Bayou Arcana's One-Eyed Raccoon

Here he is, my knitted rendition of the One-Eyed Raccoon from the much-anticipated Southern Gothic graphic novel Bayou Arcana. Ol' One-Eye is going to be at the Bristol Comic Expo May 12th - 13th if you fancy meeting him in the the knitted flesh along with Bayou Arcana's creator Jimmy Pearson.


I based One-Eyed Raccoon on Sara Dunkerton's original concept drawings from Bayou Arcana and started off by knitting him as she had drawn him: a scrawny, half-dead fella. What looked great on the page just didn't work out in knitting. Cue much unravelling of yarn and a bit of a think.


In the graphic novel, One-Eye is a dead raccoon whose body is possessed by a malevolent demon who is taking his final breaths and needs to find a new home for his evil spirit. So, I decided to knit him as a cuddly plush toy who had the misfortune to have the same experience, keeping Sara's original touches of the missing ear, wounds, and tail hanging off by a bone.

I worked out a method of unravelling the knitting to make gaping wounds without the whole raccoon falling to pieces, and here is the end result.

I do often feel sorry for fictional bad guys. I sit there watching Die Hard, thinking "Poor Hans Gruber, he must have had an awful childhood". I felt the same for this poor raccoon who had his corpse reanimated for such evil purposes: he didn't choose this to happen, it wasn't his fault. I think this comes across in my knitted version. One-Eyed Raccoon: evil through and through and stuffed full of bad intentions but you can still see the fluffy creature he was before the bad times began.

Long John Silver

Here is Long John Silver as played by Eddie Izzard from the Sky TV production of Treasure Island. He's a one-of-a-kind custom order with a bright pink parrot, rather than the red macaw from the TV show.


I'm starting to think that maybe all pirates should have a pink parrot. In fact I'm feeling rather sorry for any buccaneers who have to put up with anything less. Pink parrots for all!


Long John Silver was great fun to knit: the first time I've ever attempted anyone with one leg + Eddie Izzard is my second-favourite comedian = knitted pirate win.

Mabel Lucie Attwell knitting patterns

After yesterday's post about 1920s baby and maternity wear, Marigold (from Mellow Fruitfulness blog) pointed out that the illustrations were very similar in style to Mabel Lucie Atwell, and she also told me that Atwell had designed knitting patterns for Jaeger. And here is one! Children's Woollies, published circa 1925, featuring Atwell's Jaeger Twins on the cover.

Originally part of Leach's Sixpenny Knitting Series, this hard-to-find pattern is now worth slightly more than sixpence. A copy had been sold at Bloomsbury Auctions this year as part of a small collection of children's books for £400. Better start saving, or praying to the Jumble Sale Fairy...

Chadds of Lowestoft 1973 catalogue

Here is a rare glimpse into a world of 1970s acrylic wonder - the Chadds of Lowestoft yarn catalogue. With a vintage knitting pattern, you can only see the colours that the stylists chose to use for their cover photo, but this catalogue reveals the whole range of shades available to a 1973 knitter equipped with needles, knitting bag, and the Chadds Knitting For Leisure book.

You may want to put on some sunglasses now, before going any further.

Here we have a selection of colours available in Bri-Nylon Super Crimp (100% nylon). I think my favourites are Orangeade and Clematis.


Carlton Tricel Nylon (70% Tricel, 30% Nylon) sports an equally colourful rainbow of man-made colours:

Hopton 4 Ply (60% Courtelle, 40% Nylon) is probably the most vibrant of all, with Peacock and Signal Red still zinging off the page despite their age:


Babies, however, had to make do with this wishy-washy selection of pastel shades, in either 100% Cortelle ("wears and washes well so that any baby looks a dream") or in 100% Bri-Nylon ("for the mum who really cares"). Maybe the fear was that brighter colours would keep babies awake at night. They can progress on to Orangeade and Clematis when they are older, and stronger.

One point of local interest for me is that the happy bowlers on the cover are strutting their stuff in a bowling alley in Worthing, West Sussex - my home town. You can just make out posters for Supreme Fours, Worthing, and Ambassador Lanes, Worthing, behind young Hermione Granger, here.

Jane Austen costume drama dolls

One for the Sense and Sensibility fans - here's my Colonel Brandon doll, accompanied by Marianne Dashwood. Both are for sale in my Etsy shop - you can see more photos of them there, too. I'm thinking of working on more Jane Austen and costume drama characters in the future. The costumes are just so much fun to knit up.

If you're an Alan Rickman fan, you may also like my Severus Snape doll, who you can visit over at the Slytherin House Knitting Club, along with my Lucius and Draco Malfoy, Voldemort, and Harry dolls. You can buy patterns for all of the Harry Potter dolls from ye olde Etsy shoppe.

Alarmist knitting advert

A scare-mongering knitting ad from the 1950s, warning mothers that spring is not all sunshine and daffodils. Don't put those winter woolies away just yet, mother! In fact, you'd better knit a pram set or two - "knit one now just as a precaution against these early Spring cold spells, put it away during the Summer, and when you bring it out in September it will still fit baby the whole Winter through!"

Either babies didn't grow as quickly in the 1950s as they do now, or that is one stretchy baby outfit. A rather desperate attempt by Bairns-Wear to encourage a frantic burst of knitting activity before the traditional summer lull.

More French knitting larks

Always after more ideas about what to do with French knitting - a bag, and a stick for Lucius Malfoy have been two recent discoveries. I like this project from Blue Jeans, May 1981, which is "a super-easy way to brighten up an old, fluffy jumper" - make a length of French knitting using random coloured wool and then stitch loosely into place for a custom jumper. They've also used a length of French knitting braid as a hair band for the model.

French knitting bag

Anyone who has ever dabbled in the art of French knitting will tell you that the problem is not learning how to do the knitting itself - it's fun and easy, and a great introduction to yarn crafts for young children. No, the big problem is knowing what to do with it afterwards.

French knitting creates a long, long knitted tube. You can curl it round and sew it up to make a place mat or coaster, but that's hardly inspiring stuff for a young French knitter. I used to make worm cosies, which were just colourful lengths of tube. Sadly, I could never pursuade a real worm to use one.

A 1979 edition of Penny comic comes up with this inspired idea of making a French Knitting purse - a really keen French knitter could make a momentously long tube and create a shoulder bag. Now that's something a bit more exciting than a coaster, especially if you decorated it with beads and sequins, or buttons, or...

If you've never tried French Knitting, Penny also provides easy to follow instructions, below:


Traditionally, French Knitting "dollies" or "knitting nancies" were made out of old wooden cotton reels with four nails hammered into them. These days, cotton reels are made out of plastic, so this little bit of fun has been taken away from us by our society's obsession with petrochemicals. Great. There's no need to go out and buy an expensive ready made French Knitting dolly, though.

There are wonderful ways to make a knitting dolly out of Smartie tubes, toilet rolls, or an old table leg. Visit www.waynesthisandthat.com, www.allfreecrafts.com and www.how-to-knit-guide.com for instructions and inspiration. You may be able to find a second-hand wooden cotton reel, or try drilling a hole through the middle of a small length of thick wooden dowelling from a hardwear shop. Make your own recycled knitting nancy and let me know how you get on...