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…

Fits a Box Turtle (approximately 5 1/2″ long x 4 3/4″ wide x 2 1/2″ tall)

Materials:

Size C-2 (2.75 mm) crochet hook
Size 2 (2.75 mm) double-pointed knitting needle
Tapestry needle
Bright green worsted weight yarn: Deborah Norville Everyday Soft Worsted in Electric Green
White worsted weight yarn: Lion Brand Vanna’s Choice in White
Golden brown worsted weight yarn: Lion Brand Vanna’s Choice in Honey
Polyester Fiberfill
Sewing needle or sewing machine
White thread
3/4″ elastic

Step 1: Make 7 Hexagons

Using bright green yarn, ch 4, join with ss to 1st ch.

Round 1: Ch 3 (counts as first dc), *dc into center, ch 1. Repeat from * 10 more times. (23)

Round 2: Ch 3, sk next ch sp, *(2 dc, ch 2, 2 dc, ch 1), sk next ch sp. Repeat from * 4 more times. (2 dc, ch 2, dc, ch 1) in next ch sp, join with ss to top of 3ch. FO and work in ends.

Step 2: Make 7 Spikes

Using white yarn, ch 2

Round 1: 4 sc in 2^nd ch from hook

Round 2: sc in each st around

Round 3: 2 sc in each st around (8)

Rounds 4-5: sc in each st around

Round 6: *sc in next st, 2 sc in next st, repeat from * 3 more times (12)

Round 7: sc in each st around, ss in next st and FO

Lightly stuff each spike with a bit of Fiberfill and sew one spike onto the center of each hexagon.

Step 3: Make 7 I-Cord Circles

Using honey yarn, C-2 crochet hook, and a size 2 dpn, crochet 7 I-cords approximately 4″ long.

If this technique is new to you, I recommend this tutorial by Tanya Beckett.

With tapestry needle, sew together the ends of each I-cord to create a circle. Place one circle over each spike and sew to the hexagon. FO and work in ends.

Step 4: Sew shell together

Lay out your turtle shell pieces and sew them together with one hexagon in the center. Also sew eight of the outer edges together as indicated in the diagram below. This will make it three-dimensional.

Step 5: Crochet to fill the gaps at the front and back of the shell

Hold the shell so that the open side is facing away from you. Starting at a front or back corner to the right of the gap, pull up a loop and ch 1.To fill the gap: Sc, hdc, 2 dc, htr, 2 tr, dtr, 2 tr, htr, 2 dc, hdc, sc. See diagram below.

Sc in each st around until you get to the corner at the right of the gap on the other side, and repeat the pattern above to fill the gap. Sc in each st around until you get back to where you started.  Join with ss.

Once you sew up the sides and fill in the gaps at the front and back, it should look like this…

Step 6: Add a white border

Switch to white yarn and dc in each st around.

Step 7: Make an elastic band to hold the sweater on the turtle

Cut an 8″ piece of 3/4″-wide elastic. Pin it to the inside bottom edge at the center of the shell, leaving at least 1/2″ allowance. Sew across elastic to attach it to the white border. Fold the elastic over 1/4″ and sew across again.

Hold the shell with the open side facing away from you. With green yarn, pull up a loop in the st just to the right of the elastic. Ch 1 and sc in same st. 3 sc to the other side of the elastic.

Ch 6, wrapping this ch around the back of elastic. Sc in 1st st. Continue sc in rounds until you have crocheted a band around the elastic that is 5 1/2″ long. FO, leaving a long tail for sewing.

As you did on the other side, find the center of the shell, and with green yarn tail from band, sew band to white edge of shell. Tug slightly on the elastic and sew the elastic to the white edge. Fold down the elastic 1/4″ and sew across again. Trim away excess elastic.

Step 8: Turn your turtle into a mean King Koopa

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: How could I forget. You said it was so sweet that someone had knit a cozy for a tree.

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…

Finished size: 1 3/4″ x 1 3/4″

Materials:

Small amounts of worsted weight yarn in any two colors you like.

(For this pattern, I’ll call the lighter color A and the darker color B.)

Size 00/3.50 mm steel crochet hook

Tapestry needle

Instructions:

Wings

With A, ch 11

2 dc in 4^th ch from hook

Ch 3 and ss in next ch

Ch 4, 2 tr in next ch, ch 4 and ss in next ch

Ch 4, 2 tr in next ch, ch 4 and ss in next ch

Ch 3, 2 dc in next ch, ch 2 and ss in next ch

Fasten off, leaving a tail for sewing. Using the tail, loosely sew up the center of the wings. Work in ends.

Body

With B and leaving a tail at least 6″ long, ch 7. Sc in 3rd ch from hook, ss in each of next 4 ch. Fasten off, leaving another 6″ tail for sewing.

Finishing

Place the body on top of the wings so that the tail ends of the body and the smaller wings are on the bottom. Sew the body to the wings by using the left tail to sew the left side of the body and the right tail to sew the right side of the body. When you get to the head of the butterfly, tie the two strands together in a knot and trim to make the antennae.

5. Cute Overload

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.

1. Squirrel Fishing!

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!

Podge: There was this one hair that wouldn’t go straight so I thought I’d just trim it off. But then that made these other hairs look funny, so I trimmed them too. That made my whole tail all uneven, so I cut a little more… But it doesn’t look that bad, right?