Socks That Rocks and other stories

I didn't do any dyeing yesterday because I got sidetracked by the arrival of my order of the famed Socks that Rock from Blue Moon Fibers.




I ordered mine from The Fold and Toni provided excellent service.

The yarn is thicker than Lorna's Laces Shepherd Socks and closer to Shepherd Sport and much too thick for our weather.

Which brings me to this question - what else can you do with sock yarn other than socks?

I did finish of Samus and it is blocking right now. The front is curling terribly! I haven't decided whether to add the zipper or not. I think I will since I added in the waist shaping and that doesn't show very well if the front is open all the time.

So another FO and now I am wondering what to add to the rotation. Cables?? Lace?? or may be ** gasp ** Fair Isle?

The Dye is Cast

Thank you for all your kind suggestions and comments on my 1st dyeing attempt. I've decided not to over dye it and keep this skein as a reference. I kind of like the colourway although it isn't so intense.

I have an idea, an inspiration to dye a range of colour scheme called "Brocade", full of lush silky colours in chinese brocades , and this particular colourway would be called "mandarin plum" (if the purples had been a bit more intense). I have a few more colourways in my mind but not the yarn and dye to do it yet. So there - I get first dibs on the name.

Celia tagged for a meme -
Name 5 things in my fridge - My fridge is almost empty - we don't cook much at home so there's not al ot in there. However after a visit from my inlaw's there will always be 1001 and one things inside the fridge.
Anyway at the moment there are :-

1. A bottle of Coke - can't do without my pop
2. Frozen sausages - for when we need some quick filling for the pasta/ fried noodles / fried rice
3. Wine - some white wine my husband put in there from christmas that we didn't get round to drinking.
4. A jar of mayonaisse and ....
5. (...and I am scraping the bottom of the barrel here) various mini chocolate bars ( cloud 9 /mars) for when my son has been especially good or brave.


Not tagging anyone except Lyn who I know does not cook as well.

On the knitting front , I've finished seaming Samus and working on the I-cord edging now. I would have finished it this weekend, but I was in Penang for work, and I didn't want to pack an almost finished project with me.

I am still suffering from a cold and the doctor had told me off for flying without proper medication. He said that I could have done permenant damage to my ears (it's currently very blocked) and the phlegm from my chest could have spread down to my lungs. So I am worse then when I was before I flew and I am taking another sick day tomorrow to dye some more recover.

The Final Results

See how the purple / blue is completely washed out?





Flip it over for more orange.

Well at least I know not to use these dyes again. I'll be trying to salvage this lot by dip dyeing a little in Koolaid later and see how that turns out.

Fun with Dye in 30 minutes.

I've always put off experimenting with dyes because I thought it would take an huge amount of time and I haven't had a weekend free since the Christmas.

Well I was home sick yesterday and I was getting a little stir crazy by the afternoon so I decided to brew up some nice Colour Your Own merino sock wool from Knitpicks .

First of all, soak the yarn in water and a little dishwashing liquid. - 10 minutes





I would assume that one would already have the dyes. I used Pebeo Seta dyes which I got from a craft shop. Apparently the dyes are used for tye dyeing and silk painting and the label also says all natural fibers.





Get your work area ready - 10 minutes. I wrapped the table in cling wrap and got my squeezy bottles filled with dye. I had also squeezed out all the water from the wool.




Paint the wool - 10 minutes

I started to squeeze the dye on the skein and also rolled it around a lot to get maximum coverage. I couldn't take a photo of this part cos - well my hands were dirty.

But here's what the end result looks like before steaming




I was all excited as the colours looked very dark and intense but let me tell you, a lot of it washes off later. I'm not sure if this due to the brand of dye as I can't find anyone who has used this brand for wool and blogged about it.

Ok that's the end of the dyeing part. The rest is all the steaming and washing and and washing and drying, not much fun any more.

I got a nice cheap little steamer from the local super for RM 30.00 ( USD$7 or so) which will only be used for dying
Steam the skein for 30 -45 minutes




Then let the skein cool to room temperature before rinsing. This took the better part of the evening and or in tv terms - two episodes of Deadwood, one episode each of American Idol and Medical Investigation - in knitting terms - one sleeve of Samus until the beginning of the sleeve cap.

Then I rinsed and rinsed the skeins until I was so sick of rinsing the water was almost clear and a hell of a lot of dye ran out. So much that the skeins look very washed out at the end of it. I am waiting for it to dry completely before taking a pic of the final result.

Check back again soon for the final photo.

Old habits die hard

Yes I got sick of the last template as it just got tooo busy and crowded with 3 columns. So I opted for a 2 column format and a cleaner look.

Recently I revisited an old hobby of mine. We had a biscornus exchange at the Malaysian Stitchers group and I chose to do mine in hardanger.



A biscornus is a cute 8 sided pillow that looks deceptively hard to do but is actually quite easy to execute.. Check this site out for an online tutorial





Hardanger is actually pretty nerve wrecking especially since I've been out of practice. The holes are made of actually cutting the weft threads (or is it weave?? I can never remember the term) and then weaving the remainder to make lacey patterns. Here's a great online tutorial.

It's not so hard, but one snip at the wrong thread can ruin the whole piece.

My little biscornus is going to Najwa tomorrow morning. Hope she doesn't mind me giving a sneek peek to the world first.

I've also been working on this mysterious cables project - So mysterious I don't know what to make out of it yet. It's actually the back of a sweater from a japanese magazine but I think I'm going to make a rectangular piece and turn into a clutch purse.





Erin asked about my Plaza - umm it's languishing. I stopped with one front piece and the collar to go but just can't get myself to carry on. I will go back to it when I finish Samus. Only one more sleeve to go.

CIT, say goodye to Cotton Ease

Yep - it's just not working out -



The pic is quite a bad one taken in artificial light, and the cables are actually better looking than that.

But the gauge is soo off and it will be a huge cardigan. I need something between 19 - 22 st per inch in stockinette stitch. So my yarn quest will go on.

I had a very eventful Chinese New Year- my husband and I did 4 different states in 4 days, visiting his grandma, his parents, my friend back for the holidays from Hong Kong and then back home to my mum's.

After Chinese New Year, various orders of yarn started to arrive. This is the best part of online shopping. It's exciting to finally click the "BUY" button after weeks of surfing and waiting for the best deal on ebay. Then because it takes anywhere from 10 days to 1 month for stuff to arrive, I get all excited again when it hits the mailbox.

So what did I get in the mail

1. Another lot of All Season's Cotton in a dark lavender colour
2. Rowan Vintage Style
3. Vanessa helped me get some Knitpicks Dye your Own Merino for dying as well as some Kool Aid and 4 skeins of Knitpick Shadow in Vineyard for the Mary Jane cardigan
4. Lyn brought over the Debbie Bliss Cathay in Black which will one day be Knit n Tonic's Somewhat Cowl.

And with all that I still don't have the right yarn for project I have in mind. BUT it does bring me to one conclusion.

TIME FOR A DIET!!

Happy Chinese New Year

Knitting and therefore blogging will probably resume next week.

Sock It To Ya!

Not much of a post but an update on one half of the Jaywalker socks.




My son calls it the crayon socks and wants on too. So I'll be making a pair of plain ribbed ones for him using the same yarn. BTW GGH Sprint is a cotton yarn but it is absolutely cushy and lovely to work with.


I want to say hello to some new commentors.

Alison - That's some nice roving you got there. Thanks for your comments on the Crossed in Translation knit.
Liz from the UK. Thanks for your comments on trinity. I actually have 2 lots of Trinity - Violet and Hibiscus. I've knitted the Violet before and it doesn't feel as bad as the Hibiscus which was a very "oily". Strange huh!
Tutleymutley I love your blog name. Hope you enjoy your trip to Thailand in October.
Jessie - what a great collection of Hiakus you have there! Thanks for organising the haiku contest.

For all of you who commented on the Crossed in Translation Knit - I am going to keep going with Cotton Ease. I have decided to go down a needle size and will post the small progress I made on the sleeves later.

8 things to do in Bangkok

Why 8? Because I couldn't think of 10

1. Shop in Jatujak market



You just have to. It's a one stop wholesale weekend market that just caters for almost everything under the sun. All except yarn, sadly. If you're a beader or a paper crafter - you'd probably faint from sheer delight. Those unable to visit Bangkok can leave vicariously through Jatujak Online

2. Get a massage or visit a spa
A one hour foot massage cost bout US$ 6 - 7 in a massage shop just about in every corner of Bangkok Central. A more upmarket spa like Asian Herbal Center would cost a lot more but the ambience is much better. However, a Thai massage is not for the faint hearted. Proceed only if you're used to bone cracking and back twisting.

3. Visit the Floating Market




It's quite a chore to get to. Most tours start at 6.30 - 7.00 am - the bus ride takes roughly an hour. You're dropped off on a pier to take a longtail boat which takes you through some of the remnants of Bangkok's famous canals to the market itself. Tip for those taking the longtail boat - sit either in the very front or the very back, those in the middle will be liable to get splashed. Also if you're finicky about life vests and the possibility of taking a dip in dirty water, give this a miss. You can ask to be taken directly to the market.

4. Eat Thai food at a road side stall.




Beware, you have to have a constitution of an ox. For those of us who have lived most of their lives in Asia, it shouldn't be any problem. One of the best food we ate was in a hot pot stall opposite Isetan near the Chidlom station on the BTS Skytrain. See that lump at the top?? It's a piece of pork lard which provides all the oil needed for cooking all the meat we ordered.


5. Drink beer in a microbrewery.

There is authentic German beer brewed on the premises at Tawandaeng German brewery. Read a review . I have to say the Dunkel is nice but the Weizel (sp??) is even better. You have to book beforehand or you'd wait quite a bit for your table.

6. Visit the Assumption Cathedral





In a land full of temples why on earth would one go to a cathedral. Well for mass actually. But what a surprise! This magnificently restored cathedral puts our local St Johns in Kuala Lumpur to shame. To get there - get a taxi to the Oriental Hotel and ask the doorman for directions - it's just around the corner. Would you believe it - it has it's own page on Wikipedia

7. Get some tailoring

Suits, shirts, skirts, gowns all made to order within 24 hours. For women, you have to be a bit more picky about the tailors as not all of them can make a gown or a feminine suit with much success. I noticed the ones around the Oriental Hotel are more inclined towards women's evening gowns. Most are better trained at the gentlemen's tailoring. However if you’re just wanting to make some fitted shirts, you can't go wrong with US $ 8 - 9 a pop.

8. Shop for knock offs locally made branded goods.

If brands like Gacci, Bikenstone, Levvies and Amani offend your sensibilities, please avoid walking on Sukhmvit Road. Otherwise - enjoy!!

Jaywalker

I'm just back from Bangkok where traffic is a nightmare and pedestrians fear for their lives. There's no real system of crossing and "Jaywalking" is the only way for the chicken (and the humans) to get across the road. Luckily the jam is soo bad most cars don't go more than 5 kph at a time.

In honour of my trip to Bangkok I took a skein of sock yarn, GGH Cotton Sprint, along for the ride.





And while I was there I got this to put my sock and all other sock projects in.





More on BKK in the next post.

Crossed Purposes

I've been having some fun swatching for the Crossed in Translation KAL.



From top: Cotton ease, Sirdar Breeze, Jaeger Trinity

From gauge reports on the KAL blog- it seems that a light worsted would be the best yarn to use, and true enough the Cotton ease gave me a gauge that was 2 stitches more than recommended. I would have liked to use the Sirdar breeze but apparently this yarn has been discontinued and the LYS I got it from has only a few balls left.

Cotton ease has been the nicest to knit with, the Trinity is the lightest but you can hardly see the cables. I'm only afraid that it will be one huge sweater.

I knitted up about 4 inches of the sleeve last night and it is an exercise in concentration. There's all this different panels of charts to do which are all scattered over the page and increasing at the sides as well. Think I'll go back to Samus tonight.

I had thought of goin on a yarn diet and to do major stashbusting this year - at least for the first half of the year but already my yarn addiction is rearing it's ugly head. I'm drooling over this





Shall I get and let it be the last yarn purchase of the 1st quarter of this year??

Crossed in Translation KAL blog up

Check it out!!




I have another 2 swatches to go before I finally decide what to use.

Final FO for the year

Finally I got the ends weaved in and blocked the Phildar Cotton-ease top.



Cotton T- from Phildar Ete 2005
Cotton Ease - Lollipop Blue x 3 skeins

Forgive the bad shots - can you believe that I don't have a full length mirror at home?? I've been surviving on this little dressing table mirror and standing far, far away.

If I were to do this top again (and I might cos it's really fast and easy), I will add a little more ribbing at the neckline. It is supposed to be wide - from shoulder to shoulder so a bit more ribbing would help to stop the neckline from gaping.

I'd make it a couple of inches longer and would probably include either waist shaping or bust shaping.

But all in all, I'm pretty pleased with a simple t shirt knit I can wear with ease.

I've also finished the Samus body leaving only the sleeves and the edging to do.




Because I wanted to have a little shaping instead of a straight body, I followed the decreases from Rosedale, another Knitty pattern with similar measurements.

Should get the sleeves done soon. I love working with worsted weight - it's just soo sooo fast!

Christmas Secret Pal

Just before Christmas, my secret pal sent me my one big package..





Patons Kroy sock yarn and Patons Grace. I've been wanting to try Paton's Kroy for a long long time, Yay!





"Knitting Heaven and Earth" by Susan Gordon Lydon, note cards with a knitting motif and a nice Toronto shape fridge magnet.




The square painted object on the top left corner is a tape measure-- yeap the "nose" the knob you pull for the tape measure to unwind - totally cool!! There's two different types of stitch and row counters and a clover pendant cutter. I use to have one but it got lost in the move so thanks for the new one. And some lip balm in a pretty tin.




A canadian t shirt for my boy! There were some jelly beans too but err.. they're long gone by the time I took the photo.

Thanks Leanne for a great package. I appreciate and love each and every item!

Finally a meme for Mimi

I was tagged for this months ago but really didn't have the time to answer so i thought I'd better get a move on before the year passes.

1.What is your all-time favourite yarn to knit with ?
I like cotton yarns with a but of acrylic in it - like All Seasons Cotton, Sirdar Breeze, Cotton Ease. I don't quite like mercerised cotton so the acylic cotton makes it spongier and easier to knit with plus the definition is great.

For wool- merino always.

2. Your favourite needles ?
Addies for normal knitting and for lace, anything with pointy tips. I've been using a pair of Inox express needles for socks and I like them. No bambos and no DPNS please.

3. The worst thing you ever knit
hah ! here's the fun part. I came across this photo while I was cleaning out my desk at my mum's



The things we do in the 80s!! I sold this knit actually - someone actually paid about $75 NZ for it.

4. Your favourite pattern
I had a major lace kick and I have to say that Fiddlesticks Lotus Blossom has been my favourite lace pattern to date.




5. Most valuable knitting technique
Magic loop - without it I would never have finished a pair of socks.




6. Best knit book or magazine
Too many to mention. I like a lot of japanese magazines and some of the older rowan mags. I took a long time tracing down Rowan No 33 that had a lot of summery knits I like and oh yes, I have to say I like almost all of the knits in Phildar Ete 2005.

7. Your favourite knit-along

Here's the thing about knitalongs. It's becoming apparent to me that there's a fine line drawn between knitalong and copycat. Millions of patterns out there and yet some blogs look almost identical. When I join a knitalong - it's more for the comments,mod suggestions, yarn choices, and I never seem to start or finish within the deadlines. However I enjoyed designer knitalongs like the Fiddlesticks one.

8. Your favourite knit blogs
Well look at my side bar - these are the ones I check everyday.

9. My favourite knitwear designer
Kim Hargreaves, Annie Modesitt, Knit n Tonic's Wendy, some unknown japanese designer from the let's knit / elegant knit series....

10. The knit item you wear the most.
I waer this in the office quite a bit. (psss that's not me, that's a passing colleague I snagged to model for me.)




11.Who to tag?

Ok no more - it's going to be 2006 - time for new memes.

Christmas in Malaysia

I have been listening to DoubleTake's latest album 1 voice 6 strings 12 days of Christmas. I can't explain how excited I am about this duo. I was at the Feast of St Francis Xavier dinner two weekends ago (that's another story I may or may not blog about) and was just telling my husband that I didn't feel christmassy this year. I hadn't finished my shopping, the tree wasn't up, I had been rushing around at work getting two events organised and feeling generally too washed out for feeling anything.

Then these two got on stage and she opens her mouth .... By the time she finished her first song (Deck the halls), my eyes were glistening with christmas tree lights I hadn't yet put up. You know the feeling.

Please take a listen to a sample
Deck the Halls
The Christmas I know
And check out the review on The Star (the paper I work for).



The Christmas I Know is a Malaysian Christmas song. Being born a christian in Malaysia, we used to celebrate christmas in a very personal, non commercial way. It's a time for carolling in the hot tropical nights, singing about white stuff we had never seen. It's about midnight mass and christmas cantatas. And at the end of the day, we sit in the table at the outdoor kitchen and smell the curry or whatever food being cooked for the feast we'll be eating.


The Christmas I Know

Rise in the morning
Look out the window
Towering buildings
Standing on Tiptoe
There's no trace of reindeer
There's no mistletoe
It's Christmas in Malaysia
The kind that I know

Walk through the city
Met smiling faces
All different accents
All different races
It's warm here and sunny
There's no ice and snow
It's Christmas in Malaysia
The kind that I know

We'll fix up the tree
And turn on the lights
The moon will smile at us
On this warm, sunny night

So step in the kitchen
Sit at the table
Take in the good smells
Take in the people
We'll sing Christmas carols
The ones that we know

It's Christmas in Malaysia
The kind that we know
So Merry Christmas in Malaysia
I'm glad to be home.


Knitting content will resume next post

Crossed Again

First of all I must thank Laura for giving me the heads up on Rowanspun. Thank goodness, I read your comment before I went off and bought it so I am back to the drawing board to see if I have other alternatives.

I did a swatch with Jaeger Trinity last night. Imagine me - swatching !!





I am about 2 stitches away from the horizontal gauge and 2 rows away from the vertical gauge and this done with 3.75mm needles. I hesitate to swatch with 4 mm because the fabric is already a bit loose but look - no blocking required. Trinity knits up to a fairly thin fabric and that would be suitable for our weather. but .... I still want to try out some other posibilities before I make up my mind.

I am swatching Sirdar Breeze currently but the LYS I got it from only has mostly pastels I am hoping for a more natural, beige, grey or charcoal type colour.

Here's what I am doing with Picovoli. I have two 100gm skeins of Butterfly Cotton 8 in a lilac and I am sure that's not going to be enough for the whole project. After some serious digging around I found my stash of Di've Cotton Egitto I got from Elann last year and thought that it would be cool to have a lilac edging on a charcoal top.




I thought it worked out well. What do you think?

Crossed in Translation

Welcome to my latest obsession! Yes I have done it again. I'm in love with a most impractical cardigan and am actually considering joining in the KAL in January .

Have a look at the Cardigan here .
I picked up the book on Saturday and now I'm scouting around for some suitable yarn. I'm trying to steer away from wool for obvious reasons but I'm not sure what type of other blends would be suitable. I'm torn between Jaeger Trinity in Hibiscus or Violet which I have in my stash and this really good deal on eBay.

What do you think?

I have actually finished the Cotton ease T shirt but I haven't weaved in the ends and blocked it yet. I am hoping for it to grow another couple of inches lengthwise during blocking. It's a bit short for my liking.

Meanwhile I've been plugging away at my Samus and the Picovoli. I'll have to take a pic of the Picovoli as I'm doing something a little different with it. And it's looking real good.

Until then, here's what arrived in my mailbox on Friday after a very long wait.

Zephyr!!



From bottom - Charcoal, elderberry and lilac. The one on the right is Martian -handpainted colourway from Furryarns.

More pics tomorrow.

Almost FO

I decided to chuck the corset into the bin of "I hate this and I don't want to know about it". The idea of a gleamy shiny little red number themed with a black skirt for New Year's Eve dinner was very appealing but tha yarn does not cooperate.

The ribbing is awful - the knit stitches are flared out and the purls are sunken. The lace pattern is not defined. The last straw was when I started the criss cross motif on the body, I could hardly see it from being blinded by all that reflection from the viscose.





So last Friday after a heart to heart with Lyn, I decided to either (a)restart with Jaeger Trinity or (b) start on Picovoli .

I did neither. My stash of Trinity was at my mom's and I didn't have anythign suitable with me to start Picovoli. Can you believe that I have no Dk weight Yarn handy??

So I started on this instead .

Here's my progress



I shortened the sleeves because I wanted a simple top I could wear with my jeans.

Thank goodness for Cotton Ease. I really like this yarn. It's soft without being too soft and I can see it standing up to many cables. The pattern has these armhole ribbed inserts which are quite interesting. You could actually leave out the sleeves and make a tank. That's an idea for another project and another day.

Phantom smells!

Something is firing the wrong synapses in my brain. I keep smelling perfume and it doesn't smell like the one I sprayed on. What's worst, it's making me feel quite sick. Maybe I've stretched my tolerance to my favourite perfume (Diorissimo) to the limits.

Now that I've bored you with the trivialities of my life, on to the knitting news. Lyn and I have discovered another knitter in our neighbourhood. She doesn't have a blog but she introduced us to another knitting shop just opened in a shopping mall near my house. It's a tiny place called Knit Knit Lane filled with mostly Katia yarn, some Online and a smattering of Japanese yarns as well. Interesting place, but I have to think hard about what I really want to get. Something new for me huh! I did get a couple of Addi Turbos at a good price, one for me and one to send to my Secret Pal.

Meanwhile I've been revisiting old projects.

My languishing Corset





I am using GarnStudio Cotton Viscose which has been my stash for the longest time. It looks a little small but I am hoping it will stretch a little after blocking. There's a seriously wonky line where you can see I have left it on the needles for some time. Why does yarn do that I wonder?

The yarn gleams but is very slippery and stitch definition is not the best. I hope blocking will repair the wonky stitches and the uneven rib. I'm just about halfway through the bust decrease so am about a third of the way through.

I just realise after working on this project, that I really do not like mercerised cotton. Give me a loftier yarn with a bit of "sproing" next time. Like ASC.

Which brings me to Samus -




The photo was taken last week and I have finished 3 repeats so far during my lunchtime. I could do one repeat a day but I was much distracted by Civilisation 4. When you're really sick of the politics and back biting at work, spending a bit of time at lunch playing at being God helps one's sanity.

Anyway I do love the Saxon braid although I have made a couple of mistakes - can you spot them?

Mimi tagged for a meme but I haven't gotten round to taking pictures yet. It's hard to get natural daylight. In the morning I have a habit of rushing and it's dark by the time I get home. I really will get cracking in the next few days.