Craft Lover


Stitch markers

 

 

This is my first time to make stitch markers.

It seems easy, but mine, it’s actually very basic one, nothing fancy at all.

The size of this stitch markers may only fit for fingering needle size.

I love these pearl beads, it’s smooth, and shiny!!

I also make some with crystals on top.

Here is a set of 6 stitch markers for my swapping friend (Treasury Swap in Ravelry).  I hope she will love them. :)

 



Warm days..
April 22, 2008, 12:55 pm
Filed under: knitting | Tags: , , , , , , ,

What a wonderful weekend!
I love the warm weather now, no more heavy coat, turle neck sweater, winter scarves…

But short sleeves, sleeveless top, linen pants, and summer scarves! How NICE!!!

I am packing stuffs for the Hong Kong trip now, and it’s kind of hard for me to continue the knitting hobby recently. But, since I promised myself (and my sister) to knit a camisole for her, so I have to rush myself to finish it off before I fly to Hong Kong.

The wavy band is ready to block!

Just few more rows for the body part, and then I can attach the band to the body section, add the strips and buttons.

I can’t wait to see it done and hope it will look good on my sister. :)

Last weekend was so nice the weather , my husband and I brought Erika out to the park and took some nice pictures. :)

 



my socks knitting

Finally, I started to knit socks again.


I gave up a year ago, because I chose the wrong color for my sock (i chose hot pink, which is not so good on my leg). And I was using double pointed needles at that time, I found myself very clumsy to use them, so, I gave up.

But, I found that the sock yarns are just so yummy that i couldn’t resist to knit socks again.
This time, I used the 2 circular needles method, and it works for me, it’s easier and faster.
I think I fall in love with this method, and I love socks knitting now.

The pattern that I am using is from my library:

Embossed Leaves by Mona Schmidt from Favorite Socks
I am now working on the leg part, it’s fun, and it’s easy to knit too.

The yarn that I am using is the Indigo moon, I was planning to use it for the Pomatomus sock pattern, however, I changed my mind and switched to this one.
I think, I better use a solid color for the pomatomus , otherwise the lace pattern plus the multi color will look too busy.
Yesterday, I spent a morning with my mom and Erika to visit two yarn stores.
the first stop is the Knitmatic, I wanted to search for some nice sock yarn, and I was looking for the Koigu sock yarns, however, when I arrived the store, they didn’t have my colors, and seems like they had less Koigu now.
Then, just few mintues away from this store, I arrived Loop cafe, it’s a new yarn store for ME.
I love this store, when I stepped into the store, you can smell the yummy baking food and the coffee.
It’s a very spacious store for eating, relaxing, knitting and chatting.

I met the store lady there and she was very nice to me and spent some time to show me the yarn and the patterns. I love this place.
The left side is the cafe section, and the right side is one of the yarn sections, you can find some nice sock yarns there…
I bought two skeins of sock yarn there:
1) Ancient Threads, It’s called “tri”, 100% merino wool superwash.
weight: fingering weight, amount: 481 yards/ 100 gram,
one skein is already enough for a pair of socks!
It’s very special the dyeing of this yarn, because this lady used natural food dye , she even wrote down what ‘food’ she used:
for this yarn, she wrote:
“Iac, Cocerineal, mackler, chestnut, black walnut, logwood grey, logwood purple, tumeric, fustic, quebracho red, quebracho green”
I love this color way! (how much? around $25.50)
You can also find this yarn in her esty store .
Another cheaper one is called Elitespun , it’s made in Canada!
100% merino wool, 115 g, 398 m / 435 yards
machine washable.
you can also check out the website for this  brand: www.elitespun.com
I chose a light olive green/yellow one. :)
(sorry, not a good picture, I just my small camera to take this shot, so, it’s not so good.)


yarn shop day with Erika

What a beautiful day today.

Just couldn’t resist myself to go out with Erika.

The weather report said that today would have 60% chances Raining.. but, I didn’t see any drop of rain today, HOW NICE!!!

This morning, we woke up and had lunch (dim sum) with my mom, it’s just a wonderful time to have 3 generations together! We all enjoyed the time there!

Then, we went to a local yarn (operated by Chinese lady) store, and bought two balls of special Japanese yarn. It’s very special, I don’t know how to describe it ,it’s like TAPE, but very fine TAPE with sheen , and feels like SILK…! I love the color combination of it, it looks gorgeous!

After that, I dropped off my mom to her home and got ready to go to Downtown for yarn shop visiting!

First stop: The Purple Purl.

What a beautiful place, there were some people there chatting and knitting. Well, only the YARN attracts me. I quickly found that yarn that I want and need.

It’s the Indigo Moon, the color I chose is Indigo, it’s great for sock knitting.
I already have a pattern in my mind, the Pomatomus by Cookie A.

I took some pictures inside the store, and also asked the store lady to help us to take one too.

:)
cute.. Erika seemed didn’t have a great mood there, but she still ‘able to’ give a smile to the store lady .. :D

THEN… we drove to Romni, I returned some yarns and then bought some new yarn for a new project in Rowan #43.

In the pattern, it suggests  to use Rowan Bamboo Tape, but instead of using that, I chose Romni wool’s Pure silk.  It’s a beautiful silk yarn there, soft with a sheen on it.
I chose black, as there aren’t that much choices of color. And I think BLACK will look cool and great for evening wear as well.
And compare with the price of Rowan Bamboo tape, it’s much cheaper (economical)

What’s next?
we went to Japanese paper store…IT is my beloved paper store, I used to go there quite often many years ago, because I love to make paper craft. However, after learning Knitting, I kind of gave up the paper craft.
But, I somehow went into the store today with Erika. AND again, bought some little stuffs for my friends.
I am not going to show them here, as I want to give them a surprise. (If I show them here, they will read my blog and the surprise will be gone..)

Erika did enjoy the YARN shopping with me today.. :D
HOW NICE!

Oh well, seems like I spent a lot today… I think I shall stop shopping for yarns in the  next FEW MONTHS…

(and it’s time to sell off more my unwanted yarn in ebay…)



Noro Kureyon Sock yarn…
April 7, 2008, 10:23 pm
Filed under: knitting, yarn stash | Tags: , , , , , ,

Want to ask a question :

does anyone work with the Noro Kureyon sock yarn?
How will you comment on this yarn?

I love the color of it, it’s just yummy and very pretty.
But,  I tried to touch the yarn in the yarn store, it’s really rough.

I held back and didn’t buy any of it. I am afraid that if I use it for socks, it’s too rough for my feet.
I saw that some people even used it to knit a shawl (clapotis).

I am afraid of any yarn that will make me ‘itchy’…

SO, I want some more advices: will you recommend this yarn to me if I don’t like itchy yarn?
Will it soften after soaking (any special soaking formula? )

I’ve seen a review on this yarn by Knitter’s Review, but, I still want more other advices or comments….