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Beating the Monday Blues

Snooping around on flickr. Might do another color theme another day.
1. gray gable, finished, 2. crafting 365 - day 168, 3. Malabrigo Delight, 4. misty back, 5. Goldie the dolphin top, 6. Three Skeins, 7. Embossed Leaves, 8. "cape cod" merino wool hand knit scarf, 9. Saartje's bootees, 10. hairclip on hairband, 11. Project 93/365 - Hemlock, 12. crafting 365 - day 145, 13. booga swatch, 14. fiddlehead, 15. picovoli, 16. Clapokauni = fini!, 17. Lu in Blue, 18. Berlin Muster - SKP #2 - In Progress, 19. RVO, 20. A Blue Swirl: on me (C365:126), 21. Top Down Biker Jacket, 22. The Rococo Shawl - Hand Knit Wool & Llama Shawl (in Teal), 23. blue and green wristies, 24. Stackable Cats, 25. Sparkle Beetle butt, 26. Handspun Lisa Souza BFL in Deep Sea, 27. ribbed hat, 28. lady eleanor shawl, 29. Potato Chip Scarf, 30. Log Cabin Afghan, 31. Christmas Cookie Monster for Kristina, 32. Spina di Pesce, 33. 80 done, 80 to go... (C365:100), 34. bunny2, 35. Urban Aran, 36. Drops Tailored Cardigan

Created with fd's Flickr Toys.

To Meet List

Ravelry has been going on for a while. I started the Singapore Knitters group not too long after I joined. As of today, there's 91 members from either on this island or outside of it. Least too say, I have met more knitters than I ever could. Then again, there's some knitters that's worth mentioning.

Here's my list in no particular order:
- turniptopia - blog
her 1 year old toddler is so like her mom.

- munyee - blog
hope to see her very soon when she returns. I love her pottery items.

- sqpixels - blog
She knits, crochets, bakes and sews.

recent S.E.X

I had been conducting yarn sprees, the day I knew that Knitpicks doesn't ship international and still doesn't till this day. To buy in bulk with other like minded knitters was great to share cost and shipping. Also, to see people beaming when they receive their yarns, made me continued as the Enabler.

So here's the recent purchase from Nordic.com, which specialises in Garnstudio yarns. I am truely surprised by the quality, as most of the time we could only depend on the reviews in Ravelry. This very first spree justified itself and for future purchases.


A soon to be used up yarn, Kidsilk Night in Moonlight. I got 6 balls for Lily Chin's Reversible Ribbed stole. I must be knitting too much and too fast with this yarn, that I ended up with a wounded index finger. Compared to KSH, there's glitter spun within, so I guess it the glitter that caused the abrasion. Anyways, I order another 6 balls in Port, cuz the price was too hard to resist.


Next up is some cashmere cobweb/lace goodies all the way from UK. I guess those who have bought from the same seller will know who I'm talking about. Each color would be enough for a stole/shawl. All for less than US$60.

Shawls Overload

Overloaded with the number of shawls. I think I miss out a few others which are hiding somewhere in the room. Click on the picture to find out about them.

This month

It's been a hectic month for me. I didn't realize till its coming to an end. The WWKIP was amazing. I was stunned by the turnout! We had a lot of fun as you tell from the pictures and the small clip.






Last but not least, a peek at my pre-wedding shoot.
More to come when the finalised photos are out.

Donyale

I have a lot of other FOs for reporting, but no time to take photos of them. I find socks are small and easy in that sense.


I cast on Donyale so that I can knit them during the WWKIP. And managed to finish them on the next day. This round, in order to curb the Second Sock Syndrome, I cast on the second sock right after I finished with the leg of the first. This was a very good way to get even tension between the socks. I tend to relax my tension once I can swim in it.

Pattern: Donyale by Black Dog Designs
Yarn: Lorna's Lace Shepherd Socks, Somerset
Needle: 2 mm from both Addi Turbo and Knitpicks Harmony DPNs
Size: 1 size
Time to finish: 1 week


This pair of socks, I used magic loop for the leg and foot, DPNs for the heel part.


Remember this yarn which I got from JBW?

I can't help but to say this yarn suits the stitch pattern so much!

Aged

A break before I sum up May's knitting progress.

I almost forgot about my photos on photobucket.com account. It's been a long time I guess. And I discover I've grown so much.
Taken in 2004, with a bunch of my Taiwan associates. It was freaking cold on a late October night.

The pup was trying to poopoo. Look at its face, all scrunched up.

Taken during my Bangkok trip in Nov 2004. This is time stamped too.

And I miss this cheap and good Japanese restaurant at MBK call Zen.

Knitting news will be right back very soon.

9.5 Miles

That's a total of 15.37 kilometers worth of lace weight yarn. I can knit like 10-13 shawls with them. Like yesterday, I had collected a list of patterns. Most of which are free patterns, I hope. (Some might be from Ravelry downloads)

- Print O' the Wave Stole
- Hanami - I will only knit the basketweave section.
- Secret of Chrysopolis - I thought this was one of the better mystery lace KALs pattern.
- Hanging Garden Stole - The only thing that's stopping me is the number of rows 1 repeat has.
- Cobweb Lace Stole - this was queued the moment I got my copy of IK Spring '08.
- Queen Anne's Lace - I have this pattern lying somewhere.
- Lattice Lace Wrap - another basketweave type of pattern.
- Faux Russian Stole

23 pairs of socks

That's how much worth of sockyarn I have in my stash. Its staggering to me, as I'm not an avid sock knitter like Adrianne; I do not always have a WIP sock. I really need to pare down this huge number.

First off I need to plan which to use. Probably I will use stuffs like Wollmeise, KPPPM , cuz I have extras. I think I will leave 1 of each for keepsake. Once yarns are used, they are no longer yarns, they are FOs.

Patterns in random order:
- Monkey (i must be the last one to knit this pattern)
- Toe-up Monkey
- Mockery (I like Katie's Drache too)
- Fluke
- Pablo Blue Socks
- Twinkleberry
- Crystalline Lattice
- Cross Country Socks
- Spiral Boot Socks by Veronik Avery - I have the exact yarns waiting for me to knit them up.
- Bayerische Socks

Lack of love

Not for my DH but for this blog.

Lots had been going on, tied up with Knitpicks sprees and local knit outs. It was nice to put faces to the nicks I saw in the Singapore group on ravelry. Being a knit out organiser is both sweet and bitter. I don't think I want to go into details on that, it might get political. With the impending WWKIP Day on 14th June, I'm wondering how would the turn out be. Well, the size doesn't matter, does it?

This blog is lacking lustre, readership has drop at least 40%. I can only blame myself on procastination. Hoping that life doesn't get busier than this.

Thanks to B for getting the color cards below. I thought the colors look more real than the swatches on screen.

1. Knitpicks Shadow, 2. Knitpicks Shadow, 3. Knitpicks Shadow, 4. Knitpicks Gloss Lace, 5. Knitpicks Gloss Lace, 6. Knitpicks Gloss Lace

I'm on my third scarf, Lacy Ribbon from Knitty Spring. Hope to start Jarrett or even a sock very soon.

From the W in G

Look at the pictures below and you will know what's the W and G stands for.

I wish I had gotten a few more. Then again, the shipping alone was the cost of 1 hank.
From left: Veilchen, Blue Suzanne, Indisch Rot

PS. Veilchan belongs not to me.

Of scarves and J-blogs

I have been ploughing hard in my field of knits. However the Knitting Fairy is not around for luck and I'm low on it. I cast on and frogged several potential WIPs. So I guess I better relax, take a step backwards for easy projects. This meant that I'm back to knitting scarves. I enjoyed every bit of it since I need not worry about shaping and gauge problems. I managed to pare down 8 skeins of yarn. 3 for Multidirectional Scarf and 5 for Midwest Moonlight.

I almost lost track in my blog hoppping among the tons of knitters/craftsters on Ravelry. Maybe I should start doing it by countries. First on the list is Japan. Seems like people around me had been or would be traveling there. Only God knows when I can go. Best thing about the internet? It brings everything up close.

Sen, her gorgeous tatting.

Ishi, formidable knits from Japanese books.

Chibitora, her 13 year old maltese is such a cutey

Hiiragi, she always look so good in her knits.

yasuwo, she's also knitting the Printed Silk Cardigan

Not to mention that the Japanese knitters have this blog dedicated to Phildar. (something like a KAL)

I may have more to show before the Sakura season ends. And I hope to show my scarves FOs by then. Wish me luck.

how many RPM?

2 of course. To make a pair of socks. The last picture shows a more true shade to the colorway. These were finished last December and hidding under a pile of WIPs. That eplain why pictures were only taken last weekend.

Pattern: RPM by Aija Goto
Yarn: Koigu
Needle: Crystal Palace bamboo 2.25mm DPNs
Size: i followed the size for M
Time to finish: ??a week??

Printed Bamboo

With the discussion of what yarn to use for Printed Silk Cardigan, I almost forgot about this yarn I bought over ebay. It came at the right time (after waiting for more than 8 weeks). Off I went to knit a swatch, it came up to be slightly big. I went down a needle size and thought it would do.

So here's what you see. I knitted the fronts and back in one piece and they are waiting for the sleeves and neck bands.

Close up on the embossed diamonds.

And I just arrived on Sleevey Island.

Unfortunate incident

Something I received in the mail yesterday. I'm fine with uneveness in the dyeing. But this is absolutely OUT. It doesn't matter if its from the mill end.
Shouldn't the retailer check on each and every hank before sending out?
Didn't they realise that international shipping is on a bullet train to the north?
Even for a 25% off from retail price, they were not obliged to send yarn of decent quality?

I'm definitely getting an exchange.

Upcoming books

The covers of these books look promising. I guess I need to make space for them really soon.

Interweave Knits Spring 2008: My Say

Its one of those magazines, which I have 4-5 patterns, that I will knit from. I couldn't say much about the designs till I found the magazine resting on the seater when I reached home last night.

And I'd queued the following on my ravelry account.
Printed Silk Cardigan
I thought I do buy the exact yarn in another color. The price is a little too scary and would end up a hole in my bank account. There were discussions on the yarn subsitution on Ravelry. Possible candidate :
Frog Tree Pima Silk - have not try this before so no comments. Thought this might give good stitch definition.
SWTC Bamboo - I wouldn't use any of this. Bamboo stretches a lot, unless you like your cardigan to go out of shape after just one wash?
Blue Sky Alpaca & Silk - This would work but I'm not looking for something that's woolly.
Debbie Bliss Pure Silk - This would burnt another hole since I need to add a few more skeins to complete the cardigan.

Drawstring Chemise
I always have cotton yarns in the stash, this would be on the needles the moment Fern Path Stole is done.

Cobweb Lace Stole
I like the way its different from conventional stoles I had knitted so far.

Bleeding Hearts Stole
I had always admired Anne Hanson's designs, especially her Japanese Feather Stole, which is also on my queue.

Ladylike Gloves by Eunny looks interesting enough.

For the longest time

I shall take a little break from the hiatus and do a little update.

New Year was here and gone and so was the Chinese Lunar New Year. And I hope everyone had a good time during Valentines Day. DH gave me a few surprises which almost swept me off my feet. Well I will continue this story another day.

Back to knitting updates.

Even with the new gadgets like Wii and PSP, my needles were always occupied. I actually finished quite a few projects. Including the two below. (No FO pics at the moment though.


Myrtle leaf shawl with willow border


Venezia (more pictures here)

Now I need to get back to Wii Boxing and Trellis (from knitty.com)

Happy Valentines 2008

I felt so loved today and many days there after.

PS. Hope to come out of hiatus very soon. I've got so much to show and tell.