beck's blog

Sunday, September 23, 2007

Beatnik Cats Duffle Bag / Backpack

I was able to grab my son and get him to model my Beatnik Cats bag today. YAY!
(Click on the photos to make them larger).






I used a "Beatnik" logo which was for a stereo sound system, (I think that's what it was). I thought the way they made the word Beatnik look so stylized was terrific. It almost looks like graffitti.
(That's supposed to be a microphone up near the cat's face and I tried to make the curl of his tail like a cymbal). The "B" is like a base instrument.

I used glow-in-the-dark yarn for the cat's eyes and the word "Cats" which is sort of overtop the word beatnik. I hope it's readable. Oh well. Graffitti is supposed to be difficult to make out, right?






Here he is demonstrating how it closes. Just pull the two rope ends and it cinches together like a laundry duffle bag. I strung some colored wooden beads on the ends of the rope.







This is the other side. The stripes are actually a dark purple and cream. The straps are also in the stripe pattern. It reminded me of those kind of striped shirts beatniks would wear.






Here's a great photo from about 1965 with Cher, Sonny, and Bob Dylan. Sonny's got on one of those striped shirts. (Along with a very hairy jacket/coat). LOL!!!

Like, cool, Daddy-o!

Tuesday, September 18, 2007

More Spooky Stuff

I took more photos today. First I have two chair cover "pads". One is Halloweenish and one is Christmasy (Images are clickable for enlargement).






This is made from a trivet pattern book which you are supposed to use thread. I decided to try using cotton yarn and seeing how it looked. It's made by crocheting the grid first, then crocheting overtop that grid with a sort of "wiggly" line snaking it's way all throughout the grid squares. I've made the six trivets in thread before. They are awesome. So this was fun to try it in regular yarn too. The last shot is of the pad up-side-down so you can see how it looks from the back.







Ok, this one's not really spooky. (But it is spooky how dirty my floor looks underneath.) LOL!!
The last shot is the back too. I crocheted four tie strings so you can attach the pad to the chair to prevent it from slipping off. For some weird reason this Christmas one is slightly smaller than the jack-o-lantern one.






This is another pot holder/trivet thingy. I love this one. It has the Great Pumpkin on one side and Charlie Brown's shirt on the other. The ring was made with yellow to look like a full moon. Only the sincerest people get a visit from the Great Pumpkin, don't ya know. :o)






This is another purse tote. It has the skull and snake on one side. (I used those eyes you can get for making crocheted dolls). It makes him look extra creepy. Especially since they are cats eyes.
The back is black and white stripes which remind me of old prisoner's uniforms. Also kind of goth-looking too. The strap is done in all front post double crochet which curls in around itself. So then I joined the sides and it made a great handle. It kind of looks like bones. Very awesome! I trimmed it in black Fun Fur again.






Finally, this last one I am calling it Radioactive Waste Barrel Bag. I had such fun making it.
First I made the Radioactive sign using regular yarn. Then I used a soft yellow boucle yarn and made the body of the bag using 3 rows front post dc, 3 rows back post dc etc. throughout creating these sort of "ribs" which look like a barrel.
I attached the sign to the bag, crocheted a round bottom. Then made the top have spaces for a drawstring.

Then, I used glow-in-the-dark yarn and beads and crocheted them around the sign too. I also attached a few glow-in-the-dark beads to the drawstring's ends. Pretty neat, huh? I love this bag!!!

edit:

Phoenix asked about the wiggly pumpkin trivet pattern. It's from this book...






Here's the front and back. (Click to enlarge).

Thanks for asking, Phoenix. I always feel like I'm just talking to myself!

Tuesday, September 11, 2007

New Spooky Stuff

Well, last week I spilled coffee on my keyboard. I can only use the right half of it now and it takes a million years to post things by copying and pasting. Bleh!
Today, I am using the other computer while everyone is away so I don't have to do all that.
I've been busy making a bunch of things which I finally got around to taking photos of today.
First is this spooky cat bottle gift bag...(All images are clickable for enlargement)....








It has the same image of the cat on both sides. Tunisian stitched with orange and black Red Heart yarn. I put a blue bottle in the photo to show you the size and also how it looks with the bottle inside it. There's a drawstring closure at the top. It is trimmed with spiky black Fun Fur yarn.

Next is a spooky bag with a skelleton face on one side and a haunted house on the other side...








It's small. Only about 8 x 6 inches. A nice long strap. All cotton yarn. And trimmed in the same black Fun Fur. The last shot gives you an idea of the size compared to the cat bottle bag. Did you spot our hound dog? She tries to get in every shot I take.

These next two things aren't spooky but still...

Two mesh market bags. One with a round bottom. The other a sort of loooong oval.






They are made with all-cotton Sugar 'n Cream yarn. I love cotton. The mesh makes them very stretchy; yet strong. You can hold a lot of things in these.

Oh I love this next one. It's a girl's bat signal bag.






One side has the bat signal. Then I made the top of the bag look like a bat utility belt which goes around to the back side where I put a closure loop for keeping it shut. I still may add a button too if I can find one that's "bat-like" without spending a whole lot of money. This is also all cotton.

And finally, I made another bag. It's made using the Victorian bag pattern from Sugar 'n Cream. This took a long time and I love it too!





One side has a flower, the other has a peace sign. Both are actually pockets.





Here I stuffed all the other bags inside so you could see how it looks full. I added pastel glow-in-the-dark pony beads to the top of each side pocket. Just because. :o)





These last two shots are just so you can compare sizes. I'm putting most of these things in my etsy shop.