Still not a lot of knitting, but some fun stuff to report

Don't know what happened to my knitting mojo but just haven't been knitting that much. I am still knitting, just not at the crazy pace I used to do it. Maybe it's because there are too much stuff to do lately?

I did go to Lacy Knitter's Guild meeting and here's a cute little thing our friend Wes shared:

It's a pattern with those cherubs like in ancient art works except if you look closely, they are listening to a radio :-)

Here's the pattern and maybe a better look:


I did manage to get the second of the cashmere lace mitts done and here's official model modeling it:


That's all for now. I need to get cranking on some stuff that has deadlines...

Not much knitting, many things to report

There hasn't been much knitting because of the move and all other stuff, but here's a recap of things in past couple month.

First there was Stitches West 2009 conference. Here are a few wonderful things we saw.

A wonderful Bohus sweater:


She had a beautiful silk blouse underneath too:


Lily Chin is always a great entertainer. Here she is as "Cruella De Lil":


I took a Norwegian Purl class with the wonderful Beth Brown-Reinsel and here's a little sample from the class:


I took a picture and ripped it out so I can make a mitten:


The only modification I made from the original pattern was making the corrugated ribbing at the cuff so I can practice that some more from the class.

One "out there" thing at Stitches was my ticket winning a alpaca hat at the student banquet. Here's me wearing the hat:


Most peoples' reaction is: "You look like an Eskimo!"

What's happening?!

What's happening? I am blogging more then once a month?! :-)

Pam and I attended the Tea with Louisa Harding at the Green Planet Yarn and had a wonderful time.


Here's me and Pam with Ms Harding


I am so excited and happy about the new mitts, had to share them. They are made with the most wonderful cashmere, ever!


Here's me wearing it


I can't believe I am blogging when I should be packing.

Found a cute button

I found a cute flower button to complete the Clara dress:


Here's the TeddyBorg modeling the dress:


I need a less threatening looking doll to do my modeling :-)

Some knittings happening

Are you tired of those koolhaas hats yet? I finished the last two and put it on Ravelry. You can also see it here.

Haven't gotten much knitting done because I've been organizing some physical photos choas that I've avoided for the past too many years. But I did manage to knit Clara.

It was a strange feeling to go from big yarn, big needle (US 8) to lace -ish yarn and small needle. Got so used to things going really quick. But Clara was a good practice for me to get back in to lace. Here you can see it start:


Here's the finished picture:


On a unrelated note; I splurged in November and my Sundara yarn came. I order these "blue lagoon". I rarely go for blue and when I do, they are really nice. These came and they were even more gorgeous real life than on the web! Wish I could afford more.


I saved the best for last of course. We made t-shirts at the Knitspiration Guild meeting on Monday night and here's my hard work :-)


What do you think? Mary's got cuter colorful ones!

It's all facebook's fault

Okay, so I am blaming facebook for part of the not blogging enough; my cousin got me to join and now I am part of the FAA (Facebook Addict Anonymous) on facebook. J/K. But there is such a thing as FAA.

So what have I don't since? Lots of Koolhaas:

The Cascade 220 superwash in "grey" is done:


The malabrigo worsted in "American Beauty" is done:


The Classic Elite Portland Tweed was half way through before Christmas:

Good thing this one didn't need to be finished before Christmas because the recipient is away until after the new years.

Here are the hats together:


One more koolhaas to go and it's going at the pace of snail because I am just so sick of it already. After this one is finished, no koolhaas for a while until I recover...

These are the first baby socks I made for Orion and I think I will make more.

It's just not right that I have so much sock yarn and I still go out and buy him socks.

But more baby socks will have wait until after another gift knitting is done for my good friend's new baby girl!

Many knittings but no blogging

I have been a busy little bee but haven't been able to blog because I got a new computer and everything is different so I am still trying to figure things out. But here it goes for now.

Peony Shetland Triangle shawl

Here's a close up of the shawl


The whole shawl. You can see where the skein changed because the color is slightly different.


This is my baby making a funny face posing for me :-)


Firebird Clapotis

This is at the end of increase, before the "even" row.


I am about half way through now, but putting it aside for christmas knitting


Sunrise Circle Jacket

This was done before the Thanksgiving trip and not a christmas present. In fact, nobody will really ever get an adult sweater that's not related to me or share my last name. Sleeves are a bit longer but I can live with that


My second Pomatomus sock out of MamaBlue seasilk yarn.


love it, love it! I have to confess: it was gonna be a present but I like the finished object too much and couldn't let it go.

My favorite model showing the Yarn Harlot's Unoriginal Hat:

I love the smirk on his face. This is going to charity.

Series of Koolhaas hats. First up is The Fiber Company's Road to China:


Side view:


Top view as the model tries to run away (tired of modeling)


Immediately caste on for the second one right after. Using Sundara's worsted weight yarn (color mossy)

(my model is napping so didn't get a picture of him wearing it)

Working on the third one out of cascade 220 worsted in silvery color:


Okay, I am gonna breath now and go learn how to back up the computer.

The new Twisted Collective is up

This one just screams my name. The subtle front, the dramatic back and the color.

Love small cookie cutters!

Baking has slow down but not before I made these adorable animal cookies. Don't you just love my adorable ladybug timer? :-)

It's been too long

It's been too long since a knitting picture has appeared on this site. We are catching up today. Here's picture of us down at Santa Cruz to check out some yarn shop and have yummy lunch at Gayle's Bakery. Their lavender cookies are so good! Mary wearing her *just* finished sweater vest. Evil Chelsea introduced us to Gayle's :-) She was so nice to be the chauffeur for the day.


I got some buttons for the BSJ at the Yarn Place in Santa Cruz. I did not bring the sweater but knew I needed some turquoise and was very surprise they are such a good match.


Here's Orion modeling the BSJ. It's clearly too small but I thought it was very funny he looks like a tiny gay man purposely wearing shirts too tight.


Here's a picture of the End Paper mitten before it's ripped out. I needed the white yarn for a project plus this was too tight so I did not want to make it and not fit me. Will try again with bigger needle. (used 3.0mm this time)


Here's the twisted stitch practice from Cookie's Cable class (arranged by the Guild here). This was challenging because I had to cable on the wrong side too (if I had done it in the round, I would not have to cable on the wrong side) This is the class that sent me home searching for the Twisted Flower pattern that I couldn't find for the longest time.


Finally finished the second Daisy Stitch mitt. I made a big mistake, can you see (I'll give you a hint, it's the left one)? Kinda bugs me A LOT but I only noticed it after everything was finished. What to do? Make another one and chuck the defective one out?


Alright, this jacket took forever. I think it's the stitch; it's a slip ribbing pattern. You can't really see it, but it's really doing the whole sweater in ribbing. The button bands are puckering up. Gonna do some blocking to see if it will help. Still have to add buttons.




I immediately cast on for the Sunrise Circle Jacket. I've had the yarn and pattern for a while. What prompt me to do it now is: I am making myself do a Kate Gilbert pattern before I can buy another Kate Gilbert pattern (and more importantly the yarn for it). I've been dying to do Wisteria and this is bit of delay of instant gratification. Back to Sunrise Circle Jacket: I love the yarn. It's brown Plymouth Tweed but it's the little orange and green bits in it that I love.


Gotta find a way to upload pictures more often....

Obsessed

Okay, I just have to get this out of my head. Even that might not do any good.

I've been obsessed about the Wisteria sweater from Twist Collective. This is the first none cardigan sweater that's makes me want to make it and make it NOW. Maybe it's because the design is so simple and elegant. Maybe it's the none reverse st stitches around the cables. Or maybe it's just great photo. I don't know. All I can do is delay myself by making me work on the current sweater (and hopefully finish) so I can cast on a Kate Gilbert sweater that I already have the pattern (Sunrise Jacket) and yarn before I go head and buy the pattern and yarns for Wisteria.

Lots of photo to show. Will post soon.

I am not crazy!

I found them!!! They fell off the bookshelf on the back and it was on the back of the bookshelf. It feels good knowing I am not crazy; that I did not just think I have them, I actually have them. Thanks for your sympathy. It made me know that I am not alone :-)

Now I just have to find the diamond shape in the baby's puzzle and the the newly acquired toy train engine (he's only planed it for less than one day!)

Just need to vent

I can't find two sock patterns I got from one of the Stitches West. One is BMFA's Ceder Creek and the other is Twisted Flower. I know I bought those patterns because I really like them and wanted them for a while. It's just upsetting because I try to keep a neat house so I know where my things are. So not being able to find them is driving me crazy because that objective of knowing where my things are is not achieved! Very very frustrated (more frustrated because we just took a class with Cookie and I wanted to make that Twisted Flower sock)!!

This is why I haven't been knitting

My good friend, Pam, gave me a baking book and I've been baking cookies none stop. So it's all her fault that I haven't been knitting. ;-P

It's too hot to knit sweaters

It's been too hot to knit sweater so I've been knitting socks like mad. I forgot how quick they are. Here's the finished Merlot Monkey Sock. It's BMFA's STR lightweight's rare gems color way I picked up from Stitches West. I thought Monkey might be a good idea for it. What do you think?


And what's so neat is the color matches Jasmin's hair color! That's her posing with the sock on the WWKIP day.



The Baudelaire was finished before the Merlot Monkey got started. Here's a finished photo.



I actually started another sock (pomatomus) before the monkey was finished. The color is so just so intense I needed to take a break from it. I think the pattern and the yarn color is good together, no?



On a non knitting related note: We went to the DeYoung Museum up in SF for father's day. It was free and the new Chihuly exhibit was opening that weekend too. Thanks to our friend Renee and Stephen's family we were able to go to the cool things that happen around the bay area. Baby seems to like it too!