May 2007 – Knitting Box

Why yes I do knit

Knitting content seems to be lacking around here lately, doesn’t it. Well, I’m about to rectify the situation. I actually have an FO to show you. Yes, there actually have been some knitting in the background!

The Rock and Weave socks are done.

I first saw this sock pattern at the Yarn Harlot‘s, here and then here. I thought the construction looked interesting. The linen stitch cuff (which looks as if it’s woven, hence ‘Rock and Weave’) is knitted first as a long rectangle, and then you pick up stitches along the side of the cuff and start the rounds of stockinette to make the rest of the sock. The cuff is closed by a couple of buttons.

The yarn is self-striping, and I love how it turned out, although it’s not the way that I expected it. When I thought ‘self-striping’, I thought it would be like those self-patterning sock yarns (Opal, Jigsaw, etc), where the skein has long stretches of one colour which then change to a long stretch of another colour, and so on. The striping in STR yarns actually contains of short stretches of colours which results in spirals of colours instead of actual stripes. Which is no problems for me, I love the look of these stripes. But I thought those of you considering STR might want to know that. As for me, I love these socks. The yarn is so nice to work with, it kind of just glides along my fingers.

Oh, and another thing I noticed with the STR yarn, is that the yarn is very tightly spun, resulting in a dense kind of yarn (as in, if you try to squeeze a strand of the yarn between your fingers, it would pretty much maintain its width) while still being very soft. I think this prevents it from overstretching and makes it more durable. When I knit socks with DPNs, I usually have problems with ladders at some point or another. But I noticed with these socks the ladders hardly show at all. Now, I am NOT saying that STR will solve laddering problems 🙂 But perhaps it helped it not to overstretch at the joints between needles? Please correct me if I’m wrong.

Pattern: Rock and Weave socks by Blue Moon Fiber Arts
Yarn: STR medium weight in “January One” colourway
Needles: 3.75mm for cuff, 2.25mm dpns for the rest

31 May 2007

Little Cables Hat, now with larger size

Remember my Little Cables Hat pattern? Rose Red has written a pattern for the adult version of the hat, and I’ve incorporated it to my original pattern. So you can go and get both patterns here. Thanks, Rose Red!

Adult size and baby size

Adult and baby hats side by side, picture courtesy of Rose Red

23 May 2007

Tagged and tagged

Tagged #1

First, Sarah tagged me for the five favourite blogs meme a while ago. This is so hard! Which is why it’s taking me so long.

mollychicken — Lyn’s softies are simply to die for and they come very well equipped! And her japanese craft books collection leaves me weak in the knees.
yarnstorm — I really enjoy Jane’s writing on just about anything. And her gorgeous photos and creations don’t hurt either 🙂
tutti fruiti — I love the stuff that Belinda makes, she’s very creative with the fabrics. Also she’s very good at finding good links, whether links to shops for me to buy stuff, or links to fellow crafters 🙂
grumperina — Kathy’s knits are very inspiring, and I like her nothing’s-too-hard-to-tacke kind of attitude that makes me want to stretch myself further and further.
whip up and craftzine — Yeah, that’s two, but I guess they’re a bit similar in a way. I love these two blogs because they have an abundance tutorials, book reviews, links to crafters, and other crafty resources.

Okay that’s five already, but I just have to give a special mention to Loobylu. Claire doesn’t blog anymore, but it was her blog that got me interested in knitting in the first place and then sewing, and introduced me to the world of crafting blogs. I started reading her blog when I was pregnant, with no interest in crafts whatsoever. Then she mentioned knitting one day, and linked to the Stitch ‘n Bitch book. I was intrigued, and the rest is history.

Now I’m supposed to tag people, so I tag Belinda, Corrie, Jade, Michelle, Meg, and Donna, if you would like to play along.

Tagged #2

I’ve also been tagged by Jade and Belinda for the random things meme. The rules are:

1. Start with 7 random facts/habits about yourself
2. People who are tagged have to write their 7 things on their blog
3. Then choose another 7 people to get tagged and list their names

Ok here goes:

I like to have coffee in the mornings, and tea in the afternoons. And I don’t mind whether my coffee/tea is instant or brewed.
I like a lot of milk with my coffees. A friend likes to joke that I have “a bit of coffee with my milk”.
So far I have met only one other person named Claudine. I was in the hospital after giving birth, still dazed from the painkillers after a C-section, and a midwife came in and said, “Hi I’m Claudine”. I thought that she must have said “Are you Claudine”, so I replied, “Yes I am”. And then she looked at my chart and said, “Oh you’re Claudine too!”.
I actually like airplane food and hospital food. I guess I’m just happy when someone else is doing the cooking for me 🙂
I have a morbid fear of caterpillars and worms. Even just looking at pictures of them would fill me with fright. In junior high school once I shrieked loudly when turning my biology textbook to the page on worms, to the alarm of my classmates. I have no fear of spiders or most other insects, though.
Before motherhood, I used to work as a computer programmer, where my biggest pet peeve was manual repetition. If there was a task that required me to repeat it over and over again, I would try to write a little program that can automate it. The irony is not lost on me that now I like nothing better than making stitches after stitches repeatedly. I still wish, though, that house cleaning could be computerised.
I have been on the cover of a magazine. Oh yeah! I wish I could say that I have the looks of a supermodel (those who have seen me in person must be giggling right now), but no. I was three or four years old at the time, and our family was holidaying together with Dad’s close friend and his family. My dad’s friend, a professional photographer, took a really nice photo of me and submitted it to a photography magazine, and it was printed as the front cover! My parents still keep a copy of that magazine in their home. So now you know that Annette inherited her cuteness from her mother! Hahaha! Yeah right.

Okay now it’s your turn. I’m probably just about the last blogger to do this, but if you haven’t done it and would like to, please join in!

16 May 2007

More Sewing

There had been a flurry of sewing here lately. First there are these bears.

These bears were made from a pattern in a japanese craft book, ISBN 4579109783, that I got from Kinokuniya a while ago. They’re my first foray into sewing softies, something I have been wanting to do for a long time. The brown and white gingham bear was the first one I made, he has so many flaws that are too embarassing to mention (including arms that got ripped out because the fabric frayed, and had to be re-sewn back in). But I’m getting better I think. And I love these bears to bits. (Okay, so they’re for Annette, but I wanna play with them too!)

Next we have a Market Bag, another project from the Crafter’s Companion. Pattern is by Anna Torborg. I used Alexander Henry’s Sunny Side print, and some cream-coloured brushed cotton.

It’s basically a large tote, with a drawstring near the top.

I had planned to do some embroidery on the cream-coloured fabric to break up the plainness, but then I got impatient and just wanted to sew up the bag so that I could see what it looks like, so no embroidery. But now that I see it, I quite like it this way. Just simple. (Funny how when I’m sewing I’m very impatient, wanting to see the result as soon as possible, but when I’m knitting I’m happy to spend weeks or months on the same project. I still have a lot to learn, I guess.)

And finally we have a twirly skirt, which I made using the tutorial from house on a hill road. I used some Hello Kitty fabric that Corrie gave me. This skirt is so easy to make, and Annette loves twirling in it. I have already planned to make more for her.

2 May 2007