custom request: little chef

my friend PC wanted to give an amigurumi doll to her friend for her birthday, and requested me to make something that looks like her friend. as her friend works as a chef, PC wants the doll to be in her friend's chef uniform. so this doll is currently on its way to the US now...

black chef uniform with buttons down the middle and green pants.

at first she wanted me to make the hair into a bun with a stick sticking out the bun... wah, so challenging! later she said it's ok with just a ponytail... i don't know how long her hair should be, so i just left it long and PC can later trim it herself if she finds it too long.

not sure if this expression fits her friend, but when i described it to PC (smiling happily, until can't even see her eyes), she seemed to like it! :P

hope her friend likes it...

crocheted tawashi...

a tawashi is japanese for "dish scrubbie" and i found this pattern quite nice and unique... i decided to make it since i've started washing my cutlery in my bathroom basin (as opposed to walking all the way to the kitchen - yes, i'm THAT lazy!) more and more.

this is a somewhat easy project, completed it in less than 2 hours. but looking back at the website, i realized i didn't close up the hole in the middle enough. so there a gaping hole... anyway, the yarn i used for the grey is of a different kind from the yarns in blue and cream, hence the more "ribbed" effect.

i've hung it up on my bathroom mirror right above the basin (so that the basin will catch all the water dripping from it and not wet my floor!) but i've not started using it. hope it'll be nice to use, like store-bought dish scrubbies, if not better!

actual size is around the size of our palm, but that solely depends on the yarns used...

first crocheted clothes item...

for the longest time, i've never had any interest to crochet clothes items... for one thing, it's such an obasan (japanese for aunty) thing to do, and for another, crocheting clothes takes such a long time that i'll never have the patience to see the whole project through.

but that all changed when i came across this japanese crochet pattern book at kinokuniya. one of the patterns is so pretty and seems easy enough to do... so i embarked on this project using a skein of baby yarn which i bought sometime ago but never had any excuse to use (in the end, i used up 6 skeins of this quite expensive baby yarn!).

i took my own sweet time making this, occasionally putting it aside to work on other projects, and then picking it up again when i have nothing else better to do... it sort of became my "back-up project", and took me about 6 months to complete.

so ta-da! here it is at last... my first clothes item!

here i'm pairing it with a big baggy white pullover, which makes me look kinda chubby :(

gotta get some slim fitting, white long-sleeved blouse for this!

anyway, the finished item feels heavy... i reckon it will not be very suitable for our warm malaysian weather. ah well, maybe i'll just keep it for when i leave for japan! ;)

crocheted mary janes...

i've been rushing this last minute order to be sent out in time for the coming chinese new year... *phew*

3 baby booties, 2 in 5 inches size (blue and pink) and 1 in 4 inches size (pink). i'm using a different yarn this time round. something softer and which i think will be more gentle to the baby's skin. hence my gauge was off and i had to spend quite some time crocheting and then frogging (that's pulling out the yarns for the non-crocheters out there) and crocheting again to get the right stitch count and size. but at last, i managed to finish them last night.

the photo quality here is not so good, coz i snapped it at 2am and i was dead sleepy already! ;)

another wrist bag...

a friend wanted this bag too... and requested it to be in black with red flower, her favourite colour combination! so here it is...

do you think the flower's a tad too big, or is it just me?

i think the flower is too gory! seriously, every time i look at it, i shudder! so i actually made a smaller red flower for my friend. if she too can't stand the loudness of this giant red wheel of a flower, she just needs to cut it out and replace it with the smaller one.

for the pattern, go read my previous post on how you can get your hands on them!

wrist bag for my niece...

last chinese new year, my niece's little handbag was torn by her rowdy cousins, who must've played tug-a-war with it (girls nowadays! *rolls eyes*). when i knew about it, i secretly made up my mind to crochet a little bag for her... but as usual, i procrastinated. hehe... and now a year has passed! so i quickly put together a wrist bag in a sweet shade of pink for her, and adorned it with little purple/pink flowers. again, looks kinda japanese-ish, right? that's because i got the flower patterns from a japanese crochet book!

anyway, the pattern for this wrist bag is free but i think they've closed down the site. however, i still have a soft copy of the pattern, so if any of you wish to give this bag a try, just post me a comment with your e-mail addy and i'll just e-mail it over to you in a jiffy! ;)

hope my niece likes it!

starling handbag

got this pattern from futuregirl... if you want to give it a try, download it here.

i adorned it with clovers... don't you think it looks kinda japanese-ish? hehe...

anyway, i did not use the foundation single crochet in the pattern coz it looked kinda complicated. so i just stick to single crochets and it still came out ok.

and i put in lining for this bag. love it!

crocheted maneki neko

i just finished hooking this maneki neko (japanese for "beckoning cat") for a colleague, who is leaving my company to set up a company of her own. to make this, i combined 2 patterns together: maneki neko by Mountain Weaver and jiji the cat by a gamer's wife.

i made it a red cat because red symbolizes 'luck' in chinese. i also gave her a golden salmon tucked under her arms, gold symbolizing 'wealth' or 'fortune'.

 somehow, my maneki neko looks less 'beckoning', and more like saying "yeah! i found

a golden fish!" and the large eyes made her look like she's wearing a pair of spectacles!

 

instead of jiji the cat's long tail, i gave her a bob-tail instead... i find bob-tails
so much cuter than long swishy tails, but that's just my own weird preference! :P

i'm not quite satisfied with her facial expression, but because i ran out of time (it's my colleague's last day today!), i had to make do with it. given more time, i think i'll remove the big white eyes and just weave in a pair of chinky eyes to show her beaming happily and also a rounded 'w' shaped nose. ah well, there's always next time...

crocheted keropi coaster

feel free to use this pattern and share it with your friends, but please do not sell the pattern nor the finished coaster!

it'll be great if you could share with me some photos of your own finished coasters from working on this pattern. just copy your link onto the comment field. likwise, if you found any mistake or would just like to give me your feedback, drop me a comment!

download crocheted keropi coaster pattern

crocheted tortoise coaster

feel free to use this pattern and share it with your friends, but please do not sell the pattern nor the finished coaster!

it'll be great if you could share with me some photos of your own finished coasters from working on this pattern. just copy your link onto the comment field. likwise, if you found any mistake or would just like to give me your feedback, drop me a comment!

download crocheted tortoise coaster pattern