To Blog Or Not To Blog

Recently I have lost the inspiration to blog. I just feel that I have nothing to share except FOs and I am sure it's must be boring just to read about FOs. In addition, there's Ravelry and all my projects are listed there and nowadays, most people are on Ravelry, so why am I blogging???

Anyway, here is a recent FO. Actually, it's not 100% knitted by me. Lydia (my younger daughter) knitted most of it.



I started the toe, Lydia knitted the foot, I turned the heel and she finished the leg. The socks were done in a week as she was on her Uni holidays and now she has a new pair of socks!

I also have another sock on the needles - the Rainbow Socks, a sock pattern with short rows to prevent pooling of colors in variegated yarn. Knitting short rows in a sock takes a little more time with all the turns and purling but it looks nice .....



I love how the colors looked and although I am not a fan of short rows, I managed it with Cat Bordhi's short row technique used in the Tomato Heel. It's a really simple technique and I also incorporated the Tomato Heel in this sock and it looked great together .......



I am also working on a top down raglan sweater for my daughter and I am using these tiny circular needles for the sleeves .....






These are Hiya Hiya 9" which I just bought from Purlwise. They are great for knitting sleeves in the round but it takes a while to be comfortable with the tiny tips. I love them now!

My dear blogging friends, this may be my last post but we will keep in touch on Ravelry..... see you there and thank you for your support all these years!

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Crazy over slippers

I have not blogged for a while as I have been busy with classes at Calico & Ivy. For the last 5 weeks, I was teaching 3 classes a week and this was quite tiring mentally. Anyway, the classes are over and I am getting back into routine.

Despite feeling tired, I still have the energy to knit but on small projects. So I went into a phase of knitting slippers. I found a free pattern on ravelry - Footies and it is a great pattern.



I used a strand of sock yarn and a strand of 8ply and the slippers are thick and warm. The only feature that I was not happy with is the way that the toes are done. The toes are grafted together but they looked so square.



The slipper on the left is the grafted toe which does not look right. So when I worked on the 2nd slipper, I started the toe decreases earlier and the decreases are on the top of the foot. This resulted in a more rounded shape and I ended with 14 stitches and thread them through at the end, so no grafting and I think it looks so much better.

As I was happy with this modification, I started to work on more modifications of the pattern and cast on for another pair .......



These are the 2nd pair with more modifications and I love them. This pair is knitted with Cascade 220 and only use half a skein! I had so much fun knitting these slippers and had to stop myself from casting on another pair.

I also worked on another pattern, Saki Lite and these turned out well too.



These are knitted with sock yarn and so I could wear them with my shoes.



They feel great with the shoes but not after walking as they slipped off at the back and I had to keep pulling them up. I was hoping to knit more of these slippers so that I can wear with my shoes but I am having second thoughts now.

Now I better get back to my other projects ......

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A Couple of FOs

In between the commission work, I managed to finish off these 2 projects .....



...... Featherweight Cardigan. This is my 3rd FW and I love it. It's a very versatile pattern and I can finish the cardigan with so many options. For this cardigan, I used the feather and fan stitch pattern for the sleeves and bottom of the cardigan and I finished off the edges of the fronts and back with an icord bind off.



The cardigan is knitted with 2 strands of Filatura lace yarn in dark blue and the lighter blue yarn is a single strand of Madeline Tosh Lace. I had to use a different yarn as I ran out of the Filatura yarn. I miscalculated the yardage of the yarn as I was using 2 strands instead of one. Anyway, I think it was a blessing in disguise as I like the look of the 2 colors.



I have already wore this cardigan a few times and it feels great - soft, light and warm.

The other FO is the slippers ....



..... Simple Garter Stitch Slippers. When I saw this new pattern on Ravelry, I knew that I need a pair to wear around the apartment. As we were not permitted to have wooden floor (noise issues) in our new apartment, we had to install carpet. So these slippers will keep my feet warm on the carpet.



I used 2 strands of leftover sock yarn and the knitting went fast. I don't quite like the seaming of the heels and toes which are done with 3 needle bind off as it leaves a thick seam. The crochet on the top of the foot is nice and I needed help with that as the instructions were not so clear.

Now back to my commission work again ........

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So Much Knitting

Sorry for the lack of blogging as I have been so busy ...... with knitting. I was given some commission work and in the last 5 weeks, I managed to finish 3 shawls.

I knitted 2 of these .......



....... Brown Eyed Susan from the book "Juju's Loops". It's a simple pattern but lots of stocking stitch. By the time I finished the lace edging, I had more than 700 stitches on the needles for casting off. Thank goodness, it was a crochet cast off and it went quickly.

I also finish one of this ......



....... Prairie Shawl, also from the same book. It's also a simple shawl but the numerous nupps slowed me down. I love the lace pattern on this shawl as it's really pretty .....



All 3 shawls were knitted with Malabrigo Lace yarn and it's such a lovely yarn to knit with - so soft on the hands and the yarn blooms so nicely after a good soak. I would love to knit a cardigan with this yarn as I am sure it will be so soft and light to wear.

As you are aware that I am now living in an apartment and space is limited. Before the move, I had a huge destash and got rid of almost half of my stash. Even with a smaller stash, I still have to find the space and I am so glad that I found these under the bed "boxes" from IKEA .....



..... they are fantastic as I can squeeze a lot into one box and then just slide it under the bed. They are like giant suitcases and only cost $20 each.






I have now organised my stash by weight of yarn and tie a label on the box so that I can find what I need.

I am off to more knitting as I have more commission work to be done.

Another pair off the needles !

Back and There Again socks are done and I enjoyed this pattern so much. The colors combination is great and the fair isle pattern is quite easy.



The dark blue yarn is Skinny Bugga and this is the 1st time that I am knitting with this yarn and it's lovely. The lighter blue is Louet Gem and it's a very tightly spun yarn. I had to change needle size when knitting with the Louet Gem as it is a thinner yarn but it worked out well.

As I am now hooked on sock knitting, I immediately cast on another pair ......



I am using a self striping yarn from Knitabulous and it was a special dye batch with a small amount of plain colored yarn for the toes. Unfortunately, I did not have enough for both toes, so I only managed about 1.5 toes. Anyway, there is still a little contrast on the toes before the stripes begin.

I started with a square toe where the increases are done in the middle rather than the sides. The socks will be plain as I think the stripes are enough without any stitch pattern.

Back to knitting more socks!

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