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This crochet worgen will growl its way into your heart
World of Warcraft's worgen aren't always friendly, but in the case of this crochet worgen we can confirm cuddliness. WoW player Venuz created this little guy for a WoW craft swap and we've got to say he looks true to in-game worgen, if on a more diminutive scale. Venuz has been crocheting for about 20 years now -- it's her favorite hobby outside of WoW -- and created the pattern for this worgen from scratch. So what's next on the crafting agenda? Venuz says she'd like to make an attempt at a crochet orc. We have a full-sized image of this crafty creation after the break or you can check out Venuz's gallery on Imgur.
World of WarCrafts: Make your own amigurumi baby murloc for charity
This article has been brought to you by Seed, the Aol guest writer program that brings your words to WoW Insider's pages. Editor's note: Elizabeth Harac, creator of this amigurumi murloc, makes these adorable critters for a charity she established, Hands of Hope, which designed to help inspire and empower children in third-world countries. Read more about Hands of Hope, and join us after the break as Elizabeth shares the pattern along with a step-by-step photo guide on how to make your own amigurumi baby murloc. I have been doing various needlework since I was a child and Mother was trying to keep me still for more than five minutes. Last October, I had the idea that since needlework taught me a lot of things -- like self-confidence, purpose, planning, and relaxation -- it might be helpful as a skill or hobby to other people. I had seen a TV segment about a sewing program in the projects somewhere and how the confidence the girls had gained was flowing into schoolwork and other areas. My original idea was just to find ways to teach needlework to girls in third-world countries where they could use the skills to also raise money for themselves. I needed to make money to make embroidery teaching kits, so I started making amigurumi and selling them. Then I met Betty Makoni. She was a CNN Hero 2009. She runs the Girl Child Network Worldwide. She rescues girls in Africa who have been raped, abused, sold into slavery, forced to be child brides and worse. She loved the idea of the embroidery. In May 2010, we sent 52 kits to Zimbawbwe, and we have requests now for hundreds more. The girl are teaching each other; they are making clubs and using the time to talk about dreams, planning how to reach them, and working through the trauma of abuse. As a victim of rape and abuse myself, my heart went out to these girls.
World of WarCrafts: Tanking tough with arigurumi meanie
World of WarCrafts spotlights art and creativity by WoW players, including fan art, cooking, comics, cosplay, music and fan fiction. Show us how you express yourself by contacting our tips line (attention: World of WarCrafts) - not-for-profit work only, please.How cute can a malign Death Knight really be? Apparently, if she's a Gnome Death Knight done up arigurumi style - pretty darn cute. Espyr of Sen'jin-US shared this gift she crafted with love for her boyfriend's pocket tank, Pipps. Apparently the character behind this meanie began her illustrious career as a Warrior but has transformed into something ... biggah (in spirit, at least). "Interestingly, he has continued Pipps' story so she has 'become' a Death Knight (on another server, Steamwheedle Cartel), and outside of WoW, he has written short stories about her younger life, being raised by Dwarves," Espyr says. "I love that he can tell her whole story. It's really interesting, I think, because he really thinks it out."
World of WarCrafts: Crochet Boomkin
Every Thursday, Shelbi Roach of The Bronze Kettle guides you in creating WoW-inspired crafts using real world mats with World of WarCrafts.Almina of <Sisters of Mercy>, an alliance guild member on the Gurabashi server and a fellow Texan, has created an epic crochet replica of the awesomest druid form in the game.Almina created a Crochet Boomkin for her father who happens to live out of state, but stays connected with his daughter by way of Azeroth. She didn't have a pattern to work from but managed to produce this impressive specimen nonetheless. Check out the in-progress and final product pictures here.
Show and Tell: Hook it
There's no denying that many of the best DS accessories and Nintendo crafts we've seen have come courtesy of someone's mad crochet skills. From cases to bits of cutesy fluff, there's a lot that can be done with a crochet hook and a little yarn. This week, we're going to take a longer look at the magic behind some of our favorite Nintendo crafts. Take the guided tour, or just jump right into the gallery below.%Gallery-32457% Show and Tell is all about fan stuff, so long as it's Nintendo-related. We love to see your collections, your crafts, your frosted creations, your t-shirts and swag of all sorts. Just snap a few pictures, tell us what's up, and send it all to showmeit [at] dsfanboy [dot] com. We'll take care of the rest. Not a handy type, but found something neat? Send us a link instead.
Made in Azeroth: Arts and crafts inspired by WoW
How can we amuse ourselves while we wait for Wrath of the Lich King to come out? One word: geekcrafts. Sure, you could go to Jinx or CafePress and buy some stickers or T-shirts, but then again there's all that waiting, what with the shipping and everything. Plus, although somebody made it, they didn't make it. By which I mean, it wasn't crafted. So, you know, it's like a BoE item instead of an engineers-only item. Am I making any sense yet? No? Hm. Okay. Let me try again. Idle hands are the devil's workshop, so pick up some art supplies and start learning a new hobby. By way of inspiration, take a look at some of these cool things other people have crafted from their love of WoW.
Link makes an epically cute craft
Link looks awfully adorable in amigurumi form, so we're grateful to Artoo1121 and her boyfriend for bringing such a cute craft into the world. What really gets us, though, are all the mini accessories that come along with this crocheted wonder, like the Hylian Shield, the Master Sword, the Lon Lon Milk, and (last but not least) the ocarina. Artoo1121 is also working on a Zelda to match up with Link, which will be impressive if it even comes out half as nice. You can also check out her Flickr set here to see more pictures of this craft if you happen to like it as much as we do.[Via Technabob]
Show and Tell: With love from Mom
In honor of this past Mother's Day, we wanted to share reader Manoel's case with you. Why? Because it was made with tender loving care by his obviously wonderful mother. Aren't moms great? So, uh ... hey, Mom, you want to dig out your crafts box and put some yarn to good use? Hit up the gallery below for a closer look at the case, which is really well-made. We've seen a lot of DIY cases, and while many of them look really good, the simplicity of this case, definitely won us over. Probably because we're utterly hopeless with crochet hooks and knitting needles. Can we get a training game or something for that?%Gallery-22925% Show and Tell is all about your stuff, so long as it's Nintendo-related. We love to see your collections, your crafts, your frosted creations, your t-shirts and swag of all sorts. Just snap a few pictures, tell us what's up, and send it all to showmeit [at] dsfanboy [dot] com. We'll take care of the rest.
Super Mario Afghan
We like this new trend of people crafting game-related afghans. First it was with Tetris, and now with a scene depicting one of our favorite plumbers (Mario, obviously). This particular blanket was made by ThomcatDesigns, who have earned our complete respect for their (his? her?) mad crafting skills. The detail in this makes it look like it came right out of one of our favorite NES classics.Check the gallery to see the chronological progression of the afghan as it was created. It's pretty amazing to watch it turn from a mess of yarn into a masterpiece.%Gallery-20628%[Via Technabob; pictures via thomcatdesgins' Flickr account]
Crochet-Out!! with Little Mac and Mike Tyson
We can't help but love Little Mac, the quintessential underdog. If seeing him on your virtual console isn't enough, though, how about seeing him around your neck in the winter? You may have also noticed that this scarf has Mike Tyson's big mug on it, so you won't have to settle for Mr. Dream. Realistically, we know you won't buy this -- after all, the scarf is a whopping $175 on Etsy. Still, we admire the craftsmanship that went into Beatboxtaun's crocheting, and we hope you do, too. We only wish we had such skills ourselves, so that we didn't have to drool over these kinds of things on Etsy all the time.In our opinion, this definitely beats out the Punch-Out mat for the best craft featuring Little Mac (that we know of).[Via Technabob]
It's dangerous to put your teapot on the table alone! Take this.
We actually don't know if this cute Zelda crochet block would be a suitable insulator for teapots (and also we're fairly in the dark about the scale of the thing), but it certainly looks the part. Maybe you can set your DS down on it, to keep it safe from that hard old table. Or you can just make it, and look at it to remember the good times you had 1) playing Zelda games, and then 2) making this crochet block.There's a diagram available for this extremely cute project at the link (not the Link, but the ... you know), to facilitate your own nerd craftery.[Via Wonderland]
Crochet Mario has a nemesis
The biggest threat facing Crochet Mario on his adventures? Why, that would be Crochet Piranha, lurking silently in its Crochet Green Pipe, waiting for the right moment to emerge, bow its head, and release fiery balls of death.This Piranha Plant is the work of Etsy user michellerheaume, the same crocheter (yes, we had to check that) behind Crochet Mario. At $80, it's a little more affordable than Mario, and arguably even more desirable. Nevertheless, it's still going to take a little more to impress us from now on. Like an entire troupe of crocheted Goombas and Koopas. That is sent to us.[Via Hawty McBloggy]
You've never seen Mario so soft
We're often amazed by the amount of talent and dedication that some Nintendo fans have. We can't even imagine how long it must have taken to knit crochet such an accurate looking Mario softie.Even so, we wouldn't pay $100 for a doll the size of our hands (even though it also comes with four brooches). If you would, though, you should visit michellerheaume's Etsy shop here. You might as well throw a couple of bills our way, too, if you have that kind of money. We won't knit you anything, but we can send you some trash from the street and name it "Mario," if that would help.[Via Tokyo Mango]
Show and Tell: Getting crafty
We thought it might be nice to take a break from giant, heaping game collections (because we have more!) for something a little more low key, like this case made by reader Audrey. The low key color scheme looks pretty nice with the black DS Lite, and we like anything that snuggles our handhelds. Now we kind of want to hire her to make cases for us. She has a whole set on Flickr called "Things I made," and if you're into crafts, it's worth perusing. Are you crafty? Are you proud of your game-related stuff? You too can be in this spot, with everyone cooing over your awesome gear and swag. Just take some pictures and send them to showmeit [at] dsfanboy [dot] com, and we'll take care of the rest. We've gotten lots of great submissions so far, but we always want more! Big collections, small collections, random items, your beloved DS -- take some photos and send them to us, and your stuff just might turn up here.
WoW Ladies community, mods come out from hiding
The WoW_Ladies livejournal group is one of my very favorite WoW communities, so I was disappointed to see last week that their latest posts were closed to everyone but members of the community. They'd been dealing with an expanding audience lately (brought on partly by attention from WoW Insider), and apparently there were a few issues arising among the membership.But the community has started posting again (bringing about this completely awesome crochet Draenei), and the mods (formerly pretty unknown-- I've been watching them for a while, and I had no idea who was in charge over there), have made a very public statement about the future of WoW_Ladies. In addition to taking a more high-profile position, they have said that the recent closing was not their choice, but rather either a glitch, or the work of someone not a mod. And they've landed on a great compromise: all posts will be public by default, with an option for each poster to lock them to the community only. They've also made the very great choice of leaving the community open to men-- some men with significant others, they say, "like seeing the women here post - it helps them identify with their partners and helps them get ideas on how to join." Personally, I completely appreciate a place where a woman's perspective on the game gets placed front and center, rather then consigned to a minority, as in many other games media outlets.The other good news is that they're working on a brand new layout for the community, so it seems like things are jumping over there. We're glad to see they made it through the drama, and are back as one of the most intelligent and interesting groups in the WoW community.
iPod cable managment via crochet
All this time I have been trying to avoid getting my iPod headphone cables knotted, but it seems that the key to tangle free headphones is in the knot. At least, if you know crochet or can follow these instructions at Instructables at least. These instructions are bound to delight some, and anger some but I thought it was a rather cool idea.Check it out.
