20% to finish object

My cabled shrug is just remaining 20% to be finished, I only need to knit the left back portion for another 2" to be joined to the right side using Kitchener stitch method. The shrug look nice when I display flat on the floor, hopefully it will turn out the same when I put it on. I will try to finish the back portion during lunch time at office today, (I always stay in office during lunch hour, it's just too humid to eat out, I rather pack my lunch and eat in a cool air conditioner office.) then I can join the back, seam it tonight and have it finished by tomorrow.

I bought some yarns on last Saturday, 8 skeing of them in turquiose colour, 100% Arcylic, very cheap and not a good quality yarns. As a beginner knitter, I guess I'll rather using cheap yarns to tune up my skills before using good qualities of yarns which are very expensive to get in Malaysia. Those yarns will be used for my upcoming new project, "Kate" free pattern from Berroco. I actually looking for copper colour instead of turquiose for this project, however the local yarn store that I went doesn't carry such colour of yarn, no choice that I choose this colour, hopefully it will suit for cables pattern that I will be knitted later on. I'll try on the swatch to see how the colour turn out in cables, if it is not suitable, I'll switch it to other project. However I haven't got any seconder back up project for that yet, will figure it out later. :)

Toy making pattern book

I was intrigued of dolls made by Wee Wonderful in her site, those dolls are so adorable. Though that I'm not a dolls loving person, but when I saw those pictures of hers, I've changed my perception, I want to make dolls. Unfortunately, I don't have any experiences or knowledge on doll construction. Yet, that would not restrain me from trying to make one. I bought a toy/doll making pattern book the other days for this purpose, it's a Japanese book. Although I can't read Japanese, but that's doesn't matter much as most of Japanese pattern book have full pictures and step by step illustrations on construction. Just follow closely to them and it should be easy to do. Peek inside some of the pages of the book, don't they look cute?

This is the book, it costs RM31.90








Very adorable doll, and they even have tiny accessories








Cute kitty.....nice to display on workstation.

Red heart square sampler

This square sampler got 2 hearts on each site of the corner, the red colour of crochet yarn suit it quite well. Original pattern requested a white colour yarn to be crocheted, as I got few balls of stash crochet yarns in red, light and dark green, I choose the red colour to match the heart shape at the sampler and it did, in fact the colour made the sampler look more delightful. The sampler is about 5" x 5" square, I used 2/0 crochet hook to crochet it. I'll make more and join them all up, maybe in 6 squares to make a table cloth to be display on the Hi-Fi set. It's fast to do, and I think I'll finish it very quickly.

This picture show the actual colour as life object,

and this show the pattern out clearly but not the colour.

Slip stitches ripped off

Finally, I've making the decision to rip off the slip stitches on the eyelet pullover last Friday night, I crocheted in single crochet along all the edges of sleeves, collar and bottom of the pullover. The single crochets are more flexible than slip stitches. Now the pullover is more comfortable to wear, the sleeves and collar aren't so tide now.

I also crocheted a square sampler last night, it's just 4 rows finished and still have remaining of 7 rows to be finishing. I used red colour crochet yarn that left over from long ago cherry bag project, they are for the cherries that I crocheted to attach to the bag. Instead of leaving all of the yarns as stash on the storeroom shelve, I'm just thinking why not I crochet some samplers, it can be very exciting and I can tone up my crochet skill as well. In other way can display them on top of the TV or Hifi set on the living room to decocate and colour up the dull living area. Not a bad idea huh?? :) Guess I'll come out with more samplers, but too bad, most of them will be in red, light green or dark green. (As these are my crochet yarns stash) Emmm..... maybe I'll get some white and beige colour of yarns to crochet some exciting projects, more upcoming projects in my list, ohh...no.....my wish list has become longer and longer. ;)

Right of the cabled shrug is up

One side of the cabled shrug has been done, if it is to be following the instructions given in the project, the 1st finished portion should be the left side of the shrug, however when I came to the section of the instruction, it seem to be not right, it is the other way round. Is it the instructions that is wrong or I've did it wrongly? I switch to follow the right side instruction and it came out more likely this time. However the shape is kind of odd looking, the sleeve seem to be very small on the bottom and it come to very wide on top. I tried to hold it on to my arm, it seem that it is very loose on the armpit area and the back is not wide enough, it suppose to cover up to the middle of the back, but it is just 30% covered. I think I got to add in more line for the back, maybe another 6 to 8 lines to make it more wider.

Finished vs Ripping off

Taa..dah.... I present to you my second finished knitted project, "Eyelet Pullover"!!! (Or maybe not....) Not very satisfy with the outcome of the pullover, it seem a bit tide on me, the collar is so tide and it made me breathless and so for both of the sleeve, too tide..... What happen? It's not so when I first tried it on before the slip stitches were to attach. What's wrong with the slip stitches that I crocheted, I must have pull the slip stiches too tide. Ohh..no....is this mean that I need to rip them off? What a disaster then, maybe I just forget about the ripping job, just let it be as it is, anyway it still can be fitted on me. :) If not, I will just keep it as prototype to remind me of the error I've did on this project.

Looking nice before wearing

Isn't it too tide on me? Made me breathless

Ivana's Bag

A picture of Ivana Helsinki's bag that I discovered from website. The pattern is very nice and I actually have similar idea of doing a knitted bag using those Lana Grossa and Katia yarns that in my stash. Maybe I'll add in cable pattern in the bag that I'll be doing, but first of all I'll need to get the right measurement and test on the gauge of those yarns before I get started of this project. Need to plan well and will try to search for some information on how to knit a bag.

Here is another picture of Ivana's bag, very cute bag....I like it alot.

Bad craft day

Somethings has been gone wrong with me on last weekend, I can't craft well. Look at the house shape coaster that I crocheted, so badly shape and the tension is all hair wired, very ugly. Can't believe I am the one who crocheted it. Where does it went wrong? Am I using the wrong size of crochet hook that making the gauge to be loose? Maybe I'm not concentrate myself enough while I was crochet on that time. This coaster really need to go to the trash, poor coaster....I'll not giving up trying to crochet another coaster, this time I'll use a smaller size of crochet hook instead of what has been stated in the pattern book. Hopefully it'll turn out correct this time, will post it later once I finished crocheted a new one.

Look at the bottom of the coaster, the tension is out making the bottom way out bigger and ugly.

Daisies?

My flowers have all been dried up. I arranged them all in a porcelain pot with wide lid (Forget about the idea of doing a potpourri, too much works.) I just put them loosely in a free flow way and it turn out nice in the pot. What's the name of the flowers? I try very hard to figure out what is this flower's name should be? Daisy? Zinnia? Or Aster? I guess it's China Aster from the outlook of the leaves and stem. Anyway they are gorgeous especially on the colours, they have so many variety of colours and striking eventhough already dried up. Really admired the beauty of them.

Look at the colous of the flowers, still striking eventhough already dried up.

Seaming Eyelet Pullover

I'm in the progress of seaming eyelet pullover, I seam it whenever I was watching TV at night. It has been done on the raglan for the both side and also on the left sleeve of the pullover, the left side is about 1/4 done. I seam it using the loose end instead of attaching new yarn, by using this method, I'll have lesser loose end to weave in later, it save time, yarn and making the weaving loose end job more easier. I tried to fit myself into the left sleeve and it fit well on me, kind of relief that I was choosing the larger size to knit. I'm worried it will turn out to be out of shape or smaller cause I'm using slightly different gauge of yarn. Glad that it did turn out great.

Cabled shrug

I've started new project (Cabled shrug from Interweave) via my trip down to Malacca over the weekend. I was at Malacca to visit an aunty of my husband whom have been admitted to hospital due to bone cancer. I started the project during the journey and I've unwind it twice due to miss stitches at the beginning. I restart it during the night at the hotel and have get it right this time and finished knitted the rib portion during the night. On the next day on the journey home, I started to knit the cable section and glad that it was not very hard to knit and I've knitted it up to 6" when I reached home.Initially when I read the instruction of the project before starting knitting, it seem to me that this shrug is difficult to knit, however when I started it, it's not as complicated as the instruction, in fact it's easy and fast to knit. I'm glad I didn't give up trying it. This is my first cable pattern project and it's fun to knit, guess I'll aim for cable pattern on my next project after finish this one.

Eyelet pullover finished

Finally...I've finished with eyelet pullover. I just finished it this morning before going to work and will block the finished back piece this evening. I guess I'll seam it this Sunday and will have it all done next week....Yahoo!! I've done another knit project and this is my second finished knit object. Emm.... Which next project I'll do? Still try to figure out the instruction of shoulder shrug and it seem kind of complicated, still consider whether to knit it or change it to other project. I guess I'll take the challenge to give it a try, hopefully it's not that complicated to knit as in the instruction, will try to start it tonight.

Potpourri

I've bought few stalks of dry flowers from Cameron Highland. Kind of big bulk when I put them all in a pot to let the pulps to bloom before I discard them from the stem. I decided to cut out all the pulps and stick them on foam to form a potpourri. But any how I may hang them up side down to let it all dry instead of in the pot. And it seem that not all the pulps are blooming, anyway just let it be, it will look nice too.

Thinking of starting new project, a cabled shoulder shrug, but when I study the instruction, I'm abit confuse...Try to figure out how to do it. Anyway I'll only start the new project after finish the eyelet pullover, maybe next week.

Cactusland

Some pictures of cactus that I took from Cameron Highland visit.

Unwind

When I finished knitted the front piece of eyelet pullover, I discover that the back piece was abit out of shape especially on the raglan area, the margin of the left side eyelets seen to be more than the right side. Therefore I decided to unwind the raglan and redo it again. I added few more lines before the raglan is to be shaped so that the eyelets will be more balance on both side of the pullover and it did. The pullover is remaining about 15% to finish and hopefully I'll get it all done by this weekend.

Cameron Highland

It's such a long time I never been to any places for holidays. Since me and my hubby have got 3 days leaves last week, we decided to go for a short holiday to relex and we went to Cameron Highland. The journey is about 21/2 hours drive, 1 1/2 hours on highway and 1 hour on the hill road. The hill road journey was killing, it's like a roller coaster ride, we stopped half way to rest and took some pictures of durian tree on the road side. This is the first time I saw the durian fruit on the tree so close and be able to touch. Normally this type of fruit trees are very tall and since we are at the hill side, some of the durian trees are grown at the same height as the road side and we can just touch them.

Up to the hill top, I aspect the weather to be chilling but it's opposite, it's kind of humid even at night time, it was not cooling at all. The sceenary is bad as well, most of the areas are being polluted and it's not been taking care of. I am hoping to see lots of plants and flowers but I am being disappointed, non of them can be seen. Most of them are pot plants that sell by some farmer as whole selling to shops. There have lots of strawberris farm and I've experienced of picking my own strawberries, yeap.... I picked them, it's kind of exciting and I can choose and pick them, not bad...

The most exciting encounter is the Boh estate visit, we have been travel into tea plantation of Boh and be able to see the tea plant on the hill at just hand reach. We had some Boh Garden tea at the shop while admiring the sceenary, it's very breezy. I guess this is one of the condition for tea plant to grow and harvest.

The overall journey was average, eventhough it's not as what I aspected, I did enjoy myself.

Searching....searching for strawberries

Boh Tea Estate. It's just beside of the road

Tea plantation on the whole view