Temptation everywhere! Argh!

This is terrible, just terrible! I know I made a mistake blogging about my wait list! Now everytime I look at my existing WIPs I heave a sigh and stare soulfully at my other yarns. They seem to be hynotizing me, asking gently " But what about us?". I guess the grass is always greener on the other side until it's on your side. Ok ok, so I cheated. I gave into temptation and started Branching Out with my mystery wool. I'm still trying hard not to start something right now though I have a feeling I'm losing the battle.

On the knitting front, nothing much to post on my 3 WIPS, not much progress. I've barely managed to knit Kiri back to where I stop before frogging 12 rows. She is a very tricky dame and I've got more and more knitalicious stuff lining up in the wait list too. Shrugs, laces shawls and socks are the in thing right now. Personally, socks don't do it for me. There was only 1 pair in Knitty archives that I like. I'm more into bags, tanks, camis and shawls. Now, add shrugs to it too. It's high on my knitlist now.

What's that? Last weekend you say? Let's put it this way, see my Inky Mood at my side bar? Notice that it's been "Tired/Sleepy" for a loooong while? Yea, still that way. In fact, coffee didn't help me today either.

So, today I'll entertain you with mugshots of my furkid. Quite simply because I have no good WIP shots. So, presenting her

before and after. :) It's amazing what a haircut can do. My parents didn't want me to cut her fur. They wanted it long. But furkid grew up in Aussie with me, so she couldn't take the weather here when she came back and I didn't have time to comb out her tangles like when I was in Uni. So I cut it routinely and experiments with different dos. I still like the puppy cut best. That pic represents the most unkempt furkid look I can take before I whip out my scissors despite protests from dad. I think kiddo feels better with the cut too. Not too hot.

Oh yes! Here's something else too.

Sewing patterns that my mom got for me in her last Aussie trip. I'm still hunting for some nice fabric for the right most pattern pack. Yea yea I can hear some of my friends laughing already. Since when do I wear a skirt yea..:P Well, with this little number, I just might make an ocasional exception..:) After all, most of them seem to be getting married this year.

Now.. I'll go drift in outer space for a bit more....

Knit Style Doldrums

yes yes, I've been terrible this week about posting and pictures. It hasn't been a very productive week for me. I'm getting sucked into a conspiracy by the WIP gang because they've decided that I'm moving too fast. After that tiff with Marmalade, Green Tea decided to join the fun and I ran out of yarn with Vanilla Seed and couldn't knit until I go home to get more ammunition. Then, I caved in and started negotiation with Branching Out armed with a ball of my mystery yarn. That didn't work out too. So yes, I'm hiding out now. Shhhh!

To top that up, a deal I was 'negotiating' fell through. We got betrayed by another gang up at the Post. (Errrr... what I meant was a magazine that I bought from a fellow knitter didn't arrive.) The dope was sent to Hawaii but was never arrived. It's now 20 days. It's gone missing.

Sigh.. dispensing with that gangstar talk...Did I mention also that I haven't been sleep well and there are a hundred and one things going on in my life right now? My parents are going off on a business trip and my relatives are coming and my application is running and I don't know what nots. I'll post pics next week. I promise.

Oh! I actually finished the wedding garter for my friend. It looked gorgeous. Excitedly, I took it to her and she loved it too. The only thing is, I made it exactly her measurements. I didn't take into account of the 'stretch'. So now I have to make another one and cut it back 3 inches. Then in our excitement, she wanted to keep the first one with her. And so, I forgot to take a photo of it before I pass it to her. Never mind..:) I shall take a photo of the second one.

On a lighter note, good news is, I managed to negotiate a deal with Green Tea after frogging some cables. And also, like a yarn addict I am, I spy with my own eyes, a new batch of vagriated 100% bamboo designer yarns in Axelle's site! Just yummy! Well what are you waiting for? Go look! shoo shoo !I'm so tempted.

A tiff with Marmalade Kiri

As said, Marmalade Kiri and I have what I describe as a very tempestuous relationship. It's never smooth sailing, always interesting and is never quiet for long. In fact, it is downright fiery because both of us are just as stubborn. What started as a misunderstanding that became a huge tiff...shouting matches, tantrums and tears. At the end of it all...it had to be frogged 12 rows before we came to a compromise. Reminds me of the song "I love you, I hate you" sang by Celine Dion and Pavarotti (My fav version of the song). Things are calm now but I wonder when our next episode will start. Sigh. As for the rest, I haven't had the heart or the strength to deal with them after. It's been a very busy weekend otherwise.

Bits and Ends

Yea yea, this is my second post for the day. I'm pissed with work and the office stinks because they painted the bloody conference room, they turned the aircon off and spray some bloody smelly stuff at the reception area. It's driving me to distraction. I'm making up for lost blog time and I feel the urge type more too. Need anymore reasons? *wink Anyways, I was reading up my bloglines today. Lori from Lorispeak certainly caught my attention. My goodness gracious, I think I've only been bitten by 3 things in comparison to her collection of bites! Let's see, I got bitten by mosquitoes, red ants and my furkid, end of my collection. I can't imagine cat fleas jumping up from the carpet to bite legs either. Eouch!

MeetUp Alternatives

Our little Malaysia group have been using Meetup.com for a few months. It was pretty sad for us that they decided to charge just as we were starting to get comfortable there. The active members are now at Google groups.

But for others who might still be looking for an alternative, I'm sharing what I've found. Hope it helps. Many of these substitude are similar but not a complete replacement for meetup.com.

List of Meetup alternatives

http://www.evite.com/pages/homepage/index.jsp (allows u to send out invites)

http://www.suretomeet.com/

http://upcoming.org/

http://evdb.com/ (I don't quite like this one)

http://sanfrancisco.tribe.net/

http://www.barnraiser.org/ (Beta versions)

http://www.meetin.org/ (Closest match to meetup.com)

Those interested in news of Meetup replacements or alternatives may want to look here. http://freemeetup.blogspot.com/

Ok, I've finished rambling. Now lemme get back to my blog reads..:)
Cheers

Progress Report duly submitted

Marmalade Kiri

The pen is just there as a gauge. I've gone from Inox circs to wooden circ and finally on to wooden straights. Metals points are simply not sharp enough when it comes to KSH. And I really hate the way the circs twist and turn because the KSH is not heavy enough to weigh it down. Wooden straights seem to work out best for me right now. I'm almost finishing the first ball of yarn now. The pattern is much easier after the 4th or 5th repeat. I'm more comfortable with Marmalade Kiri and don't make as many mistakes. I'd strongly advise you to count your stitches religiously everytime you reach the center stitch and the end of the row though. I know I do. Trust me, it's worth the hassle doing so. I'm probably going to finish at ball No. 2. That way, I can use the other 2 balls for another shawl pattern. Then I get to give one to my granny and keep the other for myself rather than end up with 1 extra ball without any idea what to do with it. *grin

Green Tea Cables

Green Tea is going waaaayy too slowly. I've started on the second ball. Siow Chin is right, cables eat up your yarn like there is no tomorrow. But it is lovely though. I've got 3 balls of 100g Sirdar DK Cotton. I hope it is enough, I do wanna try and incorporate short row shaping at the bust area for experiment. Let's rephrase, I'll just have to make it enough.

Vanilla Seed Shell

This one is going moderately well. The yarn is very nice to touch. Cotton with viscose but it is not plyed and that spells as "Ms Vanilla Split-a-lot" if you are not careful. That having said, I'm knitting this brainlessly. It's what I call a "No Eye See" session. That is, I knit this when I'm chatting with ppl or while watching TV or in my car during traffic jams as I look at all the bored drivers in the same sardine jam. I'm pretty amused by how every time I pick up my knitting, the queue always starts to move and I have to put it down. I've not brought it along for the past 2 days and lights and jams seems to be taking way too long. A matter of perspective? You know you are a knit addict when you don't know whether to be irritated you couldn't knit a single stitch or happy that the jam is moving at times like that.

Meanwhile, I'm still impatiently waiting to finish something so I can start on my Phildar babydoll, Phildar Pink Jacket and Portofino. I've also finally found some things to knit with my mystery wool. They are really lovely lovely stuff. Inspired by Southern Cross Knitting and their Diamond Patterned Scarf, I'm going to do just that and Branching Out each with one ball of the mystery yarn. Let's see how those will turn out. I'm so so tempted to start already. sigh... I need some quick instant gratification knit fix.

Bits and pieces, here and there

I haven't been knitting much for the past 3 days. I was engrossed with another project. Remember my post eons and eons ago about a friend whom I promised a crochet wedding garter to? Yup.

It's actually been quite interesting. I was very curious to see how the lace pattern would turn out. It was 80% complete when I took the picture. I've finished it late last night. That's 3 late nights in a row so you'll have to forgive my bleary eyes and stoned reactions today. I promise to take a picture of the complete garter soon.

Also! Candy for the eyes! More stitch markers!

I really like these colors. At least it makes things more interesting when you knit.

Lelah - which one, which one?
Lastly, I would like opinions. I've dug out these 4 babies for Lelah.

Do you think 2 tone will look weird? I was thinking a darker shade for the bust and the lighter for the lace pattern. Eenie Minnie Mina More - Gimme votes.

1.) Forget about 2 tones and stick with 1 color.

2.) The first set - Off white and cream (*Note that very brown looking ball there is actually Gedifra Califonia in a nice light cream color)

3.) The second set - The blues (Sirdar Denium(Slightly lighter shade & Schachenmayr Punto)

I promise I'll be good and post up my progress with my 3 WIPs tomorrow. :)

Funny little things!!!

Wow! Thank you everyone for responding so enthusiatically. This is something so warm and wonderful about our little world of blogging knitters. :) I'll be knitting all those I posted there and somemore. I guess the ribbon tape would be for X-back. I have other yarns for Lelah. I'll post that one up for opinions next week.

Funny Little things

Not much pictures today. So…! I had time to knit early this week, Wednesday specifically. Did I knit? Nope. I got caught up with these funny little things.

Wondering what on earth is that?!?!? :D

Well, the long story goes, a couple of bloggers started showing off beautiful custom made stitch markers. Since then it's been at the back of my mind. Then they decided to nudge me some more. They posted tutorials! How could a girl resist such outright invitation to do some herself!

By bits and pieces I suddenly found myself with all the materials at hand. Like for instance, couple of weeks back while rummaging through my stuff, I absently dug out some beads and stuff, bought previously and left them aside. 2 weeks later, I conveniently wandered into a handicraft shop, found and got myself some chain rings and pin heads. On Monday back, all pretense thrown off, I got myself a pair of long nosed pliers.

Wednesday nite, I sat down, stared at my loot, thought about it and made myself 3 pairs of stitch markers from a necklace. Yea yea I know, the picture above sucks..:) There you go. A better look.



This is what I've made.

You see, I had this wire choker necklace that I bought on impulse 3 years ago. I have never worn it and probably would never wear it. The beads were light and it was just lying about and I thought it would be a perfect practice piece before I use my beads, chain rings and pin heads. So I took it apart. I wish I took a picture of the it. It was a wire choker piece with beads dangling down the front.

This was what I basically did. I cut the end of the necklace and poured all the beads and dangling pieces out. Then I took the dangling pieces apart. I cut the wire necklace into 6 pieces. For each piece, I inserted 1 dangly piece and curled up both ends of the wire. Then I wrapped it best as I could around the biggest knitting needle I have to create a rough circle and Viola! You got yourself some stitch markers.

Mind you, it is very rough. For one, the stitch markers isn’t a perfect round. In fact, it looks a little mishapen. And I think I made it too big. Good thing is, because of the way I made it, the size is adjustable. My excuse? It’s my virgin piece. I didn’t exactly follow instructions. :P Well, it’s for my own use so I guess it’s ok. I’ve been using them for 2 whole days already and I’m happy to report that it doesn’t snag up any of my yarn and they don’t make my palm itch with I knit, not like the plastic ones that I have. (Note to myself : Need to make them heavier to weight it down slightly.)

All in all, it was a 3 hour exercise and my fingers hurt a bit after. It was good fun though. And now, I'll move on to my chain rings and t-pins. More! More! More!

These wonderful knitters were my resource. Just in case anyone wanna make some themselves

Glampyre

Illana from Knit Powers To Peace

Stacy from Sheep In The City (Look for her April 28th post.)

Laura(not me mind you :D) from Poor Miss Finch

Impatiently WaitListed

I think some of you visiting would be wondering what the heck is happening with my blog nowadays. My apologies, I wanted to do slight modifications to it. Ended up being fascinated by codes and my blog got all wonky. Still not getting it but learning, so be prepared for more changes...if I ever get to it. :D

WaitListed
Speaking of a long knit waitlist, I can only mourn that there is not enough knitting time in a day. I won't list my entire wait list. I'll just pick and choose from those I can't wait to start. I'm forcing myself finish my 3 items before I start on anything else.

Filatura Di Crosa - Portofino

The minute I saw this, I just had to knit it. The bust area of course would have to be modified a little. I'd prefer to cover up more. My olive color 4ply Rowan cotton was initially dedicated to it then my Peruvian Baby Silk from Elann finally showed up. That was it..:) I think I'll swap it in.

The Rowan Cotton tape you see there with the Peruvian silk is for the dark border. It's of different gauge but I'll work something out. You can see Rowan River Tape at the right side as well. I'm trying to fit it into the equation. I have no idea what to do with that one.

XBack or Lelah?
I need help here. I got 3 more balls of the Rowan Tape(picture above) from ebay, just arrived. This is going to be either Lelah or XBack project. What does everyone think? Lelah or X Back?

Phildar Flirt Jacket

Yes, I swatched this eons ago and have been doing nothing but staring and feeling it all this while. I wanted to do the jacket featured, then I realized it requires 3 types of yarn together. Since I only have Phildar Flirt, I'm going to use just that. In fact, my idea of a jacket includes lapels, which this Phildar Jacket doesn't have. So it's gonna be modified. I did the swatch first in stockinette for the first half, then I followed Phildar's knit in both Right and Wrong side of the swatch. I like the effect. I think I'll use that effect for the cuffs and lapels.

Phildar Baby Doll

This little number is going with my Jaeger Trinity in Flamenco. Speaking of Flamenco, I wasn't suitably impressed. I'm pretty luke warm about it. Love the color, it's gorgeous. But the yarn itself is another story. Probably my expectations is way off. I had expected some sort of sheen to it, I didn't expect it to be so matte and well, not well defined?

Yes, you get the idea of the sort of designs I like..:) I don't know yet, I might just swap the yarns around the patterns again. Anyone with suggestions?

Vintage Nyonya kebayas!

First, a big thank you to my friends and fellow knitters. Your encouraging comments are well appreciated and does wonders to spire me on. :)

Second, this is a totally knit unrelated post. So for those not interested, I guess you can stop reading here. It's a vintage craft post. So, on to the topic of the day.

The Nyonya Kebaya
There are quite a few varieties of kebayas around. Nyonya kebaya, pronounced as no-nia ker-buy-yar, is one of my favourites. It has it's roots in Peranakan communities in Malacca and Penang. They have a very unique blend of Malay and Chinese influence in their culture. Females are referred to as Nyonas and the males, babas in their dialect. Hence, the name Nyonya kebaya.

Traditionally, it is worn with a shift/cami inside and a fited, embroidered, translucent blouse outside, fastened with a set of chained brooches called kerongsang. A matching hand-drawn batik sarong goes with it. Nowadays there are many modern adaptations to it.


First Pic : Traditional wear Second Pic : Modern Adaptation (These pictures are taken from Star newspaper)


There is also a book on Nyonya Kebayas published by Datin Seri Endon Mahmood, wife of Malaysia President that is out in the market.

In the olden days, the translucent blouse is made of voile. It is now very hard to find the material as most are factory made and uses linen, cotton and other like materials. Handiwork is very intensive. It's an age old elegant classic over here and very expensive. It's haute couture in our culture.

I can go on and on but please I'd invite you to this site. For those who are already bored with this story, I'll stop here. For those interested to find out out, please read more about it here (*Highly recommended) and here. My short intro doesn't do this justice.

Now, for all those wondering where this post is leading to...:) I've said it before and I'll say it again. I'm one very very lucky girl. I got these vintage nyonya kebayas from a dear elderly neighbour, Aunty X. They belonged to her mother. Her mother use to love wearing these and it was passed on to her daughter, Aunty X. She doesn't wear these so she just kept them. She asked me to choose from her collection. So I ended with 6 of these lovely vintages.




Notice all the lacy hand work.

Now, off to buy some sarongs for evening wear. For a more casual day wear, I can always wear it as a jacket with a simple cami and jeans to match..:)

Forward March!

After reading how everyone else is or has finished something for show and tell. I'm embarassed to admit this but I must be snail knitter. Yikes! While typing out this entry, it came upon me that I unwittingly choose 3 projects of varying difficulty and something new in each.

Vanilla Seed Shell



Vanilla is mellow, first time I'm trying out seed stitch and the pattern is by myself with some guidelines here and there. Having said that, I frogged this one all the way down to the 3rd row last week. I was in a mood to be fussy at that time. Then I had a marathon session with it to bring it up to speed. It's now about 6 inches. One thing is, this is a blend of cotton with vicose. Not a good one with metal needles. It tends to slide downwards when I pick it up to knit.

Green Tea Cables



Green Tea, a tad zesty. My first try with cables. I remapped the main cable to something that I'd prefer. This is pure DK weight cotton. Now I understand what they mean by cotton doesn't give. It felt strange at first cause it felt a little unwieldly when you throw the yarn. The upside is, though the stitches slips out once a while, it doesn't unravel like the wool. It just sticks out and I just have to string them through again. I've finished the first 24 row cable repeat. Can you believe it? This one uses so much yarn! I just finish a ball of 100g DK weight Sirdar pure cotton for this and it only covers my hip. I hope I have enough. I'm considering short rowing for the bust area.

Marmalade Kiri



Next, we have the spicy Kiri/KSH combo. My first try in lace and my first too with KSH. It's so different from the cotton and blends I normally knit with. I get a bad case of eye strain when I knit this at night. It's so very easy to miss a stitch or pick up 2 stitches instead of 1. Knitting this number is like dancing cha cha. You take 2 steps forward and 1 step back. Anyway, it's a poor picture. Sorry bout that. I have lousy luck trying to photograph KSH. I've finished the 3rd repeat, moving on the the 4th. It's as big as my 2 hand put together. One thing, I can't seem to stop touching it. hehe

On the side, I guess some of you would have noticed that I've been playing around with my template. Do bear with me. I'm trying to change it to something I prefer so, it's going to take time. If anyone can point me to sites that teaches you to modify templates codes, it would be deeply appreciated. Thanks!

Southern Cross Knitting!

Their 1st issue is out! Go look! They've got a bit of everything from knitting technique, plying, beading and dyeing. Not too bad for starters :) Articles are good for beginners to get a feel of things. They have patterns for small items like gloves, scarves and hats. I love the Lucy Diamonds Scarf they have featured. Think I have just the yarn for it.