Month: July 2017

Yarn Shops Hopping in Singapore

The other week, we were in Singapore. And the only thing that was in my mind on days leading to our trip was to go to as many yarn shops the google maps would allow me. @.@

Here are the yarn shops I was able to visit. It was really just more of “hopping” than shopping because, I believe, yarns do not really come cheap wherever we are in the world. (I reposted a list of yarn shops, which I got from a member of SG-based crochet group, way down below.)

Golden Dragon Store, Chinatown Area (See bottom for complete address.)

NOTE: There’s a People’s Park Centre and People’s Park Complex which are just nearby each other. Golden Dragon Store is in “Centre.”

My first yarn store trip was to something familiar. I’d been to this place a few times in our last trip. This was where I learned to knit, and got my first sets of needles which were both 4mm (You can read more about this place in my previous post, Project Ugly Socks.). When we got home after that first visit of Golden Dragon, that’s when I got really hooked to crochet that you will never see me without a yarn or hook in hand after that. I guess the crafting vibes of the Titas of SG (huddled in a corner knitting or crocheting) was so strong, it followed me until Cebu. =)

I don’t think their yarns here are really that extensive but coming from an island without any legit yarn shop, it’s already heaven to me!!! I could just stare at their walls full of yarn display.

On their entrance is shelves of their discounted yarns.This is the cheapest yarn in the store. It seems to be the equivalent of our Monaco.

They have a lot of crochet hook brands, the popular ones, from Susan Bates to Hamanaka. Though, price-wise, you may score a better price from local fb sellers.

They also carry a lot of knitting needles from Clover, and Aero.

Either way, I think this is a good place to start your yarn shop hopping because it’s in Chinatown. They have a nice hawker station in this area though can be crowded because it’s a popular area.

Well, I think what I really love about this place is seeing the Titas of SG with their crafts, and eavesdropping to their chatters. It’s my kind of “tourist spot.” They also display some knitted / crocheted items.

The only thing I hoard from this place was this stitch markers, Clover and Hamanaka, because I have enough of the generic cheap stitch markers which break easily.

SPOTLIGHT, Plaza Singapura

After doing some crocheting some rows done in Golden Dragon Store, I moved on to something “new” place. This was fairly near to Golden Dragon Store. According to Google maps, it was just less than 2KM away from Golden Dragon so I just walked it than trying to find a bus stop (I really have a bad sense of direction.). Though a friend said that it’s far but there were interesting places on my way; I passed by Clark Quay, Caning Fort. And, when you’re in 1st world, pedestrian life is really not that haggard. =)

Spotlight is like a home furnishing / decors, party supplies, and craft store. There was probably more to it. I just got stuck in the yarns area. There were probably 4 rows of yarns.

If you love acrylics and wool, you can find a lot in relatively low prices here. At that time, I think the cheapest I saw was 4 skeins for SGD15.

I got out of this place empty handed! YAY! =) (I actually planned to check all the yarn stores, and go back to each of them to buy yarns but plans changed, more of it on the later part.)

DAISO

Protip: There’s a Daiso store right beside Spotlight.

Because Daiso in Cebu does not have yarns, so it’s kind of fun to get inside a Daiso store and find yarns, and a bit of crochet and knitting notions. I think I got inside 2 Daiso stores in Singapore but I did not buy any thing. It was just for the fun of it.

All their stuff are priced at SGD2. It was so tempting to buy the crochet hooks but I stopped myself to save my chicken-rice-kopi-tiam money for the best. =)

ONDORI, Kewalram House, Bukit Merah

NOTE: They only accept cash. And, use Kewalram House to search it up in Google Maps as it’s easier that way.

Per Knitwerks’ recommendation, I ventured to this place. I made sure that husband was free to accompany me because it looks tricky on Google maps. But really, it’s not.

If you get intimidated with its location, don’t be. It’s located in a warehouse complex. If you’re in Cebu, it’s like you’re in MEPZA but only of warehouses. It’s an area full of buildings that are warehouses. You can find Ondori in one of the buildings.

Ondori is located inside Kewalram House. So I guess when you look it up on Google Maps, you search for Kewalram House. Once you reach Kewalram, you have to get inside the building.

They sale yarns by bulk, or as they say “peket” (packet). I think at least a packet may contain 6 pieces. They sell branded yarns: Katia, Schachenmayer, etc.

This shelf just looks so fluffy.

They have a specific shelves of yarns which are on SALE, where I got all my yarns. The lowest price I found was 20SGD for a packet but it was for some fancy yarns, which might just end up in your destash box. The nice ones were somewhere in 50SGD per packet (which consists of a minimum of 6 pieces).

They also have Tulip crochet hooks. I think they sell it at a relatively lower price. They also carry Addi knitting needles. I so wanted to get a set of the interchangeable knitting needles and Tulip crochet hooks; but it was a choice of needles, hooks, or yarns. So I picked yarns, then bought 2 circular needles. (The Addi needles really feel good.=))

I don’t know what’s in that place but it gobbled up all my chicken-rice and kopi tiam money. So if you plan to go yarn store hopping in Singapore, you can probably have this as the last destination because it’s just so hard to resist the yarns here. =)

After Ondori, I dared not go to any yarn store any more. This is where my yarn shop / store hopping in Singapore ended.

My loot.

LAST PROTIP! If you ran out of money from yarns and such, visit one of their National Public Libraries. It’s so LIT!

Here’s a list of yarn shops that I got from a member of a Singapore-based crochet fb group. I’m just going to quote the member’s full reply:

“Found this list on a ravely forum but it is posted 9 yrs ago. Some of the shops may or may not still be ard.

1) Spotlight – Plaza Singapura

Description: Best for novelty yarns and Australian imports (also sells cheap plastic needles!) HUGE selection of other craft and home-making materials

Prices: Variable, mostly affordable (starting from ~$5 per ball)

2) Golden Dragon – People’s Park Centre http://goldendragon.com.sg/index.htm

Address: 101 Upper Cross Street, #02-51, Singapore 058357

Tel: 6535 8454

Description: Huge handicraft store with one wall dedicated to yarn, with a few novelties

Prices: Variable

3) Yong Herng Co. – 211 Holland Avenue Holland Road Shopping Centre #02-12
(6468-3659)

Description: Tiny shop run by an approachable, friendly Chinese couple who don’t mind if you come in just to look. Small selection of plainer yarns, including Rowan, Butterfly…the shop also carries loads of ribbons and other fabric-craft-related items like buttons, zips, bells, cross-stitch etc.

Prices: about $10+ / ball

4) Ondori – 8 Jln Kilang Timor #01-06 Kewalram Hse (Alexandra Road area)

Description: Wholesaler (sale by packs) selling needles dizzying array of imported yarn

Prices: Expect to pay at least $10 per ball x (number of balls in 1 pack) (CASH ONLY)

5) Ishida Craft – Great World City (across from Cold Storage)

Description: Small supply but very friendly and helpful staff. Also stocks Addi needles and Clover. Lots of baby cotton. Also sells cross-stitch supplies.

Prices: ?

6) Siew Lip

Address: Jurong Point Shopping Centre at boon lay mrt #03-01
Telephone: 68610020
Opening hours:??

7) Creative ______ (CLOSED. I checked this, and it no longer exists.)

Address: 1st Floor Coronation Plaza, Bukit Timah

Description: Excellent prices and selection. Has addi and clover needles tons of patterns english and japanese friendly staff and good prices. Highly recommend!!”

 

BAD JOB

Have you give up on a project when you feel like it’s not going right? Is it easy for you throw in the towel?!?

So I’m blogging to let my steam out. I’m so frustrated, disappointed of a very bad job I made of my current project (but I can label it now as ex-project because I’m totally giving up.) . 

Expectation:


Reality:


This is actually a relatively easy pattern; and I guess that’s what making me more frustrated because it’s supposed to be easy. But maybe it was not. (I have a twisted perception of easy and not.)

What made me more frustrated because I need to wear it today, later at 3pm for a wedding where I’m going to walk down rhe aisle as secondary sponsor! 😭😭😭

I caught this mistake a day ago, but I thought I could just wing it out by trying to make up with stitches here and there. I was trying to correct a mistake by another mistake. Unfortunately, it ends up a total disaster.

Back


Here are details of this if you want to make it:

Pattern: Seaside Dress by Moon Eldridge
Yarn: Dazzle from Sugarfree
Crochet hook size: 3.5

This is relatively easy pattern. My mistake was (and is always my weakness) that I did not thoroughly read the pattern instructions. This is a seamless pattern BUT There was supposed to be a “TURN” in every row, but what I did was continouosly work in circle / around. Before this, there were already other mistakes. But this mistake could not be easily detected unless you made quite a length of job already. And if you have limited time, frogging could not be an option; all I can do is cry-cry and whine!!!😭😭😭

(It’s not obvious in the earlier part.)

On the bright side, the journey of this bad job was not really bad. It gave me company in SG last week… ( Please watch out for my SG yarn shop hopping in my upcoming blogpost.😊)

…and it ticked off my 1st-world bucketlist: to have a crochet photo in a train. 😂

But I just have to cut the journey short as it no longer makes me happy. 

On the other thought, maybe I could pull it off and pretend I’m boho chic. 😂 TOO MUCH EXPECTATION again! 😂

Get Cozy with Handmade Crocheted Cup Cozy

I never imagined that there are really people who used cup sleeves or cup cozies at home except when they’re given those cup sleeves at coffee shops. Anyhow, a friend messaged me that she wanted a few cup sleeves.

And now I have a new sense of appreciation for what seemed to me boring thing to crochet. It’s actually quick fun. Following are some notes I made when adapting the crochet patterns that call for worsted yarn to mercerized cotton thread 10 for those who want some quickie crochet project.

So worsted yarn (using size 4-5mm hook size) is what is usually specified in the the cup sleeves patterns I was looking at. The worsted yarns I usually have are the Monaco acrylic. But I wanted to use cotton because I thought it would feel more cosy if it’s cotton to protect you from heat than acrylic. So I opted to go for the mercerized cotton thread. I “double pull” it because “impatient.” 🙂

Yarn: Mercerized Thread 10 (Double Pull)
Hook: 4mm
Patterns: See list below.

Steps:
1. Get cup sleeves from coffee shops. They come with the take-out paper cups. I believe it’s the standard size. There are lots of information regarding cup sleeve dimensions on the internet but to save us from information overload, just go to your nearest coffee shop.  You can then use this as your gauge for sizing especially if we are not using the specified yarn weight in the pattern.
2. With monaco mercerized thread 10, chain 39 (to 41) as your base foundation. After making a few cup cozies, chain 39 is the closest that could give me the right size for standard cup sleeve. If you started with shorter length, you may increase in the later rows.
3. The alternate SC and DC stitches give me the most stretchy effect, and fits perfectly with the chain 39.

The basket weave is also cozy except that it would shrink as you go on for more rows so you might start with a longer chain, or increase along the way.

For my 1st attempt, it took some time because I had to frog a lot of times to get me into the right gauge. When I was able to get the hang of it, cup cozies are pretty fast to make. I would have made more except that my right arm was in pain after at that time after making 3 mermaid blankets successively for my nieces. =)

Pattern Sources:
* Toothless the Dragon and Yoda cup sleeves / cozy crochet patterns are from The Enchanted Ladybug >>. This site has a lot of “kawaii” cup sleeves / cozy crochet patterns.
* The Basketweave Stitch >> * 15 Minute Cup Sleeve >> 
* The Crown and Wonderwoman inspired cup cozies / sleeves were inspired by bigger versions of it. So you can actually use the patterns for beanies / hats, headbands but then just make smaller version of them.
* Crown pattern Garn Studio >>