Happy 2008!

I hope you and your family had a wonderful holiday and that your New Year is filled with peace and joy and lots of knitting fun!

Obviously, my blogging slump was, not from a lack of knitting content to write about, but rather the opposite. I’ve just been sooooo busy and hardly had time to sit down, and when I did, I have got so much to recap so I procrastinated and then I have even more stuff the next time... Anyway, please bear with me, I shall try my best to make this long entry a less painful read for you (actually, are you still here?)

Summing up: My 2007 just flew by… and I don’t think I have been productive enough vs my stash, but knitting is supposed to be fun, and it surely was for me.

Total # of knitted item: 23. Not so bad… although most are really small knits.

And of all, this one is my absolute favorite of the year:

Sheepy Capri Pants

Yarn: Knitpicks WOTA - Dark Brown 0.6 skein (66 yards)
100purewool Merino 3-ply - Giotto 1 skein (218 yards)

Pattern: Mandie's Sheepy Pants

Needles: 4.0mm & 4.5mm

The yarn is soft as butter and super comfy!

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And this is my last FO for 2007 and my New Year present to Ely, our grown-up niece:

Chunky Ribbed Scarf

Yarn: Bertagna Filati Flamm 100% Wool
3 balls or 165 yards in Mulberry

Needles: 12.0mm

Finished size: 4.5" x 70" (17sts wide)

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Oh and these are yarns from the dyeing party with Ingrid. It was so much fun! I’m using some recycled DK cashmere/silk/merino from last year, and one of the pink skeins went into the dye bath first and is darker than the other two. Hmmm, I’m really not quite sure… maybe I’ll make some scarves or maybe I’ll over-dye them altogether.

Totally inspired by Ingrid’s success on over-dyeing her red sock yarn, this lot of vermilions was done after I got home…

And Ingrid gave me a cone of her bare socks yarn for Christmas and I've dyed up the first 2 skeins. Just can't wait to do more :)

Next time, I’ll be showing you my New Year projects and some new yarns too.

Till then, happy knitting everyone!

All Things Red

I wouldn't say I had a great time away, but my 3 weeks of blog absence has been rather efficacious. Despite all the setbacks, I finally finished off these longstanding pairs of Oak Ribbed Socks started back in March. Long story short, I switched needles half way (stupidly) and my second sock turned out bigger. The yarn is a millend lot, really nice stuff, so instead of frogging I made 4 socks out of the same yarn/pattern. But while I'm half a sock away from concluding this 6 months project, I lost 2 out of my 5 needles, and these are my favorite set :o(. So the socks continue to marinate until I finally found one Clover #1 set in bamboo here...

These are mine! And Ivy, the other pair is yours!

The bamboos are nice ones too and they did the job perfectly but I still prefer my metals. So if anyone know where I could find a set of Clover#1 (short 15cm) metal dpns, please let me know. Thanks in advance!

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And more socks, these are Jasmine’s Sweet Surprise Socks, they finally fit her now and I love them with her Crocs.

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And finally, a sneak peek of the super soft and snuggly sweater dress that I made for Jasmine. It's done on 8mm, bottom-up with seamless (and painless) set-in sleeves, and a rolled-neck collar.

I didn't actually planned a teaser but I had an awful time with the photos. Most of my shots this morning either went blurry or murky... so I'll do the details, hopefully with my pattern notes and some better pics pretty soon.

Until then, happy knitting to all of you!

Sweet Surprise

Jasmine needed some warm socks and I've an orphan skein of fingering lambswool which is really soft and bouncy but the neony pink shade is tacky … so I did an “express” over-dyeing while she took her afternoon nap on Christmas day. This is also my first experiment with the acid dyes that has been sitting around for months…The dyes are as easy to use as the koolaids, the colors seemed more intense without the unpleasant scent and I'm loving it. I know I should have but I was too lazy to pull out my electronic scale and measuring jug… So with some unknown amounts and varied dilutions of olive green and vermillion, plus a moment in the microwave oven --- now look what I've got in just 11 minutes. I'm quite encouraged with the results, now perhaps I'd dig into my stash for some more makeovers.