Category Archives: Leftovers

VHS And Christmas Knitting!

October 18, 2015 Pixie Leave a comment

I’m a bit of a nerd and a bit of a dork, anyone who knows me knows this fact. For years now I’ve combined my two favorite things, knitting and movie/TV watching. My collection of watchables is an ongoing, every-growing organism, which takes up a bit of space (I’ll admit that). For a couple of years now I’ve had my VHS collection stored at an aunt’s house, and a few weeks back a cousin of mine drove my collection up to me. It took me about a day to get over the excitement after my VHS’s had arrive (I kept snuggling with them, true story!), and the next day I started on the mission of watching EVERY SINGLE VHS I have, to check the quality of the tapes. Sure, I’m fully aware that my VHS’s won’t have great quality on the 48″ digital Smart-TV in my living room, but I couldn’t care less. Now this is just the first boxes unpacked, VHS’s takes up quite a bit of space, so I’ll have to do my mission little by little =). The stack to the far left are those who can’t be watch, ever again. They have passed away, and moved on to a better place.

I’ve had a great time these last few weeks, with my movies and my Christmas knitting. These are the things I’ve made since my last post:

Bunny Ears Hat, knitted with Kitten Mohair (the white yarn), and Funny Pelsgarn (the pink yarn). I didn’t use any pattern for this, it’s very easy to make. You can take any kind of hat/beanie pattern, and just add the ears. And yes, I’m still thinking about making a Dead Bunny Hat for myself =).

A long cowl knitted with double thread Sandnes Silk Mohair (purple and beige). Again I didn’t use any pattern, I just cast on a bunch of stitches, and knitted *1knit, 2purl* until I was out of yarn =). It is super soft, and my Zombie Head is feeling nice and warm =P.

This is a Lovers Mitten, for those lovely lvoers who like taking hikes with each other. The pattern is from a magazine called Familiens Småstrikk. Now the lovers can hold hands while walking down Lovers Lane.

These adorable pink hats are knitted with this pattern, and they are made for some adorable children. Since the pattern is for adults, I used 2 needle sizes smaller, and I used Topp’t Tå yarn.

I have a huge pile of yarn, like this, just laying around. So I figured that I would knit as many pairs of socks as I can before Christmas, and that’s how many people with get socks this year. I found a bunch of sock patterns on Garnstudio, focusing on patterns where I can change color many times etc. The first batch looks like this, and is knitted with this pattern.

Remember to stay warm, Winter is coming 😉

Knitted Gifts, Leftovers

Knitting Frenzy!

October 2, 2015 Pixie 2 Comments

The Christmas gift knitting continues, and as a result I don’t spend much time online writing every time I finish a project. Instead I’ve decided to show a handful of finished project, whenever I take the time to write something down, up until Christmas. I hope my 3 fans don’t mind ;).

I have a bunch of kids I knit to every year, which I really enjoy. I get to tap into my juvenile and childish fantasies, and knit all kinds of silly and colorful things. Most adults don’t really care about these childish things, and they’re certainly not interested in wearing any of it (unlike me…). So knitting for kids is awesome. At the moment I’m knitting a bunny rabbit hat for a little girl, and all I can think is “I need to make one for myself…” (though mine would probably be a bit more scary and bloody).

These last few weeks I’ve knitted a dress, a sweater and a handful of slipper socks. When I’m in full-on-Christmas-knitting, I don’t spend a lot of time creating my own designs from scratch. I’ll usually use a design from a website or magazine, and just make a few changes. I do this so I’m close to a good size for whomever I’m knitting to (did I use “whomever” right? I never know when it’s “whoever” and “whomever”).

This dress is knitted with this pattern . It’s the same needle size as in the pattern, so I got the same stitch numbers as in the pattern. The yarn I used was Pingouin Yarn (from the vast collection of leftover yarn I got this Summer from my aunt). I’ve named this dress The Candy Lollipop.

This sweater is knitted with this pattern , and is knitted with soft wool yarn. There’s a whole bunch of different yarns in this sweater, Idena Juvel/Smart Superwash/Labbetuss Raggegarn and some other tagless skeins of yarn. Like the dress, I used the required needle size in the pattern, so I got the right size.

This sweet bunch of slipper socks was knitted with this pattern . They are super easy to knit, and a great gift to give people who like their feet warm and cozy during the Norwegian Winters =). They are knitted with Fritidsgarn, and range from size 37 to 44 (European size of course).

And so it’s back to my knitting corner, I have some bunny ears to make =).

Leftovers, Personal Knits

Just A Few More Socks!

August 6, 2015 Pixie 2 Comments

4-5 weeks ago I started on a very complicated knitting project, but because of lack of confidence and a sudden appearance of Summer heat, I decided to put it aside and knit some easy and “ordinary” things. Like socks. You can never go wrong with socks. When I have nothing better to do, I knit socks (I wonder how many times I can say socks in this post =P).
At some point, when my confidence is back on track, I’ll get back to my secret project.

A while back I got 3 skeins of Verdi, a purple/green, blue/light blue/beige and red/black. With these 3 skeins, I’ve knitted a pair of slipper boots, slipper socks, 3 short sweaters, a red/black beanie and cowl (which you can read all about in this post), a dragon scarf, purple/green legwarmers (which are in this post), and now a pair of socks for myself using the red/black. You can really go crazy with just one of these skeins, there seems to be no end to the skein =).

I used this pattern (which is free, like all Garnstudio patterns) for my socks, and I added a red glitter thread to make it sparkle a little =P. This pattern is really easy, and it’s a fun way to knit socks. I made mine a little bit shorter, and these socks are very soft and cozy =)

I also found this pattern, which is basically the same as the sock pattern above. You knit it the same way, back and forth and then sew them together in the back. I used leftover yarn, and knitted 2 pairs of socks.
The purple and white socks might be a gift for someone special who has come back into my life, and it’s knitted with leftover yarn (the purple is the same I used for this cowl). So are the very colorful socks on the right, and I’m keeping them for myself. I wear wool socks pretty much all year long, so from time to time I need to make new ones for myself. There’s only so many times I can mend holes in my socks, before they have to go in the trash. I like my socks colorful, it matches my dark heart =).

I’ve also knitted a new beanie and matching wrist warmers, I haven’t decided if I’m keeping them for myself or giving them away. No pattern was used to knit these items, it was done freehand. No socks were knitted with this yarn either, I just thought I could show them off in this post =P.

My 18th mention of socks, will be (the 19th) my last post, where I showed the lovely socks (20) I made for a beautiful little princess =)

Knitted Gifts, Leftovers

Fun Socks For A Princess!

August 3, 2015 Pixie Leave a comment

Once upon a time in a land far far away, lived a little princess called Fisefia. Princess Fisefia was not the ordinary 8 year old princess sitting on a throne next to her parents, wearing beautiful dresses. She was the kind of princess in beautiful dresses driving around on daddy’s tractor, milking cows and playing with her lovely dog Mick.

Not only was she a sweet princess in beautiful dresses, she was also a talented princess. She could spend hours and hours drawing amazing pictures, and making birthday cards and Christmas cards.
With a pretty smile and a cheerful laughter, she charmed everyone who was lucky enough to meet her.She was a fish in water and a monkey on land, climbing everything and everywhere.
Sometimes Princess Fisefia would dress up in common clothes, and disguise herself wearing wigs. That way she could walk among the ordinary people, and no one would know who she really was.

Princess Fisefia is everyone’s favorite princess, and one day she will rule the island of cows and sheep. Until then I hope these socks I will keep her feet warm =).

I used leftover yarn, and this pattern to make these socks (the pattern is free). Originally they were meant for someone else, but there is no way anyone can resist her puppy eyes =). Socks are very easy to knit, when you have knitted countless pairs in the past. The only “problem” I had knitting these socks, was how the 4 different threads of yarn always tangled. You’ll need to factor in a little more time knitting these, just because you’ll need time to untangle every now and then =). Other than that, this was an easy pattern to follow, and the result was pretty awesome.

It’s her birthday at the end of this month, and Princess Fisefia has of course requested a knitted gift. Which she will get, she is my princess after all =).

All Things Nerdy, Leftovers, Personal Knits

An Assortment of Hats!

May 4, 2015 Pixie Leave a comment

I’m not really a girly girl, I’ve always been a bit of a tomboy. Most of my friends are of the male gender, and a lot of times I’m referred to as “one of the boys”. Don’t get me wrong, I have a closet filled with dresses, and when the occasion calls for it, I’ll even throw in some jewelry. And for gods sake, do not touch my chocolate! I just don’t spend hours in front of the mirror putting on make-up and other really girly stuff. That’s not my thing, it never really was. I’m also the kind of person who would rather throw on a beanie than do my hair (it’s just so much easier!), and I’ve always been told at dinner tables “it’s bad manners to wear hats at the table”. In my head I’ll do rude gestures to the person talking to me, on the outside I’ll just blame it on a bad hair day =).

So here’s a selection of the hats currently in my possession. Mr. Bob-Igor Fluffy does not exist any more, so my new model is my zombie cookie jar (he can be used for so many things, I LOVE it!).

The piranha beanie I mentioned in my last post, and I’m very aware that a piranha is not striped. It’s called artistic freedom! For those of you too lazy to find the pattern in my other post, here it is one more time =).

A simple beanie knitted with alpaca wool (the green), and boulcé yarn from this company. The yarn was a gift from one of my aunts a few years back.

This little number says “Latescape”, and it’s just a very dorky way of saying “laziness”. Some of us Norwegian mortals do this thing where we mix the literal translation with the English word (and a little dorkiness), “laziness” in Norwegian is “latskap”. You do the math ;). Who would have thonked dorky translations could be so much fun!

This beanie is actually a gift from my grandmother, so I did not knit this one. It’s still part of my collection, and it would have felt left out if I didn’t show it.

These 2 beanies were knitted with leftover Lerke yarn I had laying around, and they are even comfortable during the Summer.

This beanie is knitted with Verdi yarn, and I used this pattern. It comes with a cowl as well. This has been my favorite beanie for some time now. I got three skeins of Verdi, and those skeins are BIG. You can almost knit an entire wardrobe with one of those. At least that’s what it feels like =).

If you’ve been here before, you’ve seen my 30 Rock hats. For those of you (that one 1 person) who’s here for the first time, here they are one more time. Oh, and here’s a link to the post they’re in =).

And for good measure, just because it’s my favorite hat in the whole wide world. I bought this years ago, and my grandmother wondered why on earth I would buy such a hat. Because it’s a moose! King of the forest! And it’s just plain fun, and deadly warm!

All Things Nerdy, Leftovers, Personal Knits

Creepy Siamese Twins Doll! (horror movies included)

April 21, 2015 Pixie Leave a comment

Meet May and Ida, Evil Ed’s sisters! They are the second doll in a long line of creatures I plan to make (a plan I’ve been working on for almost 2 weeks now =P). My plan is to make myself a Freak Show Circus! I have a clown and Siamese twins now, so I think I’m off to an ok start =). If anyone has any ideas to what kind of creatures a freak show circus should have, I’m open to suggestions. So far I’m thinking of a creepy old gypsy fortune teller (Drag Me To Hell), a weird magician who actually cuts people in half (The Wizard of Gore – 1970), and a circus director in the style of Michael J. Anderson (Carnivàle/Twin Peaks).

Like Evil Ed, May and Ida are named after something from the realm of horror, they are named after two of my favorite characters portrayed by the beautiful Angela Bettis. At the bottom of this post is a short list of movies =).

This doll was a lot easier to knit than Evil Ed. Mostly because I had a plan before I started knitting, and I stuck to the plan. Like last time I knitted a doll, I looked for some inspiration for my project. I wanted Siamese twins, one body two heads, and I looked through my collection of horror movies. I found a few, and the first one I watched was Brian De Palma’s Sisters. I started off at the bottom this time, actually with a pair of socks. I picked up stitches along the top of the socks, and continued to knit the legs.

I’m a big fan of knitting as many pieces together, instead of sewing what seems to be a million pieces together. What I did when the legs were long enough, was cast on new stitches between the legs, and continued knitting on double pin needles in a round. I did the same with the arms as I did from sock to legs. I picked up stitches along the holes I had made for the arms, and knitted! All I had to do from there was sew in any ends I had, and not having to worry about putting all the pieces together! I put the stitches for the necks on separate threads, I figured I would knit some clothes for them before the heads came on. At this point I had no idea how I wanted the heads and faces to look like. While I knitted the body, I watched Basket Case 1 & 2.

I decided that May and Ida would be “pretty” girls, they like things that sparkle, they like to be feminine. They like to dress up and be quite girly. They have always been pretty girls, long before they died. I watched the movie Alone when I made the clothes, and quite fittingly the movie starts with the mother sewing a dress for her girls =D.

Evil Ed loves his sisters very much, they’re probably the only thing Evil Ed loves. Evil Ed wasn’t always evil. When May and Ida were still alive, Evil Ed was a fun loving clown. But then one day some people came and took May and Ida. They were freaks, and simple town folks think freaks are evil, and they killed May and Ida (those ignorant bastards)! Evil Ed lost it, and with some magical help got his sisters back. They are fully functional revenants with heightened psychic abilities. They don’t need any weapons to kill people, but sometimes big brother Ed lets his sisters borrow his meat cleaver =).

I also dug up this old comic Iskald Grøss, the Norwegian equivalent of The Vault of Horror comic. It’s about a two headed man, who covers up his “bad self” in a basket he carries around. It’s a fun little story =)

A short movie list (they are all linked to IMDB):
Evil Ed – the inspiration for Evil Ed’s name
May – inspiration for the name May
Masters of Horror – “Sick Girl” – inspiration for the name Ida
Sisters
Basket Case
Alone
Freaks

All Things Nerdy, Leftovers, Personal Knits

30 Rock!

April 17, 2015 Pixie 2 Comments

I’m a big tv show and movie fan, as is my boyfriend. Our movie collection are in the thousands, our tv show collection is huge! It might make us seem like boring people, spending most evenings catching up on our episodes and ever growing pile of movies we still haven’t seen. But we don’t care, we like being “boring”. My boyfriend also works for a cinematic company, so we get 2 free movie tickets for every movie we see at the movie theatre =D. True story, I asked my boyfriend to marry me weeks before we even started dating, when he told me he gets 2 free tickets for every movie through his workplace!

Horror is not the only thing that occupies my time, I like to be entertained, so I watch all kinds of things. I’m one of those who follow too many TV shows, so much so that I’ve even made a spreadsheet to keep track of everything!

I have a “thing” for Tina Fey and Amy Poehler, specially their shows 30 Rock and Parks & Rec. I’ve also loved watching them hosting The Golden Globe awards!
30 Rock is by far one of my favorite comedy shows this last decade, there’s just something really nerdy about it =P I’m not going go into any details why I think this is such a great show, tv reviewers can do that. What I’d like to show are my two 30 Rock hats, based on Liz Lemon’s range of curse words.

For those of you unfamiliar with some of Liz’s phrases and words, here’s a little clip from YouTube:

Meet my head model Bob-Igor Fluffy (very long inside joke I have with my boyfriend’s oldest son =P). Mr. Fluffy will be my hat model until he passes gas, and dies!

This hat says “Blërg”, and it’s based on Liz Lemon’s curse word “blerg”. Blërg is also the name of her home office furniture from IKEA. I knitted it back and forth since the letters only go on the front side, and then sewed it together in the back. It’s knitted on needle size 6 (US size 10), with a mix of Fritidsgarn and Iglo (both are wool).

Here we have Mr. Fluffy in a stylish grey, green and purple beanie that says “jagweed”, one of the many things Liz calls her nerdy co-workers when she’s angry and stressed =) Knitted with a wool/acrylic blend on needle size 4 (US size 6), like the other one knitted back and forth, and then sewn together in the back.

Both of these are of course knitted with leftover yarn from my stash, it’s what I do ;P. For the letters I used Times New Roman and Fancy Alphabet from this site. If you can’t be bothered to draw up a chart of letters, you should check out the link =)

All Things Nerdy, Leftovers, Personal Knits

Scary plants!

April 9, 2015 Pixie 2 Comments

Although Halloween is still months away, there’s no reason not to knit a flesh eating plant =D. For some reason I can never keep live plants for long. There’s this thing where I think a plant is going to die, and so I water them too much and I kill them…! I am a plant killer! I don’t mean to, I would love to have a small jungle in my home. I just seem to want to kill them all! =P I do however do a good job when I water other people’s plants, go figure… I have one plant, which I’m desperately trying to revive. It has start to bloom again, on one side. I doubt it’ll get through it though, but I haven’t given up yet!

So since I’m so good at killing plants, I’ve started to knit them instead. That way I can’t kill them, it is impossible to kill a fake plant (unless you find a pair of scissors and go crazy, which I won’t do!). I made this plant for Halloween a few years back, and my boyfriend and I liked it so much, it gets to see the light of day all year long. It’s no longer a Halloween plant, it’s our everyday plant =). I borrowed the idea from this lovely lady; Cyclops pot plant, when I one day googled knitted horror plants. I made a couple of changes, I wanted teeth on my plant, so I have two eyes and two mouths on mine.

A little hot tip for the soil part, is to use really old towels you’re going to throw out anyway. Those old towels that no one would ever use again, which have been taking up space at the bottom of your stack of hand towels =).

Here are some links to other fun knitted and crocheted plants (click on the images to go to the patterns):

Mario Bros. Piranha Plant by Janet Carrillo

Piranha plant by Lupita Suarez

Chomper from “Plants vs Zombies” by Olka Novitskaya

Carnivine Pokemon by Katherine Homer

Sweet Halloween Pumpkin – NOT by Phoeny

And here are some not so scary with a big nerd factor =D:

Rooti the Mandrake Seedling by Britni Husband
(it’ll be like Pan’s Labyrinth!)

Baby Groot from Guardians of the Galaxy! The left one is crocheted by Maarja Härsing-Värk, the right one is knitted by Meghan Munro.

You should also take the time to check out some of the others things these designers have made! =)

Leftovers, Personal Knits

A World of Wrist Warmers

April 6, 2015 Pixie 2 Comments

In the spirit of “lets show everyone my mountain of personal knits”, it’s time for the wrist warmers. I do love me a pair of wrist warmers, having cold hands and cold feet is the worst. I even have a pair of wrist warmers for my knitting sessions, but they are so worn out, I’m ashamed to show them =P

Knitted with Sandnes Mini Alpaca yarn, they are more arm warmers than wrist warmers. Fully stretched they go over the elbow. Knitted on needle size 2 1/2, rib knit all the way (2 knit/2 purl). This is the only pair of wrist warmers that hasn’t been knitted with leftover yarn.

These 2 pairs of wrist warmers goes all the way to just below my elbows, The red/white pairs is cotton, the blue/grey is alpaca wool, leftover yarn of course.

These 2 pairs are about 30cm long, knitted with leftover wool blends.

The blue/green pair is knitted with leftover cotton blend yarn, is about 30cm long. The red pair is knitted with leftover alpaca yarn, and is about 20cm long.

As you’ve probably noticed, I like stripes =P. At least when I knitted these wrist warmers years ago. I really don’t like having cold hands, so wrist warmers are at times my best friend. I do have one pair that’s not striped:

This one pair is knitted with leftover acrylic yarn, with a cable pattern and hole pattern.

Since I still have a vast mountain of leftover yarn, I plan to make a few new additions to my wrist warmer collection. As I mentioned, all of these were knitted years ago, when intricate patterns scared me. Now I look for the challenges, the things I haven’t tried yet. In my long line of queued items I’m going to knit these and these wrist warmers. They are on my to-do list =)

All Things Nerdy, Leftovers, Personal Knits

Evil clown (movie favorites included)

April 4, 2015 Pixie Leave a comment

I’ve mentioned a couple of times that I’m a horror fan, I’m a big horror fan! If I could, I would go on about how what and why I love horror. But I’m restraining myself as best I can not to go off topic (this is after all a knitting blog, not a movie blog).

On March 26th I watched Jon Watts/Eli Roth’s new horror movie Clown, it was an enjoyable time. I think the same day (or at least a day or two before or after I saw this movie), Fear Itself (an upcoming horror movie) introduced itself to me. So you could say I had a wave of inspiration, and I knew I had to make myself an evil clown. Evil clowns are so much fun, although I’ll admit there aren’t that many evil clown movies I actually like, mostly due to poor storylines and terrible acting.
During the process of making my clown, I’ve of course revisited some clown movies and TV shows, just to be in the zone. At the bottom of this post is a very short list of movies and TV show I’ve enjoyed, and the titles are all linked to IMBD.

My initial plan was to make evil clown heads, and hang them on my branch in my windowsill. But as soon as I had finished my first (and so far only) clown head, I realized it was too good to just be a head. It needed a body. I also realized that my head kind of resembled Pennywise, so I decided not to make him a big puffy yellow one piece suit. While I was making the head, I revisited season 2 of Psychoville which starts off with a clown funeral (not including the Halloween special episode). In Psychoville the main clown, Mr. Jelly, isn’t necessarily evil, he is just bitter and cynical, and has had really bad fortune. He lost his hand because of another clown/surgeon called Mr. Jolly, so Mr. Jelly has a hook for a hand (and a bag of hands for his tricks).

Since I started with the head, the rest of the knitting was very much a “lets guess how big the body needs to be, and just try until it fits”. It took 3 tries to get the pants the size I wanted, because I was dead set on having different colors on each leg. While I did those I watched one of my absolute favorite clown movies, Stitches! A 2012 Irish horror comedy starring the stand-up comedian Ross Noble.

While I knitted the jacket, the torso (for this I just picked up stitches around the top edge of the pants and knitted on dpn until it was long enough) and arms, I revisited the Masters of Horror episode “We all scream for ice cream”, and then I put on Stephen King’s IT. I sewed on the head and arms, and sewed in buttons on the jacket.

What was left on the clown now was feet, hands, teeth, eyes, and some other details on his clothes. The feet were easy enough, and when they were done, I played tippy toe with them on the table. It’s almost embarrassing how silly I can get when I’m enjoying my knitting time. While I did the feet and sewed them on, I watched Amusement. It’s not really a clown movie, however the clown part of the movie is really good, and so is the rest of the
movie =D.

I had also made the decision to give him one hand and one hook. The hand was a bit of a nightmare to get right, but only because I wanted the clown to be able to open and close his hand. I knitted the fingers I-cord, and stuffed pipe cleaners in them. It took a couple of tries, those skinny bastards kept bending and getting hooked on stitches. Of course this led to my boyfriend’s boys flipping each other off with my clown… They also made him answer the fake phone. I did it though, and now my evil clown can hold the meat cleaver I made for him. A blood dripping meat cleaver! It’s all in the details you know ;). On his hook there is an eye ball, from his last victim!

This clown could have been made in a much easier way, but I don’t really care. I had a lot of fun while knitting it. Specially doing all the little details, like the eye ball, the teeth and eyes, to the insignificant but cheerful yellow polka dots on his blue jacket arm. He still needs to be named, an evil clown needs a good name. All suggestions are welcome =D

And here he is, my evil clown!

Some of my favorite clowns on the screen, and clown movies/TV shows (including those I’ve already mentioned in my post):

Stitches
Psychoville (TV show)
Masters of Horror (TV show)
IT
Killer clowns from outer space
Amusement (not a true clown movie, just one part of it)
Zombieland (not a true clown movie, the character Columbus has a fear of clowns, and meets a zombie clown in the end)
American Horror Story (season 5 “Freak Show” has the evil clown)
Clown
Clownhouse (was very scary when I saw it as a kid, not so much as an adult)
100 Tears

Pixie Knits

Category Archives: Leftovers

VHS And Christmas Knitting!

Knitting Frenzy!

Just A Few More Socks!

Fun Socks For A Princess!

An Assortment of Hats!

Creepy Siamese Twins Doll! (horror movies included)

30 Rock!

Scary plants!

A World of Wrist Warmers

Evil clown (movie favorites included)

And here he is, my evil clown!

I'm a nerdy female of 36 winters who love to knit! Most days are spent with knitting needles in my hands =)