Month: June 2016

Do you have your outfits planned for 4th of July weekend?? Stars and stripes are always a staple, but I also think that fun, summer-time themes, LIKE POPSICLES, are cool, too! This lil popsicle dress was sent to me by Unique Vintage. The brand is Sourpuss Clothing, and this is a size medium. I think I could have gone down to a size small, and I also think that this dress might be better suited for a gal with boobins. I’m a AA cup, so I don’t have a lot to fill any dress, but I could definitely see some loose cloth in the armpit area that I tried to pin down with my arms in these photos (and that I might try to talk Manda into tailoring for me)! Aside from some slight fit issues, this dress could not be more colorful or cute! Fit-n-flare is a definite favorite of mine, and I think it’s flattering on lots of different body types. Plus, it’s perfect for twirling. The print on this dress even inspired me to crochet a little bear-shaped frozen treat: a frozen banana dipped in chocolate (it’s white chocolate with blue coloring!) with some marshmallow and chocolate drop decorations to make his face. Pardon my un-polished finger nails. I decided to give them a little break. (Is that something we need to do? It seems like a good idea?!) I’m also a huge sucker for ric-rac, and the candy blue trim here does not disappoint! It’s on the back, too. And in case you crocheters were wondering, I’ll be posting the crochet pattern for the frozen banana bears hopefully tomorrow!! I have the pattern finished, but I need to make another bear so I can shoot some step-out photos. It’s actually a really quick and easy pattern. Just make sure you have a popsicle stick! ***** Dress: c/o Unique Vintage, Shoes: Iron Fist, Necklace: Athina LaBella Thanks, Unique Vintage, for sponsoring this post! Check out their other amazing dresses here!

Interviewers often ask me about my crochet design process, and I tell them that I always start off with a sketch. Sketching my ideas in Photoshop helps me figure out the colors and basic shapes I want to use. Afterward, there is of course a lot of trial-and-error during the actual crocheting, but the sketches definitely help me start! I am not a graphic designer or artist by any means (I think I say this a lot), so these sketches aren’t amazing works of art. They are basically the stick-figures and smiley-faces of the art world, but that’s all that I need! The simpler, the better. When I sold Crocheted Abode A La Mode, most of the patterns and projects didn’t even exist yet. They were figments of my imagination. Before I started the designing and writing of the book, my publisher asked me to send them sketches of everything. I saved them and thought it would be fun to share them with you!

I originally wrote this pattern to appear in Craftseller Magazine out of the UK, but apparently the magazine doesn’t exist anymore, and neither does the link to my free pattern! Thanks to a reminder from one of my readers, I’m posting it here now. The pattern is super easy, great for beginners, and you’ll have a plate full of delicious sandwich cookies in no time!

Earlier this week, I had dinner with Elysse in Oakland. I’d been feeling pretty dumpy and gross the previous week, so I decided to try to actually, like, WEAR some of my cute dresses this week. I tend to get lazy and just snap phone pics for Instagram instead of taking actual outfit photos, so maybe one day I will get some better quality pictures of this outfit BECAUSE I LOVE IT. At first I was looking for fun dresses to wear to a wedding I went to last month in Hawaii. I ordered this flamingo wonder from Tallulah’s Threads, which is based in the UK, so I didn’t get it in time (no fault of theirs, just bad timing on my part!). Oddly, I decided to wear this on a totally gloomy day here in SF. So once I got on this flamingo kick, I really super wanted A FLAMINGO PURSE. I googled around and found this gem on Etsy. I really loved it, but I didn’t know if I wanted to spend money on something I could probably make, since I actually have some lawn flamingoes leftover from an old craft fair display. I also thought about crocheting one. But knowing myself, I have a million crochet projects to finish, so I just went ahead and purchased this one to support the originator. It’s pretty terrific and also feels like a new friend. Now I want to hunt around for more cute flamingo stuff! Dress: Tallulah’s Threads, Purse: EyeCandySugar

It’s……….. monthly blog sponsor giveaway time! Thank you so much to my lovely and generous sponsors for this month’s prizes. ONE winner will receive:

When I was at Vogue Knitting Live last month, I got to have lunch with my friend Janice who blogs for Red Heart Yarns. We chatted about crocheting, the crafting life, and my new book. Thanks so much, Janice! Hope to see you soon! You can check out the interview here!

This is my fourth and final bento box lunch that I made for the JapanLA 10th Anniversary party and Super Kawaii Food Art Show! (Box #1, Box #2, Box #3) I actually had something different planned for my fourth box, but I wanted all the boxes to look cute together as a group, and my initial idea had too much white in it, and I had already made the boiled egg chicks. So the bear hamburger was born! Burger Bear with Fries. Or Hambearger. (Which name do you like better?) I was trying to make the burger as thin as possible, but his face is still pretty smushed up against the window. He has a top bun, a meat patty, and a bottom bun. It actually took me a while to decide on fries. At first I wanted to do tater tots! But I wasn’t sure they’d read well due to not really having a yarn color I loved. I also thought that fruit salad would be cute as a color contrast, but in the end, classic french fries won, and I think they turned out cute!

Socksmith asked if I wanted to check out some donut socks, and OF COURSE I said yes, and seriously, I love them so much! These socks come in mint or black, and I requested mint to go with all my pastel clothes. At the time, I didn’t realize that Socksmith was a company local to me, not far in Santa Cruz. This also meant that my socks arrived super quickly! Instead of putting together an outfit with the socks (which I’ll probably do later anyway), I decided to try wearing them with different shoes. I immediately thought or clear jelly sandals to show off fun socks! But I also thought they would look sweet with a little white t-strap. If you know me at all, you know I’m usually in some sort of black stompy boot. Even with a darker outfit, these socks are still a fun wink of color. And these silver boots? Okay, I NEVER wear them, except for maybe an 80s costume night. Frankly, they are really uncomfortable, even though they are super amazing. But I like to whip them out at random fun times. Like donut sock times! And lastly, I just treated myself to these amazing pink poodle shoes. I think the donut socks and the poodle shoes were made for each other. As you can see in this last photo, the socks are a teeeeensy bit big on me (I’m a US 7 1/2), but I think that popping them in the wash will fix that right up. After poking around the Socksmith site a little, I realized I already have the macaroni and cheese socks. I also have my eye on the fawns, the soft serve, the watermelons, the gingerbread house, the roses, and the teddy bears. There’s both a women’s section and a men’s section, knee highs, over the knees, shorties, and more. You can shop online or find a store that sells them near you!   ***** Donut socks c/o Socksmith, Sparkle Jelly Shoes: eBay, White T-Straps: ModCloth from a few years ago, Black Boots: UNIF, Silver Booties: Irregular Choice from years ago, Pink Poodle Shoes: Irregular Choice.

Heres Box #3 from my Bento Box series for the JapanLA 10th Anniversary Party and Art Show. (Box #1, Box #2) This is boiled egg chicks on noodles with edamame and carrots. At first, I was going to make peas and carrots, but I got bored of making peas and wrote an easy edamame pattern instead :P.

One of my blog sponsors, Violette Loveace of Knit Kritters, contributed five knit patterns to the soon-to-be-released book “Knit Beanies: Easy to Make, Fun to Wear,” which you can pre-order on Amazon.com as well as in the Knit Kritters shop if you’d like a copy signed by Violette. You can also enter to win your own copy (plus a finished hat!) via the Rafflecopter widget below! I always feel like there is a big rift between crocheters vs. knitters, but when I was at Vogue Knitting Live, I discovered that there are a lot of you that can do both! (I can knit, but it takes so long and I’m not very good at it.) Whether you’re new to knitting or looking for an easy stash-busting project, you’ll find fun stitches and techniques to give your beanies terrific texture and fantastic flair. Projects include colorwork, ribs, cables, lace, and more, with hat styles for men, women, and kids. Other knit designers in the book are Jen Lucas, Megan Kreiner, Sheryl Thies, Amy Polcyn Niezur, Doreen L. Marquart, Jessica Anderson, Sharon E. Mooney, Shana Galbraith, and David Owen Hastings. Violette asked if I could shoot some of her finished hat designs from the book to show you guys, but I look really terrible in hats plus I just got my permanent eyeliner re-touched and look extra scary, so I borrowed the lovely Manda (and a CareBear backpack). This is the Curly-Q Beret on Manda and a Cat Hat on the CareBear. Manda then switched to adventure mode with the CareBear while wearing her own Cat Hat. This is the Alphie. This is the Parry. And this is the Big Needle Duo. Don’t forget, there are 15 more patterns in the book, organized by yarn weight, with lots of styles and shapes. It normally retails for $19.99, but you can enter to win one here PLUS a SURPRISE finished hat from one of  Violette’s patterns. ALSO if we hit 300 entries, we’ll be giving away another book and another surprise hat, and if we hit 500 entires, we’ll give away a total of 3 books and 3 hats! So keep spreading the word! Giveaway is open worldwide and will run until Tuesday, June 14th at midnight PDT. Winner must be 18 or over and must also respond to my email within 24 hours or I will choose a new winner. Winner will be chosen randomly via Rafflecopter/Random.org. Please make sure that twinkie@twinkiechan.com will get through your spam filters. While Violette will pay for shipping your prize, you are responsible for any possible customs or duty charges. No purchase necessary. Void where prohibited. No giveaway accounts please! A giveaway account is a social media account that you use only to post about giveaways. Good luck! a Rafflecopter giveaway

Here’s Box #2 from my Bento Box series for the JapanLA art show. (Box #1) This is shrimp tempura with strawberries and lemon slices. The little soy sauce bottles have real soy sauce in them, and the caps are super-glued on. Manda helped with those! I had a time deciding what color to actually make the shrimps. I feel like tempura batter is actually quite light in color, like pale yellow, but this darker color also screamed FRIED FOOD at me. Hairy happened to be dropping off the dogs while I was in the throes of color selection, and I was like THISONEORTHATONE and he picked this one, so it was! I love that green yarn I used for the lettuce SO MUCH. It’s Madeline Tosh Merino DK. But I didn’t save the ball band and I have no idea what color this is :(, and I think it’s discontinued (is it Tanenbaum?! Moorland? Mill Pond?! JADE?!). It’s spendy, and I don’t think I would use it for selling finished projects in my Etsy shop, but it would’ve been nice to have known what it was. I’ve been looking for a less expensive alternative, but it’s hard to find that perfect, vegetabley, variegated green. If you have any tips, let me know!

I sent in my four pieces for the JapanLA Anniversary and Art Show, and I thought I would share photos of each one every day this week. I’ve always been dying to crochet some bento boxes, and this art show was really the perfect opportunity for it, since the theme is Super Kawaii Food Art. Kind of a weird thing happened while I was crocheting these boxes. At first I really liked the idea of the food looking back at you, faces and bodies pressed against a plastic window. Then the process became less an aesthetic experience and a little bit more of an emotional one. I kind of joked about it with Manda. I was like, “This is like putting together lunches for my unborn children.” I’m generally pretty sarcastic and I’ve never been much of a kid-person, but the joke came from some place inside me a little bit real. I’m potentially having a lil solo show in September in LA (dates and details and everything are still in the works), and I’ve become obsessed with working on an entire Box Lunch theme, based on lunches I would make for people I love. We’ll see. I’m not usually that sentimental when it comes to my crocheting, but, I really really REALLY loved the experience of making my bentos! I’m usually into creating patterns and pieces that have a function and that don’t just sit around on a shelf, but these were definitely made to simply hang on a wall (even though all the food pieces are all still loose and removable inside) and have no actual use besides cuteness. I suppose a person could turn them into keychains, hair clips, pins, etc, if they felt like it, but I decided to leave them as is. So here’s the first one. I already showed you guys this one in my blog entry for the art show, but here are more photos of it and more close-ups to start off the week. HOT DOG OCTOPUS on rice. With broccoli and cherry tomatoes.