Gosh! it's grand-aunt

Yes! my baby blanket is ready and will be in blue wrappings for a boy. I plan to write on the gift tag, "every stitch knitted with love, from great aunt Sally".

My first baby wrap was knitted for DH's nephew while at Uni and this is for his son! How the years have flown by. I had completely forgotten about the little white cotton attempt when he mentioned his mum has it at home.

Imagine, an FO from 28 years ago! I'm definitely going to make an effort to take a picture of it for posting here.

Pattern: Fun stitch baby blanket

Yarn: 100% wool of Japanese origin

Skeins: 10 x 50 gm x 85 m

Needles: 6.5 mm

I can't wait to swatch for Cozy and Office Casual 3 but have to make another one of my detours again since I've promised a colleague's ballerina daugther a pair of leg warmers. She's been having trouble finding some that would stay up on her slimmer legs and suffers cramps.

My friend wants to learn to knit the warmers but don't you think it's less stressful for me to work on a ribbed pair myself ? There's plenty in my stash for a small gift anyway.

Office Casual 2

Finally completed while watching the World Cup, Wimbledon and British Open Golf Championships. Unblocked and slightly crumpled, here it is!

Office Casual 2 (no 1 is here)


Pattern: from Bendigo......................................... Green Gable


Yarn: Bendigo 4 ply 100% cotton
Skeins: 1.25 x 200 gm x 670 m (838m)

Needles: 2mm & 3mm




Modifications: Ribbing with 2mm instead of 2.75mm , number of stitches adjusted to knit in the round

Rose - a wool, cotton and acrylic blend will be number 3 and probably something as plain and 'boring' to knit like its sisters. There's been so many lovely lace FOs from the girls in the knitters community recently and it's tempting to go for something lacy at the collar like Green Gable.


In the meantime, it's back to my baby blankie and stole, I will not succumb to the temptation of casting on anything new until I'm almost done with them!

What yarn budget?

Its that time of the year again - corporate budgeting and the pages and pages of justification and statistics to cook(knit?) up.
I wonder how much lighter my stash would be if I apply the same principles of budgeting at work to yarn purchases?? Let's put some Budget Challenge questions to the test.

Why do you need this amount and explain the project?
err...no project yet..on e-Bay...good reviews on Forum..

Can you postpone the project to next year?
NO! I want more sock yarn..lacewight..a discount.. it's so soooft...alpaca..never knitted with it...only 7 WIPs....can manage more

Is there a cheaper alternative?
Yes, but the acrylics....blah blah...KnitPicks..no International deliveries....not the same as Noro....

Tell me about ROI (return on investment)
err...well..socks cost 4x...yes cheaper to buy..ahmm.. lost frogging man days?..FO? no deadline...

Come back with a 30% slash down
But...I need 10 skeins...long sleeves...love cables

Last year, I discovered a cheaper mosituriser (Olay Regenerist) that works wonders on my 'aging skin' and decided to switch from Creme de La Mer of which I had been swearing by for years. Now you see where I'm coming from, my savings yarn (pun intended)? Yearly cost difference between the creams pays for more yarn that I can ever knit in two!!
Now, what better lame excuse can anyone have to buy more yarn? I haven't thought of another for this year yet, anyway let me show off all my WIPs - only 3 !


Baby blanket - deadline August

Office casual - second sleeve in progress

Feather and Fan stole - 15" done







Sunday afternoon was spent on board the MV Doulos, a christian ship cum floating bookstore. The last time it berthed at Port Klang was 4 years ago. YL and her Youth Fellowship got to meet some of the crew at a concert and wanted so much to visit the ship. The queue was horrendous and it took us almost an hour to get on board.
I am a little disppointed that there were not many Craft books and none on Knitting but look what we got!

Attempt at Lace

The Knitpicks Alpaca Cloud was ordered with Trellis (IK Spring 2006) in mind.




I came back down to earth very quickly while swatching; when I couldn't find an easier way to K7 together other than with the help of a crochet needle for a major section of the pattern. It's such a lovely design, there must be lots of KALs out there I could visit to find a way I guess.
Anyway, it's gone into my 'future projects' folder and perhaps I'll make another attempt when I'm more experienced with lace knitting. Had I stubbornly went on with Trellis I'm quite certain it will be set aside out of sheer frustration.



So it's now an easy Beginners 4 rows Feather & Fan pattern.
Hopefully it will grow up to be a 20"x 50" stole.




Here they are, my socks! They badly need a wash as I insisted on wearing the completed one while knitting the other. The excuse is I need measurements but really I'm admiring them whenever I put my feet up. The pair has been all over the house and shown off to whoever is not bored with hearing how comfortable they are and how warm they're going to keep me during my winter travels.

Pattern: combination of various, short row heel flap, Kitchener stitch toe

Yarn: Opal sock yarn, 75% superwash wool 25% polyamide

Skein: 75 gm, 319 m (3/4 of a 100g 425m sock yarn)

Needles: 2 mm

Sock making made easy..God is a great designer

I haven't got a pair to show yet, but want to show off my first attempt. So here it is, the first born!

I chose to play safe and knit for myself, and this darker yarn to start with as it will hide mistakes I might make along the way, but surprisingly there were no laddering and the much talked about 'gap' between the heel, cuff and instep does not exist. (small pat on the shoulders)

I learnt that, 'for the majority of us, the foot is exactly the length of your forearm from the base of your palm to the inside of your elbow'. Phew! what a relief. Isn't it much easier and polite to measure the hand rather then for someone to turn his/her foot out for measurements? It could be rather annoying when one is in need of a shower too!

And the length of our foot is about equal to the circumference at the widest part. All this trivia from sock knitting!

I believe God created us and all these 'coincidences' are not chance and evolution. Sock making made easy - because God is a great designer!