Crochet magic: Make a stunning witch doll for decoration

The art of crochet is a versatile skill that allows people to create various items, from clothes to accessories. One popular item that many crochet enthusiasts enjoy making is the witch doll. This unique creation combines the intricate stitches of crochet with an element of fantasy, resulting in an enchanting and whimsical doll. Crafting a witch doll with crochet requires a good understanding of different stitches and techniques, as well as creativity and imagination. The process begins with selecting the right yarn, which can range from simple acrylic to more luxurious materials like wool or cotton. The choice of yarn will depend on personal preference and the desired outcome.

Signs point to yes

Pata Sauti offers you a collection of wishes, messages, quotes, greetings, and saying for any type of relationship, occasion, celebration, and emotion. At first it will just look like an empty box, but when you put things in it, App Inventor will know that you want to line them up vertically one on top of the other.

The choice of yarn will depend on personal preference and the desired outcome. Once the yarn is chosen, the crochet artist starts by creating the body of the doll. This involves working in rounds, shaping the doll's head, body, and limbs.

Magic 8 Ball

This introductory module will guide you through building a Magic 8-Ball app with App Inventor. When activated, your 8-ball will deliver one of its classic predictions, such as "It is decidedly so" or "Reply hazy, try again".

Learning Goals

After completing this app, you will be able to:

• Navigate the App Inventor environment: Designer, Blocks Editor, Emulator and/or AI Companion on mobile device
• Correctly use the following App Inventor components: AccelerometerSensor, Button, Player
• Correctly use the following App Inventor concepts: making and using a list, responding to an event

Materials

• A selection of images and sounds are available at the App Inventor Media Library.

Outline

1. Set up computers and mobile devices or emulators. (Suggestion: do this ahead of time)
2. Part One: Click a Button, Hear a Sound
3. Part Two: Click the Button, Get a Prediction + Hear a Sound
4. Part Three: Shake the Phone, Get a Prediction + Hear a Sound
5. Suggestions for further exploration: Text-to-Speech, Rotating image, Custom prediction lists

Part One: Click a Button, Hear a Sound

The final Magic 8-Ball App will deliver a prediction from a list that you have designed. To get started, first we'll make a button with a picture on it, and program it to play a sound when the button is clicked.

DESIGN: App Inventor Designer

1. To open the App Inventor Designer window, open a new tab or window in your browser and go to http://ai2.appinventor.mit.edu. See setup instructions if you are not sure how to sign in.
2. If you have already made an app (such as Hello Purr), you will automatically be directed to the Designer with the last project you worked on showing. Click "Project" in the upper left corner of the screen and then "My Projects", which will take you to your list of projects. Click "New Project" and name your project something like "Magic8Ball" (note: spaces are not allowed).
3. Download one image and one sound file from below to be used in your app. Right click (control-click) on the link of the image or sound, then choose "Download" or "Save As". Save the media files to a convenient location on your computer that you will remember.
   • ChaChing Sound
   • Clinking Teaspoon Sound
   • Ta-Da Sound
   • Magic 8 Ball Image
   • Blank 8 Ball Image
4. On the left column of the Designer, you should see the User Interface Palette. Drag a Button component over to the Viewer (#1).
5. Set the Button image to an 8-Ball image:
   Click on your newly added Button to see its properties in the Properties pane on the right. Under Image click on the word "None. " and a small selection window will pop up (#2). Click the "Upload File" button and browse to where you saved the 8-Ball image. Select the file, then click OK to close the selection window. Click OK again on the properties pane to close the small popup window (#3).
6. Go to the Text property in the Properties pane and delete the display text of your Button component (#4).

BUILD: Blocks Editor

In the upper right corner of the Designer, click on the Blocks button.

You are going to tell your app how to behave when the Button is clicked. This is actually very simple in App Inventor, because the "code" for the program only consists of two blocks!

Once the Blocks Editor is open, there are several options running along the left side of the screen. We refer to these as a "Palette with Drawers".

Under Screen1, click on Button1. Drag the when Button1.Click block into the work area (#1). Then, click on the Player1 drawer, drag the Player1.Play block into the work area and insert it into the when Button1.Click block (#2). They will click together like magnetic puzzle pieces.

Your blocks should now look like this:

That's it! You've written the program for Part One of Magic 8-Ball. Now it's time to test that it's working right.

TEST: Phone/Emulator

You have now built an app! To test that it works, you either have to launch an emulator, or connect to a mobile device with the AI2 Companion. Go back to the Setup Instructions if you do not have a device or an emulator running.

Emulator: click on the picture, you will hear the sound play. Device: tap the picture, you will hear the sound play.

Note: If you don't hear the sound, first be sure you have the volume turned up on your device (or computer if using emulator). Also, make sure your device has an SD card. App Inventor stores media files to the SD card.

Part Two: Click the Button, Get a Prediction + Hear a Sound

Now that we've gotten the button to perform an action (play a sound), we want to extend that action to include giving the user a prediction. First we'll need two Labels: Label1 will display the instructions, and Label2 will display the chosen prediction. We'll use blocks to program a ListPicker to choose from a list of predictions. Each time the button is clicked, the app will change the text of Label2 to display the chosen prediction.

DESIGN: App Inventor

Go back to the Designer window in your browser and add some new things to your app.

From the Layout drawer, drag out a VerticalArrangement component (#1). At first it will just look like an empty box, but when you put things in it, App Inventor will know that you want to line them up vertically (one on top of the other).

Now it's time to go back into the Blocks Editor to program the components you just added to your project.

BUILD: Blocks Editor

Now for the fun part! You're going to make a list of predictions and program the button to pick one item from the list and display it in Label2. The Button will also still play the sound that you programmed in Part One. Here's how to do it.

1. From the Blocks palette, click on Label2 drawer to see all of its associated blocks. Drag over the green set Label2.BackgroundColor and insert it just above the Player1.Start block. Notice that the when Button1.Click block automatically gets bigger to accommodate the new block.
2. Clicking on the word "BackgroundColor" will give you a dropdown menu so you can change the property that is being set. Choose Text so your block will be set Label2.Text .
3. From the Built-In drawer, click on the Lists drawer. Drag over the pick random item block and connect it to the open socket of the set Label2.Text block.
4. From the Built-In drawer, click on Lists again, then drag out the make a list block and plug it into the "list" socket on the right side of the pick random item block.
5. From the Built-In drawer, click on the Text drawer, drag out a " " block and connect it to the item socket of the make a list block. Click directly on the space in the block. You can then type in text there. Think about the sayings you want in your list of predictions for the Magic 8-Ball. Type the first prediction into this new text block.
6. Notice after you plug in two text blocks, there are no more sockets to add more responses. To create more sockets, you need to click the dark blue mutator icon on the block. make a list is called a mutator block and thus can be expanded or shrunk by clicking the blue icon in the upper left corner. For a summary of mutators, check out the Mutators page

Blocks should look something like this:

You've got a Magic 8-Ball App! Now your app is fully functional and will predict the future with absolute certainty. Test out that this works, and then come back for some challenge tasks to make the app even more fun.

TEST: Emulator or Mobile Device

Emulator: Click on the picture of the 8-Ball, you should see one of your answers displayed in the Label2.Text field, followed by the sound. Device: Tap on the picture of the 8-Ball, you should see one of your answers displayed in the Label2.Text field, followed by the sound.

Part Three: Shake the Phone, Get a Prediction + Hear a Sound

Even though you have a working Magic 8-Ball app, there is a way to make it even more fun. You can use the AccelerometerSensor component to make the phone respond to shaking instead of responding to a button click. This will make the app much more like a real Magic 8-Ball toy. Note: This part can only be done with an actual phone or tablet equipped with an accelerometer. If you are using an emulator, skip this part and go to Challenge 1 instead.

DESIGN: App Inventor

Go back to the Designer. From the Sensors drawer, drag over an AccelerometerSensor component. Notice that it automatically drops down to the non-visible components area of the Viewer window. This is the only new component you need, so go on over to the Blocks Editor to change your program.

BUILD: Blocks Editor

1. From the Blocks palette, click on AccelerometerSensor, then drag out the block for when AccelerometerSensor.Shaking .
2. Disconnect all of the blocks from inside the when Button1.Click block and move them inside the when AccelerometerSensor.Shaking block. NOTE: you can move whole sections of connected blocks by clicking on the uppermost or leftmost block and dragging it. The connected blocks will come with it.
3. Delete the when Button1.Click block to keep your work area tidy.

The blocks should look something like this:

TEST: Device/Emulator

Device: When you shake the phone it should show an answer and play a sound.
Emulator: Unfortunately, you can not simulate shaking the phone when using the emulator.

Package the App to Your Phone!

Your app would disappear if you were to disconnect your mobile device from the App Inventor. This is because the app is still stored on the App Inventor server and not on your phone. Follow these instructions to package your app to your phone or to make an ".apk" file that can be installed on any Android phone. Or, if you want to make your app even cooler, try the challenges below.

Challenge 1: Make the Magic 8-Ball Speak

Instead of (or in addition to) making the prediction appear as text, can you make the 8-Ball speak it aloud? Hint: the TextToSpeech component is under the Media drawer in the Designer. Note: Most Android devices have the text-to-speech (TTS) capability, but if you have trouble getting the TTS component in App Inventor to work, you may need to find out how to install TTS and/or enable TTS on your device.

Suggestions for Further Exploration

• Make the image rotate when the phone is shaken or have several images that the app rotates through while the phone is shaken. You could use this technique to make it look like the triangle piece inside the 8-ball window is surfacing. You could also make different images for different predictions and display the correct image for each prediction.
• Make a similar app but for a different purpose. The phone could be used in place of dice or yahtzee letters. It could simulate a coin toss or a random number or color generator for investigating probability.
• Ask end users to add choices to the list of predictions (See Make Quiz tutorial).
• "Crowd source" for prediction choices: allow people to send text messages and have the app add them to the list.
• Make the 8 Ball app a "server" so that anyone who sends a text to it will receive a text message prediction in return.
• Completely change the list to humorous choices (e.g. an app for teacher to use when a student has an excuse for not doing homework), or for useful purposes like randomly selecting a name from amongst people in the class.

Done with Magic 8-Ball? Return to Curriculum (Teacher Resources) or Tutorials.

Scan the Sample App to your Phone

Scan the following barcode onto your phone to install and run the sample app.

Download Source Code

If you'd like to work with this sample in App Inventor, download the source code to your computer, then open App Inventor, click Projects, choose Import project (.aia) from my computer. , and select the source code you just downloaded.

The stitches used can vary, but commonly used stitches include single crochet, double crochet, and slip stitches. To give the witch doll its distinctive features, the crafter will add details such as a pointed hat, long hair, and a broomstick. These details are created by strategically placing stitches and using different crochet techniques, like increasing and decreasing stitches. The doll's face is often embroidered or painted on, adding a touch of personality to the finished product. The final step in creating a witch doll with crochet is adding any additional embellishments. This can include crocheted accessories like a cape or a potion bottle, as well as attaching trinkets like beads or charms. These finishing touches add depth and character to the doll, making it truly unique. In conclusion, crafting a witch doll with crochet is a creative and enjoyable process that allows crochet enthusiasts to combine their love for the craft with a touch of fantasy. The doll's intricate stitches and attention to detail result in a whimsical and enchanting creation. Whether displayed as decor or given as a gift, a crochet witch doll is sure to delight and captivate..

Reviews for "Level up your crochet skills with a witch doll project"

1. Emily - 2/5 - I was really excited when I received this witch doll, as it looked adorable in the pictures. However, upon opening the package, I was disappointed to find that the doll was poorly made with crooked stitches and uneven proportions. The material used also felt cheap and scratchy to the touch, which was not what I was expecting for the price I paid. Overall, I feel like the quality of this product does not match its price tag, and I would not recommend it.

2. David - 1/5 - The witch doll crafted with crochet was a complete disappointment. The doll looked cute online, but when I received it, it was nothing like I imagined. The colors were dull and faded, and the facial features were poorly embroidered. Additionally, the stuffing was uneven, making the doll look lumpy and misshapen. It's clear that not much attention to detail was put into making this doll. I would not recommend purchasing it.

3. Samantha - 2/5 - I was really looking forward to adding this witch doll to my collection, but unfortunately, it fell short of my expectations. The craftsmanship of the doll was subpar, with loose threads and uneven stitches throughout. The overall design and appearance were also lacking, as the doll looked nothing like the pictures online - the colors were dull and the facial features were poorly defined. The price seemed high for such a low-quality product. I wouldn't purchase this doll again.

4. Daniel - 1/5 - This witch doll was a disappointment in more ways than one. The crochet work was sloppy and full of mistakes. There were loose threads sticking out all over the doll, making it look unfinished. The doll was also smaller than expected, and the colors were nowhere near as vibrant as they appeared in the pictures. Overall, this doll did not meet my expectations and was a waste of money. I would not recommend it to anyone.

The joy of handcrafted toys: Crocheting a witch doll