Just a Reminder!

Don’t forget to stop by the For the Pets Gaming Marathon today!

They are currently at $1,000 of their $5,000 goal. What a great start!

Right now, they are talking with the nice people from O.S.C.A.R – the charity they are raising money for. They are answering questions and brought a couple of puppies along, too!

Every $5 donation earns you a raffle ticket and a chance to win one of many prize packs including a prize pack from me!

The opportunity to win my prize pack (includes Bandage Girl, Maskutchi, and a mini bob-omb) is coming up at 2pm ET.

Check out the schedule for the different games they’ll be playing today/tomorrow and the different prizes you can win!

Hope to see you there!

🙂

Tuesday Newsday – Gaming for Charity!

A few weeks ago, I received a message on Etsy asking me if I would be willing to donate a few items for an event.

The items I provide will be given out as raffle prizes that you can earn by making a donation. The donations will be going to OSCAR – One Step Closer Animal Rescue (you can find more info here). For every $5 you donate, you earn a raffle ticket to win a variety of prizes.

The fun part? This isn’t your typical event.

It’s a video game marathon.

Say what?!

Yes, that’s right. A 24-hour gaming marathon featuring a live stream of participants playing various games. Sounds fun, right?

It’s called the “For the Pets Gaming Marathon” and it will be held on April 25th starting at 7am ET.

They will be playing several different games including “Tokyo Jungle” and “Ape Escape.”

They have held several of these events in the past and in November of 2012, they held a Mass Effect marathon where they received almost $27,000 in donations that went directly to the Child’s Play charity.

The goal for this month’s marathon is $5,000.

I will be donating these items:

Maskutchi, a mini bob-omb, and Bandage Girl.

So, if you like watching other people play video games (I know I do) and also love helping out animals in need (I like that too!), then join them on Saturday the 25th for this fun event!

Every $5 donation earns you a raffle ticket and a chance to win one of my snazzy plushies (among other things)!

Hope to “see” you there!

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For additional info about the marathon (FAQs, schedules, etc), click here.

As I find out more information, I’ll try to update this post. 🙂

No-Face (Spirited Away)

It’s been a while since I have done a pattern make over.

You may recall (a long, long time ago) that I have trouble making faces for my amis. In that post, I gave you all a glimpse of an old project as one of my example of bad faces:

If you are not familiar with it, this is No-Face from the animated film Spirited Away. Here is a picture from the film:

(Click photo for source)

I attempted to make No-Face waaayyy back in 2012 for my brother. As I look back for my pattern, which I thought I had written down in its entirety, I have realized that I barely wrote anything down!

Thanks, me. Thanks.

Look at the bottom of that… “Face” and “Mouth?” Are you kidding me? Hey, past self… what were you thinking? Oh, that’s right – I was just winging it because I had no idea what I was doing! At this point in time, I wasn’t yet writing out patterns to make them on a regular basis (my Etsy shop was still 9 months from opening). Besides, this was a gift!

But it’s been almost 3 years.

I think it’s about time I finish up this pattern. I hate leaving it incomplete. It’s still in Notepad for goodness sake! I put them all in Word Documents now. It must be transferred!

But first – a little update on the first No-Face:

This is No-Face.

He’s been experiencing life, going to school…

Needless to say, he’s a little broke.

This parking ticket didn’t help things.

He’s had to cut back a bit. Poor guy.

…and that’s all I got.

I asked my brother to send me a picture of No-Face because I didn’t have any. He decided to be creative and sent me all of those. So, I felt I needed to give him a little story.

I’m not the most creative when it comes to storytelling… it’s hard enough for me to figure out what to write in my blog posts!

🙂

Well, after a few days of working on him on and off, I finally finished him!

I give you the new-and-improved No-Face!

I like this one so much better (but don’t tell my brother)!

For whatever reason, I made the first one with a weird-shaped head. I think I had a reason for it, but I can’t figure out what. I still have a slight shape to this one but it is very minimal.

I also changed the mouth a little bit. I added more teeth and it is slightly bigger but more clean.

And, of course, I took more care with the face itself to make it look a bit neater. I used the face shape from my Shy Guy so it is less wonky than before.

Overall, I like how it turned out! He looks cute. Such a happy little guy!

Thanks for stopping by and have a great weekend!

❤

A Pokeball

I finally made something new!

That recent stash busting post I did motivated me to start working on some of the things I have been meaning to make. One of the first things on my list was this:

A Pokeball!

I’ve been meaning to make a quick and easy plushie to add to my Etsy inventory and this is it. (I’ll be adding it shortly – just need to take a few pictures!)

Edit: Pokeball listing can be found here. Price has been recently reduced! Please check out my other Pokémon plushies while you’re there.

It also makes the perfect add-on item to my Jigglypuff plushie! 😀

But, because I love you, I am also making this pattern available to you.

(Plus, there are a million different Pokeball patterns out there so why keep mine a secret?)

😉

Enjoy!

If you’re a Ravelry user and have finished a Pokeball, I’d love to feature your finished item! Project page can be found here.

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Pokeball Pattern

This quick and easy Pokeball pattern uses minimal resources and takes only an hour or two of your time (depending on your experience). The finished Pokeball is roughly the size of a softball.

You will need:

• Size 5.00mm (H, 8) crochet hook
• Yarn in Red Heart “Cherry Red,” white, and black.
• Stuffing of your choice
• Yarn needle

Ball:

In red, make MR.

Row 1: Single crochet (sc) 6 in MR – 6

Row 2: Increase (inc) around – 12

Row 3: (Inc, sc 1) around – 18

Row 4: (Inc, sc 2) around – 24

Row 5: (Inc, sc 3) around – 30

Row 6: (Inc, sc 4) around – 36

Row 7: (Inc, sc 5) – 42

Rows 8-9: sc around

Switch to black.

Rows 10-11: sc around

Switch to white.

Rows 12-14: sc around

Begin stuffing as you go.

Row 15: (Decrease, sc 5) around – 36

Row 16: (Dec, sc 4) around – 30

Row 17: (dec, sc 3) around – 24

Row 18: (dec, sc 2) around – 18

Row 19: (dec, sc 1) around – 12

Row 20: dec around – 6

FO, stuff firmly, and sew ball shut.

Button:

In white, make MR.

Row 1: sc 6 – 6

Row 2: Inc around – 12

Switch to black.

Row 3: (inc, sc 1) aorund – 18

FO, attach in the center of the Pokeball where the changing of colors is most obvious.

And that’s it!

Please let me know if you have any questions or if you find any mistakes or typos.

Side note: This Jigglypuff is not the one listed in my Etsy shop. This is a smaller version I made for my husband a few years ago. 🙂

It’s time for some stash busting!

Stashes, collections, hoards, arsenals…

Let’s face it – as a crocheter or knitter, we could all use a good stash busting session once in a while.

After we finish our latest projects, we tend to have a lot of small, little balls of leftover yarn that, for the life of us, we can’t find anything to use them for.

While I do like the charm of a stash buster afghan, I already have one! A few years ago I made a large granny square blanket which is now taking up space in our storage room (since we have no space in the hall closet). So, I don’t really want to make another one unless I plan on giving it to someone else. Although, a stash busting baby blanket could be useful… but I’ve already made two baby blankets recently!

Today’s mission was to find some stash busting patterns to use up all (or most) of those pesky little yarn balls taking up space in our…um… stashes. What better way to do some spring cleaning than to clean out that extra yarn? You know… to make space for your new yarn.

I kid. I kid.

…

Or do I?

I did a little search on Bing to find some stash busting inspiration and then moved onto Pinterest. I hope these give you some good ideas to use up all of those precious materials!

Enjoy!

(Note: All photos are property of their respected blogs/websites)

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Afghans

1. The Blackberry Salad Striped Blanket

2. Crochet monster granny squares

3. The groovy-ghan

Household Items

4. Hanger covers

5. Door bumpers

6. Yarn Scraps Wall Art

Cases/Sleeves/Cozies

7. Tablet Case

8. 15 Minute Coffee Sleeves

9. Cupcake Coffee/Tea Cup Cozy

10. Clock cover

Fun Stuff

11. Spring Bunny Pen Buddy

12. Enormous Stripey Knitted Snake

13. Spring Bunny Applique

14. Tiny Crochet Cars

Accessories

15. Easy Crochet Bows

16. Hair Clips

Etc

And don’t forget – you can always make an amigurumi with random colors. It makes them colorful and fun!

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What are your go-to stash busting projects/patterns?