WIP Wednesday

Wow… It’s been so long since the last time I actually say that… WIP Wednesday. I must be really bad at doing this discipline thing. Ha!

Okay… the sleeves of the hubby’s green cardigan looks better than I thought it would be. The stripes which were originally made to save the green yarn, turned out to be quite good. The blue stripes tone down the brightness of the green, and I kind of regret that I did not think of making these stripes much earlier.

It did cross my mind to redo the front pieces so that I can make the stripes, but husband said he would rather have pockets instead. Maybe I could add blue pockets later? Hm… something to think about.

My jumper looks great, and I love knitting it a lot. In no time, I have finished the back part. Not that often I could surprise myself.

I think it knits much faster than my husband’s jumper, mainly because my size is way smaller than my husband’s. I wonder if I would have a FO anytime soon…

When these are done, I would have to start to make a hoodie pullover for my teenage nephew. Do you have any good pattern for a pullover jumper? I have several jumper and hoodie patterns, but they don’t look… right. Especially the hoodie bit.

I mean, hoodies are supposed to drape around your face instead of snugging your head like a balaclava aren’t they?

x ❤ x

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

WIP, Weekend, and Mini Achievement

Whoa… it’s a weekend again? How’s your weekend?

People in the US, the Caribbean, Asia, Mexico, Sierra Leone… Everybody. I hope you are all safe out there. It has been a tough week, but hopefully it will pass soon.

My weekend? Well.. not quite as productive as I expect it to be, but I managed to work on my WIP, and a mini achievement.

I think this is my first time I knit outdoor. I was super conscious about it, and wonder if people would start staring. However, I think because knitting is quite a British thing anyway, people didn’t bat an eyelid seeing someone knitting in public. How wonderful. Maybe when the weather is getting better, I would do that again.

For an achievement… I finally completed my German course in Duolingo. Now, I know how to make a simple sentence in German. But does it mean I can start conversing with a native speaker? I doubt it. This course is great if you want to start learning the basic. In the end of the course you would know how to make a sentence, ask for a cuppa, and thank people when they show your way back to your hotel if you get lost in Berlin. BUT, you wouldn’t have enough vocabulary even to translate “Thumbelina” — not kidding, I tried.

Nevertheless, it was still an achievement. So, here we go… *clears throat*

“wenn ihr Deutscher seid, oder Deutschsprechen leute, und ihr würdet gern mir helfen zu lernen — bitte”

How’s that?

x ❤ x

Watching Britain Knits

Do you like watching documentary programmes? In this household, we do. I am not sure where I get this penchant, because my parents would skip documentaries and watch soap instead. I am glad I don’t share telly with them anymore.

We watch documentaries of any kind. History, war history, pre-history, architecture, art, science… sometimes even nature. My husband likes nature documentary better than I do. I like it when it is related to human, and human body… not so much when they’re talking about critters. It gave me uneasy feeling.

So, I was excited when I recorded this particular documentary from BBC. Fabric Of Britain — The Golden Age of Knitting. Seriously… watching it wearing handmade knitted dress, while finishing up an FO… so much satisfaction.

However, I enjoyed it not because I am a knitter — although it did give me a smugness feeling when watching it. It was a great programme in itself. Even husband watching it with me, could not move from the sofa — partly because I was leaning on his arm too.

I think you can still access the documentary through BBC iPlayer. I am not sure if you can access it if you are not in the UK, though. Yeah… That’s the other thing that annoys me too when I am on holiday in Indonesia, and wanting to access BBC telly programme, and couldn’t.

Aanyway… back to my own golden age of knitting… This time, I did not forget to sew the buttons on. Ha!

x ❤ x

P.S.  Hubby commented during the documentary, that knitting is quintessentially British. Well… then, I am ready to take the citizenship test anytime.

A Day Out…

So my DH took me to Stoke Holy Cross. I had to wiki it because I had no idea what kind of place it is. He told me that the place we are going to visit is called Caistor St Edmund — which at that time meant nothing to me. So… reluctantly, put the knitting down for a little while and probably enjoy a bit of sunlight.

Now… what is Caistor St. Edmunds? I heard you ask. I wouldn’t blame you if you haven’t heard about it. It is the first time for me myself. Apparently, it is a huge grassy field.

BUT, not just an ordinary grassy field. In this field, there used to be a Roman market town of a tribe called Iceni. Now I got a bit excited, as there were some ruins of their walls. We do love our ruins…

The day was beautiful, although a bit breezy. Caistor was quiet, only a few interested visitor was in view. But, one thing that excite DH the most is that whoever managed this place has now improved the place and has implemented an Augmented Reality experience in this place.

So, in some spots where you could see and read the information panel in the area, DH could just point his beloved mobile phone and start to enjoy the techie bits. Actually, it was quite cool. All he needed to do is to download the apps — everything can be done with an apps nowadays.

On Sundays, the church — St Edmund Church — not to be confused with St Edmundsbury Cathedral in Bury St. Edmund, served cream tea. I never had cream tea before. It was basically a scone, served with cream and jam, and a generous pot of tea. They only do sultana scones, unfortunately, so I have to pick them out 😦 I can handle a couple, but not too much.

However, it was a wonderful afternoon. I wished I have had my knitting with me, that would have made me feel very British…

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

Pierrot Gosyo Pattern

I have seen their patterns a lot in Ravelry. I really want to do them as they really look cute. But every time I see their patterns, I backed down again. They are confusing for me.

The patterns are usually made of pictures with very little instruction. You will have to decipher what the notation means, and you might have a different interpretation from your other fellows doing the same thing (at least, at that time I thought so). There are so little information — or I just didn’t see it…

k1p1 rib… not to difficult to understand so far…

But the pull is too big, and I thought I might want to give it a try. So, I started with this simple stockinette project. If I have known how the basic pattern works, I suspect I would be able to make it with the more complicated project.

Wish me luck 🙂

x ❤ x

 

P.S By the way, have any of you work with Japanese knitting patterns? How’s it?

Which One is Better?

It is always great when you have an FO, especially during weekends. It does make you feel like you have achieved something while doing nothing.

Previous FOs waiting for buttons

Unfortunately the buttons I have been waiting for haven’t arrived yet. So now I end up with three very cute lacy baby cardigans, without buttons 😦 Oh well… not much I can do about it. I’ve been thinking of doing something else after this, at least until the buttons have arrived.

Talking about FOs… I do really like the white cardigan. I think I like it more than the yellow one. What do you think? Which one is better?

Yarn. Really?

I wonder how many of you know about this thing called Daily Prompt… Apparently it has been there for awhile, but I just heard about it few days ago. I am still not very sure what it is about, but I think it is something rather fun to participate in.

Basically this Daily Post blog, would make a prompt word for the day, and we respond to the word by writing a post about it… or whatever we do to interpret that word. I have been eyeing the list of words, but I wasn’t sure about what to write about those… until today.

The word is apparently… Yarn! I mean… Really? I thought this is definitely a sign that I will have to start participating in this thing… How can I not respond?

That’s is practically my favourite word after “FOOD”. However, after five minutes staring at my monitor without producing any post, I realised that liking something and writing about that particular thing is not necessarily go hand in hand. How do I interpret yarn anyway?

I like yarn shopping. I have a yarn in my lap right now. In fact, I have a huge stash of yarn which I am sure will outlive me if I don’t start controlling my yarn shopping habit. I can make stuff out of yarn, and make some pretty awesome stuff too… and I can write about the things I made from those yarns.

But, writing about yarn… or interpreting yarn…

All I know is that if you pull it the wrong way, thing could be a little bit messy with yarn. I am a knitter… not a philosopher…

x ❤ x

The Curious Case of Buttons

I have plenty of buttons in my sewing box now. After few years of knitting, crocheting, and some failed attempts on sewing, I finally gathered quite an amount of different types of buttons. But, somehow, every single time I finished a project, it seems as if I don’t have the correct buttons to finish up the project.

Like this one for example.

Seems as if it begs me to order something else than what I have already got from Amazon. Weird eh? No wonder my bank account suffered…

Anyway… While I am deciding which buttons to use, I start a new WIP, which basically is my attempt on reusing the yarn I used in the last UFO. I quite like the heart pattern, although it is slightly more fiddly than the last lace pattern. But that’s always the case with lace pattern, isn’t it?

They seems to be fiddly to start with, but once you’re used to the pattern, you don’t even have to look at the step by step instruction, and just go on with it. The next thing, you find yourself knitting it while watching NCIS rerun on telly.

Wish me luck with my new WIP, as we are going to have this bank holiday weekend. I might end up blobbing around and not doing anything *gasp*.

x ❤ x