Crochet Japanese Lace Shawl

Pattern: 上質素材のレース編み ショール・小もの・ベスト by 雄鶏社
Yarn: Yarn Chef 100g
Tools: Clover Crochet Hook 1.5mm
Duration: 18/11/2008 – 03/12/2008

Ravelry Link

I have been the fans of Yarn Chef for quite some time and this time I got a skein of her 2-ply silk lace weight in lime green. When I received it, I was so amazed by the softness of the yarn and the subtle colour change of the bright lime colour. But then, wait, what can I do something wearable using this bright colour? I am sort of a dull girl and go for earth colours for my clothes...

Um, maybe I can try to crochet a shawl. A shawl is something that I would put on my body with bright colours, and if I do crochet, the large amount of holes. I hope it would balance out the oh-so-bright colours.

So here comes the results:

Stunning!

I think it comes out to be better than I expected. It perfectly fits my favourite sweater in teal colour, which is my current favourite. My friend said that I look slim in this photo, umm, I have to agree. I look approximately 20 pounds less. :)

The yarn was a little bit splitty at the early stage, and then when I continue and get hold of the yarn, it becomes much better and I can crochet like wind. The softness and smoothness of the yarn really gave me very good experience and I could not help myself in buying more. Oh My God. I now have many spun sugar from Yarn Chef and Silk Lace from Sundara, which I believe they are using the same base yarn. AND, I highly recommend Yarn Chef, because it’s such a good bargain for the spun sugar, and you should also look at her fingering weight series. The colours are REALLY nice!

Knitted Shawl by Hitomi Shida

Pattern: #12 Triangle Stole by Hitomi Shida
Yarn: Hamanaka Extra Fine Lame
Tools: Addi Turbo 4.0mm 80cm
Time：22/02/2009 - 03/03/2009
Ravelry Link

During blocking

sparkling yarn!

I've been long time astonished by the works of Hitomi Shida by their elegance and beauty. I have not picked up the needles for any of the works because of 1) time, 2) wearability, 3) concentration. The works are so beautiful but I always wonder if anyone would wear them in a normal occasion. Finally, this shawl came to my eyes, they are nice, simple, elegant, and at the same time wearable.

The yarn sparkles a little bit, and is DK. If I have to do it again, I would possibly switch to thinner yarn and smaller needles. It's a little bit too heavy.

I learnt new techniques this time, knitting borders for shawls through knitting one edge stitch of the body with each row of the edge. It comes out to be nice. I was so satisfied with the results.
I love Japanese patterns because: (list again, well, engineers like lists)

1. They are systematically chartted using standard symbols which I learnt from my teacher. I can foresee how the pattern would come out just by looking at the chart, so attractive right?

2. They are easily accessible in Hong Kong. We can order our books fairly easily through our LYS - Tailor & Alternation, and they are cheap compared with the US books we have to order from US and the shipping is really killing.

3. Patterns are more fashionable and the trend in Hong Kong is quite similar to the one in Japan. The clothes are very wearable in general.

4. Crochet patterns are JUST GORGEOUS. Well, possibly not that relevant in this post, as the shawl is knitted. :) But I like the crochet pattern books in Japanese so much more than those from US. The motifs in Japanese pattern books are also far more than granny squares. If you crochets, I highly recommend you to get any copy of those pattern books and have a look. Once you can manipulate the charts, it's easy, and a new world's there for you.

Maeby

Pattern: Maeby by feminsty
Yarn: dkKnits technicolor dream toes – Graduation Day
Tools: Knitpicks Fixed Circular 2.25mm 100cmTime：14/02/2009 - 21/02/2009
Ravelry Link
Yarn - Graduation Days - Shows my gown colours. Becky's really a genius!

This is the first pair of socks that I knit!! Although I have done several baby boots in the past but the construction is far different to adult socks! Maeby is designed by feminsty on Ravelry and was distributed freely to subscriber of Dkknit’s sock collection - I wool dye for ewe sock club. How generous!

I used the January skein – Graduation Day for the socks, and through magic loop, a new skill I just acquire, to make my first pair of socks!! I feel myself much upgraded! LEVEL….. UP!

It’s a fast knit, the lace pattern is not difficult, and the lace section can be finished within a day after going home from work. You can see how fast it is. I am somewhat decreased the speed for the second sock due to second sock sydrome, but I finally managed and work it out! Next time, I would try to knit 2 socks at a time. :)

Sable Yarn Purchase in China

Dear friends, let us first put aside the animal issues, and please stop your mind thinking how these yarn are spun from.

I recently read some posts by fellow ravellers on Sable Yarn, and was so attracted to it. Then I went to taobao.com and purchased some from a seller whom I have previously dealt with. It was not really a smooth progress during purchase as the seller can hardly be reached. However, when everthing's settled, it goes so fast and I received the yarn from Mainland by NEXT DAY.

I ordered different brands and different colours to see how exactly each skein is going. If you can read Chinese, you may follow the link to the seller's page and get a brief idea on what this is. However, I would try my best to describe the yarn here.

I purchased 6 balls of sable yarn and this is how they look like upon arrival.

They somewhat look a little bit dirty when they arrived so I washed and wind them into
skeins for storage, and photo shooting. :) I love how yarn looks in skeins. In general, they are soft and I do not have any itchy feeling at all, but my oh-so-delicate mom says they are a little bit itchy..... Again, I will stick to plant fibres/silk for her. -_-

No swatches done for these yarn, so let me just describe them a little bit, in an ascending order of how I like it.


I like this colour very much, lovely orange red. Compare with other yarn I purchased, it's a little bit coarse and reminds me of hemp. I'm not sure how it knits up, will it soften a bit after swatching and further washing? Bleeding is not serious considering the heavy colour on the yarn. I think it would knit up with a little bit feeling of tweed.

From the information provided by the seller, it contains 40% white sable, 50% australian merino and 10% nylon. It costs 43RMB/50g ball. Link here: http://item.taobao.com/auction/item_detail-0db1-4763e63e2234967f620c6a497cbdd95f.htm

I do not have much feeling for this yarn. It's soft, but not as soft as the following ones. The colours are not that loving. Everything is on the average. The colour should be subtle enough to make a garment, but wait, a garment using lace yarn?! It's nearly the thinnest among the 6 balls and there should be over 500m in the 50g ball.

It contains 80% sable, 20% fox and costs 40RMB/50g ball. Link here: http://item.taobao.com/auction/item_detail-0db1-deb55fb26d92560fd161a9e47b6ca2ae.htm




This ball shows beautiful purple, but it bleed so seriously and there was a layer of blue remains after washing the yarn. The colour of the beautiful purple remains after the washing which is worth noting. It's soft. Starting from this yarn, the softness is at least comparable to cashmere, AT THIS PRICE.

The yarn costs 38RMB/50g ball and Link here: http://item.taobao.com/auction/item_detail-0db1-135d9a3d073e129804effc4c96e6e195.htm


This yarn shows light green which is a little bit too bright for nearly anything. It is the finest of all and should go beyond 500m/50g. It's manufactured by one of the biggest yarn producer HengYuanXiang and the quality if actually quite good. It's soft, without a lot of fuzzy thing coming out. (Umm, how can I make it seem more technical?) It makes me think of cotton threads but it's much softer.

The yarn contains 80% sable, 8% cashmere and 12 % nylon. It costs 29RMB/50g ball and link here:
http://item.taobao.com/auction/item_detail-0db1-644790a93af3823e9bf42b369bf95217.htm

I love it! It's so soft and comes to a close second! It's a little bit fuzzy and the yarn is somewhat "thicker" than others. It is so soft and lovely and I like the colour of it. It bleeds a little bit not severe considering it's dark colour. If you like mohair/angora, it's a good choice.

The yarn contains 40% sable, 50% wool and 10% nylon. It costs 40RMB/50g ball and the link is here:

http://item.taobao.com/auction/item_detail-0db1-b1f8993e80227acf2b6836192b9b56e8.htm

The champion comes!! It's SO SOFT! Not too fuzzy and not thread like, smooshy and lovely. If you take a close up at the photo, you may see some darker fibres sticking out of the yarn, I think it would be the sable part of it. I am thinking of a lacey scarf using it. :) It's also a product of HengYuanXiang.

It contains 40% sable, 50% wool and 10% nylon. It costs 39RMB/50g ball and link here:

http://item.taobao.com/auction/item_detail-0db1-14ac7fe479e6a21db13ba1f539fd15b0.htm

The next job: I have to swatch. :)