Crocheting a Minecraft Creeper

Courtesy of Minecraft Wiki

I started crocheting a Minecraft Creeper near the end of Dec 2011. I got in over my head.

Creepier Side of the Creeper, no?

How could I resist Toytester Bob's vision? We both want to see crochet capture its pixelated look. 

This certainly complicates the crocheting: the color changes are frequent and random.


I pretty much only got the face done by Christmas. It was so slow-going back then that...I...lost heart. It's my first challenging crochet intarsia project. A project like this takes a unique kind of planning, as I'm finding out.

A little over a month has gone by and I've figured out how to go about it. I've crunched the numbers (of pixels, colors, yards per gram of yarn, etc). I'm re-inspired! Most importantly I can now track how far along I am (37%)--I thought it was barely 10%. No wonder I lost heart! 

Kitting it up

Another reason I initially lost heart is that I thought I couldn't make it portable. Today I'm "kitting up" the Creeper body parts. This makes it even more fun. They're grab-and-go little kits because I've learned that to have a fair chance of finishing this project, it must be portable. This means NOT lugging around 6 messy skeins of yarn, for example.

Ready to wind into butterfly bobbins

A plus is that the crochet stitches only have to look nice on one side. For a stuffed 3D figure--it will stand 8 inches tall--it needn't be reversible. I also won't be weaving in any yarn ends. If it were to become a Minecraft Creeper afghan instead (imagine!!), I think I'd still go about crocheting it the same way and put a soft fabric backing on it as for a quilt.

Another plus is that as crocheting amigurumi goes, this one is elementary geometry: just stack some 3D squares and rectangles. This means: zero shaping (increasing or decreasing stitches); I can crochet it in several flat pieces; all seams are straightforward; it's easy to calculate yarn amounts needed for each color.

When I first started this project I planned to blog my progress, for my own records and for others who wish to crochet a pixel-like Creeper. This means I have earlier blog posts in my head. To move forward from here instead, I'll just list the steps taken so far.

Initial attempt to make it quick & easy: variegated
camo yarn and diagonal box stitch (shown is
linked stitch version--to close gaps between the
stitches.) Toytester Bob reminded me that
a true Creeper has no shades of brown.

1. I picked the crochet stitch (single crochet in rows), yarn type (worsted weight), and construction (flat in rows then seamed; stuffed with foam blocks). I'd hoped I could just do the diagonal box stitch with variegated yarn! If so, I could have finished it in a few days. It didn't create the digitized look we wanted, though. Also, the taller double crochet stitches had gaps between the stitches, which let the stuffing show through. 

Courtesy of PlanetMinecraft.com

2. Once I accepted the jacquard-tapestry-intarsia-crochet challenge, I limited the number of colors to five, plus black. (For the record, a true Creeper appears to have more than 3 shades of green and 2 shades of grey). I used a mix of ToytesterBob-approved colors from my stash + whatever I could find in the three stores nearest me. I found the best color choice at the time with Vanna's Choice afghan yarn.

The 8 toes of the 4 feet

3. After crocheting the face I then crocheted all of the "toes" of the feet blocks. This was so that I could eliminate the skein of black yarn. The project page I created in Ravelry covers the first stage. 

4. Decide on bobbins or stranding. Yes I know: Step 4?? But until this stage, I wasn't sure if I should pick one technique: crochet over the other colors, or strand across the back, or use small cut lengths (bobbins). A mix of all three is working out the best in terms of uniformly snug stitches, clean color changes (I'm still learning though!), and ease of working. 

Whew.

5. Mapped out on the graph for each of 7 different types of pieces when bobbins are best vs. stranding, block by block! 

6. Measured best cut lengths of yarn for one block of color, a group of two, and so on. This was so that I could create bobbins for my portable kits.

7. Counted totals of blocks of each color to see if I would need more than one skein of each. I'll need another skein of the light green and the medium green.

Handmade Cords: Easy Crochet for Boys

This post is an update of one that I wrote in 2007. I'm writing an issue of my Crochet Inspirations Newsletter about crochet cords, braids, lanyards, etc., and how they work out well for boys and men too. 


Just sent it, here's the link! Crochet Inspirations Newsletter: Fancy Cords in 360º - http://eepurl.com/dBav1


At left is a simple lanyard that my son needed as soon as possible for his new school ID. I chained a bunch, then for Row 1: *hdc, ch 1, skip next ch, repeat from * to end of row.


It's holding up really well.


The 2007 post concerned a commemorative lanyard for a younger Toytester Bob, who was deeply involved in his new Nintendo DS Pokemon games. Here's another image of that lanyard that I photo-edited a bit for clarity:


A third cord I've crocheted for him might be called a fob? No--a tether. It is the simplest chain of extra-fine Jelly Yarn (r) in black (so that it looks like leather!) and it permanently tethers a special screen pen to a Nintendo DS XL device.
I'll upload a photo when I have day light!

Crochet Helps Make Chores Cheerful?

(Bottom of Bank)

 What is that?

Toy Tester Bob's endorsement, while looking back on his earlier years with Cheerful Chores: 

Toy Tester Bob

"It was fun and not complicated. It was easy to keep track of my money. It made me feel like I was earning something real because it was physical."

The basic idea: crochet as many "coins" as you need, a Parent Bank, and a Child's Bank (one for each child) using craft foam sheets and a small amount of colorful yarn. Everyone starts the day or week with some coins in each bank. Coins can be color-coded for each child to prevent accidental mixing. As the day or week goes on, the child can earn more coins, or may have to pay some fines or behavior "taxes." 

It's great for recycling containers, leftover yarns, and scraps of craft foam sheets. Older children who know crochet basics will enjoy helping with this project. 
I've created these site pages about this downloadable crochet pattern: in my Ravelry shop, and the original "Crochet Family Banking!" project record. It also has its own Flickr photo set (most of the photos in it are fully public; a few, such as the template images and assembly, are accessible via a link in the pattern).


I was inspired by the philosophy of these books: Playful Parenting (1993) and Playwise (1996), both written by Denise Champman Weston & Mark S. Weston (published by Tarcher in the USA). I wish I had developed it sooner. In my limited experience (with one son), I imagine it would have worked well when he was as young as age five or so; however, I started using it when he was age eight, after trying other methods. It gradually lost out to the power of real money by the age of ten or so. 

Best of all: It appealed to his innate good nature and strengthened it. It rewarded Toy Tester Bob for considering other family members. It seems that the fair-minded purity of a young child responds beautifully to the idea of "taxes" as a negative consequence, rather than some type of punishment.
Even a young child can understand that if s/he doesn't do chores, a different family member has to. The "tax" is the price the child pays to reward someone else for doing that chore. I found that this cultivates compassion and empathy for others. The real message is that one's actions impact others, and when you love your family, you want to be responsible.

Inside of Bank

I wanted to hold off on using the traditional weekly allowance system of real cash for several reasons. Using crocheted coins remove the risks of careless handling of real cash. When someone gave my son cash as a gift, he preferred that I convert it into crocheted money and I was very happy to do so!

Children aren't born taking real money seriously the same way that adults do, so they're likely to do crazy things like:
- Leave cash sitting out in the open
- Stuff it partially into little pockets with no awareness of when it falls out
- Make unequal trades; for example, give someone a dollar bill in return for five pennies, because the five "pieces" of money look like more than one "piece."

Other advantages of this system for a parent like me:

1. The “taxes” consequence is simple and easy for a child to comprehend. Parent sees real results faster, saving parent from that “wasted breath” feeling. 
2. It's low maintenance. Parent can see at a glance how child is doing. 
3. It seems to encourage saving! A pleasant surprise in my experience was that crocheted coins were rarely cashed in. Perhaps because there was something cozy and satisfying in the handmade coins themselves? They are pleasantly thick, so a stack grows in size quickly.

The appeal of this system for a child like mine:

1. It’s playful, cheerful, and tactile. It seemed to charm him into making better behavior choices. It also made character-building life lessons more enjoyable, less punitive and bossy. 
2. A crochet coin is big and colorful, so it feels like a lot of money to a young child. It seemed to change the experience of money, making it look and feel cozier, more substantial and satisfying. 
3. It's simple and easy to understand: adults forget how confusing and abstract money is. Teachers of young children know how much struggle it takes to distinguish and memorize the meaningful differences between seemingly look-alike coins and bills. During this developmental stage, Cheerful Chores served as a kind of money that Toy Tester Bob could relate to, and start to understand basic concepts about earning, saving, and budgeting.