I love this Lego YouTube video published yesterday by The Warner Sound. It’s a side-by-side play through of the Lego House music video from Ed Sheeran, with the left-hand version having been diligently Lego’d by Dylan Woodley;
I love all things pixels, crafty, and crochet (except candy pink poodle toilet roll covers – which are never acceptable). So, I enjoy looking up how gamers are working up my favourite retro video game characters every now and again and here are my latest findings, which include an 8-bit Super Mario crochet bedspread, a Pac-Man quilt, a fabulous Doctor Who crochet tardis, a Space Invaders crochet blanket, and a Super Mario invincibility star crochet baby blanket:
8-bit Super Mario Bedspread by Russ McAllister:
This blanket makes for a brilliant gift for any gamer, and is simple to make as it uses granny squares. Since this is an 8-bit pixel pattern, you could use any grid, Hama, Perler or sprite pattern to make anything you like! The pattern is available on Ravelry or Instructables and requires knowledge of ch, sl st, and double crochet (US terms).
Pac-Man Quilt by S0choice
This classic arcade game quilt was, unbelievably, the first retro gaming quilt project of S0choice (crafter from Roseville, California). I think it looks great, and she’s a girl after my own heart for winging this one without a pattern. You can find about more about this quilt over on Craftser
Crochet Doctor Who Tardis Blanket by Kirsti Rawstron
This super-geeky Doctor Who blanket was made as a gift for one of Kirsti’s friends (lucky friend!), and measures over 2 metres tall.
To add to the awesomeness of this blanket, the windows and light glow in the dark, and the sign was custom-made at an embroideries. See more pics and out more on Rainy Monday Tumblr
Space Invaders Crochet Blanket from Geekery by Emily
Made from granny squares, this blanket has been worked up using the same block pattern as the Super Mario one. What makes this blanket slightly more appealing to me? It was made in the UK 
You can catch up with Geekery by Emily on Etsy.
Super Mario star crocheted baby blanket by A Gamers Wife
This was made from an adapted Starry, Starry Night blanket pattern by Melissa at Inner Child Crochet and is great to give as a gift even when the parents aren’t avid gamers. It took a month to complete and you can read more over at A Gamers Wife Blog.
I’m not best known for my love of cats, in fact, I’ve held a vehement dislike for them most of my life. I was most surprised with myself when I realised I’ve come to love Internet sensation Grumpy Cat (a.k.a. Tardar Sauce). We’ve shared many a meme of the mardy moggy at work, and one unfortunate member of the team is now known affectionately as ‘GC’.
To take the edge off the cruel nickname, I decided to make a very basic Grumpy Cat coaster from Hama beads for the long-suffering namesake (or Perler if you’re stateside), and thought I’d blog it so you can use the bead pattern for your own Grumpy Cat worship:
I’m waiting for some extra-large Hama peg boards and brown bead variants to arrive as I plan to make a larger version of the miserable feline, which will obviously have more detail – perhaps we could present this to GC at christmas? or… perhaps not.
Some have asked whether I use software on my Macbook for beading, and the short answer is, since I use my iPhone for just about everything, I plan my hama projects on this and currently use the Bead It! HD app to plan patterns (£2.49), the HD version will also run on my iPad so is great for large projects – of course, I do miss the satisfaction of working out a pixel project from scratch, but time isn’t my friend right now, and needs must!
What Hama bead patterns would you like to see more of? Let me know in the comments below, or just say “Hi”
* I adapted this pattern from a grumpy cat Kandi perler pattern found here. *
