Super Mario Sweater Vest

Knitting stitches are basically pixels, right? I took that idea to the extreme, and converted a screenshot of Level 1-1 from the original NES Mario Bros. game into a ginormous knitting chart made up of over 10 sheets of tabloid paper taped together, which I used to make a sweater vest for my video game-loving husband.

Remove these ads by Signing Up

Step 1: Stash up!

I used Palette fingering-weight yarn, from KnitPicks.com (http://www.knitpicks.com/cfyarns/yarn_display.cfm?ID=5420132). Please note, the sky colour I used two years ago has been discontinued so I tried to find a reasonable substitution in their current offering.

Pick up the following colours of Palette:

Sky (4 balls).
Masala (2 balls)
Cream (2 balls)
Black (1 ball)
Grass (1 ball)
Orange (1 ball)
Bison (1 ball)
Blossom Heather (1 ball)

Originally, I had to custom dye some white yarn to get the bright green for the pipes. Luckily, it looks like KnitPicks now offers a green that would be perfect, so also get:

Limeade Heather (1 ball)

malkon15 says: Feb 6, 2013. 7:25 AM

This is a really neat idea, however I didn't quite understand what knitting technique and gauge were you using. Is it intarsia?

happyseamstress (author) in reply to malkon15Feb 6, 2013. 8:12 AM

It's a combination of stranded knitting and intarsia. Basically, I used stranded knitting whenever there were short blocks of color (like in the bricks) and intarsia wherever there were large blocks of color.

doodlecraft says: Dec 3, 2012. 4:26 PM

I love it! Holy cow, I'm white and nerdy! :) I would love to see more step by step pics, but I get it! Thanks!

happyseamstress (author) in reply to doodlecraftDec 3, 2012. 5:28 PM

I'm so glad you like it :-)

HollyMann says: Apr 19, 2012. 4:14 PM

WOW! That is insane - in the best kind of way! How incredible - I had no idea you knit something so detailed!!! It is nerdy but SO cute!!!! Good job! I hope you win!