Thumbs Down for Blendy Pens

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I went to a Kids’ Crafts Workshop (see – I told you I see a lot of kids’ crafts 🙂 with my kids this weekend. It was held at a craft store here, and it featured several different stations with a different product/activity at each station so the kids could get some hands-on experience. One of the stations featured Blendy Pens, and I have to admit that I’m baffled by the entire product. The basic premise is that you twist a double-tipped marker so that the two felt ends meet in the middle chamber, thus creating a marker that is now two colors instead of just one. Supposedly, twirls and swirls of color ensue when the marker is used on the paper.

Wrong.

It was difficult for little hands (and even my much bigger hands) to twist the pens to the point where the tips actually touched and blended the colors. Plus, what’s all the fuss about “blended” colors, anyway? Couldn’t kids get a similar effect just by using two different markers on the page? When you were in school, did you not try specifically to avoid letting your marker tips touch one another so that the pristine tips wouldn’t be sullied by a different color ink? (or was that just me? is that just one of my quirks? say it isn’t so…) I was completely unimpressed by the Blendy Pens. I’m betting they’re one of those ideas that sounded good on paper, but once they passed from theory into reality, it just didn’t hold up. Most importantly, my kids were unimpressed as well, so they get thumbs down from both mom and her child testers, who were bored and just looking out for the next activity.

I remember my daughter wanting to buy a generic brand of these pens at a local fair, we didn’t buy any but I did buy some online from ebay for 1/2 the price. She used them one or twice but then decided that blending pens didn’t actually do all those wonderful things, it was the lady who drew all those wonderful things.

Personally, I think these are better suited to older kids such as teens who need to work on creative titles for school projects etc.

Getting ready for back to school makes me think about pencil crafts, so let’s take a look at some pencil themed knitting patterns!

I recently made a pencil on a circular knitting machine, and it was a fun, quick, easy project that uses little bits of leftover yarn (and if you don’t have yellow you can make it a colored pencil using whatever color’s your favorite). And if you want to make a bigger version check out this pattern from Orange Olive Road on Etsy.

If you want to knit a pencil pillow by hand, check out Sketchy, available on Ravelry from Shana S. Cohen. This one uses worsted weight yarn and has two size options and the choice to make a pencil with an eraser or a colored pencil.

Pencil scarves seem to be the most popular kind of pencil knitting pattern, and there are lot of cute ones. This one from Cosy Craft UK mostly uses garter stitch, with some welts to add texture and what looks like an I-cord edging. It calls for DK weight yarn.

If you want to go all garter stitch try this version from Emsley Co Creations, which uses five colors of DK weight yarn and just a little shaping to make the point of the pencil.

There’s also this fun, mostly stockinette so it looks like it curls a bit, pencil pattern that looks like it’s worked in chunky yarn from Little Knits Studio. This one uses just a little garter stitch and easy shaping for the point.

If you don’t want a pencil scarf, how about some pencil socks? The No. 2 Pencil Socks from The Yarn Enabler are available from Ravelry and use five colors of sock yarn. They feature wide ribs to mimic the texture of a pencil and have options to be worked from the top down or the toe up.

Needs Sharpening by Alexander Walker is a free pattern on Ravelry that uses five colors of sock yarn to make a sort of shortie sock. The little bit of black at the tips of the toes inspired the name. These, too, can be worked in either direction and are available in three sizes.

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