Crafty Books for Crafty Goths

Everyone knows goths love craft and DIY, but what happens when you need inspiration or want to learn a new skill? Why, you need gothy crafty books, of course! So here are my handy-dandy reviews of the ookiest, spookiest craft books in my collection.

If you knit, you need to own a copy of Domiknitrix by Jennifer Stafford. If you don't knit, but you want to learn, you need it too. Why? Well, it has probably the best instructional section I've ever seen, with an exhaustive 93 pages of directions, advice and tips all beautifully illustrated with large, clear photos. It's worth tracking down a copy for that alone. As for the projects, there's a mixture of jumpers, vests, coats and accessories that are fine for daily wear and street wear, quirky enough to be suitable for alternative folks but easy to dress down for trendier, more mainstream knitters. But be warned, Domiknitrix's "easy" or "beginner" patterns can be fairly tricky and take some concentration, this is not a book for those wanting very basic patterns. If you're learning, it might be worth buying the book for it's instructions and leaving the projects for a little later. If, on the other hand, you're a competent knitter looking for a real challenge, try your hand at the beautiful but murderous bonus pattern (which you can download for free if you've bought the book) though some experience knitters may be frustrated with the extent of the how-to section.

If you're looking for something simpler to start you off Punk Knits by Share Ross is worth a look. As you might expect from the title, the patterns are inspired by the DIY ethic of punk. Written by someone who clearly knows the scene, and illustrated with fun typography and cheerful pictures of tattooed rock'n'rollers wearing the finished projects, each pattern takes inspiration from a particular band or musician. As for the patterns themselves, there's a mixture of eye-catching ones (like the pixie shrug and a bold anarchy A pillow), to fun and quirky ones (like a giant felted top hat or soft but spiky dog collar choker), to some that are largely unwearable (knitted skirts... hmm). Definitely worth a look for beginners looking to spice up their knitting and full of quirky inspiration, but might be a bit too easy for more experienced knitters.

If you're willing to splash out the cash on some fairly pricey yarns, Pretty in Punk by Alice Benevides and Jaqueline Milles is a selection of 25 jumpers, bags, arm-warmers, scarves and (unfortunately) skirts, inspired by the punk, goth and mod subcultures. It's worth buying for the fantastic mohawk hats alone. The downside is that a lot of the patterns call for fairly good quality yarns to give the right effect, which kind of undermines the cheap and cheerful, DIY ethic of punk to me, but there you go.

If you fancy knitting yourself some new friends, Gothic Knits by Fiona McDonald is a charming collection of gothic and horror-movie-inspired knitted dolls. The patterns themselves are fairly easy to knit up, but you'll need patience and a little concentration to make up the dolls. Some basic embroidery skills will come in handy too. Still, the dolls are very cute; one looks suspiciously like Ollie Wisdom.

Another book that you just need, even if you don't use the patterns, is Anticraft by Renee Rigdon and Zabet Stewart. Based on the blog of the same name, it's a mixture of knitting projects, crochet pieces, with a bit of beading, sewing, cross-stitch and cooking thrown in, all interspersed with comic strips and fun asides. I love the humour of this book. The projects themselves are interesting and inspiring, including a duck tape corset, cross-stitch graffiti, crocheted fishnet gloves and a skirt inspired by the Wheel of the Year. The only downside, for me, is that I really need to learn to crochet.

If you want to try your hand at jewelry making, I recommend checking out Gothic Jewelry by Harriet Smith. Most of the projects are kitsch, deathrock-friendly pieces (ie a brooch that looks like it's bleeding, a necklace that says "Aaaargh!" in dripping B-movie font, and earrings inspired by Sweeny Todd) but there are a few more elegant, classically gothic designs there too (like a gothic cross, a lace corsage and a skull choker). However, what's best about this book is the sheer variety of different techniques it uses. It might get a bit pricey if you're planning on working your way through all of the projects in the books, you'll need a lot of different tools and media, but if you're a beginner it will probably teach you something new. It's one of those books that's more inspired by the subculture than coming from it, but not bad.

If you're looking for something you can use to make dinky, spooky gifts, Creepy Cute Crochet and Super Scary Crochet are both full of adorable amigurumi creatures that look adorable. No idea what the patterns are like, as I say, I haven't really gotten the hang of the craft but every time I stumble across a copy in a book store I wish I could. If you want to learn to cross stitch but want some more... unusual samplers, look no further than the hilarious Subversive Cross Stitch is full of mild looking samplers with ironic, snarky legends that are very very funny. Again, might be a bit too simple for experiences stitchers, but for a lacky like me, it's perfect.

Lastly, and not very gothically, Knits for Nerds is perfect for the geekier of us, full of patterns inspired by Star Wars, Star Trek, Firefly, Doctor Who and Lord of the Rings. Some of the fantasy-based patterns can easily be gothed up with a darker colour scheme and the nerdy goth will be pleased to know there are patterns inspired by the works of Neil Gaiman and Jhonen Vasquez too. There's also a cute little zombie doll and some stripy socks based on Tank Girl. Simple but a lot of fun.

Android Apps for the technologically minded pagan

Sorry I haven't posted for a while, I'm lazy.

So, as you may or may not know, I now have a job selling phones to people so I eventually bit the bullet and bought myself a smart phone (so called because it's slightly more intelligent than most of the people selling them!). It's an Android, by which I mean it's software is made by Google, not that it's a humanoid robot (I don't suppose I'd need a smart phone if I could carry Commander Data around with me).

I'm rambling. Anyway, being a flaky neopagan one of the first things I started looking for on the Google Play store was an app to help me out with my witchy goings-on and there's a surprising amount of useful apps out there. There's also an awful lot of terrible "love spell" apps and cheesy airbrushed wallpapers, but let's ignore those. So, since it's Midsummer and I'm feeling witchy, here are some of my android findings for all you techno-pagans out there.

First up, and probably the most handy I've found so far is Pagan Calendar. Run by those helpful people from the website of the same name, the Pagan Calendar app helps you to keep track of Celtic Fire Festivals, Celtic months, Graeco-Roman feast days, Asatru holidays, and a smattering of interesting anniversaries. You can either bring up a list of 20 or so upcoming events from all of the lists, or go through the full lists thematically. Clicking on an individual event tells you a bit more about it. It's pretty much all text so it uses absolutely minimal data. The only downside is, as it's an American site, you might have to do a bit of maths to fit it to your locality.

For those who are looking for some simple on-the-go divination, Galaxy Tarot isn't exactly as in depth a tarot reading you're ever going to get but it loads and runs quite smoothly. The free version has a single card mode, three spreads and a "browse" mode where you can have a look at the full deck. It uses the Rider Waite deck and gives some basic interpretations. Not particularly detailed, but not bad for a free app and handy for divination while commuting... or whatever. You also have the option to turn on reversed readings, a "card of the day" widget for your home screen, and a cute shuffling animation (you can shake your phone to shuffle the cards! Eeee!)

For more fortune-telling goodness, Divination - Rune of Odin is a nice, if simplistic, rune app. There are loads of rune apps on the marketplace, but most are very slow or just send you to a website. Rune of Odin still isn't exactly the quickest app in the world, but it runs better than the other free apps I've tried for this. You only have the option to draw one rune in the free version, but the interpretations are pretty detailed (and, comparing with my books, fairly accurate, unlike some) so with a bit of thought it's fairly easy to find an answer to your queries from it.

Now for some more practical apps. First up, Simple Moon Phase Widget. This thing is so handy. The app itself gives you a chart of the upcoming moon phases on a day-by-day basis organised like a calendar, plus there's a discrete main-screen widget that shows what the moon will look like that night. Plus you have the option to switch between the northern and southern hemisphere (handy if you travel, and doubly handy for ensuring your phone is giving you the right info).

The last two apps I'm going to mention here aren't specifically for pagans, but they do come in handy. Tiny Compass is so called because it doesn't take up much space and it's really useful for on-the-go circle casting and spellcrafting (you know, for those fussy spells that insist on you facing east and chanting or what-have you) or if you just can't remember whether your room is south facing.

Last up, and a bit on the silly side, is Candle Free, a digital candle. Stupid, yes, but useful for emergency spells, for places that don't allow naked flames, and for those annoying landlords that don't allow candles. It's not very bright, but being able to blow out the fake flame by blowing into the mic is a cute touch. Oh, and you can change the colour of the flame to bright green or dark blue or dayglo pink if you really want to.

I'll leave you with something irrelevant to phones, but fitting for the season; a video of pagan folk band Omnia, who you might remember me mentioning after last year's M'era Luna (they were the ones with the telescopic didgeridoo)

EDIT:

I have a few more discoveries I thought I'd share with you. Pagan Radio Basic allows you to stream from the Pagan Radio Network, a lovely online station that plays pagan-friendly music by people like Omnia, ASP, Inkubus Sukkubus, Corvus Corvax, Unto Ashes, Tanzwut and Dead Can Dance, with a lot more besides. The free version of the app allows you to stream a low quality version but there's also a paid app that'll let you have something a little clearer. The app itself is fairly basic, you can check the station's schedule and browse frequently played songs. There's a bit that's supposed to tell you what's playing, but I haven't seen it change in the few weeks I've been using it. The musical choices are excellent, however, perfect background noise for ritual work, spells or just reading your favourite myths.

Galaxy Tone, who made the Tarot app I talked about earlier, have also made a healing crystal encyclopedia Galaxy Crystals Lite and a Rune app, Galaxy Runes Lite. Again for both of these there are paid versions that add a few more crystals and spreads respectively. I'll be honest I haven't used the crystal one much, but the rune one I find myself using daily thanks to a daily rune widget you can put on your main screen. Simple readings but great for familiarising yourself with the elder futhark. As with the Tarot app there are plenty of settings to fiddle with: you can choose whether or not to include the modern "wyrd" stone and whether you want to include reversed readings. 

Palm Reading is effectively a "little book of palm reading", but not bad for beginners or those wanting to show off at parties.

The Night Sky Lite is a handy app that uses your phone's GPS and date systems to show you what constellations are in the sky around you (even during the day, just to confuse things). Interesting and useful for direction-specific ritual work.

eChing Lite is a cheeky modernised version of the I-Ching. The hexagrams are designed to look like the little Android mascot and have basic, easy-to-understand readings.

Lastly, Pocket Voodoo is a fun little app for venting your frustrations without hexing someone. It's a virtual voodoo doll which you can toss about, pull apart and impale. If you're willing to follow some adverts, you can unlock further bits an pieces, like a gun, a cigarette lighter and customisable features to add to the doll. It also has some spells that you can supposedly use with the doll. Completely pointless but oddly gratifying.