Signature Needles and Hanami, Plus, Happy Birthday to Me.

My 29th birthday was just passed on the 1st September, and it was a nice one. I have to thank everyone whom I know and make me be me. Anyway, the main point I am mentioning my birthday is project related. How? I have to start that with the birthday present I received from my best friend, Amy. A pair of signature needles! As Louis Vuitton (I hope I did not spell it wrongly) in Leather, that's the brand for knitting needles!

I petted the needles (Well, I am sure it looks quite weird.) touching them, feeling the sharpness of the soullite tips, hugging them, and finally I have to think, what project I should work on. First I have to think of a rectangular lace shawl so as the take the best use of the pointy tips. After rounds of selection, I sorted that Hanami (Ravelry Link) should be the best option for them.

Yarn? My current favourite is Yarn Chef Buttercream. In the recent update, I got a skein of California Poppy which is of bright orange. After the selection of yarn and needles, I have to find the perfect beads for the beading edge at Sham Shui Po. It's a terrific place with a large selection of different beads from cheapy plastic ones to swaroski crystal ones. All the beading accessories can be also bought in a tremedous cheap price. I got some nice #8 orange glass beads here, which matches perfectly with the yarn. It's a bit small, but so far it's ok, as it will not make the shawl too heavy.

I cast it on at 17 September with the Basketweave section. A total of 7 repeats, each with 32 rows are required. The pattern goes fast when you can get hold of it. I'm now working on the 6th repeat of the pattern and I can see it's lovely. I hope I can finish the basketweave pattern by the end of this week, and then finish the whole shawl before October. Well, deadlines are seldom accomplished. :)

See the beads?

Oh-so-pretty Needles.

My First Ishbel

Pattern: Ishbel
Yarn: Sundara Sock Yarn in Night Blossom
Tools: Addi Turbo 4.0mm
Duration: 22/04/2009-28/04/2009
Ravelry Link

Sundara is one of my favourite indie dyers and it was terribly difficult to get any of her yarn. I got a chance to subscribe to half of her Seasons Collections and I went for an Autumn and Winter. Night Blossom is one of her Winter Collection and I really, really love the dark shade of purple and red and make it so elegant. It required quite a lot of courage to wind the skein and decide the best pattern for this oh-so-gorgeous yarn. I am so afraid that the good yarn would be ruined by a slightly carelessly chosen pattern.

I kept on searching and suddenly remembered one of the hit pattern on ravelry, Ishbel by Ysolda Teague. AND, THAT IS THE ONE.

Beautiful yarn and beautiful pattern, resulted in this:





A skein of sock yarn is more than enough to complete a S size Ishbel, and it's sort of warm and nice and beautiful. Adequate to wrap my neck and make me look really smart. It's quite a easy pattern and I highly recommend anyone to get your hands ready and cast on!! I am pretty sure that I will do one in laceweight and L size after I saw my friend's mother's day present. It's just so gorgeous.

Mini-Sweater

Amy and I has been purchased from Eat.Sleep.Knit. for a number of times and we reached a milestone in the Yarnathon! We shared the little present from Erin and I got the yarn and pattern for a mini-sweater. It's cute.

It's made using a small amount of sock yarn and US2 circular needles. (Yes, I am a big fan of magic loop) I used up almost all the yarn except for a total of 3 inches for weaving in. It's just a 2 hour knit and should make good ornaments!

The colour of the yarn's really good although it's a little bit off in the photo under light bulb and the feeling of knitting it is so nice. A smooth and fast moving yarn, I enjoyed knitting it so much. I asked Amy to check what yarn it is! I hope we can know. :)

New Potential Addiction

One of my best friends, Amy, was having her birthday in 18 May. And as a good friend of her, I decided to buy her a spinning kit that she might be interested. And, of course, in order to save shipping, I buy one for myself. :) A pretty good excuses for making a purchase right?

The spinning kit from Maine Woods Yarn & Fibre includes a maple wood top whorl spindle, 4.5 oz of fibre in three different colours and a small roving in white for practice. I have never come to this kind of stuff before, and spinning is obviously not a common thing in Hong Kong, I seek my help from the brilliant, lovely WWW.

I read a lot of youtube videos and tutorials online. Blogs are often the place where people share what they did, and of course I wouldn't miss the chance. After a day's work, I got these:

This single ply are very fine (in my opinion), and will be plied together using Navajo Plying.

Now, it's being wound into a ball and let the twist die before I start plying. And I go back to my knitting again. I am so excited on what it will become.

I Must Have Done Something Good

Nothing comes from nothing
Nothing ever could
So, somewhere in my youth or childhood
I must have done something good

This is one of my favourite song from the movie "The Sound of Music" , which I think a lot of people should know it. Why did I suddenlt think of the song? Because after I mailed out my swapping package in one afternoon, I got a big lovely package waiting for me at home, from my spoilee from the Ravelry Group "Swap of a Budget"!

I felt so loved when I started reading the words on the custom declaration form (It's my usual habit after receiving a package), which shows: 5 project bags. Oh yes! 5! We had to include a handmade item in the package, and I received 5! Totally spoiled. And then I read on: 12 skeins of yarn. What? 12? 1-2? which means 1+1+1+1+1+1+1+1+1+1+1+1? and Chocolate and magazines and all sort of things. I couldn't wait and read further. I just have to open it.

Here are all the goodies. Nothing disappointing. I am wholly spoiled.

I got 5 project bags, YES, I counted. Jackie (aka jikiknits on Ravelry) lovingly included 5 suggested projects for me, each of which is put in a project bag with nice squishy yarn. :)

This is the Swallowtail Shawl by Evelyn A. Clark. It has been sit in my queue for a very long time. Jackie also included a skein of Heather by Terilyn Needleart of beautiful purply colour. It's 100% wool and should become a pampering shawl for me.

Jackie sent me the Spring 2009 issue of Interweave Knits Magazine, and sent together 3 skeins of KnitPicks Gloss Lace, which should be enough for a Fountain Pen Shawl in this issue. I've been eyeing on the magazine for quite some time and I like quite a number of the patterns inside. I am coming Fountain Pen Shawl, Whisper Cardigan and ZickZack Tunic!

Jackie also included a pattern booklet using the famous cotton yarn Sugar'n Cream. It's my first time getting the chance to touch it. Here in Hong Kong we got sub-tropical climate, cotton has been the best friend of a lot of people. That's why I wanted to try the yarn. And Jackie sent me 8 skeins of Sugar'n Cream Twist in various colours for 3 projects! So lovely! First is the tote bag.

And a set of drawstring bags.

And three small baskets! They are really lovely.

Can you see all the project bags? I will be able to work on more project at the same time without messing things around then!

I must have done something good.

Embossed Leaves

Pattern: Embossed Leaves in Favourite Socks
Yarn: Handdyed Superwash Sock II from Simple Scarves
Tools: Knitpicks Options 2.75mm 100cm Circular
Duration: 13/04/2009– 20/04/2009

Following Maeby, these are the second pair of socks that I made. And it's gracefully modelled by my fatty feet. :)

I had a very enjoyable moment dealing with these socks, partly because of the fact that I learnt a new skill - Knitting 2 socks at a time. Level up! I know I know, it's not something new and not something worth noting for most of the more experienced knitters, but I just wish to share with you my happiness. :D I think next time, maybe I can try knitting 2 mittens at a time, or maybe 2 sleeves at a time?

The yarn was purchased from one of the most lovely indie dyer Mabel. She is a cheerful Malaysian girl who married and moved to Switzerland. Her handdyed yarn are lovely and the colours are so wearable. Again, I am not much a pastel colour girl but her colours really catches your eyes. You may always wish to take a look at her yarn. If you spin, I think her rovings should also worth a look, but I have no idea as I do not spin. :) She is also a responsible and responsive seller! My friend had a lost parcel from her and she followed it up nearly immediately and contacts were kept between my friend and her. Finally the box was returned to Mabel and she immediately sent it again to my friend, noting that she was willing to refund if the parcel was really lost. My friend was in no way upsetted. That's what a good seller means.

Back to the socks. They are lovely, and I knitted one half repeats as stated in the pattern, and as you can see, it fits! I have to admit that my feet is much smaller than most Westerners, which means that I can make a pair of socks with less yarn, is it a good thing? Maybe next time I should try to knit a pair of toe up socks so that I can knit a longer tube and have less left overs. For your information, I only used half of the 100g skein for my last pair of Maeby. This time, I have not weighed the left over yet, but I think at least I should have ~20g leftovers. Is it normal?

I am going back to crochet now, and working on a cresent moon shawl. I hope I can finish it within 2 weeks.

Mohair Stole

Pattern: Handmade　ニットスタイル
Yarn: Diakeito Diagenie 75g
Tools: Addi Turbo 5.0mm/ Japanese Crochet Hook #5/0
Duration: 07/03/2009– 12/03/2009

Ravelry Link

Close up of the frills.

I got the book some years ago and fell immediately in love with this scarf. (Although it's referred as a stole in the book, it looks and works like a scarf more) In particular I love the gradual change in colour of the mohair yarn in different shades of pink which never be too cute for anyone. It's worth noting that pastel colours, especially pink is simply not my colour and I try to avoid any of it. But this colour, is gorgeous, and I like it.

It's a very simple scarf, and somewhat boring for many people. It's somewhat constructed by knitting a rectangle in stock stitch and then crochet a border to add the interest. I love doing stock stitches as I can do it anywhere and anytime. :) mindless knitting. And it shows the colour well.

The result was great, but the mohair's itchy.

Maybe I should wear a turtle neck underneath. Sigh. Beautiful roses do have thorns.

Online Purchase (Finale)

Following my last post on my unpleasent online purchase experience, there's an update. We got refunded.

Although we got refunded, the 1.5months of waiting and dealing with the seller were completely an expected nightmare for us. I am very disappointed and will remove her from the potential yarn provider for me. I feel sorry, but I wouldn't give her a second chance. Her attitude's simply not right, and did not try to make the thing correct before it's publicized.

Anyway, I got my money back, I should go and purchase some other yarn to make myself better. :)

A brief note on the progress of my knitting

Although I stopped posting the progress of my knitting for sometime, I have continued doing the job. I've finished my Icarus Shawl from Best of the Interweave Knits in 3 weeks time, which I was not really satisfied with the progress. I will post the picture of the shawl and write something about the FO a little bit more by that time.

And then, I finished the hand-made item for the Swap on a Budget on Ravelry. I was still struggling what I should put in the box apart from the hand-made item while keeping the cost to be below 20 US Dollars...... I got something from the 10 dollar shop in Hong Kong, which I hope my spoilee would love, and then I should get some yarn, but still, not too many ideas.... -_- But I will try to get everything gathered and organized soon.

Experience with Online Purchase

I do a lot of online purchase every month, mostly for yarny things from all round the globe including Mainland China, Japan, US, Switzerlands and UK. Luckily, all my orders were processed fast and nicely and I received what I wanted and expected at the right time. And my confidence to do online purchase has increased a lot since the first time I do. Something haven't been changed was that I would normally buy in a small quantity to test the quality of the yarn and the service before I order a lot.

This time I ordered some yarn from US, my first time with this seller on February, approximately 1 1/2 month from now. I understand that the yarn would take time to arrive, and so my friend and I waited for some weeks to look forward to the yarn. As the international shipping charged was quite high and we expected that the yarn will be shipped by priority mail, which should arrive our doors approximately a week after it's mailed based on our experience. After 2 weeks from ordering, my friend, who placed the order, emailed her once, twice, and no response was received. She wrote a comment on the seller's blog and pm-ed her on ravelry, yet received no response.

We both started to be a little bit panic after 4 weeks, especially we were still seeing her very actively updating her blog and posting on Ravelry forums. We thought that the emails might have been wrongly delivered to the spam folder and the seller might missed the pm's on ravelry. (you know things could just go wrong) I started PM-ing the seller and we got her response! Finally! More than a month after we ordered the yarn and 2 weeks after we first approached her.

The seller told me that she was just to reply to my friend's email and blog comments. Her response to my friend said that the yarn "must have been lost" and she will resend the yarn again, without further questions. My friend has established a connection with the seller and I moved myself out of the conversation so as not to make the thing more complicated. It has been a week after I first pm-ed the seller and the seller replied me, yet we have not received a tracking number from her. I hope the seller has shipped the yarn and we could have it say by the end of next week.

I do not mind waiting, as far as I know when I will get the yarn and I am assured that I will get the yarn. It can make people very desperate if I purchased something several thousand miles away and waiting here and got no response from the seller even if she has been contacted. It's just not the proper way to do a business. I do not think the seller was cheating in anyway, as she really mailed the yarn to some of the customers, and they were truly satisfied. But I really wonder her attitude in dealing with her mailings, and customer service. We would be much comforted if she replied the emails or pms once they were received. Someone on ravelry commented on the quality of an "average seller" and we should not expect everyone to be "excellent sellers" who will reply promptly and do the mailings at the first instance. I was wondering if the seller cannot fulfill her responsibility, i.e. mail the yarn within a reasonable time (say a week?) and did not say anything even after she has been approached, can she be still called an "average seller"? I don't think I am too mean to call her a "lower-than-average seller" who cannot satisfy my expectation.

I will keep this issue updated when I received the yarn I will try to make things clearer by drawing up a timeline for all the incidence. :) I hope I can receive them soon.