The Colour of My Rainbow

Your rainbow is strongly shaded blue.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

What is says about you: You are a tranquil person. You appreciate friends who get along with one another. You share hobbies with friends and like trying to fit into their routines.

Find the colors of your rainbow at spacefem.com.

Mmmh, a bit strange. The last part doesn't sound like me.

The Colour of My Rainbow

Your rainbow is strongly shaded blue.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

What is says about you: You are a tranquil person. You appreciate friends who get along with one another. You share hobbies with friends and like trying to fit into their routines.

Find the colors of your rainbow at spacefem.com.

Mmmh, a bit strange. The last part doesn't sound like me.

Knitting Mojo is Back!

At least it seems so to me.
I've been knitting a Feather and Fan Comfort Shawl for my friend with Cherry Tree Hills Super Sock Potluck. Feather and fan pattern is one of my favourite lacy pattern, but I'm not very good at knitting it. Maybe because of k2tog.
I've just finished knitting it yesterday and been not able to stop knitting since then.
There's a one different thing than usual. I'm knitting UFOs that I haven't picked them up for a long time.
I want to knit something new such as Mojo socks Clover Leaf Scarf.
Not now.
I have to finish my Baktus scarf and an Old Shale Cowl.

Mojo is back.

Studying the Old

I have two bags of lovely coloured three-cut beads. They are shade of brown: one is kind of amber and the other is sparkling brown.
Those are among my favourite and have been here around for a long time.
I've wanted to use them with tatting lace. Since I'm lack of creative talent, I've been just looking at them and that's all I can do.

Suddenly, there came an inspiration.
How about making something I've done before.

And I remembered this strap.

Thanks to myself, I can tell I made this on 4 Sep, 2004. This is not my type of colourway, but I still love it very much. It's so sweet.
I believe this is one of Nina Libin's designs and I found on the web, but I can't find it anymore. It's all chains and no rings except at the end I added them as closures. Yes, it was meant to be a bracelet at first.

Mmmh, I think I should try this.
And I've just remembered that this pattern without beads is also in Nina's book.
I must look for it.

Struggling against Apathy

I went to a craft fair on the end of May. It is held in Matsumoto, Nagano Prefecture and it's one of the largest and most popular craft fairs in this country. It was my first time to go there.
I bought a tenugui ( a kind of long handkerchief, about a yard long), two bags of cashmere web, and a skein of silk yarn from Avril (you may know it as Habu).

I'm suffering from not-feel-like-to-do-anything feeling for almost half a year. I've done some knitting, crochet, tatting, and spinning, but none makes me feel happier as before. Even going to see kabuki doesn't attract me. How sad.
I've been prohibited by myself to write or say it, but it is time to be honest a bit.
I'm not going to stop doing them. I feel so just because I'm always lack of sleep.

Anyway, now I have some cashmere with me and I want to spin it with long draw method using a supported spindle. I believe that would give me soft and nice yarn. I tend to twist too much.
So, I just pick up my Tabachek Tibetan spindle and started spinning gray merino top. It's so beautiful, and also so soft and fun to spinning with.
Yeah, I still feel fun.

Iroiro Enhancement

I've watched a TV programme featuring a 100-year-old lady making small blankets for persons who are good to her.
First, she knits garter stitch motifs, 10 cm x 10 cm (4 inch x 4 inch, approx.) wide. Then, I assume she sews them together. At last, she adds crochet embellishment as an edging. Most of them are shell stitch edgings. It is a little smaller than an ordinary baby blanket, but large enough to cover adult laps and knees.
Her blanket is always checkerboard pattern and her sense of colour is quite unique. She insists on colours she uses very much.

It seemed to me that she's just begun knitting and crochet. Her hands are unstable while working and that doesn't seem due to her age. And a narrator said something like "she wanted to take advantage of her years and years of sewing experience," and "she has made 30 blankets in these two years."

Still, her stash is enormous for a small blanket knitter. She has several cardboard boxes full of skeins of yarn. In the programme, one of her daughters sent her another cardboard box full of balls of yarn.
Wow, how many blankets is she going to make?

If you have small stash, your choice of colour numbers would be limited. But if you have big stash.... well, maybe there'd be no "enough stash", but still, your choice would be less limited.
Her persistence on colours requires that much stash. So I think.

Now, is it ok for me to enhance my stash, then?

Don't Know Much About Blocking

Summer Lace Shawlette
Originally uploaded by Garyou.

So I don't knit lace very much.
Well, actually, I've done with some knitted lace stuffs, but almost all of them were ill-blocked. I mean, I messed up with blocking.
One of the reason is that I don't have enough space to block.
I do tat and crochet doilies once in a while and have no trouble with blocking them. They are usually small and I can easily find a place to block.
But knitted lace stuffs.
Usually, they are long and large. Long enough to cover your neck and large enough to wrap your shoulders. They are usually no less than one meter (about one yard) in width or length or both. And I can't find any space to block.

And, there is another reason because I don't knit lace stuff very much: I can't follow the patterns.
I start knitting a lace shawl or something very happily and suddenly find myself missing a stitch or two, or, knitting too many stitches. I'm sure I've been following the pattern precisely, but in a way, I missed soemthing.
Yes, I'm a clumsy knitter, so to speak.

So I've given up with knitted lace stuffs, those beautiful lacey shawls and all. How I love them! How I love thier dainty looks!

And here I am, with my Summer Lace Shawlette.
With Olympus's Silk la Saine, it was really fun to knit.
This time, I didn't mess up with blocking. I used a lot of pegs. Those are usually what I use for blocking, but I pinched a wet shawl very carefully with them.
So, hey, that's not very bad, isn't it?

This is a very nice pattern, well considered. The shawl is not long enough to tie in your front, but it stays comfortably on your shoulder.
I'm looking forward to wearing it.
Ah, it's stil a bit warm around here. I'm wating for cooler weather now.

Strong Assumption

#4 Socks for SKP2008
Originally uploaded by Garyou.

Started knitting at age of 10, stranded knitting has been my problem.
I simply cannot knit fairisle knitting.
Why?
Because I believe so.

I've done with two stranded knittings, anyhow: one is a hat, and the other is "Canada" from the book _Knitting on the Go_.
Both are disastrous and tucked deep into my closet.

What's wrong with stranded knitting with me?
First and all, yarn in back becomes too tight or too loose, especially when I knit with double pointed needles.

I really love fairisle patterns, nordic gloves and mittens, Bohus and all. I've tried to knit them and all I did was just frogging them.

The 4th challenge for Sock Knitters Pentathlon is Ziggy, wonderful stranded knitted socks.
And the picture here shows how I did.
It was fun to knit this pair. I started knitting this on 2 Sep., 2008 and finished on 6 Sep., 2008. That's no later than other socks, such as sock with cables and lace patterns.

Yarn in back is sometimes too tight or too loose still, but it isn't so bad as before.
I need to try another stranded knitting.
And more.

Stealth Rattlesnake Socks

Stealth Rattlesnake Socks
Originally uploaded by Garyou.

It was a challenge. Indeed.
To me, it was a big challenge to knit a pair of socks during weekdays.
The 1st sock pattern was announced on weekend; the 2nd one on holidays. I was able to use two full days for knitting each time.
But the 3rd socks.
On the day of announce, which was 1:00 am, 2 July 2008, I was up waiting for the pattern. As soon as the pattern was revealed, I went to my stash closet and picked up yarn. I was thinking of solid or heathered colour, but what I had in my hand was Lisa Souza's Sock! Merino in Shade Garden. Very varigated.
As I went on kniting, I found out that it is difficult to knit cable pattern with this kind of colourway. The pattern doesn't appear clearly and that causes the diffuculty.
Still, I love the pattern and the yarn. Cable and rib pattern is one of my favourite for socks. It fits well. Cables make a sock a bit tight, but rib makes it relaxed.
I started knitting around 1:30 am on the same day, knitted a ribbing part. And I finished with the first sock around 4:30 am on Saturday. The second sock was finished around 3:00 am on Sunday. The second one was not so bad.
Now I know that I need weekend to finish a pair, or it would take me more than a week. That doesn't so bad, either. At least so I think.

BTW, it looks like snakes are hiding in the shade garden, doesn't it?
Oh, Rattlesnake Creek is desert? Is it?
Well, well, well....

Something White

These days, I enjoy tatting with colourful threads. But once in a while, I desperately want to use white thread for lace.

My favourite shuttle is GR-8 shuttle. When I ordered it, I also bought a book, _Tatting the GR-8 Self-Closing Mock Ring_. It doesn't have colour pages, but the patterns in that book are so colourful. Most of them require two or more colours. This book was inspiring and still is.
Ever since I read the book, I've been rather a colourful tatter than a white one. Now I'm working with Iris's Beatrice in a kind of Lime and Violet colourway. It is beautiful and I love that.
But, suddenly I want to tat something white. White, traditional and dainty. That kind of lace.
I don't have a particular pattern in mind, so it would be just a whim and forgotten.
Now, back to Beatrice, lime and violet.

Tat, Crochet, Tat, Tat

Bookmarks
Originally uploaded by Garyou.

I've seen a lot of beautiful tatted bookmarks on the web the other day.
You can see them here. Wonderful. Gorgeous. Beautiful.

And... yeah, I found myself wanting to make some, too.
So I've tatted some. The blue one is made with Anchor Mercer Crochet 40 Col.131, the pink gradation one is made with Olympus Gold #40 Col.M15, and the light blue gradation one is made with Olympus Gold #40 Col.M12. I've made another one with Leigh's Overdyed Pearl #12 in Nordic Blue.
I usually don't make something I've already finished, but this pattern, Floral, is different. It's easy, and fan to tat. You can find the pattern at Kersti's website.

As already written, I'm not a bookmark person. I don't use it. But I can't resist making them.
The second from left is crochet fan bookmark and you can find the pattern here. This one is also not so difficult to make. Well, it's easy and funt to crochet. I could make it one after another if I had enough thread. This one, I used Anchor Pearl Cotton #8 Col.1344. The bookmark is kind of soft. I would use crochet cotton next time.

So, I tat a lot these days. Knitting and crochet projects, I put them on to Ravelry, but tatting projects. It's not prohibited, I suppose, but I just hesitate to do so with my tatting stuffs.

And I believe you've already known, I'm not a tassel person either. I put one to the blue one, but not to the other three. It would be nice to add tassels to them. Mmh, I'll think about it.