Little Purl of the Orient

This and That – Part 2, Project Spectrum edition

I've been clocking 12-hour days at work for the past 6 months. And this is starting to take its toll on me. Time with husband has increased a bit because I commute home with him now that my working hours are matching his. However, I'm not spending as much time with my daughters as I used to and every weekend is very precious now, even a quiet afternoon of colouring and drawing is very much cherished.

You might have noticed my appearance here has been getting scarce. Not only that, my unread Bloglines has stayed well above 3000 for quite a while. But I still do knit, albeit now always in mindless stocking stitch, garter stitch or ribbing. Sometimes, when the adrenalin stayed high after a day's work, the soothing clicking of the needles really do help calm my nerves and help me go to sleep.

For the bus and for bringing-everywhere knitting, I now have this Gathered Scarf in green Araucania Ranco, a gift from Joy. It is sock weight yarn so I've modified the number of stitches and row to achieve a similar effect as written for a DK weight yarn. I'm loving the different shades of green and not minding one bit it is knitted in small needles (3.6 mm and 2.75mm). JY likes it too and this will go to her when finished. It will take a while though.

For the at-home knitting, I'm immersing myself in some Habu goodness. I've finally cast on the Kusha Kusha scarf in Terra Cotta and Brown from Olga who's been spreading the Habu love and showcasing some fantastic Habu knitting. My husband has already 'booked' this scarf and it'll go to him when completed. Yes, it's kinda orangey-reddish-brownish and not quite a guy colour but yes, he'll wear it, and has been asking for his 'zen' scarf. And opening up to this Habu knitting is scary-crazy, all you can think of next is Habu-Habu-Habu. Try it and you'll know what I mean.

Speaking of Olga, she sent my little CY a scarf too. And I can't help marveling at the fascinating construction. The pattern is from Knitting New Scarves.

Now that everyone in the family has or is going to have a new scarf except myself, maybe it's time to go cast on for one more.

Red is for Good Luck

Heartfelt thanks for your warm words. Nephew's surgery has been postponed by the hospital because of some unforeseen circumstances, not because of his condition. We and my other sils (my husband has 3 sisters) remain on our toes, ready to help with the logistics, like taking care of their other, older child. With summer holidays coming (meaning no school), it'll be a very busy few months.

Good thing the apartment renovation is coming to an end soon. I should have some time to dabble here and there in some small projects to keep my sanity. I already have 2 pairs of socks on the needles (will talk about those soon) and am planning to knit some more. I took out some odd ball Lousia Harding yarns to play with for Project Spectrum. Experimenting with making simple shapes with the hook using charts extracted from various Japanese books. They will most likely become coasters.

New in my stash is this Wall of Reds, to become a Smoulder from Rowan 31 of my own. I won't be starting this any time soon though.

I have to thank the amazing enabler, Joy, who made her stunning Smoulder and gave me her remaining contrast colours. All I have to do is to add some of the main colours, most of which are discontinued Rowan 4 ply cotton and Cotton Glace. Joy even pointed me to an ebay auction for one of the colours earlier on. The last colour, Passion, took a bit of time to hunt. Emails were even sent to yarn store in the Netherlands, Norway but with no avail. Just when I was to give up hope, Monica posted her Field Trip Report wherein she mentioned that Velona has lots of discontinued Rowan. I remember Velona, it is one of the stores where I first bought online. I purchased the set of 4 Barbara Walker Knitting Treasuries there and was happy with the service. And Velona did not disappoint this time, they do have the colour to complete my search. Ah, the thrill of tracking down and collecting discontinued yarn.

One fine day, when this cardigan gets completed, I would be a sweater twin with Joy, on top of being a sock twin.

Warm shoulders

Making things for others is equally enjoyable to me as making things for myself and my family. But I would have to say that when the project details are so specific like the tea cosy for our friend, that gave me a lot of pressure.

I enjoy the process of recognizing the knitterly (or crafty) needs that my friends might have and matching that with a project. It would be an added bonus if there's the right yarn in my stash. And strangely, I do not suffer any pangs when I give my handknits/crochet/sewing away.

And sometimes, when there's nothing else I could do to improve the situation, I turn to the my craftiness for comfort and peace of mind, hoping that it will in turn give loads of good vibres to the recipients. Like the Moderne Baby Blanket that I'm making for nephew, now left with one more border and some finishing touches.

And also this capelet, for my dear friend and colleague, who would be needing surgery next month. I do hope that the capelet will give her comfort when she recuperates at home and remind her that there is still someone who thinks about her when we go about out daily chores at work.

On a lighter note, guess who took these photos? My 6-year-old, JY. She has quite an eye, hasn't she? There are a few other good shots too, just that her hands are still too small to steady the camera and the photos came out blurry. And JY pays attention to details like when my hair is not right or something. In contrast, some of the photos my husband took made me look like a giraffe, serious. Here's a better daddy shot.

Pattern: From this Japanese book (I'm so glad I added this to my collection, love this book)
Yarn: 4 balls (and a bit of the 5th) of Rowan Wool Cotton, colour #960 (Laurel)
A photo of the capelet from the book in this post.

But then of course there are lots of candid shots when you give the camera to a kid. Here's one  behind-the-scene shot if you can stand some mess.

Busy Days and Nights

We are having major renovation works at home which will likely last for several weeks more (I hope it will not run into months). Things are all over the place and some major purging and big time packing is going on. Crafting has been reduced to a pitiful trickle and given that the Clammy Hands season is upon me here in Hong Kong again, I haven't done much knitting either on the bus journeys.

I did finish up the tea cosy for our friend, which really has been due in ages. Photos to follow after it is given to him. The Uptown Boot Socks needs another one third of a foot. Other than that, the rest of the WIPs remain very much WIPs.

But I did start something new. A crochet capelet-to-be for a dear friend who would be needing much comfort. So far I have to keep looking at the chart as the increases are spaced differently every row.

The yarn is Rowan Wool Cotton in colour, Laurel, a lovely springy, leafy green. And I'm following the pattern from this book. More photos from the book in this post.

Other than this I'll share with you some new stash. Fleece Artist sock yarn in Rose. I'm not usually fond of pink and I don't know what made me ordered this in the first place but now I love it.

Trekking Sock yarn #147. Love this too. New stash makes me happy.

On the other hand, I'm destashing the 6 balls of Jo Sharp Silkroad DK used for Maggie Tweed at the Destash blog. Check it out and email me if you're interested. Sold, thanks!

On a non-knitting front, I've finally signed up for the weekly aerobics classes organized by our building management and the classes will be held after work at our gym. Just when I'm all serious about getting more exercise and building up my body (I'm tired of being sick all the time), I'm informed that we couldn't even get the minimum 5 participants to start the class, that is out of a total of 800+ households in our 4 buildings. The building management is giving another 2 weeks to see if more interested parties will come forward. Is anybody exercising anymore?

Honey, I shrunk the sleeves

I really did knit the sleeves for Maggie to the called-for length before raglan shaping. I don't have monkey arms, just regular ones so the pattern length should fit me just right. But wait, just take a good look at the Maggie Tweed photo on Kim Hargreaves website. The sleeves are just hovering on top of the glove cuffs. So I might not be the only one but then models do tend to have monkey arms though.

I didn't measure or try to figure out row gauge but now I suspect it might be off and a few inches of the sleeves might have been eaten up by the raglan. It doesn't really sound quite logical, but you all must have known that I'm not a very technical knitter anyway. I could always wear my sleeves pushed up like in the website. I kind of like it this way. Hehe, and maybe I should go and get myself one of those wide belts too.

On second thoughts, the sweater now looks a bit short on the whole. Maybe I should try knitting sweaters with more comfy length next time, and not another short one.

Sorry, lady at the escalator, it wasn't meant to have you included in the photo but it is impossible to have the mid-level escalator all to myself during lunch on a work day. And it was too sunny so the colour is quite off in this photo.

A closer look at the collar. Look at the nice, subtly wavy picot edges. Talking about the collar, I added some short rows to the back neck so that it would not sag down, I think it gives a better fit. Forgot to take a photo of that though. The picot edging detail is repeated at the sleeve cuffs and the sweater base.

The specifics. The pattern is from the Kim Hargreaves kit, Maggie (note, the sleeve length looks okay in this version). I just substituted the Wool Cotton with Jo Sharp Silkroad DK (colour Cedar which is a dark forest green), which has good yardage and 6.5 balls were used to knit this cardigan (I bought 13 of them!). I used 3.25mm needles for the borders and 3.75mm for the main body.

Sweet Bolero

So I took my time with the short, blue bolero for JY. CNY celebrations (the first 15 days) are officially over and I finally completed the bolero yesterday, so much for all the pre-CNY rush. There are a few issues with this little garment.

1) My sixth sense was wrong. I ran out of yarn but then I found a sort of solution in a half ball of similarly-coloured, similarly-weighted yarn that Joy gave me long ago to add to my granny squares stash to crochet the borders. If you don't look too closely, you cannot really tell. And if you do want to look closely, I'll tell you that it is a design element.

2) Apparently, the yarn requirement stated in the book is insufficient although I did have too little yarn to start off with. And that's not the only mistake. The stitch symbols are also completely wrong but that's not difficult to figure if you look hard at the photo. I worked up a 'swatch' of this dainty stitch pattern in another leftover yarn and this square would go to Rebekah, the YFC '07 mom who is collecting swatches for a Blanket of Hope. I also tried to make a stitch chart with this generator and had meant to post here but haven't figured out how to save it.

3) Then I had forgotten about buttons and the notions stores in Central were closed in the first few days of CNY. I managed to find these plastic flower buttons but am not entirely happy with them. Good thing buttons could be changed when the right ones come along.

4) And husband is lukewarm when he sees this project. He has the same kind of expression when he saw my Veronica. I think he has something against boleros. JY likes it though and wore it out to play immediately.

Log cabining

It all started with a trip to Ikea on the second day of the New Year of the Pig. We first saw the crib blankets and Mil thought they are good for the kids to use in summer. And I thought I could add patchwork 'quilt' tops to them. Then futher in store, I saw a mini ironing board perfect for doing patchwork at an incredible price of USD2.50 and I had to get it. See it fits just right behind the sewing machine on the dining table.

I decided to make a log cabin top inspired by blankets here, here, here and from this Japanese book. And all these incredible log cabin pillows. It is a tedious process. I have to bend down and squat on the floor to sort the fabrics, cut and get back up onto the dining table to sew, reach out to the ironing board to press.

After an afternoon of doing this, I'm now having a sore neck. And I didn't get a lot done. Just four 8.5 inch square which I reckon I would need 20 to cover the whole blanket, and some smaller squares. I'm not confident yet with matching colours so I'm using all the blue fabrics in stash.

And here's the knitted log cabin (Baby Moderne Blanket) that I'm making for little nephew. Here's the wrong side, not very neat, is it? So I'll be backing it with the green balls flannel fabric that a dear friend sent from Canada. I hope the blanket will keep him comfortable in his treatment. His 4th chemo session is schedule for next week. And did I mention that the wee boy is only 16 months old?

Stress Knitting?

I'm giving up on the preparations for CNY this year. Going 'lite' is the excuse. Still no flowers yet but we might go get some this Saturday. Our place really needs some serious tiding up but I would rather do my knitting. Mil doesn't seem to mind very much this year, which is really good.

As Erin pointed out in the comments, do I need the stress to finish up JY's bolero by this Sunday? Well, I do feel terribly guilty if the little one has something new and the elder not. So here I am chugging away on the bolero as much as I could. Back done, fronts up to armhole shaping, minimal sewing as I'm knitting it in one piece up to the armholes and I’ll probably do a three-needle bind off at the shoulders which was what I did for the Hoodie Vest. I realized that the post was really skimpy as I was rather in a rush then and have since added some details in there with regards to the project specifications.

And just to demonstrate how I like to live on the edge. The bolero calls for 3 balls of DK weight yarn. I have 2 whole balls of the Lana Liza merino, plus remnants left over from Jess and the beanie for nephew and I'm keeping my fingers crossed that I would have enough to finish it. I SENSE that there would be enough.

An aside, do you know there is this incredible project, The Walker Treasury Project, on going to document all the stitch patterns in Barbara Walker's books in colour? Coincidentally, the sampler afghan I knitted a few years back is based primarily on the patterns from the Treasuries. After being tucked in the hanging cabinets for years, it is now very much in used and loved by JY who's using it every night! I would love to add the photos of my squares to the project blog but have not saved the files which were in our old computer, now gone. So what I need is the time to take the photos of the squares once again and document them.

Hoodie Girl

Chinese New Year is just round the corner. It is this coming Sunday in fact but we're still ill prepared. No new clothes, no new hair cut, no CNY goodies bought, no flowers yet. Yesterday, I finally went out to get new pyjamas for the children and also, I decided to get my act together and finished the hoodie vest for CY. At least she'll have something new to wear.

She really loves the hood. There'll definitely be more in her future. I've ordered the Wonderful Wallaby pattern after seeing Brooke's and Julie's adorable ones. Lots more Wallabies here.

The pattern is from this Japanese book. And I used 3.5 balls of GGH Davos on Clover 11 (5.4mm) needles. It is knitted in the rounds until the armholes, then back and forth, 3-needle bound off at the shoulders and the hoodie top.

With another few days to go, I wonder if I could finish a cap-sleeve, short bolero for JY (also from the same book)?

Whites

Thank you for sharing with me your granny squares thoughts and ideas. Good to know that I'm not the only one out there that feels for this classic crochet building block. Deep down, I still long for a granny squares afghan. Maybe I could jazz it up, make the afghan a bit more contemporary by mixing in some solid coloured squares randomly to form a mosaic-y look? Also, single-coloured squares have fewer ENDS. With the balls of black yarn stashed for the borders, I'll see how many solid squares could be had out of 1 ball of yarn.

Meanwhile, some Project Spectrum v 2.0 whites.

Shedir is completed and sent to Rebekah for YFC '07 together with the lace yarn contribution. This Shedir is knitted out of 1 ball of Rowan Calmer in Bleached on 3.25mm needles. It seemed that I was running out of yarn so I reduced one bottom cable repeat but now I have some yarn left which might just be enough for that. Anyway, it still fits an average ladies head just right.

I'm happy to say that this YFC exercise has indeed helped me to focus and find the right yarn from stash to work on projects. No yarn has been bought so far but I foresee that I would need to use a free ticket as I haven't got the right yarn to work on a project requested by a friend.

Other than that said request, how else have I been able to focus? Case in point, husband saw a stripey scarf in stocking stitch from one of his magazines and asked me to make him a similar one. As he seldom asks, I'll definitely oblige. No yarn in stash for the colours he's looking for and I thought, use a ticket to buy yarn. Then I went to the stash spreadsheet again and looked hard. There is a big cake of off-white silk that Maryann gave me which could be dyed into the desired colours that self-stripes. Here's a swatch on 3mm needles with a turned-in hem and triple slipped stitch edges. The slipped stitches seem to be pulling the edges badly and most likely would be dropped and replaced by plain ribbing.

And speaking of swatches, I'm a big fan of Nona Swatches, a swatch a day, wow.

Here's another bus project since the Moderne Baby Blanket is getting too bulky to lug around. I've started to knit the Hoodie Vest that I promise my little CY. Big needles, fat yarn. I'm actually almost done with the back now and could have it done by this weekend had I not forget to bring more yarn on the bus this morning.

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.

Ebony and ivory

New bus knitting: black socks for the husband. Got to start preparing for the coming colder weather this year. This pair is meant for the husband to wear on his trips to colder parts of China so that he'll be constantly reminded of his knitterly wife and remember to look out for exotic Chinese yarns during those trips. Just kidding, I really don't need anymore yarn (this must be the greatest understatement of this blog). Let's see how long this leg of yarn acquisition control will last.

I'm using black Lang Jawoll sock yarn, which comes with a spool of reinforcement thread neatly tucked in the centre of the skein. And the white Bryspun needles are from Grumperina, the queen of knitting needles. They are great to knit with. Do you recall the regular bamboo sock needles becoming all bendy after a pair of socks is completed? Mine always do. Well, these Bryspun needles are naturally flexible and they just bend ever so gently according to your grip. I don't remember myself knitting much on this sock on the bus last week but I'm already up to the heel flap.

The pattern I'm using is the Lichen Ribbed Socks from Knitting Vintage Socks by Nancy Bush. I asked my husband to choose a pattern from that book and he nonchalantly pointed to this when the book conveniently opened on that page. Not trusting him, I asked JY (on a different day) to go through the book and she ended up choosing the same one too so I'm sticking with that.

Discussion about black ribbed socks definitely is not the most interesting topic. Why don't visit MJ's for her more exciting saga on man socks?

Many thanks for your lovely compliments on the Ribbed Wrap Top! I do like this style though it is not one that I wear often. However, sad to say that this knitted fabric is not wearing well; after a whole day's wear last week, it became rather saggy. Anyway, it is just knitting and if it would become unwearable one day, I'm all prepared to rip it out and reuse the yarn for something else.

Rainbow Cardigan, check

The storm and the gusty winds from the typhoon have subsided and it's time to come out and play. JY models the Rainbow Cardigan. She seems happy to have a new cardigan.

Oops, the sleeves are riding up, I'll unpick the cast offs and add another inch or two to them. I still have the purple yarn anyway.

The back is a bit puffy though. I remember that too small needles were wrongly used for the lower ribbing causing the tighter than intended ribs.

Although it rained, the weather is still incredibly humid and warm. It's no wonder she can't wait to take it off.

Little sister has something new too. Hello, hello kitty!

Counterpane Bag, check

Two FOs in a week? First off, a disclaimer: I'm not a time warper. This little counterpane bag took me more than 1 month to knit and to sew in the lining. The earlier white blouse took over 2 weeks, which I'm certain it'll take many others one afternoon to complete. I'm just on a finishing bend, I really want the WIPs backlog cleared as much as possible so that I can start new things.

My husband and I had Japanese for lunch today and he obliged with the photo taking in busy Central. We were at this street:

The bag turned out smaller than I had expected but in hindsight, had I wanted one as big as the one in the Marie Claire photo, I should have used sturdier cotton yarn instead of the Rowan ASC. BTW, it took all of the three balls of colour Dusk (#219) that I have and for the handles, I had to use the same canvas ones like for the Sail Away Tote. And the lining is the beautiful Brazilian floral fabric from Tania that I mentioned earlier. I sewed it to the knitted bag with the sewing machine instead of by hand after I read about this method at Needle Book and it turned out alright. One thing is that I finished the bag too hurriedly and had forgotten to use interfacing for the lining so it turned out a bit saggy.

Another look at the bag and my sushi belly. And no, I didn't knit the white cardigan that I'm wearing in these photos. I bought it from a local store called Giordano Ladies.

Sailing away

Is it already Friday? The week has whizzed by even faster than before now that JY's officially off from school for summer since Monday. You might think that there's no difference for me being a working mum, I'm not at home anyway, right? Not quite, let's just say that among other things, the number of phone calls I receive from home while at the office multiplied, and evenings are filled with activities planning for the long days ahead. So I still have yet to start experimenting with the suggestions that have been shared with me with regards to the so-called dress, thanks again for the pointers, I'll come to them as soon as I can.

Since it's Friday, I'll show you yet another WIP.

It is meant to be a detachable zipper pouch to be attached here:

Which is the inside of the Sail Away Tote.

Comfortably sized but still not yet quite roomy enough for me. I carry a lot of junk with me whole day long. I think I need a bag with a wider bottom. Don't ask me to do one of those 'What's in my bag' thingie, you'll be appalled. However, there's one thing inside today that's making me excited and I have to show you. The Everyday Skirt book, rediscovered the other day while looking for a blouse pattern. I've brought it to the office today to seek my style consultant, aka Terry's, advice on which skirt to sew, after I sew the top, that is.

I know bags don't have to fit but you might want to see how it looks in context.

Yet another WIP

Back from a whirlwind trip to Macau when most of the time was spent at the poolside. No shopping for me and so no chita fabric for me this time. And I took the day off today for the end-of-year school beach trip with JY and am now trying to recover from too much sun too many days in a row.

My current projects are all in various stages and some close to being finished. I just can't help starting new ones though. It's not Friday yet but I have another WIP to show. One counterpane.

To be assembled to its friends.

Which hopefully will turn into a bag like this one in one of the Marie Claire Idee advertisements. I think the pattern is from some sort of knitting calender and it's a pattern for 6 June.

I'm using Rowan All Seasons Cotton in colour Dusk, not quite sure if it is purplish navy or navy-ish purple. I started with this counterpane pattern but modified it for a smaller leaf and switch to alternating stocking stitch and reverse stocking stitch for the decreasing triangle.

And I ran out of yarn and am now waiting from replenishment from Get Knitted. Umm, for those not de-stashing, while you are there, don't miss those irresistable Wool Cotton and 4 ply Soft on sale. Yes, I bought more than the 1 more ball of ASC I need, throw a yarn sale in my face and my de-stashing plan got blown into pieces.

WIP Friday

Fiona is asking to show our WIPs and here's a look at other WIPers. I'm definitely one that would not be short of WIPs.

This is what the pile from the previous post working out to be. I'm tyring my hands at applique. The initial idea is to applique using the satin stitch function of my sewing machine. The base fabric is the faux suede that my machine doesn't like on previous ocassions. So thinking to save myself trouble of wrestling with the machine, I decided to applique by sewing tiny running stitches along the edges by hand. As such, I need to turn in the seam allowances and the pointy tips of the sails are giving lots of trouble, even some of the edges are crooked, so don't look too closely.

The inspiration comes from the June issue of Marie Claire Idees (pictured above) that Laurence sent to me. Plus the flashing of my blue stash also reminded me that I have lots of blue fabric to use. My intention is to sew a handy marine-theme bag to bring along with me to Macau tomorrow. As usual, things don't quite get done when they should be chez moi (Too tired tonight to burn the midnight oil, there's still packing to be done too).

We haven't been to Macau for quite a while and I do miss the food there but honestly, my first thought was whether I would be able to find chita fabrics like these there? You know, Macau being an ex-Portuguese enclave, etc. I'm not sure what chita really means but seeing Rosa mentioning it from time to time, I take it to be Portuguese fabric, please correct me if I'm wrong.

And the bag is not the only thing that I'd unrealistically wanted to finish for the trip. I'd wanted to wear Short 'n Sweet this weekend in Macau too. Maybe I could just drape whatever I have right now over my shoulder. At least it looks like it might fit this time (read here for my earlier blunders).

Then there is yellow

Heh, heh, do I still knit? Sewing seems the logical outlet to release my pent up crafty desire since the Season of the Sweaty Palms is here and it is just not quite right to let the lovely yarn slide up my clammy hands and get all limpy. So I've got yet another sewing project planned.

My knitting and crocheting has been ongoing albeit slowly. I've restarted the Short 'n Sweet bolero from Happy Hooker. And here is the latest progress of the rainbow cardigan.

Yellow neck and button bands. Yellow is a must right now for JY whose current favourite colours are yellow and gold.

I even picked yellow flower buttons ages ago to match. They are lovely to look at but a pain to push through the buttonholes.

All done? Not yet. Buttons sewn, all ends woven in but still lacking the other sleeve. It dawned on me while I was knitting the first sleeve which is in the same K4, P2 rib like for the start of the body that I've used the wrong (too small) needle size for the body ribbing. As a result, the ribbing is pulling in quite a bit. However, being in cotton, I'm relying on the fact that the ribbing will soon loose its elasticity after a couple of washes.

Tot totes

A very quick post before going to work (lots of pictures though). Sewing two bags is faster than one, that's what I found out during the weekend. Earlier on, I made two distinctly different mini-moopy bunnies for my two girls and who would know that the little one wants one exactly like her elder sister's. I guess she's at such a stage right now. So I learnt my lesson and when I sew a tote for each for them, I made them exactly the same, well almost.

Some details on the bag. First the inside.

The front packet is double layered with no exposed seams. The kitty denim fabric is a gift from Marjorie's Mum who brought it back from the Philippines!

Here's the difference: One has a 'J' and the other a 'C'.

And here you have CY modelling her bag.

She can't stop playing with the buttons.

CY is happy with the bag, so it seems.

After a while, she just needs a break.

Celebrating the Blues

Thursday is blue and so is June. I thought I'm a pink girl, looks like I'm equally blue.

Blue Stash

Blue Fabrics (how in the world did it grow to this?)

Blue UFO – Phildar stripy cardigan : My colleague, Terry, and I both started this last year. She finished her pink one and it turned out two sizes too small so she gave it to her niece. We are both tight knitters and I might have gauge problem like her too. I'm not ready to face all the recalcuting yet hence it's progress status has been 15% at my right side bar forever.

Two blue bags to be finished, you can tell from how crumpled the fabrics are that they have been chucked aside for far too long. Time to pick them up again.

Nicole Cushion

I love eves of holidays as the thought of no alarm sounding for the next day is just so promising. It spells late night crafting to me. As today is the Dragon Boat Festival, I eagerly took out my sewing machine last night to finish up my Nicole cushion.

First, I practised on the prototype, a plain one in the cream-coloured faux suede I bought earlier. I had wanted to sew a lapped zip and borrowed the book, Cushions & Covers, from the library specifically for this purpose. The instructions are clear with step-by-step photo but somehow, I just couldn't follow it so I took out an existing cushion cover, turned it inside out and winged it. To attached the two zippers took me passed midnight, the edges were not yet finished, and the sides not sewn, etc.

This morning, without the need of any alarm clock, I woke up bright and early and had wanted to sew up the cushions but the machine would have woken the rest of the household so I had to wait until everyone is awake. With the zipper done, the rest of the sewing is easy peasy, lemon squeezy (a new phrase I learn from JY).

So which backing fabric did I eventually used? The end-user (the husband) chose the green Martha  Negley. And here's a photo of the zipper. Try not to look too closely, the faux suede is a bitch to sew and the puckering is awful.

For my next big sewing project, I'm going back to piecing squares and I'll be using these fabrics.

My parents-in-law are away on holiday these few days and the weekend should be the perfect opportunity for me to do some crafting.

Like the Nicole cushion which needs sewing. Here it is, still in the pile side by side with its plain ecru prototype.

I'd wanted to sew a mini moopy bunny too when I first saw the pattern.

Or play with some koolaid dyeing.

I should also be remedying the top-down sleeve of JY's rainbow cardigan.

Then I found a green UFO.

And I decided to finish it. The bag is knitted by Joy, from a pattern in Debbie Bliss Noro book 1. When she was destashing earlier on, I'd asked her if she would part with her Noro Iro as I would love to knit the bag and out she came with the exact UFO in another Noro Iro colourway and asked if I would love to have it. Of course I'd love to! And the fabric for the lining is from Polly. Hence this is completely a blogger friends enabled bag. All I had to do is sew up the bag and add the lining. And I had to make a mistake. I only realised it after the lining is attached. You can't see it here but the bag and the lining is in a different orientation. Greenish bag holding my green stash.

So I realised that sewing and I are not friends this weekend and ended up taking naps with my children in the afternoon. And in the evening, I snuggled up early for bed with my current read, One Hundred Shades of White.

Set-in sleeve from the top down

I'm using Sirdar Rio to knit the Rainbow Cardigan for JY. Here is a recap on this cardigan. The yarn has the same fibre composition as Rowan's All Seasons Cotton but it is a DK weight. It is very easy on the hands and knits up quickly. The dye of this cotton yarn is not uniform and gives it a somewhat solid appearance like for hand-dyed yarn which I just adore. Hence good yarn does not necessary have to be expensive yarn.

This Sirdar Rio is thicker than the yarn called for in the pattern. And without any complicated calculation whatsoever (just a swatch), I'm simply following the number of stitches written for the next smaller size but using the lengths written for the size I want. Sounds confusing? This method is working very well for me, especially since the schematics are good, until I reach the sleeves which are to be set-in. I'm not going to fiddle with modification of the sleeve cap shaping according to my different stitch and row gauge. I'm knitting them top-down a-la Barbara Walker, thanks to the inspiration from MJ and Lauren.

It's exciting to see the sleeve cap slowly growing outwards from the armhole. The technique is so easy, it can't quite be true but it is! One thing that definitely needs to be improved for me is the loosey goosey edges where the short-rows happened. One side is not too bad, but the other side needs tidying up but that sure beats the recalculation of the sleeve cap and the anticipation of whether it will eventually fit into the armhole, etc.

Here's the ugly, loosey goosey side which needs remedy.

The better side.

The sleeve cap top may look somewhat deflated in the photo mainly because of the pulling in of the rib but it fits JY just right.

Now for some inside story. Immediately after I happily packed away the knitting last night and returned to bed, I broke a dpn I'm using for the sleeve which was left behind on my bed. Snapped with my own knee. Now my beloved set of Clover dpns is crippled, I feel so sad. And that's not all the casualty of last night. Earlier in the evening, someone unintentionally locked our bedroom door from the outside and we couldn't find the keys even after ransacking the whole flat. Luckily none of the children were locked in the room. In the end, we had to hack the entire door knob off. Oh well, what's life without a bit of drama.

Time for something new

One project (the Nicole cushion) is now sitting in the sewing pile and another knit (the rainbow cardigan) suddenly flew on the needles. As I'm using a different gauge yarn for the cardi, it now needs some calculation for the sleeve and can't be knitted on the bus just yet.

What can I do but start a new bus project.

I'm using the lovely Greenwood Fibrerworks cotton sock yarn and Inox dpns that Grumperina sent me. This is the first time I'm knitting with elastic yarn and it feels kind of odd, the cool type of odd though. It is so springy I'm not sure how to tension the yarn I hold with my right hand (I'm a thrower and I wind my yarn around my pinky). Usually, I hold it quite taunt but by doing this with this yarn, it gets stretched out rather thin so I have to hold it gingerly. After a while, I grow accustomed to knitting with the yarn but I have to constantly remind myself to relax and not hold the working yarn too tightly.

The Greenwood yarn reminds me of Phildar Eponge that I knitted with last year which is not really elastic. That blue stripey cardigan has been listed there forever at my sidebar, I wonder if it will see daylight again, maybe in the month of blue in June?

Going back to the new sock. Ever since I know I'll be getting this special yarn, I haven't stopped thinking which pattern to knit with it. As I urgently needed a new bus project and don't want to swatch, I started the sock toe up with the figure-8 cast on. Started with 16 stitches (8 on each of the two needles), increased until there are enough stitches to fit around my foot which is 64 stitches. Conveniently, 64 is a multiple of 4 and 8, and I could actually experiment with stitch patterns in those multiples. However, right now, I'm really enjoying the stocking stitch, maybe I'll decide when I get to the leg.

Almost Nicole

This is the seaside we went to last Sunday afternoon. Wasn't the weather magnificent? Right now, it is not so nice, wet with a drizzle brought by a passing typhoon.

Let's go back to the beautiful scenery and zoom in (actually it is out of the above photo to the left). This is the spot that I referred to in my last post. Isn't it a promising spot for FO photos? Next time, I got to go down to the beach and figure out how to clamber up that rock. The lady on top there looked fine so I guess I won't suffer any broken bones. The things we do for the blog.

I've got rather good momentum for the Nicole cushion and I didn't touch any other project much these few days, which is quite rare for fickle me. And I'm surprised that even though it is knitted at a 4 ply gauge, this piece seems to fly on the needles. I'm almost ready to cast off save for a few more rows of stocking stitch and tackle the sewing part. I'll try to attach a lapped zip. BTW, I still have yet to ask my husband which fabric he likes, I think it might be the Roman Glass. The cushion top (20"x20") took 4 25g balls of the Japanese sparkly cotton.

After a number of attempts to use this yarn for myself did not work out, I think this yarn and I are not destined to be together. Rather than have them continue to sit in my stash, I would like to offer the remaining 9 balls here at USD18 for the whole lot. Shipping should work out to be another USD4 to the US or UK (I'll pay for the additional registration charges), shipping to other regions closer to Hong Kong should be lower than that. Any one interested please email me or leave me a comment and we can work something out.

*The yarn have been taken.*

Here are the specifications:

Gauge: Approximately 4 ply, I got a gauge of 27-28st using 3.25mm needles (I'm a tight knitter).

Fibre content: 98% cotton and 2% synthetic (due to the sparkling thread).

Weight and yardage: 25g and 85 meters (93 yards)

Colour: It can best be described as lime green, similar to Crayola's electric lime.

Suggested projects: These are some of the projects that I had wanted to try: Orangina (should be enough for the smaller sizes), Nicole from Rowan 39, Victoria tank from IK Summer 2004, or a shawl like the Flower Basket Shawl (see Anita's beautiful one in cotton (May 12 post)).

Others: The balls of yarn have a piece of cardboard support in the centre and some of them are flattened but the yarn is in perfect condition. Pet-free and smoke free home.

Green fabric for Nicole

Actually, I could just rip off the little bit of Nicole that went wrong and figure out the gauge problem then re-knit. However, I just could no longer envisage myself in Nicole hence the idea of converting into a cushion cover quickly took over. My idea now is to knit the cushion front and back it with fabric, inspired by these cushions in Debbie Bliss' Simple Living.

Out come the green fabrics from stash.

First, these are eliminated because the tone just clashes. The green tweed on the left actually quite matches but it's rather woolly and doesn't seem quite in season.

Although initially looking promising, the below Rowan floral and Kaffe Fassett stripey ones don't quite go with the knitting. (I'm using the same camera, on the same spot, on the same day but look how different the colour of the knitting come s out when placed with different coloured fabric.)

Here are some possible matches.

This Martha Negley in real life looks good with the lime green.

And it always boils down to this green KF Roman Glass.

And this floral piece I bought from Prince Edward market which I'm tending towards. The feel of spring is strong with this combination.

I'll go ask my husband which he prefers (as one of the end users) when I get a bit more of the front knitted up. Meanwhile, here's wishing all mothers a Happy Mother's Day! I've had a very busy one just like very Sunday. We went to the seaside this afternoon and I found a superb spot (at least from where I stood today) for taking FO photos. I'll show you after I sort out the photos.

Some things are just not meant to be

I'm such a Joy wannabe. When I saw her knitting Nicole from Rowan 39 during our last knitting meetup in the refreshing green Rowan 4 ply cotton aptly named Fresh, ideas started running through my mind. I have this Green Cardigan started ages ago which didn't work out and the yarn, a Japanese sparkly cotton yarn should knit up like 4 ply cotton. And the colour is just right for this month's Project Spectrum. Perfect.

Denial #1: To be honest, I have such bony and poky shoulders which should be best hidden under garments and attention should definitely not be drawn there by lacy scallop straps like those designed for Nicole. However, I would so love a sweet little summer top.

Denial #2: Now that I can live with exposed bony shoulders, what about the bare midriff? No way am I going to show my 2-kids worth of stretch marks so my Nicole will have to be longer. That means I should increase the cast on width in order for the garment to sit on top of my hips or thereabouts. Easy peasy, I'm going to knit the XS so I'll just cast on the required number of stitches for S and gradually decrease until the XS number for the waist is reached.

Denial #3: The swatch in stocking stitch says 27.5st to 10 cm, oh, that is the same as 28st isn't it? What's half a stitch in 10 cm?

Denial #4: The popcorn stitch (I'm not sure of the right name) is looking a bit loose, why is mine more holey than Joy's? That shouldn't be a big problem, keep knitting.

I did put the knit-in-progress on my T-shirts for comparison from time to time. It is a bit big despite the waist shaping. At about 10 cm height of work, it started to hit me in the eyes that it is way too big, at least 2 inches too wide. It measures 20 inches across and seems to fit the cushion on my sofa much better. So that be it, my cushion is very lucky, it will get to wear Nicole.

Orange-green

I'm still stuck in the orange-green mode. Remember I mentioned there are a number of cushion covers I need around the house. Here's an unfinished (or rather, a start of) a log cabin one. I still need to fill up the entire big square.

Although it is already the green month for Project Spectrum, I'm really behind on my orange knit but I also want to start on my green knit. I really wish to have more hands to finish these quickly in order to make time to study the Knitting Nature book when it arrives. So without further delay, I swatched. And as you can see, I'm pretty stingy with my swatch. They are still swatches nevertheless and serve their purpose.

The orange is cast on and is actually the back for JY's Rainbow Cardigan. The pattern is from Phildar Pitchuon S/S '05 and it seems to be a quick knit. I'm already up to armhole shaping. If I'm ahead of schedule, I'll promptly start with the cardigan's pink fronts. One word about the pattern so far. Although it is plain stocking stitch, I love the little attention to details. Like the ribbing which is K4-P2, the pattern is written such that the start and end is a K3 which when sewn together with the front, will exactly give you a continuous K4-P2. It's simple things like that which makes me happy with the pattern. If you look closely at the below photo, you'll see something green. Yes, my attention has been distracted and I have started the green knit too. There are sizing issues and I'll show you when I have a bit more to show.

The sock saga continues

The weather did cool down on Saturday but I didn't finish my Something Red in time to wear it to the knit out with the most delightful knit gang but it is done now save for the weaving in the ends and the button. The second Embossed Leaves sock grew considerably over the long Labour Day weekend but once again, I forgot to take a photo of that.

However, I have stash enhancement of the sock kind to show you. This year is not called Two Thousand and Six Sox for nothing. A motherlode of hard-to-get-in-Hong-Kong sock yarn arrived at my doorstep from the marvelous Grumperina! , I'll show you.

Orange (for April) and green (for May), so Project Spectrum. The squiggly ones are the famed Greenwood Fiberworks cotton sock yarn that Grumperina sings praises of. I think they'll be most appropriate for Hong Kong climate. In fact, officially, the orangey one is no longer mine and it now sits in the stash of my colleague, Terry. And the smooth one is the renowned Socks that Rock! Now I understand why it is the favourite of so many knitters. I can't wait to start knitting with it. I have not one hank but two.

Here's a hank of almost solid in colour, Spinel, perfect for showcasing textured stitch work.

Wait, there's more. Lorna’s Laces sock yarn in Lilac, the colour is so soft and lovely and I just love the gentle variation in the dyes of the handpainted solids.

And with this sock bounty, my stash grew a net 2.5 skeins in April after lessening out those used in the month. Pretty tame you might say but my yarn cupboard is bursting at the seams.

Overdue Red Object

Easy Peasy it is to knit but definitely not to finish. The knitting of the bag took me 20% of the total time taken for this project and the finishing took the remaining. I finally got my act together and finished it off this morning at the start of the Easter break.

This project has been languishing forever. It was meant for Chinese New Year back in February if anyone  can still remember. The pattern is the Easy Peasy bag from Louisa Harding's accessories book using the yarn called for in the pattern. Now I would be very well prepared for the next Chinese New Year. It is fully lined and I sewed two inner pockets onto the lining, one for my mobile phone and the other bigger one for all sorts of little things you would usually have in a bag.

The big rosette on the left is a bit wonky and floppy as it is knitted with the Louisa Harding angora, so I tacked all the petals to the bag. The flower centres were some recently bought old buttons from my button tin. Want a very closed-up shot?

It was so hot last week and chances of wearing a cotton cardigan seem very slim so I was not motivated to work on Something Red. And guess what, the temperature dipped last night and now it is perfect weather for it but I'm lacking sleeves and a neckband. I'm always not knitting for the right season so I might as well start something new for summer.

Look, I've crossed over to the other side.