I am back!

You must be wondering why I have not blogged for so long. Well, to cut long story short, I was not feeling well for almost a month. I lost 80% hearing in my right ear somewhere in late January this year. You may think that loosing hearing on one side is not a big problem since I still have my left ear. It is not that simple because there was this very disturbing loud noise I hear on my right ear. So I actually can hardly hear. I couldn't eat or sleep and lost a lot of weight. Doctor couldn't explain the reason for the sudden loss of hearing. Life was totally upside down and I felt so helpless and lost. Didn't know how to live the rest of my life. I was hospitalised twice and I all I can do was to pray hard. One day, I heard my phone ringing so I automatically used my right ear to hear. I could hear my husband talking to me! My hearing is back, thank God!

I am back with my knitting again and have completed these projects:

My first project is Liesl.


This is Duet by Linda Wilgus from Knitty.com.  Yarn and buttons are gifted by Nikki and Karin. Thank you ladies! :)

My own design that I call Sonata after the name of yarn which is Elann's Sonata Pink Pearly. At first I thought that lace weight yarn would be perfect for the flounces, but I  found out that dk weight work as well too.Love how it turned out!:)


This is an earlier project that I designed myself too. Saw this beautiful cable stitch pattern from a stitch library and simply fell in love with it.  The name is of course none other than Cables, Cables, Cables which explains it all!  Yarn used is Rowan 4 ply soft in Bright Rose and buttons are made from key rings. 
This is a pretty and cute hat for Candy's niece called Lacy Girly.  Modified to add bow instead of ribbon which I feel is more practical for a new born baby.

And, my latest design is Autumn Leaves knitted from my spindle spun and hand dyed yarn.  This is a simple and easy knit that will bring out the beauty of hand dyed yarns.  I love the wavy effect of the scarf.  If you like it, these are the instructions:

Yarn weight : Fingering
Yardage : 245 - 248 metres
Gauge :  7 stitches and 8 rows = 1 inch in stockinette stitch
Needle : 3.5 mm

Cast on 28 stitches.
Knit 3 rows.
Row 1 : Sl 1, knit 1,* k2tog, yo*; repeat * * 3 more times, knit 8, repeat * *  4 times, knit 2.
Row 2 : Sl 1, knit 1, purl to the last two stitches, knit 2.
Rows 3 to 12, repeat rows 1 and 2.
Row 13 : Knit 10, *yo, skp*, repeat * * 3 more times, knit 10.
Row 14 : Sl 1, knit 1, purl to the last two stitches, knit 2.
Rows 15 to 24, repeat rows 13 and 14.

Repeat Rows 1 to 24 till end of scarf but when you come to the last row of scarf, do not repeat last row of pattern.
Knit 3 rows and bind off.

Wet block and gift it to someone you love! :)

Butterscotch and Peach Punch

Yes, these are the names of my recent natural hand dyed and hand spun. The first photo is Peach Punch which is dyed with balsam flowers. It is 2 ply merino yarn :

And this is Butterscotch :



It is 200 gm of superwash merino yarn(600 m) and it just take the colour of yellow onions beautifully. I love this combination of bright and intense colour.

Natural Dyeing

When I first saw Ishbel, I just fell in love with it. I was waiting for a suitable yarn to knit this simple and yet beautiful shawl. Finally,when I was spinning my Gingerie, I knew that this is the colour graduation that I am looking for. I am glad that I have added tumeric during the dyeing process with red onion skins. It just enhance the colour of the yarn. I knitted the smaller size shawl using 4.0 mm circular needle and used about 60% of my yarn (approximately 300 m).

Wonder what I should knit with the rest of the yarn. Any suggestions, please?

Project Updates And More ....

I have been really busy lately with my new found love...natural dyeing. Before I go further, these are my recent completed projects that I just can't find time to post. Since a picture paints a thousand words, I will let the photos do the talking :)

The first photo is a top that I called Tulip Garden, knitted with one solid and one variegated colour crochet yarn :





My sister called me up one day and asked if I would like to join her for a trip to Shanghai, China in November. Since it is autumn in China, I have knitted her a pair of fingerless mittens and a hat.



This Noro spiral one-skein hat pattern is knitted with one skein of Mission Falls 1824 Cotton Whirl in Dusk. The fingerless mittens knitted with Elann Peruvian Highland Sport yarn is Fetching by Cheryl Niamath. I have modified both of the edgings to seed stitch. I love the vibrant and variegated colour of the hat. Incidentally, she is flying to China today but I didn't make it. I hope it will keep her warm and cozy.

And now, let the fun begin :)


This BFL sock yarn was dyed with 193 gm of Clitoria Ternatea and 428 gm of Dragon Fruit skins plus one whole fruit weighing 500 gm. The flowers and fruit were simmered separately for an hour and left to cool. Alum and cream of tartar was used as mordant for the sock yarn. The yarn was also simmered for an hour in the mordants, left to cool and then dyed in three parts. One in Clitoria Ternatea dye bath, second in Dragon Fruit dye bath and the last in a mixture of both dye baths. The whole procedure took me 3 hours to complete.

I was amazed and surprised that the heated dye bath of Dragon Fruits yield a soft orange colour and a mixture of both dye baths produce a grey colour. Next time, I will experiment with the cold dyeing method using Dragon Fruit again. I hope this time it will yield the fruit's magenta colour that I am looking for.

I have always wanted to hand dye some yarns for my friend Denise. So when she told me that she love the colour, I couldn't be more pleased to give to her.



Can you guess the plant dye that I use for this BFL fiber? It is red onion skins and tumeric! I used 440 gm of onion skins and 2 tablespoon of tumeric powder. That is a lot of onion skins right? It was given to me by the grocery shop owner at the market. In fact, I have 2 more big bags of onion skins!.

The fiber was simmered for an hour and left to soak for 4 hours before rinsing. I have spun it to this 2 ply yarn that I have named as Gingerie:






These beautiful 255 gm of red balsams were picked from my little garden for a period of two to three weeks. The flowers were kept in a zip lock bag and stored in the refrigerator until I have enough flowers to dye. I used 138 gm of Merino wool and simmered for 1 hour 45 minutes. Half of the fiber was simmered in the pot for 10 minutes and part of the dyed wool was pulled out every 10 to 15 minutes. I added vinegar to the dye bath and dyed the second batch in the same way. The second batch was left to cool in the bath for 2 hours before rinsing. This is how the dye bath of balsam flowers looks like:



Ta dah! I present you my Peach Punch!



I just love the soft peachy colour and it is my favourite. In fact, someone offered to buy the top but I just can't bear to part with it :)

Have you seen enough? No? You want more? Okay, there are more to come! I have dyed a second Peach Punch using 200 gm of balsam flowers on 92 gm of BFL :




This 136 gm Merino wool was dyed with 325 gm of red onion skins again. The colour is lighter because I used big onions instead of small onions. I called it Olive Garden :



That's not all! I have also dyed these two dk weight Merino yarn with food dyes for my two dear friends, May and Irene. They wanted something bright and colourful and I named them Summertime I and II:







Hope that you have enjoyed looking at these eye candies, if I may say so :)

Swallowtail

I have always thought of knitting a shawl but I was thinking would I ever use it? When I saw this beautiful Swallowtail shawl...I knew that I just can't wait anymore.



The yarn is my own hand spun and hand dyed Pomegranate which I have over dyed with more red. I have used almost 475 metres of this 2 ply BFL yarn. The size of the shawl is 23" x 54" after blocking. It is very soft and light.

I love this shawl very much. Wonder why I have waited for such a long time to knit my first shawl! :) I guess more shawls will coming too! Hmm....I am thinking of Ishbel!

Fan Bookmark Scarf

This scarf was originally a shrug :



I didn't like the pattern because it does not bring out the beauty of the yarn.

Oops! Did I say beauty? I know it is not the most beautiful yarn, but at least it is my own hand-dyed and hand spun yarn :) I unravelled the project and turned it to this :






Finally, I have found this pretty fan bookmark pattern from Crochetroo. It just make the colours of the forest popped out! Oh, I have named my yarn, Forest. Does it look like the colours of the forest?

I wanted a denser and bigger scarf, so I have made the following modifications :

Row 1 of each fan : 14 dc in the loop work
Row 3 of each fan : 1 sc 3 ch 1 sc for the picot edge



I am very happy that it turned out well :)

More projects and stuff

I am sorry that I have neglected this blog for a long time. I am still dyeing, spinning, knitting and crocheting. Firstly, I would like to share with you my new stuff. I have made or rather my husband had made me two yarn swifts. The first swift is rather big and heavy. I helped to sand paper and painted shellac on it :





So my dear husband made me another new swift which is smaller and much lighter :)



I was using my pvc niddy noddy and suddenly it rang a bell. A pvc inch ruler! So there I go again to the local hardware store and came back with this :



It is perfect and I love it! So...what do I need next? Ah ha! A ball winder! I have been thinking of a ball winder for ages. My dear friend Donna helped me to buy this ball winder from Knitpicks.com. Thank you very much Donna! :)



I also hand spun and dyed this yarn :





I called it Emerald Dream and it is done using layering method in the oven. I spun it 2 ply before dyeing it. It is 111 gm of merino and the yardage is 421 m (460 yards). It took almost 3 hours to dye but worth it. I like how it turn out but not the colour. It is supposed to be a blueish green like the deep blue sea.







My latest project is called Elly because it is knitted for my friend Elly. This pattern was taken from Craft House Series 2 and it is knitted in the round from top down. It is knitted with double strands of crochet thread from Pyarn.com. She was too shy to model it, so I have to do it :)

Whew! This is my longest posting so far. There are actually two more projects that I have completed but still waiting for fitting and photos.

Now...I am thinking of blocking wires! Lol...