Yarn that I've received from the parcels so far

I'm really amazed how they can still make money by sending it one or two in a separate parcel. Haha

So exciting to wait for parcels! Am really looking forward to the bulk that is coming in next few weeks..including the clover soft touch 5.5mm hook :) and the chibi needle case. Now I'm just really lacking the crochet hook case. 

I saw the colourful clover getaway case and it looks really tough to touch and the holes for the hooks seems small and tight..so I didn't feel like getting one for the sake of getting.

Frankly..if I had a sewing machine..I might make one myself! Not that tough ba I think.

Anyway, there's lots of yarn on sale right now..online. The good and bad news is, they don't ship to Singapore..so it's good coz I think my house would be exploding yarn. The bad news is, I'm going to find one day to explore the 3rd party shipping services. Hahaha but before that happens, I got to make space for all the yarn that is coming in! About 40 skeins! Wahhahahahhhaah I hope they deliver it when my hub and mil are not around! Hahahaha I think they will faint! It doesn't cost a lot...just takes up a lot of space.. And... A poster comes to mind..

Hahaha

Work in progress part 2

After buying the eyes..I was really excited to see how it will look on the head. 

And sad to say...the workmanship of the eye washer was B A D.. horrible and terrible. It wasn't safe at all! Duhhhh in fact the washer was so loose it couldn't even hold the tail of the eye. Lousy!

So I had my quick witted thinking caps on...and decided to use felt to buffer the hole. ie..put a layer between the eye and the washer. I had a hard time poking it through but...IT WORKED! I heard a snap sound and the eyes are locked tightly in place. 

I stuffed and stuffed the head... Gosh I didn't know to make it firm, I needed THAT much filling. Haa

And so... There you have it.. 

With it's body..

And to show how small it is..

This bunny is from the amigurumi two! book by Ana Paula Rimoli. Love her work! The sunflower for my sis is also from that book. 

Hope to finish this bunny soon. In the mean time I got to rush out the granny squares for the swap! Way behind time man...I wonder if any square is on it's way to me already :) 

Journey to THE Golden Dragon storesc

Finally..the day has come that I make the "voyage to the holy land" hahaha. 

Once again, accompanied by my little companion. 

So adorable don't you think? :D

The journey was pretty quick and I had played back in my mind how the path to that shop should roughly be like.  Exit D Chinatown! And I recalled the shop is at the other end of the People's Park Centre. Time wasn't on my side...so I was literally brisk walking with extreme caution :)

Lo and behold 

The moment I stepped in, I got distracted by the shelves of yarn on my left..and the cabinets of crochet hooks and cases! 

I saw THAT crochet case that I love!! And they are selling it at $90+ O_O!!

Too bad, it doesn't come without the hooks... Baaaaaah. Maybe one day when I'm feeling rich I may buy that. Hah!

I went to search for safety eyes first. Darted around the rows of craft materials and I only saw a lone low turning cabinet and there weren't many to choose from :( how disappointing. 

There's a section of jewellry related beads that I didn't explore..no time! Hah

Look at all that yarn.... 

I couldn't wipe the grin off my face I guess. I was moving from colour to colour..touching and caressing skein after skein of yarn. 

There's a lot of brands that I've not seen before. I only had the Sirdar brand before. Even so, there is a whole range of sirdar there. There's a lot of expensive yarn as well..some cashmier silk content. Costs about $9-12. Sirdar DK costs roughly the same as the one at Tampines shop..$5.30 or $5.40

Finally I couldn't take it..I asked the shop assistant to take a picture of me with the yarn. Hahaha 

And after pacing back and forth, I finally approached one of the staff to ask about knitting. She says they give free lessons if the customer buys more than $40 of yarn. I almost let out a small laugh..That's like..easy peasy. Haha I had to pick out an item that I want to knit before they can suggest what yarn to purchase. 

I chose from a clear folder with lots of designs of scarves, baby cardigans and booties and hats. She said maybe a scarf or blanket would be better for beginners. 

I picked out one with heart shapes. Not that easy I believe. Haaa 

She suggested the cashmier yarn..which costs $9+ a skein for 50g. And I needed 10 of those?! Mad. Too expensive for me although the yarn is really soft to touch. 

Finally, it is the pink/white blended sirdar DK. I took about 6 of those. 

And an aero circular knitting needle size 4. And some other coloured sirdar yarn.. Total damage..$70! Told you it was easy peasy to hit $40 -_- 

After paying up, I went back to the lady and she said I could come another day since I had the baby with me. I said WHAT? No..I'm learning this now...in about 30-45mins I got to go! I asked if it's possible Hahaha she said it depends on individual's learning speed. I can do this! Haha 

So she started.. The slip knot is the same as crochet. Done. And what happens next was like OH MAN... To make things worst..she was conversing in mandarin coz she's a china national I believe. 

起针 上针 下针  oh gosh... First one, I has to poke thru the middle, yarn over hook, bring needle down, and pull through. Lol it's damn tough I feel. The needles just wouldn't listen to me. Argh... So I had to continue for at least 20 loops or so. I told her I didn't have that much time.. So we did about 10-15. 

Then the 上针 was to poke thru towards the left, yarn over.. Bring needle down and pull out. Haha 

There's a pearl and knit..which coincides with the up and down stitches. And the yarn over..it has to be anti clockwise. 

And the alternating stitches..If changing stitch to up, I got to bring the yarn on top of the yarn and if it's down stitch, the yarn got to be down. 

So there u have it...my first encounter with knitting! 

I just love the knitting stitches.. 

And times up..I ran off to spotlight which is 2 stations away to get eyes! I need eyes!! 

Reached there, I passed by the yarn section with much regret. Hahaha only managed to grab one patons Cotton blend, which was recommended by a crocheter. 

The safety eyes section was disappointing as well! Why oh why.. They don't even have full black eyes :( :( so I just grabbed a packet of mixed colour and amber colour. on the other hand, they had the pellet weights! There's no price tag there. So I just grabbed 2 packs. No time to see ribbons as well :( 

Time was running out. And my little companion was starting to get hungry..she's munching her fingers haha

So I scooted off in hope of coming back later in the week. 

My golden dragon loot. 

My spotlight loot. 

So I scooted off in hope of coming back later in the week. 

Oh I didn't mention..I saw one interesting coloured yarn and loved it. Had to add that to my stash

Will update again with what I've done with all that yarn. Lol

Work in progress

2 similar projects running concurrently because I've reach the part where I'm supposed to fix on safety eyes... I have none!!! 

Grrr those eyes that I bought previously had their backsides sticking out. 

Anyway, ya..I'm dozing off good night world! 

Birthday present for my sis

After going back and forth on the design for the plain bag, I finally decided on flowers! 

I had showed Yan a page from the book Amigurumi Two! by Ana Paula Rimoli. 

Did I mention? I went to the library earlier this month to borrow some crochet books. Boy was I excited! I was searching through the online library catalog to see what books they had..typing in keywords like crochet and Amigurumi etc and since Sengkang library was the nearest, I quickly jotted down which ones they had and sprinted off to get them. (Literally sprinted coz I sent Melody to play group and I only had about an hour+ to and fro before her class ended)

Here are the books I borrowed!

Oh yes back to the birthday present.. Haha very bad habit of side tracking. 

My sis and I were at muji picking out my hubby's birthday present when we came across a shelf of plain tote bags. I was sharing with her that some ppl do felting onto these kind of bags and it was quite nice. Unfortunately i told her I don't have the tools nor the skills to do it. BUT, if she wants, I can crochet something onto it. So yep, she bought the bag and I had roughly under 2 weeks to get it done. 

I was showing her a page that has cute amigurumi flowers vs a granny square sample that I had done for "crochet granny swap" group (that's another big 'international' project altogether) and she chose the cute amigurumi flowers. 

I can see why. Haha

So I started making one flower. 

Halfway through I realized i won't be able to attach the flower as it was round. So I decided to stop at the semi circle. 

Too me many days just to finish this flower... 

And I didn't have time. So I was trying to decide how to design the bag! 

M for Melissa? Haha

Not so nice..and how am I going to make the yarn stick? 

I deliberated and finally decided to make flowers.. Initially I wanted to make a sunflower.. So I started searching for a pattern..came across a few other flowers except the sunflower. No choice, I started making some flowers first. 

And finally I just googled for crocheted sunflower images and decided to make my own without a pattern! 

Not too bad right? 

One more flower and I decided it should be enough. 

I asked my hubby to help with the layout.. And there, finally finished!

So what actually happened to that flower/sun (I couldn't decide) in the end?

I decided to make another semi-sphere and turn it into a tag/keychain. 

A bag with 8 different flowers..

Quite cute ha?

I hope she likes her present :)

Yarn hoarding obsession continues

Beware..photo intensive post below. 

Did I mention that I made a trip down to spotlight? Gosh I was so happy to see yarn :D 

And there were lots of other stuff like ribbons.. Gosh.. All so pretty. 

Too bad I had a curfew and effectively only had an hour to zoom from shelf to shelf.

So there were brands like Paton.. Vera moda.. Panda? Passioknit.. And many others that I've not seen before. 

But why no lion brand..Caron..red heart? 

:(  after zooming thru a few rows of shelves, I couldn't find a single yarn which says "worsted" weight. Why oh why.. 

So I just zoomed to the area which is having good discounts. 

Wish I could include all the photos here. Just too many in my phone. Argh. 

The one and only ARAN I saw. Supposedly equivalent to worsted. 

 More expensive yarn. 

Didn't quite take a liking towards the frilly yarns so I didn't take a picture of them. Hah. 

The discount shelf.. 

The pretty ribbons that I so wanted to buy but didn't :(

I didn't manage to see this ^ 

Oh yea I just dart from row to row trying I find some worsted yarn...but nope. None. In the end, I had to go coz it was time to feed baby Melissa. Oh did I mention I had a cute cuddly companion with me? 

Hehe yea so times up.. I just grabbed SOME yarn.. Haha some that I could see myself making..like a bag..or maybe 2 bags... 

So here's my stash.. Bought some ribbons as well for the baby booties in future. Haha

I kinda love the 12-ply the most. 

Clear favourtism.. Coz I decided to make something immediately that night. Hahah 

And more the following days..

And finally... 

After many days of no naps... 

My first crochet bag!! 

The design was adapted from bobwilson123's cluster stitch design..except that mine had a bigger base, is deeper and has a longer handle :D nonetheless, thank you bobwilson123 for the fantastic design!

I'm loving the 12-ply so much, I got my mum to buy more...again! Haha I almost finished using the whole ball for that bag..so, yep, I requested for the same one as well! Haha

And some eyes and ready made ribbons 

Till then.. Happy hooking!