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.

Safari Samus

Introducing the still zipperless Safari Samus






I realise this is not the best of photos so here's another one with a little more detail.



Yarn - Rowan All Seasons Cotton in Safari 12 balls



Now if I can just find the time to do the zipper this weekend.

I had a great time catching up with Lyn last night. Basically I am still deciding on a new project to start and it's always good to have a second opinion.

So it's down to these choices



in Knitpicks Shimmer Maple Woods
or

in Jaeger Trinity Violet




Help me decide!