The Best Way To Start A Monday…

Okay… I think the title is a bit too dramatic. I am not working right now, so there’s not much difference between Sunday and Monday. Except that on Monday, my husband would have to go to work and I could not bug him with bad puns the whole day.

That’s the only thing that makes Monday not as nice as Sunday for me.

BUT… let’s pretend I didn’t say that, and then we can redefine Monday.

it has more fruit than yogurt… but really… who cares?

Okay… The first thing I usually do in Monday morning is to weigh myself. I am not necessarily on diet, but I found it good to know that I am good. After all, weight fluctuation can actually tell something about yourself. For me, for example… if I eat too much sodium I will feel bloated and it will show on the weight scale. Or, when it is close to that time of the month, I would be slightly heavier. So yeah… it is a good way to start any week… Get in check.

A glass of water, followed by hot tea while watching morning news. A tasty breakfast consists of yogurt and fruit…

But… nothing beats the knock on the door by the wonderful Mr. Postman. Who, despite the nasty weather, would come and deliver something wonderful. And big… Who says that size does not matter, has never seen the joy that comes in big packages.

Especially when the package contains a lot of yarns.

I ordered these beauties from Kempwoolshop. They have the clearance section which I love so much, and they deliver for free when you order over 25 quid. I know that I have stash that is beyond my life expectancy, but… all of those for under 27 quid?? It is less than one pound each skein.

I am sorry, but… A girl had to do what a girl had to do…

Now… I will excuse myself because I have lots of yarn to hug… And hide before hubby sees it 😮

x ❤ x

Weekend’s WIP Report

Now now… what have we here?

Nope… we haven’t forgotten this neglected beauty

I am now working on 3 WIPs. The crochet top still needs some cleaning up. It is so boring, I put it away for awhile until I gained some discipline.

The jumper with two different yarn went really well. I really enjoyed making it. The only thing that slow me down is that sometimes when I purl I didn’t catch one of the yarn. Grr…

But it’s fine. I am quite happy doing it, because even with stst, there is enough challenge to keep the project interesting for me. I have to say it again now that I am really happy with the random flecks effect.

The cardigan for my husband is also right on track. One thing that makes the project more interesting than it should be is… that I think I would have to improvise a bit.

I am doing the sleeves now, and I realised I wouldn’t have enough green to make two sleeves. I miscalculated the amount of yarn needed, and pretty much underestimated how my husband XL size would use the yarn. So I decided to make stripes using the same yarn I used for the ribbing, so at least the colour combo would work.

Now, hopefully we could have enough green to make a complete cardigan.

x ❤ x

Knitting with Two Strands

I stumbled upon one really cute Rowan jumper pattern. I rarely found a jumper pattern which have a wide neckline like this one. But there are two problems with this particular pattern: 1. I don’t have rowan yarns — they are waaaay out of my budget. 2. The pattern calls for that yarn to be used “double”.

Now… I know that it is not unusual thing, but I have never knit with two yarns at the same time. I mean, I know how to use it interchangeably while doing colourwork, but it is not the same though.

I remembered when I was young my mum used double yarn to crochet, and I tried it too and it is just the same. I thought… maybe it is the same with knitting. After all, I have done a project with this yarn… which is basically two yarn twisted together. And I quite like the result.

However… Back to the jumper I would like to make. I don’t have the yarn which has the gauge mentioned in the pattern. It was either too short or too long, or too narrow or to wide. Then I thought, maybe it is the fact that the yarn was doubled so it created a unique gauge. I guessed that if I could find a yarn thin enough to bulk up the 4ply yarn I had, I could make up the correct gauge asked in the pattern.

So I browse my stash and found this… thing that I swore I would never touch again.

Now… some background story.

Long time ago, I bought lots of yarn from iceyarn. Being a noob, I thought because it looks pretty, it will make pretty stuff. This particular yarn, for example… in paper it would make a wonderful garment. As the strand is thicker in one place and thinner in another, it would automatically give a pattern while I knit it in stst.

In reality… not so much. I made a rectangular shawl with it, and it looked hideous. Not mentioning that it is horrible to knit with.

So the remainder of the yarn was in my stash… Not sure why I haven’t donated it already. Maybe the good side of me though I should never put anyone else through the misery I had with this yarn.

Ah… anyway.

I started my experiment. Making swatch this time was a bit more interesting than usual as both yarns kept tangling every now and then. However I have to say that it does make a nice freckle pattern in a stst, and I can imagine it would look really pretty in a jumper.

I did have to change the needle to 0.25 mm smaller, but in the end the gauge was bang on. Ha! Looks like we have another WIP on.

x ❤ x

Sew… Sew… Snip…

My goodness… this is an incredibly slow and boring project. I am pretty sure that there must be a more efficient way to to this. There must be a crocheting prodigy somewhere in this universe discovering a mindbogglingly simple technique that would save crocheters all around the world from having to do this…

This is torture… 

Or maybe I just haven’t researched enough?

Lol. I don’t know. I just found this cleaning and securing the loose yarn like this is one hell of a boring job.

Luckily, I have found a new project to do. Remember I told you that my friend is pregnant, and doc told her that the baby is going to be a boy? Yep, Found a great pattern for baby boy, and have a wonderful yarn for it too.

Did a swatch, and had to use larger needles to get an exact gauge with my normal tension. Which is handy because I don’t need to remember the tension, as it just naturally happens like that.

The pattern is Hazel from Rowan. Ribbing is k1p2. And I have to go to bed…

x ❤ x

Did I Say FO?

I did, did I?

I genuinely think that once the main bit is done, I could claim FO. But that’s never the case with granny squares, or in this particular one, granny triangles. Crocheting and joining the motifs is just HALF the work — the easy half.

I always forget about this bit…

Yes. Tidying up and at the same time, securing them to make sure that it won’t just unravel itself when being worn, or washed. I… hate this stage of this project.

It is going to be a boring work, I better scour Ravelry to get a new project to do on the side… Pff….

x ❤ x

While Blocking…

This pattern doesn’t have blocking instruction, but I think I could do with one just to loosen it up and see its shape before attaching buttons. Don’t know if that’s the correct way to do it…

Oh… the Tubular Bind Off is fab! After awhile, I don’t need to keep referring to the youtube video to make sure I was doing the correct move, and it became quite easy to do. The result was a smooth ridgeless, seamless edge. Love it very much, and I think it works wonderfully with k1p1 ribbing.

While waiting for the blocking to finish, I continue on my other WIP.

Remember this cute one I started as a project on the go, when I went to Edinburgh not so long time ago? I tried it, and I have to say that it does not feel too snug, although I am pretty sure that the size is slightly smaller than what was mentioned in the pattern.

Few more triangles, and I will have another FO! Yay for the productive Piggy!

x ❤ x

Anniversary?!

It’s a what?

I didn’t realise that I have missed this blog’s second year anniversary! I just found out that my first post was on the 7 July five minutes ago, and thought… Oh bugger…. I should have done something to congratulate myself. It’s something worth celebrating! Maybe one or two skeins of nice fluffy wool…

One of the very first amigurumi I made

But I have to restrain myself now, really. Although it was totally and utterly worth every single poundsterling, the last holiday almost cleared me out completely. I need to go back to Indonesia to sort this out, and luckily I have already got the ticket and a departure date.

What do you do to celebrate your blog anniversary, though? Some people don’t take their blog as personally as I do, but I know that for some people their blog is very important. It is kind of a lifeline, the only thing that connects them to the world outside their own. Like me…

How about a walk in the fine city of Norwich?

I’ve been living in Norwich for years now, but staying at home and being a little bit more than slightly introvert makes me no friends. I do have friends I made when I was studying in UEA, but they’re not in Norwich anymore, and it is not the same… really. I have my wonderful sister in law, but of course not only that she works, she also has her own life and social circle to go to, so an occasional visit is probably a stretch for her too.

Oh, anyway… anniversary is not the time for whinging. I might find something nice to do at the end of the day to spoil myself cheaply. Maybe a new pattern from ravelry… considering my current WIP is in the finishing step. Who knows?

x ❤ x

Whoops…

That is not the word you want to hear coming from your own mouth (especially) when you were in the middle of the WIP… It usually means that you either have to frog everything and start over, or you have to think how to wing it…

Now, before I admit what the potential disaster is, I would like to explain what’s going on about this crochet WIP.

In the pattern, the individual triangles should have 9.5 cm length in every side, and 8 cm tall from the tip to the base. I know how important it is to make a swatch, especially when the pattern relies on the number of triangles you made — instead of the length of the piece as you knit it. So, I did measure the triangle, twice, and I even adjusted the size of the hook to achieve the correct size.

You know you’re going to hear a but, don’t you? Yes… BUT, I think the pattern did not take the shrinkage of the length caused by the joining of the triangles as you go.

You see? When you were joining the triangles as you go, by making a slip stitch into the chain space of the main piece, you inadvertently pinched a very small bit of the edge. I don’t know if this happens to other crocheter, but when I do this, it will take some milimetre worth of the edge… times twenty triangles.

That’s the problem. In the end, after they’re joined in the round, I realised that the shrinkage on each triangle is then accumulated into a good inch and a half in circumference. I tried it on and it is still loose in my waist and chest so it might fit. I also count on the size after blocking, but I shouldn’t be too confidence that it will be anywhere closer to the size suggested in the pattern.

Yeah… a big whoopsie there 😦 But I think I am going to go through with the WIP, and see…

x ❤ x

WIPs Progress(es?)

It makes me wonder… if there are more than one WIP, would the progress should be in plural form too? To be honest English confuses me a lot, especially when it is learned properly (instead of the basic one used for daily conversation). But oh well… Let’s not let it distract me from sharing the progress I have made so far…

The first one is the crochet project I made during my trip to Edinburgh. You’d be surprised how much one can make during the train trip. The first few pieces that’s been connected looked slightly wonky, but the latter ones looked much better. Overall, I am loving this project… I think green is good for summer too, don’t you think?

And, I just realised that the other project was also green! It has gone very quickly too… before I accidentally nicked my finger with the sharp edge on the tin when opening a spam. Damn Spam… But the back and the front is done, and I am halfway on the first sleeve.

HOPEFULLY… I would be able to post more regularly again. It is nice to return to a routine…

x ❤ x

Crochet, Coffee, and Choo Choo Train…

Time off… 

I am off for a trip to Edinburgh, so had to leave my knitting WIP at home. The project is to big to be carried around. 

So… 

Tadaa! Crochet project is easier to handle while travelling. I have to carry scissors everywhere though. I’ll think about that particular problem a bit later.

As my husband says… we’ll cross that bridge when we come to it. Did i misquote?