What a bleh title. This is all I can manage tonight (busy day at work) but I so wanted to post CY's new sweater which she wore this Sunday to City Hall for a programme after the typhoon left us swiftly.
Pattern: Phildar Pitchoun Fall/Winter 2007/08
Yarn: Brown Sheep Cotton Fleece, Soft Gold, 3 skeins
Needles: 3.75mm and 4.5mm
Made the second size (4T) with thicker yarn and got a 6T size, just right! She's now officially 6!
Photo of the sleeve detailing which I really like. I mattress stitched the sleeves onto the armhole. As this is only the second time that I'm using a pattern written in French, I half guessed and half improvised with some common sense such as pairing all the decreases and increases for the sake of symmetry.
BTW, sometimes I can't help wonder how I became a mother of such a cool kid :)??
Saturday, July 18, 2009
Everything I do, I do it 2 times - Stacked Coins Edition
There are one thousand and one things that I want to knit and sew right now but am lost as where to start. Maybe I should really get my act together and at least blog about my recently completed FOs.
Husband has been busy and has no time to try his hands at taking photos of the quilts/blankets that he mentioned he would. So I'll make do with my own photos. Here you go, the White and Yellow Stacked Coins quilt for JY finally done. It was started last year during a tyhoon-in day and went into hibernation because I couldn't find a right backing fabric. It was lucky that one evening, while browsing Etsy, I came across a cutesy yellow birdie fabric, called Minny Muu Yellow Bird by Lecien and this quilt finally came out of hibernation and got completed.
This is my first big size quilt, and the sewing could be a lot better. Nevertheless, it is utilitarian and JY has been using it ever since it's finished and washed. And she loves it. That's more important, isn't it?
Now on to the second Stacked Coins with the orche sashing. CY wants this one because I promised her to use the pink monkey flannel for the backing. As the flannel is already heavier than the normal quilting cotton, I made this into a blanket without batting. It is just the right thickness for hot Hong Kong summers. Stitches are sewn around the 5 stacked coins to hold the 2 fabrics together.
Oh yes, the pattern is from Last Minute Patchwork and Quilted Gifts, fantastic book.
I'll go and ponder what to do now. Anyway, we can't go anywhere today and maybe tomorrow as a typhoon is on its way and heading directly for Hong Kong right now. Maybe I'll go sew something, maybe knit something. Happy Weekend, all!
Sunday, July 12, 2009
Shanghai weekend
Not needing any more yarn or fabrics because there has been some online shopping spree of late, I departed for Shanghai last week without doing any research on the shopping hunts. Still, I managed to chance upon a whole district selling fabrics and notions. Call it my internal GPS or what not. My radar just lit up when I saw some shops in an old alley with the signage 'Buttons, lace trims, etc' and then further down the block, another few shops selling such notions. So I had to ask and found Shanghai Tan Shang Sha (上海滩商厦), just opposite the entrance of the famous Shanghai Yu Yuan Gardens. It is a multi-storey building full of whatever sewing notions that you can think of. For those familiar with Hong Kong, it is like the whole of Shamshuipo contained in a building. I was completely excited and got a bit lost what to buy.
In the end, I came home with just some fabric-covered buttons, wooden buttons, handcrafted glass beads and metres of felt for the girls. Just as I'm typing this, I remembered I needed more elastic bands and a thimble. The latter is badly needed as I poked my finger many a times while trying to hem down the binding of the baby quilt I'm working on.
There are also some fabrics shops opposite this building where I bought some double-sided plaid fabrics. I can already visualize the garments I'm going to sew with them. My husband chose a beautiful hand-woven fabric (the top one) which he wants some throw cushions made out of it. More projects to the queue.
At the shops outside Yu Yuan, there happened to be a Heng Yuan Xiang wool shop. I told myself, no more yarn but egged by my husband, my legs just led me inside and with the most aggressive saleswoman I've ever met, came out with a box of black 4 ply yarn.
As we walked away from the Yu Yuan area, greeting us was the Shiliupu (十六铺) Fabric Centre, another multi-storey with shops selling all kinds of fabrics with in-store tailors. I nearly passed out, partly with delight and mostly because of fatigue after a whole day's walk around the Huangpu district, jostling with the crowd that even I found overwhelming having lived so long in Hong Kong, and the dust and pollution. And yes, also trying to avoid being hit by the spit of the passers-by. Anyway, I didn't buy any fabric, some of the shops were already closing, but instead bought a ready-made pink shirt for work.
On the last day, we went to the huge Shanghai Book Centre (上海书城) on Fuzhou Road and bought a huge stack of books and CD at very good prices. And husband caught me on camera browsing at the Craft section on the ground floor. I came back with the book in hand and the Chinese edition of Cotton and Friend Spring 2009, the one with the magenta top on the cover in the photo.
That's the crafty bits about the Shanghai visit. We shopped a lot, ate plenty, and experienced quite a bit of Shanghai old and new. Despite the pollution and all, I'm sure I'll visit again. There're plenty to explore. Next time, I must visit the yarn stores proper.
We visited Wu Zhen too, a nearby old town. We didn't go into the refurbished part but instead took a riskshaw and toured the old, dilapidated part. We really enjoyed it and I'll try to organize the photos soon.
As for actual knitting, the cardigan I'm knitting for CY is still lacking one more sleeve, it's coming along fine.
Friday, July 03, 2009
Everything I do, I do it 2 times
In our household, there is usually fairness and squareness. Ok, husband and I try as best as we could. So when I decide to make a tiered skirt, I made 2. Some fabrics came recently from an online shopping binge and I've got some cotton double-gauze, double-sided gingham fabrics. And out came 2 tiered skirts.
The checks are different sizes on each side of the fabric so I played with it for the different tiers. The first tier is on the bias and gave me a bit of trouble because it stretched so much. The pattern is from this Japanese pattern book.
A pink one in size 130cm for JY.
And a beige one in size 120cm for CY who is growing so tall, there's 3 years gap between them but only 10cm difference in height.
Can't resist showing you the flower shoes CY is wearing. Bought them in Singapore. I've got a fondness for them. Too bad there aren't any my size.
2 girls, 2 skirts. Skirts made up of rectangles and elastic bands are good for my ego. They make me feel that I can sew. So I'm sure there'll be more of them in my future.
Don't trust them to stay still even for a while for the photo shoot. The action du jour is 'doing the robots'.
I'll be off to Shanghai over the weekend with hubby with the kids. I'm going to miss them! I'll bring along the yellow cotton fleece cardigan that I'm knitting for CY, hopefully to complete it in time for her birthday on the 15th. She's going to be 6.
Happy weekend, all!
