Edward’s Imaginarium – My first monster

Yep. That’s right. I’m on about Kerry Lord’s lovely work yet again – and following on the success of Edward’s Menagerie and Edward’s Menagerie Birds, Kerry from Toft has brought out her most fun and creative book yet.

Edward’s Imaginarium, also known as Ed’s Flipbook, is refreshingly unique and absolutely brimming with fun. It uses a series of different pattern options for heads, arms, and feet – all of which start with the basic head and body pattern, which is similar to what we’ve come across before in Birds – that you can mix and match in a flipbook style to create a monster of your own.

As soon as I picked it up I knew I wanted my first project to be a monster for my friend Sam’s kiddo, Ernie – and I also knew I wanted to go large. So, I nipped over to the ever brilliant Knit Nottingham on my lunchbreak to grab some chunky yarn in a whole bunch of colours to give me a starting point. Then, I got sketching.

In the instructions for how to use the book, Kerry encourages you to grab your pencils and sketch out how you’d like your creature to look. And while there are lots of ready-made patterns you can follow in the gallery at the back, what I love about this book is that it really encourages you to be creative and adapt patterns to fit your ideas.

I’m usually super conservative and terrified of straying from a pattern, but with this I crept out of my comfort zone and soon found myself sketching, colouring, and creating a little monster pal all my own!

I used H:2, A:10 and F:11 with a version of the three-round stripe; I followed it as normal for the body, but then stuck with my main colour for roughly 8 rows on the arms and legs before going into the stripe (as I didn’t want him to look like he was wearing a stripey onesie!). I also added a tail for a little extra sass.

I’m so chuffed with how this little cutie turned out. The instructions were terrifically easy to follow, and it was so satisfying how quickly the chunky chap worked up in the weightier yarn. And while it was already great bringing something I’d dreamt up to life, it was even better seeing how pleased Ernie was with his present.

I think I’m going to cast on a knitting project next, but I can’t wait to make another little monster. Thanks, Kerry and Toft, for yet another brilliant book!

Crochet for beginners

The other day I found myself cooing over the patterns and kits over at Toft Alpaca Shop for the thousandth time, and this totally mad crochet flamingo finally tipped me over the edge. I had to have it. And I suddenly thought – why not just learn how to crochet? So, I did!

I already had a crochet blanket kit that I picked up at last year’s Handmade Fair, so I had everything I needed to get started when I had an afternoon to myself. Unfortunately, two hours in and four tries later, it seemed the kit wasn’t quite right for beginners – and I was ready to launch my crochet hook out the window.

Luckily, a little Googling the next day turned up this brilliant tutorial for simple granny squares on the blog Little Tin Bird. Heather, the blogger behind the site, explains every single step carefully with some extremely helpful pictures.

I had the right yarn and hook to give it a go, so I sucked it up and gave it another try!

With this pattern, I practiced chain stitch, treble stitch and slip stitch. After how much I’d struggled with the other pattern, I can’t tell you how happy this tiny, pretty wonky pink square made me feel.

I also learnt how to change my yarn colour.

And, just like that, I had my very first granny square!

It’s uneven, lumpy and a little sad looking in places, but I don’t care – I’m so delighted with how it’s turned out, and can’t get over the simplicity and helpfulness of the walkthrough on Little Tin Bird. If you’re thinking of giving crochet a go, it’s a fantastic place to start – I definitely recommend it!

Next, I think I’m going to make a bunch more squares to practice each technique. It’s so fun to be learning something new, and while I’ve a habit of trying to run before I can walk I really want to slow down and get my head around the basics.

If you have any beginners’ crochet patterns you’d recommend, let me know. I’d love to give them a try!

Anna Hrachovec’s Teeny-Tiny Mochimochi

They don’t get much teenier, or much tinier, than this.

When I first got into knitting at about ten years’ old, I was only interested in knitting toys. In fact, I only knitted a jumper for the first time about 18 months ago; before that, it was always, always exclusively cute things on my needles.

How then could I resist Anna Hrachovec’s designs? I stumbled across her work on Ravelry a year or so ago and had been desperate to try some patterns ever since. Thinking I’d literally start small, I bought one of her books, Teeny-Tiny Mochimochi. That was last June – and I’ve finally gotten around to trying it!

First off, my initial impressions: the book itself is beautifully photographed and really well-written. Every character has it’s own cheeky little bio line – some of which made me laugh out loud – and the instructions are very clear.

Every question you could possibly have is answered before you even jump into the patterns themselves, and Anna even offers tips and tricks for stuffing these teeny little cutiepies and tying off your ends neatly.

The actual patterns are equally clear, and very simple once you’ve got the hang of battling nine stitches on DPNs. I started with an elephant (toot toot!) and hadn’t knit in the round for ages, so for a little while I felt a bit like a weird, low-budget version of Edward Scissorhands.

Did I deliberately paint my nails before I started knitting because I knew I’d take photos? Yep.

Patterns are mostly made up of simple increases and decreases and work with i-cords. All your new friend’s appendages are made by picking up and knitting stitches, so if you’ve got those skills down you’ll definitely be able to tackle any of the patterns in the book.

It’s even cute without legs. Or ears. Or a face.

My favourite thing about these patterns (apart from their heart-wrenching cuteness, obviously) is that they really forced me to start being a bit of a perfectionist. Like my bio says, I’m a pretty slap-dash crafter, but with a project this small every mistake becomes glaringly obvious so it’s essential to pay super close attention to the instructions.

In fact, I even found myself approaching tying in my ends, and adding details, much more carefully; I even re-did the eyes (twice!) because I wasn’t sure they looked quite right. Because you’re working in such minute detail, the slightest difference in stitch placement can give these little guys an entirely different character.

Overall, I’d definitely recommend the book; it’s easy to follow, fun, and the results aren’t just irresistibly cute but achievable, too. It can be frustrating sometimes when you can’t get finished results to look like they do in their picture, but you won’t have that problem here.

I’ve now added a little dino to the family (he’s in the photo at the top!) and will be making a few more as a gift. Next, I’m dying to tackle Anna’s Squidpocalypse. It’s exactly as mad as it sounds.

Small dino.

Small tooter.

Small friends! 🙂