I’ve started the Luigi pillow to compliment the Mario blanket I made for my nephew last year.  I’m nearly 7 rounds into it and it’s looking and going great.  My plan is to make just Luigi’s head and make it into a square pillow.  As I’m working now, I’m wondering if I should just continue and make it into a blanket.  It will probably be a pillow about 20″x20″.  The squares are pretty much the same size as the ones I made for the Mario blanket so it might be neat to have a companion blanket to Mario.  Still thinking on this I guess.

I took Luigi to a local knitting group and had a great time chatting while crocheting.  Seeing the projects of the other people was neat; all those knitters and their skills!  My knitting has taken a backseat to Luigi and a pumpkin amigurumi for a crochet-a-long.  This Sunday I’ll be passing on my new casting on and knitting skills to a friend so I’ll get more done on my project.  The way I learned and got comfortable with crochet was by crocheting squares for Warm Up America.  I realized this was a great way to start pattern reading and understanding the basics of knitting too.  I went to the WUA website and printed out the 2 pages of patterns for 7″x9″ squares.  I also visited Joann’s with a 40% off coupon and bought some size 7 needles as per the WUA instructions.  Needle Set Count: 2!  I’m looking forward to spending time knitting on Sunday, hopefully the weather will be nice, as we will be outside.

Back to my friend Luigi.  I started him on September 4th on a sunny afternoon.  I grabbed all my supplies and parked myself out on the deck to soak up some of the rays that weren’t getting into the house (read: house was chilly).  I’m using Caron Simply Soft in Light Country Peach for his flesh tone.  That was the most difficult aspect of starting this; finding the right color yarn for his face.  I didn’t want to use the same acrylic yarn as last year since that would turn out really stiff in Tunisian Entrelac.  The Caron Simply Soft is perfect!  It’s soft to the touch and flexible once it’s crocheted.  Sadly the other problem color I never managed to find in a similar texture yarn.  Luigi-green is also a difficult find.  I’m sure I could have found it online but since crochet (and knitting) depends on the texture and feel of the yarn I wasn’t comfortable just buying some perfect colored yarn online without touching it.  I ended up with Red Heart Super Saver in Paddy Green.  My husband and I went to all the craft stores this weekend: A.C. Moore on Saturday, Michaels on Sunday and then Joann’s on Monday.  Every visit and purchase was also made with coupons!  All my yarns were purchased at half price.  Buying the yarns I needed on a sale weekend was a goal I set once I decided on my crocheted gifts.  All my gifts should be covered for now.

The other day I realized that a pillow has 2 sides.  I should find another Super Mario theme item to put on the back.  I already have an amigurumi 1Up mushroom queued up on Ravelry that will most likely become part of the gift.  Any suggestions on what to put on the back of the pillow?  If nothing comes up as an idea it’ll probably just end up as blue like the background of Luigi will be.  Once I started adding the green squares Luigi started looking more like himself and I should be able to resist calling him Mario.  Luigi has turned into an obsession and I can already feel some aches in my body from sitting in the same position for too long.  I always try to break up crochet and other leisure activities with house chores.  After finishing a chore I have a little reward of crochet.  This works well; I get to crochet and the house stuff gets done.  It’s probably about time I work some more on Luigi…