I find it's always helpful to have a stupid phrase when travelling to non-English speaking countries. And I've discovered that 'I am Spongebob Squarepants' seems to be universally amusing so I'm making it my mission to learn it in as many languages as possible. So far I have:

French - Je suis Bob l'eponge
German - Ich bin Spongebob Schwammkopf
Spanish - Soy Bob Esponja
Korean - Na nun Sponge man

Can anyone help me learn some more?!
Let me know in the comments below and I'll add them to the list. We can build up a hugely useful resource for travellers.

By the way, you can't just use an internet translation tool as Spongebob has many different pseudonyms and I'm looking for what he's called on the telly box in your chosen country.

I'm just back from Bristol where Screentest: The National Student Film Festival was held this weekend.
It was a great event and 'I am Ahab' picked up 2 awards! One for Best Animation and the other for Best Music Video. That's 2 years in a row that my knitimations have won best animation. whoop whoop. I guess knitting really is taking over the world. mwah hahaha. If you haven't seen Ahab in action yet then you can watch it here.

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Here's the show reel that I put together at the end of the 3 month animation course in Bristol in December. It was a fantastic course and I learnt plenty of animation skills which I'll be putting to good use in my next knitimation!



And here's some of the other students work that are on youtube. Lots of variety!

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=biuJotTBo9Y


http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=X3xiWIfPmAs


http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=sJ_fRRDxWh8

I'm outsourcing my knitting to puppets now. They seem to be pretty good at it...

This week I am mostly having difficulty learning to run and walk with 4 legs. But last week I think I did a reasonable job of walking with 2 legs, or at least an amusing job... See for yourself:



By the way, this is all because I'm at The Bristol School of Animation trying to improve my knitimation skillz before I use them to make a bid for world domination... or something like that.

The Affordable Art Fair was last weekend and there was knitting and crochet mania. Eyeballs and blood went everywhere. It was all under the guise of workshops to coincide with National Knitting Week and create more gore for my Bear's cauldron in the sculpture 'A Job for a Bear'. Much fun was had by all and we converted many new people to the yarn arts. At the end of it all the bear was sold and has a lovely new home to continue working his cauldron magic in.

Here's a picture of my stand in the recent graduates section where you can see the crowds flocking around the knitted plinth to watch my animation 'I am Ahab'. The other is of me teaching a spot of knitting. And a big thank you goes to I Knit for providing yarn, knitting needles and crochet hooks to make the Horror Knitting workshops possible.

Here's a photo of my latest sculpture 'A Job for a Bear'. He's in charge of stirring the eyeball cauldron.

You'll be able to see him in real life at The Affordable Art Fair in Battersea Park from Thursday 18th - Sunday 21st October.
He'll be alongside Monster Head and I am Ahab in the Recent Graduates section. If you're around come and stare into the eyes of gore!

Check out this laptop case I crocheted from plastic bags. It's made from the best colour! And I'm recycling and saving the world and all that blah. If you'd like to make your own just leave a comment and I'll post a tutorial for you.



In related news here's a tutorial about how to make your own plastic bag yarn. It's easy and fun, hurrah! Also have a look at this round up of all the ways to turn your plastic bags into cool stuff on Treehugger.

My knitimation 'I Am Ahab' has been showing at my degree show all week to rave reviews... If you haven't been to see it yet then tomorrow (Sat 23rd) is your last chance to marvel at it in it's knitted plinth housing. Here are some photos of the crowds enjoying themselves if you can't make it. It's on the 4th floor (Sculpture dept.) at Camberwell College of Arts, Peckham Road. I'll be there in the afternoon invigilating/answering all your knitimation questions. See you there!

I've finished the video for 'I am Ahab' by Not-Too-Distant-Future. It's currently on display at my degree show at Camberwell College of Arts. You can go and see it in it's lovely knitted plinth from Tuesday 19th June to Saturday the 23rd. Or you can watch it now in all it's YouTube glory! Let me know what you think...