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| This is the owner's own wonderful drawing of Blixten |
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| Wheels with red centres |
I got a message from Carl, who says he is a Swedish hippy! Could I make a knitted version of his hippy bus - Blixten? (Blixten means Flash in Swedish, which is also the name of my cat, who I now call Blixten sometimes if she is dashing around.) But I digress, Blixten is an old Opel Blitz van from 1968, turned into a camper van - or "hippie bus".
I was up for the challenge, and I have been working on it all week,. I thought it would be fun to show you in photos some of the process. You can also see lots more photos of the real van and family on Blixten's very own blog. They are clearly in love with Blixten, and have a lot of fun family trips. The inside is really cool too.
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| Planning out the side panels on grid paper |
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| Side panels knitted |
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| Knitting a central panel - front, base and back of van |
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| Starting to come together, with icord for the thick red stripes and embroidery for the thinner one |
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| The front wheels have rims also made from icord |
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| Some more detail on the back doors |
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| Side view with the roof and wheels added |
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| This was one of the hardest parts to knit. The ledge and back bumpers |
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| The back is complete, and the air vents have been added on top |
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| My favourite view is the back, because of all the details |
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| The front also needed details: bumpers, lights and numberplate |
All completed - I am now off to mail the van to Sweden.
Carl has said he will send me a photo of the two vans together - real and knitted, which you can see here.
Carl has said he will send me a photo of the two vans together - real and knitted, which you can see here.
You have amazing talent. So much detail! I'm sure Carl will be delighted when he receives his knitted van. I'm looking forward to seeing the photo he sends you.
ReplyDeleteMy Saturday Snapshot post features Dungeness Spit.
Wow. I think you can do anything. What a wonderful van.
ReplyDeletehttps://readerbuzz.blogspot.com/2017/08/an-author-and-fan-dav-pilkey-at-bookexpo.html?m=1
cool! First I wondered what that was all about. :) I live in Sweden, but then I undertood. :) Would be cool to see the image of the two :)
ReplyDeleteThat looks like a lot of hard work!
ReplyDeleteHi! I am the owner of the original bus, and now also of the miniature varsion of it. And yes, I was very excited when I opened the package, and I have already shown the lovely, knitted hippie bus to several of my friends, and they are all amazed.
ReplyDeleteSo many smiles and laughs - very, very good job!
And being an artist myself, I can truly appreciate the art of others, and this little soft, knitted van was received very, very positively.
Thanks!
This is so cool. I love seeing a little bit of the process too.
ReplyDeleteThanks so much for sharing the photos of the process, really wonderful! thanks for sharing on craft schooling Sunday, and so happy that you are now making so many folks happy with your knitted versions of their beloved cars!
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