The Mario Mushrooms Paradox

So this is the first of quite a few new blogs to come. See I was going through all my old pictures and found a whoooooole bunch of stuff I havent made blogs for yet... So I figured now would be a better time than any to create some new blogs, maybe get some new viewers in, and pretty much just show off my awesome talents....

Now when it comes to Super Mario, I'm a big Luigi fan. I dont think he gets enough credit... he does just as much work as Mario it's not his fault he usually only gets to come around and be "Player 2"...

But saying that aside, we're here to talk about the mushrooms! I made 4 of them, the mini,extra life, growth, and giant ones. They're really simple and easy to make, you dont even need a pattern for them!

Here's all you need: material/felt in respective colors, cream colored felt, white/orange felt for spots, and some black paint or a black fabric marker, a needle, some thread, and some stuffing. How much of each one you need will depend entirely on the size of the mushroom you are making, though (hence why I cant really give you a pattern)
Now to the right here is a picture of the mushrooms from the game. The four that I have made, Giant, Growth, Extra Life, and Mini. I can give you step by step instructions:
1. Grab something round like a bowl or a pot or a hoop and trace around it on your material or felt.
2. Cut it out, cut a smaller circle of the same color material or felt, this will be to cover the bottom after you stuff it.
3. Stitch around the edge of the big circle, when you have made it all the way around pull it tightly so it makes a sort of ball.
4. Stuff it as much as you want but be careful not to break your thread or  you will have to start over again.
5. After you have stuffed it as much as you want pull the thread tight and tie it off.
6. Using the smaller circle of the same color material or felt cover the gathered edges and stitch closed. This will give you a pretty finish.
7. Cut a circle from the cream material/felt and cut a strip long enough to go all the way around it.
8. Sew the ends of the strip together so you have a sort of tube.
9. Sew the tube to the circle so you have what looks like a cup, and flip it inside out so the seams dont show.
10. Attach the cup to the mushroom top by sewing the cup to the circle you stitched on earlier on the mushroom top to cover the gathered edges. Sew halfway around and then stuff before continuing to sew around.
11. Cut out some white/orange spots that would be proportionate to the size of the mushroom you are making and stitch them around the sides of the mushroom top. (You will probably need 5-6 of them)
12. Using the paint or fabric marker draw on two lines for the eyes on the cream colored material/felt.

Viola, you have your very own Super Mario Mushrooms. 

Lots of Loving,

*Rah~Rah*

 

Little Patty Pumpkin (First Ravelry Pattern for Sale!!!)

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Some pictures of the Little Pumpkin!

Please support my attempt at making knitting patterns by purchasing them from my Ravelry Shop!!!!

Knitting yourself Centered ^_^

So I may have mentioned before that I had started a project for Lewy's Christmas present, if I haven't then I'm mentioning it now!

It's a very special project, if you are familiar with Reiki and Chakras then you will know what it's all about.

I searched for ages trying to find some patterns for the symbols to knit a wall hanging with or even some
pillows with but there was nothing, so I took it upon myself to make some and share them with the world.


You can use these patterns in any way you like, but please PLEASE dont try and sell these patterns anywhere. They were created to be shared for free to any one who would like to use them.
I used them stacked on top of each other for a wall hanging, but you can use them any way you like. Pillows might make a good thing or even use them a squares in a throw rug or something!

1. The Base Chakra, this one will be red. Now I have done them so that the symbol stands out against the background, the background being the main color of the chakra.

2. The Sacral Chakra, this one will be orange.

3. The Solar Plexus Chakra, this one will be yellow.

4. The Heart Chakra, this one will be green.

5. The Throat Chakra, this one will be blue.

6. The Third Eye Chakra, this one will be light blue or violet. (I made mine light blue because I didn't have any violet yarn available and I didn't want to go to the shops just to get one skein that not even half would be used)



 

7. The Crown Chakra, this one is supposed to be ultraviolet, but since that's out of our color spectrum you can use some iridescent yarn if you can find it, I chose to use white only because I had some available and it is an appropriate color to use for this chakra.







I hope you have found this interesting and that you will use them!!! As always more work available on my Deviant Art page! and FOLLOW ME ON FACEBOOK!!!!  And brand new please visit my Ravelry Shop!!Hope all my lovely followers have had a very merry Christmas and an extra special New Year. Hope 2013 brings you everything you hope for and more!!!

All the BAGS!!!!

So we have finally come to it, the last of the bags and scarves!!!!

We'll start with the awesome set of Harry potter bags found HERE!! Now when and if you try these yourself here are a few tips:
1. 1 normal ball of 8ply yarn will make a bag as large as the Hufflepuff/Ravenclaw/Slytherin bags in the photo (the black thing in the background is of course my laptop just for a size reference) Of course you can use any size yarn you like and the bag size will vary.
2. You don't have to have the fringe at the bottom, you can sew the bag up and it will still look nice.
3. Because of all the yarn crossovers on the inside, if you actually plan on using your new bag for anything it would be best to make a lining for it. (I just used a Flat Fats from Spotlight it was enough to do both bags I made in each color with enough left over for a third bag if you choose to make it)
4. The colors I have used are the actual colors recommended in the pattern but you can make them whatever color you like!
5. The patterns also tell you to knit in the round, now I myself am only a novice knitter teaching myself, and I havent quite grasped the ability to do that yet. These bags can be knitted conventionally on two needles and stitched together on the open side. It's barely noticeable.
6. We all make mistakes, I made several when making these bags. I forgot a stitch or missed a color, but here's the thing, at first glance you wont notice at all! So dont think that you need to start completely over just because you accidentally made 6 stitches in the main color instead of 5!

Over all I know it has taken me FREAKING AGES to complete all of these, and considering that I have only done 8 bags it really has been a bit too long. But when you consider we have moved house and had to unpack, as well as remodeling and actual real life work that took me two hours to get too and from every day and working weekends, I really hope you all dont hold it against me...

Now for the scarves!!! I am admittedly still completing these but I have finished the first set (hence the photo)

Now I cant take full responsibility for these, The pattern that gave me the Idea can be found HERE!! but as you can plainly see they dont look alike. All I did was google "Hogwarts House Scarves Images" and there were two types of scarves. The one with chunky blocks of color (as seen in the photo) and then one for the older students which has large blocks and smaller stripes (this is the set I am still in the process of making).
As you can see in the photo the scarves tend to roll up in themselves after you make them, easily fixed by ironing them flat! I have decided to mix it up a bit and only add a fringe to some of the scarves and leave others with a plain edge.

Now for the next item on my to do list: Making the wands! This one's gonna be messy folks!

The First bag...

So here we go! Now I got the pattern for these bags at This Site, and in the instructions it says to knit it "in the round"... now since I'm only a beginner I dont really know how to do that so I have cheated a little bit and decided that I am going to knit two different sections and sew them together.

This is a quite difficult thing to do (unless you're an expert knitter), I had to start over about 4 times which is why it has taken me so long to put up a blog about it! I am VERY happy with the end result even though it took me a while and its not entirely finished, this part on its own could be used by its self, for a wall hanging or a patch on a jacket, maybe even sewn on to a pillow for a Harry Potter themed throw!
For this one I use some angora wool not sure what size it is, and size 11 knitting needles. There is more to this project though, I still have the other half of this bag to do and the other three houses as well! But now that I know what I'm doing it will be easy peasy! So hopefully this will get you all in the mood to try it out, and attempt it at least its a really fun project to do, especially on a rainy day like today was!

Next on the list: finish off the bags! Make more snitches, mice, and cats, and figure out a way to make some magic wands!