Customized Pillows...

I've made customized chicken pies before when I was in the mood. I have lost it altogether. I have no idea how to make chicken pies anymore. 

Then, my precious showed me a customized pillow but the price was exorbitant. It was hand-sewn hence, the higher price. I was in such good mood that I decided that I would draft out the shape on a piece of brown paper, drew it on the cloth, pinned them together and started sewing and then, with my cross-stitch yarn, I made back stitches for her name. I was in such terrific mood that it was completed in a short span of time. 

I wanted to made another one for myself but while stitching towards the end, I changed one of the letters so it became the cousin's instead of mine. Too many pillows on the bed will all end up on the floor the next morning. Thus, I have no need for one.

Making Doughnuts...

Yesterday, Golden Flower, my Facebook friend, dropped me a message to go over to her house as she has Raya goodies for me. And she purposely cooked extra to give as I would usually drool over her food photos posted up daily in Facebook.

I was thinking what to give to her. It won't be nice to go empty-handed. Since I can't cook for her then I was thinking of crochet-ing one or two dish cloth but halfway through, to my dismay, there was not enough yarn. So, mi madre has dismantled whatever that has been done.

I went to my e-mail to check what has been sent through the newsletter of my subscription and found this really simple flat doughnuts. It never occur to me to look for bouncy-stuffed doughnut. I only have a couple of hours left and I started to work on the non-edible doughnuts. 

They were quite cute and the way she decorated them was really nice. Maybe I should make her stuffed doughnuts to decorate her house. Until today, I still have nothing for myself as I've been sending things away. In exchange of these small doughnuts, I got 10 different types of cookies which were so delicious, I have rendang chicken drumstick, curry chicken, chicken and meat floss, ketupat and nasi impit. They were so good and we were eating after having our lunch an hour prior to the arrival of these yummies~!

That Pokéball...

My precious studies business so I expect her to have a business of her own. Before she even started on her business studies, she has set up an online business. I was browsing through her Instagram and I was horrified to see a crochet Pokeball. I asked her who's going to do that for her to sell and she said I'm going to do that. I have never done it and I don't even know how is it suppose to turn out to be.

Next thing that I did was hoping that nobody will buy but such evil things attract buyers real fast. That day itself someone messaged her regarding the Pokeball and suddenly I was doing it already. No doubt it's just a red and white ball with a lens on it, but it was part of the evil pocket monster game.

When I was still a child, I played with marbles, stones, shoes, bottle caps and rubber bands. Children nowadays can chant a whole paragraph of evils without knowing that they have sold their mind and spirit to the devil. They can call out curses right in your face but they can't recite the times table.

Blossom Summer Tank with Juliet Collar...

I took 2 skeins of cotton yarn in raspberry cotton. I have never crochet a blouse before so I have no idea how many skeins of 100g cotton yarn I need. The owners of cottonhouse were really helpful. The lady boss told me that I might need at least 6 just to be on the safe side. I bought 6 straight away.

I clicked on the first pattern which was quite beautiful according to the picture where the blossom summer tank  was worn on a mannequin. I started learning how to make blossom stitches according to the instructions. By the time I did until the 20th row, I was horrified with the out-of-shape tank top and thus, mi madre has to dismantle everything. Then, I started from scratch all over again and to my horror, the tank top from size M to size S. Again, mi madre has to dismantle them all. I was on the verge of giving up but I was too adamant to make this happen. I read the instructions again and literally dissect every single word.

I finally got it after many tries. Yeah, don't give up. When I'm desperate to make something happen, I will not give up but sometimes you feel like you're just so stupid because you repeated your mistakes. You knew its wrong but you still try the same method. Now I'm a bit smarter. 

I thought the tank top was too simple so I flipped my crochet book bought from Big Bad Wolf and found a collar that would bring the blouse to a higher level. It's Juliet collar and the worse part was there were only a few sentences of instructions in the book and the rest was just a pattern which couldn't utter a single word. I studied the pattern for more than a week staring into something with no words at all, thinking that one day a few words might appear to explain more.

I went head on and did it with no mistakes at all. By the time I finished the project, I felt like a professional and I could take the world  just do anything with my hands. Hanging these two pieces on a hanger was just different from seeing them worn in real life. That's Gracie's birthday present. I never give anyone birthday presents because I never know what to buy. Everyone practically has everything, nobody needs any more photo frames and cups.

My Chuka Idako...

Pinky, my travel buddy asked me to crochet her a little red octopus. Both of us really like chuka idako, wherever we were, they tasted the same. It's just a pity that Wal-Mart in OCT no longer sell it. Maybe most Chinese do not eat it?

I found my little chuka idako pattern and started on it. It just took a couple of hours to finish compared to the bunny which took me 7 hours to complete one. I dragged my feet on doing it because I thought the curly limbs were too difficult. They ended up easy enough. I thought mi madre how but mi madre seemed not to get it. I'm teaching my precious how, but she's so slow I feel like whacking her. I don't seem to have patience in teaching people how to crochet maybe because I lack the proper skill myself. I learn by making so many mistakes and mi madre is hired as the destroyer. She will just pull the yarn and roll it back and I'll start all over again. I don't have the heart to dismantle my hardwork so mi madre has to be the villain. 

They looked really cute, these little octopuses. My favourite colour among all is the shocking pink. I like all shades of red and pink, but I prefer shocking and bright colours. 

The Tote with Perfect Mistakes...

I like this present piano teacher of mine a lot, so since her birthday falls on the day of my lesson, I thought why not make her something nice, my fingers were itching to crochet.

On Sunday, I sat the whole day studying and making the tote bag pattern from one of my books. It looked really simple and nice. Instead of using nylon, I decided to use microfiber. I have two rolls of microfiber with my favourite colour but I have yet to decide what to do with them. The pattern was really very simple but along the way, something happened with the increase of stitches. They were so out I did not know what to do. When I make mistakes for my cross-stitch, I will find ways to cover them. Well, this is crochet and there are no ways to cover them unless you dismantle the whole lot and roll up the yarn and restart. I do not want to restart because I don't know where are the mistakes.

Halfway through, the stitch counts became correct. When the tote bag was standing tall, I almost fainted. The back portion of the bag had so many extra rows that I decided to turn it into a flap. The flap needed a button to hold it so I simply made a magic ring and because the hook and the yarn were big and thick, the button that I imagined turned out to be a gigantic button used by I-don't-know-what.

While making the handle, I think I was talking to either mi madre or the hubby that I missed two stitches. I really wanted to faint so one handle was short and the other was of the exact stitch counts. The long one was stitched to the front part while the shorter one was made to be at the back. 

The tote bag was completed with the 'Made by me' label. Yeah, seriously made by me. Only I can manage to pull off such big mistakes and give it away as a gift. You can't buy it if you have the money because I don't know how to make the second one with the same mistakes and the flap. That microfiber tote is hug-able. It's soft, really soft.

The Beginner's Ribbed Scarf...

I was excited to start on the next project and I went to town and found another shop selling yarns and sewing accessories. The yarn was quite thick but being ignorant and totally without knowledge of the types of yarns, I went ahead to buy those yarns. The ribbed scarf pattern was taught by Ms. Craft Nerd, again from YouTube.

I did the blue scarf for Pinky and I have shipped it to Australia.I will not consider it as a waste of time and money but I was a bit upset because the scarf was so hard, I would rather use it to wipe my feet then wear it around my neck. The 100% acrylic was totally useless as a scarf, it will not be able to keep warm at all. Pinky is very afraid of cold cold winter so in the end, I wise up and went on to buy expensive 100% wool yarns for her and I found her favourite 100% cashmere wool as well.

The pink scarf with a headband were flown in to Taiwan for another friend. She has the same taste of colour of myself so it will be easier to choose the yarn while Pinky is my total opposite and her wardrobe is so boring, it looks like she has only black and white in her wardrobe. Well, at least we got good practice in crocheting. Thank you Ms. Craft Nerd...