Super Mario Crochet Blanket: Nearly Done

The End is NEAR!!!!!!!

The blanket is still in my possession. I need a full picture of the entire thing with the new border I finished up the other night. I also want a pic of my brother when I give it to him so ONE more post till the end! This is my progress this far on this 2 year journey:

TADA: Borderless blanket. 252 granny squares sewn together. This is the blanket hanging up from my shelf above my bed. Pardon the shoddy camera work.

Close-up, Please:

This is the first border I did. It was a double crochet in each stitch all the way around. It started to ruffle and that wasn't the look I was going for.

So, I frogged it:

I did it over again, following the same pattern as the granny squares. It wasn't the look I originally wanted, but it will have to do.

This is the way I originally attached the label. I didn't have any embroidery thread on hand so I tried using some really thin ribbon. It was awful.

The next day I went out and bought some felt, some embroidery thread, and I spent the better part of last night doing this. It took three attempts before I got to this point, and I was tired. I settled for this:

The "This Took Forever" label is courtesy of Sublime Stitching . They are way awesome and I got the label SUPER fast!

Craptastic Craft Gifts

Just a short little ditty today.

Just because you took the time out to make something special with your own two hands for a friend or family member, don't assume they are going to appreciate your thoughtfulness, your generosity of time, or the fact that you actually MADE something rather than snapping something off a store shelf.

Whenever I finish a gift, I'm often like that school kid, running home to show someone this work of art that I created, wanting their approval.

But, this is the real world and sometimes friends are just ungrateful assholes. Lesson learned: save the craft gifts for the people who will really appreciate it.

With that being said- my Mario Blanket is one night away from completion and I know my brother will be so excited!

The Boobie Beanie!!!!!!

So, I'm going to visit my friend's new baby this Friday and I wanted to bring something no one else has. My crafty netventures have brought up several variations of this boobie beanie. The one woman whom I religiously follow on YouTube actually has a video tutorial and a link to her blog with the written instructions. She did this pattern to promote breast-feeding mothers' rights.My buddy just so happens to be breast feeding her little one.

Luckily, I had the colors on hand and I delved into it last night.

My nipple came out sort of wonky, but the rest of it isn't too bad. I may make another one with a better nipple. And I'll take step by step pictures of my progress.

It's been a long time since I've posted something new. I'm glad I got hit with another bout of insomnia last night. I probably wouldn't have had to time to do this otherwise!

Wonky nipple. =( I should have gone a bit further with the dark pink color.

This is that awesome tutorial I was telling you about, and you can grab her written instructions there.

Granny Square Super Mario Grid

I received a few requests for a clean excel grid for the pattern for my Super Mario Blanket. (Still nearly done....don't judge me....I've had A LOT on my plate.) So, here's a picture without any of my X's in any of the boxes. It's a total of 252 colored squares.

If anyone wants the actual excel file, just shoot me an email and I'll send it over.

Happy Hooking to you all!!