Little Purl of the Orient

Puffy be it

Vintage top, which should have nice little cap sleeves, ended up with bigger, puffier sleeves. And I'm sticking with them. Tell me that the sleeves make me look like a fashion disaster and I think I can still live with that; I'll just move on with other things on the needles for the last few days of August like the blue Phildar cardigan or the Tweedy Aran Cardigan or start something new altogether, and try to make up my mind on the September stashbuster. So here it is, the last centimeters of ribbing done and tubular cast off (yay!) and sleeves sewn in.

Here are some photos, you see always the same backdrop, always the same pose. Husband is very busy and I daren't ask for more. And here is the still shot. It took 4 balls (I think) of GGH Bali which has incredible yardage of 145m per 50g. I still have 2 balls of this pale mint coloured yarn (#91) left but can't remember whether I have 6 or 8 to start with. That's how short my memory is these days.

Rainy days

The sun has finally come out after more than a week of rain. Not just rain but downpour, the heaviest was on Saturday and what to do in a rainstorm but go to Disneyland! We got tickets to go to a rehearsal day at the new Disneyland and no rainstorm could stop us, maybe me, yes, but not the girls. They had so much fun despite being drenched. We were equipped with raincoats, rain boots, umbrellas, extra sets of cloths but still got wet through and through. The rain didn't stop for one minute while we were there but that still that didn't dampen our joy. We returned home all wet and tired but happy.

Then, the tiredness set in yesterday. We couldn't move and the normally energetic girls were sort of toned down. Luckily they didn't get sick. We did some kiddie stuff together like making spiral snakes out of paper plates that Ji Yuan learnt from summer school, playdough, making jelly, watch some TV. Nice and quite. Talking about summer school, last Friday was the last day and the children had a rainforest party to conclude the rainforest theme and each child has to bring an animal appropriate for the theme. And guess what Ji Yuan chose to bring? It's Amy, the so-called sock monkey! And mama had a proud moment despite Amy the monkey being imperfect and all.

I got to do some knitting and crocheting yesterday too. The two sleeves of vintage top are done and so is the little 'bouquet' made of flowers, leaves and fruits(?). The latter are the spiral stuff which I stuff with a little polyester filling for fear they will get squashed. I should have fitted the sleeve to the armhole before knitting the second one. From the looks of them, they look too big and puffy unlike the little cap sleeves that they are suppose to be. And truth be it. When I sewed on the sleeve just now, I don't like how it is looking. Seems like some ripping is on the way. Still more endless rounds of ribbing to go and I forgot to bring it with me to work. Some good traveling time forgone, duh, but I did take it and enjoy the sunshine though.

The sewing and the knitting

The sewing. Bag #2, made with the same green/blue floral fabric as the drawstring bag. The pattern, which is from this Japanese book is fantastically easy, just 3 lines consisting of the 2 side seams and the topstitching. No need to sew the lining separately and there are no visible seams on the inside so it is practically reversible if I had made the lining in a more attractive fabric. I love this shape, it's so versatile, there's definitely going to be more of such bags.

I tried to be smart and added inside pockets as it's real frustrating to fish for the mobile phone when it starts ringing. And I sewed the pocket onto the wrong side of the lining and had to rip it out which took me ages because I had backstitched all the edges (again, there I was, trying to be smart). Anyway, the pocket has two compartments, one big and one small. The floral fabric has some stretch to it and when I topstitched, it just seemed to grow, and I had to tuck the extra half inch into the sides. Any pointers in sewing stretchy fabric will be greatly appreciated.  Details: (clickable, from left to right) a) the straw handles bought from one of stores in Prince Edward; b) the button and the button loop; c) the triangle at the base.

The knitting. Vintage top is going fine, one more little, lacy sleeve and endless rounds of ribbing to go, plus the crochet 'bouquet' brooch. Here's a rush morning shot with wet hair, this top seems to be a little bit snug around the armhole, maybe the cotton will expand a bit with some steaming. Let's see.

Going Vintage

Things are going at a snail's pace chez moi. I started to knit the vintage top and look what happened? When the instructions tell you to take care and not twist the stitches when joining to form a round, they are not joking. I underestimated this mainly stocking stitch piece and a mobieus mysteriously formed that I didn't realised until well into the second inch. So into the frog pond it goes. Hopefully it'll get to become this vintage looking top from this book.

I borrowed the book, Sew Many Gifts, So Little Time from the library the other day and it there is this groovy log cabin beach blanket that seems easy to sew.

However, it requires 13 different colours of terry cloth and after hunting high and low, I found 5 colours that don't go together at all. I wrecked my brains what to do and finally decided to make a cover for Ji Yuan's electronic keyboad using three of the colors and bought another floral cotton fabric that sort of cordinates the three terry cloth. I'll wait for a good, fine night to piece the squares together, using a square patch layout.