my new stash :)

what a long pause that I took from my last post till today. Got to admitted that I was too lazy or too hot (yes it also hot in here too.. most of days in weeks the sun shining very diligently and very bright!!).
Most of my projects are on the needles at this moment and most of the time I much more into the knitting patterns books.
Talking about books, in my country, most of the books crochet/knit patterns are imported, either from Japan, China, Australia or US. With internet, we are much blessed with hundreds of sites that provide free patterns.
However, sometimes when reading other fellows' blog about their excitement with the new knit magazine or books, we would like too. So, here I was went visit to Interweave, Amazon and Elann .
Few months ago I was went to amazon and got crazy he.. he... after about 3-4 weeks, finally I got my books...
1. Yarn Harlot's At Knit's End - Meditation for Woman who Knit Too Much -> this is Stephanie's first book. It's good for pocket book and love it... funny and how true :)
2. Yarn Harlot's Knitting Rules - the 3rd Stephanie's book -> the secrets and all knitter's should learn before they start the project either socks, hats, jackets/sweater, shawl, mittens, etc.
3. The best of Knitter's Magazine Shawls and Scarfs -> very beautiful lace!!
4. Interweave Knitters Magz -> I got to wait like 3 months to get my summer issue, while I was still waiting for my spring 2006 issues (seems my spring issues taking longer trip than my summer's edition. Emailed the interweave and they said they have no stocks and will send me one once they re-print it again, i got it already though, my spring issue came 2 weeks ago, and they already start for Fall 2006!!).
5. Folk Shawl by Cheryl Oberle -> good patterns with history behind each one.
6. Heirlom Knitting by - S. Miller (i forgot her name..) -> this is abselutly amazing lace knitting book!! All serious lace knitter , you got to have this one!! All the theories, tip and tricks.. amazing!!
7. A Gathering of Lace -> Meg Swansen -> Finally I bought this one too and I will regret if I am not buy one!! Love all the paterns inside. It's all about lace for your socks, mittens, babies, sweaters, tablecloths which can turn as a big shawl, scarfs, shawls..:)
8. Mason-Dixon Knitting -> I asked my sis to bought it for me while she was flew to SF...It was out of stock (no need to ask why..;p) but 2 months later she finally can found it 1 for me!!

And these 2 are Knitting Magazine from Japan - Spring 2006 Let's Knit Series and Spring 2006 from Keitodama. I am blind about japanese language but all the patterns are written in charts and this is the methode that we familiar with.

I like this shrug... simple and eye catching... :)

These 2 are from China (Taiwan published)... Like japanese books these also using lots of charts and images showing step by step instructions. The right side is How To Finger's Knit Book... Something nice to try and can be a good activity during plane trip while needle and hook are not allow to bring in the cabin.

Amigurumi from Finger's Knitting book, they are cute pandas!!

Bought at Kinokuniya bookstore here at Plaza Senayan. Compilation of good selections of lace. All are crocheted, and I like it all :) he.. he..

Last but not least, Encyclopedia of the Dog!! Good book to know all dogs type. My sis gave it to me. She bought this on sale while she was in US if I am not mistaken, and the price only like US$ 10 (will check it out again..;)


So, other than pick up my needles or hooks, I have huge piles of books to cover them in plastic cover. I already bought 2 rolls and sadly the needles and yarns are calling me louder than the books..:p Bad I knew but cant help.. :-)

Mystery Stole KAL 2

I think starting by summer, lace would be the hit!!

You can see everywhere, Interweave Knit Summer 2006, The Amazing Lace, and some others.
I always like lace.. Had knitted 1 lace cardigan from the japanese prince's book.. and since I little bit late knew about The Amazing Lace, when I saw this KAL on lacegroup in yahoo, without further much thinking I joining :p

The pattern will be distribute on July 7, and the KAL organizer is Melanie.
At this moment we already have the pdf file yarn type and pattern to make the swatch.

I am still not determine what yarn I will use for this, since here in Indonesia we have very limited lace-weight yarn. I am thinking to use the cotton thread from DMC Perle Cotton...Umm..

If you want to join, just go to Melanie site or straight away go to Mystery_Stole_2 at yahoo...
We will have fun!!

goodbye blue welcome violet :-)

some more blues had finished. I made more indigo blue squares so totally the indigo (dark) blue squares are now like 8-9of them.
then i bought 1 more blue (it'sdarker then the medium blue shown here) but lighter than indigo. It's like good nice blue jeans. I havent put this blue in this pictures.. he.. he.. lazy me..

Actually last month (*gasp*.. time flies isn't it), i played around with the cotton thread and did some dyed.
I was planned to dyed using turquise blue, orange and olive green on these cotton thread.


There were 6 skeins, so 2 blues, 2 olive greens, 1 orange and 1mixed blue-orange.
and here were the result:

closer look:

and i think it's quite bulky since I could use the 6mm knit needle to make stockinate stitch. Got to make some improvement on the st st...


As for the olive-green, thre resulted was very suprised me that it looked like old grey instead of olive green. Check this out:

the palest green was dyed on acrylic yarn, same type like the real olive green in the middle. But turned out greyish when I was using the cotton thread.

Wonder it can be that way, since i put enaugh dye powder, same tap water, same boiling pot and same period of boiling time...anybody can help? I understand that for cotton, the result could turned out more pale but not like this...another closer look:

So, finished with blue, welcome JULY, welcome VIOLET.
I feel violet is more romantic word than purple.. ;)

As for the squares, from this VIOLET theme too bad I can only found 2 colors...THIS and THAT
I am very suprising when working with THAT skein coz it feels very smooth and soft, unlike with THIS skein it's very acrilicky
and quite rough.

With only 2 colors for my squares, that means I can continue my kiri shawl which is using the japan yarn, the color is like LAVENDER, that suit with project spectrum theme this month.

I am thinking to knit a tank top too, still have few skeins from my lavender cardigan that I finished couple months ago. The yarn is Schachenmayr Princess... He.. he.. so much things on my list and so little time to do...

As for all AMERICAN,

HAPPY 4th of JULY!!

a different kind of stitch

i am feeling lately knitting needles much more on the stash bag.. maybe since it now summer and people love to get out and feel fresh air and warming their body under the sun.

the trend in needle craft starting moving to other kinds like cross stitch and patchwork (quilt) or a bit of sewing..;)

as for me, when i was in school (elementry and high school), we still have craft teacher (do they still have now?) . the craft class was separate between girls and boys. boys having typing class (using old manual type machine.. a good work-out for our fingers, compare typing on our light keyboard now). the girls, we had cooking, sewing, cross stitching, embroidery ( a bit of hardanger style too).

sewing class was not too bad, it's fun too, when we practiced the skirt pattern (A line model), my mom forget to bought the fabrics, then she offered the fabric stash she had. at a glance, it looks big enaugh for my body size.

guess what, when i copy the pattern to the fabric, i found that it was not enaugh!! the pattern consist of 4 parts, 2 parts of fronts and 2 parts of backs. my fabric only can fit fo 3 parts plus the waist band.. he.. he.. at other time, we made a shirt too, and i brought enaugh fabrics this time..;p i still passed the class though, coz i was made good calculation on my own pattern size, the cutting and sewing technique were ok though..;-) thanks to my mom, she gave me extra sewing class at home...;)

few weeks ago i received my books from amazon.com (after 3 weeks journey from US to Indonesia, those were shawl and scarves - the best of knitter's magazine, the amazing lace, folk shawl, heirloom's knitting) . knitted lace is on hot spot now.. too bad i was a little bit late with the KAL amazing lace.. Good luck to you who joined! :)

i asked my sis to bough me mason-dixon books too!! and i got hooked with the colorful cabin log and blanket. good job ann and kay! :-)
some pictures will upload soon and share with you ;)

as now i am on knitting world, when making cardigan or sweater, it will be nice to have a fitting model... a good one i spotted in lincraft store while i was in perth few years ago, the fitting model can be adjust from small to extra large body size. if price was not a concern, i already bought that one!! he.. he... that stuff is very cool...like having a robot in our craft room!! ;)

but our body sometimes have an extra here and there , however if we want to have a fitting model that close enaugh with our body shape, maybe we can make this, make a clone of ourself,
to you who already kids, this is another nice activity playing with duct tapes!!

i put this activity in my list, summer now is too hot he.. he.. and better i get back to my squares and kiri's shawl!!

the color of life

been in very lazy period to update my blog.. i have some pictures now!! all this time I was diligently crochet the squares following the colors theme from Project Spectrum.
few months ago, i think started in march, i bought all colors range, each 1 skeins (except indigo, white, blacks, beiges and grey) to crochet squares from Patricia Hewitt's patterns.

Since all the skeins come up with color number instead of name, i named it by myself ( i got to dig the left over from each skeins and checked for the labels).

Now.. here it is my squares from March Project Spectrum, which was RED and PINK.. so I have pale pink, pink, hot pink, magenta, chili red, red wine and red...he.. he..

And these are from April - ORANGE and YELLOW:



And these the latest months, May - GREEN... watch out for the spotlight colors ... those greens almost blinded my eyes while i crocheted it.. ;p


totally i think i had crocheted like 70's of them, since i had grey and indigo blue before this project spectrum began, my estimatition i need to make like 30 more squares...

last week when I went to LYS (not really Local.. since it located in south part of jakarta and my house in north part.. he.. he..)i have eyes with this yarn... it's japanese yarn, mercerized cotton with sparkle thread plying together. Using yarn harlot terms, this yarn talked to me.. turn me to a shawl.. and deep in my mind, i already plan to make a kiri (from Tangle Up)so...here, i bought 1 package (10 skeins, each skeins has 56 metres.. short i know, that's why I bought 10!!) .

i like knitting this kiri.. simple chart and easy to memorize after the 2nd repeat for chart 2..i already on my 6th skein now and perhaps i will do like 14-15 repeats of chart 2 to get bigger size.. this what kiri wrong side look like when i am knitting it:



if other color may added in this project spectrum , it would be black.

I would like to thanks for all my friends that had checked me out regarding the earthquake happened last week in central java. thank you cynthia that already emailed me, once she heard about it... sorry for the late reply cyns. i am fine but people who living in south of central java had got this terrible disaster. more than 4000 people died. Thanks God that support and help both in material and medical already started, from some countries too, like Malaysia, Singapore, US, China, Japan and United Nations. Thank you to you all. God is not in good mood lately.

i am here...

i am still alive and apologize for all of you that already dropped in this page and still seen the green bird for few weeks!!

up till yesterday, i had finished like 50 square (carousel) for our sofa at the living room... still 50 more to go.
i plan to take the pictures of it and shared with you tomorrow.

2 days i started another project, a kiri shawl from All Tangled Up , using cotton yarn, and it's .. ehm.. a new stash... *hik* since it's color baby purple-bluish.. it can consider a too early project for project spectrum..;p

so... see you tomorrow people..;)

welcome spring ... welcome green...

welcome green!! after being spoilt for whole month with lovely pink and fiery red and cute orange and yellow..our eyes now being cooling down with this refreshing green.

for some of you who stayed in 4 seasons area, i am glad winter was over now, as for us who living in tropical island, well.. goodbye raining welcome hot hot hot sun shine!! :)


this is something green first for may :







so cute!!!!

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