Winter wear

Latest FOs for YL in cold, cold Wales. Details of each project is in Ravelry (username - sallytsb).

Beech Wood Cowl free pattern by Ilga

Yarn: Knittery Cashmere Merino sock yarn



Wicked by Sarah & Rachel of ZephyrStyle

Yarn: Jaeger Extra Fine Merino Aran in Jet



Cable jumper inspired by Ann Budd's 'The knitter's handy book of sweater patterns"

Yarn: Jaeger Extra Fine Merino Chunky in Mink

Almost half way

Blankie is out of the huge box it's been hibernating in for the past 2-3 months. I have been furiously at it over the long weekend and it's now about half way...hmmm maybe I might just make it for Christmas?

It's been some time now..

I am still finding it difficult to update this blog and the longer the lapse, the urgency wanes. Is this why most bloggers announce a hiatus? I've been contemplating shutting down this blog and just updating projects on Ravelry. The reason I am reluctant is mainly technical - this blog, I 'own' but on Ravelry I'm just a 'user', this, friends is the IT techie in me talking whilst the knitter in me loves the ease of use and huge potential of what Ravelry has to offer, at the same time allowing me to be 'wordless' if I so choose.
And so...I will continue to blog, albeit not so regularly and dating FO details into Ravelry until I find my blogging mojo again!
I have been busy knitting winter wear for YL who is now reading 1st year law in the UK. Here's a peek at the FOs I haven't blogged about.
Details of yarn and patterns used are posted on Ravelry!

Bought this jacket pattern and yarn in an Aberystwyth LYS, knitting done in less than a week!


This Beret I knitted in an evening from the Rowan Cocoon Collection.
The lime green jumper and pink jacket are both knitted with Sirdar Softie, an acrylic and wool mix. The seaming was a nightmare since I hated thick edgings, moreover the stitches made with 10mm and 12mm needles amplified imperfections too much.
I hope the Rowan Big Wool bought for Kim Hargreaves' - Temptation jacket ( Thrown Together mag) will turn out better.



I regret changing my mind about going to Colinette Mills in Llanfair, Wales as planned. I was less than 2 hours drive away but decided not to after falling in love with the LYS (take a look at Cynthia's new online store, she'll charge actual postage only ) just a few minutes away from my hotel! It has the latest patterns, mags, every Rowan, Sublime and Sirdar yarn one can imagine with a selection of Regia and Manos at the side. Moreover, the mill is open for business half day on Fridays and it'd mean a mad rush in addition to paying for car rental, the cost of which I eventually used for Kid Silk classic!

Notre Dame de Grace

I love the alpaca softness, how the collar and shoulder garter sections are designed but I hated the never ending Moss stitch! Here it is....the Dame which fits daughter YL snuggly and should keep her warm for the coming winter...

Pattern : Notre Dame De Grace by Veronik Avery, Interweave Knits Summer 2007
Yarn: Bendigo Wooleen Mills Alpaca, DK in Oceania
Amount: 2.5 x 436 yds
Needles: 4mm

Blankie is in progress now that the Mission Falls mill ends finally made it to my door after 9 weeks! But, I've decided to set the project aside and not try to finish it by September. I'm setting a new deadline, Christmas perhaps...it is addictive and there's just too much knitting to finish off for now...a Drops cable cardigan, 2 more gift scarves, socks, hat, mittens... I need more knitting time and extra pairs of hands!!

(BTW Mona, I've figured out the triangles for the sides - see the purple and grey?)

Here's a peep at YL's campus Afghan...slow...won't use 4ply in future!

While waiting...

It's been a great disappointment, having to wait for the Mission Falls mill ends I bought over eBay sometime mid May. It only dawned on me 'internaitonal flat rate' might be surface mail from Canada and would take 8-10 weeks or even longer. So Blankie has gone into 'Pause mode' and knitting life goes on with;

this FO which was meant for myself but now belongs to daughter YL. There's more sock yarn in the Stash...and so another is in progress with merino cashmere sock yarn from Knittery

Yarn: Cherry Tree Hill, Spring Frost colorway, 100% superwash merino, Fingering wt, needles: 2 mm

To soften my Blankie upset, this was cast on with Knitpicks Palette. The pattern is the seamless afghan which is much easier for a severely 'yarn matching' challenged knitter like me! Decide on the colours, number of diagonal squares and off you go with the repeats.

I have made some slight modifications when knitting up the squares. In the pattern, the 'SSK' seams are left on the 'right side' while fussy me wants a flatter surface. But then, the 'wrong side' does look equally nice and so now I have a reversible blankie!!!

Those of you who are aware of my obsession with reversible scarves - imagine the smug look on my face...

As I progressed from the browns to green / beige, note that there are no tails in between except for the first and last square of the same colour. I'm not sure if the earlier tails were due to my trying to eliminate the SSK joins on the top-side or I wasn't following the pattern correctly. I'll figure that out later!

Quickie update

Scarves for YL and her friends - third one in progress

Blankie is taking a rest - awaiting the arrival of Mission Falls mill ends I won on eBay.

Notre Dame De Grace - the body in Double Moss stitch gets a little boring, I then move on to a scarf for some instant gratification and its fast knitting with 6mm needles.

It's a Blankie!

Blankie mania has hit me and I've been casting on little 4" diagonal squares all week!!! Alas, I'm running out of DK wool scraps and will be putting it down today while waiting for 2 mixed bags of Mission Falls 1828 mill ends I won at eBay to arrive. There's at least 800 gms of DK superwash there, enough to feed this blankie obsession. I plan to finish it by September, in time for the English winter.

The pattern is an adaptation of Sellykang's sock yarn blankie

The reverse side is surprising neat too, but just look at..the ends.... the ends......

I'm using short 4mm needles instead of DPNs or Circulars. They're probably stretching the stitches a little but these 'plastic learner' straights seems just perfect for the 31 sts. Thanks Annie!
Meantime, here's what's getting cast on today...


Veronik Avery's Notre Dame De Grace from IK Summer 2007

Blanket Squares

Mona suggested we do our bit for charity by knitting up 12 inch blanket squares in non-woollie yarns as the blankets will be going to refugee babies in our warmer climes.
I reckon there's enough in my stash for 8 and here's 5 of them.


Finally, and for a good cause too, I'm getting to use up the mostly acrylic wool yarn, learn how to 'log cabin' and knit diagonal squares with some (dish cloth style) I'm too lazy to find gauge for.

Hmm.....Do we have a volunteer in KL to do the seaming up end of May? :)

One done..four to go

I plan to finish 5 scarves by August and am thoroughly enjoying knitting the first one while looking for more patterns. No plain ribbing if possible, but interesting, yet easy and reversible patterns. Here's the first one - Fiona's Scarf.

Pattern : One row hand spun scarf by YarnHarlot

Size : 10" by 63" (unstretched)
Yarn : Katia Azteca, 50% wool 50% acrylic
Amount : 2 x 100gm x 197 yds (used all)
Needles : 6mm

Here's a close-up view of the one row stitch which I totally recommend for anyone looking for an easy reversible scarf pattern. In fact, I'm almost tempted to knit the rest in the same ! Wonder how I'd feel after the 3rd one???

Norwegian Woods and Green Gable FOs

Another enjoyable Sivia Harding knit - my Norwegian Woods scarf

Pattern: Norwegian Woods Scarf by SiviaHarding
Size: 60" x 27" (blocked)
Yarn: Dream in Color - Baby (Laceweight), Flamingo Pie colourway
Amount: 560 yrds
Needles: 3 mm

Green Gable from the cotton yarn bought in Ho Chi Minh City. Notice how the colour pools when I knit across the raglan section and the variegation stablises after? Lesson learnt.

Pattern: Green Gable

Yarn: 2 strands 4 ply cotton (1 variegated 1 white)

Size: 36" Length: 23"

Amount: 350 gms

Needles: 4 mm

More Yarny Loot

And to think I decided there wasn't anything much I wanted when I first went into the shop!!!! Maybe it was because I didn't quite like the shop assistant on the 2nd floor but got rather chumy with Ming on the 3rd.

Ten balls of any yarn is heavily discounted at this place, so you're looking at 2 balls each of 5 colourways of Katia Azteca planned for gift scarves for friends of YL leaving from August through February 09. Then I saw a gorgeous swatch out of the Filo Filu which I'm sure would knit up to a sexy slinky evening shawl..Couldn't resist that.

Ming persuaded me into buying the Japanese Knitting symbols dictionary and a book of 250 pattern samplers (mostly cables) when she found out I couldn't knit from Japanese patterns. I might give it a try one of these days... and there's a magnetic pattern marker too.

Remember the cheapie cotton yarn from the last post? Here's the green-white colourway growing very fast into Green Gable.. I'm using 1 strand of variegated with 1 strand white on 4mm needles. Would you believe the pile of knitting here is out of a single ball of each colour? This picture was taken when I was about to join the 2nd ball of green-white. Gosh! I'm still amazed I can get half a Top out of a RM 2 ball of yarn!!!

Yarny loot

I found the 2 ladies of Le Thanh Ton St ! - as recommended by craftycathy in Ravelry's Asian Knitters forum. They're street peddlers alongside the famous Ben Thanh Market, Ho Chi Minh, just 10 mins from Caravelle Hotel where I stayed. Very convenient.
Gosh! it's amazing I lived to post this blog. I had no clue about crossing roads where (really) hundreds of motorbikes were coming towards you from every direction. Terrified, I would wait patiently at the curb for other tourists (esp bigger Westerners) then get myself strategically sandwiched in the middle while waiting for them to start the dash!! I did that at no less than 6 junctions.


The ladies were always packing up by the time I arrived there in the evenings, so never actually got to see all their wares. The quality of their yarn was OK and there's loads of cotton, all in lace or fingering weight though, nothing heavier. I didn't have time to look at wool which were all from China.

Here's the loot after 2 trips to their stalls...33 x 100 gms of 4 ply cotton sold loose and by weight.

Each is less than US$ 0.65!!! and I've no idea what to do with them yet. Bought 10 the first day, went back to the hotel to knit up a quick swatch, washed it for colour fastness and was quite impressed with the subtle sheen and softness. The next evening I went by taxi :) for another 23 balls.

All packed and ready to come home...

Travel project

I've found the perfect project to take with me on my business trips for the next 2 weeks. It's the Woodlands shawl worked on only a skein of sock yarn! The pattern is simple but the 'shawlette' promises to be stunning judging by the projects at Ravelry .


Yarn: The Knittery , Colourway: Earth, Merino Cashmere Sock (60% merino 20% cashmere 20% nylon)

Here's a sneek peek at my Norwegian woods by SiviaHarding which is 1 repeat and Edging short of the finishing line. It's knitted with Dream in Color Baby in the Flamingo Pie colourway. I don't think this is the right colour to show off the design but I am looking forward to wear it with my usual dark office attire.


I'm not sure if there's much chance of knitting relating shopping in Vietnam's Ho Chi Minh but any shortfall this end will be compensated with my booking into a hotel right smack in Hong Kong's yarn district of Causeway bay the following week!!! (I've got all the addresses, thanks to Ravelry)
It'll mean a daily two way 45 mins MRT commute to the office but what won't we do for yarn??? I'll have to come up with a sane reason why I HAVE to stay that far away though...

Last minute baby knits

I became a grand aunt for the second time this week and embarrassingly there were no baby knits to welcome Kate! I had clean forgotten her due-date and hadn't bought baby yarn nor planned a project.
Well, I started on a blanket with some Sirdar Snuggles and ran out when it was clear that the FO could only serve as an oversized burping towel! (total denial syndrome-itis again!)
After a frantic search I came up with these....

The Bootees pattern is from a Debbie Bliss leaflet and Magic Slippers by Sockpixie. Aren't they cute???

Yarn: Peony acrylic , Needles: 3mm, size: newborn

Am going to get some feedback on these slippers from the tired but happy mom (her firstborn is a boy), if baby seems comfortable in them and they don't drop off easily, I plan to knit more of these and not bother with another blanket.

Yarn: Sirdar Snuggles, Needles: 3mm, Size: 1-3 mths

Agatha FO

Fresh off the blocking board...I'll let the pictures do the talking...

Pattern: Agatha by thatloganchick
Yarn: Australian wool, 5 ply, Black

Needles: 4mm
Amount: 400 gm (yarn bought without labels and yardage information)
Size: Wingspan - 56" Depth - 25"

Notes: Followed pattern exactly, 4 repeats of main pattern

Would I knit another one? YES!!!

Can't put her down

Not having the recommended DK yarn didn't deter me as I found the remnants of a 5 ply Australian wool which could be a good substitute. It was bought as a scrap bag of about 700gms, no labels, no indication of yardage but there's 450 gms left over from another project which is plenty for Agatha, I'm sure. The yarn quality isn't too great and I would have prefered something softer in a different hue. But it'll do for now, I might knit another with some other yarn later.

I love the pattern, it's well written and the instructions, all 9 pages of them, user-friendly and easy to comprehend. Haven't been able to put it down since cast-on, however I think I will reserve it for daylight knitting from now. Black is a killer on the eyes and tires me out quickly

Here it is after 2 repeats....

Delayed gratification...

It was love at first sight with Agatha-ThatLoganChick and so I proceeded to purchase it at Etsy, planning to cast it on over the weekend.
I've been very good recently, knitting from Stash, so was certain there'd be a suitable wool mix or silky DK yarn tucked in there. Skeins are literally falling out when the cupboard is opened!
Now, how many mornings have we stood staring at the clothes closet ,surprised there's 'nothing to wear' when the bars are sagging with too many hangers? That's that same feeling I had when I searched and triple checked through the Stash for that just perfect yarn I would have bought and forgotten about many moons ago - there must be!
Nope, nothing, I came up with zilch, not even a substitute I might consider in desperation. Hmm...maybe my Stash is not as big as I thought????

Oh well! delayed gratification is good for the knitting soul sometimes and I might as well enjoy the online shopping....
Here's a peek at my WIPs...

Decided to stay with stockinette so as not to 'distort' the colourway, but might change to the Blueberry waffle stitch for the leg. Yarn - Supersock from Cherry Tree Hill in Spring Frost; Needles - 2mm

Office Casual (the third) with Peony acrylic yarn on 3.5 mm needles. I don't have a particular pattern and is winging it as I knit.