Hello From Grace and Crocheted Hobbit Feet

Hello fellow geeky crafters! I’m new to the GeekCrafts family, and wanted to introduce myself. My name is Grace and I’ll be posting on Fridays. I currently reside in Colorado with my husband, Jim, and our cat, Pepper Potts. My first true geek love is Lord of the Rings and the works of Tolkien in general (Roverandom, anyone?), as you can see from my attempt at an Eowyn costume here. I also love dragons, Disney, and Doctor Who, and my husband is attempting to teach me about Star Trek and X-Files. I am currently working on a TARDIS blanket, trying to make a Galadriel costume for Halloween/the next Hobbit movie premiere, attempting a steampunk version of Commander Lt. Riker for my husband, and hopefully making a steampunk Tinkerbell costume for myself in time for the next Anomaly Con.

Today, I’ll be showing one of my own tutorials that I am very proud of. When the Hobbit premiere rolled around last December, I knew I had to go in costume. I found a nice pattern for a skirt and bodice, but couldn’t find any hobbit feet that I liked. Having learned how to crochet all of three days beforehand, I decided to try and crochet my own hobbit feet using a crocheted sock tutorial video I found online. And, lo and behold, it worked!

Ta da!

On my blog, HappilyGrim (the only portmanteau of Grace and Jim that worked), I try and give directions both in stitches, and in relation to what part of the slipper is being created (i.e., 10 stitches, or however many to cover the tips of your toes). Let me know if you have any questions, and have fun making hairy hobbity feet!

Crocheted Hobbit Feet on HappilyGrim
More Hobbit and Lord of the Rings crafts on GeekCrafts

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September 3

DIY Ambilight: Because your TV isn’t big enough already

You’d think that a 55-inch, full-HD LCD television with surround sound system connected to an enormous media pc, XBox 360 and a PS3 would be enough for a man who actually mostly plays PC games in a different room and watches TV on his phone on the train trip to work. But you’d be wrong.

Dave of DaveNewson.com is the latest of major nerdy tinkerers to take on the DIY challenge of Ambilight – a TV enhancement where the colours from your TV are projected onto the wall behind it. There are some sane reasons for doing this – improved immersion and less eye-strain when watching in the dark being the main ones. But mostly, Dave did it because it looks “cool as hell”. Click here to see it in action.

Want your own Ambilight system? There are a few different ways of setting this up apparently, but essentially you will need a strip of colour-changing LEDs, a micro controller, a PC to play media from, a 5 volt power supply, a TV, and a way better understanding of electronics than me. Click here to read the really quite detailed How-To on DaveNewson.com.

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September 3

DIY: Wooden Ocarina

I was proud as a peacock when I mastered Frère Jacques on the tin whistle. It took me hours! To me, being able to play the ocarina sounds like a feat in itself, but building one from scratch is even more phenomenal. If you’re up for the task, gladiator Bob has made a great Instructable for you to follow.

How To Make A Wooden Ocarina at Instructables
More Zelda crafts on Geek Crafts
More tutorials on Geek Crafts

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September 1

A Trio of Customized Baby Onsies

Tonight is a first for me…I’m actually posting one of my own crafts here!

A friend of mine, Brandon, and his wife recently had a baby boy. By recently, I mean about three months ago. I’m a little late with the baby gift, but I finally finished it tonight.

Brandon is wild about the Punisher like I am for Spider-Man. As soon as I found out they had a baby boy, I knew I had to make a couple of Punisher-themed onesies. Oh hell, who am I kidding? If they’d had a little girl, I would have made them with pink skulls…and maybe one with a bow.

Category: Comics, Craft, Geek | 2 Comments

September 1

Crochet Superhero Shield blanket

Just in time for the premiere of Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., look at the fun Little Super Hero Blanket I found over at Lion Brand Yarn. Methinks it looks an awful lot like a Captain America shield, no?

Made with super bulky yarn and an “N” hook, I bet the pattern comes together pretty quickly. It would make a cool area rug or wall hanging for a kid’s room. Looks like you could also easily adapt it to a pillow, so it would be even more shield-like. What fun it would be to toss that around the room while pretending to save the world!

Anyone else looking forward to the new Joss Whedon series? We certainly are in our house!

Links of Interest

Superhero shield blanket pattern at Lion Brand
More Captain American crafts on GeekCrafts
More crochet crafts on GeekCrafts

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August 31

Eye See What You Did There

Sssamantaa posted a photo of a make-up job she did over at Reddit.

“First off, yes, the iris is absolutely photoshopped! In some cases, when I’m doing makeups that are more on the fantasy/art side as opposed to beauty, I will have two versions. One version is just plain – no editing, aside from light balance if necessary, and one I edit to my artistic desire. Sometimes I’ll post the edited version elsewhere (tumblr, Facebook, etc.), most times I do nothing with it. In this case, I took the photo in low lighting with no flash, and I felt I lost a lot of the detail in the iris,” Sssamanthaa wrote over at Reddit.

So unfortunately, this image isn’t completely handmade, but at least she admitted it.

“For the inside of the eye, I used white eyeliner with various shades of grey to shade. For the lashes, I sketched out the shadows with a brown eyebrow pencil and then used liquid liner to create the lashes. The shadowing for the crease/wrinkles is all eyeshadow!”

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