More bookmarks

September 30, 2006 at 4:28 pm | Posted in All Finished Crafts, Craft - Books | 3 Comments


It’s the end of my crocheting week/month.

The flower is finished last morning. The pattern is from a Chinese book “Special Collection of Crochet Patterns (钩针花样专辑)” ISBN7532356221. Its asymmetrical petals catch my eye at the moment I saw it. Such designs are rare. Most classic crochet laces are quite symmetrical and balanced, making this flower so special that I have to try it.

After the flower, I figured out it’s too “lonely” and I need some leaves too! Four-leaf clover is the first thing coming to my mind. Since a clover can be consider as a combination of 4 hearts, it should not be too hard to make. Just a few minutes later, it’s no longer as easy as I expected. As I said before, I dont like cutting during crocheting. It’s easy to make 4 hearts seperately, but it might be a little tricky to get all 4 hearts in a row. It took me almost almost one hour to find the solution. Although I think I can still improve this pattern a little, I would save it for another day. 😛

Let’s read!

September 29, 2006 at 8:30 pm | Posted in All Finished Crafts, Craft - Books | 2 Comments


My hubby asked for a bookmark when he was leaving for a flight a few days ago. My moo bookmark was in a book I read recently. Instead of my mini moo, I gave him a piece of notecard for his onboard reading. After he left, I started thinking maybe I should make more bookmarks as our books are getting more.


I just saw an online album with a really nice pattern book of crocheted bookmarks last week. I went directly to my favorite directory to get the link quickly. Sadly, it turns out the ID (not just the album) had been deleted. It’s possibly removed by the site admin, as this happened to many other links I saved from this website. The website may consider such photo albums as piracy, which is sort of reasonable. (I doubt if this will ever happen to photos in 163.com.hmm….) I didn’t got a chance to take a look at the cover before it’s gone. 😦 The only thing I can find now is some blurry covers from ebay.

Because of this sad story, I was a little too sad to looking for other free online patterns. Though, I didn’t give up making one bookmark. After drawing a few sketches ,and some counting, of course, I made my own crocheted bookmark today. I would rather start crocheting earlier if I knew some stitch numbers I counted from my sketches was WRONG. Shame on me. 😛


The pattern may be more interesting if I use threads of some other colors. However, I think the creamy color fits our big old book. I also omitted the lacy edges which was in my original idea. The curly curves are absolutely NOT me. 😛

hmm……

September 28, 2006 at 9:20 pm | Posted in All Finished Crafts, Craft - Books, Craft - Inspirations, Craft - Websites | 2 Comments

I was quite surprised that I found something from a Brazilian blog. My name was not stated in the magazine, thereby some people thought it was by a Japanese. I actually start wondering if it’s really my work….kind of weired feelings…:D



Come on, the coins in the picture are all Canadian….how can it be from Japan, even it’s inspired by some Japanese traditional crafts? The inspiration was from a online excerpt of some Japanese book about traditional crafts using Kimono fabrics, but not from the website introduced in the magazine. Honestly, how a craft is inspired is what most Chinese readers of that magazine don’t care about. Anyway, the excerpt is from the book “traditional crafts from silk crepe“, ISBN 4-7662-0271-6. It’s clear enough to disclose the secret of roses. Check the website by Japan Toy Museum for more traditional Japanese crafts. I wish there could be more improved Chinese traditional crafts out there.

I drew detailed sketches on paper and the person who appears on the page transfer the sketches to vector pictures. It’s really strange seeing people following my instructions so precisely to make such a rose pouch. As a matter of fact, the size were all measured after the pouch is finished and the pieces of petals were counted at the same time. The size of the pouch is same as lid of 1-kg peanut butter bottle from Kraft. And the bias tape was as wide as my ruler. You know, it’s always my way to do crafting. The petals are ready-cut 2″ cotton squares from a set I got from ebay. It’s possible to use any shapes of scraps for the petals and I just happened to have some squares of such size. And, as a result of the fixed size of those squares and the amount of squares I have (I only have 7 squares of the last kind at that moment), I put those numbers of petals on each layer.Moreover, I made a tape for holding keys, because I was also considering a key pouch project when I made this rose pouch.

That is how it looks like before I sew the zip on, almost 3 weeks before I started my key pouch.

Aw, it has been almost 2 years…..I always took only a few coins and my keys with me to “shop” in the grocerystore on du Fort at that time. It would be very convenient to have something for both of them. That’s why the pouch ended up to have these functions even though I didn’t make it for myself (freak logic:-P). There is something even more weird. The color theme of this pouch is determined by the fabrics I used for bias tape, but not by the petal squares. It was from an abandoned pajama. I spent a few hours making a long bias-tape with my roommate’s iron and I had to use it somewhere.

It’s definitely not my style, so pink and so girly. It’s one of the reasons I request my name not to appear. Another reason is I dont think it’s original enough. I didn’t keep the pouch. Instead, I gave it to my lovely little niece who is crazy about pink, flowers and being princess. Happy ending for everyone! 🙂

Party night

September 28, 2006 at 12:02 am | Posted in Food | 1 Comment

I had a great time having “Italian” dinner at my friends’ place tonight. Now, I’m just too full to sleep. 😛


I brought some mini palmier puff pastries I made this afternoon. German friends told me they might call it “pig ears”. It’s called “butterfly crisp”(蝴蝶酥) in Chinese, which I like much more. 😀 I was always pleased when getting the fresh “butterflies” coming out from the bakery in university a few years ago.

It’s not so easy making the pastries with our mini oven (similar to this), which can only hold two pieces of regular toaster. I can only bake 6-8 pieces every time due to the limited space. Besides, I have to watch the oven every 5 min to make sure the pastries are evenly baked but not over-cooked. Anyway, the result is not too bad and I dont think I will make them so frequently.

I put the most symmetrical one on an 8-inch plate, then you can see how small it is. Just for no more than 2 bites!

Beautiful

September 26, 2006 at 6:09 pm | Posted in All Finished Crafts | 5 Comments

The sun shines again this afternoon after 3/4 days of gloomy rain. It’s so nice idling in our living room in the sunshine. I guess I’m still in a pleased mood for crocheting after I finished my largest crochet project ever (don’t laugh at me for the size…it’s really the largest among all crochet project I’ve finished). Now there is a new member joining the shelf group: a creamy butterfly.



I found this butterfly with another two back in June. I dunno how to view large version of pictures in yahoo photo albums, but I still saved this picture for reference, as I think this butterfly is the most beautiful crocheted butterfly I’ve ever seen. I believed I would crack it some day despite dreamy diagrams. The previous butterflies were sort of experiments for my real target.

I was surprised that this butterfly is much bigger than the other two I’ve made. It’s almost 12cm long. My right thumb and my eyes are a little exhausted due to overwhelming single stitches. I nearly gave up counting those tiny stitches from both the diagram and my piece. It was killing me! Fortunately, I managed to finish it before the sun disappeared (our windows face the west :-D). The result is not so bad. even it doesn’t looks exactly like the original, it’s still the most beautiful in my thinking.

I put the new butterfly together with Lilac, Miranda and the little butterfly. Are they like a family? 🙂

Ready for winter

September 24, 2006 at 2:13 pm | Posted in All Finished Crafts | 3 Comments

I finally finished this blanket, which is warm and soft. It’s so comfortable to have my legs covered when watching TV in living room. It’s actually large enough to cover knees of both of us.


The pattern is relatively simple, simple enough for me to crochet “blindly” sometime. It’s sort of large granny square, though I didn’t check online patterns of granny square before I started. It’s not so hard to figure it out without any written patterns. Usually granny square consists only 4-6 rounds and small squares are joined together to form a blanket/afghans. It needs cutting，(yarn) changing and fastening all the time. All these would distract me from watching TV. Thus, I decided to make it large and only to change yarns every few rounds. I also give the last round a little curve, telling myself it is the end for it. 😛

It isn’t too bad, is it?

Good luck, bad luck

September 19, 2006 at 4:45 pm | Posted in All My Sketches, All My WIP, Misc. | 1 Comment

Yeah, I am sort of fatalistic, believing there is always something bad coming when something really good happened to me. It’s proved true again.


It took me just half an hour (including the waiting time!) to have my visa extended for two years. Afterward, hubby and me went to the bank for my blocked debitcard. The lady from the branch is so nice finding some other problems in our account and having fixed them all. At this moment, it’s too much for me…..

Just a few hours later I found out I cannot upload any pictures to flickr! It said 100% of my limit is used. It’s so weird I haven’t uploaded any pictures since last Thursday when only 1% had been used. I was so happy with flickr and actually started considering a Pro account someday. Now, it’s no longer on my wish list any more. 😦

Let’s forget about the bad things and talk about my recent projects.

I did some painting last night. I tried to paint some fancy fishes but they turned out to be like cooked. >othe frame I got the other day and hanged on the wall. The existing nail on the wall appears to be too high over there, but I’m just too lazy to find a new one.:-P

As for my crocheted blanket, it’s already over 60cm x 60cm after I watched the fourth episode of Prison Break. The picture below shows how it looks like right now. My goal’s to make it at least 1m x 1m. I hope I have enough yarn for it.

P.S. on Sept 20, my flickr is recovered, but I haven’t got any explanations yet.

WIP week

September 14, 2006 at 9:29 pm | Posted in All My Sketches, All My WIP | Leave a comment

I guess some of you might have been wondering where I have been. I didn’t have so much time for crafting lately due to my “heavy” workload….Besides 8h/day at work, I spent a little too much in watching old TV series this week……1983’s Condor Heroes, 1987’s Story of the Stone and 2004’s House MD in last 4 days.


Indeed, there is something I can do when watching TV. It’s crocheting! I got some soft acrylic yarns at half price last weekend and the color matches our “sofa” very much. Since winter is just a few months later, it would be very nice to have a blanket when watching TV in cold weather. ^^ Well, at the same time, it means I got a few months to finish this project.


I also tried a little painting recently. I haven’t used any (aquarelle) watercolors after primary school. So far as I rememberd, nobody taught me how to paint with watercolors. The art teacher from my (junior) high school prefers gouache, which colors are easier for us to “control”. He required us to use gouache in class and for homeworks, usually some color exercises. I was kind of brainwashed, telling myself watercolor is just for pro. On the other hand, I actually never used this kind of “solid” watercolor before, thereby I was quite nervous when I decided to start. Honestly, I stared at the colors and the cup of clear water for almost one hour before I can take up the pen.

At last, I did it. Even the touches are naive, the simple picture looks dirty, and even I was in a mess, I’m still satisfied, as it’s my first move. I hoped I can get used to the way handling colors. It’s so different from gouache and acrylic. Good luck for me! 🙂

Good finds

September 9, 2006 at 9:03 pm | Posted in Misc. | Leave a comment


I had a great time wandering around the flea market this morning and got something really satisfying myself.

In addition to the stuffs in the picture, I have also bought a nice small basket, which is holding my keys and purse in the hallway. All of them costed me less than 4euro. Both pictures are hand painted. I may change the underneath one later, however I’m probably going to keep the rose.


The yellow monster is my favorite. I really love his shining smile so much that I couldn’t leave the booth without him. 😛 He is almost new with price tag on it, yet I gave him a shower as well as a great sun bath after we came home. Now, he smells like sunshine…..>o

Miranda, the funky butterfly

September 8, 2006 at 5:29 pm | Posted in All Finished Crafts | 1 Comment


I actually crocheted two butterflies yesterday. I didn’t show the second one because it was considered as a WIP project.



And, it’s finished today. It’s a butterfly fairy with funky hairdo. Her name is Miranda. The name is from one of my favorite female roles, even though this doll does not looks like her at all. Probably she is as smart as Miranda Hobbes. 😛

Her pattern is the same as Lilac‘s. The body was sewed at the time I made Lilac. A lot of people were wonderring that, as a fairy, why Lilac does not have wings. I didn’t tell them I was going to make one with wings. In my own imaginations, fairies are of various kinds, e.g. flower fairies , butterfly fairies, etc, and flower fairies stay with the flowers they belong to. Then, my idea of butterfly fairies is a wise little lady flying around with her beautiful wings, like Miranda. 😀 You can see she is staying with other butterflies. ^^

The pieces of fabrics have been stuffed in my tool case for almost 2 months. I have no idea whether the crease on her face was there before or not. I only found out until I turned the right side out. Then, I was too lazy to fix it. Further, I should be able to hide this crease on the back….but I DID neglect it when I did the dress…..Maybe she is just supposed to be like this. 😛

I love trying different techniques every time I make a doll. This time I gave Miranda blue hairs in a funky way and also drew her face in a humourous manner. She is not pretty, but she is special enough for others to remember her. 😛

Look how different Miranda looks from Lilac!

BTW: I have been so disappointed by recently MOS. And, I believe I am not the only one. The entries are getting less and less every month. Now, there are even less entries in this August than the first MOS back in November 2004. There are thousands of pictures in the flickr pool, nevertheless lots of them are unrelated to any themes. On the other hand, the previous few themes are also less interesting…..they are not inspiring, at least for me. I might love the old themes before MOS moved to flickr too much……

Anyway, have a nice weekend, everyone!

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