Category: Blog

Southern California friends: mark your calendars! On Saturday, October 1st, I’ll be in L.A. signing books at The Knitting Tree. It’s their grand re-opening in their new location (1031 W. Manchester Blvd, #3, Inglewood, CA 90301), and some of my work will also be exhibited in their Branch Gallery along with works by Mochimochiland and Ben Cuevas. Check out the Facebook event for details and to RSVP! I’ll be hanging out at the gallery all day from 11am-7pm!

My September blog sponsor giveaway has launched! Thank you so much for my blog sponsors for providing such amazing prizes :). ONE lucky winner will receive:

Exciting news! I have a new class launching today on Creativebug.com. It’s called the “Eat Your Fruits and Veggies Crochet-Along,” a 9-project crochet class chockfull of Vitamin Yarn, and a new fruit or veggie project is rolling out every Friday and Monday until October 7th. ALSO, Creativebug teamed up with Lion Brand Yarn for my class. If you sign up for Creativebug.com using the promo code LION, you get 1 month free to check out all the hundreds of amazing Creativebug classes PLUS you’ll be sent info on how to get 15% off at LionBrand.com for all your yarny needs, all until September 26th. Pretty cool, right? I can’t wait to see all your beautiful projects! Please tag me if you post any photos on social media. I’d love to share the fruits of your labor!!!! (Sorry, had to…)  

Wanted to show you guys the Rainbow Rays crochet cowl pattern I wrote for the August Yarn Crush subscription box! The yarn we used was Mashmellow Rino by Joma Yarn, and it was just so gorgeous that I wanted to keep the pattern nice and simple. If you are interested in purchasing a spare August box, please contact Yarn Crush directly to see about extras. Otherwise, the pattern is also in my Ravelry shop.

I’m often kinda torn between posting all my patterns for free or putting them up on Etsy. And then if I distinguish between which patterns I put where….. I think some lines start to get blurry. While I love sharing inspiration and projects, I feel like my time and ideas are valuable, too, and while I have wonderful blog sponsors, it’s not like I make that much money from my blog nor do I post content often enough to make that logical. Pattern-selling in general is probably not going to ever be a living wage for me, but I do think that there is worth to our designs. I’m also not at the point yet where I want random advertising popping all over my blog. So, yes, this is a long rant. Sorry about that! I tend to over-share, but I’m still just trying to figure everything out, to get you guys the patterns you like, and to also make sure it is worth my time and energy and that I can pay for my wifi etc etc! 😛 For now, for scarf patterns in particular, I like the “FreeFor24Hrs” format. It’s like a “thank you” to the people who follow my blog and social media. This is a fairly easy pattern, and sometimes I like putting the easy patterns up for free, but since it’s also a scarf, I do like the idea of keeping all my signature scarves on Etsy. Again, I’m still playing with all of this. tl;dr   Edit: FreeFor24Hrs is now over! Thanks so much, everyone! Find the pattern now in my Etsy shop. It was originally commissioned by Homespun Magazine last Fall, so if you were not able to get the magazine, now you can get the pattern!

I got a really cute box of goodies to share with you guys from YumeTwins! YumeTwins is a new kawaii box released by TokyoTreat. Unlike other kawaii boxes, YumeTwins revolves around the “Yume Kawaii” culture, which is a combination of cuteness and fairytales with a touch of darkness. “Yume” itself means “dream,” so not only does Yume Kawaii center around cute styles, but it also has a magical dreamy feel to it. Yume Kawaii culture is currently extremely popular and trending in Japan. Also, with YumeTwins based in Japan, they have more variety in inventory and advantages to easily partner with big brands to provide authentic licensed merchandise for everyone.The YumeTwins box will feature exclusive items from famous Japanese brands such as Sanrio, Takara Tomy, Amuse, Re-Ment and many more. The Debut box included an exclusive 20th Anniversary Sailor Moon Plush and was HUGE hit. I was sent the July Sanrio All Stars box! There is a mini-magazine on top which lets you know the details about what’s inside the box, as well as information about the current month’s contest (to win more goodies!), and also some short articles about Japanese pop culture. Manda was checking out the pop culture pages and definitely felt like she learned something! And now let’s check out the cute goodies! The box included a Shinada Poodle Plush, Hello Kitty Randoseru Charm, Harajuku Kawaii Bracelet, My Melody Memo Pad, My Melody plush, Little Twin Stars socks (my fave!), My Melody Pouch, and a Harajuku Princess Tiara. Here‘s where you can check out all the pricing details. Plans start at $21.99/month + $6 shipping and can vary depending on how many months you commit to. All subscribers are also automatically entered to possibly win their special Yume Prize box. Check out all the stuff that was in the June Yume Prize! Dang! You can follow YumeBox on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram. Hope you had fun with this peek inside! I am going to have lot of fun spreading these items amongst my friends!

It’s…… SUPERFUNPRESENTTIME aka my monthly blog sponsor giveaway! August is my birthday month, so I’m also throwing in some extra goodies from my craft room! Thanks to my amazing blog sponsors for generously offering their prizes. P.S. I’m about to change to a different company to handle my blog ads, and if anyone has suggestions (looks like Adproval might be the way to go) I’m all ears! PLUS, are you guys still into the giveaways? I don’t want to bug you guys if you aren’t into them, but just let me know! Would love your feedback as I make this transition! Let’s check out what ONE lucky winner will win this month!

When I worked in publishing years ago, I never really felt like I fit in that world. I’d chat with editors on the phone or go to writers conferences and just feel like the odd gal out, like the new girl, like it was always the first day of school and I wasn’t wearing a cool outfit. I was in publishing for ten years and wanted those people to be my people, but I never felt like I belonged. Too goofy, too young, too I-don’t-even-know. When I threw myself into the crafting world, I felt such a rush of relief. I loved meeting other crafters and my crafty heroes. We didn’t even have to be doing the same crafts. That didn’t even matter. I felt like I had found the people who were like me. So, a few days ago, I had a Skype chat with Vickie Howell for her podcast, CRAFT-ish. Can I tell you how neat I think that is? Pretty neat! I’ve watched Vickie on tv. I’ve seen her yarn at JoAnn Fabrics. I met her for the first time earlier in the year at Vogue Knitting Live, and she was just so super cool, and I think we ended up talking about wrinkle cream. Now you get to hear us chat about stuff (not wrinkle cream this time) related to taking your small business to the next level, how we all go on different paths to end up where we are now, random tidbits about my business experiences … find out more when you tune in :).

I have some yummy treats to check out with you! Japanese Candy Box – Japan Funbox is a monthly subscription service based in Osaka that will send you an assortment of fun candies, snacks, and DIY kits from Japan. Japan Funbox sent me their “Mini Box,” which contains 5-7 items for $14.99/month, free worldwide shipping. They have two other levels – the “Original Box,” which contains 15-20 items (1 DIY kit guaranteed, 1 special item guaranteed, such as a soda, toy, or special DIY), for $32.99/month, and the “Family Box,” which contains 25-30 items (2 DIY kits guaranteed, 2 special items guaranteed) for $49.99/month. Upon quick glance, the difference between Japan Funbox and some other boxes I’ve reviewed, like Japan Candy Box, and Japan Crate, seems to only be how many items you want sent per month. They all vary and have different sizing. I haven’t calculated each subscription box across the board, but the Japan Funbox “Mini Box” is a nice, small, introductory size to get you going, and the “Family Box” is one of the biggest you can get. Let’s see what’s inside! (P.S. If you happen to sign up for Japan Funbox through this link or the button on my sidebar, I get a small affiliate percentage.)

Last weekend, I vended at Renegade Craft Fair with my new “Bento Bar” set-up, where people could assemble their own cute, crocheted bento boxes! This was a grand experiment, since I’d never done this before ever, either online or in person, and I think people really loved it, once they figured it out :P. The actual “salad bar” part of the display was pretty easy to put together. The base was foam core with some plastic bins hot-glued on top. The sneeze guard was kind of a whole journey. I thought I would make it out of PVC, because PVC seemed easy, but Manda felt that wood was the way to go, even though neither of us know anything about building anything. I think it turned pretty well! An important element for us was that the sneeze guard be easy to transport, so the top/guard part separates from the legs. It is sliiiiiiightly crooked, but, hey, it never fell over, and it survived! My super favorite part of the weekend was watching people put together their bento boxes, guys, gals, grown-ups, kids, everyone! Here are a few of the boxes that people assembled: As luck would have it, our booth was right by an electrical outlet, so I was able to turn people’s food plushies into pins, magnets, or hair clips, right as they waited! Here’s me with a hot dog octopus pin! My number one favorite request from someone was a french fry pin. I really need to make one for myself. We also had a table filled with non-bento stuff and my books, plus the giant donut…! I definitely plan to put the leftovers on Etsy. I just need some time to take pictures of everything and get them listed. I’m hoping maybe by Friday or the weekend? Eep, we’ll see! Here’s a lil vid I put up on Instagram:   A video posted by Twinkie Chan (@twinkiechan) on Jul 20, 2016 at 9:33pm PDT  

Hi gang! Sorry the giveaway is a day late! As per usual, I was scrambling to get ready for the craft show last night. I still have some stuff I want to crochet tonight to re-fill some spots on my table that sold today, but I definitely also wanted to get this giveaway up for my blog sponsors, who are always so generous to contribute to these giveaways. ONE lucky winner will receive:

Renegade Craft Fair is this weekend in San Francisco! I’ll be vending and bringing a lil Bento Bar with me, where you can build your own little bento box filled with crocheted goodies. It’s the first time I’ve tried this, and I have no idea if people will be into it or not. As always, I’m running out of time, and I won’t have all the elements that I originally wanted, but I think it will still be a pretty good experiment.  Like, I don’t know that I’ll have time to make a bunch of the above rice balls or even the lettuce underneath them, but I’ll try! So if you’re in town, come check it out. Saturday and Sunday, 11am – 6pm, at Fort Mason Center. Would love to see you!

On the 4th of July, I showed up to the family bbq with this giant crocheted hot dog. In all honesty, the hot dog was an extremely belated birthday present for my nephew who turned three. I was in L.A. for Vogue Knitting Live during his bday party, and then I kept making the wiener part of the hot dog too big, and now I have 2 extra wieners lying around  the house. Anyway, I was FINALLY able to deliver my present! Giant hot dog: here’s why. I made a big ol’ strawberry pillow for my mom a while ago, and for some reason, my nephew kept saying “thank you” to me for making it for him, so I thought I’d make him a giant food pillow, too. Also, this kid loves a barbecue, BUT, he actually only wants to eat the bun, not the dog. WE LOVE BREAD. I didn’t have time to take a quality photos of the hot dog before I wrapped it up, so these phone pics will have to do for now (you know what a hot dog looks like anyway) until I happen to make another one again.  Maybe for YouTube? Also, I didn’t have time to take down all the yardage info. I used Red Heart Super Saver for this project, so that should give you some idea. And just, like, a lot of stuffing…    I spend a lot more time than I should trying to determine what the perfect hot dog color is, so I hope you enjoy Red Heart Super Saver in Coral. I enjoyed it a lot. Hotdoglicious. (Please note that this pattern has not been tech-edited or proofread by anyone, so if you find any typos or errors, just let me know!)

I have a fun summer-time pattern for you guys! I saw a cute photo of somebody’s actual frozen treat, which was a chocolate-covered frozen banana, decorated to look like a bear. The snout was a little cookie, and I can’t remember the other decorations. I tried Googling it, but couldn’t find the same image again, but I did run into THIS tutorial to make “polar bears.” You know I love me some color, so I imagined that instead of just using white chocolate to coat your frozen banana, you could use colorful chocolate/candy melts and have all different colors of bears! Also, I shot photos in my new popsicle dress and felt like a lil popsicle bear would be the perfect accessory. Unfortunately, most of the photos I took with the popsicle turned out focused improperly…….doh. Here is my initial sketch. And here are the finished blue and pink versions! I wanted to make a brown one, too, but I’m also still working really hard on prepping for Renegade. I hope you guys enjoy these cute goodies! My favorite part is crocheting the mini-marshmallows! I think they’re really funny and cute. I apologize in advance if there are any errors in this pattern. Nobody else has edited or looked at it, and I just dashed it off really quick! Let me know if there any issues! 🙂

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!

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.