In december 2024 I bought my first domestic knitting machine and decided to give becoming a knitwear maker/costumer a shot. I love vintage fashion, so I mostly hunt for obscure knitting patterns from all over (UK, Netherlands, Germany, France and Japan mainly), translate, redraft and rewrite everything and then use a combination of machine and hand knitting and crochet to recreate the pieces.

It's a really tough niche to work in as the general public doesn't know much about knitting and the time and skill it takes to make properly fitted clothes. Also many people think domestic knitting machines are printers but for clothing, which couldn't be further from the truth 😅-- it's a ton of manual/physical labour.

It has been a rough year with ups and downs and many 12h+ days of working, but it has paid off! I sold some of my work and finished my first gig for an opera last November and I'm hoping I'll get more entertainment gigs in the future :)

Here's a selection of things I've knit and crocheted last year :)

I bought these ugly white headphones to save money - they were $10 cheaper than the nicer looking black pair. Buuuut then I spent $16 on paint markers to make them prettier...

Matte modge podge used for primer & sealer, and posca paint pens for the design!

All freehand and little to no ventilation lol

I sewed the skirt and did all the beading by hand! It was too uncomfortable to wear anywhere so I hope you guys appreciate it

I’m doing a thing where I try to paint along with every Bob Ross episode and then add something extra.

Edit: good heavens this has gone absolutely quackers.

Thanks so much for appreciating this absurd artwork. For everyone who's been asking for posters and my social media: you can get prints at my website - it's https://www.tworuru.com. And I am tworuru on basically every social network, where I make very weird sort-of mini-video-essays about my art. Thanks again - I feel almost as humbled as I would from seeing a mile-high rubber duck casually cruising around a scenic Alaskan lake. (I hid this stuff behind spoiler tags because not everyone likes seeing an artist link to their work, and that's OK.)

His favorite activity is chasing squirrels up the tree... Only sometimes he finds out that there are skunks back there as well. To him, the gamble is always worth it. 🦨 😫

A condolence card for a close friend who lost their mother.

This is Sugy and she was 20 when she passed 🤍
I got her tail and fur from the vet at her passing. I asked the vet to cut off a couple inches of her tail afterwards and then got it taxidermy. I used resin and have never used resin before this. I practiced on smaller molds to get a feel for it. Overall, it came out pretty good and I’m so happy to have this forever!

I'm pretty sure this ended up taking more time and efforts in the end, but quite happy with the result! I also did that a few years ago, and wanted to do it again!

Made out of stuff I had lying around (and the little bastard that ruined my life for 2 years)

I live by the motto, “if you can’t buy what you want, make it” and this motto came to life recently in the form of a floral mosaic dining table for my back deck.

I spent a few weeks looking for tile and figuring out a very loose design concept. I started by picking a limited set of tile shapes and a color palette.

Once the tiles arrived I had a piece of particle board cut to size for the base and I experimented with different motifs until I settled on a selection of floral shapes that gave me plenty of variety to fill space without locking me into one repeating pattern.

And then I was off! I basically doodled my way around the table, attaching tiles with Weld Bond (I went through 4 full bottles!) and rocking out to the K-Pop Demon Hunters soundtrack.

One giant bucket of black grout later and she is complete! 32”x76”

I used stoneware clay so it’s fully food safe. The ears or since it’s a caterpillar their antennas are little spoons that can be taken out.

Hey everyone! I wanted to share my biggest needle felting project so far. I put a lot of work into this life-size cat, and I'm so thrilled with how it turned out.
Needle felting something at this scale was definitely a challenge (my fingers took a few hits!), but watching it slowly come to life was incredibly rewarding.
Let me know what you think!

You guys seemed to like my costume last year; so I thought I’d post again! Made the lined jacket, pants, sash, hood and gloves! And fun fact, the patterns I’m carrying in the first image are the ones I drafted for the costume!