Pompom!
Pattern | Pompom Bear by Amanda Keeys (0-6 mths)
Yarn | 100purewool.com Merino Worsted 3 ply in Blue & Bluish
Needles | 6 mm circulars
Ravelry project page here

Noah’s current hat is getting a little tight around the ribbing and he has long been unable to fit into his Bluey Hat so I decided to make him another (blue) hat! I didn’t want to start using a fresh ball of yarn so decided to go with whatever that was left. This plus Koolhaas ate one entire skein so I’m a happy camper – no more bits and pieces of yarn to deal with.

Definitely a fast knit (I finished in under two days but you could do it in less than a couple of hours if you didn’t have other distractions) and a great way to use up all that leftover yarn! Can’t wait to get him in it tomorrow when we head out to buy some fruits.

In the meantime, the Malaysian group of knitters have decided to start a group project – a granny square throw – for a fellow member as a wedding present. Each person is supposed to crochet two 8″ squares in lilac or pink. While my stash has some of these colours, they are mostly in wool or non-machine washable yarn. I ended up selecting my handspun yarn for the squares. Figured that since the skein is too small for any other project, it should give me two nice squares. We’ll see how it goes.

…if I can finish up Eva’s sweater and my Jaali shawl as well as work on my usual review assignments – one of which is the one on cheap sexy lingerie. These days, all I ever do is breastfeed (Noah is latching on for all his feeds so YAY!), pump milk (to maintain my supply), entertain Eva, do the laundry for both two kids and the adults, cook dinner…thankgoodness my parents are around to help although I will need to figure out a schedule of some sort when they have gone home.

Anyway, a while back, I ordered some Chromo Fingering yarn from Knitpicks. It is a gradient/self-striping single ply yarn which is great for socks as well as other things like scarves and even shawls (although I suspect the nylon component bit will give it a bit more stretch than I would like while blocking). Because of how the colours flow from one to another, complicated sock patterns are definitely out of the question so I reckon I’ll have to stick a simple rib and/or stockinette stitch topped off with a ribbed cuff.

As for the scarves, I intend on fixing up the weaving loom and combining this yarn with some Wollmeise or The Knittery yarn that I have in my stash. It’s about time that I stash working on reducing my stash – not so much to add more to it but just to move it around. Hm. That doesn’t sound quiet right. O’well…I reckon the scarves should just be perfect for winter and make quick gifts. Hm.

That is IF I can finish them in time. Kekekeke.

I got a new equipment in for the store and decided to test it out. After churning a good five blanks and painting them, I came up with some gorgeous colourways. Unfortunately, my blanks came away too tight for some and what’s worse was that I had dropped stitches, which I salvaged, for a few and those resulted in me having to break the yarn and join it. Knots plus spotty yarn will not do for the store so they ended up in my stash instead.

I have a couple of projects in mind for these babies – most probably socks and shawls, especially for the 100% superwash merino yarn base. But first, to complete my brother’s commissioned knitting. Hat No 3 is coming on awfully slow so I might take some time out to work on that and more blanks for the store. On a completely different note altogether, I wish I’d get other reviews to work on apart from the usual stuff like thrush treatments – in case you’re wondering, yogurt works wonders and I’d stay away from anti-fungals!

One good thing about running a handdyed shop is that you get to bulk up your own yarn stash from your own dyeing. Well, that and the fact that you can aim to get the colours of your choice. Why I say aim is because what you desire often isn’t 100% what you get from the dyepot. Above is one of the silk-wool yummies I have called my own although Nil is trying to get me to sell whatever I can – FAT CHANCE!!!! It is just too lovely to pass up!

I have put up the two below for sale at the shop but am getting tempted to dye up another batch just for keeps. The trouble with all this is that I’m way behind on my knitting – am building up a stash faster than I can knit!!! The yarn above plus about four skeins of Manos and another seven skeins of Malabrigo for a commissioned knitting project (more about that later) is definitely going to add to my budget. Still, I must thank the person behind the commissioned knitting. I get to shop for yarn guilt-free!

I’m hoping that once the knitting bug catches on (and it IS catching on), I’ll be back onto the knitting bandwagon. I owe Nil a couple of socks and at least two sweaters which will go well with some shirts that he has!

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*

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!

These days, it’s just about cooking and knitting simply because I have been doing more of those things. Ranting seems…boring, especially considering that I’m rather far away and I would rather save that energy for thoughts that need to be address. In other words, I’d rather write to newspapers back at home than just ranting about it on my blog. This is evident in my recent letter published on Sunday by The Star. Chooks remarked that it sounded as if I was pissed.

To be honest, I was and get rather annoyed when I think about it. Motherhood is something miraculous and being able to breastfeed your baby is nothing short of honourable. Yet companies go against government sanctioned health recommendations. Why? Because they only care about the profits and not the people who bring them in. People put breastfeeding in the same category as porn, berating and staring down at women who breastfeed in public, even when they cover themselves up (they do so because toilets need to be clean and comfortable for mothers to suckle their babies not cramp, wet and smelly). And these are not my stories but the stories of real-to-life women with real problems. Problems that female politicians claim to care but never bother addressing or enforcing. So how can I not be pissed?

Anyway, since moving away, you could say that my exposure to annoying and disappointing Malaysian news has somewhat lessen. These days, I watch the political situation from afar with a mix of sadness and anger. Knitting, spinning and cooking/baking takes the edge off and well, when you’re married with a kid on the way, there is…well…life.

There’ll be some FOs – both spinning and knitting – coming up soon. I just need to get my hands on some embellishments!

After handpainting, there is kettle dyeing and as you can see, the test skein above yielded some pretty remarkable results. Sometimes it’s unbelievable what some dye, hot water and vinegar can do to yarn (and roving). Plus the beauty about kettle dyeing mixed with handpainting is that it cuts my working time by at least half!!! So that means a higher production level!

Anyway, this little baby is a small 18 gms (or so) skein of merino-cashmere-silk laceweight that I’m brought in specially for the store. I can’t really sell it so am using it to knit a smallish-lace triangle scarf-lette design that I’m currently working on. It’s based on a combination of two stitch patterns that I found in Evelyn Clark’s Knitting Lace Triangles. If it goes well and passes the whole copyright thing (I did my own charts, instructions and all as well, so I hope it’s not a problem since stitches aren’t copyrighted), I hope to either knit shawls based on this or publish this. *keeps fingers crossed*

In the meantime, there’s always some good autumn weather – we’re thinking of doing a 20.5 km ride around the lake area – to look forward to plus heaps of other stuff to get busy with, not including assignments like term life insurance quotes…

Btw, did I mention that I’m planning to get some more roving? I just can’t decide if I should or not!