Max's World

An Octopus with a Laptop!

Max — Fri, 11 Nov 2011 09:59:30 +0000

The first completed version of my knitting octopus appeared on ravelry recently. It’s so exciting to see someone else make one and put their own spin on it. This ‘knitting’ octopus is much more technically advanced than my original and is using his many tentacles to be a computer whizz on a laptop! It was made by Sarah of Bury me with my needles. Have a look at her website, she knits some amazing work. She’s also made a pattern for the tiny laptop so you too can have a typing octopus.

Spooky times approaching

Max — Sat, 01 Oct 2011 11:24:08 +0000

Halloween is probably my favourite holiday of the year. I love the silly spookiness and dressing up. So I’m resurrecting my cute and spooky earrings. I’ve been embroidering scary pumpkin faces and little eyeballs onto my knitting earrings so not only can you show how much you love knitting through your jewellery but also how much you love spooky things all at the same time!

See more details in the shop, or buy a pair here and now!

Embroidered Ear Knits – £15

I’ll leave you with a picture of my terrifying get-up from last year to kick off a month of getting in the mood for halloween!

Variegated Yarn Brooches

Max — Fri, 26 Aug 2011 18:05:48 +0000

I made these brooches for a craft fair a little while ago and I’ve got a few left so I thought I’d offer them up here.

There are only a couple of each colour and once they’re gone, they’re gone!

They match up nicely with some of the yarns on the mini skein necklaces. So you could make a nice matching set as a gift or for yourself!

Variegated Brooches – £6.50

The Knitting Octopus Pattern is here!

Max — Mon, 22 Aug 2011 11:00:10 +0000

After posting a picture of my knitted knitting octopus a few weeks ago I got a huge amount of requests for a pattern. It seems that lots of people want an octopus to get on and do their knitting for them! So I’m pleased to say that I’ve written up the pattern and it’s now available to download as a PDF. You can get it via Ravelry or right here. You can see all the materials and tools needed to make it below.

Knitting Octopus Pattern PDF – £3

This pattern contains all the instructions you will need to make your own knitting octopus. It has a lot of parts and I don’t recommend it for complete beginners. It uses knitting and crochet techniques.

Yarn
Jamieson’s Shetland Spindrift, 2-ply 100% wool, 105m (115yards), 25g (0.88 oz) fingering weight.

These are the colours I used, you will only need a very small amount of each CC so
consider using a similar weight yarn if you don’t want to buy full balls of each colour.
Octopus: MC: Sand (1 ball),
Scarf: CC1: Aubretia, CC2: Nutmeg, CC3: Buttermilk
Hat: CC4: Black laceweight (any brand)
Eyes: CC6: Blue laceweight (any brand) CC7: White laceweight (any brand)

Other Materials
2.5mm/US 1.5 Double Pointed Needles (DPNs)
1.75 mm crochet hook for eyeballs
2 Cocktail Sticks
2 x 6mm Wooden beads with 2mm hole (or any beads that fit onto a cocktail stick)
PVA glue / Wood glue
Garden wire
Stuffing / Fibre Fill

Please note: This is the first pattern that I’ve published so please contact me if there’s anything that doesn’t make sense or if you spot any errors.

The Tiniest Stash in the World!

Max — Fri, 19 Aug 2011 17:33:03 +0000

Back in 2007 I came across this blog post about the World’s Biggest Yarn Stash on Mochimochi Land (who funnily enough makes amazing teeny tiny knits now!) It gave me an idea about making the tiniest stash in the world which I’ve finally managed to do (sort of!). I have lots of miniature skeins of yarn now anyway! They measure just 3.5cm (1.3″) long. After making all these itty bitty skeins I decided to turn them into necklaces. They’re very cute and come in all sorts of colours. I’ve used luxury sock yarns from fabulous brands such as fyberspates, malabrigo, colinette, dream in colour and cherry tree hill. So now you can own a little piece of the world’s tiniest yarn stash. See more pictures and details in the shop or buy one right here:

Knitting Octopus

Max — Fri, 22 Jul 2011 10:03:53 +0000

I seem to have a bit of a thing for knitting octopuses at the minute. (2 here and 1 here!) I’m not sure why because I always get bored of the tentacles after I’ve done two or three. So I decided to make one that’s good at knitting in the hope that it’ll do some for me. This one is already much better at colourwork than I am!

When I made this I started with a couple of sketches so I thought I’d share them with some pictures of the making process too. You might notice the cunning use of an interchangeable knitting needle to fill the tentacles with stuffing.

Now available as a greeting card from my shop for £2.50.

UPDATE: 11.8.11 The much requested pattern is now available to buy! See more details on the ravelry pattern page or click below to buy it now.

The Knitting Octopus Pattern – £3

Click images to enlarge.

Mystery Knitting

Max — Fri, 15 Jul 2011 16:29:14 +0000

I’m taking part in my first ever mystery knit-a-long this month. It’s very exciting, each week there’s a new clue to knit. I’ve just finished week one and it’s a hat brim with a very lovely twisted stitch pattern. I’m looking forward to seeing what the rest of the hat will be like. I have clue 2 ready and waiting! It’s organised by Leethal who designs some fantastic knitting patterns with really unique construction techniques. I think there’s still time to sign up and catch up with the mystery.

Astounding Knits

Max — Mon, 11 Jul 2011 11:51:42 +0000

Earlier this year a book called Astounding Knits!: 101 Spectacular Knitted Creations and Daring Feats was published. It’s an amazing book showcasing some incredible knitting artists. There are all sorts of projects featured from a full size knitted ferrari to jumpers that fit on a pin. There’s even someone who knit themselves into a cocoon. Excitingly there’s also a page about my knitted animations! Unfortunately they decided I was male so there are a lot of he’s on my page… never mind though, it’s still fun to be in a book! My Learning to Knit guys are even used on the title page. You can get a copy of Astounding Knits on Amazon.

Art Smart London

Max — Thu, 07 Jul 2011 11:22:25 +0000

I had a great time last weekend at the Art Smart fair in London. Benoît did a fantastic job of giving the passers-by a fright hanging at the front of the stall. You might be able to spot a mysterious flying creature camouflaged in the roof of my stall. That’s Draco the Dragonfly and there’s now a gallery of pictures of him to see here. Thanks to everyone who came by and said hello, it was a lot of fun to see everyone’s reactions to my odd creatures.

Bortusk Leer

Max — Sat, 21 May 2011 13:58:00 +0000

I went to this exhibition today after a phone call saying there’s a giant blue knitted man in this gallery and you need to see it. It’s really fun, there is indeed a knitted man and downstairs is an aladdin’s cave of crazy creatures and spray paint. I think my favourite sprayed slogan had to be ‘UV he he he’. It’s at Tony’s Gallery off Brick Lane until the 26th June. Go and see it if you can or there’s lots of good flickr pictures here.