Category: Videos

You can have a lot of fun decorating a Halloween tree! I went with a colorful monster theme for mine, PLUS most of my ornaments are EDIBLE. Treetopia graciously gave me a pre-lit Tuxedo Black faux Christmas tree. This one is 7.5 feet tall which made me realize my living room ceiling is not that high :P. But the black color is a very nice blank canvas for all of your spooky Halloween scenes. I baked colorful monster sugar cookies and I also put together some gigantic marshmallow bloody eyeballs. I gotta tell you that the house smelled really good!

OKAY, I know it’s only like the day before Mother’s Day, but I posted a YouTube video for a Mother’s Day project anyway. You know how it goes with me … I’m a terrible planner when it comes to videos and holidays, and you can always use a bunch of older projects for this year’s present, and then you can use this one for future presents! 😛 I need to shoot better photos of the scarf and of me wearing it! But anyway, as I explain in the video, I have a store-bought scarf that I wear all the time and that is getting kind of old-looking, so I wanted to make myself a new one. I figured, you might want to make one, too. There are a lot of patterns and tutorials out there for chain link scarves already, so this isn’t a new-new idea, and I don’t even know if there is some cool tip or trick I’m missing out on. It’s just something I made for myself in real life. If anything, it’s just inspiration to start digging around in your stash and putting together yarns you might not have normally put together! In my scarf, I have some Madeline Tosh, Lion Brand, Knit Collage, and handspun from Etsy. The other fun thing (for me) about the video is that I lit my hands with my new OttLite (that you can win, too!). You’ll notice that the light changes throughout the tutorial portion of the video, because I kept changing the light settings around. I like whatever setting I had it on for the very last tutorial shot! I think that was the cool temp at full blast. Anyway, I hope you have a wonderful weekend, whatever it is that you’re doing! <3

I have another fun subscription box to show you guys! Lucy from Alphabet Suitcase asked if I might want to check out their mystery jewelry subscription box called Knick Knack, and I said, yes of course! She wondered specifically if I could post an unboxing video, so I uploaded one to my YouTube channel: I don’t want to spoil the video surprise with any more photos, so have a look at the video if you’re curious about the Knick Knack box! The next one launches June 28!

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 […]

I randomly decided the other day that I needed to make myself Holly Golightly’s sleeping mask from Breakfast at Tiffany’s, and I figured I’d share the pattern so that you guys can make one, too! The cool thing about this pattern is that you can turn the basic sleeping mask into anything you want…. like a bunny mask, a kitty mask, a teddy bear mask… there are tons of possibilities for customization! I made 4 other kinds of masks, which you can see in the intro of my YouTube tutorial! I have no idea how many people actually use sleeping masks on the daily, but while I was crocheting one at my parents’ house, my mom revealed that she uses them! Who knew!? Also, I was making a pink mask, and she asked what it was going to be, and I told her a bunny mask…but actually it was this eye-ball-falling-out-of-the-socket mask. Sometimes, you have to tell a white lie so that you don’t sound crazypants around your folks. This pattern will focus on the Holly Golightly mask, for whenever you have the blues or the mean reds!

I just posted a new video tutorial for an old-ish pattern here on my blog: the heart garland that was featured before in Crochet Today magazine! It’s a cool tutorial for beginners, because we go through several different stitches like tr, htr, dc, hdc, and sc!  

I know that Halloween is just around the corner, but these lil pumpkins are also a fun project for Thanksgiving! This pattern is SUPER EASY and great for beginners. There’s really nothing to it! The pattern is below, and I also uploaded a video tutorial to YouTube. Enjoy!

Groot news! I just uploaded a new video tutorial to YouTube to accompany my free crocheted baby Groot pattern! (I apologize in advance for the slightly weird photos in this post. They are video screengrabs shot in Photobooth… only the finest quality for you, only the finest.) Also since so many people have been asking if I will sell a finished Groot to them (I have no plans to sell finished Groots), I decided to have a giveaway here on the blog. You have a week to enter via the Rafflecopter widget below (ends next Friday, October 10th at midnight), and I will draw 5 winners, open internationally! I am running low on the discontinued yarn I used for my original Groot, but I promise to use an equally nubbly and tweedy yarn, which just may end up being a sliiiightly different hue/texture. I will be giving away the baby Groot only and NOT the terracotta pot or any pebbles or moss. You’ll just be getting a little naked baby tree. You have to supply a pot yourself, since I don’t want to ship pots and risk breakage or pay extra shipping for a heavy package. But terracotta pots are easy to find and are cheap, so I think you guys can handle it! I do not recommend giving my baby Groots to small children because of small parts and potential wiring.  You will be able to decide on some customizations for your baby Groot, like the length (long or short, or as I labeled in the photos, “Big Baby” and “Little Baby”) and whether you want the body, arms, or both to be wired. My favorite version for snuggles is no wiring at all, but for posing, my favorite is a wire in the body and pipe cleaners in the arms, but you can tell me what you prefer. Please allow me 3-4 weeks to finish custom-making your new babies before shipping them. Good luck! a Rafflecopter giveaway

Two weekends ago, Hairy, Manda, Renee and I drove north to the redwoods to go hiking. The neat thing about hiking on the California coast is that you can see big tall redwood trees and also go to the ocean. I uploaded a video/vlog to my YouTube channel, which you can check out here:   Most of Saturday was spent driving up there, so we ended up just checking out the ocean before dinner. I saw this log on the beach and had to Costanza on it. Then I insisted that Renee and Manda pose saucily on the same log. You will not ever be catching Hairy posing on any log, but we did ask him to take photos of the 3 of us, just being… us. Anyway, after wandering around the beach and watching the waves and the tide come in, we started to drive back to 0ur hotel, and found some neat wildlife on the way! We pulled over to check out this herd of elk chillin’ in a meadow. We would also later have a very close encounter with a big ol’ daddy elk near the beach, and he was just munchin’ away on some grass and didn’t seem to mind us very much at all. We decided to drive away from the elk meadow when we discovered we were under heavy banana slug attack (you have to watch the YouTube video if you want to see the banana slug tshirt that Renee made me buy). The next day, we had a big ol’ breakfast and then went on a short hike and then a long hike. In one of the groves, we saw an old “save the trees” photo with a bunch of serious people holding hands around a tree, so we attempted to re-create this ourselves. Pretty much what you’re learning here is that the trees need to be saved FROM US. Our second hike involved a waterfall, and I don’t think I got very many photos of it, just video, but here are Manda and Hairy looking very adventurous. After this hike, we drove to a different beach, where we saw two sea lions pretty close to the shore, ducking in and out of the water. It was really cute! I unfortunately could never time my video correctly to catch one for you guys! There are some other hiking stories that I talk about in my video that I didn’t get photos of to post here, like the other animal encounter we had, and why we eat kipper snacks on long hikes!

It was my birthday on Wednesday, and it seemed like a really great time to share my cupcake/mini-cake hair clip pattern with you guys! I designed these little cakes to be somewhat short and low profile, so that they look good as a hair accessory. The best part of all is that you can use real cupcake toppers to decorate your mini cakes, which gives you tons of options for gifts and holiday outfits! The video tutorial is also up  on my YouTube channel! The typed-out pattern is below. For a printer-friendly PDF with more how-to photos, please check out the pattern in my Etsy shop!

Last Saturday night, I took Yummy You! to San Francisco’s first Kawaii Land , a cute shopping event and fashion show, at Ruby Skye. I debuted our new Bibi character in the form of t-shirts, tank tops, and a plushy pillow!

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!

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 :).

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!).

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

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!).  

I know it’s really last minute, but I made a video tutorial to go with my free pattern for the mini chocolate Easter bunny!

When I knew that the Tako (Octopus) Scarf was going to be released by Yummy You, I really wanted to take some snaps inspired by “The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou.” Manda spent the night last week, and I decided to kidnap her to the beach and take photos with me. They are just for fun, and I know the quality is not great. It was a REALLY SUPER SUNNY day, and there was no shade anywhere, but we just decided to have fun and take some photos and be weirdos together, cuz that’s basically what we always do. I’m pretty sure the family next to us thought we were really strange. Oh yeah,  I forgot to mention, it was really busy there that day!   Before shooting any of the photos, I’d told Hairy, “The outfits are not flattering at all,” and he said, “Interns don’t get flattering outfits!” TRUE! We also took a bit of video on Manda’s iPhone of us being nerds on the beach. I’m amused that the first comment was “crap video.” Because, I KNOW IT’S A CRAP VIDEO. It’s just two bff’s having fun being back-lit at the beach and goofing around. The End.  Sheesh! WHY SO SRS?! Go twirl!

I made a video of me launching my confetti popper for the first time!!!!! Excitement!!! Suspense!!! Mayhem!!! Also, congrats to Kelsea Echo for winning a copy of the book! Woohoo!!! 😀  

After several people asked if I could shoot a video tutorial for the free Cupcake Dish Cloth pattern I wrote for Lily Sugar ‘N Cream, I finally made it happen! Crochet videos are kinda weird to me, cuz even after I sped up a lot of the easy crochet portions, my video still clocks in at a whopping 53 minutes!! I can’t imagine anyone sitting through the whole thing! But is that the point? To feel like you are crocheting a project along with someone? I would love feedback! I wanted to be as informative as possible, but maybe I was too informative…. heheh. Like, I know I could have done separate videos for weaving ends, blocking, working each different stitch…. that seems logical to me, but it also felt natural to just mention it while I was doing it. Let me know your thoughts! p.s. While filming, I also noticed a few small flubs in the pattern, and I edited the pattern on my blog to reflect those changes.

This pattern is pretty much the easiest pattern ever: it’s a rectangle.  The end. It’s great for beginners! Great for kids! Host a holiday crochet party where everyone makes one crocheted candy and then string them all together to create a group garland! Or, everyone can keep their own candy and string them as ornaments. I will probably glue pinbacks and hair clips to the backs so that I can wear them. There are a lot of possibilities with just one little crocheted rectangle! For more advanced beginners, you can get some great striping. You can alternate different colors every other row, and carry the unused yarn. Or, you can alternate colors ever 2 rows, and just drop the unused yarn and pick it up on the way back. Working a thin sparkle or sequin yarn with your regular yarn also and some subtle bling. Either way, all you need is a little bit of yarn and a styrofoam ball to get going! I also tried filming a video tutorial for this. People have been asking me to do videos, but they are quite a bit of work, so I haven’t really been super eager to get on that task, since I do everything 100% by myself.  But since this project is SO EASY, I thought it would be a good ice breaker for me to film a video and for you to break out some crochet hooks!

I hung out with Manda on Friday to work at her house, and we paid a visit to her storage unit in the evening. It was REALLY CREEPY in there, y’all! Like, dead-bodies-and-murderers creepy. I said, “We should make a 30-second horror movie in here,” and Manda said, “OKAY,” soooo we did! I don’t think Manda and I will be quitting our day jobs to make movies or be actors, buuuut making home movies was definitely part of our childhood, and now it’s ten times easier with iPhones! I was mostly afraid we were going to get in trouble for yelling, running in the hallway, and turning the lights on and off. If anyone watches our footage on the security camera: I’m sorry, and, you’re welcome. I call this masterpiece: The Storage Unit.   (2 Live Crew is the music I used for the “bloopers” section, in case you were like, “What does this terrible movie have to do with 2 Live Crew?”)

Last weekend, we vended at DesignerCon with Yummy You! This was the first convention I’ve ever vended at, PLUS, it was the first time I had ever had a Yummy You! booth anywhere! I LOOOOOOVE doing events in L.A., because I know way more people there than in S.F., and it’s so fun to see all your buddies come out! Greatest buddies ever! I have quite a few photos, so I’m going to post things in chronological order, starting with Friday, when Manda and I flew into Burbank to set up the booth with my business partner.  I think it will be funny to refer to my partner as Charlie, like Charlie from Charlie’s Angels, because he doesn’t really like to be “seen.”

On Sunday, Manda and I visited a pumpkin patch together in Portola Valley and test drove our Halloween-themed hats! I’m wearing the trusty Pumpkin Slouchy Beret, and Manda is in a brand new sample of a Candy Corn Kitty Hat that I sketched out and crocheted on Saturday night. (Not listed on Etsy yet. I need to shoot product photos!) We made a little video, and here are some fun moments!   Watch the video to find out why Manda was so mad at the skeleton guy that she slapped him upside the head with her purse.   I will be posting a free pattern for this little ghost on my blog later in the week (I hope! I’m also in Elysse’s wedding this week!).  What is it? Watch the video!       As long as I’ve known her, she has been addicted to sugar. She is chugging candy corns out of a Candy Bar Clutch! These crazy giant gourd things look like kettlebells.   Really hard core squash-lifting. Okay, here’s the video! While we were at the patch, one of the guys working there asked where we got our hats. Manda said I made them. He asked if I could put a name on a hat, and I told him it depended on how intricate the name was. He pointed to a name on his own hat in some olde english-y font. I’m good, BUT NOT THAT GOOD! How about a pumpkin hat, buddy? Here’s our video from last year! Do you guys already have Halloween plans for this year? I don’t think we have any yet. No costumes planned. Today I joked that I could be Dora the Explorer and Manda could be my monkey-friend, and she asked me to make her a monkey hat … but … You don’t REALLY want to be a MONKEY for Halloween do you!? 😛