Not a Happy Camper... 非常不爽中...

I got my package today. I was quite happy, as it was supposed to arrive tomorrow and now it arrived one day early. Then I opened it. They sent me the wrong yarn! I ordered Debbie Bliss Pure Silk, they sent me Debbie Bliss Alpaca Silk! Not happy. Not happy at all... Where did I order it from? It's the one that offers 20% off with $60 yarn purchase and 25% off with $120 purchase. I have only ordered from them twice, and had problems both times. Feeling very grumpy right now...

訂的毛線今天收到了！ 本來還很高興, 包裹早了一天到. 結果打開一看, 有一組線寄錯了, 真是氣人！ 我訂的是Debbie Bliss Pure Silk, 他給我寄Debbie Bliss Alpaca Silk. ㄟ, 差很多耶！ 這是那一家呢？ 就是訂滿$60打8折, 滿$120打75折的那一家！ 才跟他訂過兩次, 兩次都出錯. 真是受不了！ 效率也太差了吧！

TKA Tiger Eye Scarf Finished 虎眼圍巾完成

Yarn: Karabella Margrite (80% extrafine merino wool and 20% cashmere), #13 deep red, a little more than 2 balls
Pattern: From Stitchin Girl / TKA Project
Needles: Addi Turbo US size 6 (4 mm) / 24" (60 cm) circular
Measurement: Pre-Block 5.5" x 58" Post-Block 6.5" x 70"
Start: November 17, 2006
Finish: November 28, 2006

線材: Karabella Margrite (80% 美麗諾 and 20% 開絲米爾), #13 深紅, 2 球多一點
圖樣: 網路免費圖樣 from Stitchin Girl / TKA Project
針號: 4 mm / 60 cm 輪針
尺寸: 定型前 14 cm x 148 cm 定型後 16.5 cm x 178 cm
開始: 2006/11/17
完成: 2006/11/28


I LOVE this scarf! I have always thought a 7" wide scarf would be too wide. But this, this lace is just beautiful. I knitted two pieces separately from each end and grafted them together at the center. There are 15 pattern repeats for each half. Strange thing is, I had just enough yarn left for grafting when I finished the first half with one ball of yarn. And I ran out of yarn on the second half, and had to use a 3rd ball for the last 9 rows. I was saving two balls to make another one. I guess I will just have to settle for a shorter scarf.

哇！愛死這條圍巾了！ 本來想7吋太寬, 織起來後覺得其實剛好. 這個蕾絲花樣真是太美啦！我是從圍巾兩端分兩片織起, 中間縫合. 每一片有15個花樣重複. 奇怪的是, 我織第一片時用了一球毛線還有剩, 剛好夠做縫合用. 織第二片最後九段時線卻不夠用, 害我要用到第三球. 本來是留著要再織一條的, 看來下一條只好織短一點了.


If you looked closely, you would probably see that it looks a bit different from the pattern. Yup! I changed it a little - decided not to do garter stitch edging. Just feels like every scarf is garter-stitch edged. Happened to see the slip-stitch double-knit border on Backyard Leaves Scarf in Scarf Style, thought it looked lovely, decided to give it a try. And I just love how it came out. There are 3 stitches on left and right edges and here is what you do:

有沒有看出來這條跟pattern不太一樣？哈！我小小給它改了一下. 因為覺得每條圍巾都是用garter stitch（正反面下針）來做邊, 有點無趣. 剛好看到Scarf Style這本書裡Backyard Leaves Scarf的邊蠻好看的, 而且不會捲, 就來給它試試看嘍！個人覺得效果還不錯哩. 左右各留三針做邊, 針法如下 （ㄟ, 歹勢, 這個針法中文不知叫啥…）:

RS 正面- k1, sl1 wyif, k1
WS 反面 - sl1 wyif, k1, sl1 wyif


I also changed the 3 garter stitch rows on the two ends of the scarf, to k1-p1 ribbing. Not really wanting the elastic feature of the ribbing, I stretched it out during blocking. And I was pretty relieved that it did not shrink back after I took it off the blocking board. Just the way I wanted it. COOL!

兩端的三段garter stitch我也給它改成一上一下的ribbing. 覺得比較好看. 定型時特地把它拉開到一樣的寬度, 乾了後它也沒再縮回去, 太好啦！


Another thing I learned is from the book A Second Treasury of Knitting Patterns by Barbara G. Walker (where this lace pattern was documented.) To knit "k3tog" so that it is the exact opposite of "sl1 - k2tog - psso" (works well when you have a pair in the same row, although the difference is very subtle):

k3tog = ssk, slip the stitch back to left needle, pass the next stitch over and off the left needle, then slip the stitch back to right needle (also known as right slanting double decrease)

This is much easier than trying to twist the three stitches and knit them together, I think.

還有就是從 Barbara G. Walker 的 A Second Treasury of Knitting Patterns 這本書看到的撇步. 在同一段如有成對的”k3tog”和”sl1 - k2tog - psso”時, “k3tog” 可以這樣織（會比較對稱, 可是不仔細看也看不出來）:

左針上第一和第二針做ssk（右下二併針）, 然後滑回左針, 用右針把左針上下一針挑起套過剛剛ssk的那一針, 然後再滑到右針

我是覺得這樣比較好織, 不用在那邊扭那三個下針.


My sister was right, it is hard to give away this scarf. But it is for a very good friend, and I know she will cherish it. I guess I'll have motivation to make another one since I love it so much...

P.S. This Tiger Eye has got eye lashes…

姊說這條圍巾織好我會捨不得送出去, 還真的被她說對了. 不過這是要送給一位好友的, 我知道她會好好珍惜. 織了半天, 自己沒得圍, 趕快再來織一條吧！

ㄟ, 這個虎眼有睫毛耶！還是眼屎…. 哈哈…

Not Much Knitting Done

No, I did not cook this feast. I was never a good cook. And with a toddler to care for (not much time left to do anything else), we decided to let Whole Foods do the cooking. This was one of the Thanksgiving meals available for ordering. We ordered it once a couple years ago and was pretty impressed by the quality, thus this year we decided to order from them again. The food was actually quite tasty. Usually the turkey breasts would come out dry, but this one was pretty good. I only needed to reheat and put the food on the plates. Couldn't be easier than that. Although I didn't have to cook, cleaning up the house and preparing the meal still took me a few hours. This year only my in-laws came over for dinner. The meal package was for 4 people. We had 4 adults, but still left with tons of leftovers. Connor had a great time riding on daddy's shoulders...

哈! 這不是我煮的啦! 那這麼厲害! 現在帶個小孩也沒什麼心情時間煮飯(尤其我煮飯動作很慢), 所以今年感恩節決定跟Whole Foods超市訂火雞大餐. 兩年前訂過一次, 覺得還不錯. 火雞肉很容易就烤過頭, 變的又老又澀. Whole Foods訂的這個就還不會. 食物拿回家後, 只須放到烤箱裡加熱, 然後裝盤, 就上桌了. 雖然不用自己煮, 但是還是花了幾個小時來整理家裡, 準備餐具. 今年只有公婆過來吃大餐, 一共只有四個大人. 訂的是四人份, 卻還是剩下一大堆菜. 看來, 要連續吃好幾天的火雞了. 照片是Connor騎在爸爸肩上玩 (老公只肯讓我post這種看不到臉的...)

We then spent Friday and Saturday in the wine country. I brought my knitting bag along, but still couldn't get much done. I only had time to knit in the car, and Tiger Eye Scarf isn't exactly the right project for knitting in cars. We haven't visited Napa and Sonoma for a while. This time we were hoping that Connor would let mommy and daddy do some tasting. It turned out wine tasting is still too boring for a toddler (ummm... no kidding!) We basically had to take turns - one person tasting per winery only. The other person had to take Connor, walked around, and tried to keep him entertained. Still, we bought quite a few bottles of wine. The weather wasn't too bad - cold but sunny. Here is a picture taken in the garden of the hotel we stayed at.

週五週六去了酒鄉. 本來希望能替虎眼圍巾增加一點進度, 結果根本沒有時間. 唯一能織毛線的時候只有在車上, 可是虎眼在車上實在是不太好織. 光是車子晃動邊看圖樣邊織就看的眼睛脫窗差點暈車, 還有織錯的危險! 其實好久沒去Napa和Sonoma嚐酒了. 帶個小小孩其實也不太方便, 一次只能一個人作wine tasting, 另一個人就得帶Connor出去閒逛, 免得他在tasting room裡無聊到大聲尖叫. 雖是這樣, 酒還是買了好幾瓶. 那兩天天氣都不錯, 雖然有點冷, 但是都有出太陽. 這張照片是在hotel的花園裡照的, 覺得這個花開的還蠻美的.

But next time, we probably shouldn't visit the wine country during a holiday weekend. The traffic was so bad on our way back, it took us two and a half hours (it should have only taken 1.5 hours.) One of the winery staffs said that January and February is usually the slow time, maybe we will plan another trip then?!

不過下次不會再挑這種假日週末去wine country. 回來時光塞車就塞到話不敢. 一位酒廠員工說一二月其實是比較slow的時候, 遊客較少. Maybe到時再去一次?! 哇, 會不會太酒鬼啦?! ^o^

TKA Tiger Eye Scarf Progress 虎眼圍巾進度

I started the Tiger Eye Scarf last Friday. I almost forgot how good it feels to work with cashmere blend yarn. So soft, light, and warm. I just want to wrap it around my fingers...

虎眼圍巾開打囉! 上禮拜五開始打. 這個毛線有混cashmere, 摸起來好柔軟好舒服! 織得我都不想放下了...

This lace pattern is not difficult, but I do have to stay focused on where I am at. Made a few mistakes along the way, but luckily I realized early enough and was able to unravel and fix them within 1-2 rows. The truth is, the number of stitches changes from row to row. If I made a mistake in row 8, most likely I'd realize it by row 10 cause the number of stitches wouldn't match with the pattern. It is looking good so far. I've got 17 inches right now. The plan is to make it 60". Hoping to finish it by end of this week.

這個蕾絲花樣並不難, 只是要很專心. 有幾次有打錯, 還好都很快就發現, 馬上就改過來. 其實是, 有錯的話會打不下去. 因為不是每段針數都一樣, 如果那裡少打了一個掛針, 大概過一兩段就會發現, 針數錯了, 打不下去啦! 現在已經有43 cm了, 打算打到150 cm. 希望到這個禮拜天可以打好.

Ribwarmer in Durango

Yarn: South West Trading Company Karaoke (50%wool and 50% soy silk), #277 durango, 3 balls
Pattern: Vogue Knitting Fall 2006 Design #28
Needles: Addi Turbo US size 6 (4 mm) / 24" (60 cm) circular
Addi Turbo US size 7 (4.5 mm) / 24" (60 cm) circular
US size 8 (5 mm) for binding-off
Size: Small (14" across the back)
Start: November 1, 2006
Finish: November 14, 2006

線材: South West Trading Company Karaoke (50%羊毛 and 50% soy silk), #277 durango, 3 球
圖樣: Vogue Knitting 2006 秋季號 作品#28
針號: 4 mm/60 cm 輪針織身體, 4.5 mm/60 cm 輪針織邊, 5 mm 收針用
尺寸: Small (36 cm 背寬)
開始: 2006/11/1
完成: 2006/11/14

Knitting this ribwarmer feels like knitting a scarf - long and lean. It's kind of fun, though. Seeing how it has taken shape. This is my first time knitting with variegated yarn. And I didn't think of the obvious fact that knitting together different sections of yarn will create color lines. Duh! Anyway. I talked about it in my previous post, so not gonna repeat here. After my last post about this ribwarmer, I put it aside for two days and tried not to think about it too much. But every time I looked at it, my eyes were drawn to that ugly line at the right shoulder, staring back at me... Fine! I'll re-do it! How bad can it be?!

織這件像在織一條圍巾一樣, 細細長長的. 不過很有意思, 因為這件的組合方式蠻特別的. 這是我第一次用段染線來織. 算是經驗不夠吧? 照著pattern織, 右肩織好再織右背, 接合的地方正好顏色不一樣. 那時懶得重織, 心想, 大概沒關係吧? 結果, 一路織下來, 我每次看到那顏色不一樣, 就覺得有點後悔, 還是懶得拆. 一直到要縫合了, 覺得實在是不好看. 放在一旁看了兩天, 越看越不順眼, 終於決定, 重做！

Knitting the right shoulder is actually quite fast, 16 stitches for 24 rows. It's the grafting part I felt dreaded about. I picked a section of yarn with closer color variation. re-knit the right shoulder, and then grafted it onto the main piece. I have no idea where I did wrong, I ended up with a small hole in the middle. I think I might have missed threading one of the legs on one of the stitches. Too lazy to go back - more like I don't think I can re-do it again without dropping any stitches - I just patched it up from the back side. The color is so dark anyway, no one will see it.

織那一小塊右肩很快, 16針24段而已. 是要把它graft上去比較麻煩. 我挑了一段顏色比較接近的線, 把右肩重織, 然後再縫上去. 縫的時候不知道那裡出錯, 居然中間有個小洞. 懶得重縫, 拿線從反面補一補就算了. 反正線顏色深, 也看不出來.

The before (left photo) and after (right photo) of the right shoulder.
右肩重織的前後照片
The front and back of this garment laid flat:
放平的前後照
This ribwarmer is actually a bit too tight. When I first saw the measurement in the pattern, I thought, 14" across the back is more like a XS (the pattern has it as a size small). But my last few projects have all ended up a little too big on me, so I thought, maybe I should just follow the pattern. But this, this is really tight. Erh? A ribwarmer? Umm... it doesn't exactly cover my ribs... ^o^

這件穿起來有點緊. 當初看pattern的尺寸就很懷疑. 可是一連織了幾件上衣都有一點點大, 想說就照pattern織最小號的就是啦! 結果, 果然是太小. 不管了, 勉強能穿就好啦!

In English and In Chinese 中英文的部落格

I have been wanting to try posting in Chinese. I even thought about having a Chinese blog and an English blog. But having postings in two different places and maintaining both will be a challenge. Then I saw Wakana's blog. She is writing in both English and Japanese. And I thought her blog looks fabulous. Thus this is my attempt to do the same...

一直想看看中文在這裏post出來是什麼樣子... 甚至還想過中英文部落格各開一個. 可是如果文章分兩邊又太麻煩. 後來看到Wakana的部落格, 覺得用兩種語言來寫也不錯. 就來試試看吧！

With Chinese being my mother tongue, sometimes I feel only using Chinese can accurately describe my thoughts. But sometimes using English has its advantages (such as knitting patterns...), it's quicker and shorter.

中文是我的母語. 有的時候覺得用中文實在是比較貼切. 有的時候用英文反而快. 像寫編織pattern的時候, 覺得用英文比較快又簡單. 不過最主要還是看心情吧!

I finished the ribwarmer yesterday but haven’t had a chance to organize the photos, thus I don’t have new pictures to post today. Thought I’ll share a little bit of fall with you. This is a picture of a small Japanese maple tree in front of my old house.

Ribwarmer 已經織好了, 但照片還沒整理出來. 這張是在以前舊家照的, 門前的一棵小楓樹. 想現在也應該早已經變紅了吧？！

Ribwarmer - Should I Re-do the Right Shoulder?

Well, I started sewing up the Ribwarmer. And the one thing that I worried about the most, happened. There is a distinct color difference at the connection of the right shoulder and the right back/front part - you can see it in the second picture below near the top right corner. When I was knitting that part, I had thought about cutting a section of yarn with closer color variations and re-do the right shoulder. Then the lazy part of me said - well, maybe it is "on" the shoulder, you know, as a rectangle that may just look like a shoulder pad. And I would be okay with that.

But as I tried it on (with lots of pins holding it together, I almost poked myself...), that line created by the color changes is right next to my neck - very visible. Sorry about the photo qualities, I tried to take pictures of myself in a mirror, and it is hard! I know that if I don't re-do it, I would be so conscious everytime I wear it. But fixing it is not exactly a piece of cake. I will probably need to graft the new piece onto the main body. I hate grafting, but it's only 16 stitches... Should I re-do it or not?

Velvet Grapes & Pawpaw

I am just in love with my recent yarn purchases. Last week I went to Knitting Arts in Saratoga to shop for yarn choices for Phildar Swing Jacket. I ended up buying two skeins of Malabrigo Merino Worsted in color "Velvet Grapes". I have been eyeing it ever since I saw it here. But both Pureknits and WEBS are out of stock on this color. Thus as soon as I saw it on the shelves, I put them right into my basket. What am I going to make with it? Not sure yet. Maybe another Tiger Eye Scarf for myself, although I doubt the gauge will work out. No matter, I am sure I'll find a good project for it.

This is Kaalund Expressions (100% Kid Mohair) in colorway "Pawpaw". I found it at Imagiknit this week, when I went to look for yarn for Philar Swing Jacket (again...) You see how much this jacket is already costing me and I haven't even picked out the yarn for it yet?! Well, I am planning to make my first Swallow Tail Shawl in this yarn. Misti Alpaca Lace in lavender just got bumped into second place.

Although the colors are not as clear in this picture, I love how it turned out.

Dayflower Scarf - Test Knit

Last week, I finished one pattern repeat of the Dayflower Scarf. And I realized, you know, I don't really like the way it looks. I mean, it's a pretty lace pattern, but I am bothered by the wavy edges it creates. I know it is one of the characteristics of this pattern. But, people who are not familiar with knitting are going to think that I either did a poor job knitting it or I skimped on blocking. I think it will look beautiful with more repeats in a larger panel, as a shawl or a stole. Since this is going to be a gift, I decided to switch patterns.

I will probably switch to Tiger Eye Scarf. I really love this lace pattern, but I thought the scarf may be too wide with this yarn gauge (20sts=4"). It may knit up to be 7-8" wide. I'll try and see how it goes.
BTW, I learned of both scarves from TKA. Hmmm... maybe I should join them...

Blocking Ribwarmer

I finished the main body of the ribwarmer last night, and put it on the blocking board - well, it was too long for my self-made blocking board so I had to borrow my son's playmats. I used all of my T-pins, plus some small ball-point pins. This is the first time I tried to block a real cable pattern (the last time was a one-stitch cable which was easy), and I had to really stretch out the fabric to get the measurement. As of now (15 hours later), it is still a bit damp. Hopefully I can take it off the blocking board tonight, and start sewing it up. And then just the outer band and the armhole bands, it'll be done!

This ribwarmer (really a cropped vest) has very unique construction. I didn't quite understand how to put it all together when I first started reading the pattern. Now that it is taking shape, I think it will be interesting to sew it up and see what it will look like.

This is the right back (the bottom rectangle) and the right shoulder (the small rectangle on the top.)
This is the left back and the left shoulder.
This is just me playing with different camera angle...

Ribwarmer Progress

You know, I am liking this project. The surface area is small. Heavier yarn. Larger needles. I have only spent a few hours, and now it's already about 35% done. If I get to put in another 2 hours before bed tonight, it may be 60% done. After taking on several (comparatively) larger projects - which took forever, this feels pretty cool.

As I knit more with SWTC Karaoke, I am a bit annoyed by this yarn. It is "twisty". It kept getting tangled between my fingers. The color variation does knit up beautifully though, I think.

VK Fall 06 Ribwarmer Started

I finished the gauge swatch for the ribwarmer this past Sunday in the car to/back-from San Francisco Zoo. It was cold, but we all had a great time. Connor loved the ducks so much, he almost decided to join them.

I casted on the ribwarmer late last night. I am liking the feel of SWTC Karaoke in my hands. It feels warm and not as coarse (as I first thought that it would be.) Maybe it's because the weather is cold, handling a wool-blend yarn just warms my hands.

In case you are wondering, I am benching Tempting II right now. I am making it sit in the corner of my closet, thinking about what it has done...