I have had an urge lately. i hadn’t crocheted anything since my plaid skirt. I was itching for some yarn and some project to do. I’m in the process of moving so my craft supplies are suffering alone in a storage unit. Except for my hoard of yarn… that’s at my bestie’s house. So I grabbed some to go. Then pink was used in excess. Because I’m a girly girl. #noshame
Oh hey there you. MikuSama here! Hope you’re having a bubbly day! My latest doll–er at least one of them, since I started another one– is Sakura! That pink hair screams a sakura blossom to me. Yes, she’s modeled heavily off of Kaname Madoka. I do intend to make her a magical transformation of Madoka.
My doll evolution is in the video. Or you can gawk at how adorable Sakura is using my Macbook Pro for a couple of moments before going on your merry way!
Anywho, toodles~
Disclaimer: This blog post is not meant to dissuade or discourage anyone out there who sells their crochet work or dreams of doing so. If you find your efforts are paying off, by all means, go make a killing!! Hi. If you’ve spoken to me within that last couple of years, you’d know I’m very adamant about not trying to sell my crochet work. I’ve tried numerous routes in my arsenal to make money from my crochet talent in my later 20’s. Most efforts ended in complete failure or close to it.
A casual vlog of my discussion why I don’t sell my art(crochet)
I tried having an Etsy shop, I sank more money into maintaining it than selling; I tried selling at a Farmer’s Market twice, one person bought from me the first time and the second two people bought; I tried my own website on various platforms, not once has a single transaction took place; I tried eBay, same experience as Etsy; I tried having a Facebook fan page,
barely anyone interacted with it; I tried handing out business cards, never heard back from anyone who took them.
Let’s just say my decision to be resistant to selling is backed up with a lot of experience. I personally hate getting the run around from people. Talk is cheap. I hate when someone says that they will buy something just to never buy it. It’s worse when it comes to commissions. My hopes get brought up just to be crushed. So I became a “selfish hooker”(one who crochets only for herself and occasionally loved ones during the holiday season.)
But one thing I had not tried, consignment. Scratch that, I did do a consignment before I had established my work’s worth. Needless to say, I was scammed. So I won’t consider that to be a failure.
🎨🎨🎨🎨🎨🎨🎨🎨🎨🎨🎨🎨🎨🎨🎨🎨🎨🎨🎨🎨🎨🎨🎨🎨🎨🎨🎨🎨🎨🎨🎨
There’s a place that I like to buy some of my skincare products. It’s a local shop near my house. I’m very much a “support local business” within reason. This is a black-owned business on top of that, so I feel a bit biased. But– I don’t believe in supporting a black-owned business simply because black people own it. If you have a good product that I want to buy, I’ll buy it. Supporting the black business is a bonus.
Anyway, minor tangent. The shop owner asked if I would crochet some pieces for his shop in February 2018. I tend to wear my crochet stuff a lot in my free time.
At first, I was hesitant and resistant. Then a month later I decide to try it out.
“Well, I won’t be involved in finding customers, dealing with the flakes, or the riding the roller coaster or hopes and dreams–crushed edition. I just make the stuff and if sells, cha-ching!”
Or so I thought. I was wrong. One day I was dropping off a few more crocheted pieces to the shop, Wednesday, March 21. The shop owner tells me about a lady who has the first top I made on hold. She’ll be back to purchase it on that Friday. That Friday comes and goes. The only money that I gain is a $5 bill I find in a parking lot by dumb-luck.
My thoughts so far are, consignment isn’t a stress-free way to go. It’s a stress-reduced option. I’m only giving this a trial run of 6 months.
Hope for the best, but fully expect the worst.
-MikuMarmalade
My motto when it comes to making money from my talent for crocheting.
But hey, I do hope things go well. If I 100% believed this was a waste of my time, I wouldn’t bother.
Update: April 14, 2018
One of the tops sold. It’s the same one the owner was speaking of. Although it sold a later period.
She’s gone through a lot of designs before finalization.
I think Saitama may be a ladies’ man. Watch out!! She’s more than willing to lead him sto tray from the hero realm– to the yarn store!!!!
I adore the details on him. It looks so spot on cartoon style!!
Saitama does not seem down with the whole friend selfie thing.
A family of Christmas gifts. 2016-2017
Bonus! Parody PoetryA parody of the 12 step program for Alcoholics/Narcotics Anonymous. This is in no way shape or form meant to demean the actual steps of the program. I stand neutral on it. I literally copied and pasted and edited some parts. Hopefully I’ll find it humorous later on if and when I look back at it. And in that rare case that someone else other than myself stumbles upon and reads this, well know it’s for fun.
1. We admitted we were powerless over yarn–that our yarn stash had become unmanageable.
2. Came to believe that a Power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity. It’s known as Pinterest. Great for organization boards.
3. Made a decision to turn our will and our wallets over to the care of our local yarn shop as we understood the power of 50% off all yarn purchases.
4. Made a searching and fearless visual inventory of our stash. Turns out, there’s a lot of fiberfill and half done projects there.
5. Admitted to our dearest loved ones, to ourselves and to another human being the exact nature of our wrongs. The bank account is in the negative because the thrift store had a huge suitcase of yarn for $25. We know times are tough and payday is Friday. But how could we give that up?!
6. Were entirely ready to have red heart remove all these defects in yarn so no more will yarn vomit exist at the beginning of a skein!
7. Humbly asked some dude person to remove the necessity of weaving in tails.
8. Made a list of victims our creations had harmed, and became willing to make amends to them all. Apparently, the cat is still holding a grudge on the yarn lion mane we made for him on Halloween. We’ll make the mane more majestic next year and we won’t take AS MANY pictures.
9. Made detachable manes to such cats wherever possible, except to that feisty one who killed our sofa leather. He will not be forgiven so easily.
10. Continued to take inventory of our stash and when we were wrong promptly admitted it. This time we told our loved ones of the trip the yarn store at dinner instead of a week later when asked how this $126 Michael’s craft supply bill on the bank statement happen.
11. Sought through meditation to improve our conscious contact with the blue skein of yarn we bought a year ago, as we understood our stash habits, praying only for knowledge of that we’d find it so we would have the power to carry out and complete that WIP.
12. Having had a spiritual awakening as the result of these steps, we intend to share this message to other knitters and hookers and to practice these principles in our daily activities.
Aaaw he is going to chop you up with his sword. He is very threatening. He is very dangerous.
–Because he’s so gosh darn cute. He thinks he’s gonna cut someone. In reality, he can’t harm a fly. You know, being made of yarn and having a plastic play sword isn’t effective for battle.
But he CAN steal hearts. Mwuhahahahaha!!!!
Originally made in December 2016.
See him and others in my Flickr album~
So this needed to happen. I wanted to make a version of Kanna from Miss Koboyashi’s Dragon Maid(Psst you should totes watch it if you like anime and cute light hearted stuff).
At first I was going to use a cosplay wig for her hair. I bought a crappy quality wig at first from Amazon. It tangled in two seconds of movement. Detangling it was a bitch. It also shredded like crazy. Not ideal for taking your dolls out and about like I do often.
So I decided to make her hair yarn as well. It works much better.
I’m rewatching some of the series because I loved it that much. Kanna is so effin’ cute!!
Kanna is (mostly) done. I have to make her tail now. There she is sitting on a ledge at the bus station. She’s holding a Kirby plush I made.
Hey, Homura. There sure isn’t anything unusual about these photos at a fast food place.
Nope. Nothing at all. Every day at a restaurant there will be an adorable amigurumi doll dining in and play Mario Kart on a 3DS for a few minutes.
…oh that’s not the case? Oops. 😅<<<<
gt;<<<
><<
p>< /p>
Aya, the bronie, threatened to throw a tantrum if I didn’t take her to my yoga class Tuesday.
I can’t say no to my little sister’s cuteness….
So she went. It was her first or second(who knows what dolls do when you sleep) yoga session and she mastered the cobra pose.
Go, Aya!
Did it need to happen? Yes, indeed it needed to happen. Why shouldn’t Hachune Miku experience being a magical girl?
…because it’s a trap? Because Kyuubey is a liar and a plague to humanity? Because Hachune Miku was in the middle of studying and can’t save the world?!?!?
Nonsense. Those are all excuses. 
This is what happens when you cross Tomoe Mami with Hachune Miku.
I shall call her Hachune Mami~
Hachune Mami was born from an neglected amigurumi work in progress from 2016. When I decided to complete it in 2017 I thought I don’t need two exact same Tomoe Mami dolls. What if I made her a crossover?!? So I did.
Oh hey! Last year I cosplayed as Harley Quinn from Suicide Squad. This blog post is sharing the how to create a creative spin hair for a Harley Quinn cosplay– crochet the wig, similar to the cabbage patch wigs–but way cooler and dye the ends.
Here’s to creating and experimenting with a unique spin on Harley’s twin tails:
Pro-Tip: Use diluted acrylic paint to dye acrylic yarn. The RIT dye doesn’t dye synthetic fibers like Red Heart Super Saver yarn. However if you use a natural fiber yarn you should be fine using RIT dyes.
For Halloween 2016, I crocheted a Suicide Squad Harley Quinn inspired look. I opted to make a skirt instead of the Daisy Duke shorts. I prefer wearing cutesy apparel rather than a sexy apparel. 
I just realized on March 19th 2017 that the story of my Rosalina cosplay isn’t on my blog. I know. What am I doing with my life? Please note this blog post is written two years after its creation. It’s not new, but my blog is kind of new. So work dated as far back as 2014 may pop up.
So in October of 2015, a local comic book store was holding a Halloween costume contest. I decided to enter and make my costume. Conveniently in the same month. Because waiting until the last minute is the best way to execute plans(not).
Anyway, I had just gotten obsessed with Rosalina in Smash and decided to be her.
Here’s the result of my cosplay. 
A Luma handbag work in progress.
I did win first place for the adult prizes! I won a fancy deck of cards. Sadly I don’t get much use out of them. My amigurumi pals don’t seem too keen on playing Gin Rummy or Blackjack. 😋
My face looks weird because suddenly I indulged in daydreaming about sushi. Totally legit. 
I also got some professional photos taken from a local photo business at the time. I do believe in supporting small businesses whenever possible. Diversify shopping needs.
