The Cruel Queen

There are times when YouTube’s algorithm gets it right when pushing new content to its unsuspecting users. Like it did about a month ago when it quietly slid Jackson Wang’s Cruel into my feed. This music video is absolutely STUNNING! What’s even better, this MV not only introduced me to Jackson Wang [who’s now on my watch list] but also Bailey Sok, and let me tell you guys, she’s the absolute best! If you appreciate dance, look her up on YouTube, you’ll thank me later.

So I did what I normally do when I’m excited about something: I fangirled and made an amigurumi of Bailey Sok as the Cruel Queen [the character she plays in the music video]. 😁 Here are a few pics to show you how it turned out.

Screenshot. Cruel MV. ©Team Wang Records

Screenshot. Cruel MV. ©Team Wang Records

This is a fan art, so there’ll be no pattern. But in case you want to check out the music video, here’s the link. 🙃

The Dance of the Snow Lion

It’s adventure time, folks! Join me for the Crochet Along Adventures CAL where we take you around the world and introduce you to fun, travel themed amigurumi characters that we have created for you. On this adventure with me are designers Lovloops, Lemon Yarn Creations, and hosts Whimsical Yarn Creations & Pink Tomato Crochet. Head over to www.crochetalongadventures.com for more details.

For this CAL, I’ll be taking you to Sikkim, a tiny Himalayan state located in North East India, where you’ll meet Singhi, the Snow Lion. This design was inspired by Singhi Chham [or the dance of the snow lion], a popular folk dance of Sikkim.

For the Sikkimese, the mythical snow lion represents the snowy range of Khangchendzonga, a mountain that is sacred to the locals. Fun Fact: Mount Khangchendzonga [or ‘Kanchenjunga’, as it is more commonly spelled] is the third highest peak in the world.

During the Singhi Chham, dancers don the snow lion costume and put on an exuberant, playful show. Each snow lion consists of two dancers, the first making up the head and the forelegs while the second dancer forms the torso and the hind legs.

This dance is performed during Pang Lhabsol, a festival dedicated to Mount Khangchendzonga. If you are lucky enough to be in Sikkim at the right time, you just might catch a pair of these mythical beasts dancing in the streets. 😁

The book featured in this photo is Khangchendzonga: Sacred Summit by Pema Wangchuk & Mita Zulca

ALL HAIL EDDIE MUNSON!

“This year is my year. I can feel it.” – Eddie Munson, Stranger Things 4

Raise your hand if came here looking for an Eddie Munson amigurumi! Isn’t he the most charismatic new character to join Stranger Things? I wasn’t sure I’d enjoy watching season 4 this much but Eddie’s arrival has definitely made me wait eagerly for the remaining two episodes. You better not kill him off, Duffer Brothers, or we will have words!

So, without further ado, please allow me to present some more pics of the charming [amigurumi-fied!] Dungeon Master himself.

“It’s forced conforming. That’s what’s killing the kids. That’s the real monster.“ – Eddie Munson, Stranger Things 4

The hands and tongue were drawn and overlaid on the amigurumi’s photo to recreate the iconic cafeteria scene. 🤘

“I can feel it. ‘86 baby!” – Eddie Munson, Stranger Things 4

He of long hair, ripped denims and screen-printed monster t-shirts. 🎸

Eddie the banished. 😔

“I say you’re asking me to follow you into Mordor…But the Shire is burning. So Mordor it is.” – Eddie Munson, Stranger Things 4

Those are all the pics I managed to edit today. Who else is excited for Stranger Things Season 4 – Part II? 🤩

I made L from Death Note!

Death Note was one of the manga series I used to enjoy reading a long time back. So, when the 2006-07 anime adaptation of this series landed on my Netflix recommendation about a week ago, I decided not only to watch it but also amigurumi-fy one of its main characters, L Lawliet.

Death Note follows the story of Light Yagami, a teen genius who is given the power to end people’s lives just by writing their names in a black notebook called ‘Death Note’. When Light realizes the enormous power contained within the pages of this notebook, he turns into ‘Kira’, a god-like vigilante who decides to create a crime-free society by killing criminals [and later even those who come close to figuring out his identity!].

L Lawliet, known simply as “L”, is a renowned detective who takes on the challenge of catching the mass murderer known as Kira. And it is this eccentric, slovenly and barefooted detective that I decided to turn into an amigurumi.

L always sits like this. 👇🏼

And here he explains why.

Sometimes he waxes philosophical— 😏

—while on most days, he is just focused on eating deserts. 🍰

And he is never ever wrong! 🙀

Death Note is a manga series written by Tsugumi Ohba and illustrated by Takeshi Obata. If anime is more your cup of tea, a 37-episode anime adaptation of the series is available on Netflix. Now if you’ll excuse me, I’ve got to catch the remaining Episodes 20-37 now. 🤓

Friends from Sikkim: Red Panda

Sikkim’s got it right when it comes to choosing its state animal, the Red Panda. I mean, just look at it, it’s so cute! This small mammal—it is slightly larger than a domestic cat—was also the national animal of Sikkim back when it used to be a kingdom. This fiery animal is also where Mozilla’s browser Firefox got its name and logo from.

The Red Panda is also the official mascot of the annual Sikkim Red Panda Winter Carnival. In fact, there is a pretty big Red Panda sculpture right in the middle of the town in Gangtok, the state capital!

The Red Pandas are native to the eastern Himalayas. They live in high-altitude forests, and mostly survive on the tender leaves and shoots of bamboo. However, unlike Giant Pandas, they eat other foods [fruits, roots, eggs, and maybe a few insects] as well. Sadly, the Red Pandas are an at-risk species with fewer than 10,000 of these mammals left in the wild mostly due to habitat loss.

Friends from Sikkim: Blood Pheasant

I know I don’t post very often but this year I’ve plans to take you on a journey to my home state with my Friends from Sikkim amigurumi series. Kicking off this series will be this cute little birdie.

Blood pheasant, also known as blood partridge, is a bird found in eastern Himalayas. It was once the national bird of the former kingdom of Sikkim. Though Sikkim became a part of India in the mid-1970s, the blood pheasant continues to retain its status as Sikkim’s state bird.

In one of the popular folklores of the Lepcha people [the indigenous inhabitants of Sikkim], this spectacular bird plays an important role. Teesta and Rangeet—the two major rivers in Sikkim that originate from the Himalayan glaciers—were lovers. One day, these two river spirits decided to race down to the lowlands and, upon meeting there, move onwards to the plains together. When Teesta [the female river spirit] won the race, ashamed by his defeat Rangeet [the male river spirit] turned around to return home in a fit of rage. Distressed by her lover’s reaction, Teesta decided to follow him. Their vigorous currents ended up submerging and destroying everything in their path.  

As the water level continued to rise, the Lepcha people climbed to the top of Tendong Hill to save themselves from the great flood. Seeing her children in distress, the Mother Creator took the form of a blood pheasant and rescued them from the great deluge. In another version of the lore, it is the blood pheasant that makes an offering to the Mother Creator to appease her and pleads for mercy on behalf of the people.

To this day, the Lepchas of Sikkim celebrate Tendong Lho Rum Faat, an annual festival that commemorates the day they were saved on Mount Tendong.

Merry Christmas!

My youngest aunt loved Christmas. Every December, she’d get super excited about decorating the house. In fact, every year she would recruit me to be a part of her two-person Christmas decoration squad. She actually did most of the heavy lifting; I was just the assistant whose job was to pick up the Christmas tree ornaments from the storage box and hand them to her while she did the actual decorating. She passed away earlier this year.

Every December, I try to design something Christmassy. This year, I decided to make a miniature of the person who made my Christmases special. Mingma Tenzing, my dear rock star aunt, you are deeply missed. ♥️

Merry Christmas, everyone! See you in 2022. 🙂

Death of the Endless

As I wait for the September 22 release of The Sandman Act II on Audible, I figured it was a good time to make one more amigurumi based on a character created by Neil Gaiman. This time it’s Death of the Endless. If you haven’t seen the amigurumi I made of the other two Endless siblings Dream and Delirium, you can check them out here and here. 😁

For this amigurumi design, I used Death: The High Cost of Living #1 as reference instead of the Jill Thompson books [that reimagines the Endless as children] I had used as my reference for Dream and Delirium.

As you can see, I have only used two colors to make her [okay, three if you count that tiny bit of grey yarn on the belt]. The “eye of Horus” detail below her right eye was done with a felting needle and brushed acrylic yarn, and the ‘Ankh” pendent is silver washi tape slapped on a tiny piece of cardboard that was cut in the shape of an ankh symbol. To complete her Goth chick look, I added some self-adhesive metallic studs in silver on her belt, wristband and boots. That’s it! Easy-peasy, huh? 😁

That’s all for now, folks! Stay safe. Stay crafty. ❤

By the way, am I the only one who thinks this version of Death bears an uncanny resemblance to Joan Jett? 🤔