Little Purl of the Orient

Is this it?

Guess I can call the pink boucle done. However, it is without the i-cord border as per husband's request. Yes, I'd decided on the i-cord instead of the lace but husband, who's normally indifferent to my knitting, has been taking a great interest in this cardigan and is asking me to leave it as it is. He calls it the 'unfinished' look. While I was asking Ji Yuan to try it on so to see how the collar is fitting, husband saw it and took an immediate liking to it. Ji Yuan is reluctant to put it on as it's really too warm and husband was so excited that he carried her to the bathroom mirror so that she can see it. Anyway, this goes off the needles and straight into the closet.

It's been great DIYing this cardigan. The front is in the Australian boucle given to me by Michelle, the  back, sleeves, etc in Online Linie 38 Kaschmerino (5 balls used); the pattern, I just followed the schematics of the Bouton D'or design and knitted as I go. Here are some details. The body tapers gently to where the armhole shaping starts and I adopted the square armhole to simply things. The sleeves are attached to the body 'mattress stitch' way.

As there is no ribbing, the stocking stitch bottom edge for the back was curling horribly. I wet blocked it in an unorthodox way: place it between a towel and put some heavy books on it to 'straighten' it out. It kinda work. I still think the cardigan should have the i-cord border, or would I be adding feet to a snake?

Back in Hong Kong

First of all, there's a new knitting mama on the blog, welcome Joy! Think it's challenging being a working, knitting, blogging mama? Joy finishes the most lovely knits. Personally, it is definitely harder work being a full-time homemaker. I'll be home the next week to take care of my children as our helper is on vacation. I would lucky to be sane enough for some knitting.

Sound and safe here in Hong Kong. How Macau has changed since the last spring when we visited. It's a lot like a boomtown again with lots of construction going on and too many tourists as there's a new casino. I prefer the quieter Macau of last year. My kids didn't seem to mind as long as there were playgrounds. And I could but knit about 5 rows on the Clapotis, big deal.

That's Ji Yuan (top) wearing her Brice Cardigan. Goodness me, I haven't realised how much she has grown, just look at her photo in the October post (just click on the link).

The weather has gotten really warm, looks like the pink boucle will have to go into the closet when finished. The sleeves are set in and I'm toying with the idea of a lacey border but it looks kind of fussy. I think I'm going to stick to the applied i-cord. What do you think?

Here's the close up of the narrow lace strip.

Just getting there

It's unbelievable that this flu bug of mine is getting on it's fourth week. I couldn't stand it anymore and went to see a Chinese physician last Friday. There's a general belief that traditional chinese medicine is good for ridding the body of the imbalances that's causing the illness. It's amazing how a good physician can tell how well your internal organs are functioning by 'listening' to your pulse and looking at your tongue. An analogy by my colleague summarizes it all. Your organs are like ballons, a western doctor will treat it when he finds some hole in them but a traditional chinese medicine practitioner will tell you when the ballon is starting to deflat.

End of whining. Look, I'm closing in on the pink cardigan for Ji Yuan but looks like the weather is warming up too much for her to wear it. See the bottom edge curling like crazy? I'm thinking of applied i-cord which should go well with the cardigan instead of ribbing but I don't know if it will work well holding down the edge. Any ideas?

You never know what knitters will do to meet other knitters. Justine,  originally from Canada and now teaching in Taipei, decided to fly into Hong Kong one day ahead of schedule so that she can meet up with Kimberli and us, the Hong Kong knitters. How can I miss such a gathering despite the fact that I don't have a baby sitter on Sundays? So I brought Chung Yi with me. This girl has potential and immediately attacked the sales bin and picked out some blue yarn with teddy bear labels on them. At the end of the day, I managed to persuade her to check out the button section instead. Here's our loot, orange yarn (yay!) and buttons for some projects I have in mind.

Although I did little knitting over the past week, my head is bursting with ideas.
1) A cardigan for Chung Yi using the denim that failed;
2) I should have some more denim yarn left for a Buckle Bag from Rowan 37;
3) I would have 1.5 balls of pink yarn left over from Ji Yuan's cardigan and that would just become a pair of lovely Cloverleaf Eyelet Rib socks for Ji Yuan.
4)  The olive green mohair is from Jennifer of CA whom I've been corresponding for a while. She has just an interesting pattern for a wavy scarf which I would love to try.
5) Two stocking stitch projects at the same time make me crave for cables and looked what I've received, the Celtic Dreams pattern! I might just start it and knit it slowly over the course of the next few years. Inishmore will have to give way.
6) And this number from VK S/S 05, I'm going to use the ASC in stash.
7) And a mutli-colour cotton cardigan from Phildar Pitchuon S/S 05 for Ji Yuan.

That's not counting the green cardigan and Loll which I have to have this year. So you see, the list is groweth and is never ending. I'm just being unrealistic. Who says I have to anyway?

Okay, end of dreaming and I'll get back to my Clapotis.

Some blunders

Happy Easter everyone! How about a lovely ape friend to cheer you up? Not enough cuteness, check out these elephants.

Dear Monkey is found via A Erhvilla Cor de Rosa and the pattern is available free here; whereas Elephants were spotted off Nipperknits and the pattern's here.

I've gotten over my denim debacle. To potential denim knitters, please do not be discouraged by my bad encounter. I am but a blind knitter; had I swatched and washed my swatch, this episode might have been avoided. So I urge you to swatch and wash your denim to see how much it shrinks before embarking on the knitting.

I'm glad the long weekend has arrived. I badly need the rest. These past weeks, I discovered that flu and knitting don't mix well. The pink boucle fronts are finished but there's something wrong. I forgot the buttonholes. This design has no button bands and the buttonholes are supposed to be opened directly on the right front and I've incorporated an extra 3 cm width each side for this purpose. If I add button bands now, the fronts will be too wide.

So are there afterthought buttonholes like afterthought pockets? Some of you swear by your Nancie Wiseman's The Knitter's Book of Finishing Techniques, some cannot go without Montse Stanley's Knitter's Handbook or Vogue Knitting: The Ulimate Knitting Book. Me, I have my Reader's Digest Complete Guide to Needlework, so old that the pages are falling apart and you can find tons of techniques in there. And there is something resembling afterthought buttonholes. I googled and found that Alison did it (12 October 2003 post). So I thought I should practise on a swatch.

But then being plain lazy me, I just went and snip a stitch right on the cardigan front and make the buttonholes there. Here's a close-up. Da ta. The buttons fit too.

And the ribby sleeves for the cardi are done too. I was puzzled as to how much to block the ribbings then decided to block just enough for them to fit into the armhole. Now I'm left with the back to knit on the bus next week.

Pink Boucle gets a front

Nothing beats a knit out with Eva and Marjorie to lift the spirits. Yesterday, I got to ogle at Eva's haul from her recent Japan trips. If you haven't seen them, you'd better run to her blog. And you may just get to see the new sweater she completed yesterday, it's beautiful as are all her other work. Here's what Eva got for me, La Droguerie alapaca and Puppy New 2 ply, all in my favourite blues! Thank you so much, Eva! She knows just what to buy. If I were a yarn shop owner, I'll definitely go to her for stocking advice.

I got to feast my eyes on Marjorie's Colinette and Lorna's Laces stash too as she brought them over to Eva's house for winding. I, on the other hand, have quickly gotten over Copper Kelly's demise and worked hard on Ji Yuan's pink cardigan. The left front is finished. This photo doesn't do the boucle justice, looking all blotchy. The yarn knitted up into a nice and fluffy fabric, and the colours are in various shades of pink with just a tinge of blue thrown in. The sleeve is still at its beginning stage. I've decided to stick to double rib. Doesn't the two yarns complement each other? It's fun to just go along and knit and see how the cardigan evolves. Let's hope it'll turn out nice.

And wait, the pink boucle front is not the only thing I finished yesterday. Delta's all knitted up and I threw them all in the washer today. Here are all the pre-washed peices with some old pillow cases standing by to contain each piece. Have they shrunk to the right sizes? Stay tuned (it may take a while to dry and assemble the pieces though)!

Still feeling the blahs

The weather has been dreary. Wet, cold and windy. And Ji Yuan is so much in her 'princess' mode that she's been wanting to wear dresses to kindergarten everyday. Her dresses are the thin, summery kind and there's no heating indoors in Hong Kong. I have difficulty persuading her to put on a cardigan that is not pink. And there is just 1 pink cardigan which will get dirty with paint and what nots and needs to be washed every so often.

Hence the idea of knitting a pink cardi for her started brewing. The front will be in the pink mohair boucle that Michelle gave me. I'll use the rose-coloured Online Kaschmerino for the sleeves which will be in double rib and the back maybe double rib or stocking stitch, roughly based on this Bouton D'or pattern. The thing is, by the time I finish, the weather might have gotton too warm for wool. Maybe if I just hurry up ... ...

Hence I cast on for the sleeve last night so that I would have something to knit on the bus in the morning. Using my own 'thinner yarn, smaller needles so make one size bigger' logic, I didn't swatch but cast on straight away the number of stitches required for size 6 years (Ji Yuan is four). The yarn hasn't got a lot of spring like other merino and the ribs are not as elastic, so it naturally turned out too big. The little bit of knitting will be frogged. Too tired to think about numbers. And before falling asleep, I thought of pretty pink stocking stitch sleeves with a row of hearts in moss stitch. Nice.

Instead, I knitted the pocket linings and got a bit of sleeve for Kelly on the bus. The linings are perfect as swatches and I got both stitch and row gauge. There's no visible difference between the two dye lots and I feel more comfortable to move ahead. I just love ASC.