We still have all our fingers!

Really helpful informative title yes? No? Where's your sense of initiative? You really need it to read this blog and make sense of it. Especially this post but generally too.

Anyway. We still have our fingers. All of them. Which is, by the way, very useful when typing. And driving. And.....   Well in life as a whole.

um. point. point. definitely had one.

Scar!

We have got one Scar! He is on a pumpkin.

The observant among you may realise that a pumpkin is not a knitting or crochet project. You would be correct in this observation. However, I haven't done any knitting recently so I figured what the hell, and decided Scar in his awesomeness could be added to an increasingly crafty (as opposed to knitty) blog.

He's cool.

Knives got repeatedly and perilously close to fingers and thumbs.

Special mention goes to Anne Parkinson.

Cause she wanted it.

Also cause it was her idea, and she did a lot of the work.

Now we have to repeat the feat on Friday :D

Fun fun fun!

Michael Jackson seems to be popular. Who knew?

So the person who asked me to do the first Michael Jackson illusion got back to me like a week ago and asked me to do another one. I .... um.... ignored all that sensible lesson planning stuff I really should have been doing and made one today.
Its actually quite cool.
I like.
I know I would think that cause its my pattern, but basically its CoR's design, I just put it into a pattern format for her. And even that may be stretching the point. Its a photo that I've illusionated. Which is not a word but will be soon. Or should be.

My housemate is playing Tekken3. It keeps making inane comments. Like hai ya. And K.O. And Round Two. Fight.
It may possibly be driving me insane.
I'm not sure.
I'll keep you updated.

Cause I'm sure you are just dying to know.

Whatever.
Where was I?

Oh yeah.
So now I have 2 illusion patterns for Michael. And there is a third on the way. Its not that exciting I know, but it does keep me from dying of boredom planning how to teach year 7s pie charts. Which I gave up on cause I think they probably already know.

Tra La.

The pattern, you will be surprised to learn, is over on scribd, link on my illusion knit page. And the first MJ pattern is also available on ravelry downloads. Hilariously (to me if no one else) this got downloaded 11 times today. This is a new high. Previously my most downloaded pattern was Discworld Death of Rats. At 2 in a day.
Lol.
Just me?
Oh well. I can amuse myself at least.

He stopped playing Tekken. The voice has gone.
But I'm out of stuff for this post anyway.
And looking at it again, most of it was inane babble. It's a good thing I don't have to pay for this blog in any way really.

Or something.
Back to lesson plans. Bye!

Happy Lion Tea Cosy

IT's SO AWESOME!!!
It's a Happy Lion! That sits on TEA!

Unfortunately it's also Sophie's birthday present. And ... well.... Happy Lion is Sophie's thing. So I should give it to her. Especially as it actually fits her teapot so well.

I'm really proud of that actually. The pattern I used was originally for a Loopy Lamb tea cosy for a 4-6 cup pot, but has become a Happy Lion tea cosy for a 2 cup pot. I took the advice of some particularly lovely ladies in the wool shop and decided to go with the pattern exactly, but reduce the size of needles and the weight of wool. I was somewhat shocked (but megaly delighted) it fitted, cause I knitted the thing at home-home, and then brought it back to Cov-home where the teapot was. To be perfectly honest, I was so happy about it that I waved it under Rob's nose for a while showing off about my own brilliance in knitting, which, since he's a nice guy, he a) took with good grace and b) complimented me on.

Yay!
And, and and and AND! It's a birthday present finished ON TIME!!!! Got that? On TIME!!! ON time!!!

BOOO YA!

Numero Trois

Third Illsuion knit comission.
I'm actually enjoying them. Its a break from the work I am totally supposed to be doing right now.
Ooops.
Whatever.
The point is; other people giving me the ideas, and actually knitting the things (which is something I have NOT got time for) is really good, and I still get to do knit related things.
Happy.
Now sleep.
Sleep good.

Tory, her Gecko obsession, and the hat what I made.

It's a hat. With a gecko on it.
I made her a gecko from scratch a year ago, and she was very pleased. So, I wanted to find something else gecko related. And did. Obviously. I should get a better writing style really shouldn't I? Anywho, I found a chart someone had made for a crocheted gecko shawl. That seemed way too much like effort, but the geckos were pretty. So I also found a simple beanie-hat pattern, and inserted the prettiest gecko. Done.

                                                      Small issue. It may be too small.
Tory does have a hilariously small head though. Every Christmas the paper hats turn into necklaces instantly.

See here, in this here photo, here, Tory's hat is paper clipped to be smaller, and the teddy bears hat? That was one Ste made for Tory the year before.

Maybe. Maybe it will fit her.
It sure doesn't fit me.


It doesn't. I have achieved a hat that is too small for Tory. Congratulations. To me.
Facepalm
Picture to follow. I was so caught up in the fail that was hat sizing that I gave up and went away.

Toothless!

Toothless is cute.

Just thought we should start there before saying anything else. It's not up for discussion. He is cute.
For the chaplaincy ball we painted this image onto the wall, with a wingspan of about 5-6 feet. Afterwards, I got to take him home! So he's on my wall!
Thus I have a cute Toothless. That's me covered, but what about all those other poor people out there? They are Toothless-less, and this is sad. Particularly, my friend Sam, who has spent a lot of time trying to find a Toothless toy, and can't, because the only ones available are insufficiently cute.

Enter birthday presents.
I decided I would knit Sam up a Toothless toy, so searched ravelry for a pattern. Was slightly delighted that there was one. Largely because I really didn't feel like making my own pattern for it. Objects are kind of a far cry from charts in my eyes. I can make charts. Thats a relatively simple image editing process. Objects. No idea where to start.
So, in any case, I'm going to knit Sam a Toothless.

But there's still a larger problem. The pattern I found is not free. This is something I dislike on a low level basis. I'm willing to pay in this case because he's so complicated, but I still feel that there is a gap in the ravelry database for a free Toothless related pattern.
Enter illusion knits.

If you think about it Toothless is really quite an appropriate thing for an illusion knit. I mean - night furies are the one dragon that no-one had ever seen.... until Hiccup shot one. So they should be invisible from many angles. Illusion is perfect.

Thus; I have also made up an illusion chart for Toothless. In fact 4 illusion charts for Toothless. Cause he is cute, and therefore merits extra charts from extra angles. I have a vision in my head of a blanket of illusion knitted Toothlesses, and so the charts should hopefully fit together. Since I'm not sure how it works (and have decided to be selfish initially so that I have the FIRST TOOTHLESS ILLUSION BLANKET) its not going online till I have knitted it. Which is probably a better time to put things online in general, but. Well. I'm lazy, so ... I cut corners.

I feel this post needs a summary. So here is one.
Toothless is cute.

Life, The Universe, and Other Mysteries.

The most notable one of which currently (aside from

" Why did I not go to bed at a sane time considering when I have to get up? "

 -which is admittedly also a very current issue, and has been for some time tonight. Um. This morning, and Last night. Stupid computer. Keeping me up. ... Or something) is :

" Why do people come asking me for help with illusion patterns? "

In particular, I've had another commission from a fellow Raveler. Which in turn has led actually to the solution of the other mystery mentioned. I just completed the chart for them. I should probably actually ask for payment in return really. The first guy actually offered. New mystery to add to the list:

" Why did I not accept? "

I mean. Its not exactly like paid work in that I actually enjoy the effort involved, but it does take time, and I should have recognised that. I could have just given the money to charity if I felt guilty about it.
I'm an utter idiot. Maybe sleep will improve my idiocy quota.
Maybe not.


*edit* yep. I'm an idiot. Failed to mention the project is an illusion chart for the superman logo. link is, as ever, over on the illusion knit page.