Month: May 2014

SOOOOOOoooooo, I have to admit, I have been failing on the blog front here. Now that I have blog sponsors, I feel super guilty when I’m not able to blog regularly. I should probably foresee when I’m about to get busy and then invite guest-bloggers to help fill in the blanks, but sometimes all the deadlines rush up all at the same time, and you barely remember to eat or wash your face, let alone organize guest-bloggers!! I suddenly had 3 huge deadlines all coincide with one another (along with Etsy orders). I completed one project, am working on completing another right now (taking a quick break but need to ship it this afternoon), and have another one due in about 10 days. These are all kind of secret projects with companies you know, so I can’t really share progress updates. One of them is launching in June, one in July, and the other… I actually have no idea! Hehe. Project #1 is a _________  that I’m contributing crochet patterns to starring your favorite characters from  ____________.  I’m actually only finished with the first deadline for that but have to hold off on the rest of it because my other projects are due first! Project #2 is a __________ that I’m crocheting for ____________. They will be holding some cool sweepstakes and giveaways that are collabs with artist/designers, so you’ll have the chance to win some _________ -themed goodies. Project #3 is a little ________________ that I’m crocheting, which will be part of a new interactive website from your favorite TV show _______________.  When they approached me and sent me a little PDF of what the project was, and the cover page had our logos on it, ___________ x Twinkie Chan, I felt really excited and proud!! It’s physically a small project, but I’ve been taking it apart over and over again to get it juuuuuust right. Soooo, that’s what I’ve been up to and will be up to for a little bit longer! 😉 I hope you guys have a great weekend. I’ll actually be in a cabin somewhere for the next two nights to celebrate a friend’s 40th birthday. Hopefully I can relax a little mentally and not worry about __________, _____________, and __________ ! I will leave you with a sneak peek of the next Yummy You! scarf (if you follow me on Instagram, then you’ve already seen this)! I’m just waiting for our shipment to come in so I can put it in the store 🙂

If you liked what you saw in my Kawaii Box post…. you now have a chance to win a free box filled with next month’s goodies! What’s inside June’s box is a complete mystery!!! Maybe you’ll be the one to see what’s inside! If you missed my original post, I also just uploaded a video to YouTube, showing you what’s inside this month’s box. Enter to win with the Rafflecopter widget below! Good luck! And thanks to Kawaii Box for sponsoring this giveaway! a Rafflecopter giveaway

A lot of cute girls on Insta like TinyTangerines have been posting their adorable hula hooping videos lately! I would not have felt compelled to join this club, except my buddy from SuperGood also mentions hooping while watching tv, which seems to me a nice, mindless, easy way to sneak in a tiny bit of exercise without a lot of fuss (I don’t think I will try to learn tricks or fancy things). My buddy told me that hula hoops arrive in a somewhat surprising way, i.e. not in a shipping box, so I told her I would make a short vlog about getting, unwrapping, and using my hoop for the first time. Here’s the video! I’ve been so busy that I haven’t had time to use it aside from the 10 seconds I did in the video….but I have hope for me! 😛

Do you guys subscribe to any monthly goodie services? I’ve purchased Birchbox for my mom, and I currently subscribe to Graze cuz it’s snacks, and I know I’m gonna eat snacks! My buddies at Blippo.com now have a new, super cute, monthly subscription service called Kawaii Box! The service is $16.90 per month, and subscribers receive a box filled with hand-picked kawaii items from Japan and Korea. Boxes are shipped in the beginning of each month, and the shipping is absolutely free, anywhere on the planet! Each box includes 10-12 cute, original and licensed kawaii items. They asked if I would like to check out May’s box, and I said sure!

My little nephew turned 1! It’s weird to think he has been on this planet for a whole year already. I watched him eat his first taste of cake and frosting, and his reaction to the absolute wonder that is CUPCAKESSSSSSSSS was super sweet and funny. On his bday wishlist was a set of crocheted veggies. As a crocheter, my brain obviously told me to make these myself! Or at least something similar! A lot of the cotton yarn I was seeing was not super easy care (machine wash, but air dry), and I wanted the toys to be fully machine washable, so I used both Lion Brand Vanna’s Choice and Deborah Norvile’s Everyday Worsted. I test-washed them first by popping them into a delicate cycle with a low-tumble, and they came out just the same as they went in. I made a carrot, corn, eggplant, potato, mushroom, radish, and tomato. I think my favorite is the radish! Second favorite: potato! I packaged them in a cute little basket and wrapped it all up in clear cello, like an actual gift basket of food. I don’t know if he’ll actually play with them, but it was certainly a fun project! Hairy’s nephew really loved to play with fake food when he was younger, so maybe Ender will go through a fake food phase as well! I don’t know anything about babies, so I think these might be a bit big for him to hold (except by the greens/stems!), but I didn’t want to make them too small for fear him trying to eat any of it! Here’s a link to “crochet vegetable” on Etsy, and here is a link to “crochet vegetable pattern” on Etsy. People on Instagram asked me if I were selling these in my shop, but since so many on Etsy are doing it already, I feel like I should maybe step back on that one!    

It’s the 15th of the month, so it’s time to launch a new blog sponsor giveaway! Thanks so much to my generous sponsors for offering us these wonderful goodies! One lucky winner will receive:

Soooo we haven’t had a Y.A.P. Time (Yarn Appreciation Post) in, like, forever. I only ever made ONE. I’ll try not to go so long again! This Y.A.P. is brought to you today by our friends at Lion Brand Yarn, who so very generously sent me a beautiful box of new goodies! I have definitely wanted some time to play with Keppi ever since it came out. The color range is delicious and fun, and all the balls come with a pompom!! It’s been pretty hot this week, so the idea of playing with bulky yarns is kind of icky, but there are some new yarns and colorways in this package that are pretty irresistible if you want to start planning for Fall. My eye goes straight to the black and white skein of Country, which I’m not really familiar with, but I love how big and squishy it is! I vote we campaign for some pastel and candy colors for Country! Unique is another line I’ve never played with before, but is nice and chunky and comes in a range of painterly tweeds. There are a lot of yarns made by our favorite brands that sometimes don’t make it to the big box stores, so if you are a  yarn-lover, you should definitely check out yarn company websites, because they have a TON of yarn, and you can often purchase the yarn online! Wool-Ease Thick n Quick is definitely a favorite among a lot of Etsy sellers, and it looks like LB will be releasing some new colorways, like the grey and blue one pictured above. The written label says “Blue Jay 514,” which is not available on the LB site, yet, so we should all look out for some pretty new colorways for Thick n Quick! Have you ever worked with Hometown USA? It’s a bulky yarn that comes in a surprisingly wide range of colors now. In fact, I was a bit surprised at the range just now when I took a peek to find the link. Is it chunky enough to crochet an ottoman with!?? Maybe I’ll find out! In my photo, Hometown USA is the one with the hot pink and grey. I’m not sure which one of these I’ll use first, but I’ll be sure to keep you posted on any projects!

It. Was. HOT. TODAY!!! I know it gets way hotter in other cities, but this is pretty hot for us here at 90 degrees. Bibi was laid out on the floor, and when I touched her belly, it was super warm! The idea of getting dressed was a huge bummer, and I ended up throwing on this strange ensemble! Soup and Chips! Here’s the story behind the tunic top: It’s from Uniqlo maybe last year. I got the email for it, immediately went online to see it, and it was already sold out in my size. Hairy works somewhat close to the Uniqlo downtown, so I asked if he could pop in and see if they had one in the store. They had one more, and it was on the mannequin, and that’s what I’m wearing now! I don’t wear the tunic a lot, because I haven’t really figured it out. It seems kind of shapeless and weird to me without a belt, but I don’t own a belt that seems to make it look any better….! I need belt help! I’ve had the potato chip necklace for years. It’s by the wondermous Tatty Devine, and I think this style is so old that it’s no longer available, but there is a ton of other neato stuff on the website. I also bought one for Manda, which I think she never wears. I should auction that sucka off on eBay! RARE POTATO CHIPS. MY FAVORITE KIND! *** Soup yunic: Uniqlo, Chip necklace: Tatty Devine, Usamimi headbow: free with purchase from ModCloth, Belt: eBay, ankle socks: Sock Dreams, Shoes: The White Pepper

Last Christmas, Manda told me that she wanted to make her little sister something filled with inspirational messages, since lifting up our sisters and ladybuddies is always important! I had a bunch of mini toy capsules laying around (craft-hoarding has some real perks, like insta-make-a-project-for-a-present abilities) that I bought on Etsy a while ago (something like this), and I had been seeing TONS of DIY’s for faux gumball machines, so I decided to smash all these things together into one mega awesome present, and Manda totally loved the idea. We didn’t have time to get together to make this for Christmas, so we planned to make this for her sister’s birthday, which was last week.

I think some of y’all are thinking really far ahead for the holidays and already asking me to re-post the turkey tissue box cozy pattern :). I like your style! “In my family’s house, holiday time means Turkey Time! And you know me: I like my crochet decorations to be useful, so here is my pattern for a Turkey Tissue Box Cozy, complete with roasted veggie accents that you can turn into pins, hair clips, or magnets, plus a ruffled lettuce garnish that is actually a dish cloth. This tissue cozy will be a savory and festive accent for your home and is also a fantastic hostess gift!”

Here’s another crochet pattern I wrote for Michaels.com last year to promote their Loops & Threads line. The photo above shows yarns from KnitPicks (Brava worsted) because I think the colors are a bit brighter. But this pattern is really versatile, and any worsted weight yarn will do ya! I actually worked up a totally different jelly bean motif – worked in rows instead of rounds – a few weeks ago for a secret Yummy You! collab sample, so I may share that soon as well. (Is it weird to have two different patterns for jelly bean scarves? :P). “I recently polled my Twitter followers about what kind of crochet pattern they’d like to see for Easter. One gal said, “Something with jelly beans!” I loved this idea, so I designed this multicolored jelly bean scarf for you to wear on Easter egg hunts. Use the combination of worsted weight colors that remind you of your favorite jelly bean flavors. This pattern is the ultimate stash-buster—the more variety, the better!” New in: video tutorial on YouTube!  

Bread Loaf Letter-Organizer: That Thing You Never Knew You Needed…. Until NOW. I know this is late for Mother’s Day makers, but I couldn’t decide what to make my mom this year. I finally decided to attack this funny desk-top bread loaf last night! It’s a squishy adorable faux loaf to help you organize your mail, postcards, and stray pieces of paper. My video is more like a vlog than a tutorial, I think. I didn’t know how it would all turn out, and you can see me change my mind about certain things and try different methods for stuff. I hope it’s interesting and not frustrating :). In the end, I decided I would take this loaf apart, and use a styrofoam sheet in that center section, so that I can stab the wire arches through the crochet and into the styrofoam. This will aid not only in stability of the whole loaf, but also stability for the wires so that they’re not just swimming in Polyfil.  I would also use a stronger wire than jewelry wire, because jewelry wire is SO soft and malleable, but I need to do a bit more research on that. Without further ado… here is the free pattern (which I might keep tweaking later, who knows!).  

Last weekend, I met up with friends for brunch, and then we went to Japantown to shop and take photobooth pictures (and buy cupcakes!). At the New People building in JTown, I saw the most amazing varsity jacket with embroidery depicting tigers eating cheeseburgers. WHAT!! I was like, “WE ALL NEED TO BUY THIS JACKET.” Then, I looked at the price tag and said, “Okay, maybe we can all share one….” The brand was Aymmy in the Batty Girls. I’m completely in love with the whole spirit of the brand, based on a highschool girl named Aymmy who loves punk rock and zombie movies and either lives in the 50s or is obsessed with the 50s. I can’t read the Japanese on the site, so I don’t know the whole story, but they did translate it onto a piece of paper at the store, but I didn’t read the whole thing! They have a pop-up in the New People building, and you can see toooons of their products, from tshirts to jackets to cheerleader skirts to backpacks to rompers. So many goodies! Since the embroidered jacket was super out of my price range, I opted for the cheeseburger tshirt that I couldn’t stop thinking about. I probably could have left without buying anything, but then Mars grabbed the cheerleader skirt, and Steph grabbed the junk food romper, and I didn’t want to feel left out! I figured the shirt might not fit anyway, because Japanese clothes are small, and sometimes my arms don’t fit in the arm holes, but I guess it’s supposed to be a super loose-fit shirt, and my limbs fit in there just fine. SOLD! I paired my burger shirt with rolled up skinnies, sequins Converse, ruffle ankle socks, a high pony, and heart glasses. Super casual but super fun! I usually feel that skinny jeans and flat shoes make me feel squatty and chubby, but I think they just fit the theme too well! P.S. Stay tuned for my Mother’s Day present YouTube tutorial! The project is kinda out-there, but it’s what I’m actually making for my own mom :). Shirt: Aymmy in the Batty Girls, Jeans: Modcloth, Shoes: Converse (similar), Ankle socks: can’t remember, maybe F21 or ASOS?, Head Scarf: Modcloth, Burger scarf: made by me, Heart sunnies: eBay.  

I’ve been trying to think of a fun video tutorial to shoot for you guys for Mother’s Day presents, but in the mean time, check out these patterns from my archives! If you have any requests (I probably won’t do flowers/roses), leave a comment! I’ll probably start shooting a tutorial on Monday or Tuesday!) ****

  Hey, gang! Mark your calendars!!! I will be selling my goodies at Renegade Craft Fair San Francisco, July 19-20, 11am – 6pm, at the Fort Mason Festival Pavillion. I plan to bring old favorites as well as some new surprise ones! See you there!