Little Purl of the Orient

Girl with a curl

Ah, many thanks to you all for the nice compliments on the baby dress! Chung Yi doesn't seem to mind the dress too. At this stage, even if she has any comments, she won't be able to voice out yet. At least she didn't pull at the dress when I put it on her. Here's my sweet little princess. She's got curly hair but it's not obvious in this photo with the hair-clip on.

These are my girls. We decided to celebrate her birthday in advance last Sat afternoon as we realized that it is this coming Saturday that we'll be going to Singapore for a week to visit my parents. The next available weekend for a family gathering would be the 17th and it is unauspicious in Chinese custom to celebrate one's birthday after it. So we got the cake and called the cousins to come for the fun. My mother-in-law was so clever to have the words "Happy 1st Birthday to Chung Yi and Happy Birthday to Ji Yuan" written on the birthday cake so that the elder one won't feel left out. Chung Yi was so excited she shoved her foot right into the cake and gave us all a good laugh.

So no France for us this year. Husband decides to stick to Singapore for our summer holiday. He's quite right, we need the support of family with the two kids around. No worries, there are many wonderful sights to bring the children to in Singapore.

Baby dress is finished!

Chung Yi will be one on the 15th of July and this little pink dress is my present for her. I'm happy with it, no frustration whatsoever during the knitting. My mum sewed a lot for me when I was young, and she always had to unpick and redo. She used to say that means the recipient (that's me) is a difficult person. So using her logic, I'm lucky to have Chung Yi, who is a very easy-going little girl!

This is a simple pattern from an old (probably 10 years back) Japanese magazine borrowered from my friend. The dress has very little shaping, just the reduction in stitches from the skirt to the bodice, and the neck shaping. There's no armhole shaping. The little curve at the armholes is achieved by the slight pulling in of the twisted ribbings by the sides. Here's a better view of the ribbings from the back.

The little flowers and leaves were a joy to crochet. The pattern calls for 5 flowers and 4 leaves but I found it a little too crowded so I sewed it only 3 flowers. The only thing I would change if I'd to knit it again is to knit the skirt part flat instead of in the rounds as there are no seams for me to hide my ends. Cotton cannot be spit-spliced (I think) so I had to weave in using sort of a duplicate stitch on the wrong side which resulted in a slightly thicker patch around those areas. This dress took 4 balls of Online Linie 11 Alpha in a shocking pink (colour #19) which is a pain to photograph. The glare is so strong that I kept getting a bright blur in the camera even without flash. Chung Yi hasn't tried it on yet, I do hope it fits.

Now I can concentrate my efforts on Charlotte's Web and the crochet motifs top, and get ready to start the denim-along in July.

Let's get on

Gathering from the opinions on Charlotte, I'll stick to the original 5 colours in the order as planned and let Koigu and the Web weave their magic together. Thanks to all for your comments which are very much appreciated.

Over the weekend, I worked on the pink dress and finished knitting the back. Now the progress should be faster as I have a lot fewer stitches left for the body as compared to the skirt part. I'll finish it up soon as I've eagerly joined the denim-along hosted by Polly over at All Tangled Up and Eva. I'm really interested to try my hands at knitting denim and has planned to knit Delta this July.

What I love about knitting blogs is that they are not just about knitting. Over this past year, I read about lives in other parts of the world, the ups and downs, the laughter and the tears. I get inspired from the follies and wisdom of others and sometimes feel that although the setting is different, the context is always so applicable. Today, I should be feeling disheartened and discouraged being confronted with work-related setback and frustration. Instead, my spirits are surprisingly resilient. I'm committed to my work but I'm not so naive as to think that things in life add up to their sum. There's nothing more apt than Michelle's post on Lessons Learned in May for me today. I'll take this setback as a lesson, a checkpoint, just as a little ripping or frogging won't hurt. Now it's time to get on with life and Charlotte.

Great evening of meet-ups

There's nothing better than to have a nice, relaxing evening chatting with friends, especially if it involves knitting as well. I met up with Eva and Majorie for the first time yesterday evening. We had an enjoyable time pouring over pattern books and discussing yarns. And I got my Gedifra Highlights #41 and the Great American Aran Afghan pattern books from Eva who has kindly included them in her own order. It's amazing those girls have almost every pattern book and yarn you can name, wow. We didn't knit a stitch though but I left them having more ideas in my head than before.

After the knitting chitchat, I headed off to the restaurant next door to meet up with my husband and an old friend, Guillaume, who is visiting from France. He's such a sweet guy and knowing my love for knitting, offered to get me some French knitting pattern books when he return to Nantes. And he kept persuading us to visit France especially, Paris and Nantes this summer, and tempted us with his lovely description. My husband studied in Paris and I flew over there to meet him in my undergraduate days whenever I had holidays and could scraped together enough airfare. Needless to say, we have special sentiments for that country. It'd be wonderful if we can make it there this summer with the kids and meet up with old friends. Moreover, we haven't had a real holiday since the kids were born.

Not much progress on the knitting front this week. I managed to crochet these flowers and leaves that will adorn little Chung Yi's pink dress. Three more flowers are needed. Kate is going along well and I'll be sewing on the neckband tomorrow as soon as I have a minute.

Back to the Pink Dress

Not much progress has been made on Chung Yi's pink dress. I'm knitting it in the round and there are 200 stitches on 3.75mm needles. Rather small gauge compared to Kate which is a breeze to knit on 5mm. Also, I can't knit at all on the bus these days as the humidity is making my hands drip like crazy. The dress starts with stocking stitch right away and is to be finished with a crochet picot edging. I couldn't stand the bottom that is curling a lot and had to crochet the border last night. Here's a close up of the picot edging.

Meanwhile, I'll wait patiently for the 'Painted Lady' to arrive.

Pink Tiara

A pink tiara for my littlest princess, Chung Yi? You bet. It is the start of the pink baby dress that I planned for her 1-year old birthday this July. I'm knitting it in the round, thanks to my colleague who rides on the bus with me in the evenings. She saw me casting on with circular needles and asked whether I am knitting something round. So, presto, I'll make it the round then, no need to go through the unexciting job of sewing up the rows of stocking stitch. And you may ask, what has happened to the other bus knitting, Pee Wee? Well, it is done. Done, all knitted and sewn up and washed and now drying on my bay window. Let's talk about it next time. I still don't like it.