And the Winner is......

You know part of my job is thinking up contests to run on our website and we're in a middle of planning a big one currently. We can't do sweepstakes so we have to be a little more creative at choosing the winners.

There were so many lovely entries - some actually gave me insipirations for future colours. The haloscan commenting features don't allow to email each one individually so I have to say here and on the Knitters' Review forum -

THANK YOU!!!


Now here are some honourable mentions

Erin made me laugh when she suggested "Ribena Berry" because that is a famous little mascot herein Singapore and Malaysia for the Ribena Blackcurrant drink.

Blueberry Rose was suggested by both Linda and Ajoursteek.

Dolcetto Delphinium is the sweetest name suggested by Sandy. I'm already planning this colourway -Deep deep grape and blues next.

BUT I have said it on the Knitter's Review forum that my preference is leaning towards the Strawberries because of this

So Strawberry Hyacinth and Gayle wins !!

By the way, Gregory and I picked those strawberries ourselves. See...

Latest dye job

OK here's the latest Dye job I did.

I can't seem to decide what to call it. I would love to keep to the flower + fruit combination. Its working name is "Brandywine" but there's too much pink in it to justify the name.

I'll give this hank free to the visitor who proposes the best name.

It's 100g 450yds of Henry's Attic Monty 3/9 which is fingering weight. It's not going to my dye-o-rama pal cos I have another colourway planned for her.

BTW Erin - Wilton's is a brand of food colouring used for icing and easter eggs which many home dyers have succesfully used on yarn. More colours choices than Kool Aid and best of all- you can buy it in Malaysia ( and I guess Singapore) at any baking supply shop.

More Stuff on My Destash Site

Too exhausted for being up late watching Xmen III and a whole morning of meetings (thumbs down to both)to update on anything.

Will try for coherent thought tomorrow.

Adventures of Dye-sister and the Dyeorama capers

In pictures only



Washed out dyed yarn with no super human qualities waiting to be saved

Wilton's icing colur dye to the rescue

Kick A@@ cool mutant yarn drying out waiting to be reskeined and sent out to spread its knitterly goodness across the ocean.

More pictures once mutant yarn is ready to move out.

Can you guess I have X-men 3 on my brain . I'm watching it tomorrow - woo hooo!!!

Growing up

When my hand dyed yarn grows up I want it be like this -


Very Berry hand dyed yarn from Over the Rainbow ebay shop
I don't think she has this colourway anymore though


You wouldn't know to look at it but it has bits of gold, light blue, lavender, pink as well as the overall plum. How does she get it to dye that way?? Does she just put all the colours in the the pot and hope that it falls on the yarn and dye it before it mixes up into a grey mush?

I speak of this because of my dismal Dyeing failure this weekend. It's like the goddes of dyeing (whoever she may be) just left me after 3 succesful dye jobs. I guess after a certain time I can't rely on luck to get nice colours. Either that or I need to get me some proper dyes instead of experimenting with silk dyes that don't stick.

A good hand dyed yarn will behave beautifully even when it is not being knitted.





Yes I know, I've been playing with my vintage weave-it - the older version of Weavettes - the new tool taking the crafting world by storm, courtesy of Martha Stewart Living.


Have a look at some other websites and blogs with more information on this cute and handy tool.

eLoomaNation - an excellent resource for the different types of hand looms and various project ideas.
Cosmicpluto knits - I wait every week with baited breath to see what new squares she produces.
Jessimuhka knits
Booga J

But what to do with these little squares?? well hey *blank stare* I'm supposed to make something out of them??

Latest update: I dropped by a baking shop and got some Wilton's. More progress on the dyeing tonight, I hope.

Sad day

I had a bad week and it's only wednesday.

I've been in the lovely island of Borneo over the weekend for work and really thought it was going to be a great week. BUT on Monday I pronged my car. My lovely zippy 4 wheel drive tiny car that sometimes doubles as a stash cupboard. The left headlights and mudguards are crumpled and ripped away. This is what happens when I was inattentive and didn't brake in time.

I spent the whole of Tuesday running errands from the insurance company to the mechanic. That precious day of that I had set aside to do some dyeing for Dye-o-Rama.

The only consolation is to return home to this




In fact I'm not sure if I was going to laugh or cry. The yarn is 100% silk and sooooo beautiful as well as soooo ruinously expensive. I don't know if it is worth it or not but as in many Kim Hargreaves kits, it's all in the packaging. Have a look at the HandMaiden website and you see what I mean. Isn't it just droolifying?

But how many other smaller yarn companies have similar products but not the means to create such beautiful pictures and lovely tags?

Salina, Salina

First of all got to apologise for the PMS rant in the previous post. I do get the blues monthly and couple with the fact I also get the blues when I am about to "finish" something. Can't quite explain it - maybe I just find it hard to let go. The mounds of stash from various crafts in my house is a testament to that.

Anyways here is Salina (sans the cuffs for the sleeves)




Forgive the picture quality, you don't want to know where this was taken but suffice to say it's a place that has a huge mirror and lots of light.

As you can see it's shorter than I had expected. I think my boobs are dragging up the hemline. If I were to do this again I'd make the division for the neck lower and the torso longer. It fits great though, I even have a shell underneath and it's not skin tight. If it grows an inch width and length, the fit would be perfect.




I've decided to do a short sleeve version, and I haven't decided what to do with cuffs yet. hopefully I'll get that done my tonight and try to take some picture in natural sunlight with less messy hair.

Lyn and I were discussing sizing the other day and I've come to realise that I haven't found that magic formula yet. When I was much younger and thinner, I remember only following the pattern for the required size and had no problems with sweaters being too small or too short (although I always had an issue with sleeves - always too long.) Now that I don't have an 21 year old body anymore, I have to find that perfect ratio, what number to cast on for which weight of yarn and what length to make for my body.

Anyways on to my next project.
I bought this japanese pattern book European Knits from Lyn and I like quite a few of the projects in it. Here are my favourites




I'm leaning toward starting the Lace Cardigan on the bottom right. With a longer torse this time.

Floating Around

I'm actually dreading the end of this project.

I always feel like this when I'm approaching the end of a project.. This general malaise that comes after too much anticipation, racing to the finish line. It happens when most often when I’m playing pool and I’m on the last shot for the black after potting 3 balls in a row or something. The black’s usually in a nice position, not too easy and not too hard and if it was anything but the black ball, I would have aced it. But … then something always goes wrong and … well you know the rest. I miss the shot, and my husband coaching from the sidelines will shake his head and say, “No Killer Instinct” .

So often after I finish the pieces and then seam it up and try it on … and there’s this *bleah* flat feeling. I look into the mirror and go “I guess it’s ok….”

The consolation is that
1. I have stash busted 5 balls of yarn.
2. I’ve substituted yarn successfully and love the effect, so much so I want to get more Trinity.
3. I will have completed a project in just over one month and have actually been quite faithful to this one project.
4. It's a usable top for this weather. I haven't wasted all that time making something I'll wear only to the next trip up the highlands just because I love doing cables.

The fact that I am contemplating Hattie for my next project just shows how I am just setting myself up again. I guess it's the curse of being a process Knitter.


See my boy! At least he's getting the hang of floating.


Anyway I've decided make an effort to be more organised. I need to take a good hard look at my stash. So many odd balls of novelty yarn and some completely illogical purchases, yarn bought because they just look nice as a ball.

I've always liked the look of art scarves with different yarn and textures. So I've done something different to those one or two balls of odd yarn I bought when I started to get back into knitting. Instead of stranding them together to make a scarf, I'm tying them at regular intervals.

My first effort..





Bigger lots on normal yarn like Koigu, Cherry Tree Hill are on sale at my destash site.





PS I'd like to welcome Krista to the Tri- Knit-y KAL

Lap up the Lapels

The Salina front is done and I have only the sleeves to do!





I know it's a bit of an odd angle and you know Trinity is almost impossible to photograph. The colour looks like royal blue but in reality it is a lot more violet.

But check out those lapels. I love it!




It's pretty simple to do. Where a normal v neck front will have decreases at the neck edge, in this case just knit straight. Instead increase the moss stitch pattern by one stich on every row. Once the neck is finished, you only need to fold back the two flaps and there you go - a nice little lapel.

And here's a little taste of a mystery project I am working on.





Oh and I signed up for Dye-o-rama . Can't wait to get started.

Papaya Rose

It's a funny name but I can't really think of another name for this new experiment of mine.

This one was done quite some time ago actually but I never got the chance to take a picture in natural light.

I used a different method for dying this. I had two balls of Adriafil Baby in natural which is 100% wool 4 ply weight. I just took off the label and place both in a dish of water. Then I squeezed some green dye on one side and rose on the other then just steamed it until the water is clear. After some time I add a few drops of orange here and there.

By this time the balls look quite awful. I'm sorry I didn't take a picture but I was ready to throw them out. I left the balls to dry out on their own which took a really long time and then decided to skein it and ... well - serendipity!



Because of the very short spaces between dyes, it's not self striping or variegated, but a mish mash of colours of warm orange, rose and green.

I can't wait to knit something this yarn. Maybe Pomatomus.

However if someone wants to test knit this colourway for me, please email me and we'll talk. I am really thinking of doing more of this colourway.



TRI-KNIT-Y KAL
Sally has finished her Trinity project. She must be a knitting speed demon. Hope I get to see it this Saturday when we meet up.

Erin of course has debuted her beautiful smocked project last week


Carey (aka: bovinekitti) has just joined us and she is blogless but I'll post her updates from time to time. She has this to say :-

So anyway, I have this Trinity yarn and I'm looking foward to working with it again, but with support of others doing the same. I frogged my first attempt with it from a pattern book, but only because I was pregnant and realized I'd never finish and be able to wear it anytime soon. I still plan to make that garment, but will wait until I'm done with kids and get my figure back. Eunny made the same sweater and gave it away, and so I learned I'll need to size up to get the same look as the model is wearing. One thing I found is that Bryspun needles are easier on the wrists and fingers when working with this yarn. I think it's got some stickiness to it, as well as it being so unelastic. I tried bamboo, and needed the yarn to glide better on the needles, but aluminum wasn't the answer. The Bryspun are a pleasure to work with and I've since bought DPs to use on socks and the booties.

If there's a way to do a simple blog...where DH doesn't have to get involved (he'll say there's plenty on my plate to be working on that! - I have SO much to catch up on around the house as it is :) Then, I'll try to post updates on my progress. The only thing is that I'm going to try to finish a baby gift for a friend... It's become my albatross, as I'm making it bigger than baby-size, double-stranding the yarn on size 8's ....and it's an acrylic boucle (for washability). It better turn out good for the pain it's giving me ;) I'm giving myself two weeks to finish it then start on the Trinity. If I don't finish in two weeks, I'll start on the Trinity KAL anyway so I'm not too far behind.

The rest of us are still plugging away :)

Till later.

Let's go to the Zoo!

Not a knitting update - only a little post on what I did during the weekend.
We took our three year old and his two and half year old girlfriend to the zoo.

** Warning - Graphic Heavy**
As with all trips involving small cute children- there are a lot more photoes of the children not much of the animals so if you want to see a very good blog entry about Malacca Zoo and its inhabitants, go here.



Greg and Megan wave hello - spot the macau in the background.


Greg and daddy pose but Greg's still a little traumatised by the mummy marmoset and her baby ( bottom left) he just saw.


And here's the daddy marmoset.



Greg starts to get the hang of smiling into the camera with giraffes in the background.



Never attempt to walk the whole length of the zoo on a hot Saturday afternoon - thank goodness for the mini train. Actually the zoo is very shady and has plenty of places to rest but with 3 year olds it was easier for the parents to hop on to the train.



I think the loveliest sound on earth is the sound of children laughing.



And this is the whole reason we decided to go to the zoo. Nothing like a good long walk to persuade a hyperactive 3 year old to have a nap.

Tri-Knit-Y Round Up

I've finished the back of Salina. I'm surprised it went so fast, as I really don't like knitting in double knit. I put in roughly 3 hours of mindless stockinette a night since last Thursday and revisited my Star Trek : Voyager dvds. Thank God for Star Trek.


Lyn has changed her project to Tea Time and that flamenco colour is looking good.

Sally casted on a simple tunic knit and I believe she has finished a back too.

Lois is knitting the Drops Cardigan and reports that she is pas the 3rd lace repeat.

Erin has finished the knitting part of her project and is SMOCKING the waist! My hat's off to her! I'm really tempted to get that nice blue colour Trinity that she has.... it's subtle - like the Hibiscus colourway but lovely.

The others have not reported in yet but I am sure there will be on their projects in the coming weeks.

Twist and Skeined

Want to make your dyed hanks look more like the professionally hand dyed sock yarns?



Skein them in a different diameter, and twist.




Got to run and pick up my son. I hear he is causing a havoc at his cousins' house.

Will update on Tri-Knit-Y KAL on Wednesday.

Knitting Meet Up 1st April 2006

It was great to meet up with Lyn, Sally, Jackie, Poh Lin, Doreen, Kitman and Rozita on Saturday.

Sally and Lyn have already put up some photoes and here are some from my camera.



Sally and Poh Lin surrounded by stash and magazines.


Lyn showing Kitman her Diamond project. Lyn is wearing her Katia Jamaica top and Kitman , a lacy Japanese pattern top.


Jackie and Doreen doing a spot of KIP ( Knit in public). Doreen is wearing her Trinity Ribbed Corset.



All of us except Lyn - from left to right: Rozita, Jackie, Doreen, Sally, Poh Lin, me and Kitman.


Lyn and I casted on for our Tri-knit-y projects but Lyn has decided on another project while mine is too big. I'm getting 18 st to 4" instead of 22 st so I am going to recast a smaller size. I must be the loosiest (is this a word??) knitter in the world.

Until I have some significant progress on Tri-Knit-y project, let me just show you the first lot of books that I ordered during the course of last month. I was on a YARN diet not book diet!!



I've decided to go on the STASH diet after my momentary lapse last week. From now on I will only use destash maney for more stash. So why not help me out by checking out my destash site . There's still some fabric left and I will be posting some books in a couple of days.

Mea Culpa

I have broken my Yarn Diet.

It's all WEB's fault. They had Elizabeth Lavold's Silky Wool at $5.00 per ball. How can I resist??

Now I can knit Hattie.

Tri-Knit-Y KAL
We're all ready and set for tomorrow and Erin has decided to join us after a lunchtime yarn run. Erin has made that gorgeous Michael Kors Sweater in Trinity which is one of the inspirations for this KAL.

Pictures of our casting on will be posted next week :)

Presenting the Blue Mango

I rewound the Knitpicks yarn into a skein with a larger diameter using two pouffes so that I could get a longer dye stripe. I can't wait to see how it looks wound into a ball and knitted up.

I must say I don't quite like the smell of Kool Aid and wool. I've got myself soem food colouring so I will try that out next. Also in the mail was a 1 lb cone Henry's Attic Montana ( fingering weight wool) but I haven't figured out the best way to wind out a skein of that for dyeing as I don't want to dye the whole lot in one colourway.

TRI-KNIT-Y KAL starts on Saturday !! We have 8 KALers and some of us in KL are meeting up on Saturday 12.30 pm to have a little cast on ceremony with cake at Starbucks Bangsar Village. I hope Maryann in HK and the rest in Singapore will join us in spirit if not in body.

That's all for now folks.

So Pretty!

I was home early yesterday and managed to get some of the evening sunlight to take a photo of the skein I dyed last month. I wound it up in cakes and look - it transformed!


That's my favourite plant

I am changing the name to Mandarin Plum Blossom.

I did another lot of dyeing yesterday using Kool Aid and a bit of Pebeo Seta dyes this time and yes the colours are more intense. The skein is now hanging to dry but I didn't get a chance to take a photo this morning before I left the house. Just as a hint to its colourway, I'm calling it Blue Mango.

The other colourway playing in my mind currently is one called Lemon Lime Rose - I just need to get the right dyes for it.

I'm still plugging away with the Sampler Stole now doing the 1st Border. Erin and Mimi, the border has 168 rows of lace with NO repeats which is proably why it's called a Sampler. Boredom should not be a factor at all.

TRI - KNIT-Y KAL

We have some more participants Maryann from Hong Kong
kttyvioleta from Singapore will be doing Lelah
Dor, also from Singapore, who is blogless I think.
Lois will be joining us a little later.

Yay! I must think of some activity to start us off on 1st of April.

One, Two, Tri-Knit-ty

So far about 3 of us has confirmed to play with a few others still waiting in the wings for various reason.

The participants so far are:

Me!! knitting Salina from Rowan Vintage Style

Lyn knitting Teatime from Rowan Classic Summer or Green Gable

Sally - pattern yet to be decided

I hope that there will be more of us in the coming weeks.

While I wait to get started on the 1st April 2006,. This is what I have been doing -




That's 3 repeats on the center panel of the Sampler Stole from A Gathering of Lace. There's a knitalong going for this project here.
I had to put aside the Frostflowers and Leaves as I don't have enough yards of that purple blue colour to finish it.

I want to finish at least the main part of the stole by the 1st of April and then do the edging at my leisure.

I have added some fabric left over from my quilting days in my Destash blog. They would make some lovely totes and needlecases, don't you think?



Hurry over before it's all gone.

Tri - knit -y KAL

It's been 14 days since my last yarn purchase! That does sound a little bit like confession but I am proud of the fact that I paid for the last yarn purchase on the 28 February and not bought anything else since then. I've decided to stashbust at least one more project before I buy more yarn.

Ironically just as I decide this I have been tempted sorely by Jaeger's new yarn ROMA and by wanting to get more laceweight ( why? why?) because I don't have enough in my stash to finish the Frostflowers & Leaves shawl.

In the interest of stash busting, I felt it's time to dive into my hoard of Jaeger Trinity. I have about 2 wips that I have started on Trinity. First, the Lacy Tunic from Rebecca 28.




I did the whole back and then got distracted by other projects and now, well it’s kind of dated, isn’t it. Plus the tunic is humungous and I don’t think I can face doing the front. The second was the beginning of Deli but I miscalculated the gauge and realised it after a few inches.

This time I am determined to do something with my hoarded Trinity and since Lois was calling for pattern ideas on the Knitter’s Community Forum (an asian based forum), I thought we should have a Trinity KAL.

Trinity is one of the best yarns of our weather because the knitted up fabric is extremely lightweight and cooling, something you need when you live in perpetual summer. It can stand up to some lace and some minimal cables. You can sub it if you want to jazz up a plain top with a bit of texture. Or you can use it for a pattern with a tweedy look and you don’t want to use wool.

Caution – the fabric is very drapey. Trinity will not be suitable for patterns with lots of cables if you want the cables to really pop. Nor for jackets and cardigans that need some stiffness or fullness. I would imagine that lace, bell sleeves and summery tops would be great.

Jaeger Trinity patterns suggestions

Free
Honeymoon cami
Picovoli
Drops 88-2 Lacy Cardigan
Élann lacy cardigan
Soleil

Not Free - Online download – instant gratification
Ribby Shell
Chickami
Silk Ribbed Corset
Somewhat Cowl

Something Red
Not-so-shrunken cardigan


From Magazines / Books

Rowan Vintage Style
Elise
Salina

What others have done with Trinity

Eunny's Hazel
Champagne Bohemian's corset
Erin's Michael Kors Aran Sweater

How to Join

The start date for this KAL is 1st of April 2006 and will go on until there is still some interest. Email me at knitnut@gmail.com if you want to join in with your name, proposed pattern and your blog address (if any). At some point I will start up a new blog for the KAL and perhaps a new yahoo or google group (time permitting).

I just need help with a button so those of you who artistically inclined, you are most welcome to design some buttons.

If you can’t join at this moment in time, you can still send in some pattern suggestions - part of the fun is visualizing yarn substitution and providing some resources for this most versatile yarn.

So let's Tri -Knit -y!

Going Round and Round

I don't mind knitting in a round when you have 60 -70 st and only 7 - 8 inches to knit - as in a sock. But when I have 400 st on a needle I am just about tearing my hair out.




I don't even know how to take a picture of this "thing" . All I know is that I took it off the needles the other day to men a mistake ( Thank God for lifelines!) it measure only about 14 inches across. That's small for a baby blanket don't you think??

I am at the shell pattern that forms the final edge of the shawl but my calculations tell me that I am only about 50% of the way through in terms of stitches which does not always mean that the shawl is 50% the finished size. Go figure.. I've got a headache now.

If you want to check out what this shawl looks like finished , you can have a look at Polly's .

Being the ADD knitter that I am, here's what I started a few nights ago


Frost Flowers and Leaves from GOL - the triangle version

You can see some leaves and the beginnings of the frost flowers in the middle.


I am refusing to do this in a round but if you want to check a beautiful square version - go see Eunny's. She made her's in 16 days. Mad huh!

As for Salina - there's been some talk about a Trinity Knitalong on the Knitters Community board so I'll post details soon.