A Special Card

Last month I got to know that my friend's mother is suffering from cancer and undergoing chemotherapy.  I decided to knit her a cotton/acrylic hat, hoping to keep her spirits high and at the same time providing some warmth.  It flew all the way from Malaysia to Washington.

I used 3 techniques for this hat. Crochet for the band, pick up stitches and machine knit with tuck stitch and finally hand knit the decreasing part for the crown.  The name of this hat is Edwina, after the name of Carole's mother. I think it's such a beautiful name!

Today I have a lovely surprise when I peek into my post box. It's a card from aunty Edwina:

Did you notice that it's her favourite colour? I didn't know what her favourite colour was and was afraid that she might not like it. So glad that she likes it.  I heard from Carole that her mum said it is the most comfortable thing to wear on her head!

Take care aunty Edwina!

Patterns For Sale

I am currently waiting for my testers to finish testing this sideway cardigan. It is knitted on my SK280 with my own hand dyed single ply superwash merino Mulberry silk yarn in a muted colour of the rainbow:  This simple cardigan has two rows of hand manipulated eyelets.  The eyelets stitches are different for the first and second row created by short rowing. The wrong side is equally pretty enough to be worn as the public side so I have designed it without a button hole band. A long i-cord is knitted as the front closure.  If you find that you do not like the large neckline, simply knit an i-cord long enough to thread through the eyelets along the neckline and gather before tying. This is a super fast project that can be completed in less than 5 hours!

The wrong side

This is another top that I am thinking of publishing as well:

Hope to publish these patterns soon!

My First Punch Card

Today I manage to knit a little swatch with a punch card that I have punched:

I have been trying for days to knit with this first card that I made:

Lots of mistakes there as you can see! This is actually a fashion lace card that is meant for a Brother machine.  A friend told me that it can be used for my Silver Reed SK280 machine since my lace carriage can transfer and knit at the same time just like the Brother lace card. So far no luck yet but I will keep on trying. 

I love this lace pattern and am thinking of using it for a top with this yarn:

 Maybe I will knit the lace for the hem and yoke or sideways from sleeve to yoke and then sleeve again. Will see which one works better. Wish me luck!

Looking for Testers!

I have completed another pair of cotton shorts in a bright folly colour with light yellow and orange tuck stitches.  This is another machine knitted project that is going to be published for sale! If you are interested to test knit, please send me an e-mail to patriciatph@yahoo.com. Thank you!