brief history of crafting in the Harry Potter fandom, as well as plenty of links to examples, ideas, and instructions. It's not too late to make something special for Friday night!

(Items in above image created by Hardhat Cat.)