Tag: Cthuhlu

Its a very short, slightly belated post today. Yesterday I was at a very good friends wedding, it was an amazing day and beautiful hardly describes it. The venue, the bride, the vows, the food…all beautiful.

And of course, Inkling had to fit the part! At the very last minute I decided he needed a little bow tie to go with his waistcoat:

Based on the free pattern Erika’s Knit Bow by loareknits – its super quick, super simple and super adorable.

The other thing to note, and I shouldn’t have been surprised really seeing as the friend who got married is the friend who requested several cthulhus and matching dice bags, but I bumped into a few Americans who, after spotting Inkling cuddling his knitted cthulhu, exclaimed ‘your the lady that knit the cthulhus!’

I love it when things like that happen! (I had been busy admiring the detail in one of the girls knitted shawls prior to this, still debating what pattern was used…pretty sure it was a Birch Leaf motif…)

Anyhow! Two big projects on the go, very nearly finished one and almost finished the other so hopefully you’ll see those next week!

Oh, ended up buying wool this week as I didn’t have enough in a colour I needed. I could not for the life of me get hold of said colour in straight up acrylic and DK weight (kids toy, gotta be sturdy and machine washable) and it took five shops (two of them large craft stores) to find what I needed! ‘Sadly’ it only came in packs of two, oh well!

Wool count:

Starting total – 622

Wool used – 36 (3 since last post)
Wool bought – 6 (2 since last post)
Wool given – 5
Wool gifted – 0

Total – 594 (Net loss of 1)

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Belated Easter post, apologies! I was visiting the family up North and we had an absolute ball (Rabbie documented it over at her blog) but when we got back it was straight in to work and gaming prep and time ran away from me!

I do have two completed knits to show you though from then:

I did indeed make Mr McGregor’s sack, as suggested last post, and it was quite fun putting all the bunnies and the lettuce inside it!

And I also whipped up a Baby Bunny Hat (free pattern by Rebecca Lennox) so that Inkling could join in with the festivities. He is definitely bunny mad and squeals when he sees them!

There’s been no new completed knits really since then!

As I said above, I’ve been preparing another game, this time it’s Achtung Cthulhu! In case you haven’t guessed by now, I really enjoy running games in the Cthulhu universe, and Achtung Cthulhu! is set during WW2 and I’ll say now that it doesn’t disappoint.

Though there have been half a dozen instances of people wanting weapons that don’t actually exist just yet…and we’ve only played about three hours!

Till next week where I should hopefully have more to show you!

Wool count:

Starting total – 622

Wool used – 33 (2 since last post)
Wool bought – 4
Wool given – 5
Wool gifted – 0

Total – 595

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I’m sure most of the world knows this but the UK was not by both ‘The Beast from the East’ and Storm Emma this past week. Unlike my family up North, we only got a few inches of snow over the course of the week – enough to stop Engel going to work on the motorbike (he did manage to ride in it the first three days, but after a lucky miss, I insisted he didn’t try again) but not enough to stop me going back to work.

Sigh.

It wasn’t a bad first week of work, but I was ready to go home, curl up in a blanket with a hot water bottle and a stack of chocolate and not leave my nest for the immediate future…

Felix did however have a ball – she got to make snow cats and finally have that snowball fight she spent all winter asking for. Inkling in the other hand… yeah… he’s not a fan of this strange, cold, wet, white stuff!

The weather aside (I am a true Brit and can discuss the weather for several hours, it’s a cultural thing) I have two completed projects to share this week!

First of all:

Yep, it’s another chunky Wayfarer! (Pattern by Jen Lucas from the book ‘Doomsday Knits: Projects for the Apocalypse and After’) I literally had this on the moment it was cast off the needles! So warm and cosy…

And project number two:

I made one of these for Felix when she was tiny, and it felt fitting to make one for Isaac. I did hers in the colours of the rainbow, but for him, well, it’s a running joke that he is in fact the Hungry Caterpillar! Made using several free patterns – the alphabet series by Frankie Brown on Ravelry.

So aside from the weather, starting back to work and a little bit of knitting, there’s not much else to say at the moment. I’ve started reading through the Achtung Cthulhu rules and setting, so don’t be too surprised if more random lovecraftian things start to crop up!

Oh, and on the Pokémon hand puppet front, both Felix and Engel are trying to convince me to make ALL of them. I will say now that there is no way I’m doing all 800+ of them!!!!

Maybe just a few more favourites…

Wool count:

Starting total – 622

Wool used – 23 (5 this week!)
Wool bought – 4
Wool given – 5
Wool gifted – 0

Total – 605 (So near my 600 ball goal!)

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Couldn’t resist that title after making all these:

Yep, that’s another six seatbelt covers! I used the same free pattern as last time: Seat belt snuggles by Chris Behme and the reasoning? Felix complained repeatedly that whenever anyone used the car, they didn’t have a seatbelt cover, and all the seatbelts needed one. After having a few full car loads of people (my car can convert to a seven seater, it’s surprisingly useful) I relented and used up a load of chunky wool scraps, as well as letting Felix loose on the button collection.

However, she also had one special request…

A ‘princess’ seatbelt cover for her best friend, as she needed a special one for her seat in her car! This makes me think of Disney’s Tangled (Rapunzel) for some reason…

Needless to say, I don’t want to knit any more of these any time soon!

So thankfully I have a different, more geeky project on the needles now, but more about that when it’s finished.

In other news, Missy came to visit her cousins! (She also brought her humans Rabbie and Loki) and much fun was had by all! It was a great laugh, lots of adventure and playing games! I will say now though, I was GMing ‘No thank you, Evil’ and as a fairly strict cthulhu GM, it nearly killed me. No death, insanity or destruction! No elder gods to twist mind and reality! No cults to meddle and cause mischief! But, I managed it. Just. Same can’t be said about the players who managed to turn a half hour adventure (if that) into nearly two hours!

Anyhow, enough of that. Been celebrating Chinese New Year this weekend and watched the dragon parade and dancing lions, took part in making paper lanterns and block printing. Felix had an absolute ball, and Inkling…well…he really, really wanted the pom poms on the lions heads…bless, the nice lion let him pet it for a good five minutes…

Alright, enough chatting, I have a load of housework to do, a chocolate cake to eat and some knitting to get cracking on!

Till next week!

Starting total – 622

Wool used – 16 (5 this week)
Wool bought – 4 (It was snowing, and happened to be the first shop I ducked into for shelter, and they were in the clearance bin, calling my name…)
Wool given – 5 (I mentioned to Engel I only had one ball of black DK wool, he brought home four more for me! And I didn’t even ask him to!)
Wool gifted – 0

Total – 612

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To be eaten…

The Christmas reference is because of this:

Inklings very own Christmas stocking (based on free pattern: Pet Love Christmas Stocking by Sarah Hood, incorporating the free Bunnies Chart by Sylvia Leake and the fish chart from Kitty Placemat by Donna Druchunas from her book Kitty Knits: Projects for cats and their people.)

Two years ago, I knit Christmas stockings for myself, Engel and Felix all based on the pet love Christmas stocking (you can have a look at those here if you want) and it only seemed right to include Inkling in on this tradition.

I had to guess his favourite animals, it’s kind of hard when he’s not quite 6 months old yet – I went for rabbits as he squeals when he sees them on the TV, and he loves watching the goldfish in the fish tank, so fish it was.

So, the being eaten reference is because of this:

Yup. It’s Shub-Niggurath (The Black Goat of the Woods with a Thousand Young). I mentioned on a previous post that after knitting the Stubborn Goat I wanted to make one, but not the thousand young so nope, not happening.

Two weeks of pester power and here s/he is, Shub-Niggurath (used the free pattern Fester The Whole Goat by Jenny Stacey again for this one)

There will not be any young. Especially not a thousand of them.

Starting total – 650

Wool used – 138 (3 this post)
Wool bought – 49
Wool given – 135
Wool gifted – 59

Total – 633

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When Felix was very little, I knitted her a Cthulhu (my very own pattern too) and kept meaning to knit one for Inkling.

Well procrastinate no more, here is the cute tiny Elder God in all his tentacular glory!

After knitting Cthulhu I decided that whilst I was on a roll I’d try another free Lovecraftian pattern I had spied previously:

The Great Race of Yith by Samantha Lynn – I omitted the pipe cleaners and beads the pattern calls for to make it more baby chewing friendly.

(I was going to knit just one, but you can’t have a race with just one!)

The Yith are one of the lesser known Lovecraftian creations, but Inkling seems to enjoy swinging them by their various appendages…

Also this week (I was on a knitting roll! Though I did ignore my big project) my mum requested I make The Stubborn Goat, as another teaching aid.

Made using the free pattern Fester The Whole Goat by Jenny Stacey

I am now debating knitting Shub-Niggurath (The Black Goat of the Woods with a Thousand Young) since I’m on a Lovecraft inspired knitting kick…

Then Felix said Id have to knit a thousand baby goats. That idea has now been shelved…

Starting total – 650

Wool used – 131 (6 this post!)
Wool bought – 49
Wool given – 135
Wool gifted – 59

Total – 640 (Will I get below 600 this year?)

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Is completely and utterly, finally and at long last, completed!

All the sewing and tucking in of ends and finishing touches are done. They’ll get their own post after Christmas so as not to spoil any surprises.

I’ve also finished all my Christmas shopping today! Just in the nick of time as I was rapidly running out of days in November to do it all in! For those who don’t know me, after working in retail for far too many Christmases in a row, back in my student days, and listening to the same ten awful Christmas song covers for anywhere between 8 to 12 hours from the start of December right through to mid January…yeah, I hate it.

Though I may have picked up a few call of Cthuhlu based treats for myself in the black Friday sales…such as the CoC 7th ed investigators hand book, a nice new keeper screen with two new scenarios, a choose your own adventure Cthuhlu scenario and all the Christmas presents for Engel (Including one chosen for him from Felix) so all in all a good haul! Oh, and Felix was able to add to her dice collection, a bright yellow D20 and a shiny red D4. The people in the shop thought she was adorable as she spent a good 20 minutes picking these dice.

Different shop (comics) and she made a complete random snort and laugh out loud. She pointed at the comics and went ‘Spiderman! And Batman! And the Avengers!’

So I pointed to a Donald Duck one and asked ‘whose that?’

To which she responded ‘I don’t know.’

I pointed to Mickey Mouse ‘How about him?’

‘No. Don’t know.’

So I turned to Engel ‘How can she know Spiderman, Batman and the Avengers and not know Donald Duck or Mickey Mouse?’

His response ‘Well I’m doing my job right.’

Cue stranger cracking up…

Anyhow, that’s enough of that! So, now I’ve done my Christmas knitting I have been knitting…a Christmas hat for a doll?

It’s for my neices American Doll again, and based on the same pattern as the winter hat that I did a whole back, just fewer decreases. Oh, and it’s being modelled on Baymax, my giant, cuddly, Baymax! A get well present from my amazing sis, and a very much loved and appreciated one at that! He’s doing a great job as my personal healthcare assistant – rate your pain in a scale of one to ten? Who cares, happiness just hit ten!

He may be getting cuddles right now…

I’ve got a few knitting projects on the go – a pair of Scotty dogs as I’m expecting a new neice (the mums in America these days, so it’s Scottish themed baby gifts to remind her that we’re all rooting for her back here at home) and I just remembered I had another Christmas knit to do, well, two really, ones tiny, though to be fair, I should do a third…

Guess I haven’t quite finished after all! Well all those can be blogged as I go so more interesting for the readers at least!

Starting total – 697

Wool used – 109 (0 since last week, but very close to using one!)
Wool bought – 53
Wool given – 7

Total – 658

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I think that’s an apt name for this:

It’s based on the Free Ravelry Downloadable Pattern Vortex Shawl by Kristina McCurley and made with the yummy wool I blogged about last post.

The name comes from the current computer game Engel is playing ‘No Man’s Sky’ where you got from planet to planet, discovering, cataloguing and mining for resources as far as I can tell…to a relaxing soundtrack…great for switching off in the evening, and what I’ve been watching as I worked in my shawl…

Not the most attractive photo if it, but the best colour match to real life, and it gives you an idea of the shape too. The merino/yak was lovely to knit with, and loved by certain four legged critters…

Salem wasn’t caught in the act of stealing it, three seconds after I put it on the floor to photograph…of course not…

I also wore it yesterday at a wedding banquet, where I shamefully had to call it quits after the fifth of eight courses…seeing as it started with an entire roast suckling pig between eight of us, I don’t think I did too bad. Oh, and for those curious, the heads in the fridge, I couldn’t let such a yummy treat go to waste!

Not much else to say really, life’s been ticking along, I had some family visit, been spending a fair bit if time with Felix, working on her crafty skills – pom pom caterpillars today! And pom pom monsters. She wanted to make a pom pom Cthuhlu, but decided the tentacles would be too difficult to make from pom poms alone…

So cute!

Wool count:

Starting total – 697

Wool used – 92
Wool bought – 10
Wool given – 4

Total – 619

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Cthuhlu phtang!

This time last year I posted about how awesome my friends are. How they all donned on cat ears and played Cathuhlu all just for my birthday.

They out did themselves this year, and I have to say, my friends are more than awesome, they’re amazing!

I mean seriously, look at this cake!

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It’s the Necronomicon, as a cake!

It’s not the first amazing cake that particular friend of mine has made for my birthday, two years ago, it was this tentacular beauty!

Tentacle Cake 2~2

In case you haven’t all guessed, I’m obsessed with Cthuhlu. I’ve read all of H. P. Lovecrafts mythos stories, own numerous RPGs (Call of Cathuhlu, Delta Green, The Laundry, as well as numerous source books) I even created my own knitted Cthuhlu pattern!

It also happens to be my literally just now finished project:

Cthuhlu mittens!

This is based on the free Ravelry download Cthulhu Mittens by Lyle Stafford. I changed mine so that I can, let’s say, rather than pet Crumble with mittens:

I could…

Scritch her with my fingers instead!

I sense more mittens in my future as I had a lot of fun with these, but there are other projects to be done first…so many projects, so little time…

In other news, I went to the pop up knitting show in Port Sunlight (as it was pouring with rain, good ol’ British weather!) And accidentally bought myself a very nice little ball of wool that was positively singing to be a shawl. So that is what it shall be.

And that is what will be in my needles next!

Starting total – 697

Wool used – 91
Wool bought – 10
Wool given – 4

Total – 620

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Today is Engels birthday, so this weekend (a bank holiday weekend at that) has been filled with much fun and games. Saturday was a quiet family day, mooching about the local village, enjoying the good weather as well as people who hate the heat can do.

Yesterday we had a ‘sushi sunday’ (£1.20 a plate sushi!) And after being thoroughly stuffed, kicked off a new Call of Cthuhlu campaign, but with the twist of introducing the Laundry. (Think secret government department that covers up and contains all mythos related events, but with classic British Beurocracy, red tape, HR, and so much paperwork to be completed in triplicate that it really is easier to just buy your own stationary than use the stationary cupboard at work)

It was awesome, can’t say much as despite being an estimated 2-3 hour campaign, it took six last night and put on hold till the next gaming session as everyones character in game  has turned into paranoid wrecks. It’s hilarious, and reminds me why I go through the effort of preparing gaming sessions.

Ah, but this is a knitting blog primarily, and so to knitting it is. It’s been a slow week project wise as I was at Centre Parks at the weekend, started my old-new job on Monday and am getting back into the swing of that again, plus shaking off a stinking cold, and prepping for gaming chaos. I’ve also been nose deep reading Eldritch Chrome – think cyberpunk Cthuhlu. So…yeah…

Cat ear project on temporary hiatus as I work out logistics with the remaining mishmash of fluffy wool.

After getting annoyed at not having a bag on me for the shopping, again, (we pay for bags down here now, and I have so many decent shopping bags that I begrudge buying more!) So made myself this:

It’s a little fox purse to attach to my bag and has two little shopping bags inside, so I’ll always have them on me!

It’s a cute fit, right? And also a little thing I threw together out of my own head, so no pattern reference.

Hmm. Wonder if it’s worth writing out and posting as a freebie pattern here…

Anyhow! A little story for the next one.

A long time ago (several years) my mum ‘borrowed’ a pair of my armwarmers, and well, the only way I’m getting those back is if I replace them…

She was bought a number of balls of wool from New Lanark a few years ago which I made a jumper with. And two hats. (And another in sparkly cotton) And there was a bit leftover.

So now it’s arm warmers!

Free Ravelry pattern Camp Out Fingerless Mitts by tante ehm. Super cute and easy!

No wool used up this week (sadly) but I’m just happy I actually finished a few things!

Starting total – 697 balls

Wool used – 68
Wool bought – 9
Wool given – 4

Total – 642

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