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!

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…

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.

The 4-S

Swallowtail Shawl
The swallowtail is complete!  It looks a little small though I did add in a few repetitions…   But it should be fine on Evi (coz she’s small anyway!).  And with repetitions, came problems…

I was 8 stitches short when I came to Lily of the Valley Border 2… *smacks head*  Apparently I counted it correct for the transition between Budding Lace and Lily of the Valley Border 1… but failed to calculate what I needed for LOTVB 2.  Gah!  8 stitches is quite far off… but I wasn’t about to want to frog it over again.  So, I added 4 stitches to each side of the shawl… I don’t think it looks that obvious…it looks like little eyelets  

Now with the nupps.  What are nupps?  These are the dreaded nupps:

God knows who created nupps!!!  They are very pretty of course, but they are absolulely by far the worst to work with, especially when the K1, YO, K1, YO, K1 nupp is called for.  I can’t imagine who in the world would have fun purling through 5 stitches.  Well, normal stitches yes, but not nupps!  I can’t even begin to tell you what a rough time I had with these things… (that’s before I found out that there were other ways besides purling through 5 stitches)… I seriously almost gave up…

Until, I found out that hey, I could use a crochet hook to rope it all in!  Yes!  Slow, but steady.  And you get a tight (but nice) little nupp.

And I found from the internet, countless others who have had the same problem.  One suggestion was to slip 4 stitches, purl 1, and start passing over the 4 stitches, one by one, to the purled stitch.  Worked, but way too slow.  Yes, I’m impatient.

Another suggestion:  Move the stitches to the cable part of the circular needles… which is seriously, a God-sent advise.  Migrated from the crochet hook to the 4 stitch pass over, to this method.

I think I like the crochet hook nupp the best.  It does look much tighter than the others.  Found another solution… slip 2 stitches, purl 3 together, and pass over the 2 slipped stitches.  I think this will work mighty fine.  Will just try it for my very own swallowtail.  Bought the DMC Petra in black for the swallowtail for self yesterday.    And 4mm circulars…   Addicted to circulars now!  Noticed that my hands don’t tire as quickly as using the regular straight needles.

Scarf for the Beloved
Unfortunately, still no progress from Ball No. 3.  Or was that Ball No. 4?  Hehe.  Am kinda taking my time coz he won’t be able to use it till Fall/Winter anyway, and it’s only Summer now, so I have plenty of time (so I think). 

Something New
I can’t resist starting new projects!  That’s why I have multiples of WIPs…so I don’t get bored, actually.  Bought the 2008 Spring/Summer Richmore magazine… in love with the crochet piece on the cover (and quite a number of things on the inside, of course).  Bought DMC Petra in a light khaki color yesterday at Adeline’s too.  Started on it as soon as I got home from dinner… but frogged it gazillion of times because I kept counting it wrong…either too little stitches, or too much.  I think I have it mentally calculated rightly now (it wasn’t actually Quantum Physics but I don’t know why I just couldn’t get it right), but the 3 rows I had worked on had been frogged so much I don’t think the yarn is in the greatest of conditions.  Therefore, I’m gonna cut off that part of the yarn and use the frogged yarn as waste yarn ~ great for starting my black swallowtail

Someone’s Wedding
Laura’s (Min’s colleague) earrings are done, and I just love ‘em to bits!  I managed to beadwrap the centerpiece too… I think it looks much better that way.  With beadwrapping, meant I had to redo the necklace.  Which is ok with me, because I wasn’t ecstatic with the original way the centerpiece was sitting.  Min said Laura was already mighty pleased with the way it was, but I couldnt stand it and just had to redo it.  It’s half redone anyway.  Bracelet to follow.  Deadline, hopefully Monday.

Before beadwrapping: 

  After beadwrapping:

Earrings…

That’s when Min will be back from the States with James and one-year old Jaden.  Oh I can’t wait.  I haven’t seen them in 2 years!  Plus, Min will be bringing home for me, some lovely lovely things I had mail-ordered ~ artistic wire for beading and Harmony circulars and yarn from www.knitpicks.com  Was so tempted to buy the Harmony circular interchangable  set but it was $69.99 and had me thinking twice…or three times… probably more… PLUS, my immediate need was for the less than 4mm circulars.  So, instead of the interchangable Harmony, I bought the fixed cable Harmony… can’t remember what sizes I bought though…haha!  Absent-minded.  Oh, can’t wait!  Can’t wait!