The Weekend

I had a wonderful weekend!  It didn’t start of as wonderful at first, coz mom woke me up at 8:30am on a Sunday morning just to ask me one question.  ONE.   I woke up groggily and because the answer to the question required some thinking, it stirred up some brain juices and I was fully awake before I knew it.  I so know I had wanted to sleep some more and not get up till at least 10.30am!  Lazy, I know.

It was only 9:15am when I was done with rolling on the bed, stretching, and washing up.  What was I to do?  CSI didn’t start till noon.  Oh well.  I looked at the strand of Chrysocolla Jasper beads and wanted to do something with it, but it didn’t happen.  I wanted to work with wire, but couldn’t get my brain to figure out how to incorporate the beads into the wiring.

So I picked up Swarovski pearls and crystals instead.  And I landed up with something pretty good (to me anyway).  Hehe.

It’s still not complete though.  I am not quite sure how I want the back portion to be.  It would either be repeaters of what’s in front, or a plain crystal-pearl-crystal-pearl back.  I’m leaning towards repeaters, coz I think it would look more polished.

I’ve also started work on a pink version of the Richmore top.  The upper front and back are already attached together, but I uh, lost interest in its progress.  To the side it goes, and to something new I start.    Received luscious 100% silk yarn from both Thailand (eBay) and Halcyon Yarn… both are gorgeous yarns, but the Thailand one is of a heavier weight compared to the Halcyon one, and therefore, unsuitable for the delicate shrug I’m working on to complement the wedding dress (if it works out to be how I imagined it in my head).

Therefore, I’ve started work on a jacket/shrug with it.  It might go with the spaghetti-strapped white dress I’m planning to use for the ROM ceremony.  And yeah, it’s crochet again.    I’m a bit paranoid if I would have enough yarn for a knitted piece (I have 800gms but haiya, who knows?).  If I have leftovers, I’ll probably knit up an Evelyn Clark shawl with it. 

The beloved’s scarf remains unfinished, but time is passing quickly~ he will be back end of next month!!!  I’ve to finish it by then!! hehe.  Wish me luck.  As for the green shrug, I am still not done tucking in the tails.  Sigh.  For the blue shrug, contemplating frogging the edges and putting the original edges back in.  I noticed that with washing, the top will hang… and the edges would therefore, technically, hang much better than it did before.  We’ll see.  Wish I will have more inspiring weekends like the last!

Finally, a Finished Object! :)

Here’s the completed top from the Spring 2008 Richmore mag, in all its gloryyyy…

Yeppers!!!  It looks better when worn though!  I added additional rows to the sleeves coz I have fat arms I need covered.    It still doesn’t cover too well though.  Sigh.  I’ll live with it.

Etcetera, etcetera, etcetera…

Geez, I’ve been away from blogging for far too long!!!  In my absence, London has come and gone, WIPs have progressed, work’s getting more hectic (not really complaining), more yarn has been stashed… hehe… ok ok, one by one now…

London / Paris - what can I say?  It was a lovely vacation, besides the fact that it got a tad too warm in the later days when I was there.  Plus, I had really good company~  the beloved.  I really can’t ask for more.  It was two weeks of pure pampering.  Haha!  Not only was I pampered, the beloved got pampered as well (hey, it can’t be a one-way thing right!).    We spent 3Ds2Ns in Paris… the city of looovvvveeee… nothing much has changed since I was there in 2001; it’s still breathtakingly romantic and beautiful.  Oh the structures!  The atmosphere!  The food!  The cost of everything in EURO!  hahaha.  Needless to say, I didn’t buy much (it hurts to see it in Euro and having to convert it to RM!).  I was hoping to yarn and bead shop in London… but hmm…I didn’t run into any of the said shops!    Bummer.  I did go online to check out yarn shops, but all seemed so far away (my translation of far ~ anywhere that required two or more train changes!).  Heee!

But I did block the blue swallowtail and the black shetland shawls that I had finished, the two nights before I left for London (YES!  So last minute.  So ME!).  I know I did take pictures of ‘em being blocked…but I can’t seem to find them on the cam!  Wondered if I had accidentally deleted them whilst searching for memory card storage space in London (smart me brought only 1GB because I TOTALLY forgot to pick up the 2GB from the camera bag).  Oh well.  I have the shetland with me so I’d probably go take a picture of it… in due time. 

WIP Updates - The Richmore top is 99% complete   I actually only need to tuck in 5 tails.  But I’m lazy (figures), and, my head is on something else… will do it this weekend.  Oh I so promise!  I was too bored on the 12.5hrs flight to London, that I started and finished a mini crocheted shawl using leftover Japanese crochet yarn that I’ve had since like forever.  It turned out rather pretty but a tad too long.  Ah.  At least it ate up some of the time I had on a full-to-the-brim flight.

Scarf for the beloved went not very far in London, probably a few rows?  Hahaha.  I had to bring it home!  But then, I’ve been very productive on it since, and am on the last skein!  Or, what I THOUGHT was the last skein…   Found another skein of the Olympus Make Make in my closet last night!  haha hahaha!  Alright.  That one is seriously the last skein.  Heh heh!

A New Project and Yarn Stash – Remember the wrong-fit shrug that have pretty flowers on them?  I so want one in an off-white (that is too beige, and of course, does not fit me!) for a BIG event hopefully next year (need to start early coz we all know what a great procrastinator I am), and so, went to stash on the DMC #10 last week.  Sad to say, soft and smooth as it felt when I bought them, it didn’t feel that great crocheted up.    Thankfully, it was cheap.  Contemplated using the DMC Petra and did a swatch with whatever leftovers I had, soft it was, but looked humongous for the flowers   I had to order the ONline Hubner Filetta from my LYS… sucky thing is, both the DMC and ONline does not have an off-white color (natural white, not a bleached white) on their charts.  Was hoping KnitPicks had the alpaca/silk blend in natural white, but alas, it only came in variegated colors.  Sobs.  I’m not too happy with the Filetta as well.  It doesn’t seem as soft as the beige Filetta I had used.   Cost me much more than the DMC too… but I could go back to exchange for other yarn (minus the one that I had swatched with).

I wished the LYSs had more variety like in the States or in Japan.  It’s just almost impossible to find something I like here that I think is worth the $ I pay.    After endless searching, found an online store that stocked Olympus crochet yarn (felt them in Japan, soooo luxurious).  Was happy for a super short moment (like, 5 seconds?) … coz they are wholesalers, and would only entertain distributors…why oh why!

… it was after that… that I found the yarn of my dreams (for this project anyway).  How does 100% silk sound?  OH YEAH!  Plus, it’s about the same price (if not, just a tad more) with the Filetta yahooo!  They are located in Portland, OR (God bless America) and they do ship internationally.  Double yahoo!  I’ve sent in a request for more information on their colorway (plus shipping costs boo hoo hoo), hope they’ll reply soon!  Yay!  Oh I can’t wait!

What I have been up to… :)

I have a little surprise with my black DMC Petra.  I had initially wanted to knit the Swallowtail for myself, but decided that I’d like to use the silk alpaca instead.  Anyway, I have finished the black DMC knit…but let’s keep it as a surprise for now….I haven’t had it blocked yet therefore patterns aren’t showing up as great.  Hee.

The beloved’s scarf is still a status quo… but my Richmore lace top is progressing reasonably well.  Have frogged a good deal out of it though coz I can’t get the top to look good.   Will photograph once it is pretty much in place.

Beading-wise, Ching Keat brought me some stuff to reengineer…   I still have not figured what to do with the necklace but I have completed the earrings:

The only original part from her earrings are the gold hearts with rhinestone centers   They use to sit on mini hoops, but they broke apart not long after she bought it.  This is the first time I’m creating something with artistic wire~  I really like the intricate effect!  However, still lacking some materials needed to create more parts i.e. mandrels for jump rings and a good flush cutter, so I’m putting wire beading on the back stove till I get everything I need!

London trip is coming up next week, am hoping to do some yarn and bead shopping… hopefully I’d be able to get my hands on some Handmaiden Sea Silk or silk from FleeceArtist.  Oh, that would be just lovely…and heavenly…

MiMi

Tired of boarding and missing MiMi when we go on our then-annual vacation to Canada, we brought her along with us for the years 2005 and 2006.  JAL then allowed small dogs in the cabin, a rule which they have changed wef from 1 April 2006.  Boo-hoo!! 

For those who know us well, know that we try to avoid travelling in summer, being naturally insulated and all that haha!  Our trips are usually in early Spring, mid to late Fall, or either early or late Winter.  What’s the point of travelling in summer to a 4-season country when I get summer all year round back home.  Hee.

Anyway, I started to wonder if MiMi could adapt to the cold weather…she’s so pampered and domesticated that I wasn’t quite sure if she still has her doggy survival instincts!  Maternal instincts kicked in and prompted me to knit her some sweaters to bring along with us.  I can’t deny that I wasn’t having fun too.  And well, she loves to play dress up and couldn’t wait for me to put her in the knitted wear:

Clothing proved useful as I took her for daily evening walks and to Whistler Village.  At Whistler, she started to shiver eventhough I had her in not one, but two layers of clothing:  One being 100% wool (red and white striped one), and the other, 100% sparkly blue mohair.  I think she was just playing it up, so that we’d carry her and she doesn’t have to walk on the grounds!  That theory was proven when I carried her out to the balcony area of our lodge in her cotton pajamas and early morning zero-degree temperature.  She was perfectly fine!  haha! 

I believe besides the sparkly blue mohair, there’s another piece that I have knitted:  a dark heather gray piece with red trimmings and a heart design at the back.  Have to photograph these two and post it here sometime when I remember!

Since she is now no longer able to travel in the cabin area, we have stopped bringing her along with us… and thus, the knitting for her stopped too; we only dress her in 100% cotton clothing during the night, which is hassle-free as I buy baby tops for her   Ah.  So cute.

Laura’s Gift

I’m finally done with Laura’s gift and it was passed on to Min yesterday. Phew. Finally satisfied with the outcome. In total, I had rebeaded the necklace and the bracelet three times each. I just was never satisfied with the necklace, whilst for the bracelet, the matching pattern to the necklace didn’t look that appealing (too loud), therefore, I rebeaded it to something simpler and dainty.   The size looked right but after double-stranding… it was a quarter inch too short.  There goes a rebeading process again.  haha.  Didn’t find it stressful though!  Min loved the set, and I hope Laura would, too.

The finished product (earrings are no different from in the previous post so I’ve excluded it in this post):

They have arrived!

Finally, I’m reunited with James & Min after two years.    The only difference now is that there is a new addition to the family — baby Jaden.    He is absolutely gorgeous.  Wished he could have sat still enough for me to have a photo with him though, but it was not meant to be.  Yet.  Hopefully, he’d be in the right mood to pose with me come Sunday.  What a happy, smiley baby!

Min brought back for me a wonderful assortment of stuff.  Well, I mailordered stuff to be delivered to her place and she diligently brought them home for me… it wasn’t a huge lot, but boy are they heavy!  Feel kinda bad that they had to carry all these stuff for me…so so so grateful to have friends who don’t complain about how much of a nuisance I am to them hee hee

Beading Stuff
Stuff from WigJig & eBay!  Lovely, lovely, lovely!  Can’t wait to try them soon (after I have at least SOME of my WIPs turn into FOs).

Knitting Stuff
Harmony fixed circular cables and lace weight alpaca yarn… the colors are absolutely gorgeous.  Head’s abuzz with the things I’d like to do with the yarn, but haven’t yet figured which yarn to do what with.  Would like to try the Shetland Triangle with one of these though.  The head’s saying, “Use the Sunkissed”.  The heart is drawn to “Lilac’s Dream”.  A clash of two worlds.  Argh.

 
My Wrap Style book arrived on time, phew!  I’ve to say there is only a small number of things that I really like in this book… so, there’s this big chance that I might sell this book off as “used” once I complete what I am aiming to complete.

So much to do, so little time.  Stuck on my Richmore project and hoping to have the time to go over to Adeline’s to seek divine assistance *grin*.  And just realized that I have yet to photograph my Hamanaka stash.  Ah.  There’s always next time.

The Land of the Rising Sun…and stuff

This is part of my stash from Yuzawaya @ Kichijoji, Japan.  Concave round nose pliers, flat nose pliers, two accessory kits. 

 

I tried to find Clover round nose pliers but it wasn’t anywhere to be found.  Bought these from Yee’s Button House in SS2, Petaling Jaya.  Seriously costly, but worth every penny.

 

Starting work on one of the two accessory kits from Japan.  My first time using wire!

 

The finished product.  Thankfully the graphical directions weren’t hard.

 

Close up of the flower.  This is gonna be part of my accessories for Peter’s wedding on Sunday.

 

I was dying to experiment with the cookie moulds I got from Tokyu Hands, Ikebukuro, Japan.  Just lovely.  Got to admit the cookie itself wasn’t that lovely though.

 

The 1 of 4 Hello Kitty moulds!  Darn cute but the imprints don’t show as clear in person as in the picture.

 

My batch ‘o cookies.  The browner ones are from the first batch coz I wasn’t quite watching the oven… heh heh.

 

Close up of my Sunday night’s effort.