Adventures in Crochet: Lalylala's Beetles, Bugs, and Butterflies: Part 1a (Ayame's Graduation Trinket: Tentou Mushi (天道虫))

Back in the day when I graduated high school (eons and eons ago), one of Hubby's aunts had given me a super cute mini stuffed animals that could clip onto my gown and/or lei. It was utterly adorable. 🥰💕😍

Now that Hubby's niece is going to be graduating next year (I know, I know ... it's next year?! but .. I need to do this in advance because who knows how long this might actually take me! 😳😱😔 especially since I have a very rudimentary concept of crochet and I still haven't finished the original insect I started two (2!!!) years ago!), I wanted to give her something similar to attach to the lei I'm also making for her. So, since I had purchased Lalylala's Beetles, Bugs and Butterflies and it had so many cute creatures in it, I decided that I would make her the Tentou Mushi (天道虫) (aka the ladybug) (plus it's in her high school's colours - win-win!🙌🎉🎊👍🥳). Here's how it went:

First, I had to make the head and as such, had to (re-)learn how to start crocheting with a magic loop. Once I overcame that, it was quick to finish the head. I did realize that I needed to make sure I had a starting/ending marker otherwise, I would mindlessly go round and round and round, never quite knowing where I started or needed to end.😳🤷‍♀️😱😔🤦‍♀️

Next up was the transition to the body. Here's where I struggled a bit (Remember! I'm not very crochet literate nor am able to fully understand what I'm exactly doing!😳🤷‍♀️😱😔🤦‍♀️). At this stage in my crochet adventure, I was just happy that I could just get the exact/same number of stitches required in the pattern so far!😳😱😔 So, I spent a few hours on Ravelry trying to figure out how to post something in the forum for this pattern (then finally posting a forum question); then spent a few more hours on Google to figure out what these two (2) mysterious instructions (that stumped me) meant, how to do it and why one would provide instructions like this. I finally figured it out as well as received a response on my forum.🥰🎉🎊👍🥳 So, I was able to complete most of the body (since I haven't purchased any eyes for this yet, I had to stop the body at the last two (2) rows so that I could insert the safety eyes and stuff it before actually finishing it off).🙌🎉🎊👍🥳

In the meantime, I've been agonizing over what types of eyes to purchase.😳😱😔🤦‍♀️ Initially, I was thinking about getting glass eyes but found that they are incredibly expensive; so, I started to cave and consider getting plastic safety eyes and fell into a whole 'nother rabbit hole there!😳😱😔 (I wanted to stay away from plastic and I'm trying to avoid purchasing things directly from the "evil horseman" (aka Amazon); plus I had no idea what safety eyes entailed nor how to use them!😳😱😭🤦‍♀️😔 So there was a huge learning curve to get over and I haven't actually used them yet!😳😱🤦‍♀️😔) After spending weeks!! (yes, you read that right - weeks!!) mulling (and agonizing) over this, I finally was able to narrow down my search for these dang safety eyes. It was a good thing that I finished the head and body so that I could confirm if I really wanted to get 5mm eyes (as suggested in the pattern) or some other sized eyes. After going through my test eyes (remember all that yarn I bought in June 2022 then the positionable eyes in August 2022? - it's finally paying off!🥰🎉🎊👍🥳 I'm using them!!👍🥳), I realized that the recommended eye size seemed a bit too small and that 6mm eyes would fit better. However, as I was trying to determine how many pairs of eyes to get, I realized that there are two (2) other insects in the book that may or may not fit these eyes (they seemed smaller) so, I decided to put a pause on this project to work on them first so that I can make sure how many pairs of eyes (and what sizes) I really need (the price point and cost to ship them to me is ridiculous!).😳😱😔

In the meantime, I did finish the hat.🎉🎊👍🥳 But, after putting it on the head, it seems abnormally large. Since I can't really stuff the head yet (pending those dang eyes😳😱😔🤦‍♀️), I also can't finish the hat to add antennae (or determine if I need to rip it out and redo it on a smaller hook size). So, now, everything's on hold until I can really figure out what sized eyes I really need and how many of them I need to get (due to pricing and shipping costs, it's much more efficient if I just get every pair of eyes I need up front rather than buy just one pair at a time or as needed 😔.)
Here's what I have so far:

Now, all I have to do is determine how many eyes to get and where to get them from!🤔

Adventures in Crochet: Lalylala's Beetles, Bugs, and Butterflies Part 2 (Arimaki (アリマキ) と Katatsumuri (かたつむり))

This is going to be a totally disjointed blog as I started projects from Lalylala's Beetles, Bugs and Butterflies (and have pending blog posts about them) but have not finished them yet (for some reason or another)) so, if you're wondering about the Title and why it says it's a Part 2 but you haven't seen the original yet, this is is why!🤭😁🤦‍♀️🤷‍♀️

So what is this post about? It's about two (2! - yes, count 'em 2!) insects that I managed to finish (enough of) rather quickly from this book. And it was important that I finish them (enough) first before going back to finish my other two (2) pending projects from this book/pattern maker (as well as these insects) because of "the eyes". As you'll read in my other two (2) posts, I have been "stuck" with these projects because of my inability to determine what type and size eyes I needed for them (no more just trying to use my button collection because the smallest button I have is too big for these projects!😳😱😭🤦‍♀️)

So here's the hold-ups to help me move forward on finishing all the insects from this book & pattern maker. First up:

Arimaki (アリマキ) (aka Aphid(s)):

I wanted to see how this turned out since it looked much smaller than the other insects so, I only made one and here's how it went:

I mostly finished it (it's missing the last row and it's antennae & legs) as I just wanted to see what sized eyes I'd need. Overall, it was pretty easy to make and came out quite larger than I expected.  However, I  think it needs smaller eyes than the Tentou Mushi (天道虫); I  think 5mm eyes are needed (vs the 6mm eyes that seems to "fit" better on the Tentou Mushi (天道虫)). Here's how it looks (with test eyes):

Next up: Katatsumuri (かたつむり) (aka Snail):

This was the next insect that looked like it was on the smaller side (and had significantly different instructions than the others); so, I wanted to make sure I got the right (hopefully same!🤞🍀) sized eyes for it. Here's how it went:

For the most part, it wasn't too bad to make. Overall, this was my least favorite "insect" to make as you had to make it in pieces rather than in the round so it was a bit fiddly. As I  was making it, it started to make me doubt if I did the head right on the Tentou Mushi (天道虫) since Katatsumuri's (かたつむり) head seemed so much bigger.  In the end, it was the same size.😌😳 That also meant that the eyes would be the same size.🙌🥳 Here's what it looks like:

I think I'm ready to move forward to buy these dang eyes and to wrap up all of my pending projects!.🙌🥳

What Have I Been Doing?

As I stated in my previous blog, I've completely lost my knitting mojo.😳😱😭🤦‍♀️🤷‍♀️🙇‍♀️😔 I had started (for what I had hoped) a project that would spark joy (a pair of socks for myself) but, it turned out to be a lesson in frustration (my vanilla pattern that has always worked was not working with the sock yarn I had bought.😡😤😠😖😳😱😭🤦‍♀️🤷‍♀️🙇‍♀️😔 So, it sat, stuffed in a corner in my bedroom never to see the light of day.

Instead, I've been reading voraciously (literally a book a day) and found that I simply couldn't knit because I've been too busy reading. Then midway through my book binges, I decided that I would try to take a break from reading to see if my knitting would pick up. Instead, I then began to binge on anime and j-dramas and found that since I needed to read the subtitles, it was simply too hard to knit and "watch TV" at the same time.😳🤦‍♀️🤷‍♀️😔 Then, I started to have book withdrawals and couldn't handle not having a book to read at night.😳😱🤦‍♀️😔 So, my book reading picked up again.🤦‍♀️😁🥰

However, I also started to pick up my water colour painting (again); since I had quit my job, I wanted to send water coloured ornaments to my family on the mainland this year and I really needed to work on my water colour skills (it's dismal at best😳🤦‍♀️😔). I also wanted to finish my water colour birds art installation (I started it last Spring!).😳🤦‍♀️😔 And, guess what?! I actually (partially) finished and put it up:

It's partially done because I realized that what I have isn't enough to fill both my living room and bedroom (I didn't even have enough for my living room to begin with😳😔🤦‍♀️🙇‍♀️; at least I had enough for my bedroom🥰). But, I had purchased a heat gun and a glue gun which will help me make making additional birds so much easier.🙌🎉🎊🥳 And, now, I'm back in the business of making more of my "flock".

Then, I was perusing Instagram and noticed that graduation season was coming around. I started to look around as Hub's niece was going to graduate next year and I had seen a super cool fabric lei that I was contemplating about learning how to make it. (Due to my lack of knitting mojo, I wanted to start this now to ensure that she'd have something by next year!😳😔). As I was brain storming with my MIL about it, I realized that making a fabric lei was a no-go for me.  Instead, I decided to fall back on an old staple: straw yarn leis. But, I also wanted to give her a little something extra. I had purchased a crochet book of all these cute little bugs and thought: What if I made one for her? And then, B-A-M! The crochet bug (literally) caught me! 🙌🎉🎊🥳 I took down all the yarn I bought for this (book) project (I bought all the yarn back from 2022!😳😔), cracked open the book again and just started it (after all, crochet isn't my thing; it could very well take me a full year to make one of these bugs!😳😔🤦‍♀️). Low and behold, it took me two (2) days to mostly finish the body and I could've finished the whole thing if I wasn't having a dilemma about what type of eyes (and what size eyes) to put on the dang thing! 😳😔😱🤦‍♀️😱🤦‍♀️😱🤦‍♀️ (more on this in another (soon to be!🤞🍀🐰) blog!)

But, I'm feeling my creativity coming back and working on these small crochet projects (as well as my water colour painting) is showing me progress! 🙌🎉🎊🥳🥰 I'm hoping that as I wrap up these projects, it'll spur my knitting back into action so that I'll be knitting again.  It's actually quite lonely not having anything to knit. I've been supplementing the "emptiness" with reading but it's not the same. Even crocheting is not the same as knitting (and while I don't hate crocheting as much as I used to, I don't exactly love it either - the only reason why I'm even doing it is because I really, really love the bugs I'm making! 🥰)

So, this is my current state of affairs. Hopefully, I'll wrap up my crochet projects, finish my flock and ornaments for the year and my knitting mojo will be back!🤞🤞🤞🍀🐰🍀🐰🍀🐰

Knit in Public Day 2025

Last week was Knit in Public Day and I completely missed it.😳😱😭🤦‍♀️😔 In fact, even if I had remembered it, I would've missed it anyways because ... I haven't been knitting! 😳😱😭🤦‍♀️😔 I had started a project back in March and had gotten stuck so, I've simply abandoned it (for now).  This is currently the sad state of my knitting affairs ... 😭🤦‍♀️😔

However, I've recently been inspired to (finally complete another non-knitting (but it's a craft!) project so, I'm hoping that this will help inspire me back to my knitting.🤔🤞🍀🐰🧶