Showing posts with label toys. Show all posts
Showing posts with label toys. Show all posts

Saturday 19 October 2013

Toys That Go Bump in the Night


Halloween is approaching, and I'm planning on doing several Halloween-related posts over the next eight days, beginning with this one, in which I offer a selection of thirteen Halloween toys.

The toy above is the Topsy Turvy Werewolf, designed by Annie Watts. As the title suggests and the picture illustrates, the toy can be turned inside out to become either a man or a werewolf. The pattern is available as a $6.00(USD) download.





This is the Halloween Devil Doll, designed by Tatyana Korobkova, and isn't it the cutest little devil you ever saw? The pattern is available as a $5(USD) download.





These are the Voodoo You Love Me dolls, designed by Susan Claudino. The pattern is available as a $5(USD) download.





Here's a Halloween Ghost Girl pattern, designed by Eteri Khodonashvili. The pattern is available as a $3.50(USD) download.





I've never really gotten the love some people have for vampires or zombies, but there is one fantasy archetype that has already fascinated me, and that's the witch. It took considerable self-restraint for me to only include four witch doll patterns in this post because I found so many cute ones on Ravelry. This is the first of the four, and it was designed by Tatyana Korobkova. The pattern is available as a $9(USD) download, and the black cat pattern and pumpkin patterns are included.





Who says witches have to be unattractive? This adorable little doll is the Halloween Witch with Magic Broom, designed by Loly Fuertes. The pattern is available as a $4.50(USD) download.





Love this medieval witch. Witchypoo was designed by Ravelry user Phoeny, and the pattern is available as a $4.50(USD) download.





This is The Wicked Pudge of the West, designed by Megan Schmidt, and the pattern is available as a $6.50(CAD) download.





Tombie the Zombie, designed by Phoeny, comes apart. The pattern is available as a $4.50(USD) download.





Don't let the From the Brain Slug Planet, designed by Steph Michaud, too close to your brain. This is a free pattern.





For the Monty Python Holy Grail fans out there (and don't we all qualify?) here's the Run Away! aka the Killer Rabbit pattern, designed by Ravelry user Knitting Magic Girl. It's a free pattern.





The Felted Woolly Owl design, by Marie Mayhew, is available as a $10.95(USD) download.





Love this chubby little gargoyle. The My Little Gargoyle pattern, designed by Phoeny, is available as a $4(USD) download.

Monday 15 July 2013

There's a Knitted Corgi on the Loose



Will and Kate's wedding, as imagined with knitted characters and falsetto voiceovers. Don't trip over the corgi while you're doing the Conga line, Queen Elizabeth! If you're interested in knitting your own versions of the wedding party members, check out this post of mine.

Friday 17 May 2013

Two Toys, One Knitting Project



Designer Susan B. Anderson has published a new book this spring, Topsy-Turvy Inside-Out Knit Toys: Magical Two-in-One Reversible Projects
, and the designs in it are not only topsy-turvy and inside out, they're adorable. This stop motion video shows the toys being turned inside out. Anderson's main area of focus as a designer is on making children's toys, and her work is generally very cute. Check out her other designs on Ravelry.

I'm reminded of how much I loved those reversible princess/Cinderella dolls I sometimes saw as a child, and thinking I'm going to have to subvert that unanswered childhood desire into making a few such toys for my three-year-old grandniece and her new sibling, who will be joining us in July.



Thursday 11 April 2013

The Olympknits



Take a look at this knitted rendering of the Olympics, by Alan Baker and Laura Long. From a Chariots of Fire-esque opening scene to the lofty commentary by "Phil Sportsman" to the streaker, it has all the excitement of the Olympics, if none of the muscle definition.

Sunday 2 December 2012

Knitting the Cute

Fiona Goble is an unstoppable monster designer of theme doll knitting patterns. She's published books of patterns for a number of sets of dolls. They're amazingly detailed and very, very cute. And as a bonus, all these books also contain a child's version of the illustrated story they are based on.





You can knit your very own Knit Your Own Royal Wedding. I love that Charles looks slightly dour and that a couple of the corgis are included.




You can knit your own nativity scene with Knitivity: Create Your Own Christmas Scene. Those sheep are just too adorable.

Or if you prefer to stick with secular holiday ornaments, as I do...





Goble has offered us a way to knit the twelve days of Christmas with The Twelve Knits of Christmas.





There's also 'Twas the Knits Before Christmas.





And then there's Fiona Gobel's Noah's Knits: Create the Story of Noah's Ark with 16 Knitted Projects, in which Noah wears a sou'wester. The book probably doesn't include every species of animal on the planet, but I predict that you'll feel as though it did by the time you're done knitting two of all the patterns included. Animals do seem to be Gobel's strong suit.

Will I be making any of these dolls or toys myself? Probably not. They don't quite meet something I call the Utility Quotient. By which I mean that everything I decide to make has to be useful enough to justify the hours put into it. And anyway my decorating tastes don't run towards the cute. I bet they'd be great for little kids to play with, but I don't have any children. Though conversely, if I had children, I would probably not have the time to make the toys.

I do have a friend who collects British Royal memorabilia and who might just swoon for joy if I made her a set of the Royal Wedding dolls (one of her favourite gifts that she ever got from me was a book of Charles and Diana paper dolls that I found at a Value Village for $1, and she told me she forces everyone who comes into her house to look at it), but much as I like to see her that happy, it still seems not worth all that effort.

I do look forward to seeing whatever book Fiona Goble publishes next, though. I may not be into cute toys myself, but I'm not made of iron either.