Craft Lover


my project for Erika
June 18, 2008, 10:10 am
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Here is a new project that I started few days ago,

it’s a new cardigan from Knitty.com (the Helena)

I think this is an easy and fast project!
the yarn that I am using is Jojoland Rhythm (purple/orange tone)

Actually, I love the red/brown tone better, however, at the time I purchased this yarn, there were no choice.

This yarn is made in China, honestly, the color is great, but the quality of the yarn isn’t that perfect.
The yarn is like ‘twisted yarn’ (combined of 3 strands) , but sometimes, one or two of the strands broke while knitting. So, for my cardigan, I already few knots on the neck edge because of the breakages.

ALthough there is a little problem with the yarn, I still love to knit with it, I believe that it will look great for this pattern.

I finished the reglan part and started the bodice section.

It’s fuN!



Warm days..
April 22, 2008, 12:55 pm
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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.)


Tulip sweater

Oh, I had been waiting for this project for a long time. I checked this pattern in Ravelry and found that there are at least 293 people did this sweater, you can see how popular it is.

the RS

the WS

The reason that I like is:

1) it’s not hard to knit.

2) no seam sewing is needed.

3) colorful

4) and the yarn is just soft to knit and it’s machine washable!

I started to fall in love with the Dream in Color’s yarn, their colorway is special.
Even though they look like ’solid’ color, but actually they are not, they have tint of other colors that create a very nice tone and texture for your garment.

I bought this kit in Lettuce Knit, it costs about 40 dollars, it’s not cheap, but I think, it’s better to buy 8 skeins of Classy at a time, it will cost even more. If I buy all 8 skeins of Classy, after using the yarn for this sweater, I don’t have much idea what to do with the rest of the yarn.

I started the project on Monday, and got the body part done yesterday.

It looks great , I mean, although one of the color is not what it says in the pattern (the teal color became darker green), but, the colors look ok to me. I still left the border and the sleeves parts. I hope I can finish this today or tomorrow, then, Erika can wear this out while picking up her dad tomorrow night at the airport! :)

First time to use this stitch marker, although it’s a bit small for this needle size, (it should be for lace needles) , but, I love it, it’s PINK, my favorite color!
I’ve got this treat from my “THINK PINK SWAP” package that was held in Ravelry’s THINK PINK group.

MY ravelry’s ID: craftover



HK trip delayed…
February 20, 2008, 9:51 pm
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To all my friends here, I delayed my trip to Hong Kong, just because I was too exhausted before we  went to the Airport. It was a long story, anyway, Erika and I finally stayed in Canada till April, and we will get off again at the end of April till mid of May.

The picture shows on the above was taken by my dad in the airport, we were about to fly, however, the flight was delayed for over 12 hours!! And I felt so sick being stuck inside the flight for 4 hours, and then few hours in the hotel’s room (very bad air condition)…. !!! That’s why I finally gave up the trip and only my husband flied to Hong Kong for visiting.

I didn’t even able to finish the little cardigan for my little one, seems like while Erika grows, I need to spend more time with her.

not to mention about KNITTING!!

Oh well, I try to grab some time to knit whenever I can, because I just miss my knitting needles!

however, no new project up to now, and I am trying to finish off the shawl that I wanted to make for Angel. It’s a seasilk shawl, I love it too.

After that, I think I will start to modify/ create my own knitting pattern.
I love the Runway knits’ Little black dress, however, a comment said that there is a big error in the pattern from Ravelry’s member, so, I am going to check out the mistakes, and see if I can make the dress to be a top with those lace bottom and sleeves.

The yarn that I am going to use for this little black top will be Karabella Vintage cotton in black color. They are the suggested yarn in that pattern, I asked Angel to help getting these yarn from NYC, they are great. Beautiful yarn and color! It will be my first time to knit thing in BLACK!

I hope, I really hope that I can finish this little top before I go to Hong Kong in April.
It suits the warm weather in Hong Kong with this nice cotton yarn.