Tuesday, March 30, 2010

Buying Bulk (or Not!) Safety Eyes - Harvey's Hobby Hut or Glass Eyes Online?

Upon getting a request for Hello Kitty, I started looking into the best way to make her eyes (as she has slightly oval eyes that are bigger than the 8mm round safety eyes I have). I was thisclose to ordering from Harvey's Hobby Hut when I happened upon Glass Eyes Online. You can buy eyes by the pair there and they give bulk discounts depending on how many you buy. The nice thing is that you can get a variety of eye colors of the same size and get a discount. They also have yellow Hello Kitty noses, oval noses (or eyes) in a few different sizes and colors, pink heart noses (I have no clue what I'll put them on, but I got quite a few 'cause they're cute), triangular noses, "sparkle" eyes, and all sorts of other things. And if you spend more than $25, you get free shipping!

I still like Harvey's and will have to write a proper review when I receive the order I sent to Glass Eyes, but it was nice to not have to pay $5.35 for s&h.
GSO's eyes are a bit pricier for the amount you get at HHH:
Price per 25 pairs of 9mm safety eyes:
GSO = 19 cents per pair of 9mm safety eyes
HHH = 12 cents per pair for 25 pairs
But not when you consider s&h:
GSO = $8.35
HHH = $9.25
AND the fact that you could have 3 pairs of blue, 5 pairs of black, 7 pairs of green, 2 pairs of red and 3 pairs of orange for GSO's price rather than just 25 pairs of black.

HHH is in Idaho while GSO is in South Carolina, so it will be interesting to see how quickly I get my order! HHH got them out to me in a couple of days and they arrived a couple of days after that.

P.S. Naturally, I've made 3 cupcakes since I last posted and gave them away before photographing them! I had every intention of doing it this time, but didn't even finish sewing and stuffing the last two until literally a minute before arriving at my friend's surprise party! (10 minutes late, but thankfully 10 minutes before she arrived! And no, I wasn't driving :P) I made a tan/light blue one, a red/white one and a brown/pink one with embroidered faces on them.

Friday, March 12, 2010

Japanese Patterns - Chihuahua!

So I have a few crochet pattern books that are entirely in Japanese. I just realized I might have been able to ask my "cousin-in-law" (who knows the language) for help, but no need! I was intimidated by them for awhile, figuring I needed to know how to translate Japanese to English. It took me needed to make a Chihuahua amigurumi for a friend to finally look into how to read it - And I'm SO glad I finally did! It's way easier than I thought since they use a bunch of charts with symbols and numbers are universal. I was a bit weary when I looked up symbols and realized that the ones in the Ami Ami Dogs book I have were nowhere to be found, but it was pretty easy to figure out what /x\ meant.

I used large shank buttons for the eyes and embroidered his nose and mouth with black yarn. The bow collar is removable (it's "closure" is a hoop that loops around the bow).

I give you, Melanie's Chihuahua:
Amigurumi Chihuahua
Amigurumi Chihuahua
Amigurumi Chihuahua