Socks, flowers, soap and more yarn

I read everything I could get my hands on and found knitty's socks 101 the most helpful. This is my first attempt at socks and it is so stressful wondering how they'd turn out.

I couldn't find a pattern that is suitable for the tension I got from the Opal yarn and instead of the 2.5 mm needles recommended I decided on 2 mm. So I'm winging it with the help of these magazines. I've had the Knit & Style for ages and never gave the sock instructions a second glance and they turn out to be so good, distinct colours for different parts.

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More sock yarn arrived via Mona (again) and in between her to-ing and fro-ing from the hospital, left the yarn for me to collect. The plain brown is for DH who has always insisted that sock knitting is too much trouble. But I shall prove him wrong.

As with most years, I was going to let the day slip by without any fuss until I came downstairs to find these flowers on the dining table. My favourite flowers and soaps! JS and YL had splashed out their pocket money for the surprise. Hugs!

Pek Wah and I share the same birthday and would call each other to wish ourselves a Happy Birthday every year. She suggested we no longer celebrate birthdays from now but the anniversary of our xxx (a favourable year like 30th?) birthday! That way we'd stay 30 forever. Now, isn't that much much better?

FOs to go

Cream Jumper or chocolate chip vanilla ice cream as JS described it is finally an FO! I've enjoyed knitting the Drops Design although it is a little vague in some parts and could get an inexperienced knitter into a knot especially where the ribbing and raglan joins. It is so easy to go wrong at the decreases which could result in disjointed ribbing at the yoke.

Pattern: Drops Design 70-21

Yarn: Cleckheaton Country 8 ply Naturals
100% pure wool superwash
Skein: 14.5 x 50 gm x 105 yds (86m)
Needles: 3 mm & 4 mm

JS seems more excited over the ear warmers and mittens. He describes them as 'cool'. They were easy to make and I will probably make more as I expect them to be misplaced quite soon! I hadn't a clue how the ear warmers work out with the helmet when I saw the pattern initially. more info here Such a simple design and yet will keep the ears so warm.

Pattern: Bike helmet ear warmers

Yarn: Cleckheaton Country 8 ply
100% pure wool superwash
Skein: 2 x 50 gm x 95 m
Needles: 4 mm

Pattern:Voodoo wrist warmers

Yarn: Cleckheaton Country 8 ply
100% pure wool superwash
Skein: 1 x 50 gm x 95 m
Needles: 4 mm

My first lot of sock yarn arrived thanks to Mona and with the 2 Opals from her stash I am going to be 'socking' away for some time!

Spanish Paella and Pot Bottom Crust

To celebrate Father's Day we went to a Spanish style restaurant that serves a delicious Seafood Paella of savoury rice, tomatoes, spices, mussels, clams and prawns. When the dish arrived, its rich aroma brought back warm nostalgic memories of Jinet, my Persian room /classmate at college and our happy chatty shared dinners.

I think its a modified version of 'Tah-Cheen-e Morgh' (Pot-Bottom Crust with Chicken). She would cook the rice grains, canned tomatoes, chicken, raisins and spices in a normal rice cooker. When ready, she tips over the pot and out comes this heavenly golden mould of rice with a thick crust that needs to be cut with a knife for serving. Our local burnt rice is not palatable but THAT crust is out of this world, especially after some butter is spread on it.

Unfortunately, we drifted apart when we went to different universities and all efforts to trace her some years later came to naught.
I've often wondered how she is and whether she's migrated to the US. If you know of people with 'forever spring' for a family name, please ask if they have a Jinet in the family?

JS brought home this jumper, knitted last year in Cleckheaton 8 Ply in Fishermen's Rib stitch. It got into a 'you came too close fight' with some branches and parts of it appear as if a cat had polished its claws on it. He says it feels like an armour and I have to admit the stitch has got this 'double layer' effect and IS heavy.
I am seriously contemplating frogging the whole thing and recycling the wool into another jumper for him.

This arrived in the post from Roxysyarn where I ordered another lot of Plymouth Fantasy Naturalle Cotton. Roxanne included the 20 packets of Kool-aid when she found out I wanted to try a spot of home dyeing. Since she refused payment, we've agreed that I put some money into the Indonesian Aid fund for her.

Knitting by the beach

It didn't turn out as planned, me vegetating under the palm trees on a deckchair, knitting and reading while the kids (more like young adults now!) and DH laze around the pool for the 4 days we were vacationing in PD (Port Dickson). There were no deckchairs, it's a long story which I won't go into, anyway I settled for the couch in the living room.

The sunset from our balcony was fantastic as you can see from the picture and we took more at the beach. It's been ages since we've had a 'bonding' holiday like this and it's a good change from rushing and following tour schedules. DH and JS got into the World Cup mood with the crowd in the lounge downstairs while I knitted away with an action pack HBO movie.

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Look what I got!Choptick holders made from rattan and woven cloth for needle holders during our day trip to Malacca. The size of the hand painted wooden boxes is just perfect for my DPNs and stitch holders. The smaller one will definitely keep many stitch markers.


Aren't obsessed knitters like us a little dotty sometimes? I'm always on the lookout for something I can use for my knitting paraphernalia and luckily for the family, there aren't any LYS around!

Updates

The yarn label says 'blue' , it's lilac to my eyes, but then someone posted an orangey FO here and I thought it was yellow. I'm not sure if it's age creeping in or what , anyway here's my latest blue/lilac WIP, Office Casual 2.
It's the second in a series of semi-formal tops I plan to knit for myself after giving up on ever finding the 'just perfect' one on the many frustrating trips to the shops.

290 stitches of single rib with Bendigo 4 ply cotton on 2 mm circulars can be a challenge and I couldn't wait to move on to stockinette on the 3 mm. Well, after the non-stop 2 parts, 3.5 hrs of 'Blood of the Templars' on Star World, it's ready for the camera.
The front's got to be plain since I am not comfortable with the lacey column right down the centre.














I haven't neglected my cream jumper though. The 2nd sleeve should be done by this weekend and then the fun starts with uniting the pieces for the raglan yoke. I find this satisfying, everything coming together and soon, an FO! Oh yes! practically no seaming and all the tails are tucked in as I knit.

The Weekend Shrug

Pattern : adapted from shimmer

Yarn : Plymouth Fantasy Naturale 100% cotton
Balls : 2 x 100 gms x 140 yds
Needles : 5mm

Gaps and Ladders...no more

All you sock experts out there do not make ladders anymore I'm sure, but this is a late knitting bloomer here, which kind of explains why I need to give encouraging pats on these shoulders everytime I lean back to admire the sleeve I'm knitting.

I've recently managed to get rid of two most irritating imperfections I always find in my projects, 'M1' gaps and ladders from using DPNs / 2 Circulars.

A tip from EZ's 'Knitting Without Tears' on using the backward loop to M1 solved the gap problem. Maybe I'm fussy or neurotic but I will notice even the tiniest gap made when knitting into back and front of stitch or into the loop between stitches.

I've shied from knitting socks and mittens because I hate ladders. Two circulars are definitely better than DPNs since there's lesser joints. Transferring several stitches to the next needle every few rows hides the ladders somewhat. But that is just spreading the ladders further along the rows and doesn't solve anything. (oh! dear, why can't I just sit and enjoy my craft without thinking of them as project issues and resolutions??).

Also, my tugging tighter on every first stitch on the needle makes no difference. In fact, I learnt from a forum doing so on the first makes it worst!. It's the second stitch that must be tugged it seems.

I tried that on the Weekend Shrug and it worked!!! Nothing! no visible ladders and there was no need to transfer stitches at all. Of course I had to make sure and did some now and again. For added measure, I made a gentler tug on the 3rd stitch too, just in case!

I'm now ready for socks and am grabbing Mona's Opal yarns.

Weekend Shrug

Not very imaginative I know, but it started off as my 'Drops Design cream jumper' and I can't think of a catchy project name just yet.
The Cleckheaton Natural wool has loosely weaved black inclusions that drop off so easily as I knit and I'm certain there won't be any left on the jumper after a few washes. Pointless really, but for now it's got this interesting earthy rustic look.
I'm rather pleased with how the jumper is turning out and the garter rows give an interesting touch to the ribbing and subsequent stockinette section. I've started on another ribbing section just before attaching sleeves that I shall start on soon...barring any distraction to another project!.

The black inclusions look so much like Dottie's (our 4 yr old Basset Golden Retriever mix) hair on the floor that you can't tell the difference! She gets to come into the sitting room especially at weekends and loves to sit by my easy chair while I knit.

She's one of 10 puppies and mum's the Basset whom she takes after with her long sausage like body, short legs and soulful eyes. The smaller ears, playfulness and boundless energy from dad with none of the Basset clumsiness.

Plymouth Fantasy Naturale arrived on Friday and my daughter couldn't wait for her shrug to be started. So a slight detour and here's Weekend Shrug waiting to be cast-off and the underarms sewn up. The pattern is adapted from Shimmer. Knitting it is easy and the raglan decreasings progressed very fast. I like the colourway and worsted silky cotton texture so much, I've put in an order for some plain Aqua shade for myself.

Stash busting

It was somewhere along the 2nd row of Smarties' neckline when that sinking feeling crept in...horror of horrors! I thought I noticed something. Uh huh...no way, no way, and it was total denial the next 20 mins or so. It can't be, and I continued knitting but couldn't resist taking a few peeks now and again.
Sigh.., there they were, without a doubt, 3 'fatter' cables, not even loosely twisted as I had hoped, so obvious, right side of the V-neck. How can that be??! I had been so careful, checking after every repeat making sure the cables were alright!
In between the collar separation, armhole decreases and knitting both sides at the same time, I had twisted for the left and forgotten the right till 2 rows later.

The inevitable question, "can I live with it?". By then I had lost interest in the neckline anyway, so into the frog pond it went and wasn't out till 3 evenings later. Here it is blocking to a smaller size as it's now mine and not JS' since we all agree it looks better on mum.

yarn: Sirdar Donegal Tweed DK

colour : mink

Finished size: 36"

45% wool 25% acrylic 30% polyester

5.5 balls x 50 gms x 132 yds

Needles : 3.25 mm & 4.0 mm

Pattern : Veste Everest by Veronik Avery- IK Fall 2005

The 2 packs (20 balls) of Cleckheaton from Melbourne's Spotlight, almost a year ago, have been calling out to be destashed and if I hurry, just might manage to knit this jumper up by 3rd week of June.

So I'm going to put off casting on my blue cotton top until I get a little bored with the jumper, then a quick switch over before coming back to the sleeves and yoke.

Adult Pattern : Drops Design 70-21

Mothering Sunday

Happy Mother's Day and an e-bouquet to all!!

A Mother

When you're a child she walks before you

To set an example

When you're a teenager she walks behind you

To be there should you need her

When you're an adult she walks beside you

So that as two friends you can enjoy life together.

Back to normal

Our modem and PC got fried during last week's thunderstorm which wrecked havoc across KL and other parts of the country.
The PC motherboard is covered by our 3 yrs parts and labour warranty with Dell while the small monetary lost to replace a splitter and modem is nothing compared to some families who lost their loved ones in the fires. There was no surfing, online chatting and blogging for several days which gave the household a quiet peace while I knitted blissfully in front of the idiot box.

My latest WIP, a cable vest, saw much progress over the May Day long weekend.




Veste Everest by Veronik Avery- IK Fall 2005, is knitted with Sirdar Donegal Tweed in Mink.

It's a size 41.5" with 22 cable columns in the round and a 14-row repeat. An additional 2 repeats are added since it's for JS, my son.





The tweedy specks remind me of a handful of chocolate sweeties, hence the Smarties vest. Actually, the photo below doesn't do justice to the spectrum of vibrant colours interweaved into the yarn, I shall try again in daylight later.













The latest survey of my stash revealed 5 lots of yarn in the same colour range, baby blue, lilac, deep purple and a darker french blue. So, it's bye bye browns...