Orangina Completed

I cannot believe this either, but Orangina is actually finished.


After hours of knitting in the car during traffic jams, it is finished. The fussing and fretting about how it might not turn out due to my tweaking unfounded, I'm very happy with how mine turned out. It looks a bit holey in the pic but actually doesn't show that much in the actual wear. I'm really liking this one. Here's the celebratory twirl around. :)





Sewing
Ah! The clear winner from everyone's vote is a DVF Wrap Dress! Thanks for the input
girls! I'm leaning towards the wrap dress too..:D

Next in line is my Lelah fixup. I'm ripping the top part. I made it too long and nice as it is, the hips look way out. So I'm shortening the lace part. After that, it would be some 'express satisfaction' knits and of course sewing! I've a few things lined up already.

More Fabric Shopping!

Mucha Gracious!
I seemed to be at some crossroads of sorts. I want to thank everyone who have been so supportive. Reading your comments helped. You wouldn't know how much it meant to me..:) Thank you.

Sewing

I haven't had time to sew, I was out most of the weekend. I've been pouring through some designs and clothes, figuring how and why things are cut the way they are. I think I'm about ready to start cutting out cheap fabric to test out a few things. I did manage to shop for fabrics. SW was figeting by my side all that time. Couldn't wait to usher me out of there because he was nervous about the amount of fabrics I might buy the longer I stayed. Being amused, I let him after a short while. It was kinda of distracting anyway.

There was this lovely fabric I found 2 weekends ago that I couldn't get out of my mind, so I got that. I wasn't able to capture the exact colors of the material. The background is a dark rick chocolate color and the flower motifs are a creamy cafe latte color.



It is a stretch polyester mix. I was thinking of a wrap dress. But my other half thinks it is better as a wrap blouse. Sorta like this : -



What do you think girls? What should this fabric end up as? A wrap dress, a blouse or it's calling out as something else? Give me your opinions.

Orangina
Orangina is chugging along. I'm at the ribbing now. Won't be showing photos until it's done. Have patience..:)

Spammers

Spammers have been very irritating lately. For those who are unaware, bloggers now have a new function. Go to your settings/comments and enable the "Word Verification for comments". I've just enable word verification so let's see how well it does it's job. The other thing you could do is select that only registered users are allowed to comment. Don't allow annoymous comments. That, as least, filters away some spammers.

Sewing and Orangina

Sewing Knick Knacks

I have been browsing fabrics and patterns for quite some time now. Not too long ago, I was enamoured by Machiko's Simple Chic and Skirt ala Carte. I remembered the cover vividly but misplaced the author's name and ISBN. I couldn't remember where I saw it and couldn't find it again. Then, Joy posted about the books. Yipee! You can't imagine how happy I was. Thanks to her, I finally managed to track it down. And then I couldn't believe my eyes when I found Simple Chic in my local Kinokuoniya! Double joy! Yep, I got the book in my hands now. Now, like Joy, I have to figure out the pattern map.

I also started clearing out my wardrobe. I have a stash of scrapes and a huge pile of clothes I got modification ideas on. I also got myself more fabrics.



The 2 pile of sturdy black and dark blue fabric I got at a steal! It's hard to see, but the dark bluish black one is matte and hangs very well. The other dark black fabric also hangs well and is shiny. They are tagged for some pants and perhaps a skirt. The green fabric....I'm not too sure yet. They are a little thick and it has a shine to it. It was an impulse buy. Any ideas?



See that book on bags with the fabrics? It is my latest addition to my craft books. I was browsing through a Japanese book section when I came across this. How to resist? It's got great embellishment tips and great step by step pictorial guide for each bag.





I especially like these 2 pages. More excuses to go fabric shopping..:)

Orangina

I seem to be losing steam. I no longer have the exuberance I had when I first revived my interest in knitting. It is possibly a phrase I am going through since I can't seem to finish any WIP to my satisfaction. Only time will tell. For a brief period, I contemplated closing down my blog. It also saddens me that Opportunity Knits have decided to close down her blog. She will be missed.

I take my own pace nowadays instead of rushing into finishing line. I have not much time to really sit down and enjoy my knitting and haven't finish anything for a while. Orangina is progressing slowly but steadily as you can see.

I am about 2/3 completed.

Tagged - 5 Things I miss from childhood meme

I got tagged by Siow Chin from Little Purl of the Orient.

So : - 5 things I miss from my childhood.

1.) My great grand parents' house. They had a big old house, a huge compound filled with all sorts of interesting adventures. Yes, I was lucky enough to know them while they were alive. Their house was always filled with family and relatives. Typical traditional chinese family..:) We kids really had fun there.

2.) My books. Enid Blyton, Nancy Drew, Roald Dale, William Price and many others. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory does bring back those memories. I was, still am a book worm.

3.) The games that we played with friends - Zero Point. The fun in trying to collect enough rubberbands to string a rope. And then playing the game in groups, jumping over the line as it gets higher and higher. 5 Stones - We buy or have fun making them with raw rice and scraps of cloth. This was a test of eye and hand co-ordination. One Leg - Catching hopping with one leg.

4.) How every festival was something to look forward to, especially Chinese New Year as it means I get to see my cousins and eat lots of candies and drink lots of coke. LOL

5.) The munchies - Hawkers with parked motorbikes laden with snacks at the side of the road after school. Icecream made of shaved ice and syrup in a stick. The ice cream motorman with a ringing bell that serves ice cream wrapped in bread. Haianese Sweet Bread. Mini deep fried curry chicken drumstick and wings that my Primary School canteen use to serve.

This is the first time I actually realized I got tagged. LOL So an apology to fellow knitters out there who tagged me before if any. Blur me.

Smoggy Days of Our Lives

Sounds dramatic doesn't it? But it describes weather at our end lately. Dreary and smoggy. Dear old mucky Malaysia.



I took this picture on Sunday afternoon lunch time on a 15th floor condo on a hill. When normally you'll be faced with a scorching afternoon sun, you get this and a stinky bunrt smell in the air. So you can imagine. It has been like this for a week and doesn't show any signs of improving.

Not much on knitting end. Still trying to finish Orangina. It's a surprisingly fast knit even though I can only manage one or two row once a while. Mean time, I seem to be distracted by sewing nowadays. Guess it is inevitable that crafts blend together at one time or another. :)

My Wonderful SP5 partner

On the last day of the week, my SP sent to me!
1 pretty pink card
4 green Andean treasures
6 bright orange Vacation!
Knitpicks allll for me!
Tra lalalalala
*hmmming away to the tune still....




Did I mention my SP is wonderful? I'll say it again. I've got a wonderful secret pal! Last Friday, I was harried and tired. Rushing off to yet another appointment with a client when for some unexplained reason, I veered towards the postbox area. It was my first time there and my brains said : - 'Look for my office post box.' My eyes zoomed in on this brown package sticking out from one of the post box below. It was jammed unsuccessfully 1/3 way into the post box. I took a while to register that my name was on that brown package. Could you believe it took me 3 mins to wiggle my package out of it? LOL

With my loot, I ran to my car to savor it in private. It wouldn't do to be seen yelping in glee in my office with an maniacal expression on my face. So instead, I was in my car with a silly grin on my face singing away after opening my package and rushing to my appointment. And that little ditty above, got stuck in my head. The colors are just gorgeous! How could anyone not feel cheerful looking at the bright sunshine orange and cheerful greens. Thank you Secret Pal, you made my day. Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!

Rambling my rumbles

I'm going to ramble today. Nothing knit related so those who are not interested please skip. I'm not going make much sense here anyway. This is more for myself, for me to vent on the accumulation of things happening.

Been rather stressed lately at work and outside of it. I've put in too much in some instances and got toxic people for my efforts. There's all kinds of mean, toxic and crazy ppl who enjoy playing their childish and spiteful games of intrigue in earnest and I wonder why the heck was I being nice. It got to the point where I was grouchy and an absolute ogre to be around (Poor SW can attest to that). Consolation is, at least there were still a few genuine gems out there. It's time to take a stand on some things. Time to re-evaluate, time to take a step back, time to take a dump and refresh.

SW probably realized I'm reaching my tolerance limit before I did and whisked us off for a quick break. Isn't he a dear? We needed one badly. We haven't had a decent break for quite a while. Timing was always off. I haven't been in a proper one for 3 years. This short one made me crave for more. Probably plan for another soon.

Things are falling into perspective again. K.I.S.S (Keep it short and simple) I guess being a working adult gets to you sometime. Gosh! I certainly don’t want to become like them little toxic petties. I'm still piqued but they'll be barely worth the mention soon. Detox, detox. I wonder what took me so long and why I was so accommodating in the first place. There are important things to deal with in life Girl! So.... Write off. Dump, Detoxify, *DELETE* *end of story*

Off topic but kinda related to my present situation, my brother in London with his pregnant wife gave us a scare. Thank goodness they are alright. The London bombing was a very sad day for humanity. Another wake up call for me. I say again, what's wrong with the world nowadays. It's either you are petty or you are psycho. I guess it all got to me for a while.

Anyway, if I've never mentioned it before, I'm at Stage 2 of my PR application. It's time to think things through a bit. That's the thing about Asian families, you have to think bout taking care of the family and that. My life needs tweaking, my family, my career, my commitments. Everything is starting to converge. I need to adjust to the shift in my direction in life. Sigh.... Ok, I got my vent.

On to rediscovering the simple fun in life. I've finally got some good advice on washing spots off my vintage kebayas. My first attempt with ordinary detergent failed. The material was extremely delicate. Those wondering what this is about, refer here. So! I was rumaging my cupboard and generally mucking about when I thought I might as well have some fun. So, fun I had. I tried on the 2 Kebayas to see what I can come up with.



Here is a close up on the lace pattern for the white kebaya just for the heck of it. And that, is my orangina lying on it. They have become close friends.



This is what I came up with. The traditional way of wearing it. (Left) And the modern variation(right) teaming it with jeans and a cami. Conclusion? I need to get more of my vintage kebayas washed and I want to get more sarongs. Anyone knows where to get nice sarongs and at what price? :D I got more funnies but I need to sort them out.

Kiri

Kiri was done last week. But I had no time to block it so it had to wait. Kiri was an anti climax in a sense. Reason? Well, I knitted this piece especially for my granny. My aunt was here from Aussie and I was rushing to finish it off so she can bring it back for my granny. The minute I casted off, my mom and aunt tells me it is probably too bright for my granny but it is beautiful and I should to make another duplicate in a darker color for Granny.

My aunts don't dare to wear this color cause they feel it is too bright for their age. I still feel that this burnt autumn orange would go very well with their dark clothings and wouldn't look that bright with dark colors. Anyway, I still love Marmalade and though it's a bonus I get to keep it now, somehow, my enthusiasm kinda wilted upon the news. I don't know how else to explain it.


I took my time to block it. By the way girls, those who want to or are doing Kiri or Birch take note, the cast off has to be really loose. My intepretation of loose was apparently still not loose enough. As a result, the edging couldn't stretch as much and wasn't pointy enough for my liking. I have reblocked it twice and it is still not pointy enough. There is simply not enough give at the edge. Taking it apart and redoing the edge definitely isn't an option with KSH.


I used up almost 2 balls of KSH. I was left with a mere few metres of KSH from the 2nd ball. The measurements are : width - 62 inches x length 30 inches. 13 repeats.



It's amazing how it looks before and after blocking. So! It's very very lovely and I'm happy with my first attemp of a lace shawl but I think I'll take a break from KSH lace for now. :) My other wait lists are calling.

By the way girls, I have 2 new balls of KSH in Marmalade I didn't use for Kiri. A swap anyone? Since I'm keeping Marmalade Kiri, I'd love to have KSH in the colors of either Jelly, Heavenly or Dewberry for something else. Email me if anyone is interested.

Orangina KAL & Lelah

Lelah is technically finished so I can start something else! On to my next project! ! Yes I joined a mini KAL started here. It started on the 1st of July. We've been seeing some yummy ones on the net. Some of the girls started at the stroke of midnight LOL. I'm already late. I think we spur each other into Orangina frenzy! LOL I'm gonna swatch tonight. Others who still wanna join the fun are still welcome to! Just click to the forum!



Lelah's finished. And this is the best of all the lousy photos I took. So until I can get better shots. I'm stuck with this. Overall, I'm quite happy with my Lelah. It's one of my very rare ladylike tops..:) It's not completely done up yet, but here's what I learned.

1.) Cotton stretches like mad! I went by the gauge and it didn't work for me. So I did it the other way. I grabbed the excess material, measured that, ripped and knitted again minus the extra 6 inches. The gauge method also told me that I'm only suppose to cut back 3 inches which I was glad I didn't follow. I got what I was aiming, that the tube does fall off when I take my hands off it. I still think it could have been tighter a bit, but at least I can breathe. LOL!

The other modifications that I did :-

1.) I did 8 or 9 repeats I can't remember exactly now. The large size called for 7.

2.) Short rowing the bust area for a better fit. Very glad that turned out well. My thanks and credits to Knitty's how to article. Very useful.

3.) I did a few rows of purl on top as border so it wouldn't curl outwards since I didn't have enough yarn left to follow instructions.

4.) I did straps. I didn't want to become an accidental flasher. I also positioned them where the bra straps would be to make hiding it more subtle.

5.) Because of all the reasons listed at the top, I decided on black elastic cords instead of elastic tape. Weaved them in on the wrong side. I think it worked well.

It's not completed yet though. I blocked but I think I didn't do a good enough job. So I'd probably block again. The elastic still doesn't have the right tension. And I need to tuck in the free flying strands properly.

Orange Sunshine

Thank you everyone! For giving me encouragement and support to Lelah. :) Most appreciated. And Agnes, you asked where I am in the photos? Well just look for Ms Specky. :) Just a short update on Lelah. I've frogged the boob tube and left the laces alone for now. I've decided to go slow and easy. I cut it down to 132 stitches and then did an increase 4 rows up to add another inch. It's a play by ear situation. I think I'll string a life line through midway and pull out my circs (too short to go around me) and try it on first.

As for the rest, hardly worth talking about, I manage to justified to myself another project start up once I finished Lelah. I need something to knit in the car. It just helps soothe my temper and something to do while in the jam. I think the girls who have been in my car can testify to the hurl of words and rhythm of my drive rant..:D So....something that doesn't require concentration like lace means stockinette stitches. Hence, my swatch.

for this

Now I have said before that I wasn't impressed with Jaeger Trinity but I must say, it feels and looks nicer as a swatch than a ball. Good sign. Phildar babydoll, here I come!

And since this post is already so full of orange goodness, I'll throw in a picture of Kiri as well.

It has grown a little since. I've switched to circs cause it's getting too big for straights. So big I can't spread it out, so I'm only showing half the shawl here. The pen is there as a gauge. I better get back to it soon before I forget how the pattern goes.

That girl Lelah!

Did the weather forecast predicted a FO? Well the weather forecast was wrong. Lelah got frogged. Lelah was breeze to knit and the lace part is beautiful but! I verestimated the measurements for the top. Let's start from the beginning shall we?

After frogging Vanilla, I started Lelah. I needed a quick fix. So I got really into it. I knitted Lelah with abandonment. In fact I was half way throught the laces during teh 18th Meet up. Lady Marmalade and the rest was all forgotten. On Monday, I was almost there, I incorporated shortrowing and was pleased with the results and then I realized..Gasp! I am running out of yarn fast! On Tuesday, I consulted my 'gang'. Tuesday night was another furious knitting frenzy. And then, with a sigh of relief, yaey! See the pic?

That little bit of tail on top was all that remained. I barely made it. Now that's what I call fully utilizing the yarn.

Let's try this groovy outfit! I can't wait.....now wait a sec! wow! I lost quite a bit of weight! oh hang on! Bummer, this is ridiculous! Ok, nope, I didn't lose weight. It was the boob tube, it was way too big. The darn thing just slides down my hips. It looks more like a hip warmer! Gawd dang!

I checked the gauge. Yep 5 sts per inch but I didn't count on the cotton to expand that much. Measuring it with a tape measure, it tell me I'm off by 3 inches. Grabbing a fist full of material while wearing it tells me I'm off by 6 inches. So, go figure. Wibbit wibbit ribbit rippit. Until the next epsiode. On a positive note, I guess I don't have to worry bout not having enough yarn second time round. I'm gonna try take off 5 inches and see if it works.

Meetups Meetups

What a week! One word, hectic! Those who read the Malaysian Knitters will probably know or have seen some pics...:) We had 2 different groups last week.


First, we got a visiting knitter, Jenny from Sweden. You will have to excuse the quality of the pic. It's the best I have. The restaurant was so dim and we had asked someone with shaky hands to take the photo for us. But anyway, on with the story....because of our time schedules it was hard to find a good time for everyone. Some of us did manage to meet up after work in the end. I could only join them after dinner and couldn't make it in time for the 2nd one the next day. By the time I could, they were all going home. Bummer. I would have loved for Jenny to join us for the one below but she was already going off somewhere else. Oh well. I do hope that Jenny and her baby had fun and enjoyed Malaysia...:)


Then, on the Saturday, 18th June, we had another meet. We had Pauline and her kiddos from US and Cara over from Singapore and they both brought goodies back for us. A big Thank You to both of them! The meet was really great! Boy did we have fun! There was an crafts & vintage flea market held there every Sat/Sun. We had fun trooping about the stalls, knitting in Starbucks and chatting. Of course there was also there ever important ritual of fondling new yarns. ;-p Time flies by so fast while you are having fun. Before we knew it, it was evening and time to go. On hindsight, I should have taken more photos, my excuse? :p I was having too much fun and too many things were happening at the same time. I forgot. I'll try harder next time. :D I haven't forgotten to knit but I'll post that another time.

Busy busy busy

Yes, I've been really busy. And yes, I haven't blogged for a week, and yes, I'm still alive and kicking..:)

I have the usual work has been busy excuse.

Last week was a very busy week for us all. Jenny from Sweden came for a visit. So did Pauline from US and Cara from Singapore. I'll be posting pics and the tales soon, but if you can't wait, some of the other bloggers have already post pixs.

I've got some yummies in the bag but I'll wait for the photos as well. Weather forecast predicts an FO in the next few days. Yep, been busy knitting too sporadically. Till then, tudelo!

On Tadpoles and Frog Ponds

You know, I don't know what is it with me. I should have known that with my luck with knitting and with things going so smoothly, something has got to give.

My Vanilla Seed and I had a falling out. She is now a huge ball of yarn waiting to be reborn. I was being really stubborn you see. Something was nagging my mind whenever I knit this one but since I'm normally driving when knitting this, I always forget about it as soon as I get out of my car. Finally when I reached the armholes, I finally gave it and tried it on. It looks huge, like a balloon. So much for shaping. I grab an overflowing fistful of extra material at the waist. In short, it looked like a rucksack. Two choices, either grit my teeth and make myself a rucksack which I'll never wear or ripped and recalculate. I was thinking of all sorts of ways to salvage it. In the end, what's the point of making a rucksack. Totally defeats the purpose of recycling this yarn... I'll chuck the rucksack in my cupboard never to see daylight again. Doh!!! So.. ribbit! ribbit! and another ribbit for good measure. Looks like my February Fix-it is now June Fix-it... or is it Neverending Fix-it, it's beginning to sound more like ribbit then fix-it.

Instead, I'll put away the heartache for now and do Lelah. Ok, I did say no more new projects till I finish something. But with 1 frog in the pond, I figured I deserve to start something else. I'm using a black worsted recycled yarn for this. Starting tonight I hope. I certainly hope it isn't going to be a tadpole in the making. Wibbit! If it is one, I fervently hope it would be something that can turn into a prince with a kiss.

Marmalade Kiri is growing alright. I'm still at the tail end of the 1st ball of yarn. KSH has amazing yardage, it just goes on and on and on. Incidentally for all those who want to know, the end of the 1st ball would be in the middle of my 9th repeat. Anyone knows where to stop the repeats and start the edging to make it exactly 2 balls of KSH?

Reporting in for my Secret Pal!

It's way time to post my questionaire..:) here you go Secret Pal!

1. Are you a yarn snob (do you prefer higher quality and/or natural fibers)? Do you avoid Red Heart and Lion Brand? Or is it all the same to you?
Well, I wouldn’t call myself a yarn snob. I’m a fledgling and yarns over at my end are pretty limited. Fledglings tend to be pretty curious about different yarns. But because mine is a tropic country, I tend to go for summer yarns. For tanks and camis, I go for better quality stuff. For small little items or things I wanna felt, I’d try other sort of yarns. I’m leaning towards natural fibers and blends. Nothing too scratchy. There are a hundred and one yarns that I haven’t tried or sample.

2. Do you spin? Crochet?
I do crochet but very seldom. I'm more into knitting. I'm interested in spinning and dyeing but one hobby to learn at a time..:)

3. Do you have any allergies? (smoke, pets, fibers, perfume, etc.)
Nickel. As much as I fancy trinkets out there, my ears think otherwise. It likes pure silver and gold and kicks a big allegy if I don't give in and I don’t even like gold. Lousy ears. Cloyingly sweet and powdery perfumes give me an occasional migraine. Apart from that, no other allergies that I know of so far, oh except for my face, skin there is very sensitive. The rest of my body is fine. Weird.


4. How long have you been knitting?
I learned it some 12 years ago, never completed my garment. I found it 4 years ago and I decided to teach myself through the net to finish it. Completed it and sent it to my aunt. Too warm for our weather. Since then I have been knitting on and off. I get my know hows mostly from the net. Then at the beginning of last year, the knitting bug bit me real hard. So I've been hooked ever since.

5. Do you have an Amazon or other online wish list?
Unfortunately no, but I do have a wish list at my side bar. I guess I can set up a online wish list if requested..:)

6. What's your favorite scent? (for candles, bath products etc.)
Let's see, fruity and earthy stuff like mango and likes. Lavendar, orange and of course, vanilla, chocolate and coffee! I like unique earthy fruity smells.

7. Do you have a sweet tooth?
Are you kidding? Dark chocolate, tiramisu and orange flavored chocolates does it for me. Don't ask me why, I just have a thing for it.

8. What other crafts or Do-It-Yourself things do you like to do?
I like making things. I sew a bit. Bead a bit. I use to make cards, revamp stuff and draw. It’s just sad that working life makes it really difficult if not impossible to now. Ah! The joys of being a grownup.

9. What kind of music do you like? Can your computer/stereo play MP3s? (if your buddy wants to make you a CD)
No particular category of music. I just like music. It depends on my mood really. I listen from Josh Groban to Celine Dion to funk and rap. I don’t have a taste for is heavy metal, heavy jazz, house, acid, techno and heavy country though.

10. What's your favorite color? Or--do you have a color family/season/palette you prefer? Any colors you just can't stand?
Again, don’t really have a favorite. Only colors I don’t take to is yellow and muddy browns and greens. I love warm rich autumn colors, bright cheery colors and cool pastels like ice blues and of course, who can forget the classy off whites, creams and the darks like charcoal grey and black. See? I told ya..:)


11. What is your family situation? Do you have any pets?
Single with 1 fur kid in tow. There’s some pictures of my fur kid in my blog.

12. What are your life dreams? (really stretching it here, I know)
I have wander lust and a dormant creativity streak. Would like to achieve enough in life to live comfortably and indulge in my 2 passions. Don’t we all..:)

13. What is/are your favorite yarn/s to knit with?
No favorites yet. I’ve tried too few yarns to make a good comparison.

14. What fibers do you absolutely *not* like?
The really scratchy ones cause my skin gets real irritated and very splitty yarns gets me irritated.

15. What is/are your current knitting obsession/s?
Yarns and mags.

16. What is/are your favorite item/s to knit?
Strappy tank tops, camis, jackets, shrugs, lace shawls and bags

17. What are you knitting right now?
Right now? You can see it from my WIP progress at the sidebar. It is always updated. There is also a post last month on my waitlisted projects.

18. What do you think about ponchos?
It’s ok, but not something you can get away with wearing over in Malaysia.

19. Do you prefer straight or circular needles?
Circulars are preferred but I do use straights.

20. Bamboo, aluminum, plastic?
Bamboo because I like sharp points. I also have Inox and Pony. Then again it really depends on what I’m knitting. I have a pair of Addi Turbos circs in 4.5mm which I don’t quite like. Too bulky and blunt. Smaller sizes would be ideal. But I love the anti-curl string. Not like we have a lot of choices here, we only have bamboos and metals.

21. Are you a sock knitter?
Nope, it doesn’t do a thing for me right now. Except for one pair I saw in Knitty. A simple one with a pompom attached.

22. How did you learn to knit?
I think I answered in Question 4.

23. How old is your oldest UFO?
My current oldest UFO is about 6 mths old.

24. What is your favorite animated character or a favorite animal/bird?
I used to have some favorite animated characters, mainly Jap Anime but not anymore. I’m an animal lover but if I really have to choose, it would be dogs, cats, dolphins and horses.

25. What is your favorite holiday?
All holidays are a favorite ..:) gives me more time to knit and relax.

26. Is there anything that you collect?
Books, magazines and of course, now, yarns.

27. What knitting magazine subscriptions do you have?
None, I don’t see the point. We can’t really knit anything from the Winter and Autumn issues here in the tropics.

28. Any books out there you are dying to get your hands on?
I’m always dying to get my hands on interesting books..:) I’m a bookworm. I gobble them up. As for magazines, the recent interesting one that I spotted was Knit1.

WIPS

So finally, I have some progress to report.

Lady Marmalade

We all know Lady Marmalade ain't easy to live with. We've our spats. After frogging 12 rows the last time, I was so demoralized, I tried to chuck it aside for a while. But I find myself picking it up time and time again. I still had problems until I took out the stitchmarkers. Weird huh? I figured a easier way to keep track of my pattern count. This is what happens when you up yourself suddenly from stockingnet stitch to lace with KSH, use lots of markers and disregard what is staring straight at your face all this while. I'm pretty sure everyone but me knows. I'm feeling pretty stupid here.

It's a 12 stitch repeat. To simplify, the last 3 stitch of the 12 stitch repeat is a YO, K, YO. That K stitch there needs to be aligned at the center of the fern motif. If it doesn't align, I made a mistake at that particular repeat. The other thing is, if I still have the wrong count after finishing the row, I mark the begining of the stitch repeat and start counting 12 for each repeat. If the offending repeat has more or less stitches than 12, quite obviously that particular repeat has problems. Makes it a lot easier and faster to find my mistakes. Now, if I had paid more attention to that and not gotten so dependent on the stitch markers, I might have it figured out earlier and save myself much grief.

Good news is, I'm at my 8th repeat, 3rd row and my first ball of KSH is finishing. I'd say that it'll finish in the next 2 rows and it's time to open up another ball. I may have to change back to circs too.

Green Tea Cables

As you can see, almost finishing the 2nd repeat. But everything is pretty much on hold while I obssess with Marmalade Kiri. Green Tea Cables is a slow going project.

Vanilla Seed
I'm not going to show Vanilla Seed, cause it the same old picture only slightly longer. It's about mid way. Another couple of inches more and I can start on the armholes and neckline.

Need some votes here though! I'm going to try a wide v-shape turtleneck, cowl style. I'm wondering here, would the neckline look better as a plain stockinette stitch or ribbed or should I stick to Seed stitch all the way? Vote vote vote. Stockinette, Ribbed, Seed???

Branching Out.

I broke my promise to myself on not starting anything until I finish my 3 WIPS for this. Frogged abit after the first pattern repeat cause I wasn't paying attention. I have to say, love this mystery yarn. No one can tell me what it is still. It's wool blended with a few very smooth strands of I dunno what, silk? poly or nylon that ranges from yellow to red, giving this yarn a unique dual tone with a sheen. You can't see it in the pic, it's blue(quite obviously) but the color sheen..:) I'll try to take a better photo of it next round.

That's all folks..:) Have a good weekend!

Knitters Community

This is a short one.

Firstly : -
Check this out! :) Knitters Community
It's totally new and I think it's pretty cool and it's hosted at my part of the continent!

Secondly :-
Secret Pal 5 started! Yipee! Guess I better pull up my socks and do my list of questions soon.

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.