June 2017 – craftynanay

Project Ugly Socks

I was once gifted (pasalubong) of knitted Tigger (my favorite at that time) socks from Baguio long time ago. And, I really love it! I still have them with me with all the holes on it already.

Fastforward 2 years ago, I started to learn to crochet. At that time, I just thought crochet and knitting are just one or similar. So that when after making a few dish cloths, I felt that I was already ready to dive into making socks.

To cut the story short, here’s the first pair of socks I crocheted. I tried making one or 2 more in the thought that I would improve, but they’re so ugly that I finally gave up. That’s why I called it Project Ugly Socks.

Fast-forward, I learned that crochet is different from knitting. And that the Baguio socks I got were knitted. That’s when I thought of learning how to knit. But I know now one in this city who knows how to knit. Yes, there is a lot of youtube tutorials but I just could not get video tutorials unless I see someone in person made a demo of it first.

I got lucky when I stumbled upon a craft store in SG last year, Golden Dragon Store. They have a knitting corner where “Titas of SG” tambay to knit or crochet. The craft store staff would teach you if you buy some stuff from them.

So there, I’m “internationally” educated in knitting from women with thick Singlish accent I hardly understand.

This was last year. And nothing happen to my knitting after that.

Attempt at #knitting. The struggle is real.

A post shared by Cebu, Philippines (@craftynanay) on Jul 10, 2016 at 7:28pm PDT

So last month (after a year), I decided to pick up the knitting needles. Thankfully, despite that Singlish instructions, I still have a vague memory of the steps. After watching a youtube tutorial, I realized that the SG Titas were actually teaching me knit and purl stitches. The way they pronounced “purl” was just so strange.

On to my knitting socks progress, the most I have now is that I stumbled upon an FB page hosting a socks KAL (Knit-along) which will start July, tomorrow. I got my yarns and colorful knitting needles. The only questions is if I can hold my attention long enough to get me through this? Hopefully, by december, I will have a decent enough looking knitted socks. For those interested, you can join the knitted socks KAL in Sari Sariy Yarnery’s page >>. They also sell knitting needles, yarns and other related stuff.

SOLD OUT: My 1st in Shopee

Probably for lack of any thing to comment on my crochet, friends would say that I should sell my crochet items. I did sell some items way before. I’m not so proud to say that I was making money from little kids’ recess money @.@; I was selling pokemon amigurumi items to my kids’ classmates. My kids with their friends got a list of orders from their classmates, and I made them. Later on, I learned that the term for that is MTO (made-to-order). It was cheap but it was not short of happiness.

Anyhow, I stopped doing it because I got a job (but I’m currently unemployed again). Then, honestly, I got to the point that 1 more pikachu MTO, and I would puke. So when I’m out of job again, and have more time on my hands, thinking of selling again crossed my mind. BUT I kind of resolve to myself that crochet will be something that will satisfy my selfish nonsense desires; no pressure or any thing. #chos

Now to the main reason for this blog is that I just really want to share the basic of selling in SHOPEE app, and also to celebrate my 1st SOLD OUT (of course, I only have 1 stock.).

I’m familiar with online selling; I had been doing it for other stuff way back, and it was not easy in local market (Philippines) because credit card penetration is not yet that high and Filipinos just simply don’t trust online money transaction that much. Meet-ups and coordinating payments from different facility are quite a lot of effort and eat a lot of time that when your margin is low, it’s just as good as break-even.

So came SHOPEE… I was buying from sellers, and it’s a good experience especially with the COD and free shipping. So now on the seller part, I posted the item, a table runner, way back in February, which I kind of forgot about it. I actually made the table runner for myself, and thought of just posting it on Shopee for experiment.

After 48 years, someone messaged me and bought it. Really?!? People who want table runner exist?!? So this is how a COD order (cash-on-delivery) and integrated (free) shipping works in Shopee.

1. A notification status would state that an order was placed for your item.
2. Scheduling pick-up for shipping from the Shopee app. After an order is posted, you have to wait for an hour or 2 or few minutes before a prompt / notification will appear that you can schedule a pick-up (This part got me really confused because I could not find the prompt to schedule shipping right away; I actually have to wait for an hour or 2.). This is to give a leeway time in case the buyer decided to cancel the order. The shipping of Shopee is serviced by BAE (Black Arrow Express).
3. You choose a date / time within the Shopee app for the pick-up. I so love this! =) It’s free but I would not mind paying a bit extra for this service.
4.The waiting for Mr. RIDER (the nick for the delivery staff of BAE who will pick-up / deliver your goods) can be a bit of “anxiety-inducing” especially for first timers like me. But they would arrive (in my case, it was already around 3pm. Maybe it’s because I’m in Consolacion, and that Mr. Rider also had to do deliveries and pick-up along the way). But I could imagine when it’s going to be peak season, it’s going to be crazy. That’s why I would not mind paying a reasonable fee for this to keep the efficient service, and of course the riders happy. =) (Shipping ETA of a shipment from Cebu to Luzon was 4-5 days on my order.)
5. If it’s a COD, of course, we need to pray that delivery and receiving of the order will go smoothly. The reason why we need to make Mr. Rider be well-paid. =)

6. Getting the payment from Shopee. I still have to figure this out. =) I think I just need to add my bank account.

So there, THANK YOU to this person who likes table runner in orange shades! =) And, please watch out for new stock of Flower Bouquet Table Runner (hopefully, it will not take me 48 years to finish.)! Keep posted thru my SHOP page, or add me in Shopee, shopee.com/craftynanay.

On to the mission of glamming up your #foodie IG post, one table runner at a time!

#ShawlVirgin No More: Lost in Time

Crochet Shawl Pattern: Lost in Time by Johanna Lindahl of Mijo Crochet
Links to Pattern: Ravelry, Mijo Crochet Website
Yarn: Ashley’s Crochet “Northern Lights” / 196 grams
Hook: 3.5mm Clover
Not blocked.

Before, I really find making a shawl “too granny,” and kind of inappropriate for our warm weather. But when I got this Ashley’s Crochet “vintage-vibed” yarn, I felt that it had to be made into a shawl. And, that maybe one day, Cebu, Philippines will be blessed with an 18-degree Celsius weather. Though, on the other thought, I’m happy with all the sunshine we have! =)

So this is my version of Lost in Time crochet shawl. Thankfully, I was able to finish it, and did not get lost in time.

I had to frog it a few times, then had to re-do it from scratch just so this “ridge” detail will really come out. When I started this, I was doing 2 different shawls at the same time; I was being glutton that I missed little details, which plays a major role in the shawl’s design. So what happened was that I was reading the FPDC and BPDC as “front DC” and “back DC” instead of “front post DC” and “back post DC.”

I was already 3/4 of the yarn cake when I decided that I had to rip the whole thing off, and start again. 😭

That “ridge” detail is what I’m referring to…

Lesson learned: Do not be major glutton.

STITCH COUNTS on Additional Rows

One of the reasons why I posted a blog of the Lost in Time shawl because I came across a post from a crocheter, in one of the FB crochet groups, asking for the “Total number of stitches for each row” on every additional rows after Row 26 so I’m writing this down to serve as a note.

So the downloadable pattern is only up to Row 26. Once you’re done with Row 26, you can continue by repeating row 15-26 as long as you like. So when I had to re-do the shawl from scratch, I paid attention to the stitch counts. It was really an effort because I’m not that OC when it comes to stitch counts and a few kinks here and there as long as it does not affect the final overall look of the item.

I only manage to make 3 repeats of Row 15-18, then only twice repeat on Row 19-26 as I ran out of yarn. If I could, I want to repeat it 5 times so I might pick a longer yarn next time, maybe 300g or 400g to be sure. =)

So here it is…

+20

For repeat of Row 15-22, there was a pattern of increase by 20 stitches for every next “round” of repeat.
For repeat of Row 23, there was an increase of 10 stitches.
For repeat of Row 24, there’s an increate of 5 clusters of 8DCs.
For repeat of Row 25, there’s an increase of 40 stitches
For repeat of Row 26, there’s an increase of 5 for the popcorn stitches and 40 for the DC stitches.

Here’s my draft note of the stitch numbers. The numbers refer to the final stitch counts when you repeat Row 15-26 (Just read it as Row 15 from top and so on). The numbers after “;” refers to the next round of repeat. =)

The edging of my Lost in Time was modified because I ran out of yarns already.
And to the most important part, #bloggerpose. I asked the daughter to model it for me because I really wanted to do it in some fancy place but I can no longer wait. =)

#gantsilyoserye

#gantsilyoserye youtube channel https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCfOaJtqouHXmm-RC50Ia6EA/videos

Please subscribe please! Baka magka budget, at magpa giveaway ako!

So I finally created a youtube channel. It took me some time because I realised that I’m not that millennial enough. I do have old youtube account, but I wanted to make a “branded channel” but there are just so many buttons and settings. Anyhow, here’s the first upload…