Fa Fa Fa Socks

As promised in my previous post, here's the surprise in the form of a sock pattern. The cable stitch is adapted from stitch books, using one of my favorite yarns.

Click on the picture for the pattern.

Greetings

I better post something if not I will have murmurings that I had disappear from this dimension. It had been rosy on the knitting front despite some hiccups. I shall not do more explanation here and let future postings do the talking.Pattern: Vivian by Ysolda Teague
Yarn: Bendigo Woollen Mills Rustic 12 Ply - Agate
Needle: Addi Turbo, 5mm, 5.5mm, 6mm
Size: XS
Time to finish: ONE year!!!

Click on the picture to access more photos (pardon the wispy hair). Do come back on Boxing Day for a little surprise from yours truly. Meanwhile have fun and lots of food.

A Dog's Life

I got this from a friend and its so true.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

A butcher watching over his shop is really surprised when he sees a dog coming inside the shop. He shoos him away. But later, the dog is back again. So, he goes over to the dog and notices it has a note in its mouth. He takes the note and it reads "Can I have 12 sausages and a leg of lamb, please? The dog has money in its mouth as well."

The butcher looks inside and, low and behold, there is a ten dollar note there. So he takes the money and puts the sausages and lamb in a bag, placing it in the dog's mouth. The butcher is so impressed, and since it's about closing time, he decides to shut the shop and follow the dog.

So off he goes. The dog is walking down the street, when it comes to a traffic junction; the dog puts down the bag, jumps up and presses the button for pedestrian crossing. Then it waits patiently, with the bag in its mouth, for the lights to turn. Then it walks across the road, with the butcher following him all the way.

The dog then comes to a bus stop, and starts looking at the timetable. The butcher is in awe as the dog stops a bus by pulling its left leg up and gets in it. The butcher follows the dog into the bus. The dog then shows a ticket which is tied to its belt to the bus conductor. The butcher is nearly fainting at this sight, so are the other passengers in the bus. The dog then sits near the driver's seat looking outside. As soon as the stop is in sight, the dog stands and wags its tail to inform the conductor. Then, without waiting for the bus to stop completely, it jumps out of the bus and runs to a house very close to the stop..

It opens the big Iron Gate and rushes inside towards the door. As it approaches the wooden door, the dog suddenly changes its mind and heads towards the garden. It goes to the window, and beats its head against it several times, walks back, jumps off, and waits at the door. The butcher watches as a big guy opens the door, and starts abusing the dog, kicking him and punching him, and swearing at him. The butcher surprised with this, runs up, and stops the guy.

"What in heaven's name are you doing? The dog is a genius. He could be on TV, for the life of me! "To which the guy responds: "You call this clever? This is the second time this week that this stupid dog's forgotten his key."

Moral of the story.....
You may continue to exceed onlookers expectations but shall always fall short of the boss' expectations.

It's a dog's life after all.....

Knitters spotted

I had been spotting knitters and crocheters on the commute to and fro work. There are so far and between, that I though I was the only commuting knitter. But I was wrong. I was hoping to be proved wrong.

Getting back to the grind, has indeed placed knitting on the side. Especially when I need to put in extra hours to see through things. And being new to the industry just makes it tougher. As the saying goes, as tough gets tougher, the tougher gets going.

My very fabulous mom bought a Kenwood mixer recently. So, a bit of time had been spent on baking. I'm still trying to figure out to make better sponge cakes. The durian cream cake was nice, all thanks for attending the demo class held by the oven maker. Hope to make chocolate sponge and freshly baked breads very soon.

Pictures soon, I hoped.

090909

How can I not drop a post today? a short one mind you.

Plenty of good news. My new place will be handed over in December. Finally I can wake up at 8am and not be late for work. About work, yes I've move away from the previous scope. The current one is entirely a new forte to me.

Few weeks ago, I had a blocking party. Took plenty of photos of the party-goers. Hope I have time to upload them.

With the busy schedules, now wonder it had taken a tow on my knitting progress. Maybe you will see more of WIP pictures than FOs.

Take care till the next post.

My favorite character

Take the Quiz here!

I finished 2 audio books and already a Jane Austen fan. More audio books for now.

Snippets of last 3 months

Aeolian

Esther

Pacific Islands

Bex

Aquaphobia

I had also finish Whisper cardigan, Outside In sock and Buttercup too. I think I missed out a few others.

Finally I began to see the back of my shelves, which is a good sign. This meant that I had less stuffs to take with when we move to a new place next year. Yes, finally we got our little haven.

Team Knit, Jenny and Rain: thanks for the compliments.

Craftlover: do watch out other yarns from Wollmeise.

was it 1 month ago?

And June is over.

The weather is hot and humid, despite the occasional rain. I dislike going for interviews in the afternoons, gives me migraines.

Game-wise, I had completed all dishes on Restaurant City after hitting level 27. Also a Farm Town retiree at level 34.

Knit news would be the WWKIP day, cum Ingrid's farewell. She brought baby Aemilia with her. Hope she enjoys plenty of knitting time back home.

My Aquaphobic socks is still only 1 done. Meanwhile, I finished Aeolian on the eve of WWKIP and Artichart yesterday. Time to hit the sock before it hit me. Maybe its on 4" dpns that I'm reluctant to go on. I thought I changed to the bamboos when it was time for heel flap. Probably, I might have a looser foot since I knit much tighter on the 4".

I did a bit of yarn stalking and all packages arrived. I thought I'd a stash update on my sockyarns (WM category).
Collected them for over 3 years? Notice the old labels?

The 8 skeins from the sock club. Pity there won't be a sock club in the near future.

Disruption from gaming

Time for another post before May slips away. A very hot afternoon which made it difficult to concentrate on games and double difficult to knit.




Pattern: Ribbed Lace by Charlene Schurch
Yarn: Knitpicks Gloss sockyarn - Porcini
Needle: 2.25m, Knitpicks Harmony
Size: n/a
Time to finish: 1 week

Nothing to add, just did as per the book's instruction. Love the round toe.

May I?

Its May already, and almost half of 2009 passed us all. I only have a fair bit of knitting to report since time has been mostly devoted to Restaurant City and Farm Town. Hoping to turn 30 on my farm. and join the ranks on the farm town forum.

Anyways, I did finished a few socks. None to say, I am so behind in documenting the FOs on my ravelry account too. Well, here goes Maelstrom.


Pattern: Maelstrom by Cookie A
Yarn: Malabrigo Sock Yarn - Impressionist Sky
Needle: 2.25m, Knitpicks Harmony
Size: n/a
Time to finish: 1 week
Notes: Only added 1 extra repeat to the leg section. I have nothing but positive comments for most if not all of Cookie's patterns. Just a minor thing which I might change would be the toe. I still much prefer a more rounded toe than a pointy one. Malabrigo Sockyarn has joined Louet Gems on my ranking of favorite yarns, both share the top position. It give good stitch definition and its so buttery soft. I can't wait my lay my hands on other colorways too.




Rain: yep that's Farm Town on Facebook. Its been days since I last level up.

Mabel: bookdepo was half a good reccomendation. i made 2 orders, 1 was cancelled cuz they decided to increase to the price and not fulfilled my order which was of cos placed prior to the increase.

Ruth: swaps are addictive!!!

Tp all: thanks for all the well wishes for this post.

Where was ME?

Of online shopping

I think I got into online retail therapy after swapping for cosmetics/skincare on Makeupalley.com for almost a year. The surprises I always get from package through out the many months were very fun during that year. And a time to learn more about grooming myself. (Even though I have slackened a lot.)

There were swappers who refuse to ship international. Since I always ship outside of Singapore, I can totally understand the cost of postage and the anxiety whether the package will reach the recipient safely. Anyway, there's always swappers who were willing to ship to Singapore. Postages back then were much cheaper too.

Then came a time when I realised I had turn into a makeup junkie. That's when I sold off items which were 99% used, threw away stuffs that were not touch for a long time and would probably have gone mouldy.

Alright this is a knit blog not a makeup blog. So why did I start writing about the above? Well, since I stash mostly via online retailers, I thought I might do a little write up on my online Stash Enhancement Experience.

- Freeshipping
It's not always inexpensive to buy online. Especially when one buys alone. Shipping charge is 1 HUGE factor to consider when shopping. Very often, I will look for Freeshipping Worldwide. However, you might need to hit a minimal order amount. And there's no freeshipping for books and magazine, That's common sense, isn't it?

- Flat shipping charge
This is not usually available to me. And I love to organise bulk purchases. There's once which I need to seek out USD300 just to claim the deal. I'm never in the right mind to stash $300 worth of yarns at one go. I'm still very sane towards my yarn hoarding. By sharing shipping cost with other like-minded, it is more wallet-friendly.

- Free/Flat shipping within US/Canada
I might need to do a bit of maths and judge whichever is more cost-effective; to ship via a forwarding company or direct to my doorstep.

It pretty sad that some sellers do not ship international. And I think that's simply closing doors to more business. Given the current economic situation, turning down a sale is turning down a potential long term customer.

As a customer, I think it is very helpful if a seller goes all out to help save shipping cost for me. I will most probably return to buy more and recommend them to more people. Word of mouth is very powerful in this sense.

And now, I'm crossing my fingers (and toes) that my last package willl reach me within this week.

angelknits: thanks for the congrats!

Aw: it was raining and traffic was very slow, thus the long wait for the groom.

Rain: hahaha, i guess we agreed to take a pic of me knitting in my gown. will really be unforgetable.

Snippet from the BIG day

I thought I should start sharing some pictures from the BIG day. So here's one which I was knitting.

picture grabbed from Adrianne.

Boxes and envelopes

These were the things that kept appearing at my doorsteps and mailbox. 2 more and I shall hibernate till April.

Finally, they are in my possession forever. Can't help it, when the pounds is low and the temptation from the lovely photography.

One more work day to endure and the start of a knitty weekend and hopefully also something that gets bind off from the needles.

Realisation

Its only when you are at it, will you feel the intensity.

The work has started since last Monday. Assigned to replace this lady who was going to give birth. At this point in time she had already return home after a C-section, hence I'm covering her duties for the next 3 months or so.

The office is situated at this not-so-convenient location. Lunches were boring, food were bought back by some kind souls.

I would say that I stay pretty near to the office, just half hour drive. However, I'm using the transport pick up (pick up point 5 minutes walk), I need to be standing by at 7.15am. Journey usually takes around 1 hour and I'm still at least 15 minutes early for work. The bus journey was so jerky that knitting is almost impossible. I managed a few rows while seated by the window this morning. Return trip is on a van, goodness, its only a waste of 20 minutes.

I guess I won't be returning to this area for work. The limit is only till end of the contract period.

Knitting news, not much 'cept for finishing the Seascape wrap. I started out a bootneck cotton top, I might need more yarn than what I already estimated.

I'm also expecting 4 packages to arrive within the next 2-3 weeks. With the income and good exchange rates, I hope I don't buy myself poor.

One more, perhaps two

One more FO report, two socks which make a pair.

Pattern: Clover from The Inside Loop Issue 2
Yarn: Cherry Tree Hill Superwashed Solid - Sapphire
Needle: 2.25m, Knitpicks Harmony
Size: n/a
Time to finish: 1 week
Notes: The feel of it knitting up is very similar to Louet Gems fingering. I like the combination of both lace and cable on this sock. The pattern repeat is intuitive. I would say this is a pattern that is good for beginner sock knitters to step up for more advance stuffs.

Vessy

I was so into getting the jacket in the picture below to work, but it seems like the WIP was hiding in a dusty corner waiting to be recalled by me.

In turn, I transformed it into something totally different. Also from Phildar patterns.


Pattern: Pull #468-T6-628 by Phildar Design Team
Yarn: Phildar Aviso in Ficelle
Needle: 4.5mm and 4mm for the ribbings
Size: 32
Time to finish: 2 months?
Notes: I missed out the chart for the front piece and while waiting I finished up other projects. The yarn is soft and splity at the same time. With charts to follow, one can almost do without the French instructions. I love the cable richness. I think certain cotton/acrylic yarns bring out cables better than wool/alpaca does.
Mod: i left out the ribbing for the armholes, might add them in one day if I can tolerate the bulk at the pits.

First FO of 2009

I have quite a bit to report here. I ended 2008 on a silky note with a wrap. Not much pictures yet, since this was kept away to avoid the dust from my cleaning.


And here's the first for 2009. Hope this will spark off good knitting vibes for the rest of the year.



Pattern: Baroque by Janice Kang
Yarn: Posh Yarn Lei
Needle: 2.5mm Knitpicks Harmony
Size: small
Time to finish: 4 days
Notes: I was apprehensive about the stitches showing up on this color. Seems like it worked well and I enjoyed working with the yarn despite its splity-ness. I would use 2.25mm if ever to restart these socks. Also, if i'm knitting for feet much larger than mine, I might need 1.5 skeins at least to get a enough leg covered.