Days By the Water

And On This Cloudy Day

2012-02-11T19:38:00.000-08:00

The beginning of the semester is always so very exhausting. The first 4-5 weeks requires so much work. Every night I'd come home around 9 pm feeling completely drained. With the few hours before bedtime all I could do was veg out in front of TV until I couldn't stay up any longer. Although I have one pattern that is waiting to be edited but I simply couldn't do it. And I also hope to write a

Hello Sunshine

2012-02-02T12:05:00.000-08:00

Yarn: Kona Superwash Merino Worsted, dyed with rabbit rubberbrush, mordant with iron.Needles: US #7 I dyed the yarn with Rabbit Rubberbrush (added a tiny bit of iron as mordant to give it slight hint of green) over a year ago - fall 2010. The color came out so gorgeously, so I waited for a solid idea to form before I cast on. All along I knew I wanted to make a cable jacket with this yarn, but

Some Colors for This Snowy Day

2012-01-22T13:38:00.000-08:00

an art project I've been working on... On my needles, yarn dyed from Rabbit Rubber Brush flowers... On my wheel, BFL dyed with acid dye, waiting to be plied...

Not So Instant Gratifications

2012-01-19T12:40:00.000-08:00

They're supposed to be quick knits, but who knew it would take me 3 years to finish them. Total hours of working on them was not much, but I just couldn't understand why I kept putting the project aside. The last time I put it away was when I ran out of yarn and had to order another ball of dark denim. But as soon as the yarn arrived few days later, it went straight into stash bin. Elann

Affairs With Yarns

2012-01-11T10:12:00.000-08:00

Not much on the needles lately, but I was playing with yarn. I dyed up some yarn but not for knitting. It will be an installation art project I have in mind. Yarn was Elann BFL nude, dyed with Jacquard Acid Dye. And 8oz of Fine Grey Shetland I'd spunned up: And this is what's on my wheel now, 8 oz of BFL/Silk that I purchased from Carolina Homespun when I was visiting SF area during the

First Shawl of 2012 - Dolce Vino

2012-01-05T10:55:00.000-08:00

pattern : Dolce Vino by Diana Rozensheteyn yarn: Naturally Dawn (lace weight,) 735 yardsneedles: US #4, and US #6 for bind off I am in love with this shawl. A while back Diana (aka deenulya on Ravelry) posted pictures of her Dolce Vino, I was very impressed by its beauty. She then published the pattern, I knew I'd have to make it one day. Few weeks ago, she sent me the pattern as a gift, the

Happy New Year

2012-01-04T19:44:00.000-08:00

New Pattern - Mermaid Mittens

2011-12-29T10:27:00.000-08:00

yarn: Madelinetosh Tosh Merino Lite, main color Rose, contrast color Twigneedles: US#1 for cuff, US #2 for rest of mittens Well, not brand new pattern but it was published coupla weeks ago. It is now available through Ravelry. I couldn't show it when I finished the mittens because the mittens were knitted for Christmas present. Now that

Handspun Shawl #1

2011-12-26T10:14:00.000-08:00

Slowly, I'm adding entries into my spinning journey. I was away for the holidays for 4 days. The entire time I did not miss knitting, but I sorely missed spinning. Something about letting the fiber glide through my fingers while my feet treadle away just feel so satisfying. It alos seems be my cure for stashing up yarns. I have not made a purchase of yarn since I started spinning. My spun

Happy Holidays

2011-12-24T09:53:00.000-08:00

Warm wishes to you all for this holiday season. Peace. A note about my spinning journey. Now I'm visiting my family in SF area, so I made a trip to Carolina Handspun yesterday and bought some fiber. It was like walking into a treasure trove, fiber, wheels, and everything fiber-licious were everywhere and on top of each other. I could barely move around. It was quite an experience. The shop

Sisters!

2011-12-21T14:38:00.000-08:00

“Drag me, strip me, my brothers’ blood will cover me!” they chanted. “Where is the field marshal?” they demanded of the top military officer, Field Marshal Mohamed Hussein Tantawi. “The girls of Egypt are here.”Historians called the event the biggest women’s demonstration in modern Egyptian history, the most significant since a 1919 march against British colonialism inaugurated women’s

Finally a Sweater

2011-12-15T11:21:00.000-08:00

I had an idea of intricate cables for a sweater using some orange yarn I dyed. I decided to swatch my cable design into a pair of mitten first using the Plucky Knitters SW Merino fingering weight I had in Iced Lavender, but it came out a bit loose for mittens. So they turned into sleeves, and I made rest of the sweater in heavier yarn for the layering look. The Plucky Knitters SW Merino

spin spin and more spin

2011-12-05T11:08:00.000-08:00

For the past two weeks, I'd been dyeing up fiber and spinning like a total addict. I did manage to knit up a quick pair of fingerless mitts after the first batch of dyed fiber just because I was soooo curios how the dye job would look when knitted up. I also ventured into spinning merino, it did take some getting used to, but I loved the luxurious fiber. I'm definitely putting in a lot of

Yellow Sub Patterns are Up

2011-12-01T12:47:00.000-08:00

Finally all the testings and pattern editing are done. I've been super busy lately with a lot of things on my to do list, so I'm really happy to announce that both the patterns for cowl and hat are now available for download via Ravelry. I'm really looking forward to the few weeks of winter break coming up so I can get back to some knitting. My to do list is taking up most of my time which

An Early Holiday Gift to Myself

2011-11-25T16:37:00.000-08:00

Meet my new wheel! After destashing some yarn this month, I was ready to fix up the old wheel. I did some price check online and realized it would cost me $200 to get a new Flyer Unit, a Lazy Kate plus other parts that it needed to start running. That would be a good chunk of money for something I wasn't even sure if it would be worth it at all. I almost went for it, but just wasn't so sure

My Very First Handspun Mittens

2011-11-19T19:13:00.000-08:00

After a week and half of spinning on my new spindle, I finally got enough yarn to make something. I even plied the yarn. But I wasn't sure how correct was my plying. All I did was holding 2 strands and spun them in reverse, and voila, I had 2 ply yarns that weren't too balanced. Main Color: Dark Brown Welsh Contrast Color: Corridale (both purchased from Dharma Trading CO)Needles: US #4 I

3 Days with Spindle = New Love

2011-11-13T13:18:00.000-08:00

second day on spindle I took Chris's (aka Doodle on Ravlery) advise and got a drop spindle to learn how to spin. After some bumps of the shipping, it finally arrived. The store I bought from shipped me a set of hand carders instead of the spindle. After looking up the price and saw that the carders cost 3 times of spindle, the greedy side of me was tempted to keep it or sell it on ebay or

Pattern is now up - First Snow

2011-11-07T11:27:00.000-08:00

We got our second shot of snow of the season this weekend, perfect time to release the pattern. First Snow Mittens is now available through Ravelry.

Playing with Colros

2011-11-06T15:17:00.000-08:00

I was at the fabric store in town this week and picked up some Jacquard Acid dye they have on the shelf. On Friday, I fired up the stove and dyed some yarn as an experiment. I'd never dyed with anything other than kool-aid and natural dye. The result - I've found a new addiction. It's so much quicker than natural dye when the mordant step is omitted. The colors are very bright compare

Stranded Knitting

2011-11-02T11:07:00.000-07:00

This week, I had two knitters asked me about how I made my stranded colorwork looking flat. I chuckled because my knitting is always puckery until the magic of blocking does its job. Something I'm working on. The mitten on the right is done and blocked and the one on the left is in progress, unblocked. I'm a true believer of blocking. It absolutely transforms almost all knitting from ugly

Hats! With Submarines

2011-10-22T14:41:00.000-07:00

I simply could not stop knitting the submarines. This time, I had to make some hats. Originally I wanted to use a longer cowl for a hat with a tie on the top. I diid just that, but it came out slightly looser than I'd like. So I made some real hats. I did a little editing with the chart that was originally made for cowls. First, the stitch count of each repeat was modified to accommodate 2

Yellow Submarine

2011-10-14T11:37:00.000-07:00

I made two cowls just because I wanted to knit some yellow submarines. The larger one has drawstring on top and measures 8" tall x 31" round. Main color yarn is The Sanguine Gryphon Bugga in "Blue Lobster", and contrast color is Colinette Jitterbug in "Wasabi " The smaller one measures 7 1/4" tall x 22 1/2" round. Main Color yarn is The Plucky Knitter MCN Fingering in "It Happened One Night

First Mittens of the Season

2011-10-07T16:13:00.000-07:00

It snowed. The first snow of the season. Not a whole lot of accumulations but it definitely signified season changing. Where was autumn? We went straight from 70 degrees in one day to snow the next day. That's Tahoe for ya. I also finished the mittens, just in time for the snow. Yarn: Elann Peruvian Baby Cashmere (Main Color: Cashmere Blue, a little less than 2 balls ~ 210 yards.

Pattern is Up and Alive

2011-10-03T09:01:00.000-07:00

Finally, the Intrepid pattern is up and alive at my Ravelry shop. Here is the pattern page. I even made the third one to showcase the pattern as a non-dress, using winter yarn. Yarn: Filtes King Australian MerinoNeedles: US #4 This was done in Filtes King Australian Merino that I purchased from Elann ages ago. As you can see, the yarn had two tones, which added depth to the color, but

First Snow

2011-10-02T17:03:00.000-07:00

Snow is in the forecast this week. First of the season. I started the mittens two weeks ago, and it's going slow and steady. yarn: Elann Peruvian Baby Cashmereneedles: US #2