pokemon

The great pokemon crochet project

16th January 2021 by Jax Blunt 1 Comment

For reasons, I need a creative project. I would like said project to be of interest to my family.

I believe I have found my project.

We are writing a list of pokemon we believe will be easy to crochet, then I will design patterns and crochet them.

I have ordered a pack of yarns in many colours from a local craft store that delivers, and we are discussing how crochet works, colours, sizes and designs.

Our current working list is a little long. Second run through with stars is for the easier shapes.

*sandshrew
cleffa
jigglypuff
oddish
*poliwag
*magnemite
*voltorb
pikachu
electrode
chansey
kabuto
snorlax
hoothoot
cleffa
igglybuff
togepi
*natu
marill
hoppip
wooper
unown
*teddiursa
*swinub
celebi
torchic
mudkip
seedot
shroomish
whismur
azurill
gulpin
swablu
castform
shuppet
snorunt
*spheal
luvdisc
cherubi
drifloon
bronzor
*munna
tympole
darumaka
litwick
fletchling
*rowlet
togedemaru
rookidee

I am aware that there are already patterns, pokemon available on etsy and so on. I don’t want to use those, I’m totally up for reinventing the wheel. And I need for these to be little easy things as my hands hurt. If you follow me on twitter or insta you’ll have seen that discussion, not going into that just now.

Should keep me out of mischief though.

Win a Christmas Pikachu

20th December 2014 by Jax Blunt 24 Comments

Who fancies a quick giveaway? As you may remember, we recently went to London for a screening of Pokemon the movie, Diancie and the cocoon of evil. There were fabulous goodie bags, and we ended up with a T shirt that doesn’t fit anyone, and an extra Pikachu. So I thought I’d spread a little Christmas cheer, and run a quick giveaway.

Hopefully there’s a Gleam widget showing up right there, and it’s straightforward entry with mandatory comment here on this blog post, shares for extra.

Christmas pokemon

Good luck!

Giveaway runs til 11.59pm 21 December 2014, prize winner will be emailed as soon as possible after that time, and prize is ready to be posted out on Monday if I get address details back. No guarantee can be made of arrival for Christmas I’m afraid, that will be up to Royal Mail! Prize is as pictured – one Christmas Pikachu, a cardboard hat, a red T shirt (age 7-8) and a tote bag with pokemon on it. As I’m posting, it’s UK entries only, age 18+, one per household.

While you’re here, why not check out my Angry birds giveaway too?

Pokemon driven home education

2nd December 2014 by Jax Blunt Leave a Comment

Today has been a craft and pokemon day.

Smallest made paper chains and was disappointed that I couldn’t find the instructions for the paper lantern craft. she also ran Pikachu battles.

Later on she started doing some drawing. Who’s that pokemon?

Small was very impressed by this artwork. So much so that he voluntarily came away from his screens to give drawing lessons.

I’m not sure how much she learnt from this. He learnt quite a lot about teaching and patience 😉

Being home with younger children and having time to interact with them is a bonus for the older children that often gets overlooked when we talk about home education. It’s easy to see how the little ones benefit, but sometimes we forget that it’s a two way street. The rigid age separation in schools isn’t beneficial for any children.

I love watching them together, particularly when it’s self directed like this. And when it’s not screen based. They do a lot of game playing together, but it’s nice to see other activities too. They’d be in completely separate schools with totally different lives if they weren’t home educated.

I prefer it this way, overall.

Pokemon, a parent's guide to the new Alpha Sapphire and Omega Ruby games

30th November 2014 by Jax Blunt Leave a Comment

Today we went to an exclusive screening of the new Pokemon movie, Diancie and the cocoon of destruction. This is linked with the release of two new games, Alpha Sapphire and Omega Ruby, available on the 3DS and 2DS handheld gaming systems from Nintendo. The games were available to demo, which made for two very happy children despite the very early, foggy start.

I should point out at this stage that I am not a Pokemon expert. But I am parent to one in training, he’s even working on his own website. Errors are down to me – he’s trying really hard to teach me correctly 😉

So, Pokemon games come in pairs. Black and white, X and Y, gold and pearl? This is designed to enhance trading – Pokemon games are very social. This new generation is built around the Aeon? ticket which can pass from game to game through the streetpass system. (I’m probably getting this all wrong. I should have taken notes from the very helpful demonstrator today!)

Alpha Sapphire and Omega Ruby are apparently a throwback (reboot?) of an earlier generation of games that came about following a conversation on Twitter between two of the designers Masuda-San and Omari-san and some fans. The two designers were there today, Small was massively awestruck.

I don’t quite understand how the film fits into all of this. It’s a full feature, with our heroes Ash and Pikachu, along with regular cast members and baddies such as Team Rocket. The story revolves around Diancie, a fairy type, who needs to find the power within itself to create a heart diamond. There are lots of bad guys interested in a Pokemon who can create diamonds and they inadvertently wake up the cocoon of destruction, who really isn’t happy about being disturbed.

There’s some mild peril (the 5 year old nearly ended up in my lap) and Pikachu is central to it (no spoilers, but no – not Pikachu!) but it’s generally heartwarming character building stuff, though I was kind of confused by the shopping interlude in the middle.

This is a game that’s going to find its way onto many Christmas lists – you can buy it pre-bundled with 2DS systems for younger children in red or blue to match the names eg Nintendo 2DS Transparent Red with Pokemon Omega Ruby I know one 5 year old who has her heart set on it, but I’m still trying to work out how I feel about her having a dedicated gaming system. I’d appreciate thoughts from either side of the argument!

I know Small also has his eye on the art academy, and that’s one of the games available on free download if you register a new consumer and specified game (either Pokemon or Super Smash Bros within a certain timeframe). In our goody bags there were also some paired figure sets, so I discovered a Pokemon battle going on in the kitchen table shortly after we got home!

Another Tomy figure we were given was Gengar: Tigerboy explains him here

There’s lots going on in the Pokemon universe, and it does seem to be mainly positive. There are strong moral messages in the film and the games, which are structured to enhance sharing and interaction. I have to say that I’ve frequently witnessed group gaming on DS consoles, as well as real life play based around the game structures, which makes me quite positively inclined towards them as a concept.

Still not sure about spending over £100 on a gaming device for a 5 year old though.

Who's that pokemon?

6th November 2014 by Jax Blunt 3 Comments

I don’t really get pokemon. But Small, Smallest and Tigerboy are fans, and watch it interminably. They also play various games on DS and Small does pokemon based art on the computer. He’s even setting up a fan site, which I would link to but I can’t find. (Must talk to him about search engines and visibility and stuff.)

And then Smallest wanted, oh so very badly, an Igglybuff. They found a papercraft site with templates, and I was happy for them to print one out and make it.

But.

Turned out we didn’t have any coloured ink.

So I saved the day by finding 4 sheets of pink card. Except that the template was already pink, and now all we wanted was the outline. So I suggested that Small employ his ninja photoshop skills and edit the templates. Except that even though the papercraft site is probably breaching copyright by designing all those templates, they’ve still locked the pdfs against editing.

Grrr. A few fruitless attempts to unlock later and I gave up. And somehow found myself offering to crochet an Igglybuff instead, as there was a pattern easily available. (I think it’s a bit sad that that site seems to have ground to a halt. I was kind of hoping she was going to manage to crochet all 700+ pokemon.)

Of course I couldn’t find any pink wool. Obviously. But we were on our way to a Halloween bash at a crocheting friend’s house – one frantic text later, and she sent me a picture of a very small and cute ball of wool.

So then this happened.

And this

and eventually, this.

(Mainly because I couldn’t resist doing my own version of the “who’s that pokemon” flash you get in the cartoons 😉 )

Now, this is what Igglybuff looks like.

And this is what my finished Igglybuff looks like.

I adapted the pattern and did different (smaller) hair, mainly because I was running out of yarn! I think mine looks more like the picture though. I also crocheted eyes, and embroidered the mouth and swirl. If I was doing it again, I’d use a slightly different construction for the body, as this has obvious joins where the increases and decreases are.

So, what do you reckon? Have I got a future as a pokemon crochet master?

Note: Smallest now wants a pokeball for her igglybuff. And Tigerboy wants a jigglypuff. And Small wants a gastly. Sigh.

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