Handmadeforless

Learning How to Crochet is Not an Overnight Success..

2010-08-31T04:08:00.000-07:00

The picture to the left is my test yarn from 2 years ago. I still have it somewhere, but what I used to do was keep testing out things. Its not really about making something in the end, just getting familiar and comfortable doing it.

I didn't learn to crochet with proper terms and techniques - it was purely trial and error. Even though the picture was taken 2 years ago, it just reminds me of how far I've gone. Normally after learning to crochet, most people give it up, but I was persistent. I wish I had that same determination in other things I do, but oh well. I just wanted to show what I made two years ago. I hope for those who need a pick-me-up-so-i-can-do-it will see this, that things do not happen overnight. It takes practice and time. That is pretty much the basic rules of the success game.

My Crochet Designs - Part 10

2010-08-31T01:06:00.000-07:00

This is one of my favorite hats to wear. I love multi color yarn.

My Crochet Designs - Part 9

2010-08-29T16:36:00.000-07:00

A hat and scarf for my neice who also didn't pick hers up. The scarf has a ruffle effect.

My Crochet Designs - Part 8

2010-08-29T15:01:00.000-07:00

I also had made a matching scarf with the hat for my sister.

My Crochet Designs - Part 7

2010-08-29T14:44:00.000-07:00

A hat that I made for my sister, but she hasn't picked it up yet. I was proud of the button I did at the top.

My Crochet Designs - Part 6

2010-08-29T13:33:00.000-07:00

A bow Headband! I haven't wore this one yet. I'm waiting for a special day.

My Crochet Designs - Part 5

2010-08-29T06:33:00.000-07:00

Chun Li Hairbows. I love these a lot. I think I'll make some more later on.

My Crochet Designs - Part 4

2010-08-28T16:25:00.000-07:00

Its Flower Hair clips! I made quite a few of these, with all sorts of colors and just out of curiosity.

More to come!

My Crochet Designs - Part 3

2010-08-28T14:57:00.000-07:00

This hat is pretty lightweight. My mother in law had made one similar, and put one of my flowers on the side. It looked really nice. I really like using the baby yarn, it doesn't fight me as much.

Stay tuned for more. I'll try to add as many pictures of my crochet as I can find!

My Crochet Designs - Part 2

2010-08-28T09:53:00.000-07:00

This was my very first beanie type of hat that I made. Its a good hat to hide my bad hair days.

Stay tuned for more pictures!

My Crochet Designs - Part 1

2010-08-28T03:30:00.000-07:00

I figure since I will not sell these items, I decided to take some photos to post them on here.

Look forward for more later!

Starting a Business? Here are some Tips Part 2

2010-08-26T19:05:00.000-07:00

As promised here is Part 2, if you want to see Part 1, view here

#7 - Think outside of the box. There are sometimes you will have to do extraordinary things for people to see. You have to come to terms that you will have to find an audience, but, you also should stay creative with what you are doing.

#8 - Nothing is a waste of time. When you start a business there are two things that happen, either it ends up doing well, or it becomes a lesson for experience. You will need to experience things. Since you are not working a job, there is no direct path. Its what makes it challenging and fun at the same time.

#9 - This is something that I still have to go through. I struggle with this everyday and even my husband pesters me about it. Self-determination. I cannot stress this enough, it is important to stay persistent with your goals. So things get really hard, and it takes a while... it is something you really want. Today I realized, even though I am happy to do what I do, I still have not accomplished my other goals. I encourage you to not just do one thing, but to do or try to do all of your wants. I am so serious about this, don't be the person who is stuck saying I didn't get around to doing it beacause... or the would have, could have, should have done this that and the other. Please don't let simple opportunities past you by.

#10 - Have someone in your corner. I have my husband to thank for making it this far. Find someone who will cheer you on, pick you up when your down, whether it is a family member or a friend. It helps. Even if you don't have someone like that now, you will come across other people who will push you while you do what you do. Keep doing #9 and you will get #10 with little to no sweat if you don't have this already.

I hope these tips will help you. I have to get some rest. I've had such a fun-filled day ^_^

Starting a Business? Here are some Tips

2010-08-21T02:26:00.000-07:00

Okay

I think I will make a part two of this later on, but I felt as though I should talk about this, because I hear so many people that want to try it, but are intimidated by the drawbacks of starting a business. Here are a few pointers to get you started in the direction that you want to go in:

#1 - Figure out what you like to do with little to no reward out of it. You know, a hobby, or anything personal to you, like maybe you like to write poems, or maybe you like making keychains etc. The goal with #1 is to not think about the money, more or less, think about seeing yourself working at something for long amounts of time. I'm talking about over 40 hours a week.

#2 - Figure out if you actually need to sell things, or if you just want to show it to the masses. Since the age of blogs, there have been a lot of room in this section. Back before though non-profit organizations only received charity or grants for just gathering people to see what they are trying to do... now its all about having those nice banners for revenue to do what you like to do. If you are selling, you should decide what audience is best for your product, and THEN figure out if the time spent/ money earned would possibly add up if you do some prior planning and research on your audience and your product. If you are not selling, the possibilities are endless to what you can do with whatever! There is an audience for you because it is free. When its free, it is free for all ages, so consider this to be a good workaround for those that are still looking to sell things as well.

#3 - If you still feel like creating a business after this point, good job! Most people look at the work that is involved and quit because it is too much work. Give things a shot and start setting up your business. This is still the easy part, and it will be the base content of what you will delivering to the public, so make sure it is solid! I've seen people worry about licensing and business plans more than actually having something to show! Remember, talk is cheap and for the lazy, so don't start out having bad habits. It is too much to think about right now, you should be fixated on just feeling good about doing it.

#4 - Well, this isn't going to be easy. Its still not easy for me, but I am still moving forward. You have to do some sort of social activity to get other eyes to view your content, whether its local or online. There are a plethora amount of ways to do this. You can thank Google later, but you MUST research. There are no easy ways or routes to take, but social marketing is much better to do than paying for advertisements. Especially if you have little to no start up capital. You may find cheap "black hat" tools, but you'll find that being honest and clean would pay off in the long run. Stepping on toes is good for the moment, but it never lasts a lifetime. Make good friends on Twitter and Facebook will give you a tremendous boost in little time. You can never talk too much on there, and everyone loves when you checkup to see how they are doing and vice versa. Its that easy.

#5 - Don't make any guarantees. When you start your own business, you can never expect things to happen, it is fickle and very very challenging to be able to tell which ways and methods will work for you. Believe me, I'm still working on this one too. My graph of earnings are always up and down, and for the first few months to years it will be like that. Don't let this discourage you, and I know your thinking, "Wow I can't take risks like that - I'll just work a job", but can you picture not getting enough pay, and still taking risks with paying bills late? It is exactly the same!

#6 - Don't give up! Even if you feel like things are not working out, find some people on Youtube that are motivational speakers. Try to listen to them a LOT, because there will be times where you want to throw in the towel, but when you keep going, and keep doing, things will work out for the better.

I hope these tips will help you along the way. I will post more later.

Lets Crochet With Chykara Episode 16

2010-04-26T15:09:00.000-07:00

Lets Bead with Chykara Episode 2

2010-04-25T16:10:00.000-07:00

Lets Crochet With Chykara Episode 15

2010-04-09T20:38:00.000-07:00

Here I show you how to finger crochet a flower. No hooks needed, just fingers and time :) To shorten the length, I had to speed up the process (original time - 16 minutes). This took two tries to get the hang of it, but it came out really good. I think my finger can substitute buying a bigger needle for projects that require it. Stitch used: Half double crochet and slip stitch between each pedal.

Lets Crochet With Chykara Episode 14

2010-04-09T13:42:00.000-07:00

In this episode I show you how to finger knit and crochet with just yarn. No hooks needed!

Yarn...and other things

2010-04-08T18:53:00.000-07:00

Hello friends,

I am writing to you all today because I have been on a craft hiatus. Its not really as bad as it sounds, but believe me, running out of materials halts a lot of projects. As you may have read, Ive been on a yarn shortage for some time now and well its still short. I have a light pink color and some white yarn left, and thats about it. Ive tried asking around for a "handout" per se, so that I can start selling more than beads on here, but I'm going to have to pump the money maker on my own. That well has officially ran dry.

I started to make a video explaining this, but the hubby thought that I was being too serious and upset, which was not me at all. Little things turn to big things and I think I exploded in that video. Though maybe later I will post it, or maybe not.

Currently, Ive been coding a very detailed fashion game that has been doing pretty well so far (only been a few days), and maybe I will use that to some advantage of getting some more yarn. When you get some time, check it out on http://dream-maidens.com

Ive also been getting my hands dirty with Facebook Applications, so feel free to check out the Game on my Facebook App http://apps.facebook.com/dmfashionette/

You won't find it listed in Facebook yet though, I need more people to view it :)

Aaaannnyyways, it is getting warmer outside. With the remaining yarn, I think I'll make me a nice pink hat. I'll show the results in the future.

~Chykara

Relocation of Home Office and Updates

2010-03-19T15:26:00.000-07:00

Hey everyone, terribly sorry about the delay but there has been a few changes that had to take place this week. First and foremost, my room and office has been moved in my attic. A lot of thought and some crazy issues gave us enough reason to relocate. I have a lot of projects to do as well as keep with crochet, so I need some peace and quiet while I work.

The attic is a little darker, but it has plenty of room. It is a finished attic with no air drafts :)

Now I havent forgot about my videos, its just that the camera equipment that I have (rinky dink sometimes work stupid computer camera) that I will be very limited to what times of the day I record. In other words, I have to record in the day, but I'm coding games and working on other projects in the day and my nights are free.

So I need a better camera. Preferably one that I borrowed a month back that did pretty well with little lighting in the room *sigh*

Perhaps the weekend I can actually do something! I have some hopes of making an apron in crochet but I lack enough yarn at the moment as well. So I'll try to do some smaller projects to show you all. Hmm while I am thinking about it, I'll probably start posting more frequent and posting pictures.

Oh, and I have some more items in stock, just havent finished putting them up.

Stay tuned!
-Chykara

Lets Crochet With Chykara Episode 13

2010-02-26T18:22:00.000-08:00

Postal Hijinx

2010-02-25T16:47:00.001-08:00

I've made my first sale (thanks so much Mary)! I'm so excited, and have been excited for over a week. I have been trying all week to mail this off. I have a flat tire on my putt putt car, the post office decided to be closed early at 12pm today when I finally got there and whew, its been a heck of a week. Hopefully I will be able to mail it off tomorrow.

To the left I took a picture of what is included with the beaded bracelets, or anything beaded that I create. I didn't do business cards yet so forgive me. I made a crochet pouch to store it in or anything else you can fit in (its almost the size of a wallet). I'll be doing a tutorial on that tonight.

I also want to point out that if you are just starting crochet, it is best to use lighter color yarn, because it is pretty difficult to see the holes. Ive always used lighter yarn and felt funny when I did this pouch and thought, "Hey I can't see the holes that good," lol. So stay tuned.

Take care and stay crafty!

Using failed Projects and Turning them into Something Useful

2010-02-24T20:45:00.000-08:00

Alas, I decided to write an article finally! Its been so hectic this week between me working on 2 game projects (possibly a third one with penguins) and trying to let this pain in my right hand die down so I can crochet a bit more.

But that is beside the point. I am writing this article because I found myself staring at some crochet projects I started, stopped, got frustrated because it didn't look right, etc. until I just felt the urge to dabble with them. The picture on the left started out as a fingerless glove (it just didn't look right to me). It really just looked like a crochet cylinder and one day I just started cinching the middle with my hand, and thought aha! I can make a big bow! So my message today is never throw your projects away, you can always use them (or the yarn lol) for something later. While I was making this bow I also learned a few things about overlapping stitches. The pink thread may look like I did it while I was crocheting the white, but it was actually using a single chain over top of the stitches (I'll show in a future video).

Remember the purple and pink flower tutorial vid? Yeah the flower from my example really got under my skin and was too big. Today I messed with it and gave it more dimension, which is another type of flower I learned how to do! It looks so great now. Even if all you know is how to do a single row of chain stitches, it can be used for a lot of things. Have you ever thought of crochet shoe laces or how about a bracelet, necklace or slim rope belt to add a little more style to a tight tunic top? So many possibilities.

Well until next time. Cyas!

Lets Bead with Chykara Episode 1

2010-02-18T17:24:00.000-08:00

Lets Crochet With Chykara Episode 12

2010-02-17T20:57:00.001-08:00

Lets Crochet With Chykara Episode 11

2010-02-17T20:54:00.001-08:00