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!

Smile!!

I was reading my mail today and saw this breathtakingly beautiful landscape, fields of lavender in Provence, France. I can almost smell it from here!

Awww...Yeah flowers!

I also love this cute photo of a Hazel Dormouse.  It just makes me smile. Thank you for brightening up my day Dormouse!

Misai Kucing Tea

I have read that the Misai Kucing tea is known for its therapeutic value for generations. It grows up to about 1.5 metre high and the flowers's long filament was the factor that gave the plant its bizarre Malay name which literally means cat's whiskers.  It is recommended for good kidney function, prevention of urinary tract infections, maintaining optimal liver function and preventing gout. It has been used for generations to treat circulatory disorders, kidney stones, hypertension and diabetes. The leaves have diuretic elements that help eliminate uric acid in the body, a source of many physiological problems.

I was so happy when I found this plant growing nicely in my sister-in-law's house and immediately planted it in my little garden. This is my little garden of Misai Kucing in full bloom:

 I just love this beautiful flower with long filaments.

Even the side view is such a pretty sight don't you think!?

WIP

I have started my first project for Tunisian crochet. It's a mobius wrap called Mystifying Embrace on the cover of this book :

This is my progress so far and it is slanting towards the right :

Yarn: DreamPassion Bambaroo

40% Bamboo 40% Merino 20% Nylon

Colour: Sage

I chain 68 instead of 80 because I only have 2 hanks of this sage colour yarn totalling 700 metres. It now measures about 13 inches for the width. Looks like it's going to be a small wrap.  Hopefully after blocking it will be bigger and solve the slanting problem.

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!

Tunisian Crochet

I recently received a little surprise gift from my dear friend Riki. It's a size 10 Tunisian or afghan crochet hook :

Always wanted to try this out so I managed to get hold of a tutorial and crochet this little swatch:

It's not as difficult as I thought it would be and the large size hook makes crocheting real fast. I like the texture and it looks good for my first swatch, don't you think? This will be a beautiful stitch  for cowls and wraps.

My dream MY PASSION!

Yay! My sweater is finally finished! I did not name it DreamPassion. I like this name better! The sleeves, front and back body were blocked before seaming with mattress stitch. Yes, my favourite stitch for seams. I did not seam it on the machine because I just like to sit back, relax and enjoy seaming. I used to hate seaming but since I've learnt to machine knit, this is the most exciting part for me!

Didn't realize that stripes can be very pretty until I knitted this sweater. Looks like more projects in stripes will be coming up! I still have some Dark Byzantium yarns left. Don't know if I should unravel the sleeves and make it longer?