Plaited Poncho Finale

The booboo row is right across Daniella's bosom

Missed one!

Looks better as skirt!

Project:  Plaited Poncho 辨子披肩

Pattern:  Plaited Poncho by Knitter's Design Team, Knitters Magazine Summer 2005 

Yarn:  Big green ball of (probably) wool found in my stash, most likely came from eBay

Yardage:   about 900 yards. The ball was wound off a big cone, weighs smidgen below 1lb.

Needles: Size 8

Cast on: April 25, 2012 

Cast off: June 24, 2012

Cost: unknown

Previous entries: first, second, third

Notes: This is a top down design, with increases built into the cables. The cables grow from 2x2 to 7x7. I mis-read one of the rows and messed up the spacing between cables. Then I thought the vertical lines would be perfect to be used like belt loops, so I made an i-cord to thread through them. Not sure if the intention is to hide the mistake or to highlight it, but there it is, with one missed loop to boot. On Daniella the mannequin it actually looks better as a skirt. 

Happy Friday! Join the party on Andrea's blog, Tami's blog, and leave me a comment! 

Winner, Wingspan Finale

I decided to draw one name to make one happy fiber artist, and the name was Denise who blogs at Voie de Vie. Denise, I will get in touch with you shortly.

Project:  Wingspan
Pattern:  Wingspan by maylin Tri'Coterie Designs, Ravelry free download 
Yarn:  Kauni 8/2 wool, about sports weight, purchase at Stitches West 2011 
Yardage:  437.4 yards (400 meters) 
Needles: Size 6
Cast on: April 19, 2012
Cast off: June 20, 2012
Cost: $28
Previous Entry: here
Notes: This is my foray into popular pattern territory. I liked the pattern as soon as I saw it, asked my friends on Facebook if anyone else wanted to knit it, started a Knit-along group on Ravelry, which now has 280 members. It took me two months on and off to finish it, because it's all garter stitch and became my carry around project. I did forget to cast on the 16 stitches at the beginning on each triangle, which took a little time to fix as well. I ran out of yarn with less than 40 stitches left to cast off, but you can't tell I used a different yarn to finish the job.

end of Kauni

Happy Friday! Join the party on Andrea's blog, Tami's blog, and leave me a comment! 

500! And A Giveaway

This is my 500th post on this blog, which started April 2006, and I'm showing a few pictures from that era. The blog started as a collection of my random thoughts, to reflect bits and pieces of my past and current lives. Over the years, other contents slowly filtered out and knitting stayed. Now Fiber Arts Friday keeps me and my knitting organized, and I'm grateful for all the friends I met through the blog, Ravelry, knitting, dogs, and life.

Bucky was 10

Trinket was 11

Frode by Elsebeth Lavold

Henry was 6

Now the fun part. The GIVEAWAY! Since the blog has been around for awhile, and I have been using this format for awhile, I'm thinking about making some changes. Last time I picked a new template I spent days editing older posts. I hope this time it will be less painful. I want to hear from you in the comments: is there something in particular you like about this blog, either content or format; is there an entry you particularly like; any tips and tricks you want to offer.

A few guidelines:

1. Entry starts when this post is published, and ends next Thursday June 28 at noon California time (PDT).

2. Each comment generates an entry, unless otherwise specified, namely for Ravelry China group since some members can't access Blogger thanks to the Great Fire Wall.

3. Please have something concrete to say in your comment. Just telling me "Nice blog" so you can have an entry would not count.

4. Leave your Ravelry ID or email address in the comment, and the country you live in if not US. If we are Ravelry friends most likely I will be able to find you.

5. Prizes include yarns, books, magazines, patterns and possibly more. Sorry I didn't have a chance to take pictures, but I do have things set aside for this giveaway, I promise. I have been knitting and stashing for a long time, there is plenty of good stuff to go around.

6. Drawing will take place next Thursday afternoon.

7. One, two, or three names will be picked, and I will decide what to send you based on how well I know you and your geographical distance. 

8. Winner(s) will be announced in next Friday's entry.

Happy Fiber Arts Friday! Join the party on Andrea's blog and leave me a comment! 

I Got My Very Own Mannequin!

I have been looking for a mannequin for a long time. I need something that I can hang my knitting on, play with lights and draping, and generally treat it like a doll that I never had. So when my friend Hollis, who used to own Full Thread Ahead in Los Altos, posted on Facebook about her upcoming destash of store supplies, I immediately jumped on it.

Here we are, properly dressed and accessorized. Now I don't have to hand the camera to one of the guys and hope he'd be in the mood to follow directions.

wrap her any way I like

See the purple skirt in the first two pictures? I used to fit in it, and it's too small to button up on the mannequin. I used to be smaller than the mannequin! I don't even want to think about how my skirts fit on her now.

This post is my 499th post on this blog, so next week will be my 500th. I started the blog a little over six years ago. Over the years a lot have changed, the group of friends that started blogging with me have mostly fallen apart. But I have met many new friends through this blog, and I want to celebrate with a giveaway. I have never done a giveaway before, and I'm contemplating what's the best way to do it. If you have ideas, suggestions, warnings, do tell me.

Happy Fiber Arts Friday! Join the party on Andrea's blog and leave me a comment! 

Project Planning -- Nightsong, London

Project planning process:
1. Shop the stash. Most of my stash lives in my closet, tightly packed into plastic bins. Shopping means peel off the top layer, set it aside, grab something from the first box, "Oh, this is so pretty, I GOT to make something with it!"
2. Search Ravelry patterns. Go to advanced search, filter down to what I have in my library (I've loaded all my books, magazines and some booklets in the library), the right yardage, weight, and sometimes type of garment I have in mind.
3. Find the hard copy pattern, read through it if I'm in the mood, put the yarn with the pattern, see if they look right together.
4. Look again a few days later. Many a times they disagree, start over from #2.
5. When there are no good options in the library, change the filter to free patterns.
6. Repeat every few days until I get tired of the yarn, put it back to the box, start over from #1.

So you see, this is very unscientific, time consuming process. I argue that I get good "play time" out of the yarn and pattern books, so it's time and money well spent.  And I learned to appreciate a perfect match when the right yarn speaks up for the right project.

Next up, Nightsong, a free pattern on Ravelry, in Ellen's Half Pint sock yarn.

The complicated lace will be so much fun to knit.

London Olympics will be lightening up in less than two months. In 2008 I knitted Chinese Red Vest for Beijing Olympics (sports weight yarn on size 4 needles), it was a nice challenge. This time I will be knitting with the China Group on Ravelry, Team Made in China.

I plan to knit Elizabeth of York from Tutor Roses, using alpaca yarn wound off a big cone. At least that's the plan for now, but remember how that planning process goes, so don't quote me on it.

Thanks to Ally's inspiration, I made some pulled pork sandwiches the other day. Around here there is never enough pulled pork sandwiches! Whatever I make the guys gobble it all up like hungry wolves. I use Chinese steamed buns (from the freezer section), so they are a bit like steamed BBQ buns too.

Happy Fiber Arts Friday! Join the party on Andrea's blog and leave me a comment! 

Wingspan Progress

It's going and going and going. I'm on triangle 10, and I think there is enough yarn to do 11, then just some garter stitch rows in the middle to finish off. I love working with the Kauni yarn, but all the garter stitch sure gets boring fast. We've had year end concerts for Henry for the last two  nights and this is great concert knitting.

In case you missed Rascal, here he is with his birthday gift, Wilbur. Wilbur is long and skinny, just like Rascal was when we first got him. Now he has big boy muscles and a cookie belly.

Happy Fiber Arts Friday! Join the party on Andrea's blog and leave me a comment! 

Progressing, Mending

Not much going on around here in the knitting front. Plaited Poncho is marching along, the rows are much longer and the cables more complicated. I think I have two or three cable rows left, but depend on how much yarn I have left and how long the poncho is, I might add another set of cables. I messed up a cable row somewhere in the middle. I'm too lazy to rip back, will have to find some way to disguise it as "design feature".

Many knitters don't like seaming, for me, it's the mending. I have a few things sitting in the corner of my closet, and I try not to look at them, which makes them stare back harder.

First, the very pretty lavender Heather pullover (aka Bust Enhancer). There were two glass charms came with the kit, and I managed to lose one of them in the last wearing. I bought replacements, and they have all been sitter there waiting for "when I have time".

And then there is this cute cabled baby sweater, that I'm sure I made for SOMEONE. Apparently the baby has been fine without it, because I never bothered to sew on buttons.

Mending commercial knitwear is even more trying. This is a beautiful purple cashmere sweater, and I managed to put two holes in it. To mend it, I have to take the sweater out to some place like Michael's, find the perfectly matching purple embroidery thread. Come home, find the tiny needles I don't usually use, find a good time during the day so as I can see the tiny thread, and sew the silly holes together stitch by stitch. I'm sure I'll be happy when I get the sweater back, but I don't look forward to the process.

Now, what's your relationship with mending?

Happy Fiber Arts Friday! Join the party on Andrea's blog and leave me a comment! 

Let's Talk about Cable Needle

I usually cable free hand -- without a cable needle. It's a skill I learned when I was very young, probably right after casting on and knit stitch, as my mom believes a sweater is not complete until there is a nice fat cable running the entire length. I can easily do up to 4x4 in any variations, slip the stitches off, knit the next set of stitches, slip the dropped stitches back on, knit. The only time in the recent years I had to use a cable needle was for one of the squares in Great American Aran Afghan, where the cable had three layers with one stitch between the two sets crossing.

The Plaited Poncho I'm working on has a smart design. The increases are worked into the cables, so in every set of cable there is an increase between the crossing. The increases are completely invisible, and the poncho grows bigger every few rows. The cables start at 2x2, go up to 7x7 towards the bottom. I was able to free-hand the cables till 5x5 when a stitch dropped and I had to fish it up with a crochet hook. No more hero, here comes my treasured designer wooden cable needle. 

What's your experience with cable needle? Do you have a favorite one? If you want to try free hand, there are plenty of tutorials on YouTube to show different ways. Of course, that means one less gadget to play with.

Happy Fiber Arts Friday! Join the party on Andrea's blog and leave me a comment! 

Wingspan Progress

Project:  Wingspan
Pattern:  Wingspan by maylin Tri'Coterie Designs, Ravelry free download 

Yarn:  Kauni 8/2 wool, about sports weight, purchase at Stitches West 2011
Yardage:   437.4 yards (400 meters)
Needles: Size 6
Cast on: April 19, 2012 

Notes: You thought you'd never see this! I'm about half way done. The Kauni yarn is fun to work with, the long stripes is truly "one of a kind". There are many very creative variations on Ravelry. I'm already thinking about how to make it in different yarns, as a stash buster.

Rascal turns two years old on Saturday, and this is what we are going to do to him. Yes, he'll be a little skeptical, but nothing can't be cured by a little birthday cake and ice cream.

Happy Friday! Join the party on Andrea's blog, and leave me a comment! 

New Project: Plaited Poncho

Project:  Plaited Poncho
Pattern:  Plaited Poncho by Knitter's Design Team, Knitters Magazine Summer 2005 

Yarn:  Big green ball of (probably) wool found in my stash, most likely came from eBay
Yardage:   about 900 yards. The ball was wound off a big cone, weighs smidgen below 1lb.
Needles: Size 8
Cast on: April 25, 2012 

Notes: My main project is supposed to be Wingspan. (I am working on it even tho I haven't posted a picture here. I forgot to take a progress picture today, just what happens when I have two projects going at the same time.) But Wingspan is all garter stitch, so of course I have to cast on another project to keep me engaged so I don't doze off while knitting (have done that before and didn't drop a stitch). The yarn has been in my stash for a few years. Bucky was in the picture for sizing. No I didn't put him there, he'd have wiggled his way out if I made him stay. More likely I was trying to shove him out of the way so he decided to lie down and take a nap. I don't usually like "Knitter's Design Team" patterns, but I was looking for something very specific -- top down garment with cables in DK to worsted weight yarn, but gives me the variation to make it shorter or longer depend on the among of yarn I have. This fits what I was looking for.