Plan for summer

It's time to think about next season's project but since I joined Ravelry, I encounter lots of cool pattern I didn't know almost everyday and this makes it difficult to go on.

Plan for this summer (June to September)
- Tulip from Rowan magazine.
I've finished back and started left front. This is the top priority.

- Linen towel
Using linen yarn from stash. It will be kitchen cloth for drying up wet dishes.
This looks like weaved fabric but it is crocheted. As this pattern is only consisted of a chain and a single crochet, it's very simple and hard to stop once you started. I first thought it should be take ages to finish for it is fine linen yarn and the height of one row is quite narrow, but I finished almost half within last weekend. Amazing.



- Spring Cable socks
I got beautiful hand-dyed yarn from Trico and find pretty pattern. As it's wool yarn and not the urgent project, I enjoy knitting this socks now and then between work (I'm working at home).

- Robot
I finished front.

- Casual scarf
I'm using Japanese crochet stitch pattern book for this scarf. The yarn is very fine organic cotton, pulling 16 threads together.


- Babette Blanket
It's getting bigger day by day.

I think some more small projects will be added.

Casted on Tulip

I am knitting Tulip from Rowan 41 with Cotton Glace instead of Damask, as I want to knit it in solid color. I planned to knit Peace cardigan from Rowan 25 at first but changed my mind.

I bought this yarn for 10 balls-pack and it has been occupied my limited stash storage for long time. I have enjoyed picturing various project for these balls enough and now I want to destash them to make additional space for future projects. I always feel glad when I reached the end of ball cause it means that I get space for another ball."

So, i started knitting Tulip using same needle size. When I reached before armhole, I remembered someones comment about the length of Tulip that it looks longer in picture than actual design, and it really is. Small and short. So I frogged. I changed needle size and made some calculation to extend the length with waist shaping. And reached before armhole again. It looks alright so far. So glad!

And shell stitch bag, I almost finished. I have to get matching button and liner. The yarn I used for main color is 100% silk according to its label but I felt if i were knitting with jute - not smooth at all. I'll never use this yarn again.

Stash enhancement

I went to Rowan store this morning and got some cotton yarn for next big project - Babette Blanket. I will use some from my stash for white, beige, navy, light blue colors. I was looking for dark brown color but it was not in 4ply cotton, so I selected Cotton Glace instead. But this idea was too optimistic. I tried with small motif using 4ply yarn plus Cotton Glace yarn and found the fact that thickness of each yarn were completely different. It doesn't affect on scale but the touch of the fabric is somewhat hard. So Cotton Glace will not work for this project. Anyway, this is not the project that have to be worked in hurry and I need some more color.

Project paln for spring 08

I've just joined Ravelry and it's really terrific and dangerous place. It evoked my passion for knitting.

- cotton shawl
I've already started since last month. It's a Flower Basket Shawl from IK, using organic cotton in pale green color doubled in size 3 needle. I only have 80 grams so I will use up all this yarn for this project.


- crochet bag
This bag was listed in my ToKnit list for spring of last year... I'll start when FBS is almost finished.


- Peace cardigan from Rowan magazine 25
I have purple Cotton Glace yarn in my stash. Will start soon.


- Anklet socks
Still looking some nice pattern and nice cotton sock yarn.

- cotton scarf
Not decided the pattern yet. Maybe Ribbon Lace scarf from latest Knitty or something like this or crochet. I'll start after FBS.

Actually, there are some more projects in my mind, but these are the one that I should start asap to finish before best-season-for-wearing ends.

A reason for no-updates

Sorry if you have visited here just to see same post again and again. Well, I am now facing some serious concern about my son and it is really hard to enjoy something. It's about color vision - he often mistake darkgreen and dark brown. I brought him to eye doctor's and asked for test. And result was not happy one and really shocked me. What I see is NOT what he sees and there is no way to know how he sees. Sigh.

So I am reading some books to understand more about color vision. Cause that looks only the things I can do about it.

I feel very nervous about the color-matter now but I hope time will mitigate and get back to life with yarn and needles.

Progress on red scarf

I've been working on red scarf very patiently without starting any other new knitting project. 3 balls projects looks quite big for sock knitter. I knitted up 2 balls so far and one more to go.

Embroidered bag for bead necklace

I made this beads necklace kit this summer and made a matching case. Stitching lace pattern was fun and finished before I know it, but it took about a month to finish. Because i didn't had a piece of fabric that goes with the surface, didn't had ribbon in same color, and felt hard to set up sewing machine.

There is one more bag for another beads necklace just like this waiting to be finished ...
Hope i can show it to you here before long.

Organic slub

Since I saw a nice comfy blanket knitted in ecru slub chunky yarn in a magazine, i firmly decided to make one for myself. It was an end of winter or spring when i saw it, so i missed the chance to find such yarn. Last month, I visited LYS and found very soft slub yarn just perfect for my purpose. It's called "Sonomono" that means "just as is," not colored organic wool, from domestic brand Hamanaka.



I got 5 balls to make a ribbed scarf for me before blanket, cause i want to make sure that it doesn't produce lots of dust on clothes. That what i learned from Abfab throw. If it's all right, i will get some more to make a blanket and scarf for DS - if he agreed.

Boiling yarn

Here is another collection of organic cotton yarn. They came from US. Very fine and tightly twisted. The most interesting thing about these yarn is that their color change after wash. As they are grown in the color, the color will not fade after wash but will get more DARK and rich. The note came with yarn says "It will continue to deepen and darken for up to 10 washings.... For the deepest color and color setting, boil the yarn for 20-40 minutes." Wow, boiling the yarn? I made small skeins of each color and boiled for 20 minutes and colors really changed. Amazing.
The boiled yarn is shown on top of its original cone in the above picture. Especially, green one got very deep.

As they are not soft enough for wearing, i will make some lacy edging to add on towel or crochet motif project with the other organic cotton i showed last post, which was very soft and in ecru color.
My needlework theme for coming season will be "Organic cotton yarn."
I have started knitting a shrug with the ecru yarn. I'll show her in next post.

organic cotton

I got some fine organic cotton yarn last week, and very busy with plying them into useful weight. I have to gather at least 8 string to knit with the needle i usually use, around 2 or 3 mm. As it is fine as sewing thread and always twist when it sag, plying all 8 at once is too hard to handle. So i made two 4 ply 25g balls then winded them together into 8ply 50g ball and added twist with drop spindle. I hesitated to use drop spindle as such manual process takes a lot time for me, but i have no way other than it. I first tried knitting with just plied yarn without twist but the knitted fabric was not square at all, tilt 45 degree. I checked if this tilt occurs in other stitch pattern. Garter and rib and moss was OK but i don't like to knit in pattern with those stitch only. So i have to use drop spindle to enjoy stockinette stitches. Of course i tried iron steam but nothing changed.

Although I have normal size spindle, i prefer small one i made before to spin fine thread, and used it for first ball. The thin stick was too hard for my fingers to work with and i looked around for something more thick and smooth surface and find this works quite nicely! This is a needle that was provided at knit out event held in tokyo last autumn. I will make some more balls enough for knitting or crochet or dyeing. Although I like natural ecru color, it must be fun to knit in color, too.

You see the tilt in even small swatch.

The flower behind in first picture is geranium. My son played around our flat with his new bike after we got home, and he came back with it saying "I found this flower fallen on the ground. Put her in a vase." It must fallen for its own weight as it has so many petal for a stem. He has a funny talent - he often finds fallen off flowers on the ground, that is still in bloom. He has found cherry blossom twig with some flower on it after windy day, and also found pretty yellow carnation left on street that seemed someone bought a lot bunch of flower at flower shop but one of them fell out. It might be happen when using bicycle or motorbike.

Happy weekend

I had very happy weekend. DS offered me "You may go Okadaya, Mitsubaya, or Yuzawaya or anywhere you want. I will prepare supper," I don't think i need such approval to go those craft store really, but how can i miss such opportunity? I went off in a rush, jumped on a subway and went Yuzawaya. As I really want to finish Martha first and not in the mood to get ready for any other project, I just looked around to see something new and get an idea and inspiration for future projects. And I found something new for me. It's rayon 100% yarn from Hamanaka for bag and hat.

I have known this yarn (or should I say cord?) for long time but the sample project made with them displayed at store were always looked uncool and i thought i will never try it until i met very cute sample at store, whose pattern found in this just published book.

I liked those two especially.

It has many cool pattern not only for bags but also hats. I gathered all material i need for this bag and some other balls. As the yarn looks like cord, the finished bag must be hard enough to use daily. This is very important for me as i always bring many thing in my bag. Knitted or crochet bag in usual cotton or wool yarn loose its original shape and handle stretches even when i put only a purse. So i will try with these rayon yarn this summer.
While checking out new books, i noticed how I love the shell stitch. The brown yarn will be a small bag in shell stitch.

What I really hope is that i have more time for enjoying materials i got. I often show you what i bought but i rarely show you what i made. I may have to make another category "shopping." Although i know it can't be helped as long as i am a working mother, i feel strongly stressed after shopping. Hope DH will make another offer for free time next or future weekend.

Oh, FYI, the reason DH released me is curry. He likes to cook curry in his way. He make curry from scratch occupying kitchen more than a few hours!

Books and covers

I got them from amazon yesterday. A friend borrowed me the first series of the novel and i was totally hooked. The pace i read was very slow at first, I say a chapter a week, but i read a chapter and more a day at last. I only used the dictionary a few times, that means the story was too interesting and couldn't help keep on reading. Not because i understood every word. So I bought it myself for reading it again later.

For them, I started making a book cover with liberty fabric in pink tone. I started it 2 or 3 weeks ago as soon as i came up the idea but i haven't made any progress since then. My mood always changes so quickly. Hope i can finish them while reading second series.

On knitting side, i am knitting Martha very patiently. Cause i want to wear in this spring, i have to concentrate on it.

liberty assorted bag

I went shopping on last weekend and when i peeked in a craft store, i found this cute assorted fabrics in miniature tote. I was thinking to buy some springlike color yarn at first, but the yarn was already cleaned up. So i brought this small bag and a cut cloth instead. You can see how the bag is small from the size of pen beside it. The fabrics are Liberty, some of them are original. I LOVE Liberty. It's one of my dream to make my wear with Liberty fabric. As these piece of fabrics are quite small, I think I'll make something small patchwork thing with them. Inside the bag is look like this ...

I wanted start with them soon but my DS got influenza and keeping me busy. It's ok if it's only flu he got ... he also got inflammation of the middle ear, too. I worked some during day and left some to do after he goes to bed. Due to the pain in his ear, he cried and woke up often till late, i couldn't work enough at night and even my own time for knitting was not left. He lost appetite and got up in midnight and woke me saying "I'm hungry, I want something to eat." Thank god, tomorrow is holiday and i can catch up. Hope he got well soon.

Pillow case finished

These are finished linen pillowcase with initials cross-stitched. As the thickness of weaven threads are different between vertical and horizontal directions, I had to stitch over 2 by 3 to make the crossed stitch look same propotion for height and width. It was tricky. I planned to stitch the item number for that fabric so that i can purchase same one next time, and year and month too, but i didn't, as i wanted try them away. I can stitch any time later.

And this is first half of Regia tweed stripe socks. As I haven't knitted socks in plain stockinette stitch on size 2 needle for long time ( I usually use 0 or 1 ), i amazed that the sock gets bigger before i knew it. The color is maroon and dark grey. Very light and confortable. I put on my leg and showed my DH and DS how they think and answer was "Oh, your socks has many fuzz!" Of course not. I should not ask them. Another pattern socks are on the foot now.

This is a crochet edging i found on japanese craft book. After finished required length, some more ladder lace will be added along straight edge. I have no any specific idea for the lace, just enjoying the pattern.

needle broken

When I have almost finished first sock and tried it on, the circular needle suddenly broken. Accurately, I broke it by accident. I was sitting on the floor and the point of needles were facing down and it happend when i turned back to reach a mirror stretching my leg a little (i think). So sorry as it was my favorite needle. I've knitted many socks before but it's first time to broke needle.
What made me feel more worse was the fact that the sock was not comfortable AT ALL when i tried! Too tight around heel and the pattern of very narrow stripe looks very ugly where it needs strech. So i flogged it.

I really want to knit something small right now and seeking the stash and pattern, but haven't get any combination yet. I don't have suitable yarn for the design i want to knit and i don't have any idea for the yarn i want to knit. I don't think I can get out of this endless circle unitl buying the suitable yarn for what i want to knit. So I'm very busy for looking around online store for next shopping.

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 ...

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.

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.

I'm back!!

I once had a blog with same title "little stitches," but after a time my life got so busy and gave up updating. I'm still busy but situation has changed. I used to had many stressful factors like outdated digital camera, annoying spam comments, many steps to upload pics, etc ... but thank God, blog tools are pretty easy to use now and my new digital camera works just great. I think i can keep updating with less stress than before so I finally decided to come back here to restart blogging.

My interest has not changed at all. Knitting, crochet, tatting, cross stitching, sewing, patchwork ... all kind of needlework. The title of this blog derived from miniature knitting which was all my passion when i started original blog. I no longer knit in such small scale recently. Maybe my eyes are overtired after PC work. However, i still love working with heirloom fine yarn and I beleive smaller the stitch is, more beautiful the work to be.

To keep this blog last as long as it could be, i have to save myself not too much hooked on it and tired. But it seems quite difficult at this moment cause i'm so excited to back to this space.
I will post my wip and other later.