Green Doodle - Star Blanket

os3677
Apr 28
8 min read

Updated: Apr 30

This time around I wanted to talk about a very specific and niche subject, because I wanted to get it off my chest...

Make-Up

The inspiration behind this make-up look was something I have been wanting to do for a very long time. When I am bored in my spare time I draw doodles, which I'm sure have a term that I haven't discovered yet but I just call them doodles, and they help me hyperfocus on something if I need to be listening out carefully. I had done an initial sketch, on Pinterest I found a face template which I can use to draw on the make-up look and finalise the arrangement of it. This definitely helped as when I sat down to do my make-up, initially I forgot I made the sketch and struggled to get a start on it, so thankfully the sketch enabled me to complete my look faster. Looking back on it now, it almost looks like a zombie costume... Whatever the case may be, I like that everybody can have their own interpretation of what the make-up look is meant to be.

To execute this look I just used facepaint and usual make-up stuff, like black eyeliner and white waterproof liner for the dots, and I used fake lashes to pull this look together. To make sure that this stays I use a grip primer in order for anything to stick to my face and not fall apart the second I leave my house, and I use powder to set everything in and so that my base is not sticky. Powder in make-up is like using top coat for your nails, it seals everything in and gives it a barrier between the environment and the masterpiece.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F9n4EgfLNeE

Overall, quite happy with this look! I like how extravagant and unique it looks, and I would totally do it again. The only thing I am not happy with is the non-white colour, as I wanted the exact green I had done for the sketch, but I just did not have the facilities or skill to recreate it, and instead came out with a colour that reminds me of Frankiestein from the Monster High dolls. Next time I would prepare my colours beforehand and practice colour theory more in advance.

Video Topic

For this video I wanted to talk about a topic which I am also passionate about, aside from make-up - a specific blanket crochet pattern. As I was making another blanket from the patterns made by Betty McKnit, in particular her video tutorials on Youtube for the set-up rounds, I discovered that her famous "6-Day Star Blanket" pattern is called the 6-Day Star Blanket, because that is how long it took her to make the baby size version of any of her blankets. The name of this pattern was misleading, as when people heard about it we all assumed that this means the blanket was achievable to make in six days, and if you know crochet this was peculiar news. To test the pattern of Betty's star blankets, people started vlogging their journey whilst making one and trying (emphasis on trying) to complete the blankets in six days, almost making this a viral challenge.

The name of the 6-Day Star Blanket comes from a previously viral pattern of McKnit's, the 6-Day Kid Blanket. Betty McKnit on her blog says that the 6-Day Star Blanket is a variation of the Kid Blanket, which is why it had kept its "6-Day" hook. Despite Betty claiming on her blog "And yes, most crocheters can complete a blanket in only six days." I think this is still a misleading name, as most people are not aware that the 6-Day came from a kid sized blanket pattern, and not an adult size. Plus, "most crocheters" have jobs on the side, responsibilities, and it is only possible to do an adult sized star blanket in six days if they are doing NOTHING BUT CROCHETING every hour they are awake. I wanted to raise a point for those also still interested in the star blanket, despite it going viral over a year ago, so that they are not disappointed like I was when I reached day 6 and was nowhere near done with the blanket.

I think I covered the topic as much as I could, as this is just a simple misleading name and addressing the nature of it. However, I do wish that before going to record my video I had done a bit more research on Betty McKnit's blog, because I thought I knew enough to be able to roll with it, but looking back now I think I would have had a more successful topic if I had written down notes.

Recording

For this particular day I had finally used the Insta360 I rented out from Media Services alongside the DJI Wireless Mics, and since it was a nice day out I decided to sit at Christ's Pieces. I chose to sit behind a big tree as I felt too anxious sitting infront of it, looking out to the entire park and the entire park being able to see me, and this way I would not be too anxious to record and be able to successfuly make a video. I had also made sure that this time I did record my feelings, like when people were passing by and I knew they were staring, so I added commentary like "There's people staring at me"; pretty self-explanatory. I took my time with talking to the camera, as I did not prepare any notes and was just going off of memory so I did not want to have to cut out a lot of errors in post-production. Considering that it was a pretty windy day (I kept adjusting my hair as it kept sticking to my make-up), the microphone quality held up really well, as I made sure to add the wind muff for its sole purpose. I like to add the wind muff to every recording as I think it makes the microphone look better anyway.

I had asked a friend of mine if they would be up for body doubling me (body doubling is a method to complete a task involving a physical presence of someone who shares their goal) during another video I wanted to record, and they said yes! So, after their shift we met up and set up, went outside... and we got stopped. Not by the police, but by a homeless man. Whilst we were setting up he stopped us to ask something along the lines of "What's that on your face?", but since his demeanor wasn't uptight I replied with "I don't know! I woke up like this", and this sparked a 30-minute long conversation. He was talking to us about all sorts of things, and it was really interesting to hear about his life and how much he was struggling. At some point he noticed that we had microphones and a camera, and asked what we were doing, so I answered that this was for a university project, and he wanted us to record him and introduce him to the world. It was lovely chatting to him and getting some extra content on the side, but as I'm writing this I have decided to not edit or post the video with him as he talks about stuff which were not of happy manner and had to do with his court date which involved his family, and I just do not want to risk getting inbetween with a stranger I just met, despite him giving us consent on camera. I understand that taking risk is what this is all about, but I do not want to possibly get in legal trouble, nor get my university or lecturers into trouble either.

After we said bye to this lovely man, we headed off into town! Our plan was to walk around Cambridge Central for a bit, and eventually end up in a pub to record our chat and see what we come up with! I hooked us up to the microphones, and off we went around the back of the market by King's College whilst talking our hearts out. We ended up passing by a restaurant that one of my friends from college works at, and asked if we should stop by here instead. We went inside, ordered our pints, and sat down at the table. I set up the camera so it was recording the two of us sat next to each other, and this angle was specifically inspired by a recent video I watched made by Jack Manifold and AverageHarry, where they went to the Chinese DisneyLand and tried to drink as many beers as possible (quite funny), and I liked the way they recorded theirs, so why not for us!

We got a load of footage, 45-minutes worth may I add, and this was more than enough for me. We wrapped it up after I noticed the camera was really hot, which tends to happen with such little cameras with such little batteries. Looking back on the footage of us I could definitely split the video up into different parts depending on what we talked about, but I am going to do that later before I commit to it.

Editing

I got to first editing the Star Blanket recording as this one was going to be quick and easy, just a repetition of my first video. I lined up the audio and video clips, then used the "Pre-compose" tool to make it be one timeline which I could work with easier. However, the video clip itself was in 3072 x 2304 dimension, meaning that it was not a perfect square or a rectangle and because my face was covering up most of the frame, I had decided to pre-compose the video in 2000 x 1920, making it a square. If I had made it a horizontal rectangle, I do not think many people would want to watch it as it would appear smaller on a vertical device, resulting in less engagement with my video. Nevertheless, everything editing wise I did in my previous video applies to this video, with all the comedic zoom-ins and cutting out long pauses and loud breaths. I also did the captions in the same exact way as my previous video, and to not repeat myself any more I will keep doing the same settings for the captions for each video going onwards.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=34rSpjDsl_A

Overall, I think I am starting to get the hang of this! I am very happy with this edit, I think especially because it is about a topic I am passionate about. If I had done things differently, it definitely would have been to prepare notes in advance, but other than that I am pretty happy with this outcome!

Quick sidenote, as usual I have added some extra text in TikTok itself and I added a title to the video, same idea as my first video basically.

Uploading to TikTok

Now here comes the part everybody's waiting for, the caption of the video! I kept it simple just as the other one, and used more relevant hashtags, like #crochettiktok , #bettymcknit , and #universitystudent. I have also taken the initiative to make my own hashtag out of the username, so #creatureonstreet was born! I had one more hashtag to use up, and I think I must have been feeling peculiar and used #randomcontent , because essentially it is random content.

I have also started to take advantage of the location feature when uploading TikToks. Some people online use it to just have a funny name appear above their name, because some locations on Earth are unserious, but the main feature of this is simple. If we put down that the location our video was recorded in was Cambridge, then our content will get pushed to the algorithm of local people, gaining a wider audience for our account! I will keep using this feature as I do think it adds another benefit, and that being that if somebody wants to know what kind of people you could expect in Cambridge, or if someone wants to know if there are content creators in Cambridge, they can check this way!