sucka sc: knit & crochet

#1

Ktuffed Gir (knitted)

(via Knit, drink, knit, drink)

Dude! It’s Gir from Invader Zim, my favorite cartoon from a comic-book artist I’ve liked for about eleventy billion years. Gir is a bizarre, shrill, unkind, unpredictable little robot with a handful of garbage for a brain. He’s actually quite a bit like Vince from “Rex the Runt,” if you like absurd sidekicks with a taste for destruction and bad TV.

#2

Amigurumi Totoro (crochet)

Yes, I already posted about this one, but I think it deserves a spot in this toy round-up. My Neighbor Totoro is one of the most beautiful films, ever. I’m a big fan of the director, Hayao Miyazake, who keeps making all these stunning animated films that are just … wow. And Totoros, the sort-of-a-cat, sort-of-an-owl nature spirits from the movie, are completely freaking adorable.

I’ve already started one of these crocheted toys for a friend, and the pattern is a pleasure to work on. It’s easy, intuitive and accurate. It’s also quite a bit larger than I’d expected. At this rate, the Totoro is going to be about 8″ tall — dang!

#3

Monster Crochet patterns: Jellyfish (crochet)

This is the project that got my crochet-reluctant buddy to agree to learn crochet. I mean, dude! Eerily accurate jellyfish!

It’s not a free pattern, but it’s only $5, which seems to be about standard for PDF pattern downloads. The pattern itself is clear and includes diagrams of oddly shaped parts, so you can actually tell what the thing’s supposed to look like as you crochet it.

#4

Felted fortune cookie (knitted)

Ooooh. Cute, as are all knitted and crocheted versions of food. You knit several short-row wedges and sew it up to make a circle, which is fine, but it might be easier to crochet or knit a circle and avoid the extra seaming. (That’s me, always looking for an easy way out!)

Then you felt it and sew it into a fortune cookie shape, slip a fortune into it, and then give it to someone who tries desperately to snap it in half and fails miserably and then sobs hot tears of frustration and disappointment! Perfect!

#5

Vince from Rex the Runt (sorta) (knitted)

I’ve already bookmarked a half-dozen teddy bear patterns, but this one stands out, because it’s only two crazy eyes and a mouthful of misshapen teeth and a little leg-shortening away from being Vince from Rex the Runt, my all-time favorite Aardman animation project. (Check out some episodes of the show on Atom films.) Vince is an incoherent, decidedly strange little dog-thing prone to mimicking sirens and belching out arias, thanks to his Random Pavarotti Disease. At one point in the series he falls in love with a vacuum cleaner, marries it and has a litter of Dust Devil babies with it. Amazing.

#6

Caroline’s birds (crochet)

Simple, sweet and adorable. They totally remind me of the charming retro stylings of craft-blog darling Wee Wonderfuls. I kept cockatiels as a kid and even hand-fed a clutch of baby ‘tiels, so I’m a sucker for anything that looks like a fat, contented little bird just the right size to nestle in your hand, and these definitely fit the bill.