Little Purl of the Orient

Another 3 nights

So I got drawn into this sewing and stuff all because I couldn't buy yarn this month. That's just the lamest excuse. The real inspiration came from seeing all the lovely crafty projects over blogsville, and if you haven't already seen some, check out the Back-tack ones.

Remember I tried to sew a simple tote with the 'toy' sewing machine and failed? I picked up the pieces again and use my new proper sewing machine, and viola, it worked like magic. Well, like the first-year-at-Hogwarts-type of magic. I still haven't tamed my machine and it still took me 3 (or was it 4) nights to finish it.

I took some pictures at my brother's wedding and after a look, my husband remarked that it was a good thing my brother didn't hire me as his photographer. So, these are some rush-morning-before-catching-the-bus photos of the small bag. (In fact, most of my photos are 'rush-photos'.) Anyway, reds are so difficult to capture. I added interfacing to the front and back as well as the handles. Now it seems to be a more usable bag as the cotton fabric is now 'reinforced'.

I added a magnetic snap too.

And also added a crochet patch for a front pocket. This pocket, I'm quite doubtful to its aesthetic value for the bag but it's just the right size for a library card or the Octopus card. My husband thought I might want to rip it out. Or I might just leave it there and decide which side to show depending on the mood.

So smitten by this new hobby that I got myself another two crafty Japanese books. This first one (see left side bar) is this, which was reviewed by Amy of Angry Chicken here and here. The second one is Vol. 20 of Cotton & Paint, a review of which can be found here.

Another 3 nights to the end of July, time to buck up on the Angel cardigan.

What kind of knitter (or craftster) are you?

1) I'm one with too many hats for my head. I've a long 'to-knit' list now being complemented by a not too short 'to-sew' list.

2) I'm one who can't stand leftovers. The stash I can stand. The odd balls of leftover yarn after a project is finished stick out like a sore thumb and I sometimes loose sleep trying to think of the best way to use things up. Maybe I'm like the Joseph who had a little overcoat. Hence I've got a leftover-busting project for DK weight yarn, the granny square blanket. I can just see myself making scrap quilts in my retirement.

3) I love stripes. So I started a small experiment with the leftover sock weight to 4-ply yarn. The Regia, Koigu, Lorna's Laces, Schaeffer yarn, Rowanspun 4 ply and whatnots. How can I stand leaving these lovely yarns as leftovers? And I’m making stripey rectangles with no colour scheme in mind, anything goes. More on the project if things go well.

4) I'm a 'regular' person. My mind is just not random enough. The first one I made was the top horizontal one, Regia self-striping yarn alternated with brown Rowanspun 4-ply from Tumbling Blocks in irregular stripes. Second one is the vertical one, Koigu with two greens of Rowanspun, the stripes sequence is even more stripes. I found that I had to pay so much attention to make the stripes random that I gave up and made the third one with regular stripes. And that was just a great break for the mind. The yarn is LL with Rowanspun.

It took sew much time

These are the craft books I borrowed from the library last weekend, and I still have yet to go through all of them. The Erika Knight book I've seen before but had to take it home again to admire the photos. On top of the pile are two Japanese craft books I bought recently. One of them is this:

A guide to hand sewing with crystal clear pictures and instructions, and simple yet beautiful projects. There are 3 sections; the first runs you through the basics of sewing stitches, finishing techniques and methods of adding embellishments to your project, perfect for a sewing novice like me. Contained in the second section are instructions for making small items like tissue paper bag, spectacle case, drawstring bad and 2 types of full size tote bags. The third section discusses tips for sewing garments.

I chose this drawstring bag to practice with. Don't tell me sewing is faster than knitting because for me it isn't. The teeny drawstring bag took me 3 nights to finish, from the drafting, cutting and actually hand sewing. For a simple project like this, I still managed to mess up with the cutting and dimensions (maybe I was working too late into the night) and I found out that once the material is wrongly cut, there's no going back, no ripping, unlike for knitting. Then I was a bit worried that the hand stitching would not be strong enough so I did it two times and now the bag should hold. And the little pom poms at the end are a killer, they took me over an hour to make them and the work is still shoddy.

So here it is. The flat view. Click here to see the running stitches along the top that scream 'handmade'.

I love the inside too.

And with something stuff inside to prop it up. I'm happy with it for a first sewing project since high school home economics. But I really have to credit the excellent instructions from the book. The next project I'll try from this book would be this simple tote bag.

I got this book to try out hand sewing and to see if I could get away with buying a sewing machine. But alas, the sewing machine stayed in my thoughts and tormented me day-in and day-out until finally, I bought one. It'll be delivered tomorrow.

For those interested in Japanese craft books, do check out this recently set up site.

Weekend!

I had another action-packed weekend which left me with little energy to even turn on the computer. Saturday was a very fruitful day for me. It started off with work followed with our July knitting gathering. Jeanne joined us for the first time, Marjorie was there and her friend Vivian, joined us just when Jeanne had to go. The high point of the meet-up was when Jeanne's five-year-old said she wanted to knit and pulled out her yellow piece which is going to be a scarf. Go take a look at the photo on Jeanne's blog. And Marjorie just posted pictures of our June gathering too.

While Vivian was knitting away on her Ava poncho from Rowan's Ribbon Twist book, she mentioned that she's on the look out for a sewing machine to make bags and had bought tons of books on that subject during her recent trip to Japan. Hey, same idea here. In fact I just checked out some machines on Friday evening after work at Jusco and Uny. So we shared notes on where to get a machine, where to buy fabrics and notions, etc. And so with about a couple of hours left to spare before my tennis lesson, I rushed down to Kam Wah in Jordan, the notion store recommended by Joy that Vivian goes too. Didn't know that I could lose myself in a notion store too, bought some knick-knacks, more than I needed, then rushed back home for tennis.

That's not the end yet of my Saturday yet. After tennis, zoomed to the neighbourhood library and hung out until it closed. Borrowed a stack of craft books, lugged them to the supermarket and shopped for food for dinner. Luckily, hubby cooked dinner. After which I still managed to settle down for some needlecraft despite the aching muscles. I just had to, my head is bursting with one thousand and one crafty ideas!

So where are the kids? My in-laws brought them to their cousin's house to play. They had lots of fun and so did mummy.

There's knitting (and some hand sewing too! More on that later.) all this while. Both sleeves of Angel are now done and a-blocking.

The needles needed for the body of Angel are freed up as the ribbing of the Tweedy Aran cardi is now knitted up. Thanks for your reassurance; the fancy ribs really did pop up in the tweedy yarn.

And here is the Tumbling Blocks cushion with the backing done. Click here for front view. The alteration shop sewed the zipper in the wrong orientation, boo, if only I had a sewing machine to do it myself.

Happy socks

I thought I've got an 'identical twin' for the second sock until the heels reviewed one has more orange than the other. There, it's right at the start of the heel turn. Well, well, I knitted on anyway. Life is too short to worry about a little bit more orange on a sock heel.

The stripes again matched up on the foot until the toe. And again one has a just a tad more orange at the tip.

Here they are on the recipient's feet. A belated birthday present for Princess Fiona, one of my colleagues and lunch buddies whose boyfriend knits too.

Talking about birthdays, my little one will be officially promoted to the status of a 'terrible two' tomorrow. Here's to more tongue sticking! Err, why no birthday knitwear this year, mummy?

New venture?

Last Saturday, we brought Ji Yuan to see Nomade by Cirque Eloize of Canada. It was such a magnificent performance, the best show we've seen so far this year and Ji Yuan was practically dancing in her seat. This review, although dated, says it well. Each and every member of the cast is at the same time an acrobat, singer, dancer, actor, comedian, musician, a true entertainer in all senses, so multi-talented and so all-rounded.

July spells the start of my one-month yarn hiatus. Just as well to give time to reflect a bit on my crafty pursuits which so far have been pretty much one-dimensional, so single-faceted, kind of monotone. No spinning, no dyeing (not yet), no sewing, no quilting, no beading, no cooking or baking, no scrapbooking. Just knitting and the ocassional crochet.

I used to cross-stitch and needlepoint before the children came. While in Singapore, I bought a small cross-stitch kit for old time's sake. Koolaid dyeing is next on the horizon, can't wait to start. Maybe I can venture into fabrics, inspired by the lovely quilts that Hillary and A.J. recently made.

So I dug out this toy-like sewing machine that run on battery. See how small the machine is, that hand belongs to my 2-years. Then the sewing notions, still pathetic at the moment, and limited to pins, a pin cushion, fabric chalk and a picker (I expect a lot of mistakes), put into this cookies tin from Bengawan Solo. Won't it be nice if there are fabrics in these prints?

Then the fabrics. I thought a tote bag should be good as a first project and bought the blue/green floral cloth that remotely resembles William Morris prints and matching plain Christmas green one. And a red floral print and solid orange to match. Greedy me. I cut up the red fabric to make this tote bag pattern from Rowan 31.

The so-called 'machine' really is a joke, it so small and is operated by pressing a button on the side, leaving me with only one hand to hold the fabric. The tension of the top and bottom threads couldn't stay even and the fabric kept bunching up. After fiddling over an hour, all I got was a not-so-straight line. So I gave up. Hearing my plight, Eva has kindly offered the use of her machine when we next meet up. Aye. So much for my venture.

Got to start somewhere

Here we are, well into July and time to start my stashbuster project. I need my 3.75mm which are stuck on the Tweedy Aran Cardigan. In order to free them up, the fancy rib's got to be worked. The back was cast on earlier on but the little voice has been nagging me. The stitches knitted in the tweedy Beaverslide Fisherman wool are not very well-defined compared to what I'm used to and I wonder whether the cables will stand out. However, the pattern did called for a tweed yarn, so am I just worrying too much? To play safe, I tested out the fancy rib pattern. So what do you think, are the ribs popping up well enough or obscured by the tweed? I love this yarn but not sure if it is right for this pattern. Otherwise, I can use the yarn for the Blissful Cardigan in the latest IK (Fall 05).

I did manage to begin Angel but with a sleeve instead that starts with 3mm. I found another 40cm 3.75mm circulars which should work for the sleeve but not for the back. No wonder Joy loves Wool Cotton so. The yarn is lovely to knit, it gives sort of a matt finish and the stitches look really nice and clear. Even my ribbing doesn't look as bad as usual. How I wish the local lys can carry this yarn. The DK weight and fibre content should make it very suitable for Hong Kong weather.

Trip photos (with sock included)

My thoughts are with the Londoners. What atrocities to have happened.

The modem is fixed and I can now upload photos at home again. Here are some photos of happier moments.

The girls at the Merlion Park

My kids and I. Notice Chung Yi is at the tongue-sticking age.

City skyscrapers

The bottletree where my brother his bride went for their outdoor photo shooting. From what I know, these trees are native to Australia. Click here and here for more information.

Finally sock at the pool. The blurred figures in the background are my husband and the kids.

The first sock is now finished.

Settling down

I'm finally back to my usual routine of work and kids. My home modem died on me and the technician will only be available on Thursday evening to check on it. I hope the problem can be easily fixed. Meanwhile, there would be no photos for a while. So much has happened since my last post and I don't know where to begin. Things seem to be 'normal' but they'll never be quite the same again.

My brother is now happily married and will be setting up home in his new apartment. He who cannot even stand the aircon (as in, the aircon is too cold for him) has chosen to go to wintry New Zealand with his wife for their honeymoon.

This time, I returned to Hong Kong feeling despair despite the happy event that we all attended. I'm losing one of my cousins to breast cancer and my aged aunt is suffering from kidney failure. It saddens me to no end when I realized that this might be the last time I'll ever see them again. All these took me by complete surprise. Despite talking on the phone with my mother every week, she just doesn't 'say' things to me. I think she does it out of good intention of not wanting me to worry about things back home but all of a sudden I'm left to face with 6 months of development at one go and the news this time are just too much to stomach. I don't know if it's the Chinese thing or just my family, my brothers don't 'tell' me things either.

The earth still continues to revolve each day and life goes on. It's time I grow up and learn how to come to terms with things like that.

Well, there's some knitting on the trip too, mainly on the flights. I finished the first Peak Experience sock in the cheerfully-coloured Regia last night. This pattern seems to fly on my needles compared to the Retro Ribs which took ages.

On a lighter note, I caught up with Erin and Emy at the Golden Dragon Store while in Singapore. Our meeting was a rush one as Erin had to go and the presence of my kids and husband made it difficult for me to stay long. Thoughtful Erin read about my pursuit of Kool-Aid and bought me some. And Emy gave me a hank of boldly-coloured recycled Himalayan silk. Thank you so much, ladies! I had time to quickly grab two balls of orange Sirdar Rio for Ji Yuan's cardigan as planned and one roll of fabric to use as bag lining.

As an aside, tonight in Singapore, it will be revealed where the 2012 Olympics will be held.

So much for now, let's hope my home modem will be up and running in soon.