I first cast on for this top in November 2009. Can't remember it was that long time ago! Finally, I finished knitting it on 15th January 2010. I used Jaeger Trinity Zest yarn which is a mixture of silk, cotton and polyamide fibre. The yarn is not so smooth and my arms just ache after knitting for an hour or two. That is why this is the longest time that I have taken to knit a top.
The original pattern is supposed to be a cardigan. I modified it to a short sleeve top and made some changes in the pattern too. It is knitted in the round from top down. That is my favourite part...no seaming! :) I also added crochet edgings for the neckline, sleeves and hem.
I am glad that it turned out well. I hope that my friend, Soon will like it!
I had a shock of my life when I woke up last Saturday morning. The night light that was in our store room caught fire and burnt up a calender that was lying on top of my oven box.
Miraculously the fire died off! That was so close! I couldn't imagine what would have happened to us if it didn't stop there.
I did smell something burning when I was sleeping but didn't wake up to check. I thought it was just somewhere faraway burning rubbish. Now, my whole house is covered with soot. This is just one of the things in the entire house look like before cleaning :
Four days has past and I have not finished cleaning the house. We have decided to install a wall lamp instead of using a night light. It is much too dangerous. I should be more careful next time and always wake up to check!
My first project of the year happens to be a quilt! Yes, it is not a knitting, crocheting, dyeing or spinning project. This is how it began. One day, I was looking at my 13 year old son and realized that his long pants he was wearing seems to have shrunk! Of course it didn't shrink, silly me...he has just grown taller! And that lead me thinking about his blanket that he has been using for a few years now. I wanted to buy him a bigger blanket but he said he wanted a quilt.
I went to the book store searching for a quilt book and found this beautiful pattern called Rhapsody in Blue from Quilts And More Winter 2009 issue. Since blue is my son's favourite colour, we immediately drove down to town and got the cotton fabrics. I had a hard time trying to match the colours as closely as possible to the pattern.
It took me a whole week to machine quilt it and I can tell you that it was back breaking and more tiring than exercising! I think that's because I am always trying to finish a project ASAP. Lol... Cutting the fabric alone took me 3 days to complete and I am glad that I bought a rotary cutter which just make cutting easier and faster. Talking about buying the rotary cutter and cutting mat was almost like a treasure hunt. These craft supplies are so difficult to find here.
Anyway, after ALL the hard work, I present you my labor of love:
If you look closely, you will see that some of the squares are not in line. Haha! That is because it is my first quilt! I have learnt a lesson though, ie cutting the fabric as accurately as possible is important for a perfect piecing.
Do you know what I am thinking now? Make a guess! Another quilt you say!? Yes!!! I am thinking of making another pink quilt for myself :)
I saw this beautiful cowl from Elaine's blog and cannot stop myself from knitting it. The actual pattern calls for an aran weight yarn but I am using Dream In Color Smooshy Blue Lagoon which is a fingering weight. Needless to say, my cowl is much smaller and it is short of 6 rows. The circumference is 31" and the length is 10".
I use a 5.0 mm circular needle for the whole cowl and cast on 228 stitches using the cable cast on method. Cast off using p2tog, slip stitch back to the left needle and repeat till the end for a stretchy edge. This is my first cowl and also my first Dream In Color yarn. I just love the subtle colour variation of the yarn and it is so soft and fun to knit too.
Wish that I had bought 2 hanks instead of one, then I would have a bigger cowl!
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.
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?
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 :)
