FAQ/Information Post

My first post on this blog outlined most of the background to this scarf, but I wanted to keep a running list of questions I've gotten about the scarf and stuff in general.

• What materials are you using?
  All of the yarn is Cascade 220, which is 100% Peruvian highland wool. It's not as soft as other wools, but it has great stitch definition and a multitude of colors, which made matching yarn colors to the game colors quite easy.
  
  I'm currently using the aluminum US 8/5mm needles I started the scarf with, but plan to switch to some less-slippery needles soon (they were being used in another project).
  
  
• This looks so complicated! How long have you been knitting?
  I initially learned how to knit in high school. Knitting and crocheting became popular one year that I was in color guard (shout out to NHS marching band, what what) and so I bought a book from Michaels. I stopped for about two or three years and retaught myself with videos from KnittingHelp.com. That website has taught me EVERYTHING I know about knitting. I learn from demonstration and practice and watching videos was extremely helpful.
  
  In particular, the video about intarsia knitting helped me so much when I was just starting this scarf. And even though this scarf is all stockinette stitch (knit front side, purl back side), it still drives me batty. I truly believe a beginner knitter could accomplish something like this.
  
  
• What type of camera do you have?
  I take all current pictures with a Nikon D40. I can't remember what some of the older pictures were taken with, but obviously the D40 is superior to whatever I was using.
  
  
• The scarf looks pretty basic right now/Where's Mario?/Where are the details?
  I love Cascade 220, but it's a little too thick to knit a wearable scarf with every single detail knitted into this scarf. Like I said in the first post, my initial layout was crazy wide. My plan is to go back and add details on top of what is there. Mario will be added later because I haven't quite decided how I want to place him. Someone suggested that I make him detachable so that he can "jump" around the scarf. Who knows. When I finish the length of the scarf I will put in all the details: question marks, coins, goombas, turtles, etc.
  
  
• Is there a pattern for this?
  There is no pattern for this scarf. In hindsight a little more planning might have helped, but I'm really bad about planning stuff out anyway. (I mean, come on, I majored in English. Do think I ever did a paper more than 48 hours in advance?) Using a map from Ian Albert's website I've been "free-handing" the image.
  
  Honestly, I can't think of any particular reasons why I chose to do this other than laziness and because I had to shrink the sky part of the image. It's frustrating because I don't have a set way of doing clouds or bushes (although several commenters have pointed out that clouds and bushes are the same, just different colors) and it leaves a little to be desired in the area of consistency.
  
  To those who want me to give them my pattern... sorry. Try knitting a swatch with a few of the main elements from the image for practice and go from there. You'll be surprised at how easy it is to translate 8-bit images to knitting.
  
  
• Do you plan on making more Mario scarves to sell?
  First off, do you think I have the time to make another one of these? Buy me a knitting machine and then we'll talk.
  
  Secondly, I'm certain that it's illegal to sell something with copyrighted characters on it without permission from the owner of the image. I realize people go ahead and do it all the time, but I live with the biggest video gaming geek in the world who's about to go to law school for intellectual property law. Best that I not do anything like that any time soon.

What else does the Internet want to know? I think I covered some of the main concerns, but I'm just one person and I'm sure I missed something. The email address for this blog is themario scarf [at] gmail [dot] com. Drop me a line, fool.