Hey there Heroes, Travelers, and Wandering NPCs, it’s been awhile since I last wrote about crocheting, and I’m going to be honest with you guys, I didn’t have anything to share because I just wasn’t in the mood to make anything new. I had to fulfill a custom order a few weeks ago, but aside from that I haven’t picked up a skein of yarn or my crochet hook since. I love crocheting and I find that it’s one of my more therapeutic hobbies, but sometimes I just don’t feel like creating anything. Which can seem strange in a world where just about everyone is trying to find ways to market their hobbies to the masses, I mean, Blerdy Otome is kind of built on that same concept—I started this site as a place where I could talk about otome games and it’s kind of snowballed from there…
I know… including a link to my Etsy store in a post about keeping hobbies just hobbies… cliche af
Granted, I do sell my crochet creations over on Etsy, but I’ve always maintained the notion that crocheting would always be a casual hobby. I mean, if I make a few bucks every now and again cool, but I’m not trying to build a crochet empire over here. Because even though there is clearly a market for crochet items, the act of crocheting has always been a personal thing for me.
So, this incident happened a little while ago but I needed some time to cool off before I wrote about it, because at the time I was PISSED! Time has softened my anger so that now I look back on the whole thing with some degree of amusement, don’t get me wrong, I am still pretty frustrated about the whole situation, but not enough to wage a one woman crusade against FUNimation. I’ve put away my pitchfork and doused my torch, and after a bit of self reflection I think I’m finally ready to talk about what happened…
For the past few years I have been running an online shop on Etsy where I sell crochet items. I have a few original creations, but the bulk of my merchandise consists of anime inspired amigurumi dolls. For those of you unfamiliar with crochet or yarn crafting in general, amigurumi is a Japanese term used to describe the art of knitting or crocheting small stuffed toys. The term amigurumi (編みぐるみ) literally means knit or crochet stuffed toy and these can be anything from stuffed animals to dolls and I’ve even seen a lot of people who make cute food plushies. There really is no limit to what you can make with amigurumi, so it really allows the crafter the freedom to let their imaginations soar.
Hey there Heroes, Travelers, and Wandering NPCs, it’s been awhile since I wrote one of these and honestly, it’s because I’ve been trying to keep up with this season’s anime… I know shocker! But, things have finally settled down enough for me to bang out another Crocheting While Otaku post!! This time around, I’m writing about my very first craft fair!!
So, two weeks ago I participated in a small local craft fair called, Art on the Plaza, ironically enough at one of my old temp jobs. There was no table fee, which I’ve found can range anywhere from $50 – $500, depending on the size of the fair, so I figured I had nothing to lose. There were only a handful of sellers, 18 in total and I managed to rope a friend into helping me sell stuff (three days of straight crocheting between the two of us) and we managed to produce a sizeable amount of stuff for the table; she provided some baby blankets and I had a bunch of dolls and plushies I needed to unload, but, it was enough to fill the table…
*This isn’t a post in the traditional sense, more of a plug/advert for my Etsy side hustle!*
Valentine’s Day is just around the corner! Why not celebrate with a pair of custom dolls of you and your favorite character! For a limited time only, from February 1st – February 14th, I will be taking orders for custom couple doll sets! *Below Pics are just for reference, you can pick whatever character you want*
Each doll set will consist of two dolls, one made in your image and one character of your choosing (please keep it restricted to humanoid characters). Both dolls will be dressed in matching couples outfits specific to the character chosen (ie. if you pick a Haikyuu character, both will be dressed in team specific jerseys). However, if you’d like to have your “Me” doll dressed in something else, I will try to accommodate. So, when placing your order, PLEASE include as many details as possible (images are appreciated)!
Doll Details
When placing an order, consider the following details:
“Me” Doll
*If you can include a picture, it would really help me out a lot*
Body Yarn Color
Five skin tones: Chocolate, Toast, Tan, Beige, and Cream
Hair Yarn Color
I will leave this up to you, I have a wide range of colors, so go ham, but limit it to just two colors for my sanity.
*If you can include a picture, it would really help me out a lot*
Character Name
Medium (anime, manga, TV, film, etc)
Outfit preference (Is there a specific outfit you want them in? Jersey? Uniform? Etc.)
These are custom amigurumi dolls, made with acrylic yarn and stuffed with polyfil fiber, roughly 6 inches tall. I specialize in faceless dolls, but if you’d like safety eyes added please let me know.
How To Order
Rather than making a specific listing through the store, these will be special by request custom orders, so message me/DM me with the details of your order and I will set up a Private Custom Order Listing for you over on my Etsy Store, Blerdy Girl Crafts.
Cost & Shipping
I usually charge $35 USD for Character Dolls and $30 USD for Custom Generic Dolls, but for this special I’m charging $45 USD for the Set (plus shipping)! I will take international orders, but remember, I am shipping these from the US, so shipping rates and customs costs will be applied accordingly.
If you have any questions or concerns just drop me a line and I’ll get back to you within the day!
Well hello again! It’s been entirely too long since the last Crocheting While Otaku post, but I did say this series would be pretty sporadic. So, it is what it is… In today’s post, wanted to write a bit about progress. Whether it’s intentional or not, after doing an activity for awhile everyone experiences some degree of progress. Of course it might not be a drastic change, no one’s going to suddenly be able to run a marathon after training for two days. It takes time and a whole lot of effort before you’ll really see any degree of progress in your work.
So, why am I telling you this?
Well, I recently looked back at some of the first dolls that I made and when compared to the newer dolls, let’s just say there’s a noticeable difference in quality. Now, does that mean that my earlier dolls are bad? No, not at all, they are just the product of where I was as a crafter at that point in time. I had never really made dolls before, in fact, I mostly stuck to hats and blankets or just learning new stitches. I never actually set out to make dolls in the first place, so everything I’ve done since July has been a learning curve.
Hey Hey all you wonderful Heroes, Travelers, and Wandering NPCs!! As most of you already know, I crochet and back in July I decided to open up an Etsy store to sell my various crochet projects. While I specialize in faceless amigurumi dolls, I can make a wide range of crochet items, from hats and scarves to afghans to keychains and knickknacks., I’ll try anything at least once….
Since crocheting takes up a large part of my free time, I haven’t been as active on WordPress as I once was (I’m working on finding a balance, I promise), so I wanted to integrate my crocheting into this blog and the best way I could think of to do that was with a brand new post series…. yeah, I know, there are plenty of those here as it is… but, for my sanity (and the good of the universe), this series won’t follow a strict schedule. So, some weeks there will be one or two Crocheting While Otaku posts and other weeks, there won’t be any, it’ll depend on my moods… Also, this won’t be anything fancy, just a bit of insight into my crocheting process and some of the projects I’m currently working on. From time to time, I’ll go back and spotlight one of the dolls from my store, and give you guys a bit of background on the character and/or why I chose to make it, etc.
So, for the inaugural post of the Crocheting While Otaku series, I thought it’d be fun to just talk a bit about how I got started with crocheting and answering some questions I’ve been asked quite a bit over the past few months…
Hey Hey all you wonderful Heroes and Travelers out there, it’s been awhile since I posted anything on this blog (my failed attempt at completing the 30 Day Haikyuu Challenge aside) and for that I really don’t have any excuses, I just didn’t feel like writing. I’ve been running this blog for 2 years now and I finally hit that point where I don’t get that itch to write everyday. Don’t worry, I’m not abandoning this blog, I’m just not really playing games as much as I used to and while I still love them, I’m not going to force myself to play a game for the sake of writing reviews. Been there, done that, and it’s no fun.
So, when the mood strikes me, I’ll write a review, if you have a game you want me to check out or review, I strongly urge you to utilize my contact page (I do read all the emails). However, please be patient with me, I work full time during the week at a real estate firm and in my free time I am crocheting dolls for my Etsy Store or procrastinating writing articles for MANGA.TOKYO (I just picked up Blood Blockade Battlefront season 2 for them). Plus, I have shit going on in my real life that needs attending to… *ahem* I mean, I’m out here trying survive adulthood, a difficult task to say the least.
Since, I don’t want this post to just be about my lack of actual content, I will commit to writing at least two posts this week. Now, whether they’ll be reviews or not is still up in the air (chances are one will be), so keep your eyes peeled for those.
I’m also playing around with the idea of doing a post series featuring my various crochet projects, give a bit of insight into my process…. Would you guys be interested in that?
Hey Hey Heroes and Travelers, you guys may have noticed that it’s been kind of quiet here on Nice Job Breaking It, Hero and I promise I had a really good reason for that… *drumroll* I was busy setting things up for my very own Etsy store!!
Back in June I ran the Super Special Awesome Giveawayand gave away a one of a kind handmade amigurumi doll (see Weekend Otaku’s post for pics of their prize). I had two reasons for hosting the giveaway, the first being to thank you guys for being so super special awesome over the years and the second was to gauge interest in my mad crocheting skills… XD
My mom taught me to crochet years ago, she used to make baby blankets for me and my younger brothers, and one day I got it in my head to ask her to teach me how to do it too. I mostly made blankets and hats, but recently got into amigurumi crafts, so I figured why not try my hand at selling. It took me awhile, but I finally set up my own store, Poke’s Amigurumi Pals (lol I know it’s a funny name, but it was the only one that stuck) where I will be selling some of my amigurumi wares.
