burn out

After finished Electra, i get burn out. I always do so when i finish a big project. At least for me, even a vest is big enough.

Since last week, I started to take nose drops for allergy of this season, which makes me very sleepy and take away lots energy for both work and needlework.

The stripe sock is growing very slowly but it's okay for it. It's a project for when i have no time for big projects, and just want to knit something. So i don't have to hurry.
Now, my mood is set for cross stitching and sewing, the pillowcase.

I will back to Martha after it ...

Electra finished

Pattern: Electra vest from Rowan knitting magazine 38
Size : S

It was fun to knit in my favorite color way. Usually, i can see where i'm in decreasing at both end, but i gave up this time and made a chart with Excel. Changing yarn so often makes the end of fabric very ugly and i couldn't stand with them. I weaved these end before i blocked because i didn't want the first and last stitches loosen and get bigger. Although finishing instruction says "press then weave in all ends," I am afraid these loose stitch would get more bigger when pinned.

After i knitted rib around arm and neck, i noticed many holes at decreasing area.I must take more care in decreasing. After all, it is beautiful when you see from a distance but it's rough when you look at closely.

Fitted sheet and solid shell stitch potholder

I had little progress on knitting this week. I'm knitting front of Electra, left side of armhole-to-shoulder shape. Right side has finished. The rib for neck and sleeves are supposed to knit with Yorkshire tweed, but i have only small ball left. I might be have to blend some other similar to make sufficient length. Since i noticed this problem, i became to feel lazy to knit Electra. And stripe sock has much less progress.

I was busy sewing fitted sheet this week. I am very novice at sewing and have already made terrible mistake when i cut the fabric. "Haste is waste" is true. I take the width of the fabric wrong and that was the cause. I cut too much. I lost all my motivation for sewing fitted sheet when noticed the mistake, but can't throw this darling linen fabric away, because i decided to make my sheet as soon as i opened the grab back. So, i applied a patch at missing area. Actually, It wasn't worse than I expected, this patched is on the side of mattress and unremarkable. I followed the instruction found on the web, and finished up. As soon as i sewed the last end of elastic, i ran into bedroom and covered without taking off existing one, and what i found on the mattress was very loose covering opposite to what i expected. I lost motivation again. I left it alone for a while until my motivation backs enough, and finally i added extra elastic at both longer side, resulting much better fitted sheet! Yay! I am not sure why it couldn't be sharply fitted sheet, maybe inexperience and the narrow depth of mattress? I will add another extra elastic at short sides if i have a chance. After all those hard efforts, i get fabulous linen fitted sheet. Next will be pillow cases for me, DH, and DS.



Beside knitting and sewing, i crocheted this potholder with leftover cotton yarn. It took only 2 nights. The source for the pattern is Japanese book, and the author referred this pattern as "solid shell pattern".

As I obediently followed the weight of yarn and hook size, the resulted fabric is just as it supposed to be. It's very thin and the corners curls when i hang it on the hook, look very helpless itself. I tried it when i boiled water in a kettle, i confirmed there is no problem for potholder. The potholder was really in need at the moment, so i am very glad. I found many other cute patterns on the book, but i have to keep in mind that my DH also use them. I am not sure if DH will use this white one. I might have to make another simple unisex one soon.

Projects started

Although i have listed a pair of glove for myself as a plan, i haven't decided exact pattern and yarn for the project ... might be because of the weather. It's very warm, just like spring. We haven't seen any snow around Tokyo yet.If the weather gets cold enough, i will get more motivation for it, so i leave the plan set aside till then.

I received last ball at beginning of this week and finished this. Back of Electra. What i learned from this knitting is that bright colour is fun to knit! The ones I knitted recently were all in dark colourway. Dark grey, brown, peacock green, beige and so on. I felt dizzy at first when i saw so shocking pink colour of kidsilk haze, but i found that those bright color make me feel much better. Those pink and purple color is truly delights my eyes. Safety color is easy to use but it is sometimes boring to knit. I think there will be much more knitting projects with color in my future knitting plan.

And this is a Regia silk sock, striped with dark grey, brown, navy and light blue. They are all left over yarn except light blue. As there are more yarn left for brown than others, i chose brown for toe and heel colors. I'm knitting light blue continuously, and cut between color change for other 3 colors. Very busy for weaving ends.

shopping, shopping, and shopping!!

I went shopping on the first day of sales at yarn store, and got these.

Regia sock yarn in different colours and Felted tweed. As I have many leftover sock yarn, i chose matching color for them to make striped socks. I am really in "stripe" mood recently.In same day,i ordered some other more yarns that i couldn't find at that store.
And they arrived yesterday - 3 balls of 100% silk yarn, Yorkshire tweed DK, and Rowanspun 4ply.

I have ordered one more ball and waiting for it now, and supposed to be in my post on next week.

And I went the sale again to got something i forgot to get last time. Some sock yarns, Rowanspun 4ply in blue, green, and light grey, and swifts.

This week is totally shopping week. I feel like i am a shopaholic (No, not really!). I have to switch my mood toward different one - material consuming mode!

My knitting plan for first quarter of 2007 goes like this.

1. Rowan 38 Electra vest


2. Stripe socks for myself


3. Spring crochet bag


4. Martha


5. Glove for myself

Aren't they quite reasonable? Maybe as for knitting. The problem is that i also have a plan for sewing too... To tell the truth, i got a grab bag of linen fabric in the end of last year and have 15 M of them - 5 types of linen fabric with 3 M each. The first project for them will be a fitted sheets for my bed.