The Knitted Sackboy is Finished!

Hi Everyone,

Just thought I’d let you know that I’ve finally finished the knitted Sackboy. He was really good fun to knit, I particularly liked the arms. He’s a little smaller than the pattern intended (the link for the pattern is on the previous post and on the yummy recipes page), but just as cute. Hope you like him!

The Knitted Sackboy

Love from theknittedcupcake x

Springtime Tulips

hello all, here is the second free pattern from theknittedcupcake!

claire's tulip

this pattern is for a crochet tulip and a tulip bud, complete with stems! All stitch names are the English version.
Using DK yarn and hook size 3.5mm-4mm
Open tulip flower:
Using yellow, make a loop around your finger and make 6dc into the ring – pull ring tight.
Work in a spiral and crochet 2dc into each dc (12dc)
Place a stitch marker in the front loop of the first of these 12dc
Next round – work only in back loop – (2dc into a dc, 1dc into a dc) repeat to end (18dc) Join with slip st into 1st dc of the round. Fasten off yellow.
To make the stamens, join in black and work on the WRONG side of the centre piece – slip stitch into both loops of the next 3dc, slip stitch into the centre hole)
 repeat 6 times, join in first slip stitch, fasten off black.
Join red into the front loop of dc with stitch marker in it.Chain 1 and work 12dc around circle into the front loops around the circle working over the black strands.
Continue working in a spiral.
(2dc in a dc, 1dc in a dc) repeat 6 times (18dc)
(2dc in a dc, 1dc in each of next 2dc) repeat 6 times (24dc)
(2dc in a dc, 1dc in each of next 3dc) repeat 6 times (30dc)
1dc in each dc around for next 7 rounds.
Petal round: (slip st into next stitch, 2ch, treble into next st, 1ch, double treble into next st, 1ch, treble into next st, 2ch, slip st into next st) repeat 6 times and fasten off (6 petals)

Tulip Bud
Using red DK yarn, make a loop around finger and make 6dc into ring.
Work in a spiral, make 2dc into each dc (12dc)
(2dc into a dc, 1dc into a dc) rpt to end (18dc)
1dc into a dc (18dc)
(1dc into each of next 7dc, dc2tog) twice (16dc)
(1dc into each of next 6dc, dc2tog) twice (14dc)
(1dc into each of next 5dc, dc2tog) twice (12dc)
(1dc into each of next 4dc, dc2tog) twice (10dc)
(1dc into each of next 3dc, dc2tog) twice (8dc)
(1dc into each of next 2dc, dc2tog) twice (6dc)
(1dc into each of next 1dc, dc2tog) twice (4dc)
Fasten off.
Finish off tulips with a 4stitch i-cord stem.

Hope you enjoy!
Claire x

New Year, New Knitted Sackboy!

Hi Everyone and Happy New Year. We hope that 2009 brings lots of lovely knitted things. We got some good books/knitting notions for Christmas and are looking forward to putting them to good use! Hope you all had a fantastic Christmas also. This blog has been slacking in the last month or so – we’re putting it down to the rush of the festivities – but it is our New Year’s Resolution to try harder in 2009 (I give it a week!).

I’m currently knitting a lovely ski hat with a spiral pattern in a charcoal and pink wool. It’s not a pattern of my own, you can find it on Ravelry, but I had to adapt it as the sizing was a little odd. It’s knitting up pretty quickly on a lovely pair of bamboo circular needles, but I’m really desperate to get it finished as I’m off skiing a week on Sunday! It’s done in two colours, which makes it really thick and warm. I made it in colours to co-ordinate with my skiwear, so I’m hoping the final FO fits ok!

This is the spiral ski hat in its early stages!

It’s actually nearly done now, but I’ll add a photo when it’s completed.

Another thing I’m really excited about knitting is Sackboy from PS3’s LittleBigPlanet! I played the game recently at a friend’s house and fell in love! For those of you who have no idea what I’m talking about, I’ll explain. LittleBigPlanet is a 3d game on the Playstation 3, which I won’t claim to fully understand, and you run around in a little world trying to solve puzzles with logic to progress. “You” are a little knitted creature – Sackboy -(although I think you can be a Sackgirl too), and you can dress up in different clothes which you collect as you progress in the game. It’s really cute. Anyway, the day before yesterday I woke up with a sudden urge to knit this creature! I did the usual searches for the pattern, but they were pretty useless and due to copyright etc. I couldn’t find a free copy. I frankly couldn’t be bothered to sit around writing the pattern.  However, I did notice that Alan Dart had written an ‘unofficial’ pattern in Issue 49 (January 2009) of Simply Knitting. I was upset to find out that this is generally sold out and that many knitters have been unable to obtain it. However,  happened to be in WHSmith the day before in my local town and had briefly picked up a copy of Simply Knitting. The free gift had fallen down to obscure the advertisement for the Sackboy pattern, or else I would have bought it there and then! So I frantically went back to town, hoping that no-one had bought it! Thankfully, they hadn’t and I secured the last copy!

Sackboy - how cute is he?

So, I’ve bought the zip and little buttons for his eyes and as soon as I finish my ski hat (hopefully later today if I get my act together and stop writing rambling blogposts) I am going to start Sackboy. I can’t wait! Has anyone else knitted a Sackboy? Please share your photos! Hopefully I’ll make some clothes for him if I have time. I also want to modify the pattern to make a smaller one.

EDIT – Simply Knitting have just teamed up with The Sun newspaper and released the Alan Dart Sackboy pattern for FREE download. I have checked and it is all authorised so anyone who’s been struggling to get hold of the pattern can get it from there! Just wished it’d happened a few days before!

Anyway, hope everybody has a fantastic 2009!

Lots of Love,

theknittedcupcake x