Tag Archives: Horror knits

Lament Configuration!

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.IMG_20150423_145739 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.

 

IMG_20150423_144408For 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.

 

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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 IMG_20150422_170754the 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 =).

 

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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!

 

IMG_20150423_185406This 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.

 

 

IMG_20150424_153321Here’s the finished IMG_20150424_153222 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).

 

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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

 

Creepy Siamese Twins Doll! (horror movies included)

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 =).

 

IMG_20150411_013947 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 IMG_20150411_162122watched 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,IMG_20150411_215735 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.

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I decided that May and IdaIMG_20150420_194947 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.

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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 =).

 

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IMG_20150421_124200I also dug up this old comicIMG_20150421_124252 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

 

Scary plants!

 

IMG_20150409_140051Although 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!

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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 IMG_20150409_140244Halloween 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.

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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

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 Piranha plant by Lupita Suarez

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 Chomper from “Plants vs Zombies” by Olka Novitskaya

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 Carnivine Pokemon by Katherine Homer

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Sweet Halloween Pumpkin – NOT by Phoeny

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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!)

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IMG_6020_medium2Baby_groot_-_free_crochet_pattern_medium2Baby 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! =)

Evil clown (movie favorites included)

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.

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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. IMG_20150402_134236While 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).

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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.

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IMG_20150403_030052While 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.

 

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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’mIMG_20150403_190424 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 ofIMG_20150403_190415 the
movie =D.

 

 

I had also made the decision to give him IMG_20150404_191051one 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 IMG_20150404_191132_1flipping 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 theIMG_20150404_191000 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!

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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

Zombies!!!

I have mentioned that I am a horror fan in my “Old Classics Never Die” post, it is by far my favorite genre whether it’s movies, TV shows, comics, books, any kind of art. We all find our thing at some point in life, I found mine very early. I was in primary school when I started borrowing my dad’s Tales from the Crypt comics (Iskald Grøss in Norway), my favorite TV shows as a kid was Eerie Indiana and Are You Afraid of The Dark which was shown on Norway’s TV2 (we didn’t have cable TV until much later). The first horror movie I saw was Deathship, I was 8 years old and that movie gave me nightmares. There are many other things I like too, horror is just my favorite of all the things I like.

When it comes to monsters (non human living baddies), I hold zombies the highest. There are so many fun things being done in the zombie category; fast runners, slow walkers, cursed zombies, intelligence, hybrid zombies (zombies mixed with other elements, or sick people with attributes for the zombie world) etc. A few years back, my uncle KJ got me this awesome ZOMBIE COOKIE JAR, which I use for cookies and Halloween candy.

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I’ve wanted a zombie messenger bag for a while now, and I’ve finally gotten around to it! I used my cookie jar as inspiration and of course leftover yarns. I started at the bottom, and knitted on circular needles with red (the blood), and continued with the zombie green.

 

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I decided to not knit the mouth, nose, eyebrows or eyes. Instead I embroidered it on after (I really do need to practice on my embroidery skills).

 

 

IMG_20150226_142050I also knitted a tiny piece of brain, and sewed it on so it looks like there’s a hole in the head where some brain is coming out. I’ve also sewed in inner lining (in green of course), so it doesn’t stretch to the unrecognizable when it gets some weight in the bag.

 

I’m very satisfied with the end result, I finally have my zombie handbag! =D

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Old Classics Never Die

As I said in my first post on this blog, I’m very late to the party. The few things I’ve shown you so far, are thing I made during the last 2 years (up until Christmas 2014). So today I thought I would show you what I’ve been knitting this last week.

For many years I’ve been all about recycling, hand-me-downs, second-hand shops etc. As a society we produce far too much trash, garbage, unnecessary crap. We buy new things, keep them for a year, and replace it all with new shiny object to make us feel fresh and new (no I’m not talking about everyone, I’m talking about us as a society). My favorite pair of shoes are 10 years old, my favorite jacket I bought in 2000 (I still have it and wear it!). Most of my furniture are hand-me-downs, 80% of my wardrobe are bought in second-hand shops. I don’t throw anything away, until it’s completely useless. Just a few months ago my boyfriend finally got me to accept my very first smart phone (again a hand-me-down), because my 8 year old mobile was finally starting to act up. All of my things have a history, they have lived a life with someone else, and now they live on in my life. I know it’s a silly sentiment, but at least I’m doing my part not to produce more garbage than necessary.

IMG_20150214_132726So anyway, enough rambling about trash. I collect jars (I don’t go out and buy empty jars =P). These are jars from the grocery shop, once filled with jam or tomato sauce, salsa, whatever you find in jars in the store. With a little bit of magic and yarn, you can transform boring glass jars into fun candle holders, pencil holders, vases or whatever your heart desires.

 

I’ve made myself some cute vases based on some of my most beloved creatures (I haven’t mentioned this yet, but I’m a HUGE horror fan). From left to right: Dracula, Frankentstein’s Monster and The Mummy =) They are knitting with cotton yarn on needlesize 3 (US sz 2.5). I’ve focused on the details which makes the creatures unquie; Draculas fangs and collar, Frankenstein’s Monster’s neck bolt and stichings and The Mummy’s bandages/wraps.

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