Once upon a time in Malabrigo

I did swatch up a bit of the Malabrigo handspun Catalina yarn - It's soft and beautifully slubby although the colours are a little muted than what is on the screen.
When you have a slubby yarn like this, the best way to show of the yarn is a simple stokinette. I tries to garter and to rib but that only resulted in a bit of pooling mess.
This lot of Catalina is destined to be a scarf but add another 2 hanks and I could make a nice mesh tank to wear over t shirts or a bathing suit.

I was thinking of making this lacy poncho from Knitting pure and simple from the Novelty boutone



This is the only poncho I have seen that I like. Now if I can locate the pattern online, I'd be soooo happy.

A long post tonight

*warning: lots of pic so the page may take some godawful time to load*

I was going to post up my truckload of stash but got diverted by the arrival of my new sofa set. See I use to sit here to knit

It's Gregory'schair but it's so comfortable that I mostly sit on it to knit. Well it's either this, the floor or the foldable camp bed my husband usually lazes on.

Now I have a choice of knitting on this
or

or, if my husband doesn't bag it first, even on this

All seating arrangements courtesy of Ikea.

OK now all the excitement has died down here are my stash photoes for June -

Malabrigo Handpainted yarn from the top:- Laceweight wool Damask Rose (a whopping 850m worth), Catalina Bulky wool Cuarenta, and Novelty boutone pure wool Pocitos.


I couldn't wait for the Yarn Co-op Hand Painted yarn to go deal to go through - (apparently that's run into some hiccups and we're still in the dark whether there is green light for this) so I just had to get some skeins to try them out. Service was incredible, low international shipping rates and the yarn arrived within 6 days.
Must... get... some... more...

Next is Jaggersoun Zephyr in Teal.

Finally the last skeing of koigu to make my Charlotte's web - It's the skein on the far left

I'm playing with several different colourway choices now, it's not as easy as I thought. Especially since all the skeins have some green in them. I'll put up the choices when I have an opportunity to take some pictures in better light.

And now a pic of the finished front of the Psuedo Gansey

Take a closer look at the cables here

The photo was taken in natural light this morning - I took a pic with the flash and it totally washed out the detail. It should go for blocking tonight after a quick bath. This is the first knit I have done with proper row counting and surprise! the row gauge was spot on. I'm really happy with the way it turned out.

I am a little concerned about how springy the ribbing ( its a 5 x 3 rib) is and I'll probably stretch it out a bit during blocking. Don't want some unsightly bulges to appear at the tummy area. Or maybe I should just go on a diet.

Breezing by

I can't believe how fast the last 10 days have breezed by!

My team at work have been working hard last week to organise a 1000 pax screening for Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith and that took a toll on my sanity even though my roles was mainly supervisory. This is one of the thing I love about my job, getting to do fun things like organize ticket giveaways, costume line parties etc etc.

The movie? well I enjoyed mostly but I wish George Lucas has spend a little bit more money getting a proper scriptwriter rather than doing the script himself. It was mostly nonsensical and the only reason why Ep 3 was better than Ep 1 & 2 was because there wasn't much talking and more action. The husband couldn't help but cracked up at a "supposed" moving moment between Padme and Anakin, causing dirty looks from the audience around us.

Still, it didn't stop us from rediscovering our geekhood later when we watched Ep 4 & 6 on DVD. I am saving Empire Strikes Back for a nice quiet evening when I can savour every moment. It's still my favourite Star Wars movie and always will be.

Through the stress last week, I was knitting like a demon, trying to finish the front of Pseudo Gansey. Here's my progress as of Friday morning.

Take a closer look

I've since finished the front but I haven't had the time to take a photo which I will do tonight.

Meanwhile finally the last hank of Koigu needed to complete my Charlotte's Web Shawl has arrived, along with the pattern so I'll probably be starting that next.

Actually I had a truckload of stash arrive last week but I have to take them out to be photographed bit by bit so that the husband doesn't see it all at one go. And because I have had a truckload of stash arriving, I've put some stuff in the destashing site too. Need to make some room and weed out the stuff I don't think I'll ever use.

Stick around for more pictures tonight.

Candy Stripe

I had to make a long car journey last weekend to a remote town in the interior to attend my sister in law's the wedding banquet hosted by the groom's family. (In Malaysia, we sometimes have two banquets, one hosted by the bride's family and one hosted by the groom.)

I thought I'd take along a quick project for the journeys there and back. This is the first time I've attempted to knit in the car and I would have done ok if the road hadn't wound uphill for while and then down hill again before reaching our destination. Needless to say, the project did not get finished until last night.





As you can see I was trying to emulate the Handmaiden Shoulder wrap kit linked in my last post. I used an eyelash yarn (Kuka Fantasy) from Turkey together with 3 different colours of a local acrylic crochet yarn called Nona. It's knit lengthwise using a plain garter stitch with tapering ends. It's a fresh cutesy wrap for the girly girls.

For the next time - I'll use the same yarn for a small triangle scarf or another type of yarn for a similar pattern. Something like this yarn from Handpaintedyarn.com.

I caught Lyn doing some beadwork yesterday and join the bandwagon by making some simple stitch markers. For some reason I can't seem to get a good picture of them so I'll just leave a blurry one and post another one once they're on the needles in some project

Errata

After reading my previous posts again - I realise I sound a bit crazed.

What I meant to say was that as a teenager, I used to read anything I could get my hands on, even though I may not understand what I was reading. As such I used to have a brainful of useless facts which only makes sense years later.

Funnily enough as an adult, I read a lot of children's classic - I find I appreciate them more now as an adult then when I was a kid. I dive into Enid Blytons' St Clair and Malory Tower series whenever I can.


My drool of the day is this fantastic shoulder wrap kit from Handmaiden - it's a not a complicated pattern at all, I realise that the whole effect is probably due to the lovely yarn. But I love the simplicity of how it wraps round the model's shoulders.

And swing needles from Fleece Artist



What an ingenious idea!

emm... errr.. ahhh

So I have been tagged by Lyn from Knitties to do a book meme. I'll bite this time cos I do feel guilty about passing on the music meme. I'm quite bad on music - listening only to what's on radio and the occasional soundtrack ( like Lord of the Rings). At least I have a few things to say on books - doesn't anyone have a movie meme to tag me with??

Me and books, we have looong funny history - in my teens , I voraciously read everything I could touch. Mum was not pleased when she found out I had read my hip cool next door neighbour's Maquis de Sade books at 15. Next time I went over - all books deemed "unsuitable" were locked away - bummer! That's not to say I never read any children's books like Enid Blyton - but I seem to appreciate them more now that I am an adult.

When I went overseas to college, I discovered this fantastic place called the public library - I think I visited the library at least 3 times a week. There was also an arthouse cinema in the basement level so I managed to indulge both my passions at the same time.

Total number of books in your house ...
Let' s see ... there's about 6 boxes of books yet unpacked and more in my mum's house collected through my school and college days -so I guess well about 800 or more.
I gave away quite a few through Bookcrossing.com - in fact, visit my bookshelf there for some books I have available for RAOK or swap.
http://www.bookcrossing.com/mybookshelf/monast

The last book you bought was …
Just a couple of weeks ago at the Borders KL launch - Margaret Starbird "The Woman with the Alabaster Jar". It's my reference reading follow-up from Dan Brows " Da Vinci Code". While I thought the book wasn't that good - I did find the reference to Mary Magdalene intriguing.

The last book you read was …
Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister - Gregory Maguire. I caught the film some years ago on Hallmark some sunday afternoon and was really glad when one of my bookcrossing friends offered to lend the book to me. A really dark novel based on the Cinderella story but told from the stepsister's point of view. I have his other book Wicked ( about the wicked witch of the West) waiting to be read too.

5 (or 6) Books You Often Read or That Mean A Lot to You

Tough choice - I have so many. I tend to follow authors and some of them are pretty obscure.

Lord of the Rings
I used to read this every year - until the movies came out and someone borrowed my books and never returned it. It was my first ever fantasy and I still find things to appreciate about it even now. Tolkien has this wry wit, especially concerning hobbits, that's really subtle and tends to get lost under all those battles.

Katherine Kerr - the Deverry Cycle - Book 4 - the Dragon Revenant
When I first read it, I was going through a tough breakup of a long distance realtionship. The hero and heroine in this book were parting ways as well, not because they didn't love each other enough but just because it was not meant to be.
I re-read the rest of the series pretty often too but this is by far my favourite book.

Judith Tarr -The Dagger and the Cross
The book is sticking in my mind because it's one of the first I read that deals with the Crusades - and I just watched Kingdom of Heaven on Tuesday ( for my review go here , forgive the shameless plug). Unfortunately - the book's in one of my boxes and I can't get to it for a re-read grr grr.

Marion Zimmer Bradley - Mist of Avalon
My favourite Arthurian book told from Morgaine le Fey's point of view. It's the first book to give me a differing view from the usual Morte Arthur, gallant and courtly jousting knights etc etc.

Susan Cooper - The Dark is Rising series - Book Two
It's a young adult series of 5 books which are now reprinted as one big volume - my favourite among them is Book Two

Are you seeing a trend here??
I don't know why - with the exception of Geroge Martin and Gregory Maguire- I seem to be reading more women authors and more historical fiction / fantasy- I can't get into the chick-lit books although I have read Bridget Jones and the Yaya sisterhood books.

Who are you going to pass this on to and why ...
no one and everyone - oh ok I'll pass it on to
Thuy - cos I noticed Even Cowgirls Get The Blues on her nightstand and I thought that was one of the weirdest books ever.
Vanessa - cos everyone needs a good book to fend the blues away.


Not much knitting to report cos last weekend was taken up by my sister-in-law's efficient military-like wedding. The ring pillow went well but I didn't have time to take a picture so I got to wait to get the official pics before I post up the finished product. I also had to sing a Mandarin song ( Lyn and Vanessa know all about my gripes about this) during the cake cutting and by all accounts, that went well too.

And now for your viewing pleasure - go here - it's freaking hilarious.

For your stashing pleasure - here's what I found when I was clicking a google ad
AmiAmi yarn - Japanese yarn! Internet Orders! in English!