I Used to be an Adventurer Like You, Then I Took an Arrow in the Knee!

I was wrong about Pop in the Box again! I guessed something from Star Wars and got Captain America; not that I'm complaining, I love Captain America and Star Wars is more the husband's thing :D

Our Pop collection is definitely growing (they really are addictive little buggers) so we've had to put up a couple of new shelves to move stuff around and make room. The first shelf is a very narrow one which we bought specifically for some pops and I think it looks great.

The second shelf is a much bigger one that we've bought to display part of our comic book collection and free up some of our bookshelves. Unfortunately because the shelf is so much bigger, the cats have decided that it's their shelf and have claimed it in the name of kittydom!

God help us when the new bookends arrive and we actually do try and move our comics up there, lol. I'd probably better hide my shoes before they're peed on as revenge.

 My new cross stitch is coming along well. I've passed that horrible stage where you're just putting random dots at random points inside the hoop and you think it's going nowhere. Now it's beginning to look like something. I've still got a very long way to go but I can see it start to take shape which is far more fun. I will start posting pics of my progress when all the Blanket of Doom stuff has been posted.

Speaking of which, it's onto the next square.

I only really got into gaming a few years ago, before that it was just Katamari and a few tries of Guitar Hero. I've always enjoyed watching other people play so never really felt the need to play myself;, even now I'm happy to spend the evening watching my husband fighting Feral Ghouls in the Mojave Wasteland while I craft on the sofa. Then I randomly watched a Youtube video of Day9 and Felicia Day playing Kingdom of Amalur and loved the idea of exploring and collecting treasure...but I really didn't want to have to fight big giant spiders. I mentioned this to my best friend and she told me to try Elder Scrolls: Skyrim because there's lots of exploring and definitely no spiders in that. Those of you who have played Skyrim, you will know that not only are there loads and loads of spiders in it but they actually appear within the first ten minutes of the game. Needless to say, the husband was forced to have a go at Skyrim too when I ran screaming into the kitchen and left my poor character to fend for herself. It was while he was battling on my behalf that he discovered that he was quite enjoying the game, decided to play it himself and got completely hooked.

For those that are interested, I am still happily playing Skyrim and have no problem with the giant spiders anymore (that first time was just a really big shock). And riding high on that success, I've also bought Kingdom of Amalur and kick arse in that game too. Oh! And when questioned, my best friend replied 'I've no idea why I said that, there's lots of spiders in Skyrim'. *sigh*

Square number 41: Elder Scrolls: Skyrim

I got the chart from Tanya's Knits and it was great; it knit up very quickly and I think it looks brilliant. I'm actually a bit jealous and wish I'd kept the design back for my own blanket, whenever I actually get around to that.


This is a design that I found on Pinterest and is not endorsed by or being used by Lamas and Lattes or the official Geek-a-long blanket. I am merely a fan of their project and have decided to make my own version of the blanket. Don't forget to visit the Geek-a-long page to show your support for the official Geek-a-long blanket project which is raising money for a great cause and if you'd like to donate to that cause then please visit The Child's Play Charity here.

Gaze into the Fist of Dredd!

I hope everyone is okay out there in craftyland. Things are good here. My parents visited at the weekend and we took them to the latest Attack! Pro Wrestling show: 'Rafflemania'. It was another great show and both of my parents have said they'd like to go again which I sort of expected from my dad but not my mum. it just goes to show how much fun the night is that even non-wrestling fans have a great time. So if you're ever in the Bristol area, I'd recommend looking Attack! up.

Purrlock went into the vets to be spayed at the end of last week and has been feeling sorry for herself ever since. She's the baby of my trio of cats and she's definitely playing on that this week; following me around and constantly climbing into my lap for cuddles, bless her. But I know that she'll feel better for it when her stitches have healed.

Woe is Purrlock

She did just run hell for leather when the doorbell went so I know she's not actually feeling as bad as she seems if she's still getting over excited when the postman's here, lol. Postman = new box to play in, obviously :) But this particular parcel is this month's Pop in a Box so she has to wait until the husband gets home before I can open it. As for PIAB, I've guessed wrong every month so far so I'm not sure if I should even bother guessing this month. But I think I'm going to go with something from Star Wars.

Anyway, back to the Blanket of Doom squares (we're almost at the end).

I've already mentioned that the husband is a huge 2000AD fan which is why I've already made him a Strontium Dog square. But I couldn't miss out the most famous character from 2000AD; Judge Dredd. Even I loved the Dredd movie (the Karl Urban film not the Stallone one) so this was a fun square to work on.

Square number 40: Judge Dredd

I had trouble coming up with a Dredd design that would work and then finally I got inspired by the various minimalist superhero designs that have been floating around the internet. I think it works really well and the husband loved it. It ended up being one of my favourite squares on the blanket.

This is a design that I made for my own personal use and is not endorsed by or being used by Lamas and Lattes or the official Geek-a-long blanket. I am merely a fan of their project and have decided to make my own version. Don't forget to visit the Geek-a-long page to show your support for the official Geek-a-long blanket project which is raising money for a great cause and if you'd like to donate to that cause then please visit The Child's Play Charity here.

That Gum You Like Is Going to Come Back in Style

Wow. It has been almost a month since I last posted.

Unfortunately my computer decided to go kaput. By which I mean that it kept turning itself off with no warning. I could turn it back on, which is what I did for the first few days but when it took five 'turning it back ons' for me to read one single email it became less of an annoyance and more of a real problem. We figured out that it was an issue with the power pack and after a lot of research and nervous procrastination, my husband managed to fix it and now my baby is working fine. But it's upside down. It turns out that he had to replace the power pack with a different make which didn't fit in the same spot the old one had been in so the only way to put the new power pack in and stop it from squashing and breaking the other computery things that I don't understand is to turn the whole tower upside down. But at least it's working and it still looks pretty with it's glowing blue lights.

I'd like to say that I'd been up to loads of stuff while I've been offline and regale you with my tales of daring do but it's been pretty quiet here. I finished unstitching that Star Wars cross stitch and started a new one. We have started watching Battlestar Galactica again and are hoping to make it all the way through the fracking series this time. Our Pop Vinyl collection currently stands at 28 after a bargain shopping day a couple of weeks ago and I have a new tattoo which I am over the moon with.

It's Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds <3

The weather's finally warming up but the husband's Blanket of Doom has a had a lot of use in the past few weeks - especially because our boiler broke down for a while there. I had visions of finishing that blanket in the middle of summer when even looking at a thick knitted blanket would make him overheat so I'm secretly quite glad that it's taken so long for summer to start. I'm obviously still behind in posting the squares on here so onto the next one and it's from one of our all time favourite TV shows: Twin Peaks.

I did originally come up with a design which was the inside of the Black Lodge - half of it would be black and white chevrons to represent the floor and the other half would be two shades of red to give the impression of the hanging curtains in the Lodge. However I had a problem with the overlap in the middle of the square because I didn't want a straight line across as the cut off point. So I decided to throw that idea out and go with something a lot simpler - the fire rune from the caves.

Square number 39: Twin Peaks

 This was a great square to knit up and I think it looks great. I went for dark brown to make a nice change from using black backgrounds and red contrast which was very effective. I'm very happy with this square.

This is a design that I made for my own personal use and is not endorsed by or being used by Lamas and Lattes or the official Geek-a-long blanket. I am merely a fan of their project and have decided to make my own version. Don't forget to visit the Geek-a-long page to show your support for the official Geek-a-long blanket project which is raising money for a great cause and if you'd like to donate to that cause then please visit The Child's Play Charity here.

It's Going to be a Slobberknocker!

For those of you waiting to find out (I know that there's nobody actually waiting for these posts but it's nice to pretend), the Pop in a Box I mentioned last week, turned out to be Thunder from Big Trouble in Little China. The husband was over the moon as he loves that film - I've never seen it but lets keep that quiet ;)

In more craft-related real time events, the wool fairy came back from holiday sent me the grey wool I needed to finish the Blanket of Doom and then went on holiday again (seriously, my parents somehow managed to book themselves two holidays separated by a fortnight). So I've added the final row of squares to the blanket and am now working on the edging. I've had some issues with the joining and edging on this project but that was down to my knitting style no the pattern and I'll go into that more when I post that particular blog entry.

While I was stuck without the wool I needed, I turned my attention to the cross stitch project that I mentioned in passing a while back. I wanted to make something for my new niece and nephew's nursery and decided to go with a Star Wars baby sampler, with a different Star Wars character for each letter of the alphabet. I started off well with J is for Jabba in the centre of the aida but the more I worked on it, the more doubts began to creep in. My main issue was that I was having to use some pretty obscure characters or races for some of the letters (K is for Klaatu, anyone?). By the time I reached M is for Maul I came to the conclusion that a sampler was the wrong way to go. I like the Star Wars element because there is no doubt in my mind that the twins will be watching those films with their parents (and their favourite uncle) as soon as they're old enough but by that time, there will also be a whole new group of Star Wars films for them to love and they're not going to be fussed by a character that appears in the background of Episode V.

I think I have an idea of what to stitch instead but first there's the unstitching to do. If anyone knows how to get the marks left behind by unstitched thread on the aida, please let me know.

In Blog-time events, I'm still posting the squares for the Blanket of Doom so here's the next one. It is no secret that me and the husband love to watch wrestling. We probably watch more from the WWE Network than we do from Netflix these days and are loving the fact we can pull up shows that we both watched as kids in completely different parts of the country. For the inevitable WWE square, I was going to use the WWE logo (the scribble one that's just been retired) but the husband insisted that I went old-school with the 90s WWF logo instead and he was right, it looks far better than the original chart I drew up (also, it was way easier to do).

Square number 38: WWF (now called the WWE)

This is a design that I made for my own personal use and is not endorsed by or being used by Lamas and Lattes or the official Geek-a-long blanket. I am merely a fan of their project and have decided to make my own version. Don't forget to visit the Geek-a-long page to show your support for the official Geek-a-long blanket project which is raising money for a great cause and if you'd like to donate to that cause then please visit The Child's Play Charity here.

It's Just an Illusion Caused by the World Spinning 'Round

This week's mugs have all been printed up and posted out and now I need something to distract me from April's Pop in a Box sub which has arrived this afternoon - and which I definitely can't open until the husband is home. Our collection is going well, we have 19 currently (not including the PIAB sub) although 3 of them are in Wales with my parents until they next visit. Last month I guessed that the Pop in a Box was going to be Lo Pan from Big Trouble in Little China and it turned out to be Peter Venkman from Ghostbusters. This month I'm going to guess that it's Age of Ultron Thor, I will let you know just how wrong I am in my next post :D

Anyway, I am going to distract myself by doing this week's blog post a little early. We're still posting squares from the music block of the list and this next one is very near and dear to my heart.

The first Christmas me and the husband were together, he bought me tickets to go and see The Flaming Lips at the Cardiff Arena. The Flaming Lips were a band that he really liked that he believed I would like too and he was 100% right; that night still ranks up there as the best gig I have ever been to, it was like a giant Christmas party with glitter, balloons and fantastic music. Then a couple of years after that, we used their song 'Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots' as the first dance at our wedding. So I had to get them into this blanket somewhere.

Square 37: The Flaming Lips

It's the infamous Pink Robot!

I know that this is a bit of a girly square because it's so pink and probably would have worked better on my blanket (yes, I've decided to make a blanket for myself too - once I've got a few other crafty pieces out of the way) but I love it and the husband loves it and that's all that matters really.

This is a design that I made for my own personal use and is not endorsed by or being used by Lamas and Lattes or the official Geek-a-long blanket. I am merely a fan of their project and have decided to make my own version. Don't forget to visit the Geek-a-long page to show your support for the official Geek-a-long blanket project which is raising money for a great cause and if you'd like to donate to that cause then please visit The Child's Play Charity here.

Hey! Ho! Let's Go!

I signed up for the free month of Amazon Prime a couple of weeks ago because I ordered a lot of stuff from them and was too impatient to wait for the normal delivery time. A nice side benefit of this is that we've had access to Amazon Prime streaming and have been trying to watch as much as we can on there before it disappears again. So if you're wondering why this post is late, you can blame it on the brilliant 'Black Sails'. I also highly recommend 'Bosch', 'Toast' and 'Constantine' - the latter is made even better because of the hilarious way they keep trying to convince you that Constantine is from Liverpool (to be in keeping with the comic book) even though the actor has a blatant Welsh accent :)

I have run out of wool again - I really did think that 300g would be enough to do all the joining and edging but was woefully wrong. Unfortunately, the wool fairy is currently on holiday in Lanzarote and I can't buy the particular brand I need in Bristol, so I have to wait until she gets home and can post me some more. I've only got one row to add to the blanket though, so it's big enough that the husband has already started using it when he gets chilly.

Obviously, I'm still behind in posting the blanket squares on here so I can get on with that. Next up in the music block that I knitted up is The Ramones. They just had to be in there, there was no question about that really. I was originally going to do the classic Ramones logo with the eagle and names but in order to fit it into the size I needed, it would've ended up as a squashed mess. So I hunted through our CD collection and found the Pinhead Skull logo which worked out great because it was a design that could do double duty and also represent American Horror Story.

Square number 36: The Ramones.

Again, I'm happy with how this knitted up. It's simple but effective.

This is a design that I made for my own personal use and is not endorsed by or being used by Lamas and Lattes or the official Geek-a-long blanket. I am merely a fan of their project and have decided to make my own version. Don't forget to visit the Geek-a-long page to show your support for the official Geek-a-long blanket project which is raising money for a great cause and if you'd like to donate to that cause then please visit The Child's Play Charity here.

Breaking Rocks in the Hot Sun

I got a new tattoo yesterday and experienced something that I've decided to call 'tattoo-drunk'. The tattoo took about four hours, which is a bit unusual for a small piece, but it was an apprentice tattoo. That means that I was essentially getting inked by two tattoo artists; the apprentice and then the artist teaching her and who would step in to demonstrate certain techniques or help with problem areas. The tattoo itself is the Elven Leaf Brooch from Lord of the Rings and sits just under my ankle on the inside of my foot. Not the most pain-free part at the best of times and by the end of the session the endorphins were flowing freely and I was babbling away about anything and everything. I even have what feels like a mild hangover today.
I'm really happy with the finished result though and I will be going back for more work (from both apprentice and teacher - just at separate times, hopefully).

Time for the next square in the music block and no blanket of any self-respecting music snob (the husband's description of himself, not mine) would be complete without a square for The Clash - well, any british music snob anyway. I just had to attempt a chart for the iconic sleeve of their London Calling album and decided to experiment a little. Instead of copying it exactly, I used the colours of the writing as the background so as to make the main silhouette stand out more.

Square number 35: The Clash - London Calling.

I'm really pleased with this one. Yeah, the silhouette looks a little like a stick figure but that was unavoidable and I think it's still very clear what this square is; everyone I've shown it too has guessed correctly  :)

This is a design that I made for my own personal use and is not endorsed by or being used by Lamas and Lattes or the official Geek-a-long blanket. I am merely a fan of their project and have decided to make my own version. Don't forget to visit the Geek-a-long page to show your support for the official Geek-a-long blanket project which is raising money for a great cause and if you'd like to donate to that cause then please visit The Child's Play Charity here.

Take Me Away to Nowhere Plains

I hope you've all had a good week. Mine's been great. The vouchers that I mentioned in the last entry arrived in a swanky little tin and it turns out that I won £200. Thank you SFX! Me and the husband have happily spent that and I'll post a pic of our purchases once they all arrive.

Beside the unexpected spending spree, we've had a wrestle-tastic week. On Friday we went to a live show in Bristol run by Attack! Pro Wrestling. It was an awesome night and we had so much fun that we're definitely going to go again.

The Brothers of Construction vs Big Poppa Sunflower and the Love Making Demon

Eddie Dennis vs Daft Bump

Then Sunday was Wrestlemania. The husband booked Monday off work so that we could stay up and watch it live. We've got the WWE Network streaming on our PS3, so we could watch all the build-up as well this year.

If I'd thought more about it, I would've posted the wrestling square I made for the Blanket of Doom in this entry but I still haven't copied the chart to the computer yet. So we'll have to continue with the music block we've hit.The next band I've made a square for is The Pixies.

When I was in school, I was pretty obsessed with a Christian Slater film called 'Pump Up The Volume'; I can clearly remember listening to the soundtrack on my walkman during my art GCSE [with one side of the tape as the official soundtrack and the other side was songs that appeared in the film but weren't on the released soundtrack - yes, I was just that geeky] and The Pixies featured pretty heavily. But until I met my husband, I didn't know anyone else who listened to that type of music; my hometown splits pretty evenly into pop and heavy metal so grunge didn't really make an appearance, not even in my parents' shop. Since then we've seen then play live and in my soppier moments, I like to think that it's one of those things that shows me and my husband were meant to be together. Obviously, I had to make a Pixies square for his blanket.

Square number 34 - The Pixies.

The Pixies don't have an official logo but most fans use the flying 'P' as an unofficial one - and who am I to argue with fans? Anyway, it was either this or a monkey with angel wings ;)

I'm really pleased with how this one turned out; it's simple but effective and the yellow and black really pops.

This is a design that I made for my own personal use and is not endorsed by or being used by Lamas and Lattes or the official Geek-a-long blanket. I am merely a fan of their project and have decided to make my own version. Don't forget to visit the Geek-a-long page to show your support for the official Geek-a-long blanket project which is raising money for a great cause and if you'd like to donate to that cause then please visit The Child's Play Charity here.

There's No Time for Love, Charlie Brown

So I was checking my emails yesterday morning and I had one from my favourite magazine, SFX; a British sci-fi and fantasy magazine that we've been subscribing to for about 6 or 7 years but I've been reading it for about 12 years - which makes me feel really old. The email was from the editor telling me that I've won Amazon vouchers for participating in their reader's survey a while back. Which is awesome! I'm not sure how much I've won yet but I've already started doing some Amazon window shopping.

We've started collecting Funko Pop Vinyl figures so I'm definitely going to indulge in that. We've only been collecting since the end of February when we bought each other a figure for our anniversary, but it's already so much fun...and very addictive. We've even joined Pop in a Box which is a subscription for a mystery pop every month based on your preferences - we got Peter Venkman this month which was beyond perfect.

Our Pop collection so far

Bane doesn't play well with others so has his own shelf

 Also this week, the Wool Fairy [aka my mum] has been and left a wool bounty behind so I'm back to working on the Blanket of Doom. I'm on the final square, which is very exciting, and then I have to start on the Lattes and Lamas join. I've been reading the instructions and I think I've figured it out so keep your fingers crossed for me. Obviously, I'm a lot further ahead with the blanket in real life than what I've been posting here so I'd better get a move on and post the next square.

So far, there has only been one music related square which definitely doesn't reflect just how much music my husband listens to and how many albums he owns. [If I didn't know better, I'd swear that the fact my parents used to own a second hand record shop played a part in him deciding I was his future wife.] So to make up for this, the next handful of squares are all representative of his favourite bands and I'm going to start with his very favourite band of all-time.

Square number 33: Carter the Unstoppable Sex Machine

Before I met my husband, I vaguely remembered Carter USM as a 90s band that some of my friends liked but I didn't really know very well. Mostly I remembered them as that band who attacked Philip Schofield on the Smash Hits Poll Winners Party. Now, I've seen them live and I have nine of their songs on my regular playlist. I also managed to get my husband one of his favourite Carter USM t-shirts signed by both members of the band.

I decided to base the Carter USM square on that t-shirt and album design and I'm over the moon with how well it turned out.

This is a design that I made for my own personal use and is not endorsed by or being used by Lamas and Lattes or the official Geek-a-long blanket. I am merely a fan of their project and have decided to make my own version. Don't forget to visit the Geek-a-long page to show your support for the official Geek-a-long blanket project which is raising money for a great cause and if you'd like to donate to that cause then please visit The Child's Play Charity here.

That's How I Roll

Many years ago, when we first got together, I made a meal so horrible that my husband banned me from cooking. True story. But lately I've had a hankering to bake stuff - I blame The Great British Bake Off for this.I've made a few batches of biscuits and some mince pies in December then we received a food mixer for Christmas from my in-laws so I wanted to break it in by baking an actual cake. My husband's been hogging the mixer to make bread (not that I'm complaining about that) but I finally got a chance to use it Monday night while he was distracted by The Walking Dead. Armed with this recipe for Lemon Drizzle Cake I took over the kitchen and here's my result:

It rose loads so I probably need a bigger tin to bake it in and I had to cook it for 20 minutes longer than the recipe stated before the inside was cooked which meant that the outside burned a little bit...but, man, it tastes amazing! I'm so proud of this, it's the first cake I've baked since I was in school.

On the crafting front, I'm still awaiting new wool to complete the two remaining squares on the Blanket of Doom so the knitting has been put on hold until Monday when the wool fairy (otherwise known as my mum) visits. In the meantime, I've started a cross stitch project that I've been wanting to do for a while. It pointless me posting any pics of it yet as I've only just started and I doubt anyone wants to look at random dots on a big expanse of white but I'll post some when I'm further along.

Even though the blanket's on hold for now, I still have a load of squares that I haven't posted yet so here's the next one. This square is taken from a game that's a huge favourite of me and my husband and is one of the first games I ever played (he talked me into it when we first got a PS2). I'm talking about Katamari Damacy. It's an insane and addictive game with a soundtrack that worms it's way into your brain and stays there for weeks. We love it! So it had to go onto the blanket.

Square 32: Katamari Damacy

I originally knitted this up in purple with the katamari in a pink, blue and white colourway wool in order to try and sum up just how bright and colourful the game is. But it was just too busy and you couldn't see the pattern, just an multi-coloured blob on a purple background. So I frogged that one and grabbed my bright orange instead which I paired with a more sedate green to accentuate the brightness of the orange. I really like this combination, it clashes but in a good way.

This is a design that I made for my own personal use and is not endorsed by or being used by Lamas and Lattes or the official Geek-a-long blanket. I am merely a fan of their project and have decided to make my own version. Don't forget to visit the Geek-a-long page to show your support for the official Geek-a-long blanket project which is raising money for a great cause and if you'd like to donate to that cause then please visit The Child's Play Charity here.

I Am Not Expendable, I'm Not Stupid and I'm Not Going!

Good afternoon. I hope everyone's okay out there this week. It's been a week of illness here, unfortunately. I've been battling a nasty bout of food poisoning and Merry went to the vets for a operation that should hopefully stop her having any more infections. She's been coping a lot better than I have.

Just look at her, all perky and working the bits the vet had to shave as if she chose to have her fur like that the whole time. Whereas I've been mooching about in my pyjamas and dragging my duvet around with me as if I'm Linus from The Peanuts.

Needless to say I haven't done much knitting this week (seriously, even knitting has been making me feel nauseous), which is a shame because I'm only 3 squares away from finishing all the squares for the blanket of doom. It's probably karmic punishment for getting all cocky about that in a conversation last week. I'm still quite a bit behind on posting the blanket squares on here though so I can just go ahead and post the next one.

This square's a little strange for me because even though I'm not a fan of all the same stuff as the husband, I do at least know quite a bit about them. Blake's 7 is a TV show that I'm really in the dark on. I did try watching it back when we first got together but only made it through two or three episodes. My husband really loves it though and I couldn't leave a fandom out just because I'm a bit clueless about it. Luckily, the show has a pretty simple logo so it was easy to make a chart without having to do too much research.

Square number 31: Blake's 7

This is a design that I made for my own personal use and is not endorsed by or being used by Lamas and Lattes or the official Geek-a-long blanket. I am merely a fan of their project and have decided to make my own version. Don't forget to visit the Geek-a-long page to show your support for the official Geek-a-long blanket project which is raising money for a great cause and if you'd like to donate to that cause then please visit The Child's Play Charity here.

You Just Keep on Trying 'Til You Run Out of Cake

I pulled a mini disappearing act, sorry about that. Things have been a little busy here; me and the husband just had our eleventh wedding anniversary so we've been doing romantic things likes watching Robocop (the proper 80s version, of course). Also the mugs are selling well and I've been working hard on new designs.

To make up for not posting for over a week, I'm going to post two of the squares on the Blanket of Doom. But before I do that, the lovely Megan-Anne from the Geek-a-long has pointed out to me that I haven't mentioned the most important part of the entire Geek-a-long project, the fact that they have done this to raise money for charity. The GAL girls have created this awesome project and made all the charts available for free so if you would like to show your appreciation then donate a little something to the Child's Play Charity at this page.

Square 29 of the BoD came about purely because I was looking at various charts on Pinterest, saw this a Transformers chart and thought 'Of course! How could I have forgotten that?'. My husband used to have a Transformers t-shirt that he wore all the time with the Autobot logo wearing Groucho Marx glasses, a fake nose and moustache (Robots in disguise :P ) and I bought him one years ago that had LED lights that lit up - that one didn't last past a couple of washes before the battery pack got ruined, it was great while it lasted though. So  Transformers square had to be done.

Square 29: Transformers.

I'm so happy that I found Elizabeth Thomas' design. It's the prefect size, it was great fun to knit up and I am over the moon with the finished result.

The next square is one that I knew I was going to do right from the beginning. There are a fair few squares representing video games on this blanket but I definitely had to get Portal in there. I originally planned to do the warning sign that shows the stick man jumping off a ledge into a portal but when it came down to it, I just had to do the cake - that image sums up the entire game for me.

Again I was lucky enough to find a chart online and as with the Autobot one, mirukukeki's Portal chart was the perfect fit.

Square 30: Portal.

Don't forget, to access a link, just click on the blue writing and, if you have the time, I'd love to know what you think of the blog so far.

Baby Things!

If you ask any of my friends and family, they'll tell you that I don't have a maternal bone in my body. And they're quite right but that doesn't mean that I don't have a little bit of a squee over teeny tiny baby clothes and toys. Also, I will admit that I did melt more than a little when I saw my new niece and nephew at the weekend - they are adorable.

Obviously, I just had to make stuff for them. I'm so going to be that random aunt who knits clothes for their toys when they want the proper bought stuff, lol. But I don't mind that, I have very fond memories of toys my Nana made me when I was a kid.

The first things I made, I didn't actually end up giving to the babies because they were far too small. The twins were premature and even smaller again because they are twins so I made a pair of hats in the 'premmie' size but by the time we managed to go to Dorset and see them, they'd grown to 'new born' size and the hats I made were comically small. That's okay though, I have brought them back home and put them on a couple of our Funko figures instead.

The pattern I used was this one from AlliCrafts. I'm definitely going to make them again because they are so cute but this time, I'll make them in the correct size.

The next couple of things I made were far more successful, to the point that my sister-in-law claimed that she wanted to keep them for herself, lol. Cuddly toys, they're always a winner.

The first toy I made was one that I'd made before for a my mum's friend's baby. So I already knew how easy the pattern is and just how adorable the finished product is. I'm talking about Rachel H's L'il Baby Unicorn I love this toy so much, it's really to fun to make and looks great; I highly recommend giving it a try. The first time I made it, I stuck Rachel H's colours of pink and red because it was for a little girl and the colours were one of the reasons I wanted to try it in the first place. This time, even though it's a unicorn I wanted it to be something both the twins could play with if they wanted. I had a ball of Robin DK in bright pink, blue and white in my stash that I've been looking for a good project to use it on and I thought this would be perfect, especially if I used plain blue as the contrast colour to offset the pink even more.

The original L'il Unicorn I made a couple of years ago.

The second toy I decided to make was Emma's Crochet Stripy Giraffe. Just look at it, I could not resist something that cute. Again I wanted both twins to be able to play with and cuddle it so I tried to use colours that would appeal to both boys and girls. This was a great pattern; I know that there have been some negative comments on Emma's page but I didn't have any problems at all and would definitely recommend giving it a go. In fact I'm planning on making a couple more for my friends because I had lots of fun making this [and so did my cat who discovered a fun new game of stealing a leg and making me chase him to get it back].

War. War Never Changes

Lots to do today so just a quick post of the next square on the Blanket of Doom.

I got into playing video games about 2 years ago and since then, there have been a few games that me and my husband both love to spend an evening playing. One of our favourites is Fallout: New Vegas. Although we disagree about how to play it; I love doing actual quests whereas he will randomly scour the map and investigate every shack or cave he finds.

I wanted to do a Fallout: New Vegas square and initially was going to a Nuka Cola logo [actually, I first wanted to do Vault Boy but the square's just too small for that]. But when I was looking for a decent picture of the logo on Google, I stumbled across a picture of the sign for The Tops Casino and I far preferred that idea.

Square 28: Fallout: New Vegas

This is a design that I made for my own personal use and is not endorsed by or being used by Lamas and Lattes or the official Geek-a-long blanket. I am merely a fan of their project and have decided to make my own version. Don't forget to visit the Geek-a-long page to show your support for the official Geek-a-long blanket project which is raising money for a great cause and if you'd like to donate to that cause then please visit The Child's Play Charity here.