« February 2007 | ??? | April 2007 »
March 30, 2007
got it
Posted by trico at 11:06 PM | ???? (1)
March 19, 2007
Last winter blow
As you guessed, yes my new spring plan swatch is for a sweater. In addition to that, that sweater is for DH. Alert friends, IT WILL BE THE FIRST SWEATER FOR DH from me. Oh yes. My first try for his sweater has been failed long since, because of yarn. It was beautiful cotton brend, however I had knitted already three garments with the very yarn and I am tired to death to use it again. I lost interest naturally, so far the project lost somewhere. But this time, the project is with a brand-new yarn(Jo sharp desert garden aran cotton), the color is selected by himself, for a pattern which has ALREADY pleased him. It is very important, for he is kind of picky and difficult for his wardrobe. So no fail, I am happy to knit with the yarn and he is happy to have that knitted sweater. All what I need to do is just to cast on.
BUT.
But. Some of you who have read quite long this blog, might remember about my Electra. I made that cardigan by a sudden strong urge to knit. I have smacked by it at the end of February 2006. I mean, I casted on Electra about the end of winter. And the same type of craziness slapped me again, same season, NOW.
I have given notice already, but as the winter is leaving and Spring magazine are arriving, I was not sure if I could cast on the project within this winter...it was one of my 2007 resolution, a big challenging project, I could postpone until the end of this year...
But please let me tell you, I LOVE knitting this cables. I truly enjoy cabling now. I believed myself rather hate cable project, and the truth is that I hate "using cable needle"! Now I cannot stop myself....I've got my cabling mojo, that's it.
And the best(or worst) part of it, almost all of my current projects and plans are ALL CABLES!!
1)the second sock of Shifting Sand socks(cables)
2)this "Arangensey" sweater(tons of it)
3)DH's cotton sweater "Classic Wavy Cable"(you know what) by Jo sharp
Crazy? yes! Just count the number of my cabling. Astronomical.
Posted by trico at 10:27 PM | ???? (1)
March 15, 2007
At random
Thank you so much from the bottom of my heart, for your kind comments for my previous post. I am OK. Look.
1. Blanket for baby J:
2. Second yarn of Kool-Aid:
3. Hamish modeled:
4. Homemade focaccia:
5. New plan for spring:
6. Roza's sock with my kool-aid yarn:
7. What I've got recently:
Posted by trico at 11:31 PM | ???? (1)
March 10, 2007
private report
*Caution*
today's entry is very personal for myself, please disregard and visit another moment if you mind. Thank you for visiting here anyway.
Last Tuesday my granma passed away, at the age of 93. It has been kind of expected, since some years ago when she had become almost all the time unconscious, completely unabled anything and stayed laid in bed.
I went to my hometown on Wednesday, attended her funeral service on Thursday and came back here yesterday. DH kindly kept my boys for these days, for DS first had his school and the second has not been stable of his temperature for these days, so I could not take them with me, neither could stay there long.
Her condition mentioned above has been quite long and it was something "heavy" for those who had taken care of her all the time, that was my aunt and my mum. And I felt always it was difficult for granma herself, even if she has completely lost in unconscious. Before, when she was lively she was someone small and slim, and these last years she became rather "stuffed" figure---with the liquid meal by the tube. Her face was swollen, had pink color by the perfectly balanced medical meal.
Her last was calm and natural, it was apparently due to her age. I would like to say her "granma, now you can rest undisturbed..." and I imagine she could be relieved now without body with prastic tubes. I could meet her before burial, I feel quiet rather than sorrow.
I remember a jade green scarf I have knitted for her, when I was teen. I think actually it was my first knitting project for someone else. She loved green, and she accepted very gladly the scarf and used it anytime when she needed a scarf.(She was not someone who had interests in any kind of handcrafts or needle work, I learned how to knit from my mum) I made it for her birthday. It was basket stitch scarf. I loved her.
My hometown was quite far from Tokyo, so all the way home I could knit in the train. I brought the baby blanket, knitted it in thinking about a kind of exchange of life, praying. The baby was born and granma passed her light to the newborn. I have completed the blanket, so I will show you next time.
Posted by trico at 08:48 PM | ???? (5)
March 05, 2007
and another revealing: a new sock
Oh friends, recently I was very sneaky....and I have to admit, that it was quite difficult for me to keep this seacret from blogging. It has been remaining my top knitty priority since some time, now I can show you my secret sock, which has been completed some days ago and waited to be taken the photos with sunlight:
Do you remember this pattern? It was not a sock. I adpted this gorgeous pattern from Gramperina's Shifting Sand Scarf!
I asked her to advice me if I could make socks with Shifting Sand pattern, and she agreed generously about it. Since I made a Shifting Sand scarf for DH, I have been sort of obsessed with this pattern. Until this scarf I could not do cables without cable needle and once I could master this technique by her kind and detailed tutorials, I love it so much, and then I've got this luscious sock yarn from Sundara, and hit by this idea.
I hope you can see the details of the sock...it has short-row heel, the top rib is 3x2 according to the pattern's stitch numbers. The sock has, though, not much elasticity due to its back and forth allover cabling pattern. But it fits well if you do sizing carefully. and Also, as you know the cable pattern naturally shrinks the garment, you need much more stitches to cast on for normal woman's foot than usual. It took quite a long to finish this one sock...yes, I have not yet made the pair. The reason I think is not only for the stitch numbers and allover cabling, but also the beauty of the yarn itself...I have to confess that after knitted up almost each row or each needle, I just looked the yarn and garment to admire...the glorious beauty of the yarn. So confortable to both hand and eye. The accurate color of yarn is rather this one:
The coloway looks deep purple-navy, very rich color.Like blueberry skin.
The specs:
Pattern: My own for the courtesy of Grumperina's Shifting Sand scarf pattern
Yarn: Sundara Yarn 's merino sock yarn, somewhat solid "Light navy over Pink"
Details: 75 stitches to cast on(40 for instep and 35 for sole), short-row heel
Needle: US#1 Susan Bates dpns
To cereblate the sock, I even made a blueberry pie, to match the colorway!
Yummy. Um.
Posted by trico at 12:10 PM | ???? (1)
March 02, 2007
experiment
So let me tell you, what I enjoyed the other day.
There is something I didn't write here when I decleared my knitting resolution for 2007. Well, I didn't sure at that time if I really would want to do it soon. That's it:
- try to hand-dying for yarn
I have had several Kool-aid packs for the purpose since some years ago(years!) but never had a real urge to do it. One of the reasons is that after I've got these Kool-aids as one pack of each flavors, I found out that only one pack wasn't enough to dye a skein of yarn, and my heart sank...also, at that time I could not find a good tutorials for it. Anyhow I was not very keen to do, so just forgot.
Last year I found them when I was deep into my stash, and got them out, I thought I could give away to someone or whatever. And around the end of autumm I believe, I started thinking that it might not very bad idea, to do some experiment just for fun....And finally it came to hit me.
I had just around one hour or so before preparing lunch on the day. The day before in the bed at night, I had already decided to do it the next day. So I started, put my yarn into the sink with soap-lukewarm water. Opened my file with Knitty's tutorial page (printed months ago)on the table. These are my kit:
I chose microwave cooking, and I try to mix flavors. Normally it needs 4 packs for 4 oz skein, but I picked up 3 in order to save my minimal resource.(cannot find in Japan). Two blue and one red.
The mix turned out like that...dull chocolate pink color. I cooked it twice, 4 minutes and 30 seconds in total in microwave. After waiting for a while, the water became REALLY clear, after the dye was devoured into the yarn. I washed it gently and squeezed, put it out at a shaded spot in my tiny balcony, and back to lunch and parenting.
It was sunny day and it dried completely before evening.
Oh, my friends. This is it.
<
Not intended, it is slightly mottled. The photo is not completely accurate for the real color, but it is...rather rich rose pink than chocolate. I am very, very happy with the result and actually I didn't expect that subtle color with Kool-aid. 3 packs for 100g yarn looks acceptable too for me. I love SO MUCH this rich rose color!!! The yarn itself is not very soft like merino yarn, but nor at all itchy even if you put it at your neck. Since then I cannot stop petting this skein...bring it everywhere at home.
The specs:
yarn: 100g, sock weight wool-cashmere-nyron yarn, bought in Japan
Kool-aid: 1 pack of each, Strawberry, Tropical Punch, and Berry Blue
Though, there is only one thing I don't like with the result: this artificial mixed fruity flavor. It smells quite strongly and I hate it...hope it will disappear soon.
And now, I am liking the dyeing!!! Oh, I will do it again soon for sure, when there is nobody at home...ha ha!
Now guess what, I am looking for an appropriate sock pattern like crazy for the yarn to cast on!