Brina the Crochet Ballerina

Hi there!

The lovely thing about amigurumi dolls is that you can customise it. I came across a lovely pattern by Mia of Owlishly Crochet (link to pattern) and couldn't resist!
Can you guess which was the most tedious part to make? Yup...the hair! Woven in strand by strand...
We named her Brina. Hope you like her as much as my daughter does!

Have a great week!
Serena

There's Always Time for Gifts

Hi there,
It's been almost 6 months since I've touched a crochet hook! I'm so pleased that I've finally managed to tear myself away from all that's been keeping me away to make some gifts for a few special friends of my son.
It was a request I couldn't resist -- make an amirugumi version from the drawing of a cat. This cat had a unique feature, a tuft of blue fringe. The timeline was also tight -- 2 days! Yep, there was definitely plenty of rumaging through 'my secret stash'. Using whatever I had on hand, this amigurumi of "Jayz" was made in time to be presented to the young artist. I'm so glad she liked it!
(Can you guess what I spent the most time on? The hair! I definitely felt like a hair stylist, trying to tease and shape the yarn to make it as soft and tousled looking as I could.)

For more works by this young artist, check out her DeviantArt page here: http://jayeve.deviantart.com/

'Jayz' was made based on a pattern by DDs Crochet which can be found here: http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/colorful-kitty-cat-doll-toy

Once started, can't just stop at one. So I made some others for her friends. 

Link to pattern for the whale is found in an earlier post here.

Glad to be back!

Serena

Spikes and a Phone Pouch

Hello there,
We just upgraded our daughter's handphone and so her handphone pouch wouldn't fit the new phone which is much larger. Coupled with the casing that the phone is in, it was difficult finding a pouch which would fit the phone snugly. Crochet comes to the rescue and thanks to the generous sharing of a free crochet pattern by Tamara Kelly of mooglyblog.com (pattern link is here), my daughter now has a new phone pouch! (The pouch then promptly accompanied us on our family vacation.)

Close-up of the Stitches

Small snap button to secure

 Have a great week ahead!
Serena

Compliments

Hello there,

Have you received a compliment today?

We all LOVE compliments don't we? For a crafter or anyone who creates, one of the best compliments we can receive is if someone will actually commission us to create something special for them...
In the past month, I've had the privilege of making two custom orders and loved every bit of the process.
Thank you so much to the 2 dear ladies who have greatly encouraged me!

Rosary Roses

Hi there,

A dear friend of our, S, was inspired by Kimberlee of 'Pondered in My Heart' which describes the creative use of crochet roses to teach little girls to pray the rosary. S thought crochet flowers would make a great birthday gift for a little Catholic girl and hopes that the little one's parents would use them to teach their little girl to pray the rosary.

Here are the custom-order flowers, 10 red & 1 white, made in a large size using double strand of acrylic yarn, so small little hands may grasp them easily.

Meanwhile, have a blessed weekend!

Serena


Upsized Crochet .. again

Hi there,

I've been experimenting with upsizing again....at E's suggestion....

Here's the result...upsizing the small flowers in fine crochet thread with 1mm beads to these large flowers with 6mm beads...

Here's a crochet tip for crocheting with double strands of yarn...you don't have to buy 2 skeins -- just take one end out from the inner core of the skein, and the other end from the outer edge of the skein....saves you having to buy 2 skeins if you just needed one!

Have fun experimenting! Here's to a great week ahead!

Serena

Upsizing Crochet

Hi there,

It's been a busy year so far (yes! it's barely begun!)....

It was great to hear from E who ordered some crochet flowers done in fine cotton thread (like those in this blog post). She loved the little flowers and suggested that they be made in a much larger size.

For those of us who love craft, I'm sure you'd agree that 'upsizing'requires a different approach in each craft genre. For crochet, simply 'multiplying' the 'numbers' in the crochet pattern won't do the trick. One might need to re-write a pattern just to get it in a larger size. Thankfully,  there's also an easier way:

The wonderful thing about crochet is that if you just change the yarn type and crochet hook size, you can 'upsize' or 'downsize' any pattern you like! (Much easier than re-writing the pattern!)


I did some 'trial runs' and thought I'd share with you the results of my 'experiments':

The SAME yarn type and pattern was used for all 3 flowers. A 2.5 mm crochet hook gave the smallest flower. Changing the hook size to 4.0 mm resulted in the larger red flower. To really upsize without changing yarn type, just crochet with 2 strands of the yarn at the same time using a larger sized hook (eg. 5.5 mm) -- that gave the purple large flower.

Have fun experimenting!

Serena

Christmas Greetings

Just 3 days to Christmas! I've finally mananged to finish this customised order from a good friend - 2 notebooks and 5 photoframes. So thankful for her generosity and the opportunity to do some serious crafting amidst spending time with family and friends.

Have a blessed Christmas my dear friends. Catch you in 2013!

Sheon