God of War Beanie

bernie b : That aran wool beanie must surely be very hot to wear in the summer?

Games geek: Yes, maybe make a different one for the warmer climate.

bernie b : A wool/cotton blend would work better and maybe a lighter colour. Grey would be a nice colour, but might wash out your light skin colour. How about a hint of red in places as you like that colour.

Games geek : I was just thinking that, you know how Kratos from God of War is grey skinned and has red markings on his skin….

Well, I couldn’t copy the markings to be exactly the same as it went all around Kratos’ body, so I took the more distinct parts and worked it around the hat. The part on his face and the spiral around his arm.

God of War Beanie - front view

The closest grey yarn I found in terms of colour and best composition was Rowan’s Belle Organic DK shade 017 Zinc which is 50% organic wool 50% organic cotton. It is a lovely soft comfortable yarn and I loved knitting with it. The red yarn I used was Debbie Bliss Prima shade 06 which is 80% bamboo 20% wool as I couldn’t find the right shade of red in the same range as the grey.

My first attempt, I tried a faggoting rib pattern on the hat itself so that there would be more air flow, but it turned out terrible with the intarsia knitting for the red marking not really showing through the rib pattern. Also due to this pattern being more holey the colours of the beanie were not as bold as I wanted them to be.

Second attempt, used stocking stitch and intarsia for the red marking, but I still wasn’t happy. The red marking was not quite right, didn’t stand out like I wanted it to and difficult to get markings in right place as not working on a flat piece.

Third attempt, used stocking stitch and knitted red marking separately. It was the best solution.

God of War Beanie - side view

I like it that the marking is mostly on the front and left side of the beanie, from the right it just looks pretty ordinary.

Although the design isn’t exactly as Kratos’ markings, most gamers can tell straight away the reference and on it’s own makes a rather interesting design.

Darth Sackboy

So far the Sackboys I’ve made are characters on the side of good, but I was tempted to the dark side this time.

I really wanted Darth Sackboy to be all black, so his facial details had to be quite obvious as there weren’t different colours to distinguish what’s what.

Working out the helmet was quite tricky, I had to redo it a few times to get the shape I wanted. Once I did I realised that Darth Vader’s outfit is based on a Samurai’s. It is so similar in shape, but due to the colour I did not see it at once.

Darth Sackboy has had some positive feedback when I posted him on some flickr forums, so I am very happy with him

Darth Vader Sackboy

Darth Vader Sackboy with his Lightsabre

Link Sackboy

I made this as a present for a friend who is a fan of The Legend of Zelda games. I tried to keep it more or less like the original character appearance adding traces of the newer versions for a bit more detail.

The hair as usual is the hardest to get right. Do I continue with threading each hair on to the head and then style it or maybe look for a new way of making shaped hairstyles?

Not sure if he was totally thrilled with it, but I thought it was quite good. These obsessive fans are very specific, maybe it the merging of a PS3 game with a Nintendo game!

Link Sackboy - front view

Link Sackboy - side view

Link Sackboy - back view

Round 1. Fight!

After turning Dan from Street Fighter into a sackboy, I wanted to have another go at other Street Fighter characters. The obvious choice was Ken and Ryu, the two main characters of the game. This time I also decided to make a bigger size doll (these dolls came out about 12 inches tall, small ones about 5 inches), working with a similar pattern to the smaller size ones but using an Aran wool rather than the 4 ply I had used before. The wool I used was Rowan Magpie Aran, a yarn that I really love knitting with (unfortunately it is discontinued) because it has a very firm chunkyness to it, I find new wools tend to be spun more loosely.

Street Fighter Ryu & Ken Sackboys

I am quite happy with the outcome of them. As you can see I opted to make their tops and trousers with fabric rather than crochet it. I thought this worked better because you can achieve that tattered uniform effect.

Street Fighter Ryu Sackboy

The most difficult part is doing the hair. With a character whose hair is tied up this would be easier, but both Ryu and Ken have choppy stylized haircuts. I tried to use Little Big Planet’s Street Fighter Pack as a guidance, there is only a Ryu and no Ken. As you can see the hair is quite different, just because when I tried to do it the same way it looked too weird and couldn’t be styled the same as wool hair has a life of it’s own.

Street Fighter Ken Sackboy

Ken’s hair worked better, maybe because he has a scruffier hairstyle. His red outfit and blonde hair also make for a more vibrant doll.

But who’s your winner?

For the Smell of It!

I’ve had a few friends leaving London recently to move back to Australia and I wanted to give them something that when they saw would remind them of the fun times they’ve had here. The item also had to be compact enough so as not to inflict more packing problems. That’s when the idea of personalised lavender bags came in, compact enough to throw into the suitcase last minute and with the added bonus of keeping your cloths smelling nice and moth free too!

The Union Jack design was an obvious choice, it is such a institutional image for Great Britain. Googling for the correct layout for the flag, I was amazed to find that the image of the flag was not symmetrical. I remember learning in school that the flag was made up of the union (get it?!) of the English, Irish and Scottish flags, but don’t remember the bit about it being asymmetric. Seeing a lot of other Union Jack products available, they have not taken that into account. Maybe I am just too anal. Anyway I did try to get it correct, but with hand felting it is not going to be perfect, adding to the items uniqueness?!

I also wanted something to represent their stay in London, so the idea of a map of the British Isles came to mind. At first I thought of making something like a map pin to pinpoint London, but I much prefer my finished version of a heart on London, the red works great with the green and blue!

GB Lavender Bags

On the back of the Union Jack design, I used the idea of it being a postcard to send a little message to my friends. With the British Isles design, I took the idea from those scrawlings you always get on trees, wet cement, graffiti-ed concrete ‘so and so woz ere (enter year)’, they don’t do that in other countries do they?

GB Lavender Bags - back with personalised message

GB Lavender Bag - back with personalised message

Yes, personalised lavender bags are lovely fun little gifts, and being made especially for that person make it all the more unique.

I got into initial ones too, reminds me of the days when people have their initials on their luggage.

Initial T Lavender Bag

bernie b beanie

After making the Cable beanie for a friend and realising how cool it was to have that extra beak bit that protects your face, I decided that I needed a new winter hat for myself. Because this friend had a particularly large head, rather than making the same beanie but smaller I decided to try a different pattern.

The Honeycomb stitch is a really cute pattern, so I thought I’ll give that a go using some black Rowan Cashsoft Aran. Now if I had been hand machine knitting this would have been a cinch, but hand kniting cables sometimes can take quite an annoyingly long time if it is a stitch that requires many cross overs. The Honeycomb stitch does. Time to change original plan.

I decided to graduate the pattern out giving that broken up look and it’s worked out quite well. Thinking about it if I had completed the pattern throughout it may have looked too busy, looking at this free Honeycomb Hat pattern I just thought I didn’t want to look like a tea cosy!

bernie b in her bernie b beanie

bernie b beanie - detail

Loops

Every year I have a particular pattern that I have a preference to using while making items. This year it seems the loopy pattern has become the favourite again. I am rather fond of this pattern for it’s extra loopy thickness, so the items I make feel that extra warmth.

Blue Loops

So I’ve been making baby bonnets and mittens for the many babies that are needing some woollen cuteness. Hats and helmets for adults to add some fun while making it through the cold weather.

Pink Loopy Bonnet

Pink Loopy Mitts

Cream Loopy Bonnet

Sackboys Fingers

Working out which fingers look the best. Three versions to compare.

Sackboys' Arms/Hands/Fingers

Version 1: Longer unstitched fingers. Verdict: Look like weird claws, not good.

Sackboy Arms/Hands/Fingers Version 1

Version 2: Shorter, stitched fingers. Verdict: Like the best, most similar to Sackboy anatomically.

Sackboy Arms/Hands/Fingers Version 2

Version 3: Longer fingers, stitched. Verdict: More distinct arm, hand and fingers, but less like Sackboy’s than version 2.

Sackboy Arms/Hands/Fingers Version 3

Baby Booties

I know, I should really start making stuff to put on my products page so that people can start owning make me one bernie b! items, but after coming back from holiday (jetlag, going back to day job) it’s taking a while.

So to get me back into making mode, a small project.

Some booties to welcome Darcey to the world.

I really like the pattern of these as they have that lacey fake sock bit and they’re so girlie!

Booties for Darcey

Hello.This is what I like to make.

This Sackboy was commissioned for a friend who plays with Dan from Street Fighter 4.

Street Fighter Dan Sackboy

This sackboy is made for my friend who really wants to be a ninja. It has his trademark blonde hair and blue eyes.

Ninja Brown Sackboy