New Project: Starfish Shawl 海星

Project:  Starfish Shawl 海星
Pattern:  Starfish Shawl by Norah Gaughan, published in Knitting Nature
Yarn:  West Valley Alpacas Classic DK yarn
Yardage:  2472 yards in stash
Needles: Size 7
Cast on: September 4 2012

Notes: West Valley Alpacas is a semi-local alpaca farm, about 90 miles from us. A few years ago we used to go to their annual open house to see alpaca shearing, spinning, weaving demos, and of course, buy yarn. This yarn was a very large cone, over 1lb or so. I used a small portion for Box 96 couple of years ago, and really liked working with it. It didn't work out for Elizabeth of York which I planned to knit during the Olympics. I didn't want to give it up just yet, and thought a large shawl with relatively loose gauge would be a much better fit.

Starfish Shawl starts with "Cast on 730 stitches, join, be careful not to twist". After two evenings and many hundreds of counting, the cast on was finally accomplished. Though with all those stitches bunched together, it's still hard to tell if I'm twisted or untwisted. The thing with a shawl like this, I have about eight rows done, does it look like it? Now think about it, if I'm knitting a hat in bulky yarn, I would be done already.

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

A Scarf, A Hat, and A Baby James

Project:  Modified Path 小路

Pattern:  Stitch pattern based on Forest Path Stole by  by Faina M. Letoutchaia, Interweave Knits Summer 2003

Yarn:  Unknown fiber gifted from a book or magazine seller at Stitches
Yardage:  Less than 200 yards
Needles: Size 6
Cast on: August 24 2012
Cast off: September 3 2012
Cost: (Gift)
Notes: I have these two small skeins of yarn with no label, so I don't know the fiber content or producer or yardage. I found this very intricate birch leaves pattern as part of Forest Path Stole, and drew the design idea on the white board in the first picture. I'd knit one pattern repeat (18 st x 38 rows), cast off, turn the knitting to its side, pick up 18 stitches, knit two repeats, cast off, turn and knit three repeats, so on so forth. Since I don't know the yardage, I can do this for as long as the yarn lasts. Turns out I was only able to knit 3.25 repeats on the forth side. But I think it looks pretty cute.

Project:  Frenchie 法国女郎

Pattern:   Sideways Grande Cloche by Laura Irwin, Boutique Knits

Yarn:  Paton's Classic Wool

Yardage:  Less than 200 yards

Needles: Size 8

Cast on: August 21 2012

Cast off: September 4 2012

Cost: Less than $5

Notes: I needed a simple project for when I knit with my friends, this was simple and straight forward -- just as soon as I realized the band was knitted sideways, not bottom up. I should have changed the top so it's not decreased so sharply. It really should look more flat than what I have here. For the cable on the side, the pattern makes you knit two strips and then twist them and sew the ends on the hat. I thought I was smart, and knitted the big cable (8x8) directly onto the hat. It got very twisty. Unless you have a very clear mind and a clear surface to put the hat on while you turn the knitting back and forth, go with the easy route.

Remember the Traveling Baby Sweater? It went to its first stop in UK to visit baby James. James's mom Claire-Louis graciously took these pictures. Doesn't she have the cutest kids?! Claire-Louis said, "James has loved wearing it and I’m a bit sad to be passing it on as he looked so cute in it but I’m sure the next baby will love it just as much x". I'm so happy James (and his mom) entertained my idea, and enjoyed the sweater! Now it's heading back to US, to Chicago, and then Seattle, before making its way back to my neighborhood to a friend of mine. If you know someone that wants to be part of Traveling Baby Sweater's route, drop me a line and we'll work out the logistics.

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

England Spoke Finale 英国自行车

Project:  England Spoke 英国自行车
Pattern:  Spoke by Lori Versaci, Knitty Winter 2009
Yarn:  Tahki Yarns Ambrosia Slim, 100% wool, Aran weight 
Yardage:  1100 yards in stash
Needles: Size 8
Cast on: July 29 2012
Cast off: August 24 2012
Cost: (Gift from South Bay Knitters retreat)
Previous entries: first, second, third

Notes: Daniella looks smashing in the new sweater! I'm very happy with how it turned out. The pattern gives you option to leave the front open to wear as a cardigan, or sew it up for a pullover. I opted for a pullover. Because of the irregular shape and the stockinette on the edges, I have to arrange it and let the front overlap just so, or it would hang crooked. It's been very warm for the past few weeks, and I look forward to being able to wear it myself. In the mean time, I'm very happy I have Daniella modeling the sweater, and I get to take pictures any way I like.


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

Catching up on FO

Before the Olympics I sneaked in couple of small projects, one was the baby sweater, the other was this doll sized shawl.

Project:  Samantha's Cape
Pattern:  Doll cape pattern from Cast on Magazine Holiday 1997, heavily altered
Yarn:  Paton's Classic Wool from stash 
Yardage:  less than 100 yards
Needles: Size 8
Cast on: July 24 2012
Cast off: July 26 2012
Cost: practically nothing
Finished size: American Girl doll size
Notes: I've knitted a few things for my two American Girl dolls, and they always take longer than I expected!

We took a trip to Carmel to visit my mom when Henry was off for the summer and didn't have camp, and picked up her latest batch of charity knitting. She's moving to Houston to stay with my brother in January, so this will be one of the last batches from her. If you know someone running charity knitting in Houston area I'm sure we can use a contact, ideally it needs to be someone speaks either Russian or Chinese (Mandarin).

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

The Adventure of Irish Diamond Shawl

English Spoke is still going, slowly but surely. It wasn't finished by the end of London Olympics, but with only one sleeve left, it will finish soon. Towards the end of last week I started getting some tingling in the right forearm, and I cut back some TV watching and knitting. It certainly didn't help that Team China slowed down their medal-earning.

But I really want to tell you about the adventure of my Irish Diamond Shawl.

The Irish Diamond Shawl is designed by Cheryl Oberle, published in Folk Shawls. I knitted mine in 2008 and wore it to Stitches West the following year to show Cheryl her wonderful work in real life. It's knitted in Newton Yarn Country's Cashmerino (50/50 cashmere and merino wool), so it wears like creamy butter. I love it dearly, and keep it in a nice big zip lock bag when I don't use it.

At least two years ago, the bag (and the shawl) went missing. I looked for it when it came to my mind, in all the obvious places, dresser, closet, yarn stash, all the big drawers. Nope, I knew it must be somewhere, just not where I was looking. I waited for it to show up, because things generally did when I didn't look for them, and it didn't. I pondered and wondered, where have I not looked in the house, how long should I wait before panicking, how can I possibly lose such a great piece of knitting ....

The missing Irish Diamond somehow stopped me from planning other large shawls too, as if the new one would pack up and gone missing too. Last week I brought the question to my Ravelry friends. Should I tear the house apart till I find it? Should I wait for it to show up when it's ready? Should I pat self on the back for being a good process knitter and be content with the time spent working it? Or should I make a new one? A shocking number of people (134 votes!) told me to make a new one! Because that's the best way to make the old one show up.

I still have Folk Shawls, and I started considering seriously what yarn to use for the replacement. In the mean time I gave it another chance and dug up large portions of the content of various closets. During the process I gathered two huge bags of blankets and linen to donate, plus a bunch of clothes and accessories. The big drawer lightened up quite a bit. I reached behind the drawer, yep, there it is. The zip lock bag slipped behind the drawer, caught by the backboard so I couldn't see it from any direction.

Lesson learned: when in doubt, make double.

This is closest to true color

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

England Spoke Progress

My Olympics project is still going, tho I'm not confident it will be completed by Sunday night. I have finished the back, right front (the "spoke"), and the left front is more than half way done. Then I still have both sleeves left, well, unless I decide it's going to be a vest. With the wool yarn and stockinette on the bottom, some severe steam blocking will be needed before piecing together.

I got a new camera this week and had to test it on my children.

first shot, bad focus

Much better. (Is this one more handsome?)

In the last couple of weeks Henry has done a lot of writing on his blog. He finally finished a story he's been writing since before he was eight years old, Pug That Always Finished Second. Take a look, it's quite interesting. His blog, Otter World is linked in my blogroll.

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

Olympics Knitting: England Spoke 英国自行车

Project:  England Spoke 英国自行车
Pattern:  Spoke by Lori Versaci, Knitty Winter 2009
Yarn:  Tahki Yarns Ambrosia Slim, 100% wool, Aran weight 
Yardage:  1100 yards in stash
Needles: Size 8
Cast on: July 29 2012
Notes: I planned to do Elizabeth of York from Tudor Roses in honor of the host country of this year's Olympics. It took me two days to realize I wasn't going to get through it. The alpaca yarn was too weak for the pattern, and it's sheddy and splitty. The pattern is finicky with purl stitches passing right and left. I had the Ambrosia Slim in my queue for the next project, so naturally it stepped in. The yarn has very long color stretches so an unconventional structure would look very interesting. I started on the back first, then realized it'd be much easier to judge where I should start the armhole shaping if I have the front to match, so in the picture there is the back half done, and right front (the "spoke") coming into shape. After losing two days, I'm catching up and hoping to finish it in time.


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

Traveling Baby Sweater Needs Destination

Anchor buttons on the back

Project:  Baby B 兵兵, may be changed to Traveling Baby Sweater (see notes)
Pattern:  Design B Anchor Sweater from Sirdar Gorgeous Babies Knitting Book
Yarn:  Paton's Classic Wool from stash 
Yardage:  about 200 yards
Needles: Size 6 & 8
Cast on: July 14 2012
Cast off: July 25 2012
Cost: about $8 including buttons
Finished size: 24in chest, 11in long, 7in sleeves
Previous entry: last week
Notes: This little sweater is as adorable as I imagined, and I still can't figure out what to do with it. Keeping it for Henry is a long shot. He's 13 and when I proposed the idea he turned purple. I'm a natural pack rat, starting another "collection" is a dangerous path, not to mention I have plenty of stuff to get rid of the way it is.

Here is an idea: I'm going to let Baby B travel from one new baby to another, we'll share pictures on blogs and Ravelry, and see how many homes we can hit in one year. The sweater fits babies about six months old or younger. Depend on the weather, the baby will be able to wear it no more than a few times. It's pure wool and requires hand washing, so it may end up to be a put-it-on-for-a-cute-picture sweater. I'd love to see it being re-used from one knitter's home to another, instead of being stashed in my garage.

Now do you know a new baby?

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

New Project: Baby B 兵兵

front on the left, back on the right

pattern booklet cover

Design L from the same booklet

Project:  Baby B 兵兵
Pattern:  Design B Anchor Sweater from Sirdar Gorgeous Babies Knitting Book
Yarn:  Paton's Classic Wool from stash 
Yardage:  about 200 yards
Needles: Size 6 & 8
Cast on: July 14 2012
Notes: I did run out of yarn on Nightsong. As I wait for additional supply and with London Olympics starting next week, I decided to do something small and fun. I adored this Sirdar pattern booklet ever since Henry was a wee one. The picture of him in Design L is on Ravelry pattern page. I didn't knit a lot of baby things, for one thing when the baby or toddler is small, one's hands tend to be very occupied. Baby things are expected to be knitted in acrylic or washable wool, both of which I dislike. Now I'm just going to knit something cute and adorable and in the wool yarn that my hands prefer. I don't know what will happen to the sweater yet, it sure is fun to make.
Happy Fiber Arts Friday! Join the party on Andrea's blog and leave me a comment! 

Nightsongs, and Lovely Blog Award!

Project:  Nightsongs
Pattern:  Nightsongs by MaweLucky/Jane Araujo, Ravelry free download
Yarn:  Ellen's Half Pint Farm 100% Merino Sock 
Yardage:  500 yards
Needles: Size 7
Cast on: June 20 2012
Notes: You can't tell from the picture, but this is a beautiful lace pattern. It starts from the center of the back and knits down. Once I understood the direction and what lines on the chart to repeat, it became very easy. I'm on the edging now (the shorter sides of the triangle), and I really hope that tiny ball of yarn left will be enough for the rest of the 12 rows. 


Our fellow Fiber Arts Friday blogger Kathryn, who blogs at Kathryn's Brain, generously gave me a Lovely Blog Award. Thanks Kathryn! Kathryn is an engineer, and besides her day job, she also tends to her Alpacamundo farm, raises alpaca dogs, and supports her husband in his pursuit of professional racing. Oh of course, she spins, knits, blogs, and collects exotic fibers. I don't know how she does it all.

In order to accept the award, there are a number of things one must do:

1 – Show your Thanks – Thank the person who awarded the honor and link back to them

2 - Share seven things about yourself.

3 – Nominate up to 15 Blogs that you admire.

4 – Contact the bloggers by leaving comments with them about their awards

Over the years I have written "a few interesting things" a few times, so it might be hard to come up with something new and interesting. But here are the earlier versions: 

Five things

Six strange things

Seven things

Seven facts

4 things

Bagged by Frisky

Six quirky things

Seven musical facts

Twenty five things(!)

Three things

A to Z. 

Wow, that's a lot to say about myself! Would anyone actually read them? Now let me see if I can still find seven more to say:

1. My first yoga class was prenatal yoga. We did a lot of child's pose, and kegel. I generally dozed off during shavasana. The class was held in a classroom at Wilson Preschool which Henry and I attended on and off during his preschool years. I remember laying on the floor and staring at the child proof cabinet locks, very puzzled. 

2. I have been alcohol free, or very close to it, for over three years and don't miss a thing.

3. I just discovered how to download and listen to podcast on my phone recently. One very good episode is Americans in China from The American Life. Check it out.

4. I talk to Chinese people about work in English, but do numbers in my head in Chinese.

5. The only game I play, on my computer and on the phone, is solitaire. When my mom calls, I turn on solitaire.

6. In fifth grade I wanted to be a flight attendant when I grew up. Some airline people went to my brother's school to recruit the high school girls, and it sounded so glamorous and spectacular.

7. I have a brown thumb. Once I killed a cactus. 

Blogs I nominate:

1. Otter World -- this blog is near and dear to my heart, because it belongs to Henry. I started it when Henry was in second grade, as a place to park all the cute things he wrote. Over the years he's taken it over and now maintains it himself. We have a few things lined up for the summer and he will be blogging on regular basis.

2. Cat's Tale -- my friend Cathy who I met on Ravelry because of my writing about being Chinese, is Chinese herself but living in Australia by way of Great Britain. We have a lot in common (except for where we live!) and we really look forward to the day when we finally meet in person.

3. Towers Take a Trip -- this is one of the best expat blogs, and it's written by my friend Helen. Helen, with her husband and two boys, followed her husband's job from bay area to India. Her writing is very entertaining and informative. I hope her blog will be featured on one of the major networking sites, because it deserves more attention.

4. Wool love-functional fiber art -- Heather is an exceptional fiber artist. She presents beautiful felt work with comprehensive photos and instructions every week (actually more than once a week). Most of the time I look at them over and over, and say "this is like magic!"

5. Pumpkin Spins -- I don't have many young knitting friends, so I'm pleasantly surprised to see Pumpkin's posting week after week on her knitting, spinning, dyeing and other stories. Her site is well designed, pictures are always nice and clear, and I really enjoy the weekly visits.


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