Ok, so i haven’t been active lately on maintaining this blog, i know, bad blogger and all. Like usual, i just got hit by a lazy-blogging-bug and haven’t been feeling too well for quite a few week lately. What happened you might ask? well, i’ve been having a quite severe vertigo attack. And it was one of the worst feeling i’ve ever felt, i couldn’t even get up from bed for days because just a slight movement can caused such horrible motion sickness, like all your world come upside down in literal meaning. What an awful, awful, feeling! Thanks God for my sister in-law, who suggested that i go see her doctor whom specialized in acupuncture, that actually helped her during her own vertigo-attack years ago after she gave birth to my niece.
So there i went for several times, in short, it helped me tremendously. To prevent future attack, the doctor also prescribed me with several medicine to helped reduced the effect of the vertigo, some vitamins and another medicine to helped me with the nausea that usually came with a more severe attack.
Finally i can function again, though i should mention, i think i’m more sensitive with heavy-laden-MSG-contained foods now, it actually trigger my last vertigo attack (and maybe several more lighter attacks in the past now that i got to think of it..hmmm). Well, it happened after i got back from having family dinner out at a Chinese restaurant (which in here most chinese restaurants were usually famous on using too much MSG on their foods), and suddenly i got this light-headedness on our way back home and it got worse in time. next day i woke up having a mild attack with feeling the usual upside down and can’t find my balance though it last shortly and i didn’t experience the nausea, but still it’s very annoying to have to move slowly and can’t do much any productive things. anyway, couple of days with the meds and enough rest finally cured it, but now i got to really watch what i’m eating in the future. maybe it’s a sign for me to start eating healthy, huh? :)
Back to the main topic, which is to talk about several off the needles projects (a.k.a. finished objects) of my knitting or crochet activities. These are several of them :
1) Scarf & Crochet House Slippers in Taffy colors combination
crochet house slippers
Hane Scarf
This actually a commission project for a good friend of mine. The slippers were in crochet technique and the scarf was made with knitting technique.
Why the different methods? that’s because the yarn i used was made mostly in cotton (the other substance are not too clear though some of my local knitter friends said it has acrylic in it, that’s why it’s has that shiny effect, but i don’t know, it might contained a whole lot different other materials, who knew with our typical local yarn *sigh*). So it’s quite heavy in weight and not too stretchy when crocheted though it’s more stretchy than my other 100% cotton yarn i have, and the yarn itself is very soft. That makes the yarn just perfect for the crocheted slippers project; it can hold the shape but still able to mold into your feet-shape, soft on your skin; warm but not too hot especially in tropical country like mine.
The scarf was made with knitting technique in lace motif; i choose this because most lace knitting is quite airy and didn’t use as much yarn as crochet. so the scarf will be very flexible and not heavy while she wrapped it around her neck (it actually about 1,70cm in length).
2). Swallowtail Shawl in Ivory (off white)
off white swallowtail #1
off white swallowtail #3
off white swallowtail #2
off white swallowtail #4
The pattern is free, and designed by the talented Evelyn A. Clark. it’s a test knit project i did for the pattern since i wasn’t so sure i could handle such complex pattern. is not a matter of yarn-overs or decrease and increase technique, it also used a technique that often found on ‘estonian’ lace knitting, which called ‘nupp’ (read: noop). and it’s quite fiddly on a first-timer like moi (imagined make a 7 stitches increase of one single stitch and then try to purl them together on the next row, it’s quite a pain in the a**). thanks god for ravelry and a forum on Knit-a-Long group of this pattern that shared several solution for this frustrating stitch. I found it easier with crochet hook technique, though it looks slightly different than what it originally supposed to look like. but it didn’t really bothered me that much, though. i definitely going to try other different techniques for this nupps, maybe somewhere on my next ‘on the needle projects’? we’ll see ;)
Back to the project; the yarn i used was made of Rayon in (i think) a lace-weight, and it’s in ivory color (or i like to call it, off white). i used smaller needle than the pattern suggested (US 2.5 instead US 4) because i knit pretty loosely so it’s actually came out fine, smaller in size, but still, fine :D
If you pay more attention on the picture, you could see there’s a mistake on the nupps i’ve made near the center stitch (the spine), but hey, it’s my first ‘swallowtail shawl’ (and i made this during recovery from my vertigo-attack). i also ran out of yarn just before i needed to bind off this project, since my yarn store also out of stock on the color, i had to use different brand (also made of rayon) to finished it. Unfortunately it was slightly heavier on the weight and a tad yellow-ish on the color, ahh well… anyway, i managed to finished my first ‘swallowtail shawl’ ever! *clapping hands* so all things considered, i think it’s actually quite a success, let’s just call it my beta version or something :))
3) Swallowtail Shawl in Moss Green
moss green swallowtail #1
moss green swallowtail #2
moss green swallowtail #3
moss green swallowtail #4
moss green swallowtail #5
moss green swallowtail #7
moss green swallowtail #6
Now here’s the better result of the same pattern. After the first trial, i became more confidence about the pattern. In result, i dared myself on knitting it the 2nd time; bigger in size and hopefully better result. Not only that, i actually planned on giving this as a belated birthday present for my bestfriend earlier this month (i knitted this first week of june and finished the knitting–unblocked–at the end of june). i used the same type of yarn in moss green color (her current favorite color), with bigger needle size (US4, like the pattern suggested) and adjust the counting on pattern repeats to make a bigger shawl. I finished all the blocking and yarn-weaving just a day before i handed it over to her, and it’s came out bigger than i thought it would. before blocking the size only about 146cm x 71cm; but after blocking it grew to about 184cm x 92cm!
So far, i’m loving the pattern and the yarn. it’s not from a well known brand, and pretty cheap (about US$ 1.50/skein). the yarn itself is not perfect (well, with that price i can’t really complain, right? :D), it’s a bit slippery to knit, especially with aluminium needles like the one i used. But the silkiness of it also helped when i want to knit a bit faster; no hairy and tangle-free.
The glossiness makes the yarn looks quite sophisticated IMO. It also retained the shape after being wet-blocked, though it ‘bleeds’ the color a bit when first washed.
Now after seeing the end result, mom asked one for herself as well; so be prepared for my 3rd one soon :D
the last project off the needles this month so far is :
3) Dew Drops Shawl in dark blue (midnight color)
dew drops #1
dew drops #2
dew drops #3
The pattern is also free and designed by Bex Hopkins. after working with endless nupps, i decided to knit a new shawl with not too-intricate motif, and i choose this pattern. from the first look of it, it constructed with simple plain stockinette stitch on the body, and has lace motif that sprouting as it neared and thru the edge which similar to shape of droplets of water. simple yet pretty, love at first sight for me. But unfortunately, as i started knitting this, i actually had to frogged it couple of times. very frustrating, but it’s not the pattern fault. it’s all me, my fault in not reading the pattern more thoroughly and blindly made several mods on the motif.
well, lesson learned, never underestimate a pattern without read, and re-read it more thoroughly, and understands it clearly first, also try to learned from other skilled-experienced knitters who’s done the mods successfully before jump ahead thinking ‘i know better’ :(
The pictures above was showing the shawl still pre-blocked, so it’s still wrinkled and the edges still not showed the lace (droplets) quite clearly; so the post-blocked pictures will have to wait later after i’ve found the time to do it. because blocking is not something that i enjoy doing, it’s tiring process when you didn’t have blocking wire like me. to pinned those hundreds of pins really give me headache and a very bad back pain afterward, so be patient for the final, final finished pictures.
so here they are, my off the needles this month and adventure in lace knitting. i have several others on the needles project going on right now, still a work-in-progress (one of them is another swallowtail, again! *ackk!* –for mom this time), it might finished this month as well, or maybe next, i don’t know. i try not to pressure myself with a tight deadline, because knitting or crocheting is more like a stress release for me, not an obligation. And it’s a good productive way to spend time, especially now in this month of fasting for us moslem to wait until iftar-time. Oh by the way, Ramadan Mubarak to those of you out there who celebrates it, have great day! :)
keep dreaming, keep discovering.. 