…well, almost.

Just earlier this morning, I decided that it was time to dust off those WIPs in hibernation and put my knitting needles to good use. Nil had remarked that I switch hobbies far too often and bemoaned the status of my non-moving yarn which we paid to move here together with all our stuff. Heh. Okay okay, I get the drift. I need to kick myself in knitting again.

So I took a look at my Rav project page and decided on what WIPs to bring out of hibernation and such. One the list was my Ivy wrap which has been on hibernation for a longgggg time. I managed to make some headway with it towards the end of my pregnancy but alas, fell short of the finish line. So this time, I was determined to finish it by hook or crook.

Now, I was about to start working on my Ivy wrap when a rather large-ish order for crochet booties came in. So once again, it’s KIV…for now. I’m hoping to be able to work in a few rows in the evenings. The plan is to work on the shop items (booties and sewing) while Eva takes her afternoon naps and reserve my evenings for time with Nil and doing my other hobbies like knitting, spinning and sewing up non-shop items like my quilts. Hopefully this plan works out…

*keeps fingers crossed*

After what seemed like ages, I finally got my hands on some prized Wollmeise yarns!!!

Yes, I broke my yarn diet by cheating – somewhat like getting fat burners to help you lose weight instead of sticking to a healthy diet and good exercise regime. And yes, with the packing and all…but really, I just couldn’t resist!

I’ll be frank – it wasn’t easy trying to get her yarns. Updates are weekly and I always miss them. It took me about a couple of weeks of stalking the Wollmeise online store (thanks to Lois and her constant reminders) before I finally got the colours that I simply adored. I missed a few along the way (Zenzi is hot on my wanted list), no thanks to Nil – he forgot to wake me up and all.

But hey, I’m a happy trooper with these four colours. *squishness*

That all changed recently…well, after this morning actually. I have managed to filled in at least six boxes of varying sizes (the smallest being around 120 x 150 x 200 mm to the largest nearly 480 x 600 x 800 mm). Of course a good three of them contain my shop stock so I can’t really count it as just for stash but still, with the ziplock-vacuum pack thing, those 192 skeins finally materialised.

Nil finds it amusing that I have little inkling as to the amount of stash I have. He being a non-knitter (and obviously someone who doesn’t understand the obsession some people have about yarn stashing) sees things more clearly than myself I guess. But then again, this is someone who is willing to drive to Germany to buy beer if given the chance. Granted though it’s not far – about two hours by car.

I did try my luck when he said he was thinking of making the trip there with Dad – the ever sought after Wollmeise yarns are now making their appearance in the form of a real life store but alas, Nil would only be crossing the border instead of heading inward (and this store is located in the Bavarian area).

O’well, I have another three medium sized bags to go but I think I’ll probably give those away instead of sending it to Singapore. We’ll see how it goes. After my stash, the only thing left would be my clothes, books (knitting, cookbooks and such) plus things like my shoes and all. I might donate some of my older clothes and shoes but yeah…talk about stashing yarn and fibres.

Definitely need to run a “knit from stash” thing once they are out of them boxes!

Mary Jane Skimmers
Pattern | Mary Jane Skimmers by Sylvia Schuchardt
Yarn | Puppets Cotton 8 ply in white
Needles | 3.5mm crochet hook

I was itching to work on something other than Nil’s one side sock but didn’t want the burden of having an unfinished WIP on my hands. So I thought, hey, why not work on another bootie for little Eva? I made two pairs for her – three months and nine months – but have nothing suitable for a newborn. I figured that these little skimmers would do the trick even though some may say that she’ll outgrow it fast. I don’t really mind actually since it keeps me busy plus it helps me dip into my stash. Not that my stash got really dented in the process. This project took up very little yarn and is great for leftovers and such – if you have tons of those.

I didn’t do a two-sole bottom as called for by the pattern because I wanted to keep it soft and such. Also, the center strap was lengthened by one to two stitches (two stitches was a mistake). When the two were complete, Nil remarked that it looked a bit tad on the small side and feared that our little one may not fit into it at all. I don’t think it’ll be an issue since cotton is stretchable to some degree and the yarn I’ve chosen to work with is quite pliable and soft to boot.

Now that this is done, it’s back to the packing and this time, we’ve continued on with the clothes – I’m so tempted to just the unwanted pieces with a wholesale clothing store – and our books. Clothing-wise, there are my work clothes which I brought from home (totally useless if you ask me). I might take a few pieces with me but otherwise, the rest will probably end up in storage like the winter clothes or just given away (especially the older pieces). Book-wise, Nil will be passing off his French comics to his mum while I get to bring over my cookbooks plus craft stuff. Huzzah!

And yes, now that Eva is full-term, the waiting game begins.

Miao
Pattern | Amineko Crocheted Cat by Nekoyama
Yarn | Coop Maxima in Pale Yellow
Needles | 3.5mm crochet hook

Yes, this is another toy I knitted up while watching Murder, She Wrote seasons 3 and 4 as well as looking up info on all sorts of things, eg nursing bras, breast pumps, Pleasanton motorcycle accident attorney and such. (It’s interesting how there are such things as attorneys specialising in motorcycle accidents…we definitely more of those back in Malaysia!!!).

Anyway, this is what people would call an amigurumi toy – a Japanese art of knitting or crocheting small creatures or items like plants and such. It’s usually made up of a few pieces which are stuffed separately and then joined together by handstitching the parts together. In Miao’s case, I had to make two arms, two legs, one tail, one torso, the head, two ears and the piece for the mouth. Looking at the list, it may seem tedious but it is quick and almost mindless work during to the nature of how it is crochet – spiral.

Instead of plastic pellets to give it some weight in the arms, legs and torse, I settled on filling instead to make it squishable. And yes, as you can see, I even gave Miao an attitude to boot! Now to see if Eva will like it…

The Grey Whale
Pattern | Sludgie the Whale by Carrie Melago
Yarn | Coop Maxima in Grey
Needles | 3.5mm crochet hook

Since I’ve been waiting for a while to get some dye-fixer solution in the mail (thus resulting in a halt in my sewing), I wanted to work on something while I catch up on Murder, She Wrote (Season 3). I just can’t stand not doing something with my fingers while I’m watching something. It’s been a habit of mine for the past one or two years – so I thought, why not work on a toy? It’s fast and well, hardly complicated. And we do need a toy or two to keep Eva occupied while she’s in the crib/bassinet and such.

I had read that babies have not much colour sense in the first six months and thus are attracted only to contrast – black & white plus solid patterns like stripes, circles and so forth (think barcodes and barcode scanners – see if you can find the link! ^^). So I thought why not crochet up a toy in some grey yarn that I have lying around? Hence the birth of The Grey Whale as seen in pics above and below. I made some changes, choosing to omit the removable water spout and replacing the plastic eyes with embroidered eyes instead for safety purposes. The stuffing is leftover polyfill which I had used in my previous toy project.

While the original whale looks a little bit more happy with a smile and softer, I like my toys firmer and squishable – hence why the “stiff” and morose look. Still, Nil thinks it’s quite cute and personally, for me, it’ll do as a simple toy. I have a couple more toys queued up in my projects list over on Ravelry and I might be just tempted to do a “soft” one like a bear or something. We’ll see how it goes…

Apart from working on the afghan and the baby blanket, my hands have been busy churning out bootie orders that spiked because of a recent promotion (which just ended today). Above is the most recent pair that I’ve just completed and will send off on Monday.

I have another three pairs of booties and four pairs of mittens to work on. Then there is the store update for May which I really ought to get started on – I have some yarns and fibres to dye up for sale. After that, I’m not too sure if I want to do any more major updates, especially for fibres, until Eva is born. The last update really tired me out even though I split it into a few sessions. That plus the fact that we might be moving back to Asia come September is another cause for concern. While I’d love to stock up on supplies before moving to make life easier, I’m not too sure if it’s a great idea because of how we’ll be shipping our things over – by sea.

So yeah, planning and ideas aside, the next few days will see me busy crocheting and attending ultrasounds plus preparing for Eva’s arrival AND doing some light reading on stuff like Mesothelioma cancer. Eva will be 28 weeks come next Thursday and we have a crucial ultrasound coming up in the same week as well…so more on the baby blog then!

I’ve got it bad.

Nil just teased me stating that I have a number of unfinished projects but I still went ahead and started a new one anyway. To be exact, I have three active WIPs and five in hibernation. The craziest thing about them all is that the three active WIPs are either halfway there or are travel WIPs for Eva while the ones in hibernations are outfit projects like socks and cardigans which I don’t really need right now.

This one is to reduce my stash plus it’s a trial piece for something that I’m thinking of churning for the Eva when she’s older. I’m crocheting granny squares from leftover laceweight yarn that I have in my stash and hopefully, they’ll be enough for the size that I have in mine. I’ll need about 150 squares and each of this is 3″ by 3″ (unblocked). I just started late last night after rummaging through my stash for the right yarns and came up with a sweet reddish combination made up of five variegated yarns. The two combos missing are a very light light rose shade and a brownish-pale pink shade which I have yet to wind up into yarn cakes.

This will be a pure merino lace throw – delicate yet form and breezy enough for, I hope, summer and winter. With any luck, I’ll finish it. I’m determined to prove Nil wrong – I DO NOT have startitis!!!!

So excuse me now while I go off to crochet and work on writing something about industrial supplies.

I always love looking around my stash after not touching it for some time. In fact, the last time I actively looked through my entire stash was a couple of months back. Now why is this so? Because I never fail to find a little gem hidden away somewhere each time – just like finding sterling silver jewelry among my earrings! This time, I found three! Now how super is that? And just when I have been hankering for some serious sock yarn shopping… The fact that The Knittery – one of my favourite handdyers – had decided to go into temporary retirement didn’t help the situation one bit!

Anyway, just in case you are wondering, these yarns are my own handdyes from the last time I toyed around with the dyepot in November last year. As fun as it had been dyeing up a storm, I’m not about to risk things and start again even though I have a few solutions leftover from the last dye session. These little babies are basically my shop’s two base yarns – superwash merino sock and superwash merino-bamboo.

Honestly, I can’t wait to get back to dyeing. I miss playing with dyeing up these yarns and I have a few colour combos and techniques that I’d like to experiment with but I doubt we’ll see any action even after the birth. O’well…I guess I’ll just have to go back to fondling these yarns instead; I won’t be keeping all three skeins though. One of them will be off to a friend for some good ole’ fashioned gifting and the rest? Back to the stash pile!

Since the bootie frenzy (I actually have about three pairs more to finish off which won’t take long, actually), my knitting has taken a slow turn…well, I’m still knitting, just that I’m not exactly knitting ALL the time. There is the cooking, cleaning, baking, and so forth…even writing about things like custom promotional product. I even squeezed in a bit of spinning.

Anyway, here’s a glimpse as to what I’ve been slowly working on alongside my Entrelac stole (which is turning out rather beautifully actually) – Baby Log Cabin Blanket modelled after Mason-Dixon’s Modern Baby Blanket. It’s all about knitting garter stitch non-stop, mind you and thus, it can be quite boring. It’s like writing the same word over and over again despite using different colour inks!

Since I’m off the whole “buying yarn for a project”, I’ve decided to dip into yarns that I probably won’t use for projects that I’ll never get around to. The result so far is a rather soft yet sturdy “fabric” texture, which can stand on its own but I intend to back it with some fabric like fleece to give it some extra warmth. Still, with another four months to go, I really really hope I can finish this before the baby arrives.

So far, I’m done with two colour blocks (out of seven or ten – I’m still deciding) and have just started on the 3rd. I really really hope to keep up the mojo so wish me luck, ya?