Bowser shirt

Finally done. Never want to see it again :)







I haven't knitted in way too long. I need to up my craftiness.

Accomplishments and Failures as of Late

Guarantee has always been a hard word for me to spell.

Exciting things in the life of Lauren.

Got pictures of baked Cup Pies.





Finished Clapotis.




Finished Lelah in less than three days for my first KAL.



Got a fancy new camera. A Canon EOS 20D which I've been eying for almost a year.


Probably got my first D in my computer organization class. poo.

That's right David, it is sad.

Oh well. I'm transferring and I could care less at this point. I'm working on David's little brother's shirt again, the epic Bowser vs. Mario cross stitching. I want to, nay, I will, have it done for his birthday which is May 17. I don't have any current work in progress shots because it's three in the morning, but I'm nearly done, a lot more than the picture. All but the white and a little bit of the orange in the smile is done in the Bowser area, and Mario has hair and a mustache.
This is the design.

and this is how it's going.


I also cast on the circular shrug while I was trying to study for my comp org exam, because I needed mindless ribbing. I have no idea how it's going to work out or if it's going to, I feel shady about it.

Life is probably going to get really easy for awhile, and then really hectic when moving time comes. I'm going to take the easy time now and devote it to Mario Kart Wii and Professor Layton. Yes.

Nintendo time.

Since I posted my DS case pattern yesterday, I figured I'd continue with the Nintendo theme and share what I made for my past and future roommate, Courtney, for Christmas. She just got a new car so I thought a fuzzy dice-esque hanging delight would be in order. Her boyfriend and her relationship is basically centered around the original Super Smash Bros. She always fights as Kirby and he always fights as Ness, so I present, cross-stitched Smash not fuzzy not dice!



I embroidered their nick-names on the back of their corresponding warriors.


And I can't take credit for this one, but it's still so awesome. My friend Lily, sewed this awesome Mario pillow for me for Christmas. It pretty much rocks.




Yup, that's all for Nintendo crafts today. There are more though, don't worry. I have to stop futzing around now and get ready to see David for his birfday!

Nintendo DS Case with Game Pockets

DS Case with Game Pockets





I carry a gigantic purse with me almost everywhere I go, to the displeasure of most of the people I go places with. I do this because I like to have a lot of stuff on me: my camera, wallet, keys, knitting, mp3 player, brush, cross-stitching, bus maps, and of course, my Nintendo DS with extra games. All are necessary to have with me wherever I may go. Unfortunately, the DS does not get along with the other things in my purse; therefore I decided that it needed its own tiny little home in my bag. To decrease on the amount of things I carry around, the case has a place for game cartridges, because the game case I stuck them all in before took up quite a bit of room. I am also a chronic buyer of novelty yarn that I never use because although I love it on the spool, it never looks good knitted up. This case was the perfect stash busting way to get rid of some of my ribbon yarn, gracefully, by mixing it with an inoffensive plain cotton yarn. You can make this a stash busting project for your own stash by substituting any worsted weight yarn, or any yarn, as long as you adjust for your gauge.

Materials: 1 skein of Rowan Handknit Cotton in Shell
1 skein of Filati FF Karnak in color #3004 Teal, Pink, Orange, Grass
US #8/5mm straight needles
Tapestry needle
Two buttons

Gauge: 16 sts and 24 rows/4"

CO 27 sts with both yarns, or the gauge of your yarn x 6.75 inches
Knit in stockinette stitch for 9” holding both yarns together.
Here, I bound off then picked up 27 stitches from the bind off edge and worked 1 ½” in stockinette, but thinking back a better solution would have been to work a purl row on the rs of the fabric then go back to knitting the rs and purling the ws for another 1 ½”. Either way, BO after 1 ½”.

Pockets: Fold the CO edge 3” up with the wrong sides facing. Mattress seam along the sides of the work to create a pocket for the DS. Fold the 1 ½” after the picked up sts or purl row down and mattress seam long the sides. Use a game cartridge to measure along the top pocket (should be about 6 sts per pocket) and sew vertically, catching the back loop of the stitches from the inside of the pockets to make it invisible.




Straps: Pick up 3 sts with the ribbon yarn about 1 ½” from the left side of the front of the top of the case (see picture for a less confusing explanation) plain stockinette (you could do i-cord although it doesn’t really matter here since the stockinette will roll up into a tube anyway) for 8 ¼” or until it wraps comfortably around the case with the DS inside, ending on a wrong side. On the next row: K1, Yo, k2tog to create a button hole. Next row: P 3 sts Next row: BO all sts.
Work the same for right strap.



Finishing: Sew in ends and attach buttons on top of where you picked up sts for the straps. I didn’t have any buttons so I made makeshift ones by tying the cotton yarn into little bobbles. Optional: attach your favorite cross-stitched video game character to the back. Sprite stitch has a great collection of patterns but 8 to 16 bit video game characters are practically cross stitch patterns by themselves. I just threw a grid on top of Yoshi in Photoshop, making each pixel a stitch, and cross-stitched away.