Lace Season
It’s almost summer again which means lace season is knocking on my door begging to have my lace-planned-project stash knitted. True I do have some yarns especially for lace projects from shawls to sweaters. But I don’t usually work on them until warm weather start sneaking on us. However shawls are an exception (well shawls takes forever to finish). Shawls are one of those year-around project like socks project. They don’t take a lot of space plus they have very rewarding end results.

Speaking of lace. Do you remember this?

It was a disaster when I was knitting this shawl. My cat jumped on me while I was working on this project which ended up loosing sts off the needle. My cat is fine. She survived my wrath thanks to DH.

Finally I picked this project again and re knitted the whole shawl again. It took me a while to figure out the border. I think I ended up with fewer triangles for the border about 2 triangles. Doubt that would matter, because the shawl is beautiful other than it’s huge. About 91in wing span and 42in down.

Curved Shawl with Diamond Edging
patt: Victorian Lace Today
yarn: JaggerSpun Zephyr Wool-Silk 2/18 in lavender. 2 skeins
needle: Addi Turbo Lace 3.00mm 32in (80cm)
duration: close to 9 months
cost: $24

I did managed to finish a pair of washcloths from Fiber Trends. They are so cute and lovely and seriously I don’t have the heart to use them as washcloths but as house accents. Like for my tea set and key holders.


Bath Time Blossoms
patt: Fiber Trends
yarn: Patons BumbleBee Baby Cotton. 1 skein for each washcloth in Daffodil and Water Lilly
needle: 2.75mm
duration: about 3.5 weeks
cost: $6.58

I also recently finished a crocheted bolero from SnB Happy Hooker. Technically it’s a lace project. OMG this pattern was very addicting. Hm… am I going into crochet then? Or have I fallen deep into crochet?


Short N’ Sweet
patt: SnB Happy Hooker
yarn: Cascade Luna. 8 skeins. red color
hook: F (3.75mm)
duration: close to 2 weeks
cost: $42.40
modification: added 0.5 more patt repeat for body

Mother’s Day weekend
Unfortunately before I can start any future planned lace sweater project, I want to finish a mobius cat bed for MIL. It’s been taking me forever probably because I have knitted 3 mobius cat beds for my cats and my BIL’s cats. So hopefully I can get one done before Mother’s day. Speaking of Mother’s day, Nancy and I are going to Sheperd Harvest Festival on Saturday. The festival is always on Mother’s day weekend. Thanks to this festival, I learned how to spin. Yes I’m still spinning by the way, just very slow because I’m doing it on drop spindle and spin only once a week.

origami bookmarks
I’m very bad at reading books. I don’t read continuously and finish a book within a month like some people do. I tend to stop reading and pick up other books on and off. A bad habit I suppose. But I get bored so often. It’s not like I’ll never finish a book, just eventually I will. I used to have bookmarks that you can find in bookstores. You know the rectangular shape with quotes, photos, graphics, etc. They have gone missing or lost probably from moving from CT to WA and finally to MN.

Anyway my other hobby saved me from the disaster of missing bookmarks. I saw an origami bookmark from a book long time ago when I was in Borders back in CT. It’s a very simple origami bookmark, small, surprisingly holds on the page. As a result I have lots of these type of bookmark because they’re quick to make and very pretty to admire.





Do you see what I mean by pretty to admire? They’re like added accents to books.

Recently I joined a blog tour from the author of Kitty Knits. I’m so sorry that I am not a good participator due to my surgery. Donna (the author of Kitty Knits and many wonderful knitting books) had been very patient with me. So here is my book review of Kitty Knits.

I was so happy to find a book dedicated to just cats and their lovers. There are times I was frustrated to find so little of cat related patterns in books. When I got the book, I was so excited to see all the patterns. They are so cute and fun for us cat lovers. I especially love the felted catnip mice because I can use leftover worsted wool yarn for this project and also a great stash busting project. My cats dig them until the mice are all so fuzzy. Thank you Donna for writing this book. I’m planning to make more projects out of the book like the fair isle hat, the pink cardigan and of course the cat beds.

Felted Catnip Mice





pattern: Kitty Knits
yarn: leftover cascade 220 wool
needle: US 13 (9.00mm)
start: Feb 4th, 2008
done: March 2nd, 2008

Here are the interview questions that I asked to Donna about the book and her.

Well the questions I want to ask you are:
1. Where do you find the inspiration to design?

I just love making things up. I’ve done crafts since I was a kid, and I used to sew all of my own clothes, so I am not afraid of picking out colors and inventing things. I usually start with a sketch and an idea of what I want to make, and then pick out the yarn for it. I think a lot of designers start with the yarns and then see how the yarn inspires them, but that doesn’t work for me. I have to have an idea of what I want to make first, and then I look for the right materials.

2. It’s a bit technical, but do you do the math, sketches, and calculation when you design especially like armholes?

Yes, I do everything in a spreadsheet to check the numbers, and I draw schematics, and sometimes I chart out a whole garment to make sure the elements fit where I want them to. Sometimes I start with basic numbers from a software program like Sweater Wizard or from a book like The Knitter’s Handy Book of Sweater Patterns and The Knitter’s Handy Book of Patterns by Ann Budd, and then I modify the numbers to work with my pattern stitches and gauge. Then I have a pattern that I can test as I knit the model garment. That makes it a lot easier than re-inventing the wheel for every project. But sometimes I just want to make a unique design that doesn’t work like other patterns, and then I have to work it all out from scratch and sometimes I write the pattern as I knit the garment and figure it out as I go.

3. How many cats do you have? Any preference in cats like color, weight, sex?

I have 2 cats now, and will have 4 in a few weeks when my mother and her 2 kitties move in with us. I love all kinds of cats, but I am especially partial to male orange tabbies. I don’t have one now, but they always want me to take them home!

4. How long did take you to write the book?

I’m not sure. I made up all the project ideas in a couple of weeks, and I worked on it off and on probably for about 9 months. But that wasn’t full time. I always have to fit my book writing in between work that pays immediately. Because when you write a book you get (sometimes) an advance up front, and then you have to wait for the book to come out and for copies to sell before you start getting royalties. So I almost never write a book all at once in a short period of time. Instead, I work on it on weekends or an hour or two in the morning when I can squeeze it between other jobs.

My Kitty story
Since this post is about cats. Let me tell you what’s my cat been doing lately.
Remember the Dr Who scarf for DH? Because the weather has been going into spring, he doesn’t need it for now, therefore he put it in our bathroom where the cats like to gather and sleeps on the bathroom’s counter. They always like to sleep on that little corner of the counter only if there’s some clothes are present particularly wool content. By the way we noticed this behavior during last winter. For example I usually put my to-be-washed sweater or going-to-wear sweater on that particular corner, before I am done with usual shower business the black cat Iori already occupy that sweater.

Thanks to Iori, DH decided to lend the scarf as their cat bed for this upcoming warm to hot weather. And then the other 2 cats slowly occupy the scarf as their cat bed also!

I’m sort of a bit annoyed because I spent so much time making this scarf and now it’s a cat bed?
But the cats seems to blissfully enjoy it, so I might make another cat bed and put it on that corder where the cats can sleep. I’m thinking the rectangle cat bed from the Kitty Knits book might be a good one to replace the scarf.

Yesterday was such a nice day. The sun was out. People were wearing sandals and skirt. But today we have another snow storm. Really thick and hard. The snow were falling on us like rain drops. So much for spring for us. Therefore I’m back wearing scarf, gloves and my winter jacket again.

In my absence other than recovery, knitting and crocheting (yes I do crochet now), it’s time for me to get back to job hunting. It is dreadful and very frustrating quite sadly. But I need to be optimistic and keep my chin up. Wish me luck.

On the fiber related side during my absence I have several FOs to show. None of them is big project like sweater or shawl. Just small to medium size projects.

FO: Noro Strip Scarf
I had been meaning to post this project, but I was so engaged with the preparation of surgery. This scarf has been serving me during winter and unfortunately now.

pattern: regular k1p1 rib
yarn: Noro Silk Garden Lite 2 skeins of each color 2014 and 2011
needle: US 4 (3.5mm)
gauge: -
finished size: 5in width and 92in long
start date: 2/4/08
finish date: 3/2/08

This is my first time using Noro. The colors ahhhh… so beautiful, so vibrant.

Fo: Non-Anarchy Sign Hat
I did manage to finish a crochet project. Yes crochet project. The pattern st was single crochet for the whole project, and just perfect project to keep me company while the pain on my stomach keeps bugging me.

pattern: SnB Happy Hooker
yarn: Araucania Nature Wool color 44, and a little bit of Cascade 220 soft pink for the edge
hook: D (3.25mm)
gauge: 16 sc/ 4in (10cm)
start date: 2/29/08
finish date: 3/10/08

FO: Ruffle Top Socks
These pair of socks are my first socks of the year. Because I hadn’t been knitting socks since November 07, I didn’t want to start a relatively complex pattern. This pattern happened to be in my library. It is from the Sock Club from Clickity Sticks Sock Club 06-07. It’s really fun and simple.

pattern: Ruffle Top Socks
yarn: South West Trading Company TOFUtsies. color 91506
needle: US 0 (2mm) dpn
gauge: 8sts St St in the round
start: 2/2708
finish: 3/23/07

FO: Amineko


pattern: Web MITE
yarn: Cascade 220 Wool color Red, Patons Merino Wool in white/cream and black
hook: D (3.25mm)
gauge: just tight enough so that the stuffing doesn’t show
start: 3/28/08
finish: 3/31/08 (can’t you see I was so into this adorable kitty?)

What can I say? The first time I saw this pattern through ravelry, I fell in love on its cuteness and adorableness. So many people has made this cat and each one of them is unique and cute. This is my first amigurumi type project and I’m hooked! I want to make another type of amigurumi projects.

My Amineko is in red just because each one of my cat is female. DH thought the crocheted cat was cute, so he thought to call it Ayane.

I shall end this post with cat related photo.
This is one of my cat sleeping so blissfully on our need-to-be-washed blanket and clapotis. She has tendency to sleep on clothes which makes my laundry a bit belated.

I was finally out of hospital 2 weeks ago, and there was a cake waiting for me. DIL, BIL, DH, and my family were having dinner to celebrate my wellness. So nice of them. Sorry for the late update. I am slowly getting back to routine like blogging and life. I’ll write up comments again once I catch up to everyone’s blogs.

My surgery went well according to my doctor, and the lump or tumor was benign which was very good news for me. But on the other hand, my stomach looks gross, and sometimes tense. I was on painkiller pills for a couple of days when I was out from the hospital, but now I’m on the light painkiller medicine, Ibuprofen, to minimize the swelling.

It was a good experience. I thought I was going to die the moment I woke up from surgery. The nurses were very nice to take care of me. My family even flew in to see me on short notice. DH stayed the first night for metal support and physical support. All these kindness from them made the recovery quite fast.

Unfortunately I couldn’t knit or read while I was at the hospital. My wrist was hooked with the IV and made it hard for me to use it.

Thank you all for your thoughts and prayer. I really appreciate them.

A little bit about weird fluctuate weather
About a week ago, the weather in Minnesota was so nice to the point people are wearing short skirts and sandals. I got to see the end of winter (or I thought it was the end of winter). One day I looked outside and how beautiful outside my house was. I meant the streaming water from melting snow on my driveway.

But that didn’t last long. When I woke up today, there was a huge snow storm. Which made the whole environment looks like it’s December or January again. This is March for God’s sake, where’s the spring??? Aghhhh. My house feels so stuffed up, and needs the spring cleaning so badly.

This is nothing compared to what I’d been through. Bad weather seems so not a big deal for me anymore after going through surgery. Sometimes we take granted that’s been disposed to us like health, and we should really take care of being healthy. There’s a chinese proverb that says “Health is number one wealth” and I agree to it completely.

Some of you already know of my physical condition. Thank you for all your support. I have a lump about 7cm diameter on lower left abdomen. Never notice this lump until recently. Fortunately, it is not life-threatening lump but it must be taken out no matter what. After much discussion, I’m going into surgery on March 4th. I’ll be staying at the hospital for at least 3 days after the operation. The doctor wants to make sure I can do daily task before I am discharged.

Which means lots of preparing for being in the hospital like pack my knitting (and crochet too), one manga and maybe some craft books to pass the time and one romance fiction book. DH said he will bring these stuff while I’m in the hospital. So nice of him.

I’ve never had an operation, so this will be very interesting.

My Mom and younger brother are coming this Sunday. They want to accompany me during surgery and bring me back to health. Which means lots of cleaning for us before they come. Aghhhhh. So much junk.

Now on the craft side. I sort of dove into the sister craft of knitting, crochet, sort of to try it. Because I’ve been drooling over cute amigurumi dolls and japanese crochet patterns. I do have some japanese crochet books, but can’t really decipher the instructions well until I found this book, Kyuuto Japanese Craft Lacy Crochet.
.

It’s starting to make sense but not all because I have just started understanding about crochet. Sadly, crochet is addictive which means I have another hobby to deal with. Ha ha.

I got an e-mail warning from my server provider (abuse department) that my blog was uploaded with a phishing site. Therefore my blog was blocked. Annoying and surprisingly as it could be, it was true. I logged into my blog’s files. Yes. I saw my index.php got changed. And a couple of unknown files that’s not in my local files. One there’s an email.php and a folder called cartepr. If you do see unknown files in your server, beware.

I could not delete any files or folders from my server to the point I have to call the abuse department and told them what happened. Finally they granted permission so I could delete the whole files, re-uploaded original files, and change permissions to whole files and folders.

Seriously you hacker. You don’t have a way to get financial income to the point you have to hack people’s info like paypal-look-alike e-mails sent to consumer hoping they’ll give you user name and password?! I’m sure you people whom have paypal account knows there are many paypal phishing e-mails out there.

This phishing crap is troubling everyone but they don’t care. Quite sad really. We only have one world, and yet so much selfishness and cruelty.

If anyone out there knows how to add security to websites, please let me know. Least thing I want is to have my website troubling people out there.

Happy belated Valentine
I hope you all had a good Valentine if any of you celebrate. I had a good Valentine which means I got chocolate liquor (don’t think they’re real booze) and a chocolate rose from DH. Went out to a mall, and ate at Pancake House. What a good day.
In Japan, I believe the girls give something to the guy. Mine was the Dr Who scarf. I gave him much early before the V day, but the scarf serves its purpose like for snowplowing the driveway, and keeping my DH warm.

2nd Annual Knit Out Mall of America and FO

Lots of knitters and crocheters told me that they would not go to this 2nd Annual Knit Out MOA because it was very crowded and had really long lines to go through the vendors. I didn’t go last year, and thought I would love to see the event once. Alas I did go on Saturday from 11am to 4pm. Jesus. All that time was going through the vendors. I didn’t even take any demos, because what I was thinking by the time I’m done going through all the lines, all I wanted to do was eat late lunch and go home. DH came with me, and he was being so helpful carrying my free gifts, tools, magazines, and patterns. He also brought me snacks time to time and take my place.

At the end, I had fun. I got to talk with really nice people and got to see upcoming new books, and new products from clover. Will I go again next year? Maybe on a Sunday. Hm… I didn’t got to see famous people like Debbie Macomber. Oh well… maybe next time.

that’s me with Lion Brand mascot. For more photos from the event, I uploaded to flickr for you whom couldn’t make it.

What’s that you’re wearing with the Lion Brand mascot? If you are wondering. It’s my latest FO, Rona Lace Shawl.
Yes I got to finish this shawl after approximately 9 months. I ran into a little problem, probably one that any knitters or crocheters don’t want to face. Out of yarn. Yup. I was left with 15% of the crocheted edging, and I ran out of yarn.

Thank God for Ravelry I got rescued by it. Someone had some left over yarn with the same color (dye lot doesn’t matter to me in this case) and was kind enough to send me her left over yarn. This is what I meant Limedragon. If I have same left over yarn with your project, I would gladly give it to you.

This shawl was so much to make. Though I have to warn you, the pattern is all written hence no chart. But the repeat was not terrible. The BO took several days because it was crochet, but it was well worth it. The crochet edging makes it looks so more delicate.

I leave you with a little bit of yarnporn. It’s Noro Silk Garden. Never had Noro until the peer pressure from surrounding knitters whom made the Nori Stripe Scarf got to me. I must say, Noro is so beautiful yarn. Ahh the colors mesmerize me.

This is quite a long post and heavily bombarded with photos, but go ahead to either read or skim through the FO photos.

FO: Felted Clogs
Sorry for the late update. I’ve been under the weather lately to the point I lost excitement to cast on a new project. Then Limedragon said “you might feel better starting a new project” Boy was she right. I casted on these clogs from Fiber Trends, and OMG I finished them in 3 days.


These when the project got off the needles. Look how huge it is compared to my foot.

Colors for the clogs:
Instep: Red and Tutu
Sole: Highland Green and Col Blue Heather
Cuff: Soft Pink

I’m going to go off tangent a little. I got myself a postal scale last year due to spinning. It’s a $40 scale that I got from local OfficeMax. But this scale is so worth my money. Not that it’s accurate for postal use but it’s so also very multifunction. I can use the scale for estimating whether I’ll have enough to finish a project that requires knitting more than 1 item like a pair of socks. It’s wonderful. Just like this clog project. I use the scale to weigh my unspun fiber and spindle. Estimating left over yarn given the yarn label still exists. The list can go on and on.

Having a postal scale in my collection is like another very handy tool for me, and so glad I got it.

FO: Dr Who Scarf

Colors that I use for the scarf:

That’s my DH wearing his favorite T-shirt and posing for the scarf. He was not patient for my photography fuss, so he sort of left before I got to take a full body picture of the scarf. The scarf length is from floor, one loop on neck, to the other floor. Yeah it’s that long.

Imagine how bored I was knitting this scarf and so happy that this project is off my back. It’s not like I hate the project other than the incredible length. The beauty of this project is the simplicity of endless garter st and the colors. The simple garter st has kept me company at knit-nite, watching tv and movies. It was so mindless that it’s very relaxing. Sometimes you need a simple project to take your minds off hard projects.

The funny thing is that people think it’s a rug or a table runner. DH can only come up with 2 reason why they said that. 1 they’re not geeky enough to recognize it is a Dr Who Scarf. 2 they never watched the show.

Here we go again. Happy New Year 2008. It’s bit late to say it but better than never. Home was refreshing and I wouldn’t miss last-time-going-home experience for anything. I got to see my old good friends from high school, and we were always together like going to fitness and dinner. Ah… it’s so good to see your old friends and share stories.

I finally got my wedding albums and video. It takes a couple of months for them to edit our photos and video, but I’m quite happy with the results although I looked like someone else. It’s very common for the bride to have very heavy makeup, and totally look like she’s completely different. It happened to me. My eyebrows were shaved by 75% (thank God they’re all back) and drawn according to the makeup artists on what he thought I would look good.

Anyway I’m not going to share the details on my wedding dilemma, because it’s going to take forever for you to read. Let’s just say after all that up and down feelings on my wedding day, I’m happy that we did it. I’m glad that we flew home last summer and did the wedding. It was a very happy occasion for me, DH, families, and friends.

Ah what’s your new year’s resolutions? Either life or knitting-wise?
Mine are:

• get a full time job
• be consistent at exercising like everyday except weekends
• get the house organized and tidy
• knit at least one steeking knitting project
• reduce my stash either by knitting each planned project or give them away for charity

FO: Collegiate Pullover

I really love how this pullover looks. It’s so relaxing and yet feminine. This is my first yoke project, and I can understand why people love to knit in the round and using percentage system. The math is not too bad, and it actually works. Even my Mom likes this sweater and looks good on her too.

If I do another Collegiate pullover, I would love to try Cascade 220 Superwash, because as much as I like KnitPicks Swish Superwash the yarn fuzzes so easily. It’s sad…

I think after this pullover, I would love to try steeking. Because steeking is the further challenge after you do a knit-in-the-round sweater. The theory still scares the heck out of me. For people who don’t know what steeking is, steeking is a technique where you cut your knitting open. Yes literally cut with scissors.

DH got me these chocolate Godiva goodies to welcome me back. I love these strawberries dipped in dark chocolate. And I have a new favorite from Godiva. The round balls are dark chocolate filled with liquor taste. Uuuu yummy. It’s good to be back home.

met Queen of SnB
I got an e-mail about a week ago that Debbie Stoller is doing a book tour of her newest SnB series book, Son of Stitch and Bitch. And I was so happy to hear that she was going to be at Needlework Unlimited on November 30th, 2007 at 1pm. I was really happy this time because I always miss the Yarn Harlot’s book tour due to night classes, but this is just too good to be true.

Her first book inspired me to get back to knitting and she proved that knitting can be funky and looks good for young generation, and I’m glad that I went back to knit. Knitting is really calming and the end product is quite useful for me whom came from a tropical country. You see, Minnesota is very just too darn freaking cold weather state in winter.

Thanks to her, I also explore spinning and understanding more about yarn.

DH came to accompany me to this book signing, and I thought he would be too bored staying in a yarn store listening to some people talk about knitting. But no. He was actually listening from far to Debbie’s explanation of knitting for guys. Who knew.

By the way, if you want to know what’s Debbie like. She is hilarious and fun.

FO: Steinfield 304

Sorry for the late photo of these socks. I tend to have the most trouble taking pictures of socks. It’s mostly because I’m the model and it’s hard to focus with tripod and it’s really a guessing game I think.

I was knitting the leg about 5in (13cm) high, but it wouldn’t even go over my heel. It was too tight! So I frogged until the leg was 3 patt rep high. The cuff is in garter stitch for 6 rows instead of regular k1,p1 or k2,p2 rib.

I really like the st patt, it was easy to memorize and it suits for self striping yarn. I’m bringing these socks back home because these are perfect for the weather.

Have a good Christmas and New Year.