Sunday, August 26, 2012

of pink pigs...

my colleague debbie (also a fellow malaysian) has this unfathomable love for pink pigs. just the other day, i was at her workstation, touching-touching and looking-looking at her extensive collection of pink pig pens and other knick-knacks, when she shamelessly requested me to crochet a pink pig for her! lol... 

actually, i've already started making one for her months ago, just that i abandoned the project halfway due to my short attention span (i'm a gemini - can't blame me!) and moved on to other stuff. so since debbie's birthday is coming up in september, i thought i'd dig up the abandoned project and resume work. as it turned out, everything was completed. i just need to sew the head onto the body and it's done! dunno why i didn't just get that done previously...

pink pig clip

i used the same clip pattern as the animal clips. the reason i chose to make this is because it's easy to make, simple and not too elaborate. also, there's no such clip in debbie's collection, so it's something unique. hope she likes it!

Monday, May 28, 2012

le petit prince

first of all, i'm so bummed that i couldn't find the photos i took of the finished work! in my haste to send the package out, i must've taken the photos without the memory card in the cam without realizing it! *headdesk*


so i had to ask the new human of this doll to send me the photos for me to post them up.


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anyway, the birthday of my sister-by-choice (as opposed to sister-by-birth) is soon approaching, so i was thinking of what to make her. i made her an angel last year and as she's a big fan of the little prince by french writer antoine de saint-exupĂ©ry (hence the "frenchness" of this post title!), i decided that i'll try to make one for her.


after much research and googling, i found this pattern by erika.tricroche is the cutest and most resembled the prince. but the pattern is in portuguese and as i'm too lazy to attempt deciphering them, i just referred to the photos and tried to come up with my own pattern as i go along. took a few froggings (which means "dismantling the stitches" in crochet jargon) and trials, but in the end, i'm quite happy with the result! :)


front view. sorry for the not-so-sharp photo, coz this was downloaded from sister-by-choice's facebook!

details of the back view...

another view of the front, with the turkish apple tea (or "elma chai" in turkish language) that i bought her from my recent trip to turkey last month

and i'm glad to say that le petit prince's new human was equally thrilled to receive him as i was in making him! :)

Tuesday, May 08, 2012

tablet sleeve for pwecious

i bought a tablet recently but as this model has not been launched here (i got the help of a friend to get it for me from home), it's impossible for me to find any of its accessories here. but i can't possibly wait until my home leave in august to get the cover and screen protector, as the OCD in me would definitely freak out if it got scratched or anything bad happens to it.


so shiny... when connected to its keypad dock, it looks like a small notebook. i've named it "pwecious", hence the title of this post LOL. anyway, for more info of my pwecious, see here


so anyway, i decided to make a sleeve for it. i used the tutorial by yoonie as reference, but as i had very limited yarn (i have many colours, but only one skein per colour for amigurumi), there are not much choice in terms of colours. luckily i had these 3 skeins of brown cheap yarn in a scarf-making kit that i bought from 100 yen shop a few years back.


however, after covering up the body, i ran out of yarn for the top cover! so i rummaged thru my yarn box to see what else i can use, and i found a skein of grey yarn. i paired it up with black yarn to give it the same "feel" as the brown body and then i got an idea to make it into something more interesting.


how about putting a face on it? how about an owl?

but i got stuck at the button to secure the top cover onto the body. in my mind, i see this type of horn buttons which can double as the owl's beak.

as there are no craft shops within my vicinity and after looking in a few tailor shops (which only had ROUND buttons - how unoriginal!), i thought i could ask my best friend back home to help me buy it. then yesterday night, it suddenly dawned on me that instead of using a button for a beak, i could actually use a crocheted beak as a button! duh!!

ta-dah! i had to redo the top grey part a few times coz my 1 skein of grey yarn was running out really fast!

Sunday, April 08, 2012

easter bunny origami

someone left some chocolates on my work desk this morning, so seeing that it's easter sunday today, i decided to make a few of these for me and my other colleagues to put the chocolates in... ;)




see the origami instructions here!

Tuesday, April 03, 2012

globetrotter amineko...

my colleague, a lover of all cats, had her birthday a few days ago, so i made her an amineko to be her travel companion when she goes a-globetrottering... 





ok, i lied, her birthday wasn't a few days ago, but was in end of feb! so i was a bit late, but better late than never, right? :P


by the way, compare this with my previous amineko and ami-inu. which do you like best?


oh, and the pattern for amineko is free! ;)

Tuesday, March 06, 2012

my best friend's wedding...

i'm so bummed by the fact that while i'm over here earning a living in another land, my best friend went and got married back home!! ok, not "went and got married" but yeah, she'll be getting married this weekend! without me being there! :'(


anyway, as don't really know what to get her for a wedding gift, i thought i'd make something for her wedding day first. this way, i'll have more time to think of what to get her later on... besides, making something with my own two hands is more meaningful than anything money could buy, right?


so here's a doll couple in traditional chinese wedding attire, which i know in real life my friend wouldn't wear for the tediousness of it all. at least the dolls can wear it in their behalf :P


lomo-fied... nice?

pattern bought from etsy, but i modified the groom's hat a bit...

Tuesday, February 14, 2012

juz spreading a bit of lurv...

if you recall my previous post more than a month ago, where i've prepared some colourful hearts for valentine's day. well, it's finally v-day today, so i can post up what i did with them now.


they were actually for the goodies bags that i've prepared for a few of my colleagues whom i've come to see as more than mere colleagues. here are the stuff the went into each goodies bag.


the state of my table last night... was watching some tvb drama while preparing them.

guess what are these? teabags! this is actually a pattern for matchbook downloaded from all things simple, where i re-sized to teabag size and sewed the edges close with bright red yarns.

added a heart shaped tag to the teabag cord...


how sweet are these butterfly lollies, right? pattern was copied from skip to my lou...

some kinder chocolates... the wrappers were downloaded from anything but perfect and again, re-sized to the size of the chocs...

red heart bookmars, pattern from mmmcrafts...

bags of heart shape candies in 3 different flavours... plastic bags were bought from daiso...

lastly, the crocheted hearts...

everything into the paper goodies bags, also bought from daiso (pink ribbons optional)...

happy valentine's day, everyone! :)

Sunday, January 08, 2012

in preparation for valentine's day...

yeah, i know it's more than a month away, but i suddenly felt like preparing something for valentine's day...


colourful hearts...

i just realized that there are more blue hearts than any other colour... well, i just wanted to make them colourful, with no intentions of wishing the recipients a "blue valentine's day"!

so, what am i planning to do with all these multi-coloured hearts? well, you'll have to wait till after valentine's day to find out, so stay tuned! ;)

amigurumi heart pattern is free from here.

Thursday, January 05, 2012

mug cozy

the weather is getting quite chilly, so i made something to keep my mug (of all things!!!) warm... hehehe...


all warm and cozy now... ;)

i was out shopping one day when i passed by caribou coffee, and i saw on their display shelf a line-up of mugs with oh-so-cute winter-themed mug cozies (or mug sleeves, as they called it). but as with all other gourmet coffee outlets, these things don't come cheap. just add your brand and logo on a factory (most probably in china) mass-produced item and charge cut-throat prices for it? sorry, not my cup of tea...

so i decided to make my own. they're not that hard to make actually, we just need to get the measurements right. i didn't write out the steps while i was making them, but just kept measuring it against my mug as i went along. if anyone is interested to make their own, just drop me a line and i guess i can write out a simple instruction for you.

added in a deco, looking like a teabag tag hanging outside the mug...

when planning to make this cozy, make sure you know which mug you're making it for coz every mug's measurement is different. also, it'll be easier if the diameter of your mug is consistent from top to bottom and not of any weird shape.

not sure if it's a good thing to be known as this in the office...

this mug is a christmas present from one of my colleagues, who gave the same thing to a few other colleagues too. so there are a few "multi-taskers" in the office! hahaha... that's why this cozy is useful in not only keeping my mug warm but also in making it special and different from others, so that other people don't take and use my mug by mistake! :D

Wednesday, January 04, 2012

recycled christmas angel ornaments

this is a backdated post... coz i forgot that paper-crafts are crafts too! LOL


anyway, it's a last minute craft, something i decided to make for all my colleagues in my department, on the last hour of the last day of work before christmas!


mass production of recycled angels...

this is a very easy pattern, found here. i printed it out on used paper and my artist helped cut them out for me to fold. stick a strip of tape at the back to hold the shape and attach a piece of ribbon and voila!

we made 15... here's mine!