red-pink project spectrum - part 1

it supposed to be posted last month, since the pink-red theme from project spectrum was on march (always mistaken with feb. .. guess it becoz of pink thing....)
and these are my first attempt of making baby stuffs... i like to knitting all these cute things.. those planning to be my gift for my friend, whom pregnant her second kid and most likely would a girl.

i can say, for who you like to see quick result, making babies stuff is one of them.. i can finished these booties in about 2 hrs. not too bad...;)










Myers's book The Joy of Knitting is a good one.. I got it in the book store who have sale.. and this one was about 80% disc... go to have it!! :).. it's hardcover too.. but put aside the cover when i reading the book.


and this one was on my plan to crochet using hairpin lace.. but not so into it at this moment.. so perhaps...later...;)

got to have this !! :)

i love cardi and already make 3 (none havent been showing off before in public) but i already want to make other new one.. i have the yarn..
but dont want the casual model.
when i wondering around the blogger and dropped by at savanahchick's and see this from garnstudio





lovely right?

it maybe not for beginner knitter but i think it's good challenge.
the good news, this is free !!!! the best thing, this pattern also have the chart!! 2 thumbs up!!

hurry!! and make one for you!! or 2 or 3.. ;)

lace like wave

i was browsed around on bloggers' world and when i dropped by at eunny's .. i must gave my 2 thumbs up for her.

she really great knitter and generous to share her great knitting knowledge with us. she wrote about steeks, which is i am still not dare to try, first the real wool yarn is very expensive here and 2nd and the most important, i am not dare to reach my scicors and cutting the expensive yarn .. he.. he.. then i saw that she also share a great wave lace shawl. this is kind like shetland's lace that i always want to make. her pattern called "PRINT O'WAVE" shawl.
after downloaded the pattern (she already make the pattern in pdf file), i am back to my LYS (which not a really local since it about 20-30 kms from my house.. he.. he..) and checked for the suitable yarn.

so, the LYS have new yarn which just arrived and still in the FEDEX box... it's nylon and the owner already warned me that this yarn would be very very very easy to split out and dont even dare try to crochet this yarn (sorry crocheters...) but the colors are really lovely. for me i choose this : the champagne color. the yarn is KATIA sevilla. with good yardage (137 yards or 125 meters per 50 grs). using inox circular (got to buy new one 2 1/2 cms with 40 cms length).

while i do provisional cast on the yarn already split up and easily dropped (umm...not sure what is the word in english) but it fell all over from the cones...*sigh*



but i keep casted on (i am using the acrylic thread, the one that i dyed using dylon coloring powder)... and without much longer i already finished the 1st repeat (each repeat is 12 rows).



but on the row 20, i made mistake and got to frogged... and guess what.... it's splitted very badly that i really want to cry... but on the other hand.. i really like the color.. so i decided... i should keep going.. so... i have finished the 3rd repeat.

i already put the sleeves for my pink sweater too and now working on the neck... at this moment no pict yet... i want to frogged the sleeves (for 3rd times) since i found it not too fit with the armholes... ummmm... if i can finish this, could this become my finished project for march project spectrum ? :p

btw, if you want to join project spectrum, please check lolly's blog for better explanation. the point is you can do anything craft work you like (knit, crochet, sew, dye, weave, spin, cross-stitch, even painting - though i wonder what kind of painting that consist only max 2 colors.. he.. he.. ). the best thing that this project is no pressure.. no deadline projects..so... come one drop by and join :)

playing with the color

i love yarn
i love colors
i love knit
i love crochet
i have too much stash at this moment
i wish i can combined all those!!

after read Siow Chin's blog, i hurryly dropped at Lolly's blog and ta da....



i join this knit along



and this is the button for this month, starting from march which is red and pink




i have some on designs in mind, but got to work on some sketch and check out again my stash. i plan to use the acrylic yarn that i dyed last year (*sigh....* so long ago....). i have blue, aqua, pink, marron, orange, green, yellow, gold, and for sure black and white. i may need to dye some other colors like violet or purple...ups... i think i have purple using kitchen cotton thread...hik..hik.. that one i got from my bro, who had experimented with dye process like 3 years ago.

the color for each project would be:

march RED and PINK
april ORANGE and YELLOW
may GREEN
june BLUE
july VIOLET/PURPLE
august NEUTRAL/Black and WHITE

i wish i could spend more time with KAL... and preferably working with crochet... faster...faster.. :)

yuummmm...yuummm.. want some dessert? :)

I have to confess, I like watching people making dessert or snacks also like watching those on shelves in bakery stores, but thanks's God not really like to eat it.. he.. he.. I also love the idea of sewing. Before I knew about knitting, I like to collecting sewing patterns, mostly are clothes (I made some for craft classes back to school time, it's like a home-economic class)

If you have 2 hobbies like that, perhaps this can be a good inspirations. This calorie-free and no expired date.. ;)

I got these pictures from work-mate, no info about where it came from, but my guess, it's from japan or taiwan. Those 2 places are well known to creating something like these.. ummm... so how about having nice tea time tomorrow afternoon? (bring your yarn and needles and hooks too! ) :)

sneak peak from my 2005 trip (more yarns!!) - part 2

some pictures from my trips to japan and singapore end of year 2005. if you are knitter that have seen knitting bok from japan, you probably familiar with puppy yarn. while i was there, this store was one of the "must visit" yarn store.
the store is very nice, large collection, from cheap to novelty yarn, but other than the yarn i like their logo too...the puppy playing with skein (that's why they called their store puppyyarn..i think... :p)

the closer look of the cute puppy!!

and here are the result from my Japan S.E.X (Stash Enrichment Xperience) trips :

the green one i got from a supermarket near Fukiage (i think it's called itoya), the small city about 1 hour 30 min by train from Shinkoiwa-Tokyo. My friend (I called her Auntie Kim Soan since she much older than me but younger than my mom) brought me there since she knew that this trip theme was "hunting the yarn store". So, when i was there, the have the fukubukuro, it's like boxing-day sale. She the one who seen this yarn first on the shelves. Can you guess the price? It's 1000 Yen (one thousand yen for 10 skeins for 1 package)!!!! Each skein is about 84m, suggested needle 6-8 (japan size, or about 3.25 - 4.5 mm). But should buy 1 package, there's only left 3 colors green, blue and pink. i choose the green (look like sage green for me). Materials is 70% wool and 30% acrylic.

the white - boboli yarn were from puppy yarn also the purple mohair from filature di crosa. for the boboli yarn, the store owner gave me free shawl pattern!! yippe!!

and these are from Golden Dragon Singapore on my 2nd visit from 4 days I stayed. The white skein and red-black yarn are brand from Greece, which hard to speeling. But based on my new-friend, Wendy from singapore-knitters, those yarn are one of her fave too because it's nice to knit, not piling and have great length and economic price. The Breeze Sirdar are also her fave too :) Same here Wendy!! :)

dont asked me the damage cost from this yarn trip..it's a lot but i love it!! :-)

here are the cushion cover i made before i went to japan. made from kitchen cotton thread and i dyed it myself for the blue color using dylon. it turn out like baby blue when i use cotton, but it would turn brighter when i use acrylic.

this was also my first attempt working on granny squares (yes people it's crocheted..) and using crochet needle to assembly the square... not too bad.

and now I am working on this. Using Schachenmayr Catania 100% cotton, dark brown, on 3.25 mm inox circular. The pattern is from Let's Knit Series - Spring Summer 2005.

This also my first attempt working circular. I am starting from half way up. and now reach the row to shape the armhole. I put on hold for awhile since I need to make some calculations since the gauge is different between the real pattern and yarn I am using and feel too lazy to do the maths.. :-p

something from chinese new year

finally we closed the chinese new year season for this year!! the festival was celebrated for 2 weeks, the final closing is the Cap Go Meh Festival (Cap Go means 15 in Hokkian, one of the most common chinese dialect using for chinese overseas).

i was bought this when i was in japan. this is a green tea with gold dust..seems it's a good idea.. and a little present for my parents too.. so do you see the small gold envelope ?
that is contained this one:

that is the gold dust.. don't asked me about the carat.. he. he.i think it's like 22 carat.. but mom said it may be about 24 carats.

the tea itself is green tea, just normal one, with the leaves. so i put it a tea spoon full of tea leaves and put the boiling water and wait for a sec, then put the gold a bit.

and if you wondered about the taste.. it taste like .. green tea.. hot green tea.. he.. he.. he.. since the gold dust is tasteless. btw, this was the tea that my mom really care with the rest of the tea leaves. she did not want any gold dust left in the pot!! he.. he.. *kidding*...

and on the day 8, we were having another prayer for chinese new year. it is held by chinese who came from Hokian etnic.

during this prayer, we should have a pair of sugar cane, fresh from the soil. the story behind this prayer (as far as i remembered- sorry if it's not exactly like the right story), long time ago, during hard time in mainland china, there was war in a village. near to end of year, the enemy was attacked the village and all people was ran away with their families and left everything on their home. they were finally arrived near big empty land, without a place to hide themselves from the attackers. so they prayed to God and then suddenly there were thousand sugar cane trees erected from the soil, for they place to hide.

so they hide there, and after few days they came out and when they back to their village (off course they made sure there was no attackers left.. he.. he..) they realized they already missed the new year's eve for about a week. but they still managed the new year's eve prayer but now they add the sugar cane tree as symbol the kind and love from God that already saved their life.

as for chinese, lots of symbol also using too.. btw, on this prayer all are vegies or fruit, no animal contained. the fruits are banana, apple, oranges, chinese pear (Xiang Li), then white bread and sticky rice pastries (nian gao) plus the flowers and for sure a pairs fo sugar canes!!

the white bread are shaped in peach or called shian tao (God's fruit) filled with sweet black bean paste. the next one is made from sticky rice with brown sugar. the white bread symbol of "HUAT" means growing bigger.

and the brown one means harmony..coz it sticky.. it bring the family closer and make a good bonding..;)

we waited until about 2 am or around that then went to sleep..

btw.. i will find out more about the exact story and mean while i am apologize if the story i have here not exactly match with you.

sneak peak from my 2005 trip - part 1

here are the sneak peaks like i promised... :)
first is needles :
* this one is from puppyyarn (yes, the original puppy yarns store!!)

from okadaya :

i had tried the bamboo noodles and it's slided smoothly on mohair yarn. very light too!! :)

and this is from Golden Dragon Singapore - the brand is Panda. It came up with 1 set contained 4 mm, 4.5mm, 5 mm and 5.5 mm. it's very light. i think it's made from China. price .. about Sin$ 2-3.

these are the "hardware" from Golden Dragon, Singapore.

From left to right :

1. Panda Crochet Set (4 mm, 4.5 mm, 5 mm and 5.5 mm)

2. Clovers Crochets (7/0 - 8/0 2 sets - 1 for me, 1 for my bro)

3. Oreo Crochets (2 mm)

4. Measurements Sheets from Clover. If you are familiar with the japanese book, they use this when make project using irish crochet or freeform crochet.

5. Tunisian Crochet Needle from Clover (3 mm, 3.5 mm, 4.5 mm, 6 mm and 6.5 mm)

and yarns from japan....:

1. cortuna

2. mario
3. mohair

I have some more yarns to show off, but seems have problem with time to do all my knitting and blogging (i want to do both), i took an opporturnity at this office to show this first part first while my boss on meeting .. he.. he..he...

Me and my scarf - Asakusa Temple

Here, another picture of me and my scarf in Asakusa Temple, Tokyo, Japan. I visited this place with my friend and he took a pict for me. This scarf was done after 2 days work, worked with 120 wood dpn needles and the yarn was a gift from my sis while she flew to germany. the huge skein was weight about 100 grams and i was working ribbing 2x2. the final result reached about 150 cms, so I can wrapped around my neck with very short on both ends. it's very nice, warming my tropical body (specially my neck) and covered a bit of my nose and lips... ;-)

the temple was very crowded, we walked from the gateway to the main hall, with hundreds maybe thousands of other people. my friend, jonokun, told me that we should throw coin 5 yen before we prayed, i need to check with him once again, what it's 5 yen means.


I had took pict of my stash very nice-unforgettable -enrichment experience, but dont have chance to modified (reduced the file size). But I will upload and make other people's drolling..;)

I am Back... :)

It's nice to get back home!!! :-) and happy belated New Years to Everyone!!! I miss you all and missing my blog, missed my needles and yarns, and books.

I finally succeed add some stash from my trip, both in Singapore and Japan. I visited Puppy Yarn and Okadaya. Thanks to Pinku's blog, i was planned to visit most of the yarn stores in Tokyo and around, but with the schedule I can only manage 2 from her list. Those 2 places are heaven for craft lovers, specially okadaya, their Shinjuku's store is 6 storeys building plus 2 storey's on the opposite front. I can spend hours and hours just in that one store alone!! :p

But when I was in Fukiage, Saitama-prefecture, my friend who live there brought me to the Craft Store there too. I am not remember the store name (will have to dig out all the reciept if I can find it.. :p) and those places are heaven too!!

And while I was in Singapore, I found this quiz on old Cosmopolitan Magazine




Other than to be a doctor, my other dream when I was little was to create something, I tried cooking, sewing, cross-stitched, embroiderry, and now, after i knew about knitting and crochet, it's like a dream come true (at least now I have more excuses for the increasing yarn stash I have..;p)

Btw, Congratulation for my Chinese Malay Friend, Cynthia, she finally launched her own blog!! :)

I would post more picture soon.. to give you all nice peek from my yarn store hunting.
After this trip, got to do big saving before next one..:-)

holiday!!

HAPPY HOLIDAY to you all ..

I am going to Japan and Singapore, from Dec 27 - Jan 10.. will try to posting if possible..;)

Have great time, and I will trying to do some knitting too!! :)

carousel squares

it's been a while.... the raining season already started, and with temperature become getting cooler, even it's not as low like 4-seasons country, it's quiet chilling for us here... and see the nice afghans.. make me want to make some granny square afghan, not really a granny square though. the patterns is from Pricillia Hewitt - Carousel Squares:

i already started with yarn from orion top - the acrylic yarn type - any knitter or crocheter from singapore or malaysia also familiar with this brand ..;) and for my square, the square would be solid color for each sq

the colors i choose are dark grey, indigo blue and dark red, have crocheted 6 squares of dark grey, 1 of indigo blue and would start with the dark red.
using #4 tulip steel crochet hook, each square is about 10 cm or about 4 inch.
i haven't decide how big the each small block, either 3x3 or 5x5... and still designing the color combination layout.

the other color combination are off-white, cream and dark brown color... but these would be for different square motif...perhaps the classice granny square or the fisherman's (still from pricillia hewitt's) like this :

(same reason - wait until the dial up speed back normal)

this orion yarn, even it's acrylic, it feels like wool, probably would not shrink, surely will bit melted if i put hot iron on it..he, expect the color would bleed for deep dark colors like indigo blue and dark red.

about the pink sweater, finally i frogging the sleeve, start with the right sleeve, making some adjustment on increasing and decreasing rows... i put this project down for a while, and prefer to work the carousel square.

ply or not plying? how to ?

my stash is growing.
few months ago i made some purchase on ebay for " some" yarns, it takes couple weeks to reach to singapore, to my sis address, since i am not sure how long it will take and the whether it will safely arrive to me via our post office here.. not to be underestimate but i am not going to sacrifice my yarns...so it addressed to my sis address.

1. the chenille -> 2 cones (the one in the middle, each is around 2 lbs is i am not mistaken)

2. crochet thread -> 1 cones (1 lb, the most left)

3. the crochet metallic skein -> huge skein!!! (the one in front, the skein weight is around 2 lbs)


the chenille are ok, but quite dissapointed with the crochet thread and the ... (3) , sinc the crochet thread is not much different with thread that we usually using for sewing or machine embroidery!!!! and the (3), i have lots of questions:

1. how i winding this huuuggeee hanks into skeins/balls.... see.. you can see how big the skein is..

2. since it so much like a thread when you touch the ply, i am thinking to ply this, but how? is it necessary? i really appreaciated if you can tell me what i should do with these crochet thread and (3), but return to the seller would be not an option considering the shipping cost.

then my sis went to HK for holiday with her hubby, and without doubt, she knew that the souvenir for me (we called here... oleh-oleh)... would be yarn, and this was what they picked for me.

she bought at one of night market (she didn't remember the name) , there's no label or any info for this yarn, for you, who read my blog, if you familiar with this yarn, could you tell me any info like the materials (it's like acrylic-woll when i touched)

i love the textures, it's pale pink, and i have 5 balls... each about 500 grams/1 kilo and do not have any idea at this moment, should it be sweater, vest, afghan, shawl or ... any suggestion please?

experiments on granny squares

with lots of things in my plan to do list, i choose to picked up the pink sweater... and knitted slowly, finished the sleeves and put it all together...

but i still have things on my minds...guess my hands used to be in crocheting like crazy for few days and it still on my brain or is it a post crochet syndrome ? :p so, i kept thinking about crocheting... but i dont want to picked up my 3 color cardigan.. i want something else.. greedy...:p

finally i found something i can make an excuse for crochet new stuff... the couch imitation leather starting to dried out and cracking..it's uncomfortable on skin, and those are appearing on fave spot...so i am thinking a cover, on granny square... using a cotton twine, the color would be something white and something colorful.. and i decided something blue.... so i dyed some yarn on this cotton twine.



see, the dyed turned out quite different between acrylic and cotton.. it's resulted as lovely soft blue color with hint of white on cotton, and see how bright the color on acrylic thread. i dyed 4 balls .. guess it would be enaugh.

the cotton twine is quite thick, see how the ball still standing up even i almost finish with this one.....



and the assembly methode i will use would the whipstitch, the one that use needle instead of single crochet.

i also made another motif of granny square, and thinking to make an afghan from it.. color is dark grey, indigo blue and dark red (almost marron), all yarn is acrylic, a bit fuzy... ;)

i am not too satisfied with the pink sweater sleeves .. and i hear frog ...frog...but not so sure... i want to work this granny square first, so i can sit or lay down while watching tv comfortably again soon!! :)

going 1..2...3....

finally!!! i blocked this crocheted 1 rose shawl yesterday.
after i soaked on the bucket, put light liquid soap, and wash it, hang it almost dry, then pinned on my bed (since i dont have the block board), here it is:

dont know coz the classic feeling but i found that this looked lovelier, since it white. previous i worked in sky blue and black yarn.

and here is the detail of border :

project: 1 roses triangle crochet shawl
yarn: grace from orion top (100% acrylic, 106 grams - 460 metres per cones, white)
crochet hook: tulip, no. 1 ( i always assume the number refer to centimetres)
working time: started nov 3 - finished 14 november (from 3-8 was full time .9-5 .:p)

i need to make other sample for the shawl for made to order project, doesnt mean i dont like this project, this is one of my fave, however i need to make something else, since there so many possibilities that we can create from simple stitches... i am thinking of motifs combined together, i am thinking rose (like irish crochet type), i am thinking granny square, i am thinking hair pin lace, i am thinking aran, bobbles ... but definetly i need to make new shawl sample.. :)

so, i can say my stash is not just a stash, that growing taller and taller on the corner but it's an investment!!

lurking, crocheting, visiting

it's long holiday here in indonesia, after the moeslem fasting month, there were 2 days idul fitri holiday, but since the bali bombing 2 years ago, to increase the tourism business, government was decided to extended the some holiday.. so this year, the extended days was 3 days, our holiday total was from Nov 2 - 8!!!

before i wasnt planning or perhaps too many activities on to-do-during-long-holiday list, so many that i couldn't decide what i would going to do, some were:
1. cleaning, re-arranging book shelves that i used to stored the mags, books, knit tools, some others little things that i think i wouldnt notice if my mom throw it away

2. taking picture of my stash and make inventory from it ( i still have thousands of books that need to take care of like put some plastic cover and put some label)

3. do some note of my knitting expenses ( i would cry on this for sure...*sigh)

4. stashbuster for the sirdar cotton breeze... i still have the baby pink (900 grs!!!) and the baby yellow (1000 grs!!) and baby blue snuggly DK - 4 ply (1000 grs)!!! i am thinking crocheted/knitted afghan for the baby pink. and lacey motif jacket for the baby yellow and havent got any clue what to do with the snuggly..

5. continue the WIP - 3 colors cardigan, the pink sweater

6. playing with puppies -> bobo and snowy were delivered cute puppies over a month ago, bobo have 3 - all boys, and snowy have 2 - 1 male, 1 female. my dogs are mongrel, but puppies always cute!!! i need to take some pictures of them too!!

7. try the waffel recipe

8. watching korean movie series...

9. checked on some travelling either malaysia, singapore, bangkok, hongkong or bali... but since the crazy price on tickets and thinking we would be jam together with millions people, this very excited idea easily gave up...

then on the last day before holiday, one of my work team, told me that he would like to order the rose crocheted shawl, the one that i made 2 version before 5 roses (the full version) and 1 rose (well.. only 1 rose with fringe). he would like to have it on white and withou fringe... voila!!!

so i guess without i need to telling you reader already knew what i put on my first priorities...the order for crocheted shawl!!! *wink...*wink....*

so i did lots of crocheted, thanks God it's crocheting since the sun shining like crazy here, like we have 4 suns all over the sky!! even i was quietly sitting down just do crocheting i was in sweat in very short time!!! and got to back and forth to the sink to wash my hands coz it sweat too!!!

when i was bored with the crochet, i went to the hospital with mom and bro visited my uncle. he back from his few days comma, and already realized the people who visited him. he is still in ICU.
he looked much better, no more yellowish shadowing his face and legs, but with the respiration tools on throat, he cant talk, only from his eyes he let us knew that he glad we came visited him.

yesterday, we got news that he getting much better, the doctor already positioning his reclining bed to sitting position, but all the supporting tools still attaching onto his body. sometimes he got very angry and upset and tired with the IV on his arm. we are so glad!! and for you the readers who may pray for him too, i would like to say many many thanks !!!

i didn't have any chance taking pict on my projects yet, will come soon!! :-)

last but not least, alex has launched her new blog called knittyguru, so check it out !!