What I've been doing...

This blog is sadly neglected, I know.
Let's do a fast recap of what have happened in the past 20 days since the last post.

-My parents and brother came 2 weeks ago to attend my graduation.
-I graduated!

-Became a tour leader for my family for a whole week.
-Family left, went straight to uni because of course just because you graduated doesn't mean you're "done".
-Exhibited at New Designers in Business Design Centre, Islington until Sunday.


As you can probably guess, there were virtually no knitting happening in those 2 hectic weeks. But I did manage to take some more FO pictures before that...

Norwegian Wood Shawl, pattern by Sivia Harding, yarn used 3 skeins of Naturally Hand Knit Dawn 2ply. This shawl is the case of that "perfect" project. I fell in love with the pattern at first sight, and found the perfect yarn for it in the stash right after. The knitting was fun and easy, and I love the result! I did ran out of yarn towards the end so I had to omit 2 rows from the pattern and used a different yarn for part of the bind-off, but I still love it!



Handspun Feather And Fan Shawl, used 2 skeins of my own handspun. A great project to use up those 100g skeins of handspun yarns! I'm kinda wishing it's bigger but it was getting a bit boring after a while. Can I just say again how much I absolutely LOVE knitting with handspun yarn? It just heightens the pleasure to another level, seriously.


Hoarfrost, pattern by Anne Hanson from Knitspot. This pattern is absolutely gorgeous, but the yarn....oh the yarn.....just makes it all the more perfect. It's Swiss Mountain Cashmere and Silk, and it's amazing, as you can probably tell from the name. It took a while to get used to knitting with it just because of it's softness. It feels so soft and luxurious against my neck, I kinda can't wait for it to get colder so I can wear it out (kidding! summer please come back to London!).

Turquoise Decimal Cardigan

Here's the cardigan I promised to show you!


The pattern is from Spring 2009 issue of Knitty. When I saw the pattern I knew immediately that I'll be knitting one, and I knew exactly what yarn to use! Now, how often does that happen? The yarn is Knitpicks Shine Sport in Turquoise, and since I've only got 8 skeins of yarn, I modified the pattern into short sleeve, and I like it much better this way since I find bell sleeves to be impractical. I ended up only using 7 skeins of yarn for this.
Overall, I love this pattern! The waist and raglan shaping is so cleverly done, and it's so easy to modify. I really enjoyed knitting it! I think the knitting part only took me over a week, but it did took me months to find buttons for it! And I haven't blocked it yet shuuushh...
Unfortunately, I wore it out to The I'm-not-going-to-Woolfest-consolation-spinning-party last weekend and it was way too warm! Guess I'll have to wait for the weather to cool down before I can wear it again, but knowing this country it probably won't be a very long wait!

In other news, my parents and brother are coming to visit me next week for my graduation ceremony! Knitting wise this means that I've been having to destash my yarn and magazines and books to make space in my room. Check out my destash page in Ravelry if you're interested!

The show is over but my needles must go on...

This past month felt surreal to me. So much have happened but I can't be sure what.
One thing for sure, the show came and go.

I think it went pretty well even though I was in daze mostly throughout the 5-day show.

A lot of knitting happened too, but they kinda came and go without much documentation on my part. Bad blogger, I know. I am so behind on FOs to show you guys! Let me just tell you that there are a Clapotis, a summer cardigan and a shawl that I need to block and blog (pun not intended) about. And a pair of socks I finished in a week on commission for Socktopus.

I did manage to make myself take some pictures a couple of days ago though, so here's some eye candy for you...

It's Lace Ribbon Scarf from Knitty! I'm sure you've seen it a million times, but here's my take on it. It's a really nice and easy pattern, very easy to memorise so perfect for carrying around. It was supposed to be my carry-around project but the yarn is sooooo amazing to work with that I had to restrain myself from knitting it at home! The yarn is Pagewood Farm Alyeska, and I got mine from Socktopus. It's soooo soft and bouncy and sproingy (it is a word in MY dictionary) and an absolute pleasure to work with. I was sighing with delight all the time while touching it, pretty sure my friends thought I was mad if they don't already.
Oh, the pretty tulip shawl pin I'm wearing in the picture is from this etsy store. Isn't it pretty? I would've love it more if only I didn't get stung by custom.
Here's a mini rant, I don't mind paying the £3.25 VAT, but £8 handling fee for 2 tiny boxes??? AGH! And did I ever tell you I got charged £49.50 for 2 knitted chairs that a knitter sent me from the States for my show? Double AGH!!
Ok, rant over. Here's more pretty pic.

Think I'll make some more of this.

This one has been a long time coming.

Pretty sure I finished knitting this hat a couple of months ago, and it has been sitting under my pile of WIPs since then. There was a lot of uncertainty with this pattern. It went like this....."Is this too small?", "Will this fit my head?", "Wonder how far I can stretch this...", "Uh oh, this looks more like a beanie", "Dang, other people say it's too tight, should've used bigger needles", "Should I just frog this and start over??", "But surely blocking will fix this....". Maybe that's why I ended up ignoring it after it's finished.

It is quite a tight fit and I had to add an extra repeat of the colourwork pattern to make it slouchy enough, but it kinda works. Especially with my "new" hairstyle. Oh and the yarn is gorgeous, it's Knittery Merino Cashmere 4ply and it smells goooooddd........yes I sniff my yarn.

Aeolian

This is definitely one of the most beautiful thing I've ever knitted, and it didn't took me a whole year to finish it! The pattern is so intuitive and ..dare I say..easy..for such an impressive result. It only took me 2 weeks to knit because I couldn't put it down. Every free time and procrastinating time I have, I devoted to knitting this luscious shawl. It's such a pleasure to knit, especially because of the yarn I used, Malabrigo lace in Burgundy (birthday gift from Van from eons ago!). This yarn is so soft and cushy and yummy and I need some more! And I only needed one skein for all this pleasure and gorgeousness...

My bundle of nerves

I'm not a morning person. On "normal" days I go to bed at about 4 a.m. and wake up at lunch time. But today I am a bundle of nerves and have been up since 8 a.m., it's not normal I tell you. I've been going through in my head everything that could go wrong during today's event. Let's see, for a starter the weather forecast could lie and it would be pouring rain, or maybe everybody decides to go to the zoo and see monkeys instead of me. Or maybe...or maybe....see why I have trouble sleeping?

So everybody please think good thoughts of me today so that I'll have some good news to report back!

Anyway, I have some pretties to show off...




It's my Ishbel! The pattern is by the mega talented Ysolda Teague. The yarn is some laceweight silk from Fyberspates that I got at Ally Pally 2 years ago. I have more than half leftover, wonder what to knit with it next. I'm totally in love with how pretty this thing is, I think it's the combination of sleek silk with that delicate lace that does it for me. It blocked wonderfully and dried within hours! Think I need another one, maybe in sock yarn?

Some more pink goodness....


The pattern is Darkside Cowl(link to .pdf) by Sarah Fama. But of course I'm calling mine Pinkside cowl. The yarn is my own handspun that I blogged about some time ago. Can I just say again how much I LOVE knitting with handspun yarn?

Ivy Leaguer wannabe

According to Ravelry, I cast on for this on 4th April 2008, heck that's a whole year for a vest!


I bought the yarns as a kit because I was too overwhelmed by the thought of picking out 6 coordinating colours. It's my biggest colourwork project to date, and it fits really well! I was pleasantly surprises when I got to try it on after I cut the steeks because I had my doubts all along.
Oh, of course you'd want to see the steeks...

See how neat it is? I did the crocheted steek and they all lie down so neatly, makes me all giddy. Can you tell I love my new vest?

The crazy thing about this project is, I used less than one skein of each colour! The pattern specifies 2 skeins of 5 different colours and a skein of 1 colour, so that's what I got. But now I ended up with more than enough for another one, there should be a limit to over estimation in yarn requirements.

Anyway, I'm organising my first knitting event EVER! Check it out here. I'm so scared of it not going well and have been playing through everything that could go wrong with it in my head. Hopefully I won't freak out when the time comes, fingers crossed! I'll also be eternally grateful if you could help me pass the word around!

More chair

I have no idea what happened, time really seems to fly and I can't even recall when was the last time I blogged.
Anyway just a quick update I haven't been knitting much, worked on a couple of WIPs here and there, so things are growing ever so slowly. Mainly I've had to focus on my project here...


Yep, another chair.
I love how this one turns out, and the fact that it uses so little yarn. And my non-knitter friends think it's a sexy chair!
It's a bit disconcerting how I'm relying on these chairs to earn me degree. But I guess I have to keep on believing in the power of knitting, and the power of knitters.
Oh, I've moved the blog for the project, it's now here. Please do come take a look, leave a comment, and spread the word! I can't do it without your supports!

Casting off...

Beware! Long post ahead, but it'll be mainly pictures for your viewing pleasure, I'll be brief and catch up with the knitting I've been doing.


I knitted these Very Orange Vinnland socks for Malabrigo March KAL with the Socktopods. The yarn colourway is "Terracotta", but really it's just orange.

This bag had been on the needle for a few months. Or at least the handle did. I finished the bag in a couple of days but the handle took really long because I got bored knitting it. And since I was using much smaller needles for the handle so that it won't sag that much, it hurt my hands to knit it. But finally a couple of days ago I decided to just finish it up and wore it to the local shop to buy grocery.

I was worried it won't be able to hold the weight but it held up pretty well I thought.

We had a bingo night for Red Nose Day at Socktopus and I won TWICE! I won a skein of Socks That Rock, 2 skeins of Lorna's Laces Sheperd Socks, a skein of gorgeous handspun by Marianne and to top it all, a voucher of a dozen cupcakes by Arianna from Bittersweet Bakers. Let me tell you her cupcakes are THE CUPCAKES, they've gotta be the best I've had. I was more excited on winning that compared to the STR, that's how much I love her cupcakes. But the handspun was gorgeous too and I couldn't wait to knit with it, so I made these.

I was reminded on how much I LOVE knitting with handspun yarn. Perhaps I should slow down on the spinning and start knitting up my handspun yarns. They are just really simple 3x1 rib with holes for my thumbs, then I increased to 3x2 rib as they go up my arms. I wore them to Brighton on Friday, and they kept my hands nice and warm.

Then yesterday, I went to Socktopus again wearing this.



My Cardigan for Arwen! Finally done! I'm really happy with it and I love wearing it. The only thing I followed from the pattern was the cable pattern. I did it all in the round, seamless, with raglan decrease and waist shaping. Too bad the kitty shawl pin that I wore to fasten it yesterday was lost.
But I haven't told you what I was there for yesterday, I had a class with Cookie A.!

It was absolutely fabulous and I dare say you guys should look forward to my future sock design!

Spinning updates

Here's a summary of my wheel spinning adventure so far.
I was trying to spin on some scrap fibres and it was miserable! The fibre kept on breaking and I couldn't spin for more than a metre at once. So I decided to try spinning the good stuffs, and it worked like magic!
Here's my first skein, it's Limegreenjelly BFL in Funkytown colourway.

This one is my own hand-dyed Falkland

And here's my own hand-dyed Merino, the best one so far, it's so soft and squishy!


I was spinning some merino/angora but gave up midway because the fibre kept on getting all over the place. So now I have some nice merino going on instead. I'm trying to spin finer and more consistent, but so far my spinning is far from it. Well, practice makes perfect, right?

Just because I got a wheel doesn't mean I've been neglecting my spindle, this is some BFL/silk from Shunklies.

I was trying to spin it really fine, but then I ran out of patience and spun thicker yarn instead, I didn't really enjoy spinning with it, but the resulting yarn was quite nice to knit with. I didn't have much yardage, so I knitted a simple stockinette cowl out of it. It's still drying now, picture next time!
And then I bought a new spindle.....isn't it a beauty?

It's Bocote Bosworth Midi, and I looooveee it! It's so smooth and nice to spin with and so pretty to look at. Here's what I spun with it

It's merino/baby alpaca/silk blend from Limegreenjelly, spun on the Bosworth and 3-plied on the wheel.

That's all for spinning so far, the wheels are still turning though!
Have you guys seen my knitted chair? The pattern is up here.