Knitting lace

When I started knitting I was under the impression that you need to be an advanced knitter before you can start knitting lace. Recently I've been trying my hand at it and realise, it isn't much more difficult than knitting anything else.

This luxurious gold one was made for a friend. It is a small shawlette, coincidentally in a colour that she liked. It knitted up in no time, and gave me the push the knit another one straight after.

I made this one for myself, for hari raya. I have plenty of this gorgeous Fyberspates Scrumptious yarn (some of which I am selling in my shop ). It's a mix of wool and silk, and the result is a soft wispy lace yarn, with a lovely shine from the silk. Beautiful.

Draped it on my shoulder, with baju kurung.

This one is new, just blocked yesterday. The true colour is more beautiful, it isn't captured very well here. It's more of a pink/purple. The size is generous, the biggest out of the three I've made.

I was in the mood to knit lace shawls when I started this one. Now I realise I have another one in the same colour, that I started a year ago, but never finished. I'm thinking of selling this one, any takers?

Wool winding

I am winding beautiful pesto green Wollmeise wool on my winder tonight. Oh joy..

ready to be knitted. Full of possibilities.

Berry hats

I was in the mood for some baby hat knitting last week. Found this awesome free pattern for berry hats. Digged in my stash and found some yummy cotton/linen/viscose yarn. Perfect.

I love this pattern. Makes a cute berry hat in just a few hours. This grape one is going to one of my best friends, who is pregnant with her first baby. Congratulations Fizah!!

Unfortunately my girl loves the hat too. See her grubby little fingers trying to grab that hat?

So I told her I'll knit her one. She told me "Pink hat!!!"

Tadaa!

It was impossible to take a photo of the hat on her because she kept hiding behind Adam :)

Strawberry hat for my cheeky girl. Love you!

I Knit, London

Why is it I always 'blog' inside my head and not on the computer and then before I know it there's a backlog of unwritten entries unpublished? Oh well. Let's just get on with the entry before my cheeky daughter wakes up from her nap and I finish the entry in my head again..

One of the things I love most about living in London is that the city never fails to surprise me. After 2 years, we are still constantly discovering new things to do and new places to go. I realise that London has plenty of beautiful local yarn shops, but I normally do my yarn shopping online or on Oxford/Regent Street. But I have since discovered that there are plenty of other cozy charming shops, and that a lot of knitters travel a long long way just to visit these shops. So I made a point to visit one of these shops. I didn't really go to buy any yarn, just to stare and oooh and aahh and fondle the gorgeous yarns. Even if you're not a knitter, I'm sure the sight of these beauties might be quite inspiring.

This is the shop. I knit London. Small, but very popular in London.

This specialty yarn is made out of buffalo hair! Can you believe that? Somewhere on the underbelly of the buffalo, i think? It is quite soft! And, it costs about 35 quid a pop! I suppose it would cost quite a lot...afterall buffalos don't have that much hair...

gorgeous colours...i wish i can decorate my home with yarn like this...but my kids love to play with them too! (they call them ball, or snake, or 'mommy bag knitting')

This yarn is very rare! with stainless steel. I can't believe I missed this! I didn't realise it was there so didn't get to feel the yarn..My husband was the one who took this photo...

Oh man this is the stuff...I've been eyeing this yarn from The Natural Dye studio for a very long time. It's 100% silk and just soooo beautiful and soft (also so expensive).

I came home with a magazine on light spring knitting and some needle blocker. And a bucket full of inspiration. Anybody want to join me go to their knitting group?

Spring Cardigan

This blog is suffering from serious neglect, isn't it? Oh dear.

Shall we brighten things up with a little bit of lovely spring knitting?

I am still knitting my main Fair Isle project, but I ran out of one of the colours so while waiting for the colour to arrive, I started knitting this project. The yarn was supposed to arrive in winter, but it took 2 months to get to me. I was so upset with the company that sold me this yarn. But the yarn itself is exceptional- chunky but light and airy, and oh-so-soft. The yarn is Cascade Eco + , for any knitter reading this who might want to give it a go. When wearing this I feel like getting a big cozy hug. The whole cardigan used up only about 1.3 skeins of yarn. A skein of Cascade eco is 250g, and when wound up into a ball, it was as big as a football, literally. I bought 2 skeins and have plenty leftover, enough to make Mia a shalom too. Guess how it took me to knit this? A WEEK. Yes, i couldn't believe it either. I'm not a particularly fast knitter, but i guess the chunky yarn and the amazing pattern just comes really quickly.

The original pattern is the popular Shalom, with some modifications. I added long sleeves, three buttons and longer body with no waist shaping. Details on the mods here (ravelry link).

You will find a lot of similarities between this cardigan and my first cardigan. The top down construction, 3 buttons, similar silhouette. I find this type of cardigan not only visually pleasant, but also very practical. It's easy to breastfeed in this cardigan. I don't even need to unbutton, just lift slightly, attach and pull down again to cover up. Almost like a nursing shawl in itself (notice how my clothing choices always revolves around breastfeeding rather than fashion?)

I thought the cardigan was a bit big on me when i finished but after blocking, it neaten up nicely and the slightly loose look feels really comfortable. And of course, you know it's definitely my kind of colour.

Now, I wonder if it'll look great in red, too. I'm sure I can find a spare week somewhere.....

My cardigan

This is the first garment I made for myself...i was rather nervous to start..here's the result:

(ernie, here's the blouse from previous entry. how come you always notice my fav clothes?)

the pattern is the February Lady, a free pattern found on Ravelry. The pattern was inspired by another pattern from Elizabeth Zimmerman's famous book - Knitter's Almanac. I got the book (very cheaply) off Amazon recently and was totally smitten with EZ's words and liberating opinionated way of knitting. The lacy gull pattern on the bottom bit of the cardigan looks lovely but it is actually pretty easy to execute and memorise. A note for knitters - I did the yarn overs the opposite way, thus twisting the yarn and closing up the holes slightly. I ended up with a denser, warmer fabric. It took me almost a month to finish it.

The yarn was also inspired by EZ. In her book she mentioned about Shetland wools, famous the world over and traditionally used for Fair Isle garments, and the sheep is grown only in the Shetland Islands in the UK. I looked it up online and got this yarn. When I received the yarn, I was slightly sceptical. The yarn felt a little prickly on my fingers while knitting. I went online to learn more about it and found a wealth of information about Shetland wool. The more I leaned the more I fell in love with this wool. This is real sheep's wool. It looks like wool, feels like wool, and smells like wool. I kept sniffing the yarn as I knit. It smells gorgeously sheepy. The yarn has great stitch definition, is very warm and hardwearing. It has had minimal treating. This is wool as the sheep knows it, almost.

These beautiful buttons are from Liberty, covered with lovely Liberty fabric.

This cardigan has hardly left my shoulders since it finished blocking. I love it! I almost wish winter won't pass so quickly..so I can knit more! I'm full of knitterly thoughts these days.I try to find knitting time as much as I can and if I'm not knitting, I'll be online learning about knitting or reading about knitting, or thinking about knitting. I've had quite a few knitterly dreams too!

I have a few more quick knits I've yet blogged about...will need photos of those..but here's a sneak peek at my current project:

oooh tasty!

Matinee Jacket

Completed a couple day ago. Isn't the colour just stunning? i took so long to knit it that by the time i finished it, it can only just fit Mia, but its too warm right now for her to wear. I was hoping she can wear it next season, if she doesn't grow any bigger ( i highly doubt it). maybe it'll become a present...we'll see..

i love the pattern, love the little eyelets..it closes with a narrow velvet ribbon. Pattern by Debbie Bliss (Simply Baby).

Baby's knitted blanket

Oh my God I finally finished it! I started knitting this blanket more than a month ago...I knit slowly on and off...after a while it felt like it's never going to be finished...i started to wonder if i'm gonna have to knit like a maniac while in labour just so i could have Baby wrapped in it as soon as she comes...

I used up 7 balls of yarn...it's really soft and cuddly..when this picture was taken I haven't washed and blocked it yet...it was narrow and thick especially because of the cable pattern..when blocking it I stretched it a bit width-wise so it's thinner and wider now..just the perfect size..

This blanket goes straight into my hospital bag...just can't wait to have Baby rolling around in this...

Knitted cardigan

I just finished this lace cardigan for Baby. The pattern is actually pretty simple but I took my time knitting this one..the yarn is Debbie Bliss' Baby Cashmerino (mix of cashmere and merino wool) and it's really nice and soft and also washable..I've been using cashmerino for all my knitting and i'm really happy with the turn out..

Couldn't take more nicer photos because Cik Abg sorang tu sibuk kacau..(see his hand enter-frame)

I want to do a blanket next but the shop ran out of the yarn i wanted..

p/s:

Adam fell asleep last night while having dinner. Both me and his Daddy were already done. But he asked for another plate of rice and ate slowly while watching Formula 1. Suddenly he started leaning his head on one hand...and...pop! terus lelap...hahaha...lawak betul...Both my husband and I was surprised..normally it's really hard to put him to sleep...no matter how tired he is he just refuse to sleep because he'd rather play..

Baby's knitted booties

After Adam's vest, I started working on these cuff booties for the baby..

Aren't they cute? but they're surprisingly hard to knit in comparison to the other projects..so small and fiddly with a million of threads to weave in after..Each one take about a couple days to knit..but i think they're worth it..

Just now when I was taking the pics of these booties..the weather outside was rather gloomy and cloudy, so I tried different positions to catch the light in order to get the true colours of the booties..including holding them up like this..

Lps tu big bro pun sibukla nak tolong pegang jugak....hehe...

Handknitted Shrug - finished!

How was your Eid? (probabyly shouldn't use past tense, I bet Eid is still going on over there..hehe) Ours was great, we had too much to eat! hehe... the photos aren't uploaded..i'll get to them soon..

Here's a couple photos of the knitting project I was doing for Baby. I finished it thursday before Eid. What do you think?


I'm really happy with the result. But quite sad that the project is over...i think the knitting process is the best part...oh wait, the best part would be when i get to see Baby in it! I quickly got more yarn before Eid to start another knitting project...this time for Adam! Its a much more complicated pattern so i think it'll take more than 4 days like the shrug but i can quickly make Adam wear it as soon as im finished...hehe...

Eid photos coming soon...

Knitting Weekender

Last weekend there was this Knitting festival, kind of, where they have a yarn market, classes and workshops etc...We went there on Saturday morning to check it out..

All the yarns there looked really luscious and beautiful..they have alpalca, wool, cashmere, angora...everything soft and furry. They even sold the raw freshly sheared furs, for people who wants to spin and die they're own yarns..some people were there knitting for charity..many were shoppping for specialty yarns..some were just sitting around knitting with friends and sipping coffees..

Unfortunately for me I'm still very much a newbie in knitting so i don't really know what yarn to get, which needles..so i just browsed around, marvelling at the beautiful colours..I saw people knitting from the thinnest yarns making spiderwebs of lovely lace, to the hugest yarns with needles as big as logs (seriously, two three people had to help lifting and knitting up with the big needles)

I ended up only buying a book from this shop which turned out to be a wonderful investment. Its a book on knitting baby things..

I already made a start on one of the projects in the book, something for Baby..i'm really excited! The big miracle is that Adam LETS ME KNIT! i say it's a miracle because normally he won't let me do anything - no cleaning, no sewing, no checking out the laptop, even no reading - when he's awake. He wants my full attention..I only get to do my own things when he's asleep. But suddenly, with knitting, i have his blessing! hehehe...he's kind of scared of the pointy needles actually..hehe..so he doesn't try to get too close or to rip off the yarns..so i get to knit while at the same time i can watch and talk to Adam..oh, heaven....Thank you Adam!!!!

First knitting project

Taraaa! hehe...i'm quite thrilled that I managed to finish it. It's basically just 2 rectangles of the same stitches over and over...but it was really good practice. I've learned a few more things while making it and now i feel more comfortable holding the needles and that makes knitting quicker..

Looking forward to the next group meet-up :)

p/s: It's a cosy for my camera

Knitting group meet-up

The meet up started around 6pm. My husband came home early to stay home with Adam...Thank you bang!!! I took the tube..it's held in a Costa Coffee in Picadilly..

I was rather nervous about meeting these new people..but i didn't need to be. They were very nice people..the meet up was kinda like a casual gathering..everybody brought their own project and shared with everybody else..


There were 2 other people who are complete beginners like me, one of them a man. We've been told earlier the suggested needles and yarn to bring. One of the ladies, Trisha, taught me how to start casting and doing the knit stitch. So we started knitting while conversations and coffee flow around the table. Another lady, Betty, who i was told is the expert in the group taught me more about knitting and how to proceed next..

I really enjoyed myself. considering the fact that to enter a knitting class would've costed me 100+ pounds...this was great bargain! not only did i learn knitting for free..i get to meet these great people too..they hold these meetings every 2 weeks...

ok i only ended up with a small section of knitting done..hehe...but knitting is meant to be slow and relaxing...yes...i felt very calm just knitting away slowly....hopefully i'll get to learn more..

p/s: by the time i got home (around 9 pm) Adam hardly realised i was missing! haha...Daddy said he was very well behaved...