Little Purl of the Orient

Flo WIP

While packing for my work trip tomorrow to Seoul, I simply can't find a decent sweater to wear. So I dug out this Flo WIP started I-don't-know-when. The parts are at various stages of progress, can you stand it?

Partly knitted, partly sewn. Cuff half done, some ruffles completed and I just couldn't wait to see how they would look so I just sewn them on first....

Yes, I knit in such a disorganized manner. Sometimes even I wonder how I can get the knits completed but amazingly they do get done :)

And I think I just might be bringing the ruffles to knit over there. I'm sure they'll help me go to sleep in the hotel.

Knitting on the go

Mid-term break for my girls starts today. Husband and I are taking 2 days off work and we are off to Disneyland Hong Kong with the kids and in-laws to celebrate JY's birthday.

We also had a magnificent, fun-filled barbecue party at the country park with a few of JY's classmates yesterday. It was the first time we organize a proper birthday party for any of our girls.

On the needles is this rustic Silk Kerchief in Noro Silk Garden #47 (I need to check). Hope to finish it soon for the work trip to Seoul next week. The temperature should be cool over there. I have a Lacy Baktus on the needles too, in a completely different colour tone, will decide which to use.

Many thanks, too, for your compliments on the Noro tank top. The wonderful colours of Noro are indeed good for the knitting soul.

Noro Matsuri tank top

With the extreme humidity easing these days, I'm slowly getting my knitting fingers back.

The simple tank top in Noro Matsuri is done! And I wore it to Mongkok today with JY to get stuff for her birthday barbecue. It goes well with the green cardi that I bought last summer but never worn. It always seems far too bright to go with the other things in my wardrobe.

It feels so good that I didn't run out of yarn too.

And thanks to JY, the budding photographer! She's got a great eye for shots, doesn't she?

Venue: Train station platform

Pattern: Adapted a pattern from a Japanese pattern book and converted it top down

Yarn: 4 balls of Noro Matsuri #3

Needles: Clover bamboo #8 circulars (4.5mm)

BTW, I finally found the way to file a Help Ticket with Typepad, now your comments should be notified to my email. I always appreciate hearing from you all!

Scrap Management

I've been procrastinating this post for a while because I haven't the time to take decent photos, but since it is Scrap Busters Month at Sew Mama Sew, I thought it seems now is a good time to share my scraps projects too.

The first time I came across this term 'Scrap Management' was while I was searching for samples of postage stamp quilts on Flickr. I love quilts made out of scraps, somehow it seems more fulfilling to me than making quilts out of new, pristine fabric. And I do dream that one day, I'll have a truly scrappy postage stamp quilt.

I am attached to scraps and leftovers, be it fabric or yarn. And I have a problem disposing them, even if their size is next to nothing. So I find the idea of Scrap Management very useful. And Management is really what I need.

For the fabrics, those in stripes (e.g. those I got when I trim the quilt top) will go to the stripes bag. Hopefully, they'll grow up into a string quilt like this. Interested? You can find a tutorial here. Want a smaller scale string scraps project? Mai at Mairuru, has a great tutorial to make patchwork strings. Love it!

Leftover fabrics that are not long and thin will be cut into 4-inch squares, then 2-inch, then 1-inch. These itsy bitsy 1-inch ones are really so small. To prevent me from loosing them, I sew some of them together, and they grew even smaller especially when sewn up with a quarter-inch seam. Not yet decided what to do with them. They are much too small for a postage stamp quilt.

A few months back, I had the impulse to start an all-pink pinwheel quilt out of existing stash. It didn't make much progress, it is still looking like this. I still love it, what I lack is time.

Then I have some assorted 4 inch squares bought from Ebay long ago. I've been hesitating putting the squares together as I don't have a design wall to lay all of them out. So I'm organizing them into 16-patches and see how they will go together eventually. And before I knew it, I assembled a quilt top! It still has to grow some more, husband is liking it and wants it to be Queen-size. Well, one day, some day.

For yarn, the DK weight ones are being made into mitred squares. I'm not feeling the love for it right now, maybe I will just make 16 to assemble as a floor cushion for the living room.

Yarn of any other weights are knitted into 4-inch squares and assembled into what is known as 'Scrappy' now. It is growing but slowly. One square added now and then. And thanks for your comments, a border there will be!

Do you love scraps and leftovers like me? If yes, what are you doing with them, it would be interesting to know your projects and ideas!

**There is one problem about comments, I'm not getting the email notifications anymore after the migration to the new Typepad. I've checked and I did choose this function in my settings but it is not working. Has any other fellow Typepad users have this problem too? I would appreciate any help, many thanks in advance! And I don't even know how I can send a Help Ticket to Typepad anymore.**

A Little Closer

Scrappy grew a bit bigger.

Found a few balls of dark red yarn and I've still got lots of boucle dark grey yarn too. Not sure if I should add in the dark colours at this stage. Or maybe do a final round of dark squares later on.

Any suggestions?

Should I add a border too?

Here's 3 balls worth of Noro Matsuri #3. Thought I was going to run out of yarn and the fingers just went faster. I'm sure you know that feeling too. One more ball to go!