Puff Stitch Scarf

I made a scarf for the very first time. I found this really cute pattern for a puff stitch scarf by All About Ami. (I love her patterns!) This pattern isn't difficult but it did take a long time because I wanted the scarf to be really long so it could be worn in different ways. It used up lots of yarn and Stephanie (the creator of this pattern) warned that it used up to 3 balls of yarn. But I saved money by buying one of those huge one pound yarn balls. Whoo!

I didn't run into any problems with this pattern but I did realize after getting halfway through that the yarn didn't feel as soft as I thought it was. It was kinda scratchy so I panicked and tried to find ways to make it softer. I found that a vinegar bath is really helpful and also washing it with conditioner helps too so I tried both and although it's not crazy soft, it did become less scratchy and it smelled really fragrant.

I made the scarf for my cousin's birthday. She always gets me nice accessories for my birthday so I wanted to get her something too. However, since I'm not currently working and am a full-time MBA student, I've been trying to find ways to save money so I decided to make her a gift. And she just got it today and said it's by far the nicest hand-made scarf she's received. :D

All About Ami: Puff Stitch Scarf

Korean Wedding Ducks

It's been a while...

I think it was a couple months ago when Angela unni requested a crocheted doll. She just celebrated her wedding day a few days ago and displayed my creations at her ceremony. At a traditional Korean wedding, there are a couple of wooden ducks that symbolize the bride and groom. Angela unni wanted these ducks but wanted something a little different so she asked me to crochet them for her.

There are absolutely no patterns for these specific ducks. I did a long search for them on Google but couldn't find anything even remotely similar to them. I ended up using a simple rubber ducky pattern I found online and altered it so it was shaped more like the traditional Korean ducks. I made my own wing and tail pattern, lengthened the beak, and added "feathers" using small rounds of different colored yarn. It needed a good base too so I flattened the bottom of the body and added cardboard to the base so it would stand. It turned out pretty good. I did run into some trouble and had to redo them a couple times because they turned out too short or too small. My parents were great help telling me the approximate sizes they should be and how they should be shaped.

Angela unni displayed them at her Korean wedding ceremony and told me they received many compliments.  So it was a success. It'll probably be some time until I work on another project since I've just started grad school. But I plan to make some stuff for the holidays. I already have some stuff on Pinterest that I plan on making.

Here are the ducks...

E for Elephant

In one of my earlier posts I uploaded a photo of an "elephant" amigurumi I made for my sister. It turned out weird so I promised Donna that I would make her something better. She still wanted an elephant and wanted a big one. This was about a year ago. We found a pattern together not too long ago on Etsy and I just finished it now while she was in California for a few days. It came out awesome so I'm really excited to give it to her as she is returning to Utah today.

Ami Amour: E for Elephant Amigurumi

Knight

My good buddy, Brett, is leaving for his LDS mission in August so I thought I would make him a goodbye gift. I made him a little knight from the Creepy Cute crochet book. Working on this pattern, I finally figured out how to do the basic head! I've always had problems with the instructions but the head would always turn out round and that was enough for me. Now, I won't have to struggle because I have finally figured how to do it correctly! I was so happy because the head came out like it was supposed to.

Anyway, I love this Knight pattern. This little guy is so cute and he comes with a shield, sword, and helmet. I figured this was a good amigurumi to make for Brett as a knight is one to go out on quests and  adventures (at least from what I've seen in movies). And Brett is about to go on an adventure himself, leaving home for two years, to share his beliefs with others.

He liked the knight so much I was rewarded with multiple high fives! Whoo!

Queen Vampire

I made an amigurumi for Donna's friend, Gavon. He asked for a Queen Vampire from the Creepy Cute Crochet book so the Nosferatu I made him a while ago wouldn't be lonely. He asked for this some time ago and I didn't make it until just yesterday. It turned out well although I ran out of black yarn for the hair. It's enough hair as long as the hair is scrunched up a bit to fill in the bald spots.

Mini Octopus

Yay! I really like this latest amigurumi. It's so cute. My friend Jerrica asked me to make her an amigurumi keychain. She decided she really wanted an octopus after I showed her a pattern I found on a blog. It's an easy pattern that looks difficult because of the curly tentacles. When I finished it, I showed it off to others and got "gasps" and "aws" at how cute it is and requests to make more. I hooked a key ring onto the top and voila!.. a cute amigurumi keychain. As always, I've posted the link to the pattern under the photo.

EssHaych: Mini Ami Octopus

Captain America Mask

My friend Tasha's birthday is today so I decided to make her a crocheted piece along with her other gifts: a light saber laser pointer (she is going to be a teacher) & a usb missile launcher (should've gotten one for myself!). She loves superheroes so originally I wanted to make her a Batman mask but I soon found out that she really loves Captain America so I decided to do that instead. It came out really well and it was a pretty simple pattern. I found the pattern on Etsy.com and used a larger crochet hook to make it adult size. Although you can also just add another round of increase.

I wanted to take pictures but I also needed a model to wear the hat. None of my family members wanted to model it for me so I put it on and attempted to get some good photographs of myself. I don't look as good in the mask as Tasha does. For some reason she can pull off geek chic really well ;P

Crochet Jolie: Super Hero Mask Hat

Graduation Bear

I had made this bear almost a month ago but I forgot to post it so...here it is! :D

This bear was made for my friend Tasha for her college graduation. It's amazing how fast time flies. Now we have to be adults and look for grown-up jobs. <sigh> But that can wait until after the summer. We plan to do some fun stuff before my sister and I move to California so that allows us to be irresponsible, immature, lazy, and carefree for at least a couple months.

This pattern is from All About Ami. I've been finding a lot of cute patterns on there so check it out.

All About Ami: Graduation Teddy

Spring Bunnies

I'm kinda slow at posting new blogs but I just finished a couple bunnies that I made for my parents. My mom was having a hard time deciding what she wanted me to make her and decided on these cute bunnies. She wanted two, of course; one that represented her and another for my dad. I found the pattern on All About Ami; the same website the Sweetheart Bunny pattern is from. These bunnies were pretty fun to make and are pretty freakin' adorable.

All About Ami: Spring Bunnies

Oh and in the picture, it looks like a hat on the white bunny but it's actually a flower.

Darth Vader

It's been a while since I've posted. Over a week ago, my cousin Mindy requested a Darth Vader doll.  It was hard trying to find a good pattern but I found one on Etsy for a couple bucks. The pattern wasn't particularly difficult but I did learn some new techniques that made the process a little more slow going. The end result came out well. And I'm sure I've said this before but I dislike sewing the little details, such as the buttons on Darth Vader's belt. I thought it would be cool to make a light saber too but I didn't want to have to pay more to get a pattern so I created my own pattern. (Gasp!) ...I know. It was really simple but I'm still proud of it since it's my first original pattern.

Darth Vader pattern

Bunny

I made this amigurumi bunny at the request of my cousin, Amy. It's a cute doll but painful to make because it uses such a small crochet hook. And the safety eyes were really hard to find. I went to all the craft stores in town to find the right size but none carried it so I had to order it online but it wasn't until after I paid for it that I noticed it would take approximately 3 weeks to deliver! 

So I started out slowly, waiting for the eyes to come, then when it arrived I worked on it continuously until it was completed and my fingers were stiff. The pattern itself was pretty easy though. Amy found the pattern on this awesome website, All About Ami. It has a lot of cute stuff on there so go check it out!

All About Ami: Sweetheart Bunny

Koala

This is the latest crochet doll I made for a family friend, Rachel. It was an easy one to do but I always have some trouble with sewing all the parts together. For some reason this one was particularly difficult for me, especially the head. I had to keep redoing it so it looked right. And the ears keep folding down, covering its face. With little adjustments, squishing and twisting the doll, it looks pretty good.

The Koala pattern was found on Craft Passion. It is originally from the Woman's Day website.

Finn the Human

I'm nearing the end of my list of past crocheted projects! I'll have to get start on a whole bunch of new things soon! I have some items planned but a few of them will take a while. Especially the one I am currently working on. I didn't realize that the safety eyes I ordered online would take 3 weeks! Blehhh... Oh well. At least this gives me some time to give my fingers a break.

A couple weeks ago, when I posted some of my crocheted items on Facebook, my cousin Casey requested a doll. She watches the cartoon, Adventure Time, and wanted either Finn the Human or Jake the Dog. I told her if I could find a good pattern then I would make one for her. I found a good one on Ravelry. It's a very cute doll and the best one I could find because it even came with the backpack. So I got started on it.

When I was in the middle of crocheting Finn, Casey called me. It was so hard not to tell her about the doll but I wanted to keep it a surprise. She mentioned on the phone that if I could find a Finn pattern then she would really like for him to have a backpack too. I had just bought the yarn for the backpack that day so I was having a hard time suppressing my giggles.

When I was nearing the end of the pattern, I noticed a couple things. First, there was a piece of the beige yarn for Finn's skin that was dirty-looking. I tried to snip some of the dark pieces but I was afraid that I would cut too much. I tried bleaching that part but it didn't work. Finally, I sewed over it with clean yarn to cover up the dirty spot and it worked. (Phew!) I didn't want to have to redo the doll just because of one dirty piece of yarn. Secondly, the backpack came out slightly too small for Finn's body. In order for the backpack to fit, I had to sew the straps far apart. It doesn't look too bad but it definitely could've been better.

All in all, Finn came out really good. I changed the pattern a bit by using felt for his face instead of crocheting it. I thought it looked better that way and it also saved me some time. And despite some of the setbacks I had with Finn, Casey loves the Finn doll and recently posted some funny pictures of Finn doing various things, like riding a bike, reading a book about rifles, drinking alcohol and then throwing it up, and of course watching Adventure Time.

Here are the pictures of Finn before I shipped it out.

Finn the Human pattern

Baked Goods

For this post, I want to post some of the baked goods I've made in the past that turned out really good.

These are cake pops that Donna and I made along with some of Donna's friends.

These turned out particularly cute because Donna and I decorated these ;)

This is a cookie monster sugar cookie that Donna and I also made together.

This cookie is one that I decorated. We couldn't find an electric blue food coloring so we had to make do with a regular blue which made the frosting look too light. But it still turned out cute.

I made this vertical layer cake for a BBQ. It was time-consuming but it came out pretty.

This is a tiramisu cake I make very often for parties and other gatherings. The decorating isn't my best but it still tasted awesome as always. I have another picture below that is better decorated.

These two tarts were made by Donna. She had a Sterling Scholar competition and had to make something to present to judges in order to be chosen Sterling Scholar for her category. I did help her to design these tarts to make it visually appealing because the judges do not actually eat the presentations.

This is the tiramisu cake as shown earlier but decorated completely different. It was for Rachel's baby's 100 day celebration. A baby's 100 day anniversary is significant to Koreans and is usually celebrated grandly. The cake is the same recipe as the one shown before but with extra confectioner's sugar in the frosting for extra stability. I decorated the cake with pirouette cookies all around, alternating chocolate and vanilla cookies, and tied with a ribbon. The ribbon is actually two different ribbons glued together. I really liked the footprint pattern on this one ribbon but it was too skinny so I glued it to the center of a thicker ribbon. On top of the cake, I spelled out the baby's name with blue sugar pearls and baked sugar cookies in the shape of "100" and placed it on top as cake toppers.

These cupcakes were also made for the 100 day celebration. Donna baked the cupcakes and we both decorated them.

And finally, this is a fruit tart that I make very often. My mom loves this tart because it is covered in fruits and is not overly sweet. It's simple but delicious.

If you'd like any one of these recipes, just ask and I can give you the website link or the name of the cookbook. Most of these recipes came from different websites and cookbooks, and I have adapted them to my taste but they are still great when followed as is.

Last Christmas...

I decided to save money by making some crochet stuff. There's this family that has become very close to my family and we spend many of the major holidays together. I made their oldest son, Joseph, a crochet monkey from the Vanna's Choice Easy Crochet Critters book. He loves animals.

(I wish I had taken close-up photos of the monkey...)

Just a month before Christmas, his mom, Rachel, gave birth to a baby boy. His name's Daniel and I crocheted him fuzzy blue booties for the cold Utah winters. I used soft fluffy light blue yarn to help keep the baby's toesies warm.

(...the booties too.)

Booties pattern: Bev's Very Easy Booties

For Rachel, I crocheted her a thick headband.

 I had made a headband earlier for someone else and I thought it would be a great Christmas gift to give. Here is the first headband I made which was given to Donna's friend, Janice.

I loved how these headbands came out. I think I made the first one a little big but the second one (Rachel's) was a little better in size. The button I used for these headbands really made them look great. It helped to keep them securely fastened too. I found this pattern on YouTube and it was created by bobwilson123. Here is the link to the video tutorial: http://youtu.be/HJLIsyyn_CM

Robot

This doll was made for (you guessed it) another one of Donna's friends, Anna. This is the Robot from Creepy Cute Crochet. It came out pretty good. I struggled with the knobs on the sides of the helmet. It seems that I have more trouble with the little details than the bigger parts. But I do become more impatient the closer I get to the end.

Today, I went shopping for my next project. I had to go to 3 different craft stores to find all the supplies I need. Sadly, I wasn't able to find the correct crochet hook size and the correct safety eyes size. I bought the closest crochet hook size to the one I needed and bought the safety eyes online. I've started on the doll and after working on it for a couple hours, I have only completed half of the head. This one is going to take some time to make and my hands are getting really sore because of the small hook size. But when it's done, I hope it turns out as adorable as the creator's.

Grim Reaper

This next doll was made for my cousin, Sung Bae, as a birthday present. It's the Grim Reaper from Creepy Cute Crochet. It wasn't particularly hard but I did have to redo the Reaper's hood a few times. I really like how the scythe came out. I ran pencil lead over the blade to give it some dimension.

My sister, Donna, made him a doll too. Her doll was hand-sewn and it is of Sung Bae shaving. It even has a little razor. She used some scrap fabric that she had leftover from a previous project.

I was going to start another doll today but I realized I didn't have the right crochet hook and was missing a few other supplies. I'm going to have to go shopping tomorrow!

Cthulhu & Guinness cupcakes

Another one of my past crocheted dolls is the Cthulhu. I made this little guy for Daun, another one of Donna's friends. I make sure to take photographs of all the crafts I make to share with others but I forgot this one. So I asked Daun to take a picture for me...of course it takes her 3 months to actually post it on Facebook. But she got it done so it's all good. The Cthulhu came out well. The wings could have been better but I loved how the eyes came out, making it look very cute.

The Cthulhu pattern is from the Creepy Cute Crochet book.

On another note, yesterday was St. Patty's Day. I didn't really do much for the holiday except for some errands and to deliver a crocheted doll I made for someone (which I will post some time in the near future). But I did make some Guinness chocolate cupcakes this morning and it turned out soooo good. This recipe is definitely a keeper. The chocolate cupcake came out so soft and moist and the buttercream had great texture (after adding a few more spoonfuls of Bailey's ;) ). I will make this again but double the buttercream as there wasn't enough to cover all the cupcakes.

This recipe was found on Annie's Eats.

Corporate Zombie

This amigurumi was one of my favorites. It was one of the hardest too because of the hair. My friend, Tasha, requested this one. She is also the one who bought me my first crochet book, Creepy Cute Crochet. The Corporate Zombie turned out awesome and Tasha loves it so it was a great success. :D

Lion (Rawr)

Another one of Donna's friends, Doyoung, asked for an amigurumi. I made her a lion from Vanna's Choice Easy Crochet Critters book after I made Gavon's Nosferatu. I was really proud of this one. It came out so cute and Doyoung loved it. My friends loved it too when they saw it posted on Facebook. My friend, Raquel, saw the lion and asked if she could post it on her own blog. It was exciting to have one of my dolls be featured on a website other than my Facebook and be shared with other people.

One of my friends from high school also thought the lion was the cutest thing ever so I made her one too for Christmas. She was really excited about it when she got it.

I think the tail is extremely cute ^_^

Nosferatu

After I made my Ninja amigurumi, a few people started requesting dolls. My sister's friend, Gavon, asked me to make him Nosferatu from the Creepy Cute Crochet book. This one was pretty easy since it's supposed to look crooked. :)

Second Day of Blogging

This is quite an accomplishment for me. A second blog post.. O_O

My second crochet project...was a big failure (WAH WAH WAHHHH). I was really excited for this one because I was making it for my sister, Donna, and it was an elephant, her favorite animal. It started out really great but the longer I worked on it, the more I grew tired and impatient. I began to lose focus and ended up skipping 8 whole rounds of crocheting! (I didn't notice the missing steps until I fastened it close) The missing 8 rounds were supposed to be the length of the elephant's trunk. After that mistake, I just didn't care anymore and sewed the legs on at an awkward angle for the elephant...so it ended up looking like a dolphin with big ears.

And here it is, my ele-phin..

When I gave it to Donna, there was this look of disappointment and my heart just sunk. I felt so bad and I told her I would make something else for her. I still haven't made her anything since then but I am planning something. I just hope it turns out well...or at least better than the elephant/dolphin.

The elephant pattern is from the Vanna's Choice Easy Crochet Critters book. I got it at Hobby Lobby in the yarn section for about $5.

Hello!

My name is Tappy. I like to crochet, cook, bake, and sometimes I bead and do other crafts. I have really gotten into crocheting and have been giving away my projects as gifts to friends and family. I started crocheting last year in April when I received a crochet book as a birthday present (thanks again Tasha!) not knowing that I would continue it as a hobby...because I like to try new things but oftentimes I don't stick to it (like beading and knitting :/).


Since I started to crochet, I have been getting many requests from my friends and family to make them something. I post my finished works on my Facebook but I thought a blog would be a good way to share my projects and the patterns I find. This week, I will post photos of my past crocheted works and other projects I have done. Today, I will start with my very first crochet project from the Creepy Cute Crochet book by Christen Haden: The Ninja.