Little Purl of the Orient

Little steps

We are down with the school germs which have hit quickly and fast this year. I thought we were rid of them last week but they (or another variant) rebounded resiliently. The first month of school is yet to be over and we already have two coughing girls at home. Then there are also the office viruses, my current energy level is indeed at a low level.

Little steps with crafting are taken here and there. Here's a quick, photoless rundown:

We had fun with Koolaid dyeing on Sunday. This morning on the bus, I started knitting/swatching with one of dyed yarns, I'll see if it'll yield anything interesting.

The softie has now got eyes and nose but its head is still separated from its still naked body. And I got to get it done by this weekend.

The second ball of yarn has been split-spliced to the chevron scarf.

Trellis Cardigan has got a back, fronts and one-third of a collar. I think I might run out of the ASC in colour Jersey. I'll be wishing for good luck from the knitting goddess.

What else?

I've been joining.

Project(s): The current Trellis Cardigan and thereafter I would knit a cabled vest for the nephew's birthday which must be finished by the third week of October.

Socks are always in my agenda but which to knit? Eunny's awesome Bayerische Socks are really irresistible and I might just knit it using the coral-y/orangey Sundara sock yarn to celebrate this festival of socks in Fall colours. Nobody says I've got to finish them, right?

Another WIP

Thanks for all the suggestions for the hats. One with brim for the hubby is a good idea to counter the mango-ishness of his head, I'll certainly be going that direction. As for myself, I'm going to look through my pattern books again to see what I can do. I really like Meg's new hat, love all those intertwinning cables. And off course, Grumperina has once again delighted us with another lovely beaded hat pattern, this time the Black Sea Hat. Erin's suggestion of a wimple is a great idea too.

Since it's Friday again, are you gamed for yet another WIP? Ignore the crumpled bedsheet, you can't expect too much from a household with two very active small children and a mother who just wants to knit. My latest bus knitting: a chevron scarf (designed by Debbie Bliss for Scarf Style) in self-striping sock yarn.

Sundara's self-striping sock yarn is just too pretty to be worn on the feet. And so soft too. Well, if the socks are half as nice as Joy's Mermaid Socks or Tiit's Socks, my feet won't mind but I would rather show it off my neck or my daughters'.

I love the pairing of chevron patterns with self-striping yarn (for example my earlier red Jaywalkers), the effect is so pleasing yet looks much more complicated than it really is. This chevron pattern is garter stitch based so it looks good on both sides, very fitting for a scarf. And I just love how the purl bumps accent the colour changes. The self-stripey-ness means no need to worry about changing yarns, no yarn to be carried up, or ends to be hidden.

Scarves are not my favourite knitting project as they just go on and on and forever. But not this one, it is far from boring as I just want to keep on going with the next colour and the next. Just that this scarf may still take a while though, it is sock yarn after all and knitted on teeny 3mm needles.

Hat Tricks

I knitted three hats recently. Odessa, the clever design by Grumperina is both a quick knit yet gives you a most pleasing outcome. And you simply can't stop at one.

Odessa, the first. Made of hand-dyed Dyed in the Wool lightweight DK yarn in a smooth wool/mohair mix, in the colourway, Wisteria that I got from ebay ages ago. This one is claimed by JY.

Odessa, the second. Made of the same yarn but in the colourway, Argony. For mil who will be leaving for a holiday somewhere in China. I had wanted to make fil a hat too, but he said no thanks. He's just not the hat-wearing type. And back to the 'problem' I mentioned earlier. I had two more bead rows to go and if you look carefully, there are no more beads threaded on the yarn in that photo. I obviously didn't know how to count when I threaded the beads. So this hat is short of some beads. Nevertheless, the beads are so small they are not really noticeable so I let it be.

Then with respectively 15g and 19g of each yarn left, out comes this stripey beanie for CY. Frankly, I haven't thought that these two colours would go together but frugal me just have to use up the leftovers or they would keep me awake at night until I think of a good use for them. Now I'm satisfied. And the stripes, I went the jogless way and am rather happy with the result.

Now the question is, and I would really appreciate your help, which hat to knit for daddy (hubby) and mummy (me)? Daddy has a narrow and long head (aka mango-shaped head) hence a beanie style hat would not be flattering. Mummy simply is not very well verse with hat styles and millinery matters in general having grown up in the tropics. Why the knitting of hats? We're contemplating a holiday in a cold place this winter during Christmas break. Whether or not we get to go, it's never too early to start the preparation.

WIP Friday Sunday

So. This post was meant for WIP Friday but I was down with a bad cold plus those terrible menstral cramps (who said they'll go away after child birth?) and went straight to bed instead. Desperately needed to finish the above for Saturday but was in the most unsuitable state for operating a machine the last 2 days. The book is a chance find in the local bookstore. It's a Chinese translation of Charlotte Vannier's Animaux en recup.

Here are some fabrics that came in recently from ebay. Mostly for my next quilt for JY and some for garments for my children, if I ever come to it.

And the latest wip, started yesterday evening because I missed tennis due to the stuffy nose. And I surprised myself that it went so fast, about 2 hours' work and I almost finished 1 ball of All Seasons Cotton. The thing is such 2 hours uninterrupted knitting time is a rare commodity around here. The cables are lovely to work with, not difficult to remember and is a good project for me to warm up to cables once again. Of course I didn't swatch and didn't realise until at this point that my gauge is way off because it seems to be able to fit my 3-year old instead of the 1-year old nephew. Time is precious and I'm going with the flow as sometimes things just have a mind of its own. So this Trellis Cardigan will be for CY and I'll think of something else for the nephew's birthday present.

Taking Shape

This wip photo was meant to be posted last week. The very last inch of the broad ribbon yarn was used up and I had to use a solid shocking pink yarn from stash for the borders. Big needles really go fast and before I knew it, the top-down vest is done. So in the end, I ended up making a simple, classic V-neck instead of anything fancy. I refered a lot to Barbara Walker's Knitting from the Top Down. For the V-neck band, I adopted that of the Leftovers Vest. Time to think about another vest for the little sister.

The first Odessa is also done now and blocking. It was the first because the second is now cast on and almost done too. Have you played 'Spot the 10 Differences' type of game when you were young? Here's a 'Spot what's wrong with the below photo'. Clue: there's nothing wrong with the knitting, neither has it got to do with the book. Prompted by Kathy's discussion on reading, I dug up my old copy of The Good Earth to read for a second time.

Where has the week gone?

Life buzzes quickly by and another week has started before I even noticed it. Last week has been a busy one both at work and at home, I somehow can't find time and my voice even for a quick blog post.

So let's begin this week with an overdue FO, JY's new crochet top/dress/whatever. She wore it yesterday to attend a new classmate's birthday party. It was a pizza making party and all the children there got to make their own pizzas and they all had fun.

But look ma, no smile, great super-model potential.

Some closer looks but the colours are off here as they are taken indoors. A close-up of the back can be seen here.

For the top, I followed an old Richmore pattern using the yarn leftover from the rainbow cardigan. The skirt part is just half yard of Martha Negley fabric joined together and gathered.

5 years passed since the horrific events that unfolded before the worlds' eyes. Let's give a thought to all those who have lost their loved ones, and remember to treasure yours too.

The machine - revisited

The sewing machine made a reappearance again last Saturday and I finally joined up the crochet bodice to the fabric skirt. Turns out that it fits JY just right so she'll have it after all, plus the top-down vest that I'm still knitting. Little sister is now left with nothing but I'll love to make her something soon. Do you see a pattern here? It's been a spate of making things for the elder one lately. She's grown so much and most of her clothings don't fit anymore. And most of the time, I can't shake off the pragmatism that making things for the elder one means both of them will get to wear them.

I also redid some of the squares of the floral quilt. The white-ish squares (as you can see an older photo here) are replaced with other coloured shabby chic type of fabrics. And I added a light blue stripey border. I think it seems rather more pleasing to the eyes now. Next would be the backing. I'll use the pale blue pin dots on white fabric that Joy gave me and mix and match with other blue-ish fabrics in stash to make it the same size as the quilt top. I hope it'll not be another 3-month interval before you see this again.

A bit of clothing surgery was done too. One of my favourite top's sleeve got torn.

Inspired by a photo in, if I didn't remember wrongly, the current issue of Cotton & Time, I cut off the sleeves and attached a lace trim. I had wanted to make cap sleeves but was afraid of cutting too close to the armhole so now he top became short-sleeved instead. Not as groovy as cap sleeves would be but still wearable, don't you think?

Lichen Black Socks, check

This pair feels like the fastest pair of socks that I've knitted. Despite being black and just ribbing, the socks got done in no time (not the 1-pair-in-2-days kind of quick but my type of slower quick, nevertheless). It was a mindless knit, I followed the Lichen pattern word for word until the toes, which were regular instead of the star toes as specified because I forgot to copy that page for the bus. I always make a copy of the pattern and shove it in my plastic knitting bag together with the knitting so that I don't have to bring the whole book with me on the bus.

Come to think of it, with regards to the plastic knitting bags, I should really go sew myself some nice drawstring ones, which would also allow me to use up my growing fabric stash. Killing two birds with one stone.

Seems like black is popping up everywhere. The new shop displays have been up since a couple of weeks ago and it's black, black and more black. You would have thought that I'm a seasoned on-the-road photographer given my FO on the streets photo. Not so, I felt a bit uneasy when I snapped this photo of my favourite window yesterday morning, I could just feel the security guard coming to snatch my camera but it was all my imagination. This is the Harvey Nichols window. Look, black and white skullies, and houndstooth! I'm so going to knit these patterns (but I don't know whatever for) this winter. And look at the spooky ghost faces in there, scared me for a moment (it is still the Hungry Ghost month nonetheless), turns out that it's just a reflection of the advertisement on the opposite wall.

Old habbit dies hard. Despite all the WIPs, I started something else.