And all that jazz...

Well, its been weeks since my last update, and so much has gone on, I don't even know where to begin. Last time I wrote on my blog I had just done the Craft Fair.

I got a few commissions of hats, scarves and even a tea-cosy, and a few friends came round after the Fair to root through what I had left. Enough to pay for a few bottles of wine over the Xmas...so I was happy enough.


The Customized Tea-Cosy.
It took me a while to figure this one out. I had to borrow the teapot, and adjust the pattern to take into the account of the straight sides and the spout. I love tea-cosies that you can leave on, so I did the lid more for decoration, it also doubles as a coaster.




This is the Vintage/Re-cycled/Re-used bag that I had asked questions about previously. The main body is linen thread, which is over 40 years old, the red is fairtrade twine I got from Oxfam, and the pale is strips of remnant upholstery fabric.

Here is the another Sackboy that I made.

I re-wrote the pattern to make one with an open mouth. This Sackboy along with the original Sackboy and Sackgirl were sent to Media Molecule Headquarters where I have just heard, they have been placed in the Cabinet! It must be a Cabinet of Fame, of LBG memorabilia that will some worth a fortune some day...



My biggest commission came from my step-dad, who let his fingers do the walking by getting on the phone and ordering his Xmas presents off me. He wanted some kind of a Hyperbolic thing to give to my ma. She had seen some of my Coral Reef stuff before, and they were amazed, not at what I was crocheting, but the fact I was talking maths. (Me and Maths were never known to have gotten on before...). The piece I made of the Cork Textiles Network Exhibition in the School of Music, is still in Cork, so I had to make a new one from scratch. Doing the crochet was easy enough, it was finding the right frame that was the hard part. I didn't have time to get a frame made, so I did a search for box frames around all the usual haunts, and eventually came across one in Woody's that would do the job.



Then, one or two more scarves to be made, pack the bags and we were off for Christmas. An over-night stay in Galway, and next thing, we were in the wilds of the Mayo, the land of St. Pat. I ended up spending a week and a half up there. It was nice and uneventful, as I had planned, until after Xmas when I got a puncture. Me being me, it had to be a drama, the wheel was rusted to the car, so refused to come off. Then I realised I hadn't seen my purse since before Xmas, and discovered it was lost somewhere between Kerry and Mayo. Cards Cancelled, money borrowed, wheel off, child sick, a day later, I went off to get puncture repaired.

What has been a successfully quiet and pleasant Xmas with my family, had turned into a hungover disaster, but by New Years Eve, it turned back to being pleasant. A small win on the horses (considering I bet on horses about every 3/4 years, this was a great surprise), the puncture repair people couldn't find a puncture and said my spare was fine to drive with, and a call from the bank to say my purse, which I had lost Xmas Eve in Westport, was found intact, with cards and cash.

The End of 2008....

So, 2009 started with me snoring my head off, peacefully in bed with toddler, and then a long drive home...

Croagh Patrick, Co. Mayo, o holy of holy mountains,
covered in cloud, yet basking in the sun

Craft Fair and more Sackboy debate

My God the time is just flying by. The past week or so, has been hectic preparing for the Craft Show. I didn't have enough time to make nice fancy tags with the appropriate words re-used/re-cycled/vintage, etc. Due to my little one deciding to be physically sick all over himself and the bed the night before the Fair. All plans went out the window, but such is life and kids...

The Craft Fair went OK, but only OK. It was well planned, and I thought well advertised. I know the lady who was organising it, and I know she works damn hard, but unfortunately for her and for us at the Fair, it just wasn't enough. There were a good number of people milling about, but not what you would expect for the only Christmas Craft Fair in Tralee, Co. Kerry. But for those who had travelled miles and hours to sell there, it was very disappointing. I don't think we can blame the whole recession thing, I think its just Tralee... I never do well in Tralee. If I sold enough to pay for the table, I, honestly, would be very pleasantly surprised. For me its more of a day out, and a deadline to get stuff made which I can sell elsewhere. Its such a pity, as I know most of those people wont come back next year, and it could spell an end to any kind of Xmas Fair in the town...



Sackboy

Just to update anyone who has been following the whole Sackboy thing. The official word is we are not allowed to pass on the pattern in any form. So, anyone who asked me for it, I am sorry, but I'm not taking the chance..

There is a Sony Approved knitting pattern of Sackboy currently available. It is published in the January issue of Simply Knitting. Media Molecule have plans to publish their own official knitting pattern and hopefully a crochet one. AS soon as I hear anything else folks, I'll let you know...

So, I repeat, my pattern is not available, please don't ask me for it as I hate having to say no...

Sackboy Debate Continues...

To date I have received some lovely emails (and one or two slightly demanding ones!), from people looking to see if I have a pattern for my Sackboy's.

We all know that Sackboy is copyright material, and we cant sell the patterns or the toys, but the debate on whether or not we can give out the patterns for free is still raging.

Personally, I dont think it should be a problem, I'd love to give away my pattern. Its the first proper pattern I have ever written, and its been lovely having people say they like my Sackboy and Sackgirl and would like to make it. But, personaly, I am not willing to take on the Wrath of Sony. We've all heard about the Dr Who scarf incident....

Here are some suggestions of what I think they should do...

• Post officially approved patterns and links on the LBG blog/website
• Have a competition for the best patterns.
  
• Have a competition for the best Sackboys and auction them off for charity
• Give a silent nod that even if we wont get official approval to giving away patterns, we wont be hunted down...
• Make everyone who wants to give away a pattern write something on their patterns to say they cant be sold in anyway

If you have made a Sackboy or would like inspiration check out the Home-made Sackboy group on Flickr

Croczilla

So, guess what new thing I've made!

No, its not another Sackboy/Sackgirl, although there are still a million possibilities to be explored there. Instead I've made a mask for Sackboy. I saw Sackzilla, a picture on Flickr and just had to have a go at making it! I was in a rush and just glanced at the pic, then plonked down on the couch, and started to crochet. As usual I didn't have the right coloured wool, and didn't want to head upstairs to get some green wool for fear of waking the child. (I have become to love, no need, no DEMAND, this child-in-bed, on the couch, crochet in one hand, alcohol in the other, crap TV, evenings). ((No I'm not an alcoholic, I do try keep to my allowed, well just over, my allowed daily units)).

I think a scientific study should be done into why it is easier to crochet while watching crap TV. If I'm crocheting and not watching TV, I'm concentrating too much and make mistakes. If I watch good TV, hard enough to do with RTE, but if occasionally TG4 has something decent on, I make mistakes because I'm watching the telly, and not concentrating enough. But judging by the latest IG Nobel Prizes, it could be a sound scientific study. This years IG winners include studies on Armadillos in Archaeology, Ovulating Lap-dancers, and my personal favourite, Spontaneous Knotting of an Agitated String. So, my theory is perfectly in keeping with these. (Do these people actually get paid to do this kind of research, no wonder we're in recessionary times).

As Wendy said in Peter Pan, it was "her breathing time", when the Lost Boys were all asleep and she could relax and darn socks. Though if anyone has ever darned boys smelly socks, I'll doubt if they will agree about that being relaxing. So I started making it with red wool. It looked awful in red, so I did a search of the sitting room and found a ball of green behind the chair and started again. For some reason I thought it was a crocodile. Then a day later, halfway through making it and another quick glance at Flickr and I realised it was some sort of dinosaur. Well, Sackzilla, I should have guessed. So, its a mutant crocodile/dinosaur, which by all accounts is keeping within the spirit of the actual game. Of course I under-estimated how much wool I would need, and since I always make things in the evening, not when the wool shop is open, I had to resort to using another shade of green. This was found much easier than the first ball of green, upstairs, in daytime and daylight. So here's my mutant two-toned Croczilla Mask for Sackboy!!

Sackboy and Sackgirl

I still haven't managed to take photos of the stuff I'm going to sell on Etsy. After all my talk, getting my logos, writing out my shop policies. Its silly really, but I've been very very busy working on another project. Sackboy

I made one a few weeks ago, but then I had folk on Ravelry and even emails asking me for the patterns, we got into this whole should we/should we not share free patterns to a character owned by Media Molecule and the mighty Sony Corporation! I'm sure once the game is out, there will be all sorts of plushies and other related stuff to buy. (If you haven't heard of Sackboy yet, its a new PlayStation game, Little Big Planet)

Would it be worth being sued, losing my possessions, future income? Probably yes, as the car isn't worth that much, and chances are, especially with the way things are going, there wont be future incomes!! So, I've been painfully writing my first ever proper pattern. Yes I wrote the hat patterns, but they were easy. This was a huge effort, since I'm not that good at following patterns, its stands that I wont be good at writing them!! I did it, it could be completely wrong, but I think I did it.

Here's my first Sackboy, he has an open mouth and tongue, but I just couldn't write how I made that bit, so I started on a second pattern, a bit smaller (less writing).

I've made a generic one with a closed mouth that can be used to make Sackboy and Sackgirl. The only difference between them, apart from the colour is the eyes. I added a white and black patch to Sackgirls eyes. Now they look cute enough like this, but a little bit naked.


And this is where the fun begins. In the game, the characters get to change their clothes. So, I provisionally worked with Sackgirl, I think her costumes are easier...


I have a plan for Sackboy, I've seen a great pic on Flickr of him with a crocodile mask. I don't know if I'll be able to do it, but with enough crap on RTE you can just about make anything...

Theres a group on Ravelry for Little Big Planet (of course, theres everything on Ravelry!!), and I posted a pic there. That's where we were having the chat whether or not we can share the pattern. The Mod of the group is married to a programmer in Media Molecule, and when she saw the pic she emailed it to her husband, who showed it to others around the office. AND THEY LIKED IT!!!
Talk about a compliment. I am so chuffed....
...then in the same day, I got a responseto one of the emails I sent to Media Molecule, asking whats the story. The word is, I can't sell the pattern or the toy. That's fair enough, I wasn't expecting to be able to, but they're going to talk to Legal to see if I can give it away for free. I did offer to give it to them so they can give it away, so please don't ask me for the pattern. Start a campaign, email Media Molecule, and tell them you want the pattern!!

Sackboy

Here is my first attempt of making Sackboy, the Sony PlayStation character that's about to storm the world. Yes I know he's the wrong colour, but I thought I'd have a go at making him out of what I had, rather than going out and buying wool and a zip. I'm happy enough with this fella, but there's a few things that I'd change. His mouth should be bigger for a start. Anyone else got any suggestions of what I should do? Sometimes its hard to notice the little things, when you've made something.

I'm not really into these kind of games, but I love the look of this one, as everything in his world looks handmade. Looking at a few of the clips already released, I reckon it would be easy enough to make the sets as well. I can see mum's, wives and girlfriends all over the world have their son's, husbands and boyfriends finally appreciate their crafty talents. I've already heard of the menfolk asking their missus's to make them sackboy's....