Noel noir

Bracelets made of vinyl records. Purses crafted out of duct tape. Beer cozies knit with leftover yarn.

From humble beginnings three years ago, the Bazaar Bizarre has taken off -- outgrowing its cramped digs in Somerville, spawning versions in Cleveland and LA, and inspiring a major publisher to commission a book.

The Bazaar will open Dec. 11 in Cambridge's Central Square YWCA with guest DJs, punk rock aerobics, and a fashion show of recycled clothing, in addition to zany handcrafts.

And yes, Sleazy Santa will be there. Fairgoers can have a Polaroid taken with him and his Naughty Elves for $3. No charge for his lecherous chatter.

"It's more like a happening," said Dave Sakowski, a fair organizer who makes bowls out of vinyl records, handbound notebooks out of album covers, and refrigerator magnets out of magazine ads from the 1950s and '60s.

On Saturday, Cleveland will host its first Bazaar Bizarre, organized by a fair aficionado who used to live in Cambridge. On Dec. 12, Greg Der Ananian will launch the second annual Bazaar Bizarre in LA. At last year's fair, a literary agent suggested he write a book.

"I was, like, discovered," said Der Ananian, who quit his day job when he landed a hefty advance from Viking after several publishers submitted bids.

The book, due out next September, features interviews with Bazaar Bizarre crafters and instructions for do-it-yourself projects. The most frequently mentioned "favorite crafty celebrity"? Why, Martha Stewart, of course.

Last year, Leah Kramer of Brookline launched craftster.org, a Web community for crafty hipsters. With 15,000 registered users, the site offers forums, a classifieds board, and a photo gallery of members' most recent creations.

In October, Kramer, Alpen, Sakowski, and two other Bazaar Bizarre devotees opened Magpie on Huron in Cambridge so they could have a place to sell their wares year-round. The shop features crafts infused with a pop sensibility and vintage kitsch from the 1950s and '60s.

"Sometimes I think traditional crafts are too perfect and too precious," said Emily Arkin of Somerville, a Magpie co-owner and fair cofounder. "I'd rather see something edgy and fast and loose."

Arkin turned a guitar into "the Game of Rock." Players of the board game scramble to avoid setbacks like a blown amplifier or a band member going into rehab.

Corinne Gill, who knits beer cozies out of leftover yarn, said, "For me, a lot of it is a desire to create something original and unique in a world that's very mass market."

She used to wear mittens to keep her hands warm while drinking a beer on cold days, but beer spilled all over them. "I thought, 'What if I made a mitten specifically for my beer?' " she said.

A skull-and-crossbones cozy is her best seller.

"It keeps your hands warm and makes you look stylish," said Gill, who moved from Somerville to Brooklyn but plans to return for the fair.

Frigid temperatures also inspire Ivy Glass of Jamaica Plain. She makes hats and scarves out of recycled sweaters.

"The only way to get through winter in Boston is to have cool stuff to wear when it's cold," she said. For the Trash Fashions show at the fair, she will model a dress she made out of strips of old sweaters.

"The quality is a little bit hit or miss, but that's part of what I like about it," said Bazaar Bizarre publicist Simone Alpen.

The Bazaar Bizarre began on a whim. As Der Ananian tells the story, one evening in the fall of 2001 as he, Alpen, Arkin, and other friends knitted and cross-stitched, he said, "Wouldn't it be kind of fun if we had a punk rock craft fair?" They picked a date, rented the Dilboy VFW hall in Somerville's Davis Square, and signed up 20 friends to sell crafts.

"We knew a lot of people with DIY [Do It Yourself] spirit," Arkin said. To publicize the fair, she and Der Ananian used e-mail lists from their bands -- The Operators and Pretty Pony, respectively. A half-hour after the doors opened that first year, the hall was so packed you could barely move, Der Ananian said. The fair has grown each year, broadening its clientele from 20- and 30-somethings in the indie music and comic book scenes to parents with young children and women in their 50s buying Alpen's learn-to-knit kits.

Last year, fairgoers lined up around the block.

"I was amazed that people were just happily standing in line to get into a craft show," Arkin said.

This year the fair is moving to quarters twice as big as the Dilboy. Seventy vendors -- twice as many as last year -- were selected out of 150 applicants. Looking ahead, Arkin and Sakowski want to take the show on the road. Sakowski imagines a convoy of Airstreams crisscrossing the country, hooking up with local crafters. Both want to make the Bazaar Bizarre happen more often than once a year.

"Hopefully, it will go in both directions," Arkin said, envisioning both road trips and more frequent local fairs.

Whatever happens, Der Ananian said, Bazaar Bizarre has been "a real community-builder. Before, there wasn't a crafty community of 20-somethings. That to me has been the best part."

As a boy, Der Ananian loved making pot holders while watching daytime soaps with his mom.

"The fact that I'm a gay punk rocker doesn't erase the fact that my mother taught me how to cross-stitch," he said.

"On the surface, what I do could look countercultural, but it's actually sentimental," Der Ananian said. "It's not about destroying tradition. It's about re-entering the fold." He is thrilled when cross-stitchers from another generation compliment his work. The women laugh at the sexual innuendo -- and sometimes they buy a pillow.

One of Der Ananian's suppliers, Lucy Boyer, owner of Cross Stitch Unlimited in Arlington, is a big fan of what he's doing.

"It takes cross-stitch out of the little old lady sphere and it takes it out of the 1700s sphere," she said. "I love that."

As an entrepreneur, Boyer is always dreaming of new markets. And some of her customers are right there with her.

"We were joking," she said, "about how I could have a back room for people interested in adult cross-stitch."

Jan Gardner can be reached at jgardner@globe.com.