Mochi's favorite star

I made this star blanket a long long time ago for Mochi. She still loves it :)

Weekly Favorites 11/27

(Almost) everyday, I share stories I found and liked on the Internet via  Facebook, Twitter and Flipboard, the topics ranging from Cats to Bilingualism to Early Childhood Education to Music and more. Here are those stories in a more convenient weekly roundup form for you. Hope you'll find something that interests you. If you liked these stories don't forget to follow me via one (or more!) of the social media sites above to get notified as soon as I share them:

Early Childhood Education
Christmas cookie sight game 
Top 5 Reasons Why Montessori Works

Language

How to learn a new language: 7 tips from TED Translators

Miscellaneous

Very cute crochet animation Turtle bites, solar energy and 400 hours of crochet: A very unique TED-Ed Lesson

 

WIP Wednesday #5 starting a wavy blanket

My kimono sweater now just needs to be stitched up, and I needed a more or less mindless project to work on while watching downton abbey (don't you just love that show?), so I've started this "wavy stripes beach blanket" from a Crochet Today! magazine. The original pattern is for a full size blanket but since I wanted to make this for LO, I'm making only 12 wavy repeats (as opposed to 15). I'm just using red heart super saver from my stash that was meant to make amigurumis and cat blankets. I hope there's enough to make a blanket. I might run out the sky blue but we'll see.

Actually there's some story behind making a wavy blanket. My husband's late-grandmother was an avid crocheter (so I was told) and made this beautiful wavy blanket with different hues of blue for him. It's for a king size bed so you can see how much time she spent on the blanket. I was so impressed and fascinated that I wanted to continue this "wavy blanket tradition" in our family. So I've made myself a wavy throw. And now our little one needs one too! I could've used the same pattern but thought a little change wouldn't hurt. I hope this will become his "blankie" and he'll cherish it for a long time :)

What I made for LO so far

Here are some of the things I made for my LO while pregnant (which I finally get around to post). In no particular order...

Playful Baby Loop Rattle

 Cowboy Boot-ies

I added this star mark for fun (per hubby's suggestion)

Isn't this cute on him? Unfortunately, though, they were difficult to put on because the ankle sections were a bit small. Oh well, they're really cute just to look at. Totally worth making them. I'd like to make a size that fits him now and a matching cowboy hat.

b19-31 Jacket with raglan sleeves, hat, and booties with cables

sleeves in making. Look how small they are!

These are in 3 month old size. However, since LO was advised not to go outside for the first two months (it was a flu season), there weren't many chances he needed a sweater like this. I should've made them in 6 month old size. I still love them though :)

Berry Baby Hat

I wanted to make this hat even before I was pregnant! So it was definitely on my to-make list. I chose purplish blue to make it like a blueberry but everyone says it's an eggplant hat LOL

oh well....

Stripes and Dots Blanket

There aren't many projects that I chose the exact (or almost exact) colors that the pattern calls for, but these colors are just so perfect I just used the colors in the pattern. And I love it!

I actually had a lot more projects in my queue. But because 1) I had no idea what the baby would use and 2) I was sick for the first couple of months and then was really tired for the last few weeks, I couldn't make as much as I wanted. Babies grow so fast. A few projects I wanted to make wouldn't fit in terms of size and needs anymore, which is too bad. Especially my LO is a tall baby - he's already as tall as an average 9 month old baby at the age of 6 months! But there are a lot of cute patterns for a year old and up. I look forward to make those in the near future :)

Giveaway: Inspired Crochet Magazine [Closed]

Congratulations to the winner, who entered via Twitter! And thank you for playing :)

Today, I'd like to share some exciting news with you :) My swirling cat blanket pattern is featured in Inspired Crochet magazine! yay!!

do you spot mine among these wonderful projects?

May is my birthday month, so this is a wonderful early present for me :)

To celebrate, I'm hosting a giveaway for a chance to win one copy of this awesome Inspired Crochet magazine, courtesy of Inspired Crochet magazine. If you win, you can choose any issue you like. You could win the May issue to create your own cat blanket, or pick one of their back issues. I've bought a few back issues myself, and I can say that I indeed felt "inspired" to crochet more!

There are a couple of ways to enter:
1) Leave your answer to the question "what are you crocheting now?" in the comment section in this post with some sort of contact information (email preferred*) that I can use to get in touch with you if you win. Please only one comment per person.

2) Go to Smooch Panda's facebook page, and click the tab "giveaway: inspired crochet magazine", just below the name on top. This will prompt you to "like" us if you haven't done so yet, and then fill out the form to enter.

3) Spread the word about this giveaway on Twitter with @smoochpanda at the end of your tweet (so I can keep track). One tweet per account only, please.

You can just do one (= 1 entry) or do all to earn 3 entries. I'll assign the number with the order I receive notifications for each entry, then pick a random number to see who's the winner. Sounds fun?

Now I'm still building my fan base, so if you enter, there are a higher chance of winning than popular giveaways. So please don't hesitate and join in this fun :)

Thank you. The giveaway ends on May 22nd 2013 11.59pm US CST, so hope to see you soon!

*the email information will be used solely to contact the winner. The winner's email address will be shared with Inspired Crochet magazine so they can send you your copy of the magazine.

Adventures in Tunisian Crochet

There seem to have been a lot of talk about Tunisian Crochet lately. I've been wanting to try this "knit-like stitches but actually crochet" technique quite some time, but finally had a chance to try it out the other day.

And it was quite fun! It's refreshing and interesting to just pick up stitches across without taking them off the hook. Then, instead of turning, the stitches were taken off the hook to go back to the first stitch. Intriguing isn't it?

This process makes these stitches

My first attempt at Tunisian crochet. How did I do?

I found Tunisian purl stitches were a bit hard to keep even tension, but other stitches were rather easy to learn.

I used Tunisian Crochet: The Look of Knitting with the Ease of Crochetingas reference. I was lucky to find the kindle version of this book for free (yay!), but I think it's worth buying as well. The instructions for the Tunisian crochet were easy to follow if you already do regular crochet. There are a few patterns that I'd like to make like Honeycomb skirt and Ivory shell sweater. The vest can be re-sized to fit my little one. And there's also a simple sweater for children so I might make this for my little one, too.

I had some difficulties, though, in finding afghan hooks. I went all three major craft stores but only Hobby Lobby carried them. Even there, I could only find 3-4 sizes. Some patterns I'd like to use require the sizes I can't find! Where did you buy your afghan hooks?

I also bought the latest Tunisian crochet book, The New Tunisian Crochet: Contemporary Designs from Time-Honored Traditions. The book has so many beautiful patterns. I can't wait to read through and actually make something from it!

One day, I'm hoping that I can design something using these amazing stitches....