My love affair with Mr. Seasilk

I was working on the silk corset but half way through realized the gauge is off and it’s one size too small. After ribbing and restarting the project again, I have decided to make a shawl, with my beloved yarn Seasilk. Who can say “no” to Handmaiden’s seasilk? It’s the softest yarn ever! The shawl that I’ve picked is Shallowtail shawl, which is now a free pattern from the Interweave website. Go now and download it before the deadline! It has been on my queue forever, and my mom wants to make a shawl with her newest yarn from Frolic, so I have decided to knit together with her. Here’s what I have so far.



It’s a multi-colour one….hope it’s not going to be too distracted.
This is my love affair with Mr. Seasilk (shhhhh…..)
p.s. The summer Interweave is OUT!!! It has a lot of eyecatching patterns and they can be seen here.

Knitter’s Frolic in Toronto & FO!!!

What a FUN day! I went to the Knitter’s Frolic in Toronto!! It’s my first attend and I spent nearly 4 hours there. There were so many delicious yarns, nice people, and I didn’t know there are so many knitters in town! My wallet was painful, but I was in heaven! Here are two pictures of how the show looks like and one of the tables that’s packed with the yummy yarns.

And here’s what my mom and myself have gotton as treasures [Lillian, can you see the purple Cherry Hill Sock yarn? It's a treat for you.....hope you will like it. :P]

These hand made wood buttons are just cute!

They have raffles and my mom and I both bought the tickets…guess what, we both won something!!!!! I won a baby blanket knit, and my mom won a purse knit:

The last thing to share is my new FO - Lusy and lacy cardigan from Sweaterbabe.com. I love this! It’s a very practical and yet a trendy cardigan. And it’s perfect in this spring weather!

And I got these beautiful buttons from Mary’s yarn in Unionville. It’s just a perfect match for my sweater.

Pattern: Lush and Lacy cardigan
Yarn: Laines du Lord in Purple 6.5 balls
Needles: 5 mm

Spring is around the corner!

Isn’t it nice around Toronto? The grass is green, it’s getting warm, the day light is getting longer. Spring is finally here! I took a LONG weekend and hopped on the plane to visit my boyfriend this past weekend to Halifax, Nova Scotia. What a beautiful city! It’s probably my 5th time there but it’s just nice to be in a city with friendly people. Halifax just reminded me of Toronto back in 20 years ago. People are polite, friendly, and when you want to cross the road, they actually stopped the car and let you go; rather than trying to run you over. Anyhow, I got some cute pictures to show.
First is the two cable boxes by the city. It’s full of creativitiy and art, isn’t it pretty?

A must visit in a new city is to visit a yarn store. Here’s the Loop Cafe:

The yarn store lady was so helpful! Since people say the spinning is so much fun, I have got myself a hand made spindle by the local and some wools. I will show some pictures in my next post.

Last but ot least, I got to show my progress of a new project that I started on the plane. It’s Annie Modesitt’s Silk Corset. I got this pattern a while back but never got to it. Now that the Spring is around the corner, it’s a good time to start! The yarn is a splurge…..it’s Laines du Nord Mulberry Silk. Silk…..I love silk…..=P

It’s in one of my favourite colour - purple pink, and the yarn got a beautiful sheen to it. And the pattern is knitted from top down. I just hope it’s not too small!

~Thank you all for the lovely comments on my new header! They’re all sweet and it really keeps me going! I hope you’re like me, enjoy life and be a happy knitter!~ =D

It’s been a while…

Life is hectic.  It has been a busy life stretched between work, short course in the state, home, out of town bf, and knitting.  If your life is busy, how would you prioritize them all?  For me, the knitting hobby puts to the last because there’s no deadline! (unless it’s a present for your beloved)  

As for my slow knitting life, the Lush and Lacy Cardigan is still on the go…but getting there.  I’m on the sleeves now so hopefully I can reveal something this coming week, before I’m heading to the plane to see my bf.   I was on yarn diet for a while, and I couldn’t resist the beautiful, light summery yarn and guess what…I bought some!  It’s called Lang Aura. It’s from my favourite yarn store Mary’s Yarn in Unionville. Lynn and Mary are just the best yarn owners! They’re nice, helpful, and friendly. I just wish I never have to leave! The colour combo are white and cream with sequins that sparkles from distance!  Isn’t that lovely!  I wanted to take pictures of them all to show but it’s out of battery.  I probably accidently pushed the power on button before I put it back after my course to the state last week.  Oh well, this is going to be a no picture post and I will need to buy batteries this afternoon!

That’s it for now, my friends.  I will put up another post soon once my camera is well fed with fresh batteries!

Happy knitting & crocheting =D

p.s. ~ I haven’t posted for a while and realized the wordpress has changed on me! I have decided to have a “new face” as well and the beautiful picture is dedicated to my dear friend Lillian who taken the picture for me with my Le’ Slouch on. Gosh, she is a good photographer! ~

FO: Caterina Cardigan By Louisa Harding Venezia

It was a love at first sight with this cardigan from the Venezia by Louisa Harding.  I just fell in love with the feminine details of this design…the ruffles, the colour, the style…I just love it.  I chose Lang Pearl for this project and made it into a long sleeves.  The result is not as great as I expected because the yarn shreds a lot; but the style of the cardigan is just to die for! However, I couldn’t find any errata available on the net and I noticed a couple mistakes. One was at the chart which made the pattern unbalanced. I didn’t notice when I was knitting the back until I was at the armhole so I didn’t fix it. I only fixed the front and sleeves. One other small mistake was the switching of needles was missed.

I just love ruffles…..

I got these lovely handmade buttons from Romni…they’re all the way from South Africa:

Here’s how it looks on me. I made it into a fitted cardigan.

FO: Caterina Cardigan by Louisa Harding Venezia
Yarn: Lang Pearl in light pink 6 balls
Needles: 4mm and 5mm

My next project is a lace project - Icarus shawl in the IK Summer 06. This is Alapca from the Twist Fino. I love the colour combination it’s dominant in orange, with a touch of yellow and brown. The yarn is so soft to touch and incredibly light.

The yarn is fine and a lace project takes a lot of concentration. I suspect it will be a long project. In the mean time, I am wondering if I should start another easy going one to keep me sane. Last picture to share:

I’m back to town and in the mood of knitting!

I did not forget to blog, I was just out of town escape from the snow and cold from Canada, and enjoyed some sunshine in LA and got a ride on a cruise ship to go around Mexico. 

I was glad I brought my tilted duster with me because it was windy at times. This is in Catalina Island, LA:

The following picture shows the cruise ship and the city of Esenada in Mexico:

It was an 7 tons ship so I thought it’s pretty big, but the waves in the pacific ocean made me sick….I took some gravols and the drowiness made me slept 15 hours in a day.

Back to knitting…I managed to finish my “so called” Juliet!  I love the Juliet done by Zephyr Style. Thanks to Ravelry, I was able to look through the pictures from other knitters. From there, I knitted my own version of the Juliet without the purchase of pattern…hehheh…..

I used two different yarns here. Two balls were a kind of Japanese yarns in multi-colour in my stash; and the other 3 balls are RYC Soft Tweed in purple. Both are lovely, and soft to touch. I love top down sweater! It’s no sewing and fast!

My boyfriend chose the buttons for me. Sometimes I am surprised by his good taste!

The next thing on my needle is the Lang Pear in pale pink, and I want to knit the Caterina in the Venezia by Louisa Harding.

I love the feminine style and I also love cardigan, so here we go! The swatch was also done and it’s doing well. However, the yarn has kid mohair so it shreds quite a bit. I wondered how it looks like after it’s knit up in a big piece?!

That’s it for now and thank you so much for stay tune with me. Without all of your supports, I won’t be knitting as hard as I am!

Happy knitting!

FO: What happen when lace and cable became friends?

In my opinion, lace is lace, and cable is cable.  They are both beautiful on its own, but they don’t go together well.  Since when I became an adventurus, I combine the two together in my new creation - kid mohair lace, with merino wool cable sweater, my original design.

My initial idea was to use the merino wool to make a vest - with cable at the bottom, and plain at the top; it was hibernating for a while. When I picked it up again, I realized the top was way too big….maybe 40″. So I decided to rib. The next thing I know, I realized I have a ball (440yds) of the kid mohair sitting in the stash starring at me. There it goes…..make use of the mohair texture and use lace as the top. But how would it looks like…..it was a mystery until I tried it on today. My mom loved it; other said it’s innovative; one other said “different”, meaning it’s “weird”, I guess. Oh well, it’s my original design and like it.

I tried to use the same angle when taking the pictures like what Lillian did….but it’s nothing close to her photographer quality. I just adores her photographic skills….

And do you know how hard it was for me to write a new post….I want to open my blog and see all her beautiful photos as my blog’s headline. It was just bea-ti-ful!

Pattern: My original design
Yarn: 1 ball (440 yards 100g) of Alchemy, Promise - 47w pale blue eyes
& 2 balls of Lana Grossa Numero Uno
Needles: 4.5mm & 6.5mm

p.s. thank you for all the lovely comments in the previous post….you all meant a lot to me!

Picture time

My dearest friend Lillian did a big favour for me - she came to my house and took pictures of all of my FO with her professional camera.  In that half an hour slot, I transformed into a model and she became a professional photographer.  Wow, she was so fast, and she took a total of 99 pictures!  Under her professional skills, my FO looked prettier!  Here are part of the pictures and please allow me to reveal…..my FOs

My favourite piece ever…..the sea silk tank top:

With Lillian’s professional skills, my clapotis looks so pretty:

 Thank you VERY MUCH, Lillian, the best photographer I have ever seen, you did a fantastic job!

Scarf and more scarf

Lately I am not in the mood to make anything big, so I decided to make scarf, which seems to be easy but I still haven’t accomplished anything.  The only thing I can share are some wips. 
It’s my sister’s birthday so I let her pick the yarn in my stash and I am making her this My So Called Scarf that a million people are in their wips.

This scarf is actually fun to knit once you get a hang of it, and the finished is suprisingly neat. It also matches well with the yarn I am using which is thick and thin like hand made noodles!
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The next scarf I am working on is a scarf from Runway Knits

I love this scarf….it looks so light and also feminine. I am using two yarns to make a contrast.

I am thinking of using the pink one as the leafs, and the white one as the scarf. In the scarf I will make it into stripes by using two alternatively. I think it will be neat. The process, however, of making the leafs are Sooooo……Long….. I supposed to make 20 rows or leafs and then knit together with the main scarf. I am only on my 5th rows. The exciting thing is that, the pink yarn I splurge was from a Japanese source. Look at the silver sparkles in the yarns!

Koolhaas Hat and Hand Held Mitten

I felt in love with the Koolaas Hat in the Interweave Magazine Holidays when I first saw it.  My hubby loved it too so I decided to make him one.  OMG, I didn’t expect all that cabling!  The pattern involves knitting ables every other row plus switching the marker at row 6 and 8.  It’s more complex than I thought and I made a mistake…..but hubby didn’t notice.  Oh well, I let it be and the alpaca wool is keeping his head warm now.

My next challenge and his wish list is to make a matching scarf with the same yarn and pattern…..is it feasible? I don’t know since the hat was knitted in round involved ktbl plus cabling. How can I do that NOT in round? I will be sleepless in Toronto by thinking about that…..

My next quick project was done in one night. It was a hand held mitten featured in the Knit.1 in Winter 06/07. I just think it’s cute for me and my hubby.

It has two inserts - the grey one for the guy and the pink one for the woman. And I used my stuffed animals as an example.

It’s my first time to knit intarsia too! Love it….

FO: Koolhaas Hat, IK Holidays 07
Yarn: 1 skein Sandnes Alpakka
Needles: 3.5mm for ribbing; 4.25mm & 4.00mm circular needles for the round

FO: Hand Held Mitten from Knit.1 Winter 06/07
Yarn: RYC Cashsoft knitted 2 strands together and stash for heart and border
Needles: 4.00mm