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.

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!

Updates on Project Baby Kyrie

I’m glad to announce that Project Baby Kyrie is completed and ready to ship!    Hope buddies Momma RS and Papa KA will be delighted to receive this:

I made some minor adjustments to the original pattern, which called for pearl buttons.  I couldn’t find the right-sized pearl buttons to match, so instead, I used the buttons for the cluster of flowers.  Oh, I added the flowers too, thought that it would make it look even more girly.    In place of the buttons, I made the ribbon-tie.  I thought it looked okay, doesn’t it?  *keeps fingers crossed*

Mom actually thought this was for MiMi hahahha!    I have been tasked to crochet her one soon, too… 

What’s with the green yarn?

I must say I’m progressing quite quickly with the variegated Marks & Kattens… and I’m frantically calculating my stash… I had to add quite a bit of motifs to the original pattern, and looking at it now (about 60% completed) I think I might just need all 7 balls. Sigh. Gotta call LYS to reserve that last one for me before someone grabs it (ok ok, I hear you laughing coz I left that one ball in the store, for reasons I don’t even know why).

Sneak peek:

Look at all the tails!!! So not looking forward to tucking ‘em all in. I used to tuck as I go, but neat as it looks, it doesn’t give me an option to remove and redo motifs if I need to. With that ivory thing (the unfinished, wrong-fit shrug), I tried to pick it all out but because I have tucked in the ends, I ended up having to cut and join yarn for each motif which was a hassle. I gave up and am now leaving it as wrong-fit coz it fits my mom fine. But I’m a little bit disappointed though, coz I really really really love the pattern.

So there, I will hold my horses and leave all tails intact until I am 100000% certain that the whole fit is good. heh heh! They say, “Once bitten, twice shy”. *winks*

The Shrug, Completed… sort of…

I have itchy hands, I’ve to admit.  Anyway, I actually finished the shrug.  Well, it’s like 98% finished, coz I haven’t tucked in all the tails yet (waiting for God knows when).  Here it is in all it’s glory:

Then here comes the itchy hands part.  Saw another edging in yet another book that I have, and thought, “Hey!  This could look better (slightly wider) than the one currently on shrug.  Maybe I should try it on one sleeve.”

Tried it I did.  Horrible it came out.  Time wasted.  Super demotivated.  How very intelligent.  Now it’s just gonna sit there hanging on my coat rack until I have the motivation to take the horrible mess out and put the other edging back on again.  So not looking forward to it.  This is what the Chinese call “catching the worm and stuffing it up your ass”.  Oh drats.

Semi-completed

I started work on the edgings for the sleeve today.  It came out… huge.    I really liked the pattern, but it is really bell-ed, and I look… well… ahem… “bigger”.

I made sure I took a photo of it (after all my hard work) before I unravelled the whole sleeve and started over again.  Went through all my books to get an edging pattern that will match and not look so big.  I don’t think the new pattern is the most exciting of things, but at least it doesn’t look as bad on me as this one did.  I am done with the sleeves, and working on the body of the shrug.  Should be able to post the completed picture soon!

Also, I got distracted by another project yesterday.  So, yeah, this failed to make it as THE project that I could finish without starting another one.  Sigh.  Here’s what I’m doing now…

It’s for Baby Kyrie!    She will turn one month soon!  I am hoping this would actually fit her.  This yarn has a pretty sheen and a really smooth texture, but I found it quite hard to work with (maybe because I am not as skilled!) because it snags easily (for me anyway).  I’ve been trying to stay away from this yarn as long as I could but alas, I’ve run out of things that I liked.  I finished the main part of this little top in a few hours (the joys of crafting for a baby!).  Will work on the edgings after I finish my shrug.

My timeline:  Shrug to be completed by this evening and baby top to be completed by tomorrow evening.    Oh by the way… I started work on another shrug… couldn’t resist the variegated yarn!!!  Bought a stash over the weekend (whatever was left of it).  Now I have more yarn.  Sigh.  I just can’t stop!

The Shrug, Part II

I’m so proud of M-E!  I beat myself to my timeline and actually got the sleeve finished last night!  And… drum roll please… it’s BLOCKED!  yahoo!  ok ok ok.  It’s ONLY partially blocked.  I managed to stretch out one sleeve and the body of the shrug, but not the other sleeve coz my blocking board couldn’t fit it all in.  Left it to dry overnight and this morning it’s lookin’ all good!  Will proceed to block sleeve numero due this evening.  Not sure yet of my schedule tomorrow night, but if I have nothing on, I think I will just go over to my LYS after work to get educated on how to seam up the sleeves.  The only way I know is doing slip stitches, but LYS said it would create a thicker seam.  She had suggested needling the thread thru each chain (oh what a pain!) and had sort of showed me how to do it (without actually doing it), but I’m getting cold feet.  I’d rather she start it off for me so that I am sure I know what I am doing.  Hah!  I’ll be project-less this evening~~  been working on the shrug for almost every evening since around September 20th.  Wow, I only took 2 weeks?  phew!  I’ll be kind of lonely without something to do tonight… oh oh, we are going over to an old friend’s place for dinner.    Maybe after blocking the other sleeve tonight I’ll go paint my toenails…. hmm… they are stripped off color at the moment and natural nail color is a little yellow from all the red-based OPI lacquers I’ve been using so they ain’t exactly a pretty sight at the moment.

Ok ok.  Paint nails I shall.   Laters.

The Shrug

This is my work in progress!  I’m quite happy about it really… it has been quite a while since I touched the crochet hook ‘n yarn.

Doesn’t look too bad does it?  I think it will look a whole lot better with blocking.  I am hoping to be able to finish it up by Thursday so that I can have it blocked on Friday… I can’t wait to start on the ruffles!    I am so motivated!  For now, at least.  Here’s how far I’ve gone:

Yep, I’m just missing a sleeve!  Yahoo!  Oh oh, I used Adriafil for this piece… on my 2nd ball now… I think this piece would take at max, 3 balls of 100gm each.  My LYS had only 4 balls left, but plenty of ONline crochet yarns in baby blue… however, this was a prettier blue, and I didn’t think that I would need 4 balls (but bought ‘em all anyway, “just in case”).  I’ve also worked with ONline before but I feel that Adriafil crochet yarn is smoother and easier to work with (can’t say the same for the other Adriafil I used! — will post on that later).  Cost per ball:  RM39.90.

What I like about knitting/crocheting shrugs is that I don’t have to attach sleeves… I’m still quite hopeless at that…   Actually, it’s more like, I don’t have the patience!  haha!  That’s why, shrugs are COOL!   I have another shrug in progress, but I’ve kinda given that up because it doesn’t fit sob sob!  Ah well… might just finish it up for sake and probably sell it off or something.  It does no wonders sitting in my closet.

 

Me @ 11:10am