Category Archives: 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 =)

Personal Knits

Summer Jacket – Free Pattern!

May 7, 2015 Pixie Leave a comment

A couple of years ago I was given a full bag of crochet yarn, and for a while it just sat there collecting dust. I avoid crocheting if I can! Usually when I knit, I’ll watch something on my TV, and my hands automatically do what they’re supposed to do. Not foreign films though. I don’t have the skill to count stitches in my head AND read subtitles at the same time.

Last Spring I figured I would do something about all that yarn, and the first thing I knitted was this short Summer jacket. It’s a fairly simple jacket to make, only trouble I had with it was the chafing on my index finger from the yarn (I might have been holding the yarn a little too tight). I thought I would share the simple pattern I made for this one, at the bottom of the post you can download the pdf with knitting chart =). Bare in mind that the pattern may be a little off. I knitted this a year ago, without writing down what I did. I had to retrace my steps. I did my best!

Summer jacket

Needle size: 3mm
Gauge: 30sts = 10cm
Measuring tip: measure the jacket laying down.
Yarn: Sesia 52 beige, 50g
Skeins: 6-7
Other material: 10 buttons

The jacket measures 37cm from the neck down. The arms measures (from the inside) 10cm, and from neck line to the end of the arm is 25cm.

This jacket is worked back and forth from bottom to top on circular needles.

Explanations:
*knit 2sts together in back loop* = you can either knit them together in the back loop of the stitches, or you can slip on stitch to the right needle, knit 1st and slip the slipped stitch over the stitch you just knitted.
*knit 3sts together* = slip 1st to the right needle, knit 2sts together, slip the slipped stitch over the stitch you just knitted.
*Raglan: knit till 3sts before marker, *knit 2sts together in back loop, purl 1st, knit 2sts, knit 2sts together*. Decrease every second round.

Cast on 252sts (first and last stitch are edge stitches, and is not a part of the pattern. Knit edge stitches on both sides). Purl first row, the next 16 rows knit ribbed, *knit 2sts, purl 2sts* over all sts, the 2 first and 2 last stitches are knitted (do not include edge stitches).

Pattern (diamond pattern):
1.row: knit 4sts, knit 2sts together, knit 1st, 1 yarn over, *knit 1 st, 1 yarn over, knit 1st, knit 2sts together in back loop, knit 5sts, knit 2sts together, knit 1st, 1 yarn over*. Repeat *..* 18 more time. On the last 8sts (not including edge stitch) knit 1st, 1 yarn over, knit 2sts together in back loop, knit 4sts.

2.row: purl all sts.

3.row: knit 3sts, knit 2sts together, knit 1st, 1 yarn over, knit 1st, *knit 2sts, 1 yarn over, knit 2sts together in back loop, knit 3sts, knit 2sts together, knit 1st, 1yarn over, knit 1st*. Repeat *..* until the last 8sts. Knit 2sts, 1 yarn over, knit 1st, knit 2sts together in back loop, knit 3sts.

4.row: purl all sts.

5.row: knit 2sts, knit 2sts together, knit 1st, 1 yarn over, knit 2sts, *knit 3sts, 1 yarn over, knit 1st, knit 2sts together in back loop, knit 1st, knit 2sts together, knit 1st, 1 yarn over, knit 2sts*. Repeat *..* until the last 8sts, knit 3sts, 1 yarn over, knit 1st, knit 2sts together in back loop, knit 2sts.

6.row: purl all sts.

7.row: knit 1st, knit 2sts together, knit 1st, 1 yarn over, knit 3sts, *knit 4sts, 1 yarn over, knit 3sts together, knit 1st, 1 yarn over, knit 3sts*. Repeat *..* until the last 8sts, knit 4sts, 1 yarn over, knit 1st, knit 2sts together in back loop, knit 1st.

8.row: purl all sts.

9.row: knit 2sts, 1 yarn over, knit 1st, knit 2sts together in back loop, knit 2sts, *knit 3sts, knit 2sts together, knit 1st, 1 yarn over, knit 1st, 1 yarn over, knit 1st, knit 2sts together in back loop, knit 2sts*. Repeat *..* until the last 8sts, knit 3sts, knit 2sts together, knit 1st, 1 yarn over, knit 2sts.

10.row: purl all sts.

11.row: knit 3sts, 1 yarn over, knit 1st, knit 2sts together in back loop, knit 1st, *knit 2sts, knit 2sts together, knit 1st, 1 yarn over, knit 3sts, 1 yarn over, knit 1st, knit 2sts together in back loop, knit 1st*. Repeat *..* until last 8sts, knit 2sts, knit 2sts together, knit 1st, 1 yarn over, knit 2sts.

12.row: purl all sts.

13.row: knit 4sts, 1 yarn over, knit 1st, knit 2sts together in back loop, *knit 1st, knit 2sts together, knit 1st, 1 yarn over, knit 5sts, 1 yarn over, knit 2sts together in back loop*. Repeat *..* until last 8sts, knit 1st, knit 2sts together, knit 1st, 1 yarn over, knit 4sts.

14.row: purl all sts.

15.ro: knit 5sts, 1 yarn over, *knit 3sts together, knit 1st, 1 yarn over, knit 7sts, 1 yarn over, knit 1st*. Repeat *..* until last 8sts, knit 3sts together, knit 1st, 1 yarn over, knit 5sts.

16.row: purl all sts.

Repeat pattern 4,5 more times (about 21cm long), or as long as you want your jacket to be. On row 88 cast off for armholes by knitting the first 57sts (in pattern), cast off 12sts, knit 114sts, cast off 12sts, knit the remaining 57sts. Put piece aside and start on the arms.

Arms:
Cast on 90sts (first and last are edge stitches). If you want to knit in a round on dpn, only cast on 88sts. Knit ribbed (knit 2sts, purl 2sts) for 16rows. Knit pattern 2,5 times (40 rows, or how many rows you need to get approx. 10cm). Cast off 14sts if you’ve worked back and forth (the 7 first and 7 last sts), cast off 12sts if you’ve worked in round.
When both arms are done, slip them on to same circular needles as the body, where armholes were cast off. Insert 1 marker in all transitions between sleeves and body (4 markers). Continue to knit in pattern, at the same time decrease for raglan (see explanations). When you’ve knitted a total of 31cm/8,5 pattern repeats, start working an elevation in the back (you can either cast off stitches, or slip stitches to the right as if you were doing short rows).
Slip 2sts (or cast of 2sts) at both the beginning and at the end of every row while at the same time continuing with pattern and raglan. Do this 10 times (or however many times till the piece measures 33cm).

Neck:
If you’ve cast off stitches during the elevation in the back, pick up new stitches. Increase or decrease (depending on your size of course) to 120sts, and knit ribbed *knit 2sts, purl 2sts*. Remember first and last stitch are edge stitches. Knit ribbed until it measures 2cm, cast off.

Right Band:
Pick up 124sts for band along the right side, first and last stitch are edge stitches. Knit ribbed *knit 2sts, purl 2sts* for 7 rows.
On 8th row, make buttonholes: Knit 7sts in rib, 1 yarn over, knit 2sts together, *knit 10sts in rib, 1 yarn over, knit 2sts together* 9 times, finish the last 7sts in rib.
Knit ribbed 6 more rows, cast off.

Left Band:
Pick up 124sts for band along the left side, knit ribbed *knit 2sts, purl 2sts* 14 rows. Remember first and last stitch are edge stitches. Cast off.

Sew in all end (sew arms together if you’ve knitted them back and forth), sew on buttons.

DOWNLOAD PATTERN HERE

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, Personal Knits

Lament Configuration!

April 24, 2015 Pixie Leave a comment

I’ve been a fan of Clive Barker since…, well since forever. At least that’s what it feels like. He’s one of my favorite authors, and I realize that’s probably one of the biggest clichés ever. I don’t mind being a cliché, I love the man (his art, his books, his movies)! The first time I entered Clive Barker’s world, was when I saw Hellraiser. This was back in the good old days when we went to video rental stores, and picked out movies based on the cool covers. Every time my brother and I wanted to rent movies we weren’t old enough to see, the lady behind the counter would call our mom and ask if we were allowed to see it (yes I grew up in a very small town, where everyone knew each other). It took a while before I was allowed to see Hellraiser, but I got there eventually.
I don’t know how many times I’ve read Barker’s Books of Blood. I love his Books of Blood so much, there are now two copies of those books in the bookshelf . Well, kind of two copies. When I got desperate a few years back, they only had volume 1-3 in one book, and 4-6 in separate books. I survived the ordeal, I’m still breathing =). As you can see, the top books are starting to fall apart, one is even taped! So when the inevitable happens, I have backups.

For years I’ve hinted to everyone I knew, that I wanted a Lament Configuration (it’s the pretty puzzle box from the Hellraiser movies). A friend of a friend had gotten a puzzle box like that for Valentine’s Day (maaaany years ago), with homemade anatomical heart and a note. I can’t remember what the note said, but it was probably something like “you’re my greatest pleasure”. What horror fanatic woman wouldn’t want that as a gift!? I still haven’t gotten my Valentine box, I’m patiently waiting. I did however get this wonderful box for my birthday a few years back, filled with horror DVD’s. It’s a big box, 27x27x27cm, and it was filled to the top =D.

So the time had come to take matters into my own hands, and knit my own Lament Configuration. With all the detail on the box, I made the pattern as easy as possible. I figured all the tiny little details would be easier to add after, with needle and thread. The pattern is not a true replica of the original box. I wanted the size of the box as close to the size in the movies, so I had to cheat a little with the pattern. With the needle size and yarn I used, there wasn’t enough room in the pattern to make it a perfect copy. It resembles the original Lament Configuration, and that’s good enough for me =). I even told some people I would have a Hellraiser marathon, but I couldn’t do it. There are after all 9 movies, and I only like a third of them =).

Luckily I have other Clive Barker adaptations to enjoy, I enjoy most of the Books of Blood movies (most of them, but not all). I skipped Candyman, because I revisited it not that long ago while I was in a Clive Barker mood. I did revisit Nightbreed, Lords of Illusion and Book of Blood. On a side note; I’m really looking forward to the adaptation of Jacqueline Ess: Her Will and Testament. It’s such a good story, and the part of Jacqueline is being played by Lena Headey!

This is what the box looked like before I started on the tiny details. Inside there’s a cardboard box, I didn’t want it to be soft and squishy. It’s after all a box, it needs edges and corners.

Here’s the finished project, my very own precious Lament Configuration. It’s about 10x10cm, an almost perfect fit for my tiny hand. It doesn’t open a portal to another realm (yet).

I was on such a roll, that I even made a tiny tiny Lament Configuration, I wanted to see if I could. And now I’m going to start on the second Lament Configuration. I promised a friend I would make one for him as well, if I was able to pull it off.

Here are some of the movies:
Hellraiser
Hellraiser II
Nightbreed
Book of Blood
Valerie On The Stairs & Haeckels Tale – Masters of Horror episodes
Candyman
Lord of Illusions

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

Knit Related, Personal Knits

HOT TIP OF THE DAY: Support your local shops!

March 29, 2015 Pixie Leave a comment

Every crafter knows how expensive it can be to make/craft something, be it knitting or painting or whatever your preference is. We’ll roam every corner of the world to find sales, bulk offers and slightly cheaper material (to replace expensive items). Internet shops does provide us with a variety of material with all kinds of sales and offers which are hard to refuse. This however is at the expense of our local shop, who very often have to jack up their prices to stay in buisness. And that is just too sad. The experience of shopping at your local store is so priceless, the personal service is undeniably awesome. Remember that your local shops are in the same position as you (if you’re the kind of person who’s trying to make your own buisness with homemade items).

My “local” shop doesn’t exist anymore. Not because it couldn’t stay open, but because the owner wanted to do something different. It was a tiny little shop called Hobbykroken, located in my hometown of Åkrehamn (on an island on the west coast of Norway). It was run by a mother and daughter, two of the most lovely people I’ve met. Going in to that shop was like heaven, the expertise they had was incredible. Among their suppliers was Drops Design, Sandnesgarn and Dalegarn.
Sometimes I would stop by, not knowing what I wanted (or even if I wanted to buy any yarn), and I would always leave with a bag of goodies. Any questions I had, they could answer. They also had a customer raffle. Every time you bought something, they added your name to the raffle, and the winner would get merchandize worth of a certain amount. In 2011 they put their shop up for sale (now it’s a beauty salon/spa place thingy). The last week they were open they had a huge sale, and I don’t think I’m wrong when I say that they must have sold pretty much everything in their shop. Of course I was there, who can refuse 70% off on everything! I ended up with bags of yarn, buttons and booklets worth almost 3000kr (376 US dollars), and only paid about 800kr (100 US dollars). I will always miss that shop, it was my favorite place!

One of the things I was finally able to knit, was this jacket. Originally it would have cost me 1248kr, I only paid 374kr for it. Because of the vast sale they had that week, there wasn’t enough skeins in some of the colors. So compared to the pattern I used, there are some minor changes. In the pattern there is no grey color, it’s a lavender purple. I went with a light grey color instead. I also added pockets, and had slightly more blue at the top of the jacket. The pattern is from this booklet , model 10. It’s knitted with Alfa yarn , a wool yarn with 6% mohair. It is super soft and comfortable. I’ve had this jacket for years now, I’m going to keep it and wear it until it falls apart =P. Like my little local shop, it is my favorite =).

Pixie Knits

Category Archives: Personal Knits

Just A Few More Socks!

Summer Jacket – Free Pattern!

Summer jacket

DOWNLOAD PATTERN HERE

An Assortment of Hats!

Lament Configuration!

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!

HOT TIP OF THE DAY: Support your local shops!

Support your local shop!

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