Author: TwinkieChan

I’m sorry I have not been great at blogging! Renegade prep always gets me in a frenzy, and then right after Renegade, I had another deadline to write a pattern and make a sample for something that’s happening in October … and also make a promo video for it! Anyway, I have a teeny tiny breather right now, sorta, so I can show you a few iPhone snaps from Renegade. Unfortch, my photos are kinda sad this year, because I didn’t really get a chance to pop out and take a bunch of photos! Here are just a few from before the show opened, when there was nobody around yet!     That new pink and white elephant cookie scarf will be going up in my Etsy shop soon, as well as some of the other newer goodies, like the frosting dollop hair clips and bubble gum hair clips!   We’re also working on getting some of the newer animal donuts into the shop, like the chocolate bear, green froggie, lemon kitty, blueberry doggie, strawberry bunny, and lavender bear! We’re gonna have some pandas, too! Here are a few snaps I saw on Instagram: I forgot to mention that a few people kept mistaking my booth for an actual food booth, because of the “corndog, pizza, snow cone” sign across the top. One guy even seemed kind of mad about the lack of real snow cones, and then he stormed off, and I couldn’t tell if he was kidding or not! On the first day of the fair, Saturday, I met Leslie/CrochetBug who is a crazy prolific crocheter, so you should definitely check out her blog if you love crochet! She also took better snaps than I did of my booth :P. Why didn’t we take a photo together!??! On the second day of the fair, one of the first people to visit my booth was this gal Kimi who had come from Sacramento to say hi. She was super duper sweet! Craft shows are a lot of work for me and my crochet elves, and I’m always like, “WHyyyYYY do I do these shows!??!” but then I remember that it’s a rare opportunity to meet some of you guys in person, and that is very special indeed!

Sometimes you end up following cute people on Instagram, and you have no idea how or why, but then they put out a t-shirt, and you just want to support their art and buy one! This tee is by Brooke Vera for an online shop called Dollys. (Mine is a size small.) I also grabbed a handful of her cute vintage-inspired pins! Also from Dollys are these socks that say Spoiled Brat. They are one-size, and frankly, are a bit too long in the foot for me (and my feet are not that small … they are like a 7.5 – 8), so these are for the average big foot, not the average tinygirl, so bear that in mind. I’m gonna wear ’em anyway because they are a lil sassy without having, like, bad words on them! Sorry for the terrible photo. I took all these photos around 7pm, so it was already getting dark after running my errands! The skirt is from Target. I mean, how can any blogger worth her salt NOT own anything with daisies on it for this summer?!!!? I  keed. But really. I don’t often wear skirts like this, because I have NO waist. There is like one inch of space between my ribcage and my pelvis, but the skirt was just really swingy and comfy and DAISY. I grabbed a size large, because that’s what I usually am on the bottom these days, and I even tried it on, but now I feel like I should have gotten a medium. OH WELL! I can’t even remember the last time I tucked in my shirt. I used to have an astroturf purse back when I had an office job. I bought it in Milan when I went to Italy, just me and my mom, a kabillion years ago. It had a shoulder strap and a clear green bottom and was my prized possession. My boss HATED IT. She actually bought me a grown-up purse (it was black with a red horse-hair panel on the front) so that I would get rid of the astroturf purse. I loved that astropurse, though. It came in very handy. One time, at a book signing, I apparently missed my friends and co-workers, and they inquired at the bookstore if I’d been there by asking if a girl with an astroturf purse had been inside. They said yes. SPOTTED: ME. While chatting with my buddy Candace and waxing nostalgic about astroturf, I impulsively bought a new one from Amazon. I haven’t actually used it yet, like, outside my house, so I regretted the purchase for a while, but now that I see it put together with an outfit, I’m in love with it again! No regrets!! Just, too many purses… When I looked at the sad face on my t-shirt girl’s face, I wondered what necklace could cheer her up. Clearly, corn dogs. This one was sent to me by Tiny Hands and smells like maple syrup (thank you for […]

I’ve been snapping a shot here and there of stuff I’m working on for Renegade Craft Fair this weekend. Hope to see you!!!

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:

Two weeks after I vend at Renegade Craft Fair this weekend, I will be selling Yummy You! merch at the first KawaiiLand San Francisco! There’s going to be live music, a fashion show, and tons of cute vendors! You can see some video from KawaiiLand LA on the website. Let’s make the SF event even more cute, colorful, and fun!  I’m putting together and will be bringing some brand spankin’ new stuff, including the debut of a brand new member/character in the Yummy You Crew, plus all of our cute scarves! (I’ll reveal more details about the new member as the new merch rolls in…) I know I have personally kvetched about how we don’t have as many kawaii/J-fashion events here in SF as compared to LA, so here is our chance to make it happen!! It’s also 4 days before my birthday, so you can come and wish me a happy one!  You can purchase your $15 ticket now, from me, at this link right here! If you or your friends buy the ticket through my unique link, your ticket sale will go toward the cost of my table, so you would not only be supporting kawaii culture in our city, but also really directly supporting me, which I would so appreciate! I’ll see you there! (21+!)

Do you ever just wake up and think, “I really want to wear yellow tights today!?” I DO. I DID. To be honest, I don’t put a lot of thought into what I’m wearing most days. If it’s front of me, I’m gonna put it on, and that’s what happened with this Rocko’s Modern Life muscle shirt!  Manda and I were at Target looking at bathing suits last week, and I spotted a rack with some muscle shirts on it. I am a big fan of the muscle shirt because they are comfy and there is a lot of ventilation for my arm pits (sorry, it’s true, I need ventilation there).  I picked up this one as well as an Empire Strikes Back one. Comfy comfy comfy!! We also ended up seeing New Order that night, and at the last minute, I threw on a hot-pink Members Only jacket. I definitely felt like a walking highlighter marker!! Oh well!! Shirt: Target, Shorts: ModCloth, Tights: We Love Colors, Boots: F21, Headband/usamimi: American Apparel, Carrot scarf: Yummy You!

Bay Area friends!!! Please come visit Renegade SF next weekend (not this weekend) at Fort Mason from 11am – 6pm on Saturday and Sunday! I’ll be there with my Carnival Food booth and some new never-seen-before goodies! If you visited last year, I’ll be in kinda the same place I was last Spring…..in the back, in booth #45, so keep on walking!! Hope to see you there!

1. You Shall Be Queen Dress – Lady Petrova – This boutique is pretty amazing and fits the bill for any flowery pastel space babe (that’s you, too, amirite?).  If you have never visited Lady Petrova, and you like clothes that are kinda out-there and different, it’s pretty much a can’t-miss.  This dress, while not super pastel, comes with a CAPE, so it WINS. And it’s reversible! 2. Open Your Heart Satchel – Betsey Johnson – Still a sucker for Betsey bags, but I realize I must stop buying bags unless I truly deeply and 100%-ly cannot live with out a particular one. Right now I’m using a cheap polka dot tote bag from Target, and it works just fine! Also it’s filled with hay from when we ate lunch on a hay bale and Manda dumped her purse inside of mine, spreading hay everywhere. 3. Lazy Oaf x Garfield socks – DollsKill – I have been eyeing these socks since the Lazy Oaf x Garfield collab came out, and somehow I have managed to stop myself from buying them. Maybe I should put them on my bday wish list! 4. Unif Astra Duster – Unif Clothing – I KNOW. GO HOME AND MAKE IT. GO HOME AND MAKE IT. Who has the time to go home and make it…..? 5. Flower Fanatic Sneaker – ModCloth – Irregular Choice always does it right!!! I want to buy some cheap sneakers and cover one in fake flowers and the other in big fake rainbow gems. 6. Sloth Princess Brooch – Modern Girl Blitz – I have no real reasons for this one, except, I just think it’s so darn cute!

I put together another little video to promote the Pocky Doll giveaway! You still have until Thursday to enter to win! Just “like” the photo of the dolls on the Pocky/GlicoUSA Facebook page! (You need to be logged into Facebook first!) I always have dreams of frolicking around with crocheted pals, and the Pocky Dolls made the perfect day-dream buddies!!! Here are some of my favorite shots: At first, I was going to crochet my own bows for my human-sized outfit, but then I figured it might save time if I just photoshopped the dolls’ clothing onto myself. That still took a long time anyway, but it was fun to make myself feel like a paper doll! If you end up winning the dolls, I hope you document your adventures, too!

Happy 4th of July! Today is also the start of my new giveaway with Pocky! To enter to win, you must “like” this photo on Pocky’s Facebook page. Here is the link (hope it works!) with all the rules. I designed these dolls based on the Pocky ambassadors that rolled around in the Pocky truck giving away free Pocky! The funny part for me is that my buddy Stephanie was actually a Pocky girl, so I used lots of photos of her as a reference for the outfit! Stay tuned for some behind-the-scenes footage and other fun photo extras!

Here’s some pretty fun Hello-Kitty-related news: First up for the crocheters, I just got an Amazon.com email newsletter announcing AmiguruMEI‘s Hello Kitty Crochet book. Pretty cool, right? You can pre-order it now, and it arrives in September! And, something for everybody: Hello Kitty’s first convention, Hello Kitty Con at MOCA in LA, October 30 – Nov 2! I’m not sure if I’ll be able to go, but I bought tix anyway cuz that’s who I am… Do you have a favorite Sanrio character? When I was in highschool, I was a Keroppi girl, but I am currently very into Purin and his hamster friend Muffin! (p.s. does anybody know the name of the little brown friend that he has? I don’t think it’s the squirrel. It’s something else. I used to have a teeny tiny plush of it years ago, and I wish I could find another one!)

Since I’m still working on a few projects that I can’t reveal yet … I thought I might make another Yarn Appreciation Post! A few days ago I put together some colors for one of my crochet elves to make cupcake slouchy berets for Renegade which is coming up soon (yes, I am freaking out! no, I haven’t been able to spend any time yet on new designs which I’m dying to write!). I am always on the lookout for the perfect pink when it comes to a nice, worsted weight acrylic. I recently stumbled upon Universal Yarn “Classic Worsted.” They have two shades of pink that I’m pretty crazy about, Bubble Gum 615 (picture above in Photo 1) and Pink Rose 7117 (pictured above in Photo 2) (the colors don’t look as good on their website, FYI). Classic Worsted is 80% acrylic and 20% wool, and I don’t find it itchy at all. Universal also has a 100% acrylic line called Uptown Worsted, but I haven’t played with that one yet. It looks like they aren’t displaying all their colors yet, and I wanted to see it all before placing an order. The weight of the Classic Worsted is a bit lighter than Lion Brand Vanna’s Choice or Deborah Norville Everyday Worsted.  If you are familiar with Knit Picks Brava Worsted, I would say that they are pretty similar, except Knit Picks has a bit more of a sheen. Classic Worsted needs to step it up in the blue/aqua/teal department, but I am definitely totally into these pinks! Most big box worsted acrylic pinks are too gray and washed out for me, or, just baby pink. These are definitely in the Pepto Barbie zone, which is right up my alley! Each ball is $6 from the Universal site, which is obviously a bit spendier than big box yarn prices, but for someone like me who depends on color to evoke a certain look or feeling, I’m happy to pay the extra!

You guys, I had no idea it was National Bomb Pop Day today!! I know it’s supposed to be summer time and popsicle time, but it’s like 60 degrees and gloomy where I live by the ocean! BRRR!! Anyway, if you wanna pick up a crocheted bomb pop brooch/hair clip, or pick up a pattern to crochet one of your own, hit up this link right here to my Etsy shop! <3

Hey, pizza-lovers! The Pizza Scarf at YummyYou.com is waiting for you! It is super soft and super tasty-looking with bright yellow cheese, a bubbly crust, and tons of pepperonis! We also released our new BFF (PFF?) Pizza Heart Necklaces for you and your pizza-best friend-forever! These amazing mini heart pizzas are another collab with jewelry artist Fatally Feminine Designs! You each get half of the heart-pizza, and when you get together, you can combine your pizza-heart-powers! The “Partay! Pizza Partay!” song from the Pizza Party board game commercial back in the 80s is TOTALLY STUCK IN MY HEAD!!!!!!! I’ll try go get more pics of these soon. If you guys get one, you can always tag @Yummy You on Facebook or #yummyyou on Instagram (@iloveyummyyou) so that we can see! <3

I made a little video while crocheting my Pocky painting! The music is by my buddy Twink the Toy Piano Band!   You still have time to enter to win this painting by logging into Facebook and liking the photo of my Pocky painting at the top of Pocky – GlicoUSA’s page :).

Yay! I get to show you one of the projects I’ve been working on! I’m collaborating with Pocky to bring you this fun giveaway! The prize is a one-of-a-kind crochet painting by me, in Choco Pup Pocky flavor! I made a cute lil progress video for it, too, and I’ll letcha know when that goes up. To enter to win, you must “like” this photo on Pocky’s Facebook page. Giveaway ends next Thursday, June 26, because on Friday, they are starting a new designer giveaway! A month of designer Pocky fun! Good luck! <3  

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:

Sorry this is another non-crochet-related post!! I’m still furiously plugging away at a lot of fun projects and collabs. One will be revealed next week! 😉 Today was pretty warm in my house, and I have to do laundry, so I started pulling out some clothes from the depths of my wardrobe. This cute peplum top is really fun. I love a peplum on a shirt! And I love me some polka dots! BUT, it buttons in the back, so I have to dislocate my shoulder and grow a third arm to button my own shirt. Shorts are definitely not something I wear a lot with just naked skin underneath. But I was the only one home, and I wasn’t trying to impress anybody, and my legs are unshaved, but whatever!!! I am really insecure about my bottom half (I am sure I have blogged about this before) because I feel like I have fat knees and big thighs and big calves and cankles and bow legs.  Everything is also just getting bigger and weirder on my body as I approach the big 4-0, but I try to remember that beauty doesn’t just look like one thing, and that I should wear shorts if it’s hot and I need to! Um, but we are going out later tonight, and I will be putting on some tights or pants and re-doing my hair. Sorry. That’s just how it goes. When I got dressed today, I thought I was going to be sitting on the floor and crocheting in hermit-town. And taking an outfit photo for posterity. Cuz, I buttoned this damn top. And I am rarely this un-accessorized, but I still felt like it was a pretty cute outfit (minus the old lady up-do.) I realize there is an element of narcissism with selfie-culture and with outfit photos, but I think the positive side of that is making an attempt to love your body and be okay with workin’ with what ya got and letting other people know it’s ok for them to wear shorts, too. I especially wanted to post the shorts because they look kind of flared out at the bottom on some people, but on us juicy-thighed mamas, they are still pretty snug all around! They are definitely stretchy, tho, so they are not torture chambers of denim. Have a great weekend everybody!!! <3 *** Peplum top: Forever 21 (from a while ago), High-waisted shorts: ModCloth, Shoes: ModCloth (similar)

I almost forgot I took these photos!! After I shot the apron photos, I threw on this super casual outfit, which I dubbed: Farmer Batman. Manda texted me from Target, showing me photos of these overall shorts that she was buying, and I told that I wanted one, too! Personal shopping, whatwhat! As it turns out, she and I also have the same leggings because we bought them once while shopping together. I wore this cute Barbie tank top underneath (the apron, too!). How was your weekend? I spent most of it helping Manda to apartment-hunt in San Francisco. It is so dismal out there. Like, not a lot of listings, and everything is outrageously expensive! At least we had some good laughs, and some good food! (Hello, birthday cake milk shake!) Overalls: Target, Tank top: I’m Your Present, Leggings: H&M, Shoes: Forever21

Back in March, I was asked to set up a display of chocolate-themed crochet work at the San Francisco Chocolate Salon. “ChocolateTV” on Hulu was also there to document the event! My work pops up pretty much in the beginning of the clip for a quick flash. I remember walking into the art area, and the air smelled SO GOOD (I think it was the chocolate paintings!).

Dottie from Dottie’s Diner asked if I would model an apron for her, and after checking out her shop, I said, yes of course of course!!! She also sent the cherry thigh-highs as well as a cute tutu to go underneath. So thoughtful!

Here’s another pattern that was originally on Michaels.com in Dec 2013! “I wanted to round out our craft-tastic 2013 with a pattern for one of my yummy food scarves, so I asked my Facebook fans for advice on which holiday pattern they’d like to see most. The winning votes went to this Snowflake Sugar Cookie Scarf, which I really love because it celebrates the season and has a sugary elegance without being too over the top. For a quicker project, you can work up a single snowflake sugar cookie and turn it into a brooch or hair piece. Happy Holidays and a sweet New Year!”

I know a lot of you have noticed that all my free patterns on Michaels.com have disappeared. And it’s not that I’ve been singled out, but if you check out “all crochet” patterns on the site, you’ll see there’s a grand total of TWELVE patterns, where there used to be hundreds. Now that Michaels.com allows you to shop online (yay! finally!), they also started to revamp their entire pattern section, so that you can check out a pattern and then also have links to all the materials you need to complete the project. Plus, the pattern layout is MUCH prettier and more modern-looking!! I can imagine that overhauling hundreds of knit and crochet patterns is a huge undertaking. I asked Michaels if they thought my patterns would end up back on the site one day or if they were starting from scratch. The idea seems to be that all the patterns will go back up in their new and improved format, but it will take some time. Meanwhile, I’ve been  trying to load up the patterns here on my blog when I have free time, but as you could see from my mysterious Mad-Lib-style blog post, my free time is a bit sparse right now! I also need to update the links in past posts so that you guys don’t keep getting linked into a black hole ;). So I’m working on it! I also just wanted to say how much I’ve appreciated all the support here for my patterns and my work. I definitely don’t make a lot of money doing what I do, so when I get messages from you guys letting me know you were inspired to learn to crochet or that you like my wacky weird take on crochet, I feel really grateful and happy that we can all share this fun craft together! I hope Sarah doesn’t mind if I single out her comment :P. I just got it today and it was Michaels-related, plus it was super duper nice! Also I have no idea what I’m doing when it comes to teaching or making video tutorials, so I’m glad that they are helpful!

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 🙂