Best tropical fruit ever (okay, second best)
Pulasan, a tropical fruit new to this tropical girl
I can’t say I’m much of a fruit person. I like fruits, but it doesn’t occur to me too often to eat them. Maybe it’s all that tea fogging up my mind.
So, one day, our neighbour gave us a big bag full of these fruits. I had never seen them in my life. I learnt, for the first time, that these rambutan-looking fruits are called pulasan. My mum was excited to see them, and when I bit into one, I realised why. They were a thousand times better than rambutans (okay, maybe I’m biased; I don’t particularly love rambutans). I’m a mangosteen fan, and if mangosteens are at the top of my list, pulasan would come in a close second. Very close.
I can’t believe I lived all my life without ever having tasted a pulasan till the day our neighbour kindly gave us some. What kind of tropical girl does that make me?
All the right ingredients, but no crochet magic
Crocheted pencil cover with flower embellishment
Violins played when I saw the magic words: “Exact gauge is not important to this project.” And, get this, it’s a pencil cover embellished with a pretty little daffodil. Every element of this project was appealing in every sense — my love for crochet (minus gauge, of course), crocheted flowers, and stationery will come together to make The Perfect Project. Theoretically, this was a project after my own heart.
Unfortunately, there is no fairytale ending to this story. The flower was super easy to make, but the stem was a different story altogether. I could not decipher the instructions. It left me hanging, wondering what to do next. So I fiddled around with my yarn, sticking my crochet hook here & there, and finally ended up with something that looked sort of like the picture.
I’m not entirely happy with this project. The crocheted stem is not designed to be “portable” (so I can’t remove it and slip it onto another pencil) because all that’s holding it together is one row of single crochets. If I were to remove the crocheted stem from the pencil, it would unravel.
Cute, but not designed to last
But perhaps it’s just that I did it incorrectly. Maybe I just don’t know enough crochet kung-fu!
To see the free tutorial over at Lion Brand’s website, click here.
A Huffing & Puffington Post: Argh, gauge! (Crochet woes)
Mission impossible: find the right gauge
I have a love-hate relationship with crochet. I love crochet, but I hate finding the correct gauge. Which is why, after a few failed attempts at crocheting something wearable, I gave up. Flowers are so much friendlier — big or small, they’re lovely!
Then I came across a tempting pattern for a shoulderette. So tempting I decided to give gauge another go. Well, the pattern calls for 20g crochet yarn, which I don’t have. So I tried it out with the different yarns I did have.
The grey cotton yarn (on the right) is way too thick and makes a motif double the size called for in the pattern.
This leaves me the white cotton crochet thread — the thinnest crochet thread I have in my stash — which I suspect is also a tad thicker than the pattern calls for (I’m off by about half an inch). I’m bad at visualising finished sizes in measurements, so now my dilemma is whether to continue and see where the white crochet thread takes me.
The fly-by-seat-of-pants scissor pad
The curry-puffed scissor pad
Usually, I like to be precious about some things. Like taking the time to iron a completed project before taking photos of it. Not this time. I decided to take a picture of it, as is. In fact, this scissor pad sits on my sewing table in its unironed, embroidery-hoop-marked glory, because I keep forgetting to include it during my sessions with the ironing board.
In any case, this state of undone-ness fits in with the circumstances in which this scissor pad was created. I wanted a fast project, and I wanted to make use of my fabric remnants. Check, check. Okay, mission accomplished!
I have to say I really enjoy having a padded surface for my scissors. I love padding; it reminds me of my Humpty Dumpty’s hands and feet, which are padded. Now I want to make more padded things. Maybe a lunch-box cosy?
A Curry-Puffington post (no huffing this time)
A curry puff with a bit of an identity crisis
I’m so happy I found the time to sew up my curry puff. I didn’t have all weekend to sew, sew, sew like I had hoped, but this is good enough. I managed to complete the curry puff without any hitches, and it even has a bit of stuffing. Just like the real thing. I’m not entirely happy about the crooked running stitches, and what was supposed to be the rippled edges of the curry puff looks a bit too much like flower petals. But I was just too caught up with the whole act of just sewing — I didn’t want to stop to rip the stitches out, or change anything. I had already promised myself that this would be a wing-it operation, so I’ll leave perfection for another day!
Now, to sew the scissor pad. I’m looking forward to that, because I know that’s going to be a breeze.
