Finito: Crochet blanket

The crochet wavy blanket is finally done. Except that it isn't wavy. It is scallopy. I must have followed the instructions for the wrong pattern. There's something else that is wrong with it. I started out crocheting loosely and my gauge tightened as I progressed, so one end is wider than the other. But it doesn't matter because I love, LOVE it!

Here it is draped on my king-sized bed for scale. I am seriously too lazy to measure its dimensions and I have long lost track of how many balls of yarn have been used.

Can you guess who else loves it?

She has claimed it for her own use to fend off the airconditioning while studying or using the computer. And it is big and long enough to be used in bed too.

Foxy'd

I didn't mean to disappear without a word for so long. It was an unintended break. One thing led to another and before I knew it I was caught up with 101 other things in life. What I have been enjoying most is spending time with my teenage daughter. Lots of shopping, long chats into the night and even helping her with school homework! Being 15 today seems much more fun than I can remember.

I must confess that I had a very refreshing break from knitting. But I did finally finish a long overdue sweater tank this weekend. Remember Foxy?

When I seamed up the front to the back, I realised that the armholes were huge. So I borrowed a crochet edging from one of my many Japanese magazines and picked up fewer stitches along the armhole to tighten it. Thankfully it worked.

I'm now finishing my wavy crochet blanket but it might take some time. Knitting and crocheting has become a l-e-i-s-u-r-e-l-y pastime for me at the moment. No more frenzied knitting past midnight. No more knitting in the car. No more lugging my knitting with me wherever I go. Blogging will also be sparse but I'll post when I finish my next FO. Meanwhile, do take care and I hope you're having lots of fun with your knitting.

stuff

I have been nursing a bad cough that made my ribs sore from all the coughing. The cough medication made me drowsy and I couldn't stay awake long enough to knit much at night. So my progress on Jarrett is growing at snail's pace. I finally finished the 2 sleeves and started the back today. Wondering about the iron? I had to replace my iron and decided to get a steam iron because I thought it might be useful for steam blocking. It is heavier than my old iron and the extra weight is slowing down my daily ironing but I hope to get used to it soon. My daughter loves the fact that it is pink.

I have been neglecting my personal grooming, so I am trying to put in a little more effort. I found these handbags (on sale) to update my wardrobe. It was high time I got a new bag because I haven't bought a new handbag for work since my son was born, and my old bag was looking very grubby. I am making other little changes, like using Nantucket soap from Crabtree and Evelyn instead of my usual Johnson's baby bath and looking at Japanese fashion magazines for inspiration. This one is called Oggi, 'a monthly magazine for global career women'.

I have also been meaning to show you this present I received from my friend for Christmas. She sewed a little pouch out of zips. Isn't it cool?

Here's a look at the inside.

And, here's what my son likes to do with it :)

what I have been up to

Now that I've updated you on my backlog of FOs, I'll do a quick round-up of what I have been up to. I started this sock on the return flight from Seoul. Now that my kids are older and can entertain themselves on SIA's personal inflight entertainment system, I am glad for the luxury of knitting time. This sock, however, is going to have to wait in line because I have other more pressing knitting deadlines.

I started 2 baby cardigans. The blue one is going to UFOland until I decide whether to continue. It is knitted from 2 different colours of a thinner than laceweight Chinese yarn. I am hesitant about continuing with it because it makes a very thin fabric and I am afraid that it will not be warm enough for a baby.

And, the stitches look very uneven. I'm not sure whether it's due to the fact that the needle size is too big or whether it is because I'm knitting double-stranded. I have no previous experience knitting with double strands.

The pink baby cardi is this classic jacket from Sublime book 600. The project was about to be abandoned due to insufficient yarn until I stumbled on the last 2 balls of the yarn in the same dyelot at Spotlight at a steal, so it's back on track. But I have been so disorganised of late that I can't remember where I put the 2 new balls of yarn.

Next is a swatch for Jarrett. Sorry for the bad photo, it was taken very late at night. Ok, I admit that it's not a proper swatch, but I don't usually swatch if I am knitting stockinette because I always get the gauge stated on the yarn ball band with the recommended needle size, so there is no need to swatch. I swatched this time because the stated gauge on the yarn (Rowanspun DK) label indicates 20-21 sts X 29-30 rows on 4 mm needles. The Jarrett pattern requires gauge at 20 sts X 28 rows. I tried thinking about modifying the numbers and even read through the armhole and sleeve cap shaping of the the pattern. And you know, I never read through patterns before starting. Then inspiration struck. I might get the pattern gauge if I used my Clover 4.2 mm needles, just slightly bigger than the 4 mm needle recommended on the yarn label. And guess what? I can just about get gauge. So I'm not going to bother with the math, but I will keep a close eye on my gauge.

The yarn is quite unusual. It looks like it has the texture of string, but it doesn't feel like string. It is not uncomfortable to knit with, as it is really softer than it looks. However it is not exactly a soft yarn. The knitted fabric actually feels spongey to me, like a kitchen sponge. I wasn't sure what size to knit for my husband so I started the sleeve first - it so happened that the number of stitches to cast on for the S and M sleeves are the same. After knitting the cuff, and seeing how big it was, I decided to knit the S size, which gives 4 inches of ease, instead of the pattern which recommends 6 inches ease. According to Jared (Brooklyn Tweed), (whose sweaters always fit beautifully) ease of 4 inches is standard cardigan protocol, so I'm going for 4 inches.

I had originally wanted to think about my knitting goals for the year, but I don't have the time for that right now, maybe later. Meanwhile, my short-term knitting goals for January are: baby cardigan, Jarrett and 1 pair of socks.

Toe-up socks no.2

I'm beginning to think that toe-up is the best stockinette sock pattern because there is no need for grafting. The sock is finished simply by binding off. I finished knitting the second sock on the flight to Seoul but I could only weave in the ends when we got to the hotel that night because I couldn't bring scissors on board the plane. I took a quick photo of the completed socks on a white plastic chair in the hotel room before going to sleep.

Pattern: Wendy's toe up sock with gusset heel. Referred to this tutorial for doing the cast on. Knitted 60 stitches for the foot and leg.
Yarn: Opal
Needle: 2.25 mm

My son wore it out on the ski slopes the next day and they kept his little feet warm and toasty. In my excitement, I forgot to take photos of him wearing the socks. So you get this photo of him wearing the socks now that we're back home instead.

This Opal yarn is a gift from a dear friend. Knitting with yarn from friends is always a special time because I am reminded of them as I knit. These bright colours are just right for my son. I managed to match the stripes by estimating the amount of the green yarn at the tip of the cast-on. I didn't get it right the first time, too much of the green so I ripped back and re-started at a later point of the green part of the colour sequence. There is enough leftover yarn for another pair of socks if I add some contrasting yarn.

I should knit more socks for my family because of all the little items I knitted for them, the socks were the one thing they all wore happily in Seoul. They are really not hat or scarf people. They wore their hats and scarves on the first two days (because I made them wear it). For the rest of the holiday, they just zipped up their jackets as high as they could (hence no need for a scarf) and pulled on the hoods over their heads (no need for a hat either).

I am a bit late with this post as this pair of socks was my last FO for 2007. My 2007 FO inventory:
2 hats

5 scarves

4 sweaters

4 pairs of socks

2 shawls

1 bag

1 baby sweater

1 pair of baby booties

hat and scarf set

Back when I was having problems with my daughter's sweater, and sulking (deciding what to do with it), I cast on a hat for my husband.

Pattern: Cap karma by Smariek, following Brooklyn Tweed's modifications for the top
Yarn: Sirdar Peru (a bulky wool, alpaca and acrylic blend) slightly more than 1 ball
Needle size: 6 mm

The yarn I used was thicker than that specified in the pattern, so the hat ended up being too long and the ribbing has to be folded up so that the hat won't cover his eyes. There is a ridge where the ribbing starts because I was too clever. I wasn't sure if I had enough yarn to make a deep ribbing and so I thought I would start the hat from the cable part and after I finish I will pick up stitches from the cast on edge and knit the ribbing and see how far I can go with the yarn that was left. In the end, I had to buy another ball of yarn anyway because I definitely did not have enough to finish, so it was all much ado for nothing. Fortunately, the hat looks alright when worn, so I'm not too upset.

I also wanted to knit my husband a matching scarf. I find it difficult to choose knitting patterns for him. Not that he is fussy or particular. On the contrary, he is quite easy going where clothes are concerned. But complicated cables, entrelac and such are not quite his style. So after going through all my knitting magazines and trawling the Internet, I finally settled for simple garter stitch because I was inspired by all the lovely garter stitch scarves I was seeing on the blogs. I used Rowan Tapestry. The 3 balls of Tapestry are from the same dyelot, but as you can see, the intensity of the colours and the length of the repeats are quite different.

And guess what? I didn't knit the scarf for him after all. My daughter knitted it for her daddy! He wore it in Seoul but I forgot to take photos for the blog. These photos were taken after we came home. I have one more FO for 2007 but due to lack of time, I'll have to post about it next year.

Have a Happy New Year and I wish you the best knitty wishes for 2008!

ahn-nyong-ha-se-yo

Did you miss me? We've just come back from a very enjoyable year-end holiday in Seoul. It snowed the day we arrived and when we were at the ski resort. After that, the temperature warmed up and did not fall below 0C again, so we had pleasantly cold weather for the rest of the trip when we went around sight-seeing. It was also bright and sunny and the light was great for taking photos.

My daughter reminded me to take this photo of a snow topped pine tree just for my blog.


Our first time on skis was great fun, even though we didn't know what we were doing :)


I trailed behind the guided tour of Changdeokgung Palace so that I could take this photo without anyone in it.


A close up view of the roof of the Changdeokgung Palace. It is the only palace in Seoul that preserves the architectural style of the Joeseon Dynasty.


My son queuing patiently for the carousel ride at Lotte World. He was quite the trooper as he was having a quesy stomach after the bus ride back to Seoul from Chunchong where we had stayed the previous night, after visiting Nami Island.


My son took this photo of colourful aprons outside a shop on Insadong Street.


Unidentified street food at Myeongdong that we weren't brave enough to try.


Yummy Korean pancakes with a caramel-like filling that we did try. There were lots of happy, young people in Myeongdong and the bustling streets lined with neon signboards reminded me very much of Hong Kong, one my favourite Asian cities.


Ginseng chicken soup that tastes much better than it looks. I added about a tablespoon of ginseng wine to my soup and it was more potent than I thought - I fell asleep that night way before my kids!


The food was good. I liked the Korean grill / barbeque even though it made my clothes smell of food after that. My kids loved the seaweed, anchovy (ikan bilis) and dried soybean cake side dishes that accompanied most meals.


We had steamboat almost every day. It's quite healthy so we didn't get any post-holiday weight gain

Can you see us wearing our handknits? That's me in my tourist sweater and my kids in their recently completed sweaters. I am glad to report that the Katia Austral yarn passed their non-itchiness test. I have yet to knit a sweater for my husband. Hopefully next year I'll get round to knitting him one. If it's any consolation, I managed to complete a hat and scarf for him just before the trip and I'll post about them as soon as I take the FO photos.