Make your own Megan doll

December 5, 2022

If you’d like your own Megan doll (from the Megan & Flos vegan science fiction comics), here’s how to make one 😀

First, find a pattern. I used Jean Greenhowe’s “ten of the best” pattern which is from this book but there are plenty of others to choose from, including lots of free ones you can download.

So, I won’t give you pattern details, you can just download whichever pattern you fancy and then make her look like Megan. If you don’t know how to knit yet, you can either learn, or sew a ragdoll instead 🙂

Anyway, this is what I did:

I used DK (Double Knitting thickness) acrylic yarn from my bag of oddments – no need to buy anything new. Her clothes don’t have to be blue, you can choose what she wears, and if you don’t have a bag of oddments, they often sell bags of leftover yarn in charity shops. I used UK size eleven (3 mm) needles.

The pattern I used starts at the ankles and works up to the top of her head (working in stocking stitch – one row knit, one row purl). I started in dark blue, for her jeans, then I changed colour, and knitted her light blue top, up to her shoulders,

then I changed colour again, to pink for her head. Then I cut the yarn, leaving a long length to thread through the stitches. Hey – didn’t I say I wasn’t going to explain the pattern? Sorry – I guess that’s useless information if you don’t have the pattern, and superfluous if you do. Oh well 😀

Excuse my photos by the way, my camera phone is very old. But you get the idea with that 🙂

how to make a vegan comicbook character doll

Then I knitted the arms and the feet. Megan is wearing baseball boots, so I knitted the feet two thirds white, one third red. As you can see from the photo of the finished doll, they are proper red. I don’t know why the photos here make them look brown 😀 Then I sewed laces into the red part.

Then it was time to sew her up and stuff with kapok (natural organic fibre harvested from kapok trees, used for centuries – probably – for stuffing pillows and soft toys). But if you don’t have any kapok, you could fill your doll with cut up strips of old T-shirt. Any soft material will do.

Before stuffing, it was necessary to sew down the middle of the dark blue legs section, to create two legs, and after stuffing I tied a length of yarn around the base of the pink section, to make the head 😀 The boots were folded, sewn and stuffed before being attached to the ankles; and the arms sewn, stuffed and attached at the shoulders.

Next she needed a face! I just sewed her features on, and not very well at first – embroidery is not my strong suit – so I unpicked it and tried again. And again, until I was happy with it 😀

She doesn’t look like Megan yet does she? That’s because she needs hair!

So I made the hair by cutting lots of long lengths of yellow yarn, tying them in the middle, and sewing them from top to bottom of the back of Megan’s head. Ouch! Your pattern will show you how 😀

If you only have a little bit of yellow for her hair, the pattern shows you how to make a hat or a hood for her, and then you’ll only need a little bit to stick out the front. 🙂

how to make a vegan comicbook character doll - doing her hair

Now she looks very Megan-ish! But there’s still one more thing she needs – do you know what it is?

Her solar-powered gravity-adjusting belt of course!

For this I cast on five stitches of purple and worked in moss stitch (every row knit) until it was long enough. I kept measuring it up against the doll as I went along, until it was the right length. Then I cast off, sewed the ends of the belt together, and added the gems. Or did I sew on the gems first, and then sew the ends together? You decide 😀

Ta-daa!

Why don’t you make yourself a Megan doll? Or a Reflecto Girl doll? Or any of our heroic vegan characters. And do send us photos if you make any, we’d love to see them 😀

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Violet’s Vegan Comics – creating vegan comics, vegan stories, vegan nursery rhymes, vegan children’s books and vegan things to make and do, since 2012.

And then there was Denzel

December 6, 2016

By Violet's Vegan Comics

The Anderson family are not complete without Denzel so here he is 😀

I followed this free pattern of a Scottie dog by Sue Stratford

and made him look as much like Denzel as I could. I knitted him in white and stitched on the orange colour after he was sewn and stuffed. He’s a bit big when he’s standing next to the family but I think you’d be hard pushed to find a smaller pattern 🙂

Alternatively, if you’re not a knitter or you fancy doing something different, how about making an origami Denzel?

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vegan, vegetarian, homemade, crafts, origami, knitting, needlework, papercrafts, dogs, toys, handmade toys

Meet the Family

December 5, 2016

By Violet's Vegan Comics

Old Red is fully furnished and ready to be enjoyed by the Andersons – so where are they? Where are the Andersons? Oh look, here they are:

Miranda knitted Aiden and Cara and Casey and Brietta, and it didn’t take her long.

She got the pattern from loveknitting.com where it is free to download. It’s a Goldilocks finger puppet by Amanda Berry which, at 7cm tall, is just the right size but, since we didn’t want finger puppets, Miranda stuffed the skirt, and sewed up the middle of it to make trousers for the boys, adjusted their heights and gave them the appropriate hair etc (including a beard for Aiden) and there you have it – The English Family Anderson, all ready to live happily ever after in their bus 😀

Now, where’s Denzel? 😉

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knitting, crafts, needlework, dolls, toys, homemade, handmade, vegan, vegetarian, recycling

The Andersons’ Knitted bus: The End

December 2, 2016

By Violet's Vegan Comics

You may have noticed that in the end the bus isn’t furnished exactly as shown in the story. That is due to the fact that it has the proportions of a camper van because of the pattern I used. This Old Red is therefore not long enough to fit in all the furniture I’d planned to include. So I took some liberties. Those who have read The English Family Anderson will know that Old Red’s travelling days are over so Miranda suggested that they may well have removed the steering wheel and driver’s seat to give them more space. That makes sense doesn’t it?

I hope you enjoy the final how-to video which shows the creation of a table, two ottomans for seating (and which contain Brietta’s and Casey’s sleeping bags and bedrolls), and a wardrobe/cupboard for food, utensils, crockery, cutlery, a washing up bowl, and towels and stuff. There’s a folded blanket on top of the wardrobe and a basket of potatoes on top of that. Their few clothes are kept in the drawers under Mum and Dad’s bed. They use the great outdoors for washing and they’ve built a compost toilet out there too 🙂 So they’re all set.

I hope you’ll enjoy making your own camper-bus and I look forward to seeing pictures when you’re done 😀

ps: if knitting’s not your thing, you could always make one out of cardboard 🙂

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vegan, vegetarian, recycling, homemade, toys, model bus, handmade bus, crafts, knitting, needlework, handmade toys,

The Andersons’ knitted bus part five: The floor and the wheels again

November 30, 2016

By Violet's Vegan Comics

If you look back at Part 3 of the bus-making process you will see how I started work on the wheels and the floor. This is how I finished them:

It turned out after all that the toothbrushes weren’t quite long enough to use as a single axle between two wheels so I used four – one for each wheel.

First, by whatever means you have available, cut off the bristle end. Careful – watch your fingers!

Push a toothbrush into the centre of the wheel (see how to make the wheels in part 3) so that it reaches all the way through but doesn’t stick out further than the width of the wheel. Then hold a pen loosely against the other side of the wheel and mark a line across the toothbrush inside the inside edge of the wheel.

Then take the wheels back off and securely tape the toothbrushes to the underside of the bus floor (the card you have already cut out as shown in part 3) so that the pen marks line up with the edge of the card as shown above. The wheels won’t be exactly in line across the bus because each wheel has a separate axle but that doesn’t matter, you won’t be able to tell when it’s all finished.

Then turn the ‘floor’ over and stick some decorative paper to it. It can be anything you fancy – it’s going to be the Andersons’ lino floor. If you don’t have any decorative paper that you like you could draw/paint/print some tiles of your own design, either directly onto the card or onto a separate piece of paper that you then stick to the card. Just don’t get the card wet.

The paper I used wasn’t quite long enough to cover the very back of the bus floor (see above), but since I knew the bed was going to cover the back I decided it didn’t matter.

Get the bottomless bus and carefully turn it upside down. Be especially careful of the piece that sticks up at the front so as not to bend it – I made sure mine was hanging over the edge of the cushion the bus stood on. Position the bus floor like so ↑ and lay the knitted rectangle you’ve made (which is almost, not quite, the size of the floor – see part 3) across the top of it.

Put a couple of stitches in each corner to hold it in place …

… and then sew all the way round, stretching it in line with the bus ‘walls’ as you go. When you get to the wheel axles, just sew around them and keep going.

When you’ve done that, you can put the wheels back on 😀

And there you have it! 😀 Be gentle, those wheels will come off quite easily. And of course, if you’ve used toothbrushes like me, they won’t go round. But they will look nice and, after all, Old Red has retired now so she just wants to sit still 🙂

And there’s a nice new floor!

That’s it for now. Today I’m going to make a wood-burning stove out of this pill bottle ↓ I’ll tell you about it tomorrow 😀

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Click here for Part 6

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vegan, vegetarian, toys, homemade, crafts, needlework, knitting, sewing,

The Andersons’ Knitted Bus, Part 4: a bed for Mr and Mrs

November 29, 2016

By Violet's Vegan Comics

First you need a large, empty matchbox.

Find some decorative paper that looks like it would make good-looking bedding …

… and wrap up the matchbox like a birthday present. Then find another matchbox.

Measure it and mark the middle.

Take out the drawer and cut the insides and outsides in half.

Now you have two drawers. Put them back in. They’re going to provide the Andersons with under-bed storage space.

Cut out some more of the decorative paper and stick it to the front of the drawers.

Tape the drawers together, side by side, ….

…. and stick the ‘mattress’ on top of them.

Now you need some pillows:

Find a scrap of pretty material. Cut it, fold it (right sides together), sew it (leaving one side open), and …

… turn it right side out, stuff it with cut up bits of rag, or yarn or whatever soft stuff you’ve got lying around, and sew up the open side.

My bed still needed something more to make it cozy so I found this lovely beaded doily (the kind used to protect a glass of lemonade from flies at the picnic) and thought it would make a lovely bedspread.

And I knitted a little blanket for warmth.

Et voilà!

Now I must get the floor done!

😀

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Click here for part 5

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vegan, vegetarian, crafts, knitting, paper crafts, sewing, homemade, homemade toy, model bus, model furniture, children’s toys

The Andersons’ bus part three: some wheels, half a floor and a repetitive strain injury

November 28, 2016

By Violet's Vegan Comics

It’s perhaps not as cool as a sports injury but, when you’re too excited to pace yourself, a repetitive strain injury is just as inconvenient. I have been knitting for several hours a day for about two weeks with no ill effects but after making the bus’s wheels I had such bad shoulder pain that I had to take a break. It seems feeble because all I was doing was winding yarn around a cardboard circle, over and over – it’s not what you would call hard work. But there it is. I’ve been stopped in my tracks 🙂

This is what I’ve got so far:

I decided to make the bus wheels by cutting out cardboard circles which are a little bit smaller than the required (guessed) bus wheel size, cutting a smaller circle out of the middle of them, and winding yarn around them like you would if you were making pompoms. Unlike when you’re making pompoms, you only need one cardboard circle per wheel, and you stop winding just before you get to the centre, leaving a tiny hole in the middle for the axle.

The axles are going to be old toothbrushes which just happen to be a little bit wider than the bus.

I didn’t have any black yarn but decided that doesn’t matter – groovy people like the Andersons would probably enjoy having different coloured wheels 🙂

When I’d finished the wheels I needed a floor to attach them to. I’m no longer following the pattern so this is an experiment which I hope will work. I’m winging it.

I drew around the bottom of the bus on cardboard and cut it out.

Then I cast on enough stitches to cover about two thirds (or nearly three quarters) the width of the bus floor. I haven’t proved this works yet, but the knitting will naturally get wider than the cast-on row and I want the finished piece to be slightly smaller than the cardboard so that it has to be stretched taut to cover it. It remains to be seen whether I cast on the right amount of stitches to make it work.

dot dot dot 😉

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click here for Part 4

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vegan, vegetarian, crafts, knitting, paper crafts, sewing, homemade, homemade toy, model bus, model furniture, children’s toys

Andersons’ Knitted Bus – Part 2

November 25, 2016

By Violet's Vegan Comics

For Part 1 click here 🙂

Ok, on Wednesday I got as far as sandwiching the stiff card between the inside and outside of the two long sides of the bus, so on Thursday I did the same with the front and back ends:

As with the long sides of the bus yesterday, I drew around the knitted pieces on stiff card (tidy up the lines with a ruler) and cut out the insert. If you find, as I did, that your inside and outside pieces are not exactly the same size (due to one being made with slightly thicker yarn), then draw round the bigger piece and stretch the smaller one to match.

The green inside piece (above) came up smaller than the outside front of bus so I stretched it to cover the card as you can see. It’s a fiddly business. I found the best way to make sure your cardboard is the right shape and size is to sew together (wrong sides facing) two adjacent edges of the knitted pieces before inserting the card. Then slot the card into the corner you’ve sewn and stretch the knitting to meet at the opposite sides and pin them. If you find when you try to do this that the card’s just too big, or your window is too small, for the pieces to be sewn together around it, then you can pencil in the correct lines, unpin it, trim it and try again. Eventually you’ll get it all sewn nice and tight.

The front of the bus needed some finishing touches so …

… I drew some buttons and dials onto some of that gridded material they use for cross stitch which I happened to have some of (it’s amazing the stuff people donate to charity shops – Miranda picks up loads of discarded craft items from the Raystede Charity Shop where she volunteers).

Then I sewed it inside the front of the bus.

I did the same for the ‘Old Red’ sign and the number plate. After that I put together the back end of the bus.

You will notice that the back has more height above the window than the front. That’s because when it’s put together it folds over to make a partial roof. You’ll see what I mean when I put it together.

I thought these pretty, heart-shaped, wooden buttons would look nice under the window in Mr and Mrs Anderson’s bedroom 🙂 (If you read episode 3 of The English Family Anderson you will see what their bus interior looks like. The back end is a little bedroom for Mr & Mrs)

I had knitted the back number plate in the appropriate golden yellow colour so I didn’t want to cover it with a white or cream number plate (cross stitch material). So this time I just wrote the registration directly onto the knitting with a black felt-tip. You can’t read it but I think it looks like letters and numbers in the distance which are out of focus so I’m happy with it 🙂

All four sides done. Now it was time to put the bus together.

I began sewing with two adjacent pieces lined up together as above (NB – Miranda found some more bright red yarn after I’d finished knitting!). Then, when I was over half way up …

… I was able to stand the pieces up in their correct position, enabling me make the front piece follow the curve of the side piece. Again, don’t worry about neat stitching. Imperfections have their own charm and, don’t forget, this is an old bus which has probably been patched up plenty of times so it wouldn’t be authentic if it looked pristine 🙂

One at a time I sewed together all sides of Old Red. You can see below how the back piece folds over, above the window, and is sewn to the top of the back of the sides, making a partial roof. In the pattern from which this is adapted, the front also folds over but I wanted to keep my front upright because it has the bus name above the window. Plus I wanted there to be a bit more light in, and easier access to, the inside. I forgot to mention yesterday that I also slightly altered the pattern for the front of the bus to make the windows slightly bigger by making the vertical strut in the middle narrower (only 2 stitches wide instead of 4) so that it looked more like the front of Old Red in my illustrations.

Look – you can peek inside 🙂

Our Old Red is approximately 30cm x 15cm x 15cm, not including the name sticking up on the front.

Still to do:

Make and attach floor
Make and attach wheels
Sew a ‘door’ on the left side front
Make and insert furniture

So I’d better get on with that then 😉

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Click here for Part 3

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needlework, knitting, sewing, homemade, crafts, vegan, vegetarian, toys, homemade toys, model bus

Knit the Andersons’ bus!

November 24, 2016

By Violet's Vegan Comics

Click for Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Part 6, Part 7 and Denzel the dog 🙂

I found this fantastic pattern online and decided to have a go at adapting it to make The English Family Andersons’ bus 😀

The beauty of this pattern is that the bus can be played with inside and out. As I type, Miranda is making little people (the Andersons) to live in it 😀

So, I began with red for the outside of the bus …

… and then made another piece in multi-coloured yarn for the inside. The Andersons have decorated their home very colourfully so I did what I could, with the colours I had, to reproduce their bus interior.

I made the other outside and the other inside long side of bus and then made the front and back ends, inside and out:

I ran out of bright red yarn, so I had to finish the outside of the bus in the closest colour I had which was a sort of burgundy. I decided that it didn’t matter because the colour of old buses does fade 🙂 Of course at this point I am not following the VW camper design, I’m trying to make it look like Old Red.

The outside piece for the front of the bus includes the colours for the headlights, number plate, radiator and the bus number above the window.

So that was eight pieces done – four insides and four outsides. Then it was time to add some buttons 🙂

The Anderson’s bus has two headlights on either side so I sewed some white buttons in position for them. Unfortunately I don’t have any bright orange buttons for the indicators so I had to leave that for now. I might add those with yarn later.

I added some black stitches to the radiator. Then it was time to start putting it together.

To make the bus rigid, the campervan pattern provides templates to cut out pieces of plastic grid to fasten between the knitted pieces, however I decided to make these out of card. I flattened out a knitted piece as well as I could on some stiff cardboard, drew round it and cut it out. I didn’t cut out the individual windows, just one big window to go between the knitted windows. The knitted frames is all that’s needed to separate them. You’ll see what I mean. The cardboard inserts need to be sized so that the knitting needs to be stretched taut to cover them.

I pinned together the top and one end of the inside and outside of one side of the bus with wrong sides facing together. Then I sewed it.

Then I put the matching cardboard cut-out between them and stretched the knitting flat across it so that I could pin it in place at the bottom and opposite end. I finished sewing all the way round the outside and then around the window frames. I sewed the inside and outside knitting of the window frames together, tucking all loose ends inside, out of sight. As I’ve said before, I am not neat at needlework, but that doesn’t matter. It seems to work out somehow.

That’s all I’ve got so far but I’m looking forward to putting the rest of it together. Then I can get started on the furniture! I’ll keep you posted 😉

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Click here for Part 2

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homemade, knitting, crafts, handmade, toys, knitted toys, knitted bus, model bus, handmade toys, homemade toys, vegan, vegan comics, vegan children’s stories

Make your own Reflecto Girl doll

November 18, 2016

By Violet's Vegan Comics

Here’s how:

First, find a pattern. I used this one but there are plenty of others to choose from, including lots of free ones you can download. So, I won’t give you pattern details, you can just download whichever pattern you fancy and then make her look like Reflecto Girl. If you don’t know how to knit you can learn

Or, if you don’t want to do that, you can make a rag doll instead 🙂

Anyway, this is what I did:

As per the pattern, first I knitted the legs. I used DK (Double Knitting thickness) acrylic yarn from the bag of oddments in the attic – no need to buy anything new, and if you don’t happen to have lilac, I know Renée wouldn’t mind her outfit being a different colour.

Then I pinned and sewed the back of leg and top of foot seams

and stuffed them with cut up bits of an old cotton T-shirt (no need to buy stuffing – recycle all the way!)

Then I knitted the body. I thought Renée would like a pretty cream vest with a pink decorative stripe close to the bottom edge.

I sewed it, stuffed it and attached it to the legs.

Then I made and attached her head,

followed by her arms.

Then it was time to do her hair, which I was very much looking forward to. I started with the fringe by just sewing some gorgeous orange yarn into her head making sort of loops between the top of her head and her face, just above where her eyebrows would be.

Making her gorgeous long locks was quite time consuming but worth it. I sewed the yarn into the back of her head, alternating between a small stitch to hold the yarn in place and then a long loop which reached down her back. Then another small stitch, then another long loop. The stitches began at the top of her head and gradually covered the top three quarters of it so that she wouldn’t have any bald patches. When her scalp was covered I cut the loops so that she had thick, long hair.

Then I sewed on some eyes and ….

… some lips. I’m not a neat sew-er but that doesn’t matter, just have fun with it 🙂

Then I made her top (included in the pattern) and embroidered – if you can call it that 😉 – the Reflecto Girl logo on the front 🙂

And then of course she needed a mask! This is not included in the pattern so you’ll just have to make it up – you can do it! What I did, if you’re interested, is

cast on 70 stitches, using size 10 needles (3.25mm needles);
first row: back stitch;
second row: Purl 29 stitches, cast off 4, P2, cast off 4, P 31
third row: Knit 31 stitches, cast on 4, K2, cast on 4, K29
Cast off purlwise

Then I sewed in the ends of yarn and tidied up the eye holes with a couple of stitches sewn with the same yarn so they’re invisible 🙂

Yes, ok, I know it looks like a giant sleep mask, but if you look carefully you can see her little eyes through the holes. Come on, use your imagination 😉

And that’s not all –

she had to have her red Wonder Woman bag! Accessories are the best!

For this I cast on ….. oh, you know what, I can’t remember how many stitches or rows I did – basically you need it to be about this big against the doll. Knit a simple rectangle that can be folded and sewn into a bag this size. I attached a press stud so that it can be fastened.

Her bag has a picture of Wonder Woman’s face in a circle on the front – remember? Luckily I had a scrap of fabric with circles on, just the right size.

So I drew Wonder Woman’s face in the circle, cut it out and sewed it to the front of the bag 🙂

Oh, and I knitted a long handle to make it a shoulder bag. Three stitches, size 10 needles, stocking stitch (ie 1 row knit, 1 row purl) until it’s long enough for the doll to wear over her shoulder like so:

Now, Reflecto Girl wouldn’t be Reflecto Girl without her …

… Dounto! So I made one. It needed to be just the right size to fit in her bag 🙂

The card I used was quite thin so I cut out two to stick together and make the ‘mirror’ stronger.

On one side I drew round a smaller circle to make the mirror glass.

Then I added the Celtic-ish symbols and letters …

… and coloured it in 🙂

All done! Reflecto Girl has everything she needs to get the job done!

Let’s play!

Why don’t you make yourself a Reflecto Girl doll? There’s lots of fun to be had.

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Now, I need to make a Distracto Boy, and a Venus Aqueous, and a Megan and a Flos , oh, and an English Family Anderson! – it’s a good job I’ve got a big bag of yarn oddments 😀 It’s going to be a busy weekend 😉

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crafts, home made, knitting, toys, action figures, vegan, veggie kids, vegan superhero, things to make and do

Keeping warm with odds and ends

November 17, 2015

By Violet's Vegan Comics

You may remember I have already knitted a hoodie like this out of leftover and unravelled yarn but I gave that to Miranda so I needed another one. And this one only took me 2 months to make, which is a record for me!

Whilst this one is not made of unravelled yarn, I didn’t buy any new stuff because it’s made completely of other people’s leftovers. Quite a few balls had been given to us of various colours and thicknesses, and I spent a couple of pounds at charity shops buying a mixture of odd balls, so it has cost me next to nothing and I’ve made something useful out of stuff that was being thrown out. Win-win 😀

Ooh, it’s so lovely and warm 😀

Here is the pattern if you’re interested, although it’s rather messed up so I don’t know if you’ll be able to make sense of it.

I made mine really chunky by using 3 strands of DK (or whatever I had) so it came out bigger than the one on the pattern. Plus I made mine longer. So, with a pack-a-mac over the top on rainy days, I’ve got a homemade winter coat 🙂

The pattern came from this book Greetings from Knit Cafe by Suzan Mischer

Jean’s Saturday

October 1, 2015

By Violet's Vegan Comics

For the story so far, click here

Jean’s Saturday:

to be continued …

Knit your own Father Christmas

December 24, 2014

By Violet's Vegan Comics

A bonus of Miranda working at Raystede animal sanctuary‘s charity shop is that she comes across lots of useful things like old knitting patterns and left over yarn that people have donated, which she can then buy and make use of. And now you can make use of this one too 🙂

And I know you might be thinking it’s a bit late in the day to start making this – the day before Christmas! – but it’s only a couple of hours’ work Miranda says, so, if you want to do something with your hands while relaxing in front of that Christmas movie, this is it! 🙂

Now, bear in mind that Miranda is very much her own person, who isn’t one for following patterns too closely, so it’s no surprise that her Father Christmas doesn’t exactly look like the picture on the pattern. But he is very cute just the same:

Oh, and just in case you don’t know how to knit yet – these videos (for left and right handed) will solve that problem 😉

Remember I wanted a new hat?

July 13, 2014

By Violet's Vegan Comics

Remember I wanted to make a new hat

With the yarn from old hats I’d unravelled?

Remember I said Random Rose made a hat,

A beret with ridges she cabled?

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Well I followed the pattern that Rose kindly shared,

Though the yarn had lost elasticity.

The needles I used were not quite the right size,

But I wasn’t going to let that stop me.

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So I finished my hat and I’m pleased how it went,

Cream and purple go well together.

I admit it turned out bigger than it was meant,

For my head is decidedly smaller.

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As luck would have it, Miranda’s got a big head,

Though not the metaphorical kind.

So I decided to give it to her instead,

And I honestly really don’t mind.

I want a new hat!

April 29, 2014

By Violet's Vegan Comics

I want a new hat,

It’s as simple as that!

But I’ve got no money to buy one.

I know what I’ll do,

I’ve got old hats – two,

I’ll unravel to make a new one.

Rose shared a pattern,

A cool beret pattern,

Which I’ll use to make my new hat.

The purple from my sloppy

And the cream from my saggy

Hats will go great together for that!

Say it with knitting!

April 22, 2014

By Violet's Vegan Comics

Whether it be on your clothes, a cushion cover or a patchwork blanket – you can say it with knitting!

First of all decide what you want to write. Then make a plan.

You’ll need some squared paper which you can buy or make yourself. Each square on the paper will represent one stitch on your needle. So number the squares and then mark out whatever you want to write in knitting. Once you’ve worked out how many stitches wide your whole piece will be you can cast on in your background colour, and have your contrasting colour ready to use when you come to the stitches mapped out on your plan. As you change colours you just string the other colour across the back of the knitting ready to use next time that colour is required by your plan – you don’t cut – just keep changing between colours while keeping all yarns attached until you’ve completed your design.

It’s important to make sure you’re counting from the right direction so that your writing comes out the right way round. Look what happens if you don’t:

This should read NEVER TRUST A MAN IN A SUIT but the words A MAN have come out backwards because the stitches were counted from the wrong direction – ie On your plan, on a purl row the stitches should be counted from the left and on a knit row you count from the right. Let me show you what I mean.

In this picture the purl rows are indicated in purple and the knit rows in red. When you want to produce an image or writing on your knitting you have to remember you’ll be building from the bottom right. So, if you’re following your own pattern, starting the bottom line of your words with a knit row, you need to count from the right. For example, the first stitch for which you’d use a different colour in this example would be the 21st stitch of a knit row which is the tail of the G. Then, on the next row, the first purl stitch for which you’d use a different colour would be the 6th, for the bottom of the V.

Does that make sense?

So that’s it. Be a crafty activist and make your own outspoken jumpers, hats, scarves and blankets 🙂

Oh, and if you don’t know how to knit but would like to learn, here’s a really good video to get you started:

For the right handed:

For the left handed:

Re-knitting UPDATE

February 6, 2014

By Violet's Vegan Comics

The hoodie is done! See Re-Knitting in Things to make and do

Re-Knitting

September 9, 2013

By Violet's Vegan Comics

Knitting is a very enjoyable hobby as well as being a very useful skill. To be able to make your own clothes, toys and accessories is a brilliant way of being self-reliant and can also be eco-friendly.

As a vegan shopper you won’t want to buy wool or alpaca or silk, but as an eco-minded shopper you won’t want to buy acrylic. The problem is that organic, eco-friendly, natural yarns are very expensive.

So what do you do if you can’t afford the eco-stuff? Simple – you Re-Knit!

Browsing in charity shops and second hand shops you’re bound to find knitwear that is a pretty colour, but unattractive design. If you buy it, wash it and unravel it, you can re-knit that colour into something beautiful. It’s just another way to recycle, or upcycle if you like, and it’s very enjoyable and satisfying. Here are a few things we made with unravelled yarn and oddments:

This matching hat and mittens was made by acrylic yarn unravelled from 2 different machine-knit jumpers. The problem with unravelling machine-knits is that the yarn is cut at the end of each row, it's not continuous like with hand-knits. So the ends of the yarn had to knotted together as each row was unravelled. Quite tedious and time-consuming but it results in interesting balls of yarn which, when knitted together, produce a unique effect. Leaving the dangling ends of each knot untrimmed creates a shabby chic effect .

This matching hat and mittens was made with acrylic yarn unravelled from 2 different machine-knit jumpers. The problem with unravelling mass-produced machine-knits is that the yarn is cut at the end of each row, it’s not continuous like with hand-knits. So the ends of the yarn had to knotted together as each row was unravelled. Quite tedious and time-consuming but it results in interesting balls of yarn which, when knitted together, produce a unique effect. Leaving the dangling ends of each knot untrimmed creates a shabby chic effect .

Blanket made by sewing together little knitted squares

The yarn from these saggy old hats was unravelled and knitted into …

… this gorgeous beret

An enjoyable way to give new life to old knitwear and keep it out of landfill 🙂

Don’t know how to knit? No problem – watch this brilliant video:

And for the left-handed:

UPDATE:

I’ve just finished the hoodie I was knitting in the photo at the top. I wanted a warm chunky knit but didn’t have any thick yarn so this is knitted with 3 strands of unravelled DK acrylic; lots of different colours and oddments. It’s so soft and warm, like wrapping yourself in a blanket before you go outside. Now I’ve just got to find a zip for it 🙂

Further update:

I’ve just finished another one here and if you would like to make one yourself, the pattern is at the bottom of this post 🙂