Itsa mia Mario

WHOO HOO...in the words of the dude himself LOL

Well I got him finished other than a couple of buttons on his braces, but i'll pick them up tomorrow hopefully.

Pattern with many thanks to Wolfdreamer who kindly offers the patterns for free on their blog

Wolfdreamer Off The Hook Mario Pattern

and this is how my little dude turned out

And a close up of the face

A few fiddley bits but in general an easy to follow pattern, clearly explained. I sewed on the eyes rather than just glueing as he's for the boys. Gregor hasn't had him more that about 12 inches from his side since i made him. Mario has sat next to him on the sofa while he was "driving" with Daddy playing Forza 3, then sitting next to the beanbag in the toy room...and now he's kipping in Gregor bed, full pride of place on the pillow.

I think he likes him :-)

Now onto Yoshi, but this one is a bought pattern from Etsy...just a read thru says it's a bit more fiddly.

And after that i have a Southpark character pattern to play with...thinking of other adaptions of it too.

My kids are nuts

Brian is thankfully in bed...after climbing on windowsill, climbing on wheeled coffee table to get onto big unit and getting stuck cos it runs away as he pushes leaving his legs dangling AGAIN screeching "muh-mee help it skay-wee"...then running full pelt and PRETENDING to fall over (it's so overacted it's unreal) saying "i crashed"...pulling me here and there to show me that the ads have come on the tv EVERY BREAK on nick jr


And that was only for the 3 hours Gregor was at nursery...then i got it in stereo LOL

Thank gawd mine actually go to bed at night, and if Brian gets up early say about 6ish he goes and switches on the TV and sky in the toyroom and plitters about playing for about an hour before coming into our room and dropping Hubbys slippers on his face to waken him saying "ah want-ah milk peeezzzz" (clever boy dosnt do that to Mummy)

This morning tho i was woken up with a gun in my face...okay a purple waterpistol thing but a tad disconcerting having that pointing at you held by a smiley wee face saying "hiyah muhmee"

They're full on hard work...but wouldn't change them

The Green Bag Finished

The finished bag...pattern HERE

PIcture isn't the best but this was all I got before the batteries died on me...they're recharging at the moment LOL

If i was doing it again i would make the sides longer and make a deeper bag...it felt a little open hence why I've added on a fastening tag. The button is a toggle off a (very) old duffle coat i had. Many moons ago on a clearout i'd come across it...it was ripped and got recyled into a couple of cushion covers, and a couple of toggles were left over. I felt the natural colour of the toggle complimented the mossy green of the bag...looks okay :)

Now back to the Mario toy....body is now made...Gregor is gonna have kittens when he sees it LOL

The finished Windmill Bag

Firstly credit must go to the pattern that i got off the internet

windmill bag pattern


This is my finished bag

Here it is being modeled by my 3yr old...at this time it was carrying Roary the Racing car, a fancy hotwheels racing car of whatever prototype variety and a matcbox lambo...the boy likes his cars PMSL

Here it is in a similar sort of picture as the original pattern. 100gram balls of double knitting for scale. I used 4mm (UK size 8, US size 6) needles, and Double Knitting (US worsted weight, Aus 8ply). Pattern is easy enough for most beginners, the i-cord bind-off is a little finicky and time consuming, but gives a good solid finishing edge and as it leads into the i-cord for the handles it does mean that these are secure on at least the bag edge. If you can cast on, garter stitch cast off and i-cord it's a breeze...you tube easily explains i-cord and the bind off.

Now...i did mean to write all that up last night, but for whatever reason (fell asleep) i didnt get round to it, so today i was on the other green coloured bag pattern found HERE . Got the main bit finished and moved onto the lining. In my MAH-HOOO-SIVE stash of fabric oddments it took a while as there was quite a few i liked...matching and contrasting...eventually decided on the multicoloured patterned one. I'm a little further on than the pics as i now have the lining fully stitched in and started the gathering band...so far so good.

Only other thing for today...no F1 yet...yawns with TV boredom

oh...X Factor is back... :-D

a little piccy update

As I said earlier today, I'm making the windmill bag in deep red/pinky colours...piccy with 4th panel just started

I was reminded today that tyre warmers are not to be used next year in F1. A bit unfortunate after what we had here last year.

Gregor was 2 and well nutty about F1 already...then he started doing something strange to all his cars...at 1st we didn't understand why, but he was always wrapping up the wheels...most often with paper that he'd ripped off his magazines, but sometimes using the babywipes...the latter was usually on his toy Roary the Racing Car maybe due to the larger wheels.

It wasnt until we noticed him doing it JUST before a race started...he was copying the tyre warmers. At just over 2 years old he had already figured out that the F1 cars had covers on their tyres and obviously felt HIS cars needed them too...so Mummy thought...lets MAKE Roary some. Knitting being the best bet as i could easily make a closed stretchy tube that he could ease on himself. A few interrupted-by-2-kids hours later i had this...

top left...size 12 needles, DK wool, 15 sts, 65 rows (12 stitches would be enough)

top right...sew cast on and cast off edges together
bottom left...use row ends to gather as tight as you can and fasten off tightly
bottom right...the finished tyre warmer
 
 
Now I had only got this far before Gregor was nosying about...he disappeared...came back with Roary...and without actually being told or shown what to do started putting the finished one on !!! A little bit more sewing later and Roary had toasty tyres for bed that night LOL

Final blether for this post. One of my primary (junior school/age 5-11) classmates mum popped a photo on Facebook...we think its primary 3,maybe 4 (age 7 or 8). I'm the 2nd from the right on the back row :)

Hectic few days

There's been lots happening...getting ready for new school term etc...hopefully some photos later on.

In the process of 3 works in progress tho...

This bag in mossy green

This bag in a deep red/pinky combination

and

Mario plushie for the 3yr old Mario Kart mad spawn.

typical me trying to do too many things at once...but there is a reason

the green bag i'm doing the main part...know where i am and dont need to view the pattern just now so i can pick up/put down as i go

red/pink bag...easy pattern,know what i'm doing so won't need PC/lappy for pattern again

Mario is a different story...lots of shaping so need the pattern and better doing it when i'm not trying to do other things at the same time (ie in the evening once the spawn are in bed is good)

there's just not enough hours in the day...especially as there are other works that have been abandoned

A day of Gardening with a "Pit Stop"

The past couple of days have been quite nice, so we finally got round to tidying up the garden.

Or rather re-tidying...we did a whack when we 1st moved in at the end of May, but the weather hasn't been the best so it got a tad overgrown again. Plans for next year to grow stuff but we were a couple of month late in here to do anything worthwhile.

The boys have a bubble blowing lawnmower, and when Hubby started mowing the grass the 2yr old dissappeared into the house and returned with their mower...and proceded to copy ever move Hubby made, be it direction and even the stance with one leg forward

I also managed to get into the tatties. I'd popped 6 sprouting potatoes in the ground not long after we moved in, and the flowers had just died off so i knew they were ready to lift. From those 6 small new potatoes I got a whole big pot of them...and the 3yr old was highly amused by the tatties coming out the soil

Once we'd filled not only OUR brown garden waste wheelie bin but the mother-in-laws too we thought it was time to stop (we did put the grass clippings into the new compost bin...pat's own back).

The next job of the day was Granny's scooter. The mobility scooter needed the wheels pumped up a bit, and Hubby thought Gregor would love the short run to the garage and back...he didn't just love it, he had a complete ball of a time. Standing between Hubbys legs as he drove it...and then came the wheel filling. The wee soul thought he was doing a pit-stop..."THIS IS RACING DADDY!!!"...thank goodness he had a nappy on or he'd literally have wet himself with excitement PMSL. Hubby brought it back here (we're halfway between garage and grannys) and took Brian a wee run up and down our street...

Not very far, but he thoroughly enjoyed the run, Gregor ran to meet them coming back then raced them home. He was chuffed to win. Both boys were a tad miffed that the scooter had to go away again...who knows maybe another jaunt sometime.

And hopefully another good day tomorrow so we can trim the hedge a bit...it's not bad as you can no doubt see,but ours is the most overgrown looking one on the street so we'd better neaten it LOL.

Plarn project 1

1st I'd better explain Plarn. It's short for PLastic yARN and is basically loops of cut up plastic bags, looped together to create a long string which can then be knitted or crocheted with...googling plarn will give plenty of how-to's to make it. Anyway,the blue bag <---- is gawd knows how many bags from Asda cut up and ready to string together.

I then decided to make a pegbag...being made of platic bags it dosnt matter if it gets wet in the wonderful Scottish summers we have. No pattern exactly as such...a 5.5mm hook, about 15 or 16 chain, working 1/2 double crochet down both sides with increases and the ends for a couple of rows...then working straight rounds for about 12 rows round...back and forth for about 6 rows to create the hole of about 12 missed stitches, chain to rejoin at the top of hole, working DCs over chain on the next round, another 6 rounds then single crochet thru both sides together to finish top seam. Insert the coathanger, in this case it was an age 1.5-2 yrs trousers hanger, then neatening the hole with a cuple of rounds of SC. the pic ---> dosnt really show the hole well unforts

 This piccy is better. Now filled with pegs and hanging on the kitchen door. Until this i was just using a single poly bag to put my pegs in and due to the wind it was a tad difficult at times. hopefully the weight of this should work a lot better.

One plarn project done...LOADS more bags chopped and made into plarn...what's next ?

Wasp

Alpha Male at 3.5 Years Old

Our 3 yr old is definitely showing some alpha male signs...or rather that he understands the way it works...and it's quite interesting to see it.

While getting his morning bum change...

He pointed to Hubby..."you're number 1"

Then to himself... "I'm number 2"

Then to his younger brother (2yr old)..."Brian's 3"...and followed that with "...and Mummy's 4"

So Hubby asked..."why is Mummy number 4 and not number 1 or 2?"..."Cos she's a girl"

Interesting....

He'd said something similar the other night, but Daddy was 1,Mummy 2,he was 3 and Brian 4...and the odd other time he's said he was 1 and Brian was 2...so I think he's realised roughly what place is his, altho i'm not keen on being number 4 personally just cos i'm a "girl" LOL

But i'm interested to see how this is developing in his little mind and they way he's describing it in a way he understands.