Wednesday, February 9, 2011

I am not technologically savvy

It's interesting because I do a little computer programming for a living, but when it comes to this html design stuff, I'm just awful. Hak, where are you man??? Where's my spiffy blog application? Where are my pictures to upload?

Sunday, February 6, 2011

First Crocheted Teddy Bear


Book Review:

Here's a picture of the first crocheted stuffed animal I made using a pattern from Kyuuto!Japanese Crafts!:Amigurumi. It took me a good 10 hrs because I never knew how to crochet and the crocheting instructions were extremely confusing. Perhaps someone who already know how to crochet may not find it so intimidating. The author never shows you how to start a circular chain (I had to search Youtube to look up the magic ring method) and while the patterns themselves are easy to follow, there are certain special instructions that are not pointed out explicitly. I think projects will also take longer to complete than the average amigurumi patterns, which are generally for smaller objects. After completing the teddy bears, the sheep, and the butterly (one of the cutest and more complicated patterns), I couldn't get myself to do any more projects in this book as Ravelry has a ton of free patterns that are super kawaii. I think that the patterns aren't very diverse. Most dolls have a torso, 2 arms, & 2 legs, so don't think you can acquire a range of crocheting skills from this book if that's what you're looking for. Gosh, I feel like I'm sandbagging this book. On the flip side, it has an amazing section on how to assemble the amigurumi and for the price, which has gone down considerably since I purchased it, is very reasonable since there are a lot of patterns provided.

Anyhow, my little sister commented that the doll reminds her of Kon, from the anime Bleach (wikipedia link), so I personalized the bear with some triangles for the mane. Here it is:



Friday, February 4, 2011

Welcome to the first post of "Half Past 6". Just a big of background info, I conjured this title from a favorite line of the movie "That's the way I like it." It's a feel-good Singaporean film about a regular joe-schmoe who discovers disco dancing. (I know the premise isn't very enticing but it's actually very funny and empowering). During one of the early scenes, the father remarks about how the protagonist never really makes it home in time for dinner "half-pa' six" after work because he's constantly checking out the motorcycle of his dreams. The family goes on for five minutes saying "half-past 6" here and "half-past 6" there. Besides being extremely comical (imagine Indian-East Asian-English-accented pronunciations of "half-past 6"), I liked the ring of the phrase because it reflected my participation in crafts after my main job.

You can say that I'm a bit of a scatterbrain. I do a little bit of
-crocheting
-knitting
-sculpting miniatures with polymer clay & adc
-a few fabric crafts
-scrapbooking
-ribbon works
-jewelry
-paper crafts
-drawing

I'm hoping to add the following to my repertoire:
-dorodango
-mad sewing skills
-kanzashi (making flowers out of fabric)
-resin molding

My first experience with crafting started at the tender age of 6 (years before that I was addicted to drawing) when I discovered some craft kits at the local thrift store (which btw is an AMAZING source for crafts if you don't have the means to spend at the local craft store like my parents). Although I've taken a few years off the fascination to focus on school, now that I'm out of school I'm more addicted to crafts than I ever was in my life. I'm not sure if this hype will go away anytime soon. Frankly, I'm kind of scared. I barely get any sleep anymore and I seriously need to start studying for graduate exams. However, this frenzy needs to be fueled and that's why I started this blog. Enjoy reading!