November 16

Countdown to Christmas, Doctor Who Style

Tom Baker scarf earrings by Natalie Shaw of doodlecraft

Step into many retail outlets these days, and you’re likely to met with visions of gingerbread-spiced this, and holiday-bedecked that. The countdown to Christmas is on! But leave it to a geek blogger to put a Doctor Who spin on that! Natalie at Doodlecraft is hip deep in a crafty countdown – “Like the ’12 Days of Christmas’…but for Doctor Who!” – posting a different Doctor Who craft every day!

She is drawing inspiration from across the full history of the beloved series, starting with blue crystal signet jewelry inspired by the first Doctor, William Hartnett, through Tom Baker’s iconic scarf (see above), and a patchwork bean bag warmer ode to Collin Baker (the 6th Doctor). But that’s not all – be sure to check out her Doctor Who tag for the full lineup of crafts, PLUS her round-up of 73 Doctor Who crafts from this summer! Doctor Who craft bonanza!!

Another item of note: I stumbled upon Natalie’s countdown via the Celestial Craftmakers Facebook group. If you’re into Doctor Who crafts, you may want to check it out!

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November 14

Agents of Shield: Alien Script Scarf

ConcertiGrossi_alienglyph

Agents of Shield, is the show that kept slowly worming its way into my heart, and now I’m glad I stuck with it. And speaking of worming its way, Coulson has been having some issues with some Alien writing for some time now. He finally has some answers, and we have a pattern for a scarf to wear.

ConcertiGrossi over on Tumblr created the  charts so you can have your own alien script without having to visit Tahiti, I hear it’s a magical place. It is a double knit scarf, which means you work both sides at the same time and end up with a mirror image of what you are working on.

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November 3

Scrap Metal Art

alien

Recycling gives you a good feeling that you’ve done your part in reducing the waste and somehow helped your community and the environment. But there’s a new trend going on now around this: scrap metal art. Life size statues of Autobots, Predator and even Darth Vader have appeared out of nowhere around the world, all made out of scrap metal.

A few years ago, an Optimus Prime scrap metal art statue statue popped out of nowhere in Dream Green Park in Beijing and it instantly attracted the gazes of many passers-by. The leader of the Autobots is made entirely made out of waste materials. And that’s probably the best way to show that just because something is made from junk, doesn’t mean it’s junk.

Here and here are just a few scrap metal art statues found on the internet, including Predator, Darth Vader, Iron Man and Ghost Rider! My personalfavorite is the alien statue at the beginning of this post. For some reason, I look at it and I can’t help but think H.R. Giger would approve.

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November 2

Marvel craft: DIY LED Tesseract

Tesseract tutorial by Venessa Baez

Did you know that in geometry, a tesseract, also called an 8-cell or regular octachoron or cubic prism, is the four-dimensional analog of the cube? According to Wolfram MathWorld, in Madeleine L’Engle’s novel, A Wrinkle in Time, the characters in the story travel through time and space using tesseracts. According to Google, Tesseract is also probably the most accurate open source OCR engine available.

Of course, in the Marvel universe, there is yet another use of a Tesseract – as an Infinity Stone, one of the most powerful artifacts in the universe. It can open rifts in space, which ties in nicely with Madeleine L’Engle’s use of it. While Odin keeps watch over the Tesseract in Asgard, you can create your own replica based on this quick project by Venessa Baez (complete with 3-1/2 minute video). With an acrylic photo cube, a few swipes of paint, some LED garden lights, and waxed paper, you can have a great geeky decor item for your desk or bookshelf.

If you could open a rift in time and space, where would you go? And would you make the “Vwoop, vwoop!” sound effect like a TARDIS?

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October 31

Pattern: Hocus Pocus Cowl

hocus_pocus_wonderfallz

I hope everyone has been having a Happy Halloween. Anyone running afoul of the Sanderson Sisters, well, you are on your own!  But back to the Hocus Pocus cowl.  Wonderfallz on Raverly the designer behind Thea Eschliman Designs has another great pattern.  The Hocus Pocus cowl. A very fitting design for the season.  And the drop in temperature.

The pattern is available for purchase on Raverly, and intrepid knitters have converted the pattern into hats, gloves, and bags.

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October 26

The “Wendy” Hat from “The Shining”

wendy
Heather Boggs of Madison, WI, might be better known as “Stitch Boom Bang,” from her blog of the same name. And if you read through her blog, you’ll learn she is a knitting fiend and possibly a huge fan of the movie, “The Shining.” So much so, that she has created a series of hats, based on patterns in the movie.

My favorite: the Wendy. Made of wool, it matches the shirt and jumper Shelly Duvall wore in one particular scene.

Heather said, that typically, she doesn’t believe in pompoms because they are a waste of yarn and a pain in the ass to make. And I have to admit, I thought this was a pretty good crafting quote if there ever was one: “However, Shelley Duvall deserves a pompom. According to Wikipedia, which is the goddamn gospel of the internet, Kubrick made Shelley Duvall and Jack Nicholson do 127 takes of the baseball bat scene. For that, she deserves more than a few stiff drinks, but all I can offer is a pompom.”

And if you need your very own Wendy-themed hat, it can be purchased from Heather’s Etsy shop, for $27.

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