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!

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-exupéry (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! :)

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!

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! ;)

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...

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! :)

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.

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

bear bear bauble...

made this gift for a colleague friend. one thing good about birthdays in the year end is that there are so many gift inspirations around, due to christmas. so hope she understands why her birthday gift so resembles a bauble... coz it's really meant to be hung on the christmas tree as a bauble! :P

lil bear with a snug cozy scarf...

as usual, packaging is recycled...

pattern for bear bauble is from all about ami

gil the globetrotter ami-inu

i went for a bit of traveling recently, and as it’ll be a solo trip, it’d be quite difficult to have many pictures of myself. so as not to bore my friends with too many photos of sceneries, i thought maybe i should have a representative to pose in a few of those travel photos.

after thinking for a while, i thought i’d make an ami-inu (amigurumi inu, “inu” being the japanese word for “dog”). this ami-inu will look slightly different from the amineko i made previously, coz obviously, amineko is a cat (“neko” = japanese for “cat”).

meet gil (short for gilbert), the globetrotter ami-inu… as you can see, gil is slightly bigger than the pink amineko, coz i used loose stitches.

gil waiting for boarding… he’s slightly pissed, due to flight delays! :D

totally beat, he hogged the whole sleeping bag to himself!

ami-inu pattern is adapted from this free amineko pattern.

hoot hoot!

this is a gift i made for my friend’s sis, gina, who is also a fellow blogger whose blog has been keeping me quite entertained. she wanted a greenish owl, so i hope this colour combination is ok… :)

but maybe i should’ve used a darker grey for the sleeping eyelids to make it more obvious…

anyway, this photo was taken by gina and i downloaded it from her facebook :)

more angels…

i have a friend in japan who just went to work another city, as well as to further her study there. staying alone and away from her family, sometimes she’ll get lonely and depressed, and i can totally understand that. so i decided to send her an angel to cheer her up.

i didn’t have time to snap a photo of it as i was anxious to send it out! :)

my niece (another niece, not the one whom i made this for) will be celebrating her birthday soon, and since she’s been bugging me for an angel for the longest time, i decided to make this in conjunction with her birthday… killing 2 birds with one stone! :D

same angel as the one i made for my japanese friend, just that my friend’s is with a red flower on the dress and my niece’s is yellow.

amineko

this is a very belated birthday present that i did up for a friend. she just received it in the mail today, so i can post the pics up now… :)

amineko taking a nap on my laptop…

  amineko with its various poses…

i love its expression of =_=’’’ hahaha… the pattern can be downloaded free here.

the angry birds recruited!

updated 3 september 2011: karla fitch has discontinued the sale of these patterns. i am one of the lucky few who managed to nab them, but i can't and won't resell them. so please stop contacting me with offers to buy them. hope everyone understands... :)
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i can't seem to get enough of the angry birds. not the game, but the amigurumi! :D
here, they've recruited 3 more members to help them in their fight against the green pigs...

angry birds: yay, more recruits into our gang!

green pig: yikes!

i find this white bird particularly hilarious (please excuse the dark photos!). coz when we squeeze it...

...it'll lay an egg! lol!

ok, from this post, now everyone can roughly guess how much drama series i've been watching, right?! :P

the angry birds gang!

updated 3 september 2011: karla fitch has discontinued the sale of these patterns. i am one of the lucky few who managed to nab them, but i can't and won't resell them. so please stop contacting me with offers to buy them. hope everyone understands... :)
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firstly, i do not own an iphone. so i don’t really play this game. heck, i didn’t know what are angry birds just a month ago! i only got to know about this famous game when my friend posted her crocheted angry birds in her facebook album. and i thought they’re real cute! so i decided to make them as well.

angry birds: (whisper, whisper) strategy (whisper)
green pig: *gulp*

unlike my previous amigurumis, i made these without any idea of what i’d do with them after they’re done. i was chasing the tvb drama series of no regrets (which by the way, is a super duper great drama! i’m so in LOVE with it!!!) and i like to keep my hands busy while watching my dramas so that i can be delusional and feel as if i’m not wasting my time by watching dramas. hehe…

angry birds patterns are by karla fitch.

hoo goes there!

updated:
here's how i packaged my owls, the tutorial of which i from here.

recycled envelope...

i made more of these delightful sleeping owls over the weekend. i love it that they're so easy to make, and i can just whip a couple up in mere hours!

3 'lil owls sleeping in a row...

my artist had a birthday last month, and other than a small ice-cream cake, i thought i'd make her a 'lil pink owl too. hope she's not superstitious about owls, coz the chinese community has so many superstitions and owls are not one of those animals with "good omen" attached to them.

another one of my colleague had a birthday last week. this colleague has been helping me a lot in translating documents from english to the local language here, so as a token of appreciation, i thought i'd make him an owl too! i experimented with the number of stitches a bit, hence this 'lil blue guy is slightly smaller than the rest.

ok, this last fella is not a birthday gift, but more like a farewell gift. it's also for a colleague, who has tendered her resignation. actually i've been wanting to make something for this colleague, as i sort of caused her to loose some money. you see, i was on my way to another city for training, and at the last minute, i realized that i didn't have enough cash on me for the taxi fare. so this colleague lent me some and when i got back, i kept wanting to pay her back, but i didn't have the money in smaller denominations. and as she's always on duty when i met her, she didn't have any change on her to give back to me. after a few weeks, i went to just pass her the cash while she was on duty. so she stuffed it into her uniform's inner pocket but when she sent her uniform to the laundry, she forgot to remove the money! and that's the last we saw of it. i know it's not my fault, but i felt somewhat responsible for setting her back a few hundred $... (her resignation has nothing to do with this incident. at least i hope not!)

angel amigurumi

this angel was requested by a friend, who is fighting breast cancer and at the time when she was rather down in the dumps, she wished that she has an angel to watch over her. so i’ve decided to make one for her, but i was out of yarn supply and the yarns sold here in this country are all for making clothes, hence they’re very very expensive! so i sought my best friend’s help to buy the yarn in malaysia, and i was only able to get them when i went home for the chinese new year recently.

anyway, i’m glad to say that my friend is not longer depressed… but was still very happy when i showed her the photos of the finished angel. the angel will be making her way over to my friend very soon!

i purposely didn’t sew in a mouth for her, coz i suck at embroidery! didn’t wanna spoil its cuteness… and anyway, my friend didn’t mind it at all, saying that angels shouldn’t be talking anyway, they just need to listen! hehehe…

the back view. i feel the hair part takes the most of my time…

still unable to weave in the hair neatly… need more practice!

hmm… her skirt was supposed to be long enough to support her to stand by herself. i guess i made it too short… but it’s ok, coz aren’t angels supposed to fly? :P

hope this little angel will be a good listener for my friend, as well as be her guardian angel to watch over her! :)