Vests

This week I have started three new projects, all of them being vests, all of them being pullovers, and all of them bottom-up. Two of the patterns I'm working on are from CanaryKnits, and so far I am loving her patterns. Most of them are free, easy to read, and would look great on most body types. The two that I have cast of her's are the SexyVesty and Corona, and both are coming along quite well. I've finished the main part of the body of the SexyVesty and gotten a good solid 6 inches of the Corona knitted. The other vest that I'm working on is Green Day by Mari Muinonen, for which I found a translation of.

SexyVesty is going along really well for me- finally I've found something that is worthy of my green malabrigo that I have been saving forever. My favorite thing about this pattern is the lace pattern; it looks like its argyle, but without all the tedious colorwork that you would have to put into an argyle sweater. Now that I've reached the point where it comes time to do the front piece, I find that things are getting a little sticky. I need to put it down for a while so things can click in my brain.

So then we can move on to Corona, also designed by CanaryKnits. I would consider this more of a hoodie than a vest, and the cable details on the collar make me so happy. I'm a simple kind of girl, and this little bit of detail is just perfect for me. Right now I'm knitting it in red, using two balls of red sock yarn held together. I'm really loving the fabric that is being created by doing this, and I can see myself using this pattern over and over again.

The vest from Mari Muinonen is progressing, but not as quickly as I would like. I think that I got caught up with the other two projects, and I've ignored this one for a little too long. I'm also not as happy as I could be with the cable details on this one, but not unhappy enough to frog it. But its also simple enough to put off to the side for a little. Its what I like to do, have several projects going on at once so I can move around when I get bored. I'm a bit of an ADD knitter. As soon as I can borrow another camera, pictures will follow.

Mo Rocca and Itchy Sweaters

Every Sunday morning, I like to sit with some coffee and knitting and listen to one of my favorite radio programs from NPR, Wait Wait....Don't Tell Me The past week featured comedian Mo Rocca stating that he never wore handmade sweaters because "they are always itchy". As a knitter, I was defensive, but this week's program is currently an apologetic Mo Rocca reading a prepared statement after being bombarded by knitters up in arms, and I nearly shot coffee out of my nose from laughter. I think that it is a testament to how we take things too seriously sometimes, but it is nice to know that many knitters have decided to convince Mo wrong, and are making him some lovely hand-knit sweaters. At least we know that the knitting community welds some power in the world of mass communication.




So I feel this this photo of my stash is a fitting commentary on where my life is right now. If you compare it with my past one, you can see that things are a bit more organized and co-ordinated, but still with a little chaos, which I need my life. On the bottom shelf, I keep most of my FOs that have yet to find a home, and the top shelf contains most of my craftyness tools. WIPs are scattered around the apartment, some on my nightstand so I can finish a few scarf rows before bed, or the pair of socks next to the TV, so I have something to do when I watch bad television. Everything is a little bit scattered, but I like it like that. Organized chaos and all...



My favorite project at the moment is a pair of socks that I am making for my friend Heidi from some lovely hand-dyed Footscray from Ingrid over at Yarn Workshop. A few of us gathered around her yarn-dying kettle a few weeks ago, and these beautiful yarns came out of that. It was my first time hand-dying anything more than a tie-dye t-shirt, and I must say that I am hooked. Since then, I've been perusing the asiles at Jusco and Japan Home Center, musing over the rows of stainless steel cookware, mentally justifying the money it would cost to buy myself a shiny kettle of my own. I keep telling myself that as soon as I finish my TEFL, I can reward myself with the kettle and some dye and then just go to town. The thought of all the colors that could come out of my kitchen makes the 4 hours of coursework on verbs and conjugation a little less daunting, but still tedious none-the-less.

5 Months?!

Aiya! 5 months have passed by without one post on either of my blogs! People must think that I have fallen off the edge of the planet..........but I haven't.

Lack of posting is due to several factors in my life, including, but not limited to:

• Flexible work schedule that has me running all over this S.A.R. that I call home
• Insufficient amount of pictures to do knitting projects justice
• Earning online certificate for TEFL
• YouTube........it will suck you in and never let you go.

But seriously folks, I have been slacking off in the online posting department, and I'm going to remedy that by re-instituting my Sunday rule; Sunday evenings are for getting caught up with emails and blogging, and other such correspondence. Things work out much better for me if I schedule them into my calender and have a chunk of time blocked off for any activity. I'm also the person that needs to have everything written down, otherwise I probably won't remember. So, starting tomorrow night, things should start to become more regular in the blogging universe for me and for all that read this. Until then, happy knitting!

De-stashing

It comes time to face my worst nightmare, the dreaded word; De-Stash! Since I've been back in Hong Kong, I've been trying to clean up my life in general, and to adhere to the idea of living simply, (so that others may simply live), which brought me to clean up my stash. Lots of time was spent in finding all the yarn I had hidden all over my apartment, and then re-winding it for center-pull balls. That got me through a lot of Lost, which I am trying to re-watch for the new season in January! You would be so proud of me now, its all organized and safely on the shelves in my cabinet, and I even managed to get a callus from all the winding. I also have a lot of yarn that I have no idea what I got it for, so it comes time to get rid of it, so I can be more properly organized about what I want to make with what.
So it comes time for the stash-busters:

• 2x2 ribbed scarfs
• Cabled hat from Stitch'n'Bitch books
• Scarp yarn blanket
• Dr.Who Scarf

I've finished one, which is going on the present shelf, to possibly handed out for a Xmas present or it might go to charity. We shall see. So right now, my socks and Shetland Shorty are on hold until I feel sufficiently de-stashed, or until I finish re-watching Lost, whichever happens first. I would love to take pictures to share with everyone, but the LCD camera on my screen is broken. For those of you living in HK, does anyone know where I can take it to be repaired? Not having my camera is making me sad.

Just monkeying around.

I have two days, just 48 little hours to finished the second sock of Monkey, by Cookie A. I'm on the 5th out of 6 repeats for the leg, but I'm starting to get intimidated by all that I have left. How will I ever turn the heel in time. The short amount of time is compounded by the fact that this seems to be the week that everyone wants to see me, since I'm going back to Hong Kong in 10 days. Maybe if I call sick into work, I can have this finished in time.......

This all started out innocently enough as a present for a co-worker, in lieu of giving her gas money for carpooling, which I was more than happy to do, considering gas prices in the US right now, and how little I'm earning this summer. So last week, she tells me that her last day is this Wednesday, which I was ok with, since I thought that I would have plenty of time this past weekend, which turned out to be quite the ironic notion. Between baking, movie dates with friends, and quality time with the nephews, (who are a very energetic 6 and 4), I managed to get 5 rows done. Now, all of a sudden, its Monday afternoon, and I am still working on the leg section!!!!!! The second sock seems to be going faster, and I thought that by taking it to work I could get some more done. Nope! So tonight, I will be up past my bedtime, watching Law and Order, trying to defeat this darn sock. Wish me luck!

Bad Dogs

Summer 2008 104, originally uploaded by yummystitch.

God knows that I love my dogs, to an insane degree, but they are walking on thin ice right now, especially my dearest Bertie. Last night, while working on a difficult part of my current sock project, she decided that it was the appropriate time to jump into my lap for cuddles, causing me to slips about 15 stitches off the needles! AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!! I immediatly shoved her off, while continously shouting the F-Word. I managed to recover the dropped stitches, and after about a half hour, said sock had fully recovered. But the icing on the cake was when I went upstairs and found the beagle with my ball of Noro in his mouth, getting ready to tangle it, with several other balls of yarn at his feet, ready to be destroyed. Not a good night for anyone involved.......
Now I have no idea what is going on with my babies, but I think that they are getting jealous of the yarn. Bertie often gives me the look featured in the picture ABOVE: the ever-pathetic, "Why are you playing with the yarn instead of rubbing my tummy?" To make up for it, they both licked my face off as soon as I sat back down, but I still had some yarn to de-tangle that evening. I love my dogs, but sometimes I think that they know exactly how to push me. Much smarter than they look at all.....

Malabrigo Smiles!

This was the expression on my face after a pleasant Saturday spent with a friend, Herman, who took me to two new LYS, Lovely Yarn, and A Good Yarn, and bought me some nice yarn as a belated birthday present. He bought me three skeins of this gorgeous hand-dyed Malabrigo in a deep spruce color. Its a little bit hard to see in this picture, but its lovely in person. This will probably be made into something for me, because I love love love blue and green in anything. I also picked up some lovely Ultra Fine Alpaca in peacock blue, which I also love. I have no idea what to do with it, but I had to have it. I've also inherited a lot of yarn from my mom, mostly Lion Brand, and a ball of Noro leftovers, but I will always take free yarn! I'm glad there is going to be room in my suitcase for my new and improved summer stash. The real question will be what do I take back to HK with me in 3 weeks, and what to leave behind for another day.

Summer of Socks

This will be the summer that I will master socks, or at least the easier types of socks. I've been avoiding doing this for as long as I've known to knit, but now is the time. For too long I have feared the socks, but no longer!

I picked out some cheap wool/acrylic blend from Jo-Anne's and got down to work with a pattern suggestion from one of my HK knitting friends, Ingrid, who I consider a Jedi-master of socks. Its going well so far, and the pattern is easy to read. The one problem here is that the back of the ankle and the heel have turned out to be freaking HUGE! I need a friend with unusually large heels and ankles, which made me think of my friend Big Tom- A sweetheart of a guy who is 6'7" and over 300lbs, easily. Not fat, just.....BIG! So they might go to him.

The other possibility is my friend Jason, living and working in St. Louis. He has unusually large feet as well, so they might work for him. I'm almost finished with the second one of the two, and I'm debating about agitating it in some warm water to get some shrinkage. I'm going to use the same pattern for the Vanna's Choice yarn that I picked up as well. I just couldn't resist, since it is Vanna White, and it was only 87 cents a skein. So sue me.....


So here is a picture of the socks in question. The pattern is Beginner Socks, Magic Loop Variation by Liat Knits Oh, double-plus bonus about knitting socks? I've learned, and become a huge fan of magic loop. Take that DPNs!

My mother is my enabler!

For most of the month of February, I've had visitors in my apartment. I've had 2 friends from school, one fellow teacher, and my mother, which was the best part of my month. My mother and I have been knitting for about the same length of time, but she is so much better than me. (Keep in mind I taught her how to do it) So since she came to visit me, we both thought it was a great idea to visit every knitting shop in HK that we could find within 9 days. This is a lot harder than it sounds, because she came at the end of Chinese New Year, when every shop decides its a good time to close down.

We did find plenty though, that I had no idea were here. Outside of the yarn shop just down the street, we found a huge one in Causeway Bay, run by very sweet elderly men, one in my town center, and 3 in Mongkok, in addition to the various street stalls. The result of these trips is what you see in the picture folks! 705 of that was not bought until my mother and I went shopping! Here is how most of our conversations went, instore:

Me: "Oh look Mom, don't you think this color is pretty?"
Mom: "What would you make from it?"
Me: "No idea"
Mom: "You should just get it, it would cost at least 5 times more in the states."
Me: "Well, ok!"

And this is why I have more yarn in my living room than I have rug! I have some sort of general idea of what I would like to do with some of it, but for about 80% I have nothing planned. She was laughing at me once we got it all home, but then she realized that she needed another suitcase because she had bought a whole bunch of yarn and needles too! Needless to say, we both felt a little sheepish at the end of the week. Now that she's gone, I'm determined to get it all organized in some way. Most of it is still sitting in bags/boxes in my living room. The good news is that one of my friends knows how to weave baskets, so I might get her to make me some containters or something for this.

So in other news, I've gotten on ravelry.com, the facebook for knitters. I've been trying to get things set up nicely, but its a bit hard with my computer down. There is a computer in the office, but its shared between 6 people, which can get a little tricky at times. My co-workers have been very considerate and understanding about this problem though. They are so nice!

Finished projects and computer woes

So I've managed to finish my unshaped shrug in my red bulky yarn. I would love to share it with all of you, but this is the week that my computer has decided not to work, period. I think that I might have to journey off to Sham Shui Po in search of a new hard-drive. :( No pictures for now, but I'm hoping to have this problem solved soon, because I am going crazy without my computer!

Anyway, the shrug turned out quite nicely, though a bit longer across the back then I hand intended. This was also my first time picking up stitches to create a border. The 2x2 ribbing turns in a little bit, but I think with some blocking that it will work out nicely. Its very warm, and I think that it will suite my mother when she comes to visit during Chinese New Year. I've also been very busy working on my Very-Cropped Hoodie, from MagKnits. This one I'm making for a friend is in tones of brown, from Vintage ColorMulti. After about 3 weeks of knitting, I'm working on the second sleeve, and the hood is all that remains after that. I've made some adjustments to the pattern for yarn and needle size, mostly repetition of some rows and knitting the sleeves in the round, versus flat like the pattern calls for. Its worked out nicely, especially with the yarn picked. It should be perfect for the recently chilly Hong Kong weather. Hopefully pictures will come soon!

Another interesting and happy development in my life recently is that I have been included into some wonderful knitting groups with some very talented ladies! They are all incredibly talented and interesting women. I've included some of their blogs in my links now. You should check them out! I enjoy their company and I think that I can also learn a lot from them. That's all the knitting news from my corner!

Sweater Frustrations!

So the baby sweater was going good...until I reached the part where you do the neckline shaping, and then it all just went wrong! The body of the sweater didn't seem like it was going to be wide enough for any baby that I've seen and the sleeves seemed to be a mile long. I stuck with it for a little while, and then just got so frustrated with the damn thing, I frogged it all! Now the yarn and needles are sitting in a corner, thinking about what they did. I think that I also might need to find a different pattern, or go out there and get a pattern book.

For right now, I've moved on to the unshaped shrug project for a little. I found this great bulky yarn in these beautiful variations of red. Its a little bulky, and I'm using the measurements for the largest one, but I think that its going to be lovely and less frustrating. When I saw and felt this yarn, I knew that it had to be made into something soft that you feel luxurious wearing. Here's to times of less frustrating knitting!

Madil-Sophy Yarn Project

I've recently gotten inspired to step outside of the scarf and hat box and attempt my first sweater.....baby sweater that is. Within the past 4 years, two of my older siblings have gotten married, and I know that babies cannot be far off. I've decided to get a little ahead of the game for when it actually starts happening...

The yarn I picked for this project is Sophy by Madil. Made in Italy, this 66% fine Merino, 34% acrylic yarn is a dream. It looks like a basic white crinkled, but the suprise is the little swaths of bright colors that appear at random. Now I am a sucker for anything veregrated, but this is a treasure. I think that it could be made into anything, its just that lovely and versitile. The colors might look a little dull in these pictures, but that is due to the dimness of the lights in my apartment. They really do pop!

The first part of this project/set is a little newborn baby blanket, that I finished last night. I used the standard "Feathers and Fan" pattern that can be found almost anywhere. I found mine on KnitPicks, in the free pattern section. (http://www.knitpicks.com/ ) I've used this pattern for several projects already, and it works out so nicely. Its one of those patterns that everyone thinks is harder than it looks, but just one row is worked in pattern. The finished blanket measures about 14 inches wide and about 3 feet long. I think that it can qualify as something unisex in todays world. This is a photo of what it looks like on my off-white couch. I think that next time I use this pattern to make a blanket, I'll do it a little wider, maybe 20 inches.

The next part of this project is one of the 5-hour patterns that are floating out around there. I found mine by browsing through Bev's Country Cottage and her list of free patterns. Its a very simple, hooded sweater in seed stitch. Not only will it be my first sweater, but also my first time attempting a hood. I started it this afternoon, and I have about 4 inches of seed stitch done. You can see the pattern here- http://www.knitlist.com/2002/FransHood.htm The next part of the project is going to be some booties, but I haven't found a pattern that I love yet. I'd be grateful for any suggestions!

Yarn-shopping Karma

So my knitting shop lady is wonderful to me, and I mean really incredibly wonderful. She remembers every ball of yarn that I've bought, what projects I'm working on, and has even offered to teach me to crochet. With all that going for me, why did I think that it was a good idea to shop at other places? Now I have been driving myself nuts trying to find a decent pair of double-pointed needles here, and that's the one item she doesn't have. So I go off 'round Hong Kong trying to find some shops I've seen on the Internet, pretty much unsuccessfully. One of these places was downtown in a shopping plaza. I dropped my friend off at the doctors, and then went off to find this place. I find the shopping center, but no knitting shop. I look on all three floors, but no such luck. Meanwhile, I've getting death glares from all around me. Its then I've realized that, in my casual shopping, I have stepped into a front for a brothel! It took me about 2 seconds to realize where I was, and about 1.5 seconds to book it out of there. I think that the yarn gods were punishing me for neglecting my knitting shop lady. So, lesson learned, try to shop someplace else, be surrounded by hookers.

Hong Kong Knitting

So now I've relocated myself to Hong Kong, which has a smaller knitting interest than what I'm used to. Even though I live in the New Territories, far away from civilization, I have managed to find a tiny little knitting shop about a 20 minute walk away. It's in the "Bua Bao Shopping Arcade" which is pretty much the sketchest shopping place I have ever seen. Its the bottom floor of some apartment buildings, and is about the size of a closet. The lady who runs it speaks fairly good English and does beautiful crochet work. I've managed to pick up some wonderful yarns for fairly cheap, but alas, she doesn't carry double-pointed needles. I haven't been that creative here, just a few hats and scarves, but they've all turned out beautifully. I'm off this weekend to explore some new knitting shops that I've heard rumors about. I feel cut-off without my DPNs!

Hats hats hats!

Recently I've been obsessed with knitting cabled hats based on the Jellybean hat from Stitch 'n' Bitch. I've gotten it down to the point where I can make one in about 2 days if I have enough free time. They are so quick and easy to modify- I've been playing around with different borders and different combinations of yarn. So far, its been working out pretty well for me, which makes me really happy. I've made about 9 over the course of the summer up till now. And of course, I've given most of them away, or plan to. Its something that I found easy to keep my hands occupied for TV-watching, or in the car or something. I've done so many of these hats that my hands just know what to do. My roomates have also been forced to be models for me for everything that I knit, so thats who's beautiful faces you will see modeling my knits. I also have another project in the works, a seed stitch scarf for a friends birthday. I don't remember the brand of this yarn, but I love it because its cheap, fuzzy, and one skein is enough for a scarf. I have a beautiful shawl that I made with a lot of the same brand in this great olive color. I'm working on putting up a gallery of all the things I've knitted and some of my favorite yarns, so bare with me for the moment. I'm also running into the problem of scraps of yarn and not enough to do something with them. One solution that works so far is little one hour baby booties which I plan to donate to the premie ward at the local hospital. (Another pattern from Stitch 'n' Bitch that I have fallen in love with), but the scraps from those projects remain, which drives me nuts! If anyone has any suggestions with what to do with these tiny little bits, let me know. I feel like I need to use up every last little bit of yarn that I have, so I can justify buying more. Like all knitters, I have a healthy obession with yarn. You can never have enough! Seriously people, you and I both know this. I think that this winter I might attempt my first sweater, since I'm starting to get more than a little sick of the whole scarf and hat combo. Wish me luck!

What to do?

I have this beautiful peacock blue yarn, and nothing to do with it. Any suggestions? I got it in Olympia, WA, while visiting my grandparents from a darling little yarn shop in the downtown area. Lots of really nice rare things.