What’s the one thing you should do when you finally clean all your dishes for the first time in months? Throw a party to celebrate of course! After a day spent up to her elbows in suds, Tina invited all her friends over to make good use of her newly cleaned china with plenty of delicious food.
Make It! Challenge #5: Crochet Bowser Sweater for a Turtle
For Make It! Challenge #5, Lisa Egolf challenged me to crochet a sweater for her turtle, Myrtle, so that he would be easy to spot when she lets him loose to play in the courtyard of the school where she teaches science. “I think bright yet manly colors would be best,” she said, because after all this Myrtle is male (don’t judge). So I set out to design the most masculine turtle sweater I could.
I don’t know about you, but when I think of a beefy, manly turtle, my first thought is of Bowser. If you’re familiar with the Super Mario Bros. video game franchise, you undoubtedly remember Bowser as the game’s super villain. The object of the ’80s Nintendo game is to get the main character Mario through the Mushroom Kingdom, survive Bowser′s attacks, and save Princess Toadstool. Running into Bowser, with his spiny shell, pug nose, and domineering height, is enough to make little Mario shiver.
Myrtle definitely looks like he could do some damage in his Bowser sweater. Go on, Myrtle! Go get your princess and take back your Mushroom Kingdom.
Crochet Bowser Sweater for a Turtle… Continue Reading →
Challenge Me to Make Something Awesome
There’s no doubt about it. Friends of Squirrel Picnic, or fellow picnickers if you will, are some of the most creative, innovative, and humorous people I’ve ever met. You have big imaginations, and you’re not afraid to try new things. Best of all, you agree that the world needs a lot more fun.
Through the Make It! Challenge over the past six months, some of you have inspired me and pushed me to my craftiest. You’ve challenged me to make a toddler’s hat in the shape of a roast turkey, a Christmas pickle ornament, a felted sloth, and a Batman mask. And I’ve had a blast exploring your ideas and creating each one. But I want more! I have a few more challenges lined up for the rest of the year, but I also have several open slots. Now’s your chance to be included in this one-of-a-kind project.
The concept is pretty simple. If you have an idea for an awesome item that can be created through knitting, sewing, or crochet, email a detailed description and any sketches, photos, or links to me at squirrelpicnic{at}gmail{dot}com. Keep in mind, the more information you include, the better the chance that I will accept your challenge. And if I do accept your challenge, I’ll publish the pattern here at squirrelpicnic.com so that others can make my original design too. Best of all, I’ll send you the sample, free of charge, as a thank-you for your idea.
For more information and to see the Make It! Challenge Hall of Fame visit the new Make It! Challenge page. I can’t wait to see what you think up next!
Hodge & Podge No. 4
Podge: Do you remember the first time we saw a yarn-bombed tree?
Hodge: How could I forget. You said it was so sweet that someone had knit a cozy for a tree.
The Fatimal Forecast for Today Is…
Sleepy with a Chance of Thundersnores
Easy to Crochet Butterfly Pattern
As I’m writing this, it is snowing for the third straight day here in Denver. It’s not uncommon for us to get spring snowstorms, but they always come as a shock to me. Just as you’re starting to get pumped about springtime, a foot of snow gets dumped on your excitement. Lucky for me, I have my own little patch of springtime at Squirrel Picnic, where their crochet garden continues to bloom.
This week I’m making butterflies. I found a lot of complicated butterfly patterns online and in books. Though the complex butterflies were gorgeous, I didn’t have time for all those steps, so I wrote this pattern for a simple and fast and cute little butterfly.
Easy Butterfly Pattern… Continue Reading →
Squirrel Week 2013 in Review
If you’ve noticed an uptick in the amount of squirrel chatter across the web this week, you can thank journalist John Kelly and the good folks at the Washington Post for devoting an entire week to the humble and fun-loving squirrel. This week, I’ve seen some of the cutest, most intelligent, determined, and acrobatic squirrels in the world. It was hard to choose just five, but here they are: my top five stories to come out of Squirrel Week 2013.
Cute Overload put together a photographic collection of some serious squirrel cuteness.
Photo: cuteoverload.com
4. Nancy Rose’s Squirrelography
Photographer Nancy Rose sets up miniature scenes in her backyard and photographs wild squirrels interacting with them. What a hoot!
Photo: Nancy Rose
3. Supermodel Sugar Bush Squirrel
Supermodel Sugar Bush Squirrel has modeled current events as the anchor for SNN (The Squirrel News Network) in over 5,000 photos. She’s posed as Yassar Arafat, Fidel Castro, Albert Einstein, and Michael Jackson to name a few.
Photo: Ms. Kelly Foxton
http://www.sugarbushsquirrel.com
2. Finally a Movie a Squirrel Can Relate To
On Thursday, it was announced that a squirrel movie is in the works! The Nut Job, to be released January 2014, is the first animated film to come from Open Road Films. Based on director and co-writer Peter Lepeniotis’ 2005 short “Surly Squirrel,” the story is true to squirrel nature: forced out of the park and into the city with the threat of winter upon him, a mischievous squirrel named Surly plans a nut-store heist of outrageous proportions. An impressive cast has signed on too: Liam Neeson, Katherine Heigl, Brendan Fraser, and Will Arnett.
After all the squirreliness I witnessed this week, it was really hard to pick a number one. So I’ll just leave you with the one thing that made me laugh the hardest. Leave it to the Japanese to think of creating a game show called Squirrel Fishing. Don’t worry, no hooks were used… just nuts as bait of course. Enjoy!
