Lucky me~

Just realised I have a free pack of yarns on their way to me. How lucky can I get?

I had been working hard on my FFL. It's finally on to Chart 2 with a little over 400 stitches on the needles. *sweats* no pics yet, as FFL is progressing and i refuse to pause.

Maryann: HK's accomodation cost might put me back on the shopping budget. :p

Kessa: hope u are feeling better! the earth is still revolving round the sun. =)

Ruth: thanks for the compliment. hows your lacy lattice doing?

Valerie: u can email Bendigo wools at benwool@bendigo.net.au

Long weekends, I love

I love long weekends. And there's going to be 2 in the month of May, starting with this weekend. So there will be more progress for FFL. Hopefully I can finish more of 1952, I'm only 3/4 away from a finished sleeve.

With all the public holidays in May, I'm sure it will pass on swiftly. I'm also looking forward to a small getaway. To where? I'm not so sure. A place with good yarn supply would be a good idea.

Anyways, there's a meetup today with other knitters. I haven't been able to organise meetup as I'm swamped with activities with Mapling. I'm 3 levels away from becoming a Mage, I will have new skills so very soon.

More pics on next post. I promise.

Frost Flowers & Leaves Update #1

After 2 weekends, frogging the cast on twice, trying to know which method is better, here's my FFL on Chart 1 Row 45.
As you can noticed, I'm using 2 circulars to knit this circular shawl. The metal dpns were too cumberson with the initial 8 cast on stitches. With the help of Eunny's tutorial, i cast on 8 stitches and placed them 4 on each circular. I did not place markers till i was on Row 5.

After taking this picture, I think I can start transfering the stitches onto the 60 cm circular.

As such, I got to cast on for the second sleeve of 1952.

Flashing the monster

all This is the Stash Monster which is currently growing in my room. Here's a picture of what it's made up of. (Click for a bigger pic) I'm too lazy with the unpacking and packing of ziplocks, so you shall see them with their "raincoats" on. So if you want to swap or buy my stash from me, you know how protective I am with my precious. Moreover, its a pet free and smoke free home.

1. Japanese yarn, a very fine gauge of 33sts/10cm. and also the last ball of Trinity for 1952

2. 10 balls of australia wool bought on my last Taipei trip.

3. 10 balls of Noro Silk Gardern #88

4. 2 hanks of Color Your Own and 1 hank of Paint Your Own

5. 4 skeins of Wool of the Andes in Fog and 8 balls of Rowan 4 ply soft in Buzz

6. 4 cakes of i-dont-know-what-blend shiny yarn from Taipei. (maybe destined to become IK's Lacy Kerchief)

7. 4 balls of Japanese KSH wannabe, it has similar fiber content, same if not more yardage. Most importantly, its half the price of KSH.

8. sock yarns here with 1 ball of RYV Cashsoft leftover for Rebecca 31 project.

9. 3 balls of Japanese KSH wannabe. same as bag #7 but its varigated.

10. the newcomer, 6 hanks of Elsebeth Lavold SIlky Wool.

Edited to add: The Monster is not for sale. None at all

I got another huge package (2 times the size of a regular pillow) from Bendigo Mill from Australia. I was worried that it may have gotten lost. The package took an extra week to arrive cuz it violated the aviation regulation (or something likewise). As each ball comes in 200grams, they are really HUGE, about 3 times of a normal 50gram ball. . No worries, not all were for the Monster in my room.

Of course, I'm still destashing. and stashing up too. =P

"6" meme

Got tagged by BeeBee (can I call you by this?) =P

1. Six minutes to yourself: How would you spend them, ideally?
Other than knitting, I will also be admiring at my stash, fondling, stroking, petting, squeezing and give them a sniffle or two.

2. Six bucks to spend right now: How would you spend it?
I need breakfast now since I came to work empty stomach. It's been a while since my last McDonald's Big Breakfast.

3. Six items in your house you could part with, right now, that you hadn't thought of already?
The old TV in my bedroom, the old sewing machine which both hasn't been doing their jobs normally. Old clothes and jeans. There should be plenty more I think.

4. Six items you absolutely, positively could never part with in your house?
All of my FOs, WIPs, yarns and such. Not forgetting my desktop PC.

5. Six words you love?
I love Sale, Discount, Holiday, Money, Yarn and Knitting.

If you are reading this, consider yourself tagged.
No obligations of cos. =)

Blockhead

Some pictures of the Backyard Leaves blocking. I even had my Flower Basket Shawl reblocked when I first bought these foam mats home. They were actually meant for children's play mats. Since no kids at home, they served well as a blocking mat when pieced together.

I love how the leave motifs are designed. Ingenious is an understatement. Here's a close up.

Seeing 3 packages after a bad day at work really perks me up more than anything else can. The box at the top is OPI nailpolishes, the brown package is from Maryann. The white package is from loopyarn.com. The only regret I had from loopyarn is that I ould have bought more from them. LOL

I was still trying to take better pictures for the other FOs. but they all turn out really bad on the screen. So I guess I will wait for a sunny day, when natural light pours in. Meanwhile I have finished the back and fronts of 95-12. I shall call this cardigan 1952 since Drops doesn't give proper names. 1952 is giving me a good time with its drapey-ness. Hope the other KALers are enjoying it too.

Its gonna be a long weekend

Was the contest difficult? I doubt so in Belinda's case. And now I know who's the mysterious stalker. LOL. So Belinda, watch out for my mail to claim your yarns. Thank you to those who have tried! *HUGS*

This coming long weekend will be loads of cleaning in my room. I'm practically swimming in yarns now and with the arrival of packages of yummy yarns, i will be drowned sooner or later. Furthermore, I think Panta is buried deep uder my stash, so is my Silk Garden Beanie.

I have plans to flash my stash and also document those un-document FOs. Not forgetting the long-forgotten sewing machine which was part of my Mom's dowry, I will have it oiled and cleaned. If the weekend is really long, I might get some cloths and practise on it. yoohoo!!

so i sew too? I did sew during my secondary schools in Home Economics classes. My granny handsew most of her blouses, even at an age of 70+ she was still sewing by hand, just that she needed me to help her thread the needles, which i gladly did for her. I think I sort of inherit her genes in that sense. I love to do crafts since young, was in the Art's Club during my first 10 years of education. I can still remember how to paint goldfishes the chinese painting way. I had origami-ed ad crocheted. I was into baking before I took up knitting. I still can't forget the peanut cookies (kok zai in cantonese, not Japanses gou zai) which Granny made for every Chinese Lunar New Year. Unfortunately, it was only 3 years after her passing did I take up baking. Thus she never had the chance to try my baking. I shall talk more about Granny soon.

Back on my stashing excerise, 6 hanks of Elsebeth Lavold Silky Wool was waiting for me when I reached home last night. Together came the dpns which will be used for FFL cast on. Hence, I hope this weekend will be super long so that I can at least cast on FFL and have it big enough to be transferred onto a 40cm length needle.

Mona urged me to join the Tri-Knity KAL and I finally freed my 3.5mm needle to cast on for this cardigan. I'm on the third repeat of the lace patterns. The knitted up fabric is so drapey and light. Maybe I had been purling a little too tight, that when I try to k2tog, it feels so tauted that I'm afraid the yarn might break.

I'm expecting more yarns to arrived within this 2 weeks. Many thanks to Maryann for hoarding a pack of Noro Silk Garden for me. <3

Blo-giver-sary!!!

It's been a year of ups and downs in my knitting path. Started this blog after a few months of knitting and it has bring me joy by sharing my views and stuffs, still is today. I also made lots of friends, be it local or overseas. The Internet has certainly bring all knitters closer than ever.

As the title of this post says, I'm going to give out 2 hanks of yarns, to be dyed by Kessa of The Singing Yarn. You can have her custom dye 2 hanks for you. Of course, there's no free lunch (or you might say "free yarn") in this world. Please tell me which FO(s) of mine has not been documented on my blog. Which means: I might have mentioned finishing an item but no FO photos were posted about it. The first person who give me the most number of FOs not mention is the receiver of the yarns. If you have been following my blog, it wouldn't be that difficult. Last day of this contest is 11th April GMT+8 10:00.

All entries to be emailed to undievisual (AT) gmail (DOT) com
Results will be announced on the 12th.

I have plenty of photos taken and will update when I have more time.

To Knit List (Spring/Summer)

My latest To Knit List. Both Vintage Velvet and Backyard Leaves should be done by this weekend.

WIPs to finish:
Jaywalker sock #2
VL Lacy Cardigan
Martha
Japanese cami (I need to see Rita about this)

New Projects in the queue
Frost Flower & Leaves - Aegean Blue Jaggerspun Zephyr (Ruth, now you know?)
Bergere Cable Cardigan - Bendigo Yarn*
Fad Classic - to be decided*
2 tops from Louisa Hardings Vintage Knits - Cotton from Bendigo Yarn*
Ribbed socks - Trekking XXL 100
Cascading Leaves socks - Lorna Laces Shepherd Socks
Embossed Leaves socks - Knitpicks Color Your Own(handdyed by Kessa)
Phildar 436 Blazer - Phildar Aviso* (future yarn spree)
Lady Eleanor - Noro Silk Garden*
Drops Design 95-21 - Jaeger Trinity
Timeless from Rowan 34 - Rowan 4 ply soft Buzz

Seems like I'm not knitting much from the stash.

*oppz i didn't mention i added a few balls of cotton to my Bendigo order. and Silk Garden is on my To Buy List =P

I need a Vent

Its so stressed at work. When was the last time i spent 12 hours straight in an office? I entered the office at 8 am last morning and left at 8 pm. I rather spend time knitting away. Imagine 12 hours of blissful knitting. That's the problem of working full time. Luckily, there's only 19 working days in April. Not forgetting that paycheck will be in in less than 3 weeks. yooohoooo. =)

anyway, I sat down and work on Vintage Velvet till its time for bed. A dose of knitting a day, keeps my sanity at ease.

I guess I overspent the day i broke my yarn diet. Needless to say, there was a sale of Elsebeth Lavold Silky Wool at loopyarn.com so off I jump from the edge after months of waiting. I also bought 2 sets of DPNs, that might be used on Frost Flower & Leaves. And did I mention my 8oz of Jaggerspun Zephyr had arrived? it came in a huge hank. It almost got tangled a few times while winding it into a huge yarn cake. I guess FFL will be a stay-at-home project since a HUGE yarn cake is not portable by any means. Beside these, I also need to add a few balls of cotton to my Bendigo order. All of my Bendigo yarns are already spoken for, so I guess this is quite fair. I'm still looking around for a bagof Noro Silk Garden #226, which will be yarn for Lady Eleanor. any cheap deals to recommend?

Plan to succeed not fail to plan

With plans in mind, I managed to follow closely. however as usual i side track a little bit. No, i didn't cast on any new projects but I'm itching to do so.

No pics yet as I'm updating in office. I managed to finish Green Gable, and I'm wearing it today. Also finished Jaywalker Sock #1, casting on #2 tonight after the final part of Backyard Leaves is done and weave in.

Met Evelyn to return her the ballwinder and getting the long awaited latest japanese magazine from her. I wasn't as impressed with it as the last spring/summer issue did. anyways, I shall try to work one pattern out from it, so as to justify the purchase of this magazine. So, Bee, if you are reading this, do not have too much expectation of this issue. Perhaps I was anticipating a lot from it, thus the disappointment.

Being photo-less for quite a few posts, reminds me of the Flash Your Stash 2006 event. After surfing through lots of knit blogs, I'm so ashame to say that my stash is not flash worthy. So, in order for a valid flash, I decided to halt my yarn diet. My stashette will grow from now into a monster. What a good excuse to start stashing. Anyway, the plan is undergoing, I'm expecting 5 x 200grams of Bendigo wool. *winks* Funnily, I did not order a single cotton item.

I hope to upload more photos soon, if time permits.