Rahardjo-Knits


my expidition in fiber related craft and some sideways of my life

O no.. It’s june already… Ahhhhhhh

On: June 12th, 2008 at 2:44 pm | In: FO Gallery, cat, crochet, spinning, yarnporn

OMG. It’s June already? I guess it’s summer where action-pack movies will be reeled into movie theaters and famers market will pop up everywhere. Yay for farmers market. We love their strawberries and honey. Speaking of strawberries there’ll be strawberry shortcake ummm. DH got me hooked on strawberry shortcake.

Anyway, I’ve been feeling up and down. Job hunting is slow, and the health insurance is a nightmare. But we’re not going to talk about those. I’m sure they’ll turn up OK. Of course the gas price nowadays make me sad every time I pump my cars. :(

I have been spinning lately instead of knitting and finishing my friend’s sweater the Cardigan for Arwen for Marlyn. Marlyn if you are reading this, I’m almost done. I just need to knit the left front, and sew all the pieces together.

And speaking of spinning, I found a website called Smartflix. It’s like Netflix but the content of Smartflix are educational DVDs or how to DVDs. They have from math category (like calculus) to knitting and sewing. So they cover lots of ground basically that you want to know how.
So I’ve been borrowing their spinning dvds, and all of the sudden spinning starts making sense. It’s definitely more expensive than you borrow from Netflix (besides Netflix doesn’t have most craft related topics), but knitting, spinning related craft costs about $20 to $60 per DVD depending what craft you are interested in. I’d rather borrow them rather than pay $30 per DVD.

Cat update
Really nothing to talk about other than they keep annoying me like sleeping on my waiting-to-be-dried hand knitted items. I’m sure you have this happens to you a lot. And by the way this cat below is the heaviest of all my cats. She’s 12 pounds. Tomoyo (grey cat) is around 7pounds and Iori (black cat and oldest) is 10.5 pounds. We knew that Sakura is going to beat Iori someday, but seriously at 15months and 12 pounds??? We think it’s her type of breed, so hopefully she’ll be fine.

Sakura sleeps on waiting to be dry socks
Sakura (below image) tends to sleep on towels especially when knitted items are present.

We got a new toy form PetCo. And they love it to death. I snapped a picture when Sakura was up in the air showing her behind. DH envies her because look at her belly. Still that much belly and can flip in the air no problem.
Sakura flies in the air

Tomoyo loving her new toy
Tomoyo really loves her new toy.

Iori waiting to attack toy
Iori ready to attack the new toy.

FO: Shaping Knee Socks
I finally finished the Shaping Knee High socks after the sock surgery. The new cuff is k1p1 instead of k2p2 rib and much longer cuff about 5in high, so it can be folded to add more grip. I promised Jackie to show her how to operate on the cuff. I’ll post it on the next post.
Revised Shaping Knee Socks with new cuff
Shaping Knee Socks (back)
Shaping Knee Socks (front)
Shaping Knee Socks
pattern: Shaping Knee Socks by HJS Studio Pattern
yarn: Pair of Sox bought at 2007 Sheperd Harvest Festival, Louet Gems Opal in Charcoal for the cuff
needle: 2.5mm 100cm (40in) circ needle
method: cuff down, magic loop, 2 socks at 1 circ
duration: 3 weeks

I like the new cuff much better because it’s much longer and it can be folded down which adds grips to my knee. And the color actually matches quite nicely with the hand dye.

FO: crocheted Dalek
Crocheted Dalek
Dalek
pattern: A.M Downs
yarn: Cascade 220 in Chargrey color. 1 skein
hook: F 3.75mm
duration: 1 month

What can I say? DH is a Dr Who fan. He always wants me to make this Dalek specifically life size dalek. Well this is a 10in high Dalek and that’s he’s going to get. The pattern is well done and written.

Speaking of Dr Who knitting or crochet pattern, BBC is trying to get any Dr Who patterns removed from web. Even the Dr Who scarf website is in danger. I heard it started with Dr Who fans whom are annoyed to see Dr Who handmade items on Ebay, then they complain to BBC, and here it is. And the funny thing those patterns on the web are FREE and not supposed to made money of. So these people whom made money of these patterns should be targeted by BBC not whomever created those pattern. I think people do stupid things and not consider whom they hurt. It’s sort of sad really.

Spinning update
Superwash navajo ply sock yarn
sock weight
It is finished. I’ve been spinning this Opal superwash Merino on a drop spindle since last December. I did make mistakes where the twist was in the wrong direction and what no, but it was fun. I definitely can control how thin I want on a drop spindle rather than on a wheel. It’s all about practice really.

2ply worsted weight dark blue variegated handspun
dark blue variegated close up
And I did finish this worsted weight yarn a couple days ago. It’s about 328yd, 8 oz fiber. I bought the fiber long time ago from Creative Fibers and never got time to spin it until now. Now I’m knitting Shruglet Eyelet from 101 Designer One-Skein wonders book from this yarn. The pattern asks about 256yd, and hopefully I’ll have enough to make the shrug.

Go Tournament
DH asked me if I can take pictures of Go Tournament that happened last week. Go is a game originated in China and nowadays it’s more popular in Japan, Korea and of course China. One easy way to get to know Go game is by watching Hikaru No Go anime. That’s how DH got into Go. The anime is pretty well done at explaining go and the plot is very interesting. And for the girls, there’s bunch of cute guy especially Sai XD.

go board with stones
go board with stones and timer
go tournament 2008
go stones black
go stones white
DH as a participant
That’s DH playing at the Go Tournament. If you want to check Go games, check out the Twin Cities Go Club website and check where they play every week.

Fiber Studio
During the game, I sneaked out to see a recent opened up store in South Minneapolis. The store name is called Fiber Studio.
Fiber Studio
inside Fiber Studio
DH as a participant
It is a really nice store full of fiber spinning related or needle felting related and lots of variety too.
Do you think spinning is getting more popular nowadays? I notice more yarn stores carry fibers like Yarn Garage, Knitters’ Palette, Depth of Field and now The Fiber Store. Not that’s bad because it’s nice for us spinner to get fiber and not drive far away to Shepperd Harvest Fest or similar.

one thing leads to another and operating socks

On: May 19th, 2008 at 5:30 pm | In: FO Gallery, Knitting, WIP, yarnporn

I have not abandoned my blog. Though lately I can’t seem to post anything good other than FOs.

This post is about socks, well more about operating socks than blogging about finished socks.

I made my DH two pair of Japanese socks, or known as split toe socks. He wore them constantly in the fall and winter. He loves them so much to the point there’s a hole at the sole.

a pair of split toe socks of japanese socks
hole on sole
hole on sole

I could just make him another pair of split toe socks, or I can try to darn the hole as many people in the past did. Luckily in my book stash, I got a book called “Flawless Knit Repair” by Rena Crockett from the 1st Treasure Hunt in Twin Cities. The book talks about fixing a hole in sweaters and it’s not as complicated as it sounds, but requires patience and good lighting.

It took me an hour to fix that darn hole. The finished result is bit bulky around the hole however DH doesn’t fell the bulky area, so I can say mission accomplished.

darned hole
darned hole WS

I thought I hope I won’t do another surgery, knitwear wise, later this year. Ha ha no it’s not the end of this surgery apparently. This event has sneaked up on me to do another surgery for a pair of socks later on.

This is how it started.

I have this Louet Opal Gems from Needlework Unlimited from 1st Treasure Hunt and been wanting to make Leg Warmers from One Skein by Leigh Radford. You know that feeling. “Pick me, pick me, pick me, make me, make me” imaginary sounds from your stash. So finally I picked up this yarn and make the leg warmers. But it wasn’t enough yardage. How could that be? The patterns says only one skein of Louet Opal Gems. Then I noticed my leg warmers is longer by 0.5in. :(

Therefore I ended buying another skein of Louet Gems Opal. I love my leg warmers. It’s so cute especially with a mini skirt.

leg warmers

patt: One Skein by Leigh Radford
yarn: Louet Gems Opal in charcoal 2 skeins
needle: KnitPicks Options US 6 (4.00mm) 40in (100cm) cable.
method: magic loop
duration: 2 weeks
price: $27.90

Then these leg warmers got me thinking that I have never made a pair of knee high socks. All the hand knitted socks of mine are about 5-6 in high. So there’s the imaginary scream again “pick me, pick me, pick me” lead to handspun yarn that I bought from last year Shepherd Harvest fest. It has 430yds with 6 sts / in using US 2.

Sandy's Palette Pair of Sox
Sandy's Palette Pair of Sox

I asked knitters’ opinions whether the yardage from this handspun will be enough for me to make a pair of knee high socks. Some knitters agree and some think it’s iffy. Nonetheless I went ahead and knit them using Shaping Knee Socks pattern by Holly Shaltz.

There’s nothing wrong with the pattern. I think the pattern is great except that I forgot to include in my calculation to minus 10% ease for my measurements. I like all my socks to have 10% negative ease in width and very little negative ease for the top of toe. It just gives that snug feeling to my feet.

So I ended with very loose cuff at the top and whenever I walk the socks would go down and create a puddle at my calf. DH doesn’t think it matters so much. But to me they do.
Loose socks
puddle at calf

I was going to give up on these socks. But until someone gave me an idea to rip out the cuff and re knit the cuff longer and less sts. Thank you Pam and Nancy!

So I did another surgery.

snip snip bye bye cuff
left over cuff and waste
cuff surgery
cuff surgery
done with cuff surgery

I decreased the cuff sts by 10% and re knitted the cuff in k1p1 rib instead of k2p2 until 6in. And so far the new cuff hold just fine. :)

lace season, Mother’s day weekend, and other ramblings

On: April 24th, 2008 at 10:01 pm | In: FO Gallery, Knitting, Origami, WIP, cat, sewing, spinning

Lace Season
It’s almost summer again which means lace season is knocking on my door begging to have my lace-planned-project stash knitted. True I do have some yarns especially for lace projects from shawls to sweaters. But I don’t usually work on them until warm weather start sneaking on us. However shawls are an exception (well shawls takes forever to finish). Shawls are one of those year-around project like socks project. They don’t take a lot of space plus they have very rewarding end results.

Speaking of lace. Do you remember this?
disaster during knitting shawl project
It was a disaster when I was knitting this shawl. My cat jumped on me while I was working on this project which ended up loosing sts off the needle. My cat is fine. She survived my wrath thanks to DH.

Finally I picked this project again and re knitted the whole shawl again. It took me a while to figure out the border. I think I ended up with fewer triangles for the border about 2 triangles. Doubt that would matter, because the shawl is beautiful other than it’s huge. About 91in wing span and 42in down.

Curved Shawl with Diamond Edging
Curved Shawl with Diamond Edging
Curved Shawl with Diamond Edging
Curved Shawl with Diamond Edging
Curved Shawl with Diamond Edging
patt: Victorian Lace Today
yarn: JaggerSpun Zephyr Wool-Silk 2/18 in lavender. 2 skeins
needle: Addi Turbo Lace 3.00mm 32in (80cm)
duration: close to 9 months
cost: $24

I did managed to finish a pair of washcloths from Fiber Trends. They are so cute and lovely and seriously I don’t have the heart to use them as washcloths but as house accents. Like for my tea set and key holders.
Flowered Wreath Washcloth
Scattered Flowers Washcloth
Bath Time Blossoms
patt: Fiber Trends
yarn: Patons BumbleBee Baby Cotton. 1 skein for each washcloth in Daffodil and Water Lilly
needle: 2.75mm
duration: about 3.5 weeks
cost: $6.58

I also recently finished a crocheted bolero from SnB Happy Hooker. Technically it’s a lace project. OMG this pattern was very addicting. Hm… am I going into crochet then? Or have I fallen deep into crochet?
crocheted bolero from SnB Happy Hooker
crocheted bolero from SnB Happy Hooker
Short N’ Sweet
patt: SnB Happy Hooker
yarn: Cascade Luna. 8 skeins. red color
hook: F (3.75mm)
duration: close to 2 weeks
cost: $42.40
modification: added 0.5 more patt repeat for body

Mother’s Day weekend
Unfortunately before I can start any future planned lace sweater project, I want to finish a mobius cat bed for MIL. It’s been taking me forever probably because I have knitted 3 mobius cat beds for my cats and my BIL’s cats. So hopefully I can get one done before Mother’s day. Speaking of Mother’s day, Nancy and I are going to Sheperd Harvest Festival on Saturday. The festival is always on Mother’s day weekend. Thanks to this festival, I learned how to spin. Yes I’m still spinning by the way, just very slow because I’m doing it on drop spindle and spin only once a week.

origami bookmarks
I’m very bad at reading books. I don’t read continuously and finish a book within a month like some people do. I tend to stop reading and pick up other books on and off. A bad habit I suppose. But I get bored so often. It’s not like I’ll never finish a book, just eventually I will. I used to have bookmarks that you can find in bookstores. You know the rectangular shape with quotes, photos, graphics, etc. They have gone missing or lost probably from moving from CT to WA and finally to MN.

Anyway my other hobby saved me from the disaster of missing bookmarks. I saw an origami bookmark from a book long time ago when I was in Borders back in CT. It’s a very simple origami bookmark, small, surprisingly holds on the page. As a result I have lots of these type of bookmark because they’re quick to make and very pretty to admire.
origami bookmarks
origami bookmarks
origami bookmarks
origami bookmarks
origami bookmarks
Do you see what I mean by pretty to admire? They’re like added accents to books.

Kitty Knits blog tour

On: April 7th, 2008 at 5:23 pm | In: FO Gallery, Knitting, Life, cat

Recently I joined a blog tour from the author of Kitty Knits. I’m so sorry that I am not a good participator due to my surgery. Donna (the author of Kitty Knits and many wonderful knitting books) had been very patient with me. So here is my book review of Kitty Knits.

I was so happy to find a book dedicated to just cats and their lovers. There are times I was frustrated to find so little of cat related patterns in books. When I got the book, I was so excited to see all the patterns. They are so cute and fun for us cat lovers. I especially love the felted catnip mice because I can use leftover worsted wool yarn for this project and also a great stash busting project. My cats dig them until the mice are all so fuzzy. Thank you Donna for writing this book. I’m planning to make more projects out of the book like the fair isle hat, the pink cardigan and of course the cat beds.

Felted Catnip Mice





pattern: Kitty Knits
yarn: leftover cascade 220 wool
needle: US 13 (9.00mm)
start: Feb 4th, 2008
done: March 2nd, 2008

Here are the interview questions that I asked to Donna about the book and her.

Well the questions I want to ask you are:
1. Where do you find the inspiration to design?

I just love making things up. I’ve done crafts since I was a kid, and I used to sew all of my own clothes, so I am not afraid of picking out colors and inventing things. I usually start with a sketch and an idea of what I want to make, and then pick out the yarn for it. I think a lot of designers start with the yarns and then see how the yarn inspires them, but that doesn’t work for me. I have to have an idea of what I want to make first, and then I look for the right materials.

2. It’s a bit technical, but do you do the math, sketches, and calculation when you design especially like armholes?

Yes, I do everything in a spreadsheet to check the numbers, and I draw schematics, and sometimes I chart out a whole garment to make sure the elements fit where I want them to. Sometimes I start with basic numbers from a software program like Sweater Wizard or from a book like The Knitter’s Handy Book of Sweater Patterns and The Knitter’s Handy Book of Patterns by Ann Budd, and then I modify the numbers to work with my pattern stitches and gauge. Then I have a pattern that I can test as I knit the model garment. That makes it a lot easier than re-inventing the wheel for every project. But sometimes I just want to make a unique design that doesn’t work like other patterns, and then I have to work it all out from scratch and sometimes I write the pattern as I knit the garment and figure it out as I go.

3. How many cats do you have? Any preference in cats like color, weight, sex?

I have 2 cats now, and will have 4 in a few weeks when my mother and her 2 kitties move in with us. I love all kinds of cats, but I am especially partial to male orange tabbies. I don’t have one now, but they always want me to take them home!

4. How long did take you to write the book?

I’m not sure. I made up all the project ideas in a couple of weeks, and I worked on it off and on probably for about 9 months. But that wasn’t full time. I always have to fit my book writing in between work that pays immediately. Because when you write a book you get (sometimes) an advance up front, and then you have to wait for the book to come out and for copies to sell before you start getting royalties. So I almost never write a book all at once in a short period of time. Instead, I work on it on weekends or an hour or two in the morning when I can squeeze it between other jobs.

My Kitty story
Since this post is about cats. Let me tell you what’s my cat been doing lately.
Remember the Dr Who scarf for DH? Because the weather has been going into spring, he doesn’t need it for now, therefore he put it in our bathroom where the cats like to gather and sleeps on the bathroom’s counter. They always like to sleep on that little corner of the counter only if there’s some clothes are present particularly wool content. By the way we noticed this behavior during last winter. For example I usually put my to-be-washed sweater or going-to-wear sweater on that particular corner, before I am done with usual shower business the black cat Iori already occupy that sweater.

Thanks to Iori, DH decided to lend the scarf as their cat bed for this upcoming warm to hot weather. And then the other 2 cats slowly occupy the scarf as their cat bed also!

Iori on Dr Who scarf

Tomoyo and Iori on Dr Who Scarf

Sakura and Iori on Dr Who scarf

I’m sort of a bit annoyed because I spent so much time making this scarf and now it’s a cat bed?
But the cats seems to blissfully enjoy it, so I might make another cat bed and put it on that corder where the cats can sleep. I’m thinking the rectangle cat bed from the Kitty Knits book might be a good one to replace the scarf.

belated FOs

On: March 31st, 2008 at 10:17 pm | In: FO Gallery, Knitting, Origami, WIP, crochet, sewing

Yesterday was such a nice day. The sun was out. People were wearing sandals and skirt. But today we have another snow storm. Really thick and hard. The snow were falling on us like rain drops. So much for spring for us. Therefore I’m back wearing scarf, gloves and my winter jacket again.

In my absence other than recovery, knitting and crocheting (yes I do crochet now), it’s time for me to get back to job hunting. It is dreadful and very frustrating quite sadly. But I need to be optimistic and keep my chin up. Wish me luck.

On the fiber related side during my absence I have several FOs to show. None of them is big project like sweater or shawl. Just small to medium size projects.

FO: Noro Strip Scarf
I had been meaning to post this project, but I was so engaged with the preparation of surgery. This scarf has been serving me during winter and unfortunately now.

snow storm
snow storm
snow storm
snow storm
pattern: regular k1p1 rib
yarn: Noro Silk Garden Lite 2 skeins of each color 2014 and 2011
needle: US 4 (3.5mm)
gauge: -
finished size: 5in width and 92in long
start date: 2/4/08
finish date: 3/2/08

This is my first time using Noro. The colors ahhhh… so beautiful, so vibrant.

Fo: Non-Anarchy Sign Hat
I did manage to finish a crochet project. Yes crochet project. The pattern st was single crochet for the whole project, and just perfect project to keep me company while the pain on my stomach keeps bugging me.

snow storm
pattern: SnB Happy Hooker
yarn: Araucania Nature Wool color 44, and a little bit of Cascade 220 soft pink for the edge
hook: D (3.25mm)
gauge: 16 sc/ 4in (10cm)
start date: 2/29/08
finish date: 3/10/08

FO: Ruffle Top Socks
These pair of socks are my first socks of the year. Because I hadn’t been knitting socks since November 07, I didn’t want to start a relatively complex pattern. This pattern happened to be in my library. It is from the Sock Club from Clickity Sticks Sock Club 06-07. It’s really fun and simple.

Ruffle Top Socks
Ruffle Top Socks gusset and heel
pattern: Ruffle Top Socks
yarn: South West Trading Company TOFUtsies. color 91506
needle: US 0 (2mm) dpn
gauge: 8sts St St in the round
start: 2/2708
finish: 3/23/07

FO: Amineko
Amineko
Amineko with real kitty
pattern: Web MITE
yarn: Cascade 220 Wool color Red, Patons Merino Wool in white/cream and black
hook: D (3.25mm)
gauge: just tight enough so that the stuffing doesn’t show
start: 3/28/08
finish: 3/31/08 (can’t you see I was so into this adorable kitty?)

What can I say? The first time I saw this pattern through ravelry, I fell in love on its cuteness and adorableness. So many people has made this cat and each one of them is unique and cute. This is my first amigurumi type project and I’m hooked! I want to make another type of amigurumi projects.

My Amineko is in red just because each one of my cat is female. DH thought the crocheted cat was cute, so he thought to call it Ayane.

I shall end this post with cat related photo.
This is one of my cat sleeping so blissfully on our need-to-be-washed blanket and clapotis. She has tendency to sleep on clothes which makes my laundry a bit belated.
cat sleeping on blanket

catching up

On: March 21st, 2008 at 7:18 pm | In: Life

Welcome cake

I was finally out of hospital 2 weeks ago, and there was a cake waiting for me. DIL, BIL, DH, and my family were having dinner to celebrate my wellness. So nice of them. Sorry for the late update. I am slowly getting back to routine like blogging and life. I’ll write up comments again once I catch up to everyone’s blogs.

My surgery went well according to my doctor, and the lump or tumor was benign which was very good news for me. But on the other hand, my stomach looks gross, and sometimes tense. I was on painkiller pills for a couple of days when I was out from the hospital, but now I’m on the light painkiller medicine, Ibuprofen, to minimize the swelling.

It was a good experience. I thought I was going to die the moment I woke up from surgery. The nurses were very nice to take care of me. My family even flew in to see me on short notice. DH stayed the first night for metal support and physical support. All these kindness from them made the recovery quite fast.

Unfortunately I couldn’t knit or read while I was at the hospital. My wrist was hooked with the IV and made it hard for me to use it.

Thank you all for your thoughts and prayer. I really appreciate them.

A little bit about weird fluctuate weather
About a week ago, the weather in Minnesota was so nice to the point people are wearing short skirts and sandals. I got to see the end of winter (or I thought it was the end of winter). One day I looked outside and how beautiful outside my house was. I meant the streaming water from melting snow on my driveway.
melting snow
melting snow
melting snow

But that didn’t last long. When I woke up today, there was a huge snow storm. Which made the whole environment looks like it’s December or January again. This is March for God’s sake, where’s the spring??? Aghhhh. My house feels so stuffed up, and needs the spring cleaning so badly.
snow storm
snow storm

This is nothing compared to what I’d been through. Bad weather seems so not a big deal for me anymore after going through surgery. Sometimes we take granted that’s been disposed to us like health, and we should really take care of being healthy. There’s a chinese proverb that says “Health is number one wealth” and I agree to it completely.

it’s official both real life and craft side

On: February 29th, 2008 at 10:20 am | In: Life, crochet

Some of you already know of my physical condition. Thank you for all your support. I have a lump about 7cm diameter on lower left abdomen. Never notice this lump until recently. Fortunately, it is not life-threatening lump but it must be taken out no matter what. After much discussion, I’m going into surgery on March 4th. I’ll be staying at the hospital for at least 3 days after the operation. The doctor wants to make sure I can do daily task before I am discharged.

Which means lots of preparing for being in the hospital like pack my knitting (and crochet too), one manga and maybe some craft books to pass the time and one romance fiction book. DH said he will bring these stuff while I’m in the hospital. So nice of him.

I’ve never had an operation, so this will be very interesting.

My Mom and younger brother are coming this Sunday. They want to accompany me during surgery and bring me back to health. Which means lots of cleaning for us before they come. Aghhhhh. So much junk.

Now on the craft side. I sort of dove into the sister craft of knitting, crochet, sort of to try it. Because I’ve been drooling over cute amigurumi dolls and japanese crochet patterns. I do have some japanese crochet books, but can’t really decipher the instructions well until I found this book, Kyuuto Japanese Craft Lacy Crochet.
ISBN: 0811860582.

It’s starting to make sense but not all because I have just started understanding about crochet. Sadly, crochet is addictive which means I have another hobby to deal with. Ha ha.

damn you hacker!

On: February 26th, 2008 at 5:19 pm | In: Life

I got an e-mail warning from my server provider (abuse department) that my blog was uploaded with a phishing site. Therefore my blog was blocked. Annoying and surprisingly as it could be, it was true. I logged into my blog’s files. Yes. I saw my index.php got changed. And a couple of unknown files that’s not in my local files. One there’s an email.php and a folder called cartepr. If you do see unknown files in your server, beware.

I could not delete any files or folders from my server to the point I have to call the abuse department and told them what happened. Finally they granted permission so I could delete the whole files, re-uploaded original files, and change permissions to whole files and folders.

Seriously you hacker. You don’t have a way to get financial income to the point you have to hack people’s info like paypal-look-alike e-mails sent to consumer hoping they’ll give you user name and password?! I’m sure you people whom have paypal account knows there are many paypal phishing e-mails out there.

This phishing crap is troubling everyone but they don’t care. Quite sad really. We only have one world, and yet so much selfishness and cruelty.

If anyone out there knows how to add security to websites, please let me know. Least thing I want is to have my website troubling people out there.

What a week!

On: February 17th, 2008 at 12:03 am | In: FO Gallery, Knitting, Life, WIP, crochet, yarnporn

Happy belated Valentine
I hope you all had a good Valentine if any of you celebrate. I had a good Valentine which means I got chocolate liquor (don’t think they’re real booze) and a chocolate rose from DH. Went out to a mall, and ate at Pancake House. What a good day.
In Japan, I believe the girls give something to the guy. Mine was the Dr Who scarf. I gave him much early before the V day, but the scarf serves its purpose like for snowplowing the driveway, and keeping my DH warm.

2nd Annual Knit Out Mall of America and FO
2nd Annual Knit Out Mall of America

Lots of knitters and crocheters told me that they would not go to this 2nd Annual Knit Out MOA because it was very crowded and had really long lines to go through the vendors. I didn’t go last year, and thought I would love to see the event once. Alas I did go on Saturday from 11am to 4pm. Jesus. All that time was going through the vendors. I didn’t even take any demos, because what I was thinking by the time I’m done going through all the lines, all I wanted to do was eat late lunch and go home. DH came with me, and he was being so helpful carrying my free gifts, tools, magazines, and patterns. He also brought me snacks time to time and take my place.

At the end, I had fun. I got to talk with really nice people and got to see upcoming new books, and new products from clover. Will I go again next year? Maybe on a Sunday. Hm… I didn’t got to see famous people like Debbie Macomber. Oh well… maybe next time.

me and Lion Brand mascot
that’s me with Lion Brand mascot. For more photos from the event, I uploaded to flickr for you whom couldn’t make it.

What’s that you’re wearing with the Lion Brand mascot? If you are wondering. It’s my latest FO, Rona Lace Shawl.
Yes I got to finish this shawl after approximately 9 months. I ran into a little problem, probably one that any knitters or crocheters don’t want to face. Out of yarn. Yup. I was left with 15% of the crocheted edging, and I ran out of yarn.

Thank God for Ravelry I got rescued by it. Someone had some left over yarn with the same color (dye lot doesn’t matter to me in this case) and was kind enough to send me her left over yarn. This is what I meant Limedragon. If I have same left over yarn with your project, I would gladly give it to you.

Rona Lace Shawl
Rona Lace Shawl
Rona Lace Shawl
Rona Lace Shawl's edging

Rona Lace Shawl
Pattern : KnitPicks
Yarn : KnitPicks Alpaca Cloud, Horizon. 4 skeins
Needle : US 4 circ, F (3.75mm) crochet hook
Gauge : -
Cost : $14.86
Started : 5-10-2007
Finish : 2-11-2008
Future changes : use different color

This shawl was so much to make. Though I have to warn you, the pattern is all written hence no chart. But the repeat was not terrible. The BO took several days because it was crochet, but it was well worth it. The crochet edging makes it looks so more delicate.

I leave you with a little bit of yarnporn. It’s Noro Silk Garden. Never had Noro until the peer pressure from surrounding knitters whom made the Nori Stripe Scarf got to me. I must say, Noro is so beautiful yarn. Ahh the colors mesmerize me.
Noro Silk Garden

FO:Felted Clogs and Dr Who Scarf

On: February 4th, 2008 at 1:54 am | In: FO Gallery, Knitting, Life

This is quite a long post and heavily bombarded with photos, but go ahead to either read or skim through the FO photos. :)

FO: Felted Clogs
Sorry for the late update. I’ve been under the weather lately to the point I lost excitement to cast on a new project. Then Limedragon said “you might feel better starting a new project” Boy was she right. I casted on these clogs from Fiber Trends, and OMG I finished them in 3 days.
Felted Clogs
me wearing Felted Clogs
These when the project got off the needles. Look how huge it is compared to my foot.
before felting clogs
before felting bottom sole

Felted Clogs
Pattern : Fiber Trends
Yarn : Leftover of Cascade 220 Wool and Heathers.
Needle : Addi Turbo US 17 (12.75mm) 24in (60cm), 32in (80cm)
Gauge : 9sts per 4in (10cm) use 2 yarns together
Cost : $5.50 (for pattern)
Started : 2-1-2008
Finish : 2-3-2008
Future changes : use different color, and try the high heel version

Colors for the clogs:
Instep: Red and Tutu
Sole: Highland Green and Col Blue Heather
Cuff: Soft Pink

I’m going to go off tangent a little. I got myself a postal scale last year due to spinning. It’s a $40 scale that I got from local OfficeMax. But this scale is so worth my money. Not that it’s accurate for postal use but it’s so also very multifunction. I can use the scale for estimating whether I’ll have enough to finish a project that requires knitting more than 1 item like a pair of socks. It’s wonderful. Just like this clog project. I use the scale to weigh my unspun fiber and spindle. Estimating left over yarn given the yarn label still exists. The list can go on and on.

Having a postal scale in my collection is like another very handy tool for me, and so glad I got it.

FO: Dr Who Scarf
DH wearing Dr Who Scarf
Dr Who Scarf wrapped on DH neck
Dr Who Scarf at the end of progress

Dr Who Scarf
Pattern : DrWhoScarf.com
Yarn : Cascade 220 Wool and Heather
Needle : Addi Turbo US 7 (4.5mm) 24in (60cm)
Gauge : -
Cost : $72.60
Started : 10-1-2007
Finish : 1-28-2008

Colors that I use for the scarf:

color   #skein
7827 Golden Rod 1
8886 Italian Plum 1
8021 Beige 2
8622 Camel 1
2413 Red 2
9326 Col BHthr 2
9130 High Land Green 2

That’s my DH wearing his favorite T-shirt and posing for the scarf. He was not patient for my photography fuss, so he sort of left before I got to take a full body picture of the scarf. The scarf length is from floor, one loop on neck, to the other floor. Yeah it’s that long.

Imagine how bored I was knitting this scarf and so happy that this project is off my back. It’s not like I hate the project other than the incredible length. The beauty of this project is the simplicity of endless garter st and the colors. The simple garter st has kept me company at knit-nite, watching tv and movies. It was so mindless that it’s very relaxing. Sometimes you need a simple project to take your minds off hard projects.

The funny thing is that people think it’s a rug or a table runner. DH can only come up with 2 reason why they said that. 1 they’re not geeky enough to recognize it is a Dr Who Scarf. 2 they never watched the show.