Blixten - A Swedish Hippy Bus

This is the owner's own wonderful drawing of Blixten

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.

Planning out the side panels on grid paper

Side panels knitted

Knitting a central panel - front, base and back of van

Starting to come together, with icord for the thick red stripes and embroidery for the thinner one

The front wheels have rims also made from icord

Some more detail on the back doors

Side view with the roof and wheels added

This was one of the hardest parts to knit. The ledge and back bumpers

The back is complete, and the air vents have been added on top

My favourite view is the back, because of all the details

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.

Wedding Anniversary Bus

I am always a bit thrilled when I have a sale from my Etsy Shop, but also sometimes feel a twinge of sadness when posting off something that I have spent time creating. Very silly, I know. 

But when I got a message recently asking if I could personalize one of my London buses as a Wedding Anniversary gift for seven years, I was really delighted. Seven years is traditionally associated with either copper or wool. I don't think I have ever made something that has been an anniversary gift before. My photo has not quite caught that the number on the front is a 7. 

"What a wonderful, thoughtful husband."  I keep saying this within earshot of my own husband, hoping he might be inspired for our next anniversary.

Keyrings for Christmas

Although I am not doing any craft fairs this year (huge way to reduce stress in the run up to Christmas) I did think I should add a bit of stock to my Etsy shop. You may have already seen my caravan keyrings, which have been popular, but I thought that handknitted car keyrings would be even better. After all more people own a car than a caravan.

And if perhaps you drive a bus, you also need somewhere handy to put the keys for that!

So these keyrings are for sale in my Etsy shop. I also offer to personalise them by adding an embroidered name to the felt back. Or if you fancy making your own keyring then the pattern is available in all the usual places. It includes the instructions for all three keyrings that you see here: caravan, car and bus. They are a great way to use up those oddments of wool that you have left over.

London Routemaster Bus

Finally, my new pattern is done. This really has been a labour of love. I have spent so much time thinking about buses, looking at vintage routemaster buses, and writing up the pattern that I am probably going to do something fairly simple and from someoneelse's pattern for my next knit. 

I had the idea to knit a vintage London bus after my trip at the end of last summer to a Vintage Bus Rally, as well as a school visit to the London Transport Museum. But even more so than ever, the details had to be just right. The windows and doorways had to be as close to the original as I could get. These buses can still be seen in London, but have mostly been replaced by the modern version. It also had to have the little platform at the back, so you could naughtily stand holding on to the pole and jump on or off between stops.

You will see that I have knitted two buses. One was the my prototype, but then I always feel I must test my pattern out a few times. (I will probably knit another soon, but at the moment I am completely bused out.) The No 9 was my regular bus to work, when I lived in Hammersmith and worked near The Aldwych. I spent a lot of time on the No 9, reading a book or gazing dreamily at Hyde Park or the shops in Kensington High Street. So that one is for me, and the other was meant to remind my husband of his route to work when he first came to London, from Kensal Green to Aldwych on the No 6.
 

The pattern is available on ravelry, Craftsy and Etsy. I have to say this is not a knit for the faint-hearted. The pattern is eleven pages long. Only attempt it if you really like colourwork. There are charts for the side panels and back and front sections, which I think are fairly easy to follow. I have also written out fully the details for each row, though I think if you fairly experienced you could just work from the charts.

 
I have left the advertising panels at the sides blank. I was very tempted to embroider the words Ginx Craft, but these buses are chugging off to my Etsy shop with the offer that I will embroider on whatever the buyer wishes. So here for now are a few more photos of my London buses.