Little Purl of the Orient

Delta Right Sleeve

My mind is occupied with socks, socks and socks. I feel encouraged by your kind remarks, thanks! Ji Yuan now wants me to knit her a pair of pink and blue ones. I'd wanted to use this pattern but thanks to a visit to Eileen's gallery where she pointed out that there's a mistake in the pattern, now I guess I'll choose another pattern as I don't think I'm able to fix a problem in a sock pattern yet. Anyway, I do not have pink and blue yarn in stash so I'll probably check out the Anne from Schaefer Yarns recommended by Mary Beth or some lovely Lorna's Lace. And look what I found at Knitting Zone, The Sole Solution, a collection of many sock patterns. I'm going to be very busy.

Meanwhile, I've gone back to knitting my Delta which is still not too photogenic at the moment. That's the little bit of progress for the right sleeve in drop stitch pattern. It has to be held up against the light for the pattern to show better. The drop stitch is adding length quickly so I hope this sleeve will take a shorter time to complete than the left one which is in stocking stitch.

One thing about the pattern. Some (not all) of the right sleeve increases are done on the drop stitch row, that is the row where you have to wind the yarn twice round the needle and is the elongated row. Hence I find it strange an increase should be placed there so I'm doing it my way and placing the increase one row earlier if it coincides with the drop stitch row. I don't think it'll make any big difference to the shaping.

Blueberry waffles

My first pair of socks are done! Now I understand why knitters are so enaged in knitting socks. It's great fun, never a dull moment. The Blueberry Waffle Socks pattern is a straight forward one that's so well-explained that even a beginner like me can understand with ease. I found this pattern through Amy, one of our fellow SALies. Clara pointed out that the link in my previous post didn't work. Sorry, there was a typo which is now fixed.

Here they are. The photo is a bit blurry as Chung Yi was climbing all over me and I couldn't keep still.

This pair of socks is done in DK weight yarn which is a quick knit. The fabric is soft and squashy. Only thing is the sock heels are not hugging my heels as snuggly. Let me block them a little to see if the problem can be fixed. This certainly won't be my last pair. I think I'm ready to try knitting socks using finer gauge yarns.

Warm feet

Frankly speaking, I have under-appreciated this little item call sock. Having grown up in tropical Singapore where the temperature everyday is 30 deg Celsius, the only type of socks I know of was cotton or cotton blend ones that do a great job of keeping ones feet dry. We have cold weather here in Hong Kong but not cold enough for woolen socks. But you never know; they may come in handy if we go for a winter holiday somewhere really cold. So here I am, trying to knit a pair for myself. There are several very pretty sock patterns in the past few issues of Interweave Knits that I would love to try but they seem so difficult. And I took out Nancy Bush's Folk Socks from the library, too, to learn more about socks. My online search for sock patterns yielded a fair number of alternatives. Just where should I begin? Something simple yet not too boring, as I've had enough practice knitting stocking stitch with dpns on the wannabe. So I narrowed down my choice for my first pair of socks to the Blueberry Waffle Socks. The EZ Ripple Socks came a close second.

Here's the progress so far, still on the easy part. I'm using Rowan Designer DK in light blue (colour 665), again from stash.

And, greetings to my FSSSS pal who left a message here the other day. Blue is my favourite colour but the colours I wear most often are black and neutrals. I have no particular preference in socks, I would love anything you make.

For Lisa and all those who are interested, I got a reply from the Japanese company regarding the Wire Bag: they sell only domestically. C asked about the pink mohair yarn. It is Kanebo fine mohair with recommended needle size 2-3 mm. I'm using it doubled and 4.5 mm needles. The pattern is from a pre-2000 Japanese pattern book which I've misplaced.

Mini Topdown Wannabe

The mini top down wannabe sweater, which is not quite like the original, is done. It turns out to be a traditional-looking sweater unlike the Phildar-look which I was hoping to emulate. Boo hoo. It looks boyish and my challenge would be to get Ji Yuan to wear it.

I got to experiment these new techniques for this sweater:

- Using dpns. I got good practice thanks to the trips to the frog pond.

- Spit-splicing, which is the perfect way to join in a new ball for circular knitting as there are no seams to hide the ends if joined in the normal way. Just wondering what method to join in cotton in circular knitting, which cannot be spit-spliced, I reckon.

- Meg's Jogless Jog. I learnt about the jog in knitting stripes circularly when I making the Sweetness sweater for Ji Yuan. Found this method which should diminish the jog and tried it but didn't quite get it.

The best part of circular contruction is minimal finishing.

Once again, the pattern is from The Incredible, Custom-fit Raglan Sweater. It took 4 skeins of Rowan Designer DK in red and some oddments of the grey and off-white for the stripes.

One UFO resuscitated. What about these UFOs?

First of, a pink mohair sweater pour moi. There are some cable details which are all buried in the fuzziness. But I've got to go locate the pattern first.

Then there is Inishmore with its nice meaty cables and moss stitch. Here's a sleeve, all squashed on the spare needle. I love this design and will definitely give life to it although it is going tp take a very long time.

Wanna-rip

I'm getting good practice on the dpns with my wannabe this weekend becuase I had to knit and rip the sleeves a couple of times. Initially, the sleeves are to be in red only and maybe with some stripes just before the cuffs like the original sweater.

After almost done with one sleeve, I realised that I may run out of yarn so I put it on hold and knit the neck band first because that has to be in red. Then I started on the other sleeve to see how much the yarn is going to last. That's the amount of yarn left. Definitely not enough to finish the two sleeves. And they are too wide, I've decreased two stitches every five rounds and to place some stripes near the cuffs seem out of proportion to the body stripes. So rip.

Now the sleeves have stripes that are aligned with the body. And the decrease is accelerated to every four rows to make them narrower. Just when I thought, home stretch, then I realised that the left sleeve is missing two rounds of cream colour. Argh.... rip again.

I guess I shouldn't have mixed childcaring with knitting.

That v-neck there looks small but Ji Yuan's head did manage to go through. So I'm not going to re-do that but maybe will give it a little steaming and blocking.

Bags and Cases

Many an office lady in Hong Kong are sporting the tres chic Wire Bag from Plastiq. These bags are designed by Japanese designer, Izumi Ogino, for Anteprima. Each one is retailing at USD280 each, expensive to me, for a bag made of plastic. So my colleague asked me why don't I knit one for myself, as on closer examination, it seems easy as the bag is knitted all in garter stitch. Well, the bag is nice but not a necessity and there are too many things to knit so the idea passed. This morning, while I was checking out for new Japanese knitting magazines, I come across this site where they actually sell kits to make the round Wire Bag. It's all in Japanese and I used an to figure what it's all about. Roughly, it says that the bag is knitted with 3 balls of PVC yarn, which is a little challenging to knit with, using size 10 (5.1 mm) needles. Then I went to read Plastiq's English site and found out that each bag is hand-knitted in China and only one bag can be knitted by one knitter each day. Anyway, I sent an e-mail to the Japanese company to ask for more details. Let's see if I get a reply.

Talking about bags and casings, I saw this link for beautiful knitting needles cases from Erika's site the other day. And if you are in the mood for DIY, check this out.

Mini top-down wannabe is still on the needles and going so far so good but I've a feeling I may run out of yarn.

Revival of a UFO

Before I start knitting my first pair of socks, I thought I'd better practice a little bit more on using dpns. So I revived one of my UFOs, the mini top-down wannabe which I've knitting for my elder daughter, Ji Yuan. This sweater was inspired by the Becky Wannabe sweater that everyone was knitting last summer and Silvia's top down version. I had procrastinated on this one because 1) the weather turned too warm to knit wool (lame excuse but the weather in Hong Kong this summer has indeed been very hot); 2) I think Ji Yuan is not going to appreciate it as she is in her green, then pink, now purple and yellow phase; 3) I need to use dpns to make the seamless sleeves. So this last and my main deterrent is the reason I'm picking up this sweater again. I had planned to use two circulars needles.

Some brief specifications. I'm using the top-down formula found at The Incredible, Custom-fit Raglan Sweater. This is the first time I'm knitting a sweater from top-down and it is fun. The yarn is all from stash, the red and grey are the discontinued Rowan Designer DK and off-white is King Cole anti-tickle wool.

Just rambling

Margene's11th August post was a wake-up call for me to face up to reality. I need to exercise even though I'm thin. The body will accomplish more if it is fit. I've got to find some way to squeeze in some work out time in my everyday schedule. As a first step, starting tomorrow, Monday, I'm going to drop off and get on the bus for work one stop away to get some walking. And I should procrastinate no further and sign up for the next steps aerobics class to be organized by my residence club. The classes are held just downstairs in the evenings, no more excuses.

Today, Wai Lung and I brought the children to the park after having Yum Cha with my in-laws. Ji Yuan got tired after having a good run in the park and wanted to sit on Chung Yi's stroller. So I ended up having to carry the small one all the way home. By the time I get home, my arms were breaking but it really was a good work out for me. Walking for half an hour with a 20-pound weight in my arms.

Both the kids were so excited and didn't want to nap so we sat down and made a small two page 'book' with Ji Yuan. She chose the photos and we pasted them on the cards and wrote out some simple sentences. This book is about her sister, Chung Yi. She even added some illustrations. Maybe it's not clear from this photo but there are 5 suns in there. She must be feeling very happy.

Very little knitting was accomplished this weekend. The delta sleeve is taking forever to finish and is now looking more like a scarf. I started to crochet the Brice sleeve and did very little on that too, not even half way done. So no knitting pictures today but a photo of my previous week's 'catch'.

Pattern book, Cherry Tree Hill yarn that was mentioned and a set of 9 sizes of short bamboo dpns from Clover that I bought during lunch on Friday. Socks, here I come.

I've got yarn and pattern book!

Eva, Marjorie and I just had a great evening together. Marjorie can't join us for dinner but still met up nevertheless to exchange knitting news and collect her magazines. I've got yarn! Eva and I are sharing two batches of some lovely Cherry Tree Hill Lace Merino in Spanish Moss and Martha's Vineyard. Each of us will have over 1,000 yards in each colour. Photos will follow, as the lighting in my flat during the night is very poor for this purpose. I've been thinking about it everyday since we ordered it online. I would love to make a rectangular stole or something. Then we went through the newly received Rowan books and we all fell in love with Karis. Fern is one of my favourites too. Ah, the temptations and to think that this is just the beginning of the new Fall/Winter season. I still have projects from last winter on the needles somewhere, oops.

Another pattern book is added to my very humble collection. Eva and I went to a nearby LYS and I bought Sirdar's The Denim Book of Aran Knits. Full of nice cable-y designs for the whole family and items for the home. Look at this poncho, isn't it nice? I don't think I'll knit it though.

Talking about denim, I put aside the crochet cardigan for the moment as it is a portable project which I can bring around with me everywhere on weekends. So I knitted a bit on my Delta. Due to the runniness of the denim dye, I can only knit it at home, in the quiet of the night. I began with the left sleeve, which is in plain stocking stitch with regular increases, non-thinking and very soothing knitting. It went on and on and now I have a rather long, pre-shrunk sleeve. I'll get it done this week and start on the right sleeve with those dropped stitches. Eva mentioned to me that the ball band of my Rowan Denim looks different from hers. Guess mine must be really old stock.

Another attempt at crochet

Not daunted by my blunder on the sizing of the crochet motif top, I make yet another attempt to crochet a garment. This time it is the Brice cardigan from Bouton D'or Hors Serie #12 for Ji Yuan. The cardigan comes in two sizes only, 2 years and 6 years. Ji Yuan is going on 4 years and given my tendency to make things a little tighter, I'll make the larger size. It is so difficult for me to measure tension for crochet projects. There just aren't rows and columns to count. Here's my tiny piece of swatch, see what I mean?

For this pattern, the writer highlighted in the crochet chart where to measure the swatch so I could figure out this time. To play safe, I've started with the right front. Just in case there's a need to rip, there'll be fewer stitches. I'm using Filatura Di Crosa Dolce Amore 100% cotton yarn in pale pink and 3mm crochet hook. The yarn is ultra soft and light, it feels just like cotton wool and 50g of it gives 180m. The pattern is easy to follow and the yarn a pleasure to crochet except for the occasional snag.

Some progress has been made and I'm now about to shape the front neck but find myself at the wrong pattern row. It is a short bolero-styled cardigan, so I won't mind adding a bit of length. Hence I'm inclined to rip back to the armhole shaping to add some rows in order to arrive at the right pattern row for the neck shaping. But wait a minute, I always have gauge problem, so let me stop and check before I frog anything. I'm also going to crochet the sleeves first to ascertain the needed armhole length. Got to make it work this time. Or maybe, I'll go and knit a bit on my Delta.

Interested in some Japanese patterns? This site, found via Chie's blog, has loads of free ones. Chie gave a very good explanation on how to download the patterns. Enjoy!