Knit FO: The Mistaken Pumpkin

Really sorry I've been away for so long. Lot's of things have happened, but to keep things short: I resigned from my old job 2 months ago, went away to Europe for 3 weeks and start my new job on Monday!

And so, I return to this forgotten blog with a completed FO! I present The Mistaken Pumpkin.

Inspired by our first trip to Scotland (and by the fact that we were going to be there in autumn), I decided to make use of the Pumpkin Latte yarn I purchased from the Plucky Knitter in 2008 and found an extremely easy to understand and really pretty pattern: The Mistaken Shawl.

Completed in early August, I washed and blocked it immediately and eagerly waited to take pictures of it "on location". The perfect opportunity presented itself when we visited Roslyn Chapel, just half an hour away from Edinburgh city centre. The weather was sunny for long enough for us to take these pictures, before it started raining again.

I used 2 skeins of Pumpkin Latte and 4.5mm needles.

Knit FO: Pumpkin stole

Here's one project I forgot to post about... I completed the Pumpkin stole in early February and gave it to Auntie Sze Peng as a birthday gift soon after.

I somehow forgot to record what yarn I used and I cannot recall which one this is except it was bought on sale from Spotlight and is very soft! I improvised the pattern from a poncho pattern in one of my Japanese magazines and converted into a stole instead.

Apologies for the lack of details here!

Knit FO: Travelling Woman No.2 for Su Ling

For my cousin Su Ling's birthday, I gave her my second Travelling Woman shawl. My first was given to Rommel's mother for Christmas last year - details here.

I love this pattern - so easy to follow and a pleasure to knit. Small enough to take along for holidays too!

Details:-

Ravelry link: here

Pattern: Travelling Woman by Liz Abinante

Yarn: Ancient Threads Sockittome - handdyed yarn I bought at iKnit last December.

Needles: 5mm circulars.

Knit FOs: Spring and Ellis Bags

Finally, some knit FOs!

I've been on a bag crocheting spree lately - am planning to hopefully make enough to sell at this year's church annual bazaar. Here are two recently completed bags: Spring (on the left) and Ellis.

Spring just reminds me of... spring! I used milk yarn from Spotlight Singapore, a 4mm hook and pretty wooden handles from The Quilt Gallery at Bangsar Village. I've also made a little matching pink purse but no pics of that yet since I've just completed it.

Ellis is a simple tweed bag with acrylic handles, named after Mr Ellis, my economics teacher back in boarding school in the UK because he always wore tweed.

Both are loosely based on patterns from my various Japanese crochet books but I've modified them quite a bit to fit the handles and the limited amount of yarn I had of each type.

And.... here is my new toy at home! Say hello to Mac! (And hi to my little project storage table which I bring around the house to keep all my knit-related notions like scissors, stitch markers, tapestry needles etc.. On the top is the WIP Spring bag).

And in the reflection below, I'm using my other new toy - I've finally purchased a Nikon D90 - my upgrade from the D50 which I have given to my sister.

March has been a gadgets galore month... and we need to save money from now on. (Shhh... we also bought a PS3).

Knit FO: Misti scarf

I thought for a very long time about what to do with these 2 skeins of Misti Alpaca that I purchase from Loop London more than 2 years ago. After all, they were the most expensive yarn I had purchased (at that point in time) so I didnt want to "just make something" out of them.

As it turns out, the simpler, the better. I ended up knitting the most basic 2-colour garter stitch scarf for our London trip.

Lovely.

Details:
Ravelry link: here
Yarn: Misti Alpaca Chunky Solids
Needles: 6mm straights

Knit FO: Auntie Annie's shawl

Made for my Auntie Annie for her birthday last October... I'd actually completed it, got it washed, took pictures and all before giving it to her but I've just realised I forgot to post pictures of it here!



Details:
Ravelry link: here
Pattern: Japanese mag ISBN978-4-277-17230-1, Shawl No.5
Yarn: 4 skeins of Winter Soft in rose pink, purchased from Jet Sun at Sg Wang.
Crochet hook: uh-oh I can't remember now.

Knit FO: Japanese Hippie Bag

A super easy Granny square bag with plastic handles. This was meant to be a birthday present for my aunt but after I made it, my mom decided that it might not be something she'd use. So we kept it for ourselves!


Details:
Ravelry link: here
Pattern: Sorry no links to it. It's from one of my Japanese magazines.
Yarn: Patons Jet, purchased from Spotlight Singapore
Crochet hook: Japanese size 7

Knit FO: Travelling woman 1

This shawl really fits its name.

The yarn travelled from The Plucky Knitter in the US to my home in Malaysia. I then brought it to London where I cast on in London in December and completed it in Paris a week later. It has followed me home to Malaysia and has been given to Rommel's mom as a Christmas present.

The pattern was very simple to follow and I had fun knitting this! In fact, I enjoyed it so much, I made another one right after. That second one has been washed and blocked but not photographed yet!

Details:
Ravelry link: here
Pattern: Travelling Woman by Liz Abinante
Yarn: The Plucky Knitter Merino Seacell in Garland colourway
Needles: 5mm circulars

Knit FO: Cherry leaf shawl

Finally the internet gods have allowed me to post some pictures! (It's been soooo slow of late that I've tried various times and the connection was just too slow.)

Anyway, here is my Cherry shawl, named after the pattern in the Victorian Lace Today - Shoulder shawl in cherry leaf pattern. As usual, I didn't knit the border as I thought it was nice enough as it is.

The pattern itself was pretty easy to memorise after a while and the yarn is super soft cashmere lace from the Plucky Knitter. I've worn it out to a friend's wedding (the picture below was taken that night after the wedding dinner), and I brought it along to London where it was very well used to keep out the cold winter winds!



Details:
Ravelry link: here
Pattern: Shoulder shawl in cherry leaf pattern by Jane Sowerby
Book: Victorian Lace Today
Yarn: The Plucky Knitter Cashmere Handpainted Laceweight in Francie Stevens colourway.
Needles: 5mm circulars

Knit FO: Isabelle's dress

Say "Hi!" to the super-cute, super-chatty Isabelle!

She is wearing the dress/top I made for her second birthday in September. This is my first attempt at kidswear and I only had 3 days to complete it (her birthday party was a week earlier than I thought so I had to rush). I was rather nervous about giving it to her, you know, worried that it wouldn't fit, worried that it would be uncomfortable etc... I met up with her and her parents Tim and Jo last night and they said that it fit her well. I hadn't seen this picture Jo posted on Facebook so decided to check it out.

Pattern: None really. I just followed the instructions from the aunties at Jet Sun Sg Wang where I bought the yarn from.

Here goes:
CO 130 stitches on circular needles and join.
Knit in stockingnette stitch until desired length for the skirt portion.
Decrease until it's half the number of stitches (i.e. K2tog one round).
*K1, P1* repeat for about 3-4 inches and bind off. (You can also do a K2, P2 rib.)

This forms the basic tube dress. I then crocheted simple straps onto the dress which can be tied and adjusted so that as she grows up, Mommy can adjust the lengths and make it a top. Judging from the picture, I'll say the dress grew too short very quickly since Isabelle is tall for her age. Or it was just my own bad estimation for children's clothes.

Yarn: Katia Bombay, 2 skeins in Pink (Lot No. 2004) - lovely colours in cool cotton, perfect for our tropical weather!

Needles: 4mm/60cm circulars.

Confession - I bought 2 more skeins of Katia Bombay to make another baby dress but have not been motivated to finish it. I'm now thinking of ripping it all out and starting something different. We'll see!

New pictures of old FOs

Sometimes it's fun to dig out my old FOs for a little photoshoot....

Here's Lydia cowl - take 2. I still haven't weaved the ends in for this. Lazy me...


I would like to claim that I made the shrug in the next 2 pictures but sadly, no I bought it in Bali at this cute little Japanese-owned shop called Kunci Bali. It's situated along one of the main streets of Ubud near the famous Dirty Duck restaurant. We happened to pass by after our massage and SangSpa.



Snow White - one of my most used shawls.


And the Green Fairy....

Knit FO: Mom's Birthday shawl

For my mom's birthday this year, on top of the usual handbags (well, we've decided that by buying each other handbags, we can all use them!), I also crocheted her a shawl.

I chose this lovely gold and brown yarn at Jet Sun in Sg Wang, as recommended by the aunties there. My memory is very poor now and I cant remember the name of this yarn. The pattern is from one of my numerous Japanese crocheted shawls books. (My knitting books now take up 2 shelves in my room....)
* The shawl pin is actually my sister's hair pin. I took these pictures in her room since I was using her dressform as my model.

Sunaina's blankie - embellished....

Sunaina decided to embellish the baby blankie I made for her baby Sanjana... We hadn't known what sex the baby was when I found out about her pregnancy so I made the blankie a gender neutral one (just in case you know).

She brought it to work one day (more than a month ago now) to show me what she'd done and here are the pictures! So lovely! I'm not very good at embellishing so I was really amazed with it...

Knit FO: Apricot bag

I made this during our Pangkor Laut trip in July... Really cute pattern from one of my Japanese crochet bag series. I now use it as my office minibag - I keep a small purse with some money in it and take it out with me during breakfast and lunch! Fits the purse, my mobile phone and my Blackberry perfectly! The yarn is acrylic I think that's made to feel like linen and was purchased from Tailor and Alteration in Hong Kong.

Knit FO: Kitteh curtain

Finally some pictures!

Here is my first attempt at crocheting curtains.... I basically took a template from cats-themed Japanese knitting book and converted it into a filet crochet pattern. Simple simple. I couldn't decide what to use to hang the curtain up. I thought about crocheting little strings to this and tie them to the rod but was running out of yarn. In the end, I went to the hardware shop and bought some plastic shower curtain rings which works much better in the bathroom compared to metal ones!

The cotton yarn I used was bought for RM2/ball from Sally who got them really cheap in Ho Chi Minh City.

Knit FO: Sunaina's baby blanket

Secret project revealed!

I made this baby blanket earlier this year when I found out my colleague and friend Sunaina was going to have a baby. I've been keeping it as a secret for the past few months and can finally blog about it after giving it to her this weekend at her baby shower.

When I was deciding on the pattern, we had not yet ascertained the sex of the baby and so I wanted to keep it unisex. I also prefer simple and unfussy patterns for baby blankets so that it doesn't, in any way, irritate the baby.

I ended up deciding to do a simple reversible checkerboard pattern. Really simple and a pleasure to knit.



Yarny details:
Pattern - simple reversible checkerboard.
Yarn - Peru Naturtex Partners Pakucho Organic Cotton in cream, bought from JBW. 5 skeins used.
Ravelry post: here

Here's a pic of the two baby blankies I've made this year..

Knit FO: Side table doily

After months of procrastination, I finally made a doily for my side table over a couple of days. It fits just nice! My sister is wondering though why we call them pineapple doilies when they look like strawberries. Why really? I have no idea.



Details:
Pattern: No.37 from Pineapple Lace Doily book. (ISBN978-4-529-04470-7)
Yarn: 2 balls of Katia Nilo
Hook: Japanese hook Size 5

Knit FO: Basic crochet bolero No.1

Finally, I've grabbed the chance to take some pictures of my crochet bolero, which is named No.2 because I have a No.2 which I made for my cousin Vanessa.

I've worn it a few times now so it's somehow loosened up along the way but the yarn is really soft and comfy!

Project details:
Yarn: Sublime cashmerino silk aran in olive green.
Hook: Japanese hook size 7.
Notes: No.2 was made following the simple single crochet border pattern (the picture on the left in the book) whereas No.1 was made with the frilly border (picture on the right). - see my post on No.2 for pictures of the book.

P/S: Shen, notice that Coach bag in the corner? New luggage!! (Coach is on sale now and Ma's bought quite a bit. Prada starts its presale on Monday.. Die die die.)

Knit FO: Chantilly Baby Blankie

Doesn't baby Mikayla look all snug and comfy? Her mommy Olivia posted this on Facebook and so I just had to put these up here since I realised I hadn't taken many pictures of the blankie before it was given.


These photos were taken at Mikayla's full moon party last week, which we couldnt attend as we had something on... So we're having Part Deux of the party over in our house tomorrow. Can't wait to meet baby Mikayla!!

Details:
Yarn: Katia Chantilly (Super soft and machine washable... perfect for newborns!)
Needles: 4mm circs
Pattern - just simple garter stitch rectangle because I tried various patterns but they didn't show up nicely since the yarn is pretty fuzzy...