Category: Crochet

The fruits and veggies just don’t stop! My radish class is now live on Creativebug!

My potato video went live today on Creativebug.com! Go check it out! If you’re new to Creativebug, you can sign up using code LION for a free month! 🙂

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…)  

On Instagram, I started seeing a few people post about some character named Apple from some movie called Turbo Kid, and I got curious about it. Manda and I watched it on Netflix a little bit ago, and we loved it! “Set in the post-apocalyptic year of 1997, TURBO KID is a retro-futuristic nostalgic tribute to 80’s action-adventure films follows a teenager who goes on an adventure to save the girl of his dreams.” It’s funny, adorable, and gory in the way that makes you LOL. Manda hates blood and guts and stuff, but she still laughed all the way through. Gregg drew her, too! In the movie, there’s no water, and the land is very dry and dusty. On the other hand, it was raining like crazy this weekend. I started taking photos of my Apple doll on my staircase ledge, but she fell into the dirt and greens below, so I just kept taking pictures of her there! The main character, Turbo Kid, tells Apple that she needs a weapon, and he makes her one out of a baseball bat and a garden gnome. She raises it in the air and shouts, “THIS IS MY GNOME STICK!!!” I am currently obsessed with crocheting tiny gnome sticks. I used the basic pattern that I created for the Peanuts Crochet book/kit (affiliate link) and made a few alterations to get her a jumpsuit and some cute booties. The lil gnome is based on photos of Mochimochi Land’s tiny knitted gnomes. I’m still working on tiny tweaks to the pattern and build so that I can make lil gnome sticks for my pals!

I’ve made these marshmallow charm headbands in my Etsy shop for a while, and now you can make your own magically crochetlicious accessories! You can use these little charms to make a headband, or separate hair clips, or fridge magnets, or big plush rings, pins/brooches, all kinds of projects! This pattern is free for 48 hours before I put it in my Etsy shop! (Until noon on Saturday, March 5th.) I think this is a fun way to say thank you to people who follow my blog and social media.  This pattern is now available in my Etsy shop! I also have a video tutorial on YouTube. A few words about the yarn. I always used Red Heart Super Saver for this particular pattern, because it came in all the colors I needed. I prefer to use the same yarn brand and line for all these charms so that the gauge is all the same, and I don’t have to think about it. The charms are all meant to be approximately the same size, or at least the same height, so that they look cute together. As it turns out, the peach color that I used is now discontinued. Yarn getting discontinued is ALWAYS A HUGE BUMMER to me, and I know it makes people crazy when they find discontinued yarn in a pattern, and they will ask me for a substitute. I wanted to wait to post the pattern until I could find another worsted weight yarn line with all the colors that I wanted. I think some people have mentioned I Love This Yarn from Hobby Lobby, but I have never bought from Hobby Lobby. There are some other worsted weight peach colors like Caron One Pound in Peach and Lion Brand Pound of Love in Creamsicle that you could substitute in, and I’ll make that note in the pattern. If you want smaller charms and don’t mind spending a bit more per yard, Plymouth Encore Worsted has all the right colors. Oh, also I just started checking out what seems to be Jo-Ann Fabric’s yarn line Big Twist, and their Big Twist Baby Yarn has a range of pastels that could work for this pattern, too. I hope you guys have a lot of fun thinking of new ways to use your charms! That lil clover is perfect for St. Patrick’s Day!

I’m so excited to let you guys know that my first Critter of the Month crochet class is now live on Creativebug.com!! Holy heck!! This was an intense 4 days of filming, and you will see the other 3 projects we filmed throughout 2016. When they asked me to think of a fun critter for February, I chose a sloth, because it’s Valentine’s month, and he has long arms to hug you :). You can check out some short previews for free, and you can also sign up for a free trial. Here’s a link to my instructor profile where they made a lil trailer with me and my dogs! If you decide to subscribe, it’s a really great deal at only $4.95 per month for access too all the classes on the entire site. And they just keep adding more! (I’m in the process of working on a new batch of Creativebug classes…!). If you use my link, I also get a small percentage of the sale (just letting you know that it’s an affiliate link upfront). To be honest, I’m super proud of myself (pats self on back). I have a lot of anxiety associated with other people taking my photo or shooting video of me, and it was definitely an exercise in letting go and just being me and being okay with being me. I’m not going to get into it too much here, but let’s just say, I was sweating a lot, and I think you can hear the yarn squeaking in my hands…..(doh!). I haven’t watched my class yet… so you guys tell me how it is :). I can’t wait to start seeing our cute sloth army!

If you are a subscriber of Yarn Crush, then you might have already received your January yarn box, filled with 5 yummy candy-colored mini-skeins, a knit pattern by Spilly Jane, and a crochet pattern from me! They’re Pretty Parfait Fingerless Mitts! I think the pattern is a fun one for intermediate beginners, because you can practice working some basic texture stitches like the puff stitch, working in back loops only, front post stitches, and alternating tall stitches with short stitches. I don’t normally work with sportweight yarn in my patterns, so if that’s your thang, you’re gonna be stoked. (Yarn Crush’s photo of the whole box put together… so cute and bright!)  We got to help pick the colorway for these mini skeins of merino yarn, and I really love how yummy and candylicious this allowed the mitts to look. (Yarn photo from Yarn Crush.) I was going to call these something like Birthday Cake Fingerless Mitts, but my buddy Candace saw them and said they looked like parfaits, and that seemed to make more sense to me. Here’s a fun random fact: while I was shooting these photos in my bedroom, the smoke alarm went off because Manda burned some of her hair off with a hair-dryer and a round brush with a metal core. Be careful with those round brushes, folks. Don’t daydream and blow-dry. I had a lot of weird “hands around face” photos, so here is the least weird one! Glove Modeling is probably not in my job search for 2016. If you love what you see, you should check out Yarn Crush! Most of these January boxes have already gone out, but she may have a few extra boxes left. Don’t be shy about emailing Yarn Crush if you’re interested! New yarnies and patterns every month, for knitters and crocheters. New subscribers will get a free notions pouch filled with goodies (like mini skeins, patterns, and tools) all worth about $20 just for signing up for a 3-12 month prepaid plan. This gets shipped out shortly after signing up. Anyone who would rather go month-to-month instead of prepaid can use the coupon code HELLO to get 15% off their first month. Thanks so much to Yarn Crush for inviting me to design for the January box! I might be designing for another Yarn Crush box in the summertime, so stay tuned! If you’re like, “I already have some really cute sock weight yarn, and I would really just like the pattern itself,” well we got you covered, too. The pattern is for sale on Ravelry.com! It’s my first time putting a pattern for sale on Ravelry, and honestly, there have been a few kinks. Specifically, my PayPal was not talking to my Ravelry, so when I received a payment, Ravelry didn’t know to send the pattern info to people. THE WORST, RIGHT!? I’ve been talking to Ravelry, though, and trying to figure out the issue. It looks good on my end now (before, I was noting zero sales on […]

(This post contains affiliate links.) The crochet classes that I filmed a few months ago are going to start rolling out this year. I filmed for a Creativebug.com series called Critter of the Month! Every month, a knit or crochet designer like Megan Kreiner, Fancy Tiger, myself, (and more!), will teach you how to make a super cute new friend! January is starting up with this adorable knitted polar bear by Megan Kreiner. If you haven’t heard of Creativebug before, it’s an amazing website full of art and craft classes taught by all your favorite instructors, which you can have access to for $4.95 a month. As an added bonus, I’ve discovered that everyone who works there is super nice and fun and creative, so I’m pretty much in love with the whole shebang. I’ll keep you posted on which critter is going up next….!

I’m excited to have a new free pattern for you! It’s a part of Cut Out & Keep‘s Trick Or Treat Trail, and you can find the pattern here. I based my bright color palette on the wrapper graphic, but obviously you can also use pastel colors to represent the actual candies. When I posted a teaser on Instagram a few weeks ago, I was inundated with comments about how this candy is called something different in different countries. In America, these are called Smarties, in other countries they can be called Rockets or Fizzers. Here’s one website that talks about it, and also a Wikipedia entry. Anyway! Have super fun making your candy scarves! It is a pretty easy project for a beginner and a great way to bust that rainbow stash!

I started writing this pattern at 7:30pm and I’m still not done at 5:20am. It’s a small pattern, based on some projects I’ve made in the past, and when it’s finished, and when you eventually work it up one day, it will probably only take you 30 minutes to complete. I have taken this thing apart and started over at least 5 times, trying slightly different stitches, putting the increases in slightly different places, just little tweaks and toggles in the attempt to make the pattern as easy and logical (and cute!) for you as I can. This book is taking waaay longer than I ever expected. I’ve been feeling a bit disappointed in myself for not being able to write this as quickly as promised and predicted, but I’m always happy when I have these little victories, where crocheting and re-crocheting a tiny thing for hours and hours finally feels like it’s working just right.

Pick up Issue 54 of Mollie Makes! It’s an Etsy Takeover edition, and Etsy UK picked some of their favorite Etsy artists/crafters/makers to contribute fun summer project ideas! They asked if I would send them the pattern for the hot dog sleep mask I made for my mom a few months back, and I said of course! I grabbed myself an e-copy via Apple Newsstand. I’m forever grateful for Mollie Makes’ support and always feel super proud to to have my work appear in their magazine.  Click on the link for all the info if you want to download the issue!

I’m giving away 3 copies of the “Peanuts Crochet” kit (affiliate link) by my friend Kristen Rask that I contributed 4 patterns to, so that means 3 winners will each get one! You can see the samples I worked up for the patterns I wrote: Charlie Brown, Woodstock, Peppermint Patty, and Sally. They are pretty small dolls, about 5 inches (or under, for Woodstock). Here is a full of list characters that are included: Charlie Brown, Snoopy, Linus (and his blanket), Franklin, Lucy, Sally, Peppermint Patty, Pigpen, Flying Ace Snoopy, Schroeder (and his piano), Woodstock and Marcie. This kit is not really for super-beginners. You should probably be fairly comfortable already with working in the round, but you can also grab a kit and have it on-hand for whenever you are ready! Enter to win by using the Rafflecopter widget below and following the instructions. Simply leaving a blog comment will not count. You must go through the Rafflecopter widget, since I use the widget to select the winners randomly. Giveaway is open for U.S. residents ONLY (due to size of kit & my shipping costs), for ages 18 & over, and will run until Thursday night, May 14th, at midnight PST. Three winners will be chosen randomly via Rafflecopter/Random.org, and winners must reply to my email within 24 hours, or I will randomly choose a new winner. No purchase necessary. Good luck! P.S. Please make sure my email address can get through your spam filters! I will only be contacting winners via email. twinkie@twinkiechan.com P.P.S. NO giveaway accounts! Thank you! (Giveaway accounts are social media accounts which you clearly only use for posting about giveaways.) a Rafflecopter giveaway

Jenny from the Craft Yarn Council sent me some photos of Crochet Texas crocheting 65 lemon stress balls (my pattern and video here) for the CYC’s annual meeting! So cool and so cute! If I have any Dallas readers interested in Crochet Texas, here’s a little more info: “We meet the third Saturday of each month at St. Thomas Episcopal Church, Mockingbird Land and Inwood Rd., Dallas, Tx.  We have upcoming classes on Irish Crochet, Short Row Crochet, Positive and Negative Ease, etc.  Please go to our website for more information:   crochettexas.org” Do we have a Crochet California, or  Crochet San Francisco, or a Crochet Bay Area? I gotta look into that some time. Should we form a group called Crochet Heroes of the Interwebs?

(Apparently I wrote this blog entry in February but never posted it!? I have no idea why I didn’t. Here we go!) I posted this photo on Instagram the other day, and I was sort of surprised that people liked it so much, since it’s an older project of mine that I recently re-made. Over the holidays, someone special-ordered one of these bad boys for a Christmas present. I had only ever made one (I can’t even remember when), and I had never written down the pattern. So I winged it again and sent it off. I didn’t write down the pattern AGAIN cuz I was in my holiday freakout mode. The cute part of the story starts when the recipient of the gift contacted me and said that she wanted to order TWO MORE of these cozies, one as a return-present, and another for another friend. These ladies are like the Pineapple Upside Down Cake Tissue Box Cozy Club! Even though I can’t take on very many orders right now, I really wanted to make some pineapple dreams come true, and I actually wrote down the pattern while I crocheted the above cozy (edit: the yarn I use for the “syrup” keeps getting discontinued so I have to keep re-writing the pattern…!!!!). I guess the point of the story is that I so appreciate you guys, and I’m so happy that you continue to like my work, both old work and new work. I’m also always so floored when people share my work with others, either as physical items/gifts, or just photos online. I like that there are people out in the world that like the same weird stuff that I like. And for those wondering if I will release the pattern for this cozy: yes, that is the plan. When I get some free time to shoot step-out photos, I plan to post this pattern for free on the Tissue Box Bakery website, which I know is SORELY inactive, but always on my mind!

April is National Stress Awareness month, and the Craft Yarn Council asked me to help them write a crochet pattern for a stress ball, so that people can not only stitch away their stress, but then also squeeze away their stress! I threw some ideas at them, and they chose my idea for a lemon stress ball, in the spirit of “when life gives you lemons….” If you crochet a lot, this will be a quick & dirty pattern for you! If you are a beginner, it should still be very doable and good practice for working in the round. All month long, the Craft Yarn Council will be posting giveaways, project ideas, and helpful info about how knitting and crocheting can help reduce stress. Vogue Knitting also helped create a knit version of the lemon, so that knitters won’t feel left out! (That’s my current table cloth. I thought it would evoke PICNIC, but it really evokes WELCOME TO GIUSEPPI’S PIZZERIA MAY I OFFER YOU THE CHIANTI.) Here is the YouTube tutorial for the crochet version! Here is the crochet pattern and here is the knit pattern on the CYC website. They made cute little PDF’s for you! I’ll have the pattern written out down below as well. Hope you guys make lots of fun stuff this month to #StitchAwayStress :). *** “When Life Gives You Lemons” Lemon Stress Ball Crochet Pattern by Twinkie Chan Materials Green worsted weight yarn, like Red Heart Super Saver in Spring Green – approx. 1 yard Yellow worsted weight yarn, like Red Heart Super Saver in Bright Yellow – approx. 26 yards H8/5.0mm crochet hook scissors tapestry needle Polyfil stuffing Finished Size Approx. 4.5 inches long and 2.5 inches wide Gauge 15 sc x 18 rows = 4 in. x 4 in. Abbreviations ch(s) : chain(s) dec: decrease FLO: front loop only hdc: half double crochet rnd(s): round(s) sc: single crochet sc2tog: single crochet two together sl st: slip stitch st(s): stitch(es) YO: yarn over (   ): work everything inside the parentheses into the next stitch [   ]: repeat everything in the brackets the number of times indicated Notes – When decreasing in this pattern, I would suggest the invisible decrease. With the Right Side of your work on the outside of the Lemon, insert hook into FLO of next st, then insert hook into FLO of following st, [YO and pull through 2 loops] 2 times. – This pattern calls for Polyfil to stuff the lemon, but you can use some other stress-relieving options such as: 1) Cut the leg off a pair of pantyhose. Insert the toe into your nearly completed Lemon at around Rnd 18 and use a funnel to fill the pantyhose with Poly beads until your are happy with the feel of the Lemon. Tie off the pantyhose to close the opening and trim any extra pantyhose. Finishing crocheting the Lemon. 2) Blow up a water balloon to stretch it out. Then insert it into your nearly completed Lemon at around Rnd 18 […]

Issue 30 of Simply Crochet magazine hits the stands tomorrow, April 2, and there’s an interview in there with yours truly as well as an easy peasy crochet pattern for my soft pretzel brooch! Simply Crochet is also available on your iPad/iPhone via Apple Newsstand and for your Mac, PC, tablet or smartphone via Zinio.

So you’ve probably seen me mention it a little bit on Facebook, and hint about it on YouTube, or straight up talk about “I’m writing this book right now!” on Instagram, but I haven’t really announced it here on my blog. YES. I am writing my second book :). FINALLY! We only have a working title right now, which may end up being the final title… but I really don’t want to talk about the title or anything until closer to publication and until we’re actually promoting cover art. I WILL tell you that my second book is going to be all about crocheting stuff for your home :). There is one really awesome item that’s for you to wear, but I wanted to focus more on stuff that you could use around the house to make life more yummy. I have a really tight deadline, which is why I haven’t been blogging as much, although I would like to blog more even while I’m crazily crocheting and writing. Most of the projects are brand new and are still just figments of my imagination (I’m actually making sketches of everything right now for my editor), so I have a lot of work ahead! My deadline for the whole thing is June 1, and the book miiiiiight come out in Spring 2016. I’ll let you know more whenever I learn more! The image above is from right before I sent some items to my buddy Marissa to photograph. So yeah, those thingies up there will be in the book, and that’s the only peek you get for now!

I’m super sorry I don’t have time this year to create a new pattern for Easter, but don’t forget that I have two patterns from years past that you might enjoy! Mini Chocolate Easter Bunny (with video) … and my cute collab with Normalynn of Crochet Cake Sachets: Panorama Easter Eggs! Oh! I almost forgot about my Jelly Bean Scarf!  

A few years ago, a fellow crocheter messaged me on Facebook to give me a heads-up on a legal crochet-related matter that she thought I might want to know about. Since then, we have volleyed some messages back and forth, and she asked if she could send me a surprise. Her website is Missy-ville Custo Cro-Ami Designs, and her work is pretty amazing! The package Missy sent me contained what appeared to be two big books. Already cute, right? And when you open them up… … there are dolls inside!! Both Rainbow Brite and Strawberry Shortcake are extremely detailed, and you can really tell how much work and thought and love went into each one. If you are interested in her work, check out what is available in her shop or request a custom project! Thank you, Missy! <3

My friend Kristen from Schmancy has a new crochet book and kit out! Peanuts Crochet (affiliate link)! She asked if I wanted to throw my crochet hat in, and I said sure! You’ll find patterns by me in the book for Charlie Brown, Peppermint Patty, Sally Brown, and my most favorite of all: WOODSTOCK! I took some “behind the scenes” photos while making these guys, but this was in 2014, and I have no idea where those are now…! Sorry! We worked on Charlie Brown first to get the pattern just right, and there was a lot of back and forth with the Peanuts people to make sure they liked the proportions and the facial features (I kept wanting to make his eyes bigger and closer together…! Doh!). Then we based the rest of the characters on the basic Charlie Brown pattern (but not Snoopy or Woodstock of course!). I hope that old school Peanuts fans get a kick out of this book! Do you have a favorite Charlie Brown movie? Mine is the camping one, “Race for Your Life, Charlie Brown!”  

All the fave crochet apparel designs nominated by the judges and YOU are now available for voting!! Click here to check out all the noms and cast your votes!

I know you guys wanted me to let you know when you would be able to nominate some of your favorite crochet apparel designs for the first quarter 2015 Crochet Awards. Click here to send in your top picks! If you wanted to check out who the judges nominated, go here!!  There’s a full list with links and larger photos on the Crochet Awards website. Voting on everything will begin on Feb 23rd!

Let’s squeeze out one more heart-shaped pattern before Valentine’s Day! I got a couple requests for a Ricardio the Heart Guy from Adventure time. I had to look him up, and he looks like this: Kinda freaky, right?! Anyway, I figured this was also a good opportunity to make heart-shaped throw pillows, and then you can put a Ricardio face on it, or a happy/cute face, or make a set of conversation hearts with your own messages. Lots of opportunities here!! I will put arms and legs on mine, but you can leave out the limbs. The world is yours! There are a few ways to create a throw-pillow-type project. You can either work in the round, or you can crochet two flat pieces and sew them together. We are going to work this one in the round, kinda like a jumbo version of my heart lollipop necklace. I normally like to use single crochet for items that are stuffed, but I wanted to bang this out really quick, so I used double crochet! Let’s go crazy!!! (p.s. I’m sorry that the photos here are just screen grabs of the YouTube video….. I changed the way I decided to work the pattern, and all the photos I took were no longer valid. I will work up another pillow this weekend and shoot proper progress photos!)

Fun news!!! I’ve been asked to be a judge for the 2015 Crochet Awards, formerly known as The Flamies!! How cool is that!? Created by Founder and Fearless Leader of the Crochet Liberation Front, Laurie Wheeler, the Crochet Awards are a celebration of the best of what the crochet universe has to offer. These coveted awards are a collective voice to show appreciation to the makers, designers, publishers, and suppliers of crochet tools and yarn.  They are voted on by the passionate crochet community to show their pride and celebrate excellence. And new for 2015: the Crochet Awards will now occur quarterly, in order to really focus on all the amazing contributions to the crochet community! This quarter, we will be focusing on Crochet Patterns in Apparel! To follow along and stay on top of all the Crochet Awards news, hit up their Facebook page! I gotta go now and keep working on my nomination list :). Stay tuned…. I think you guys will also be getting an opportunity to do some nominating, too!