Ten Thousand Dancing Stars

We were in our twenties, barely ready for the world, scared mindless but in love. We married each other not fully realizing what exactly we got ourselves into but then made sure that for each and every day that would come, we would get to know each other and build a home.

Eighteen years later, here we are. We have four beautiful children. We do not have a fairy tale life. We have problems like every other married couple with growing-up children does. We never really celebrate our anniversary. For us it’s just another day. But this year we decided to do something different.

Do you start binge-eating at the first sign of trouble? Do you lash out with the written word, smashing your keyboard with all the force an emotional human being could muster? Do you retreat into your own world and curl up in a fetal position? Or do you engage in some retail therapy?

Jackie suggested that I may be doing the latter to numb the pain. Honestly? I didn’t even think of it that way. in fact, everything on this post that I am about to show you were all purchased prior to that recent event. Thanks to delays and offloads on flights, my shipments are only starting to trickle in now. Let me introduce you to them.

This is Fairchild. My first skein of The Plucky Knitter’s Merino Cashmere Fingering weight yarn. It contains 80% merino, 10% cashmere and 10% nylon. This skein was destashed from Irishgirlieknits.
Discontinued Brand Name Yarn offers heavily discounted yarns from well-known companies. They had a January Sale on Cherry Tree Hill Semi Solids which were colourways being taken off the market. I got three skeins of colours which are not my normal ones. I thought I’d diversify and see how I like it. Blossom shown below.
This is actually green, maybe I need to take another photograph. This is colourway Jade.
Whoddathunk? Me, orange? Well, there’s always a first time for everything and this colourway called Mango looked perfect to me.
This little 1oz ball of fiber right here is the Rolls Royce of fibers. It’s “as soft as a cloud”, as mentioned on the ball band. And it really is. This is qiviut. Expensive as hell but eight times warmer than sheep’s wool and softer than cashmere. This is a gift from Canada and I need to plan what to knit with it. Any ideas?
Much of my recent purchase are from Ravelry destashes. The next 3 lot are from Linda in the US. I love the Mint Julep colourway from Sundara and when I saw that Linda was destashing this in the Sport Merino base, I kept thinking “Oooh, sweater for me!” I took all 6 skeins from Linda.
Miss Babs Yummy Superwash Sock in a Woolgirl Club colourway inclusive of the club pattern. Nice lovely red. Sundara Sock Yarn in Ember over Flame. Quite brown but I love it. I need to knit socks. I’m dying to knit socks!
I’m not much a fan of mystery knit-alongs but this mystery KAL for a shawlette called Shoshie over in Ravelry seemed quite interesting so I signed up. I bought the kit including beads. I have finished knitting the first clue which included bobbles, but now need to buy a crochet hook that fits since my hooks at home are too big for the beads. More Sundara goodies. Alicia is such an enabler/tease! I purchased this skein of Beaded Turquoise from her. I need to knit lace! I have a WIP in lace but need to finish other stuff first before I can tackle something so delicate as laceweight yarn.
Fingering Silky Cashmere is a trial run by Sundara. Not sure if she will offer this yarn base again, but it is so soft! Silk and cashmere make a really awesome mix. I think I will make a cowl with this skein I destashed from Alicia.
I have plenty of sock yarn from Sundara but the colours don’t necessarily make for good mixing and matching. I want a Daybreak shawl in Sundara Sock Yarn and wanted to use one of the brighter colours I have, maybe Cobalt over Mediterranean. So I bought this skein of (almost) black sock yarn called Night Sky Unseen. Pretty huh?
One of Sundara’s latest yarn bases is Fingering Merino Cashmere which is 70% merino, 20% cashmere, 10% nylon. Yes, exactly like Bugga! It feels squishy just like Bugga! but with the advantage of Sundara’s amazing colourways. And it’s 500 yards per skein! This is Intense.
This is called Enigma’s Secret. I love the green and I’m thinking of making a shawl with this one, maybe Melody’s Shawl?
What’s in the box?!
Why, it’s my latest order from KnitPro! All EUR818 of it! I’ll be spending the weekend sorting out individual orders. Can’t wait to try the acrylic needles! Speaking of needles, I recently treated myself to a luxury. A once-a-year luxury for me actually since it was in 2008 when I bought my first straights from Signature Needle Arts. I was hoping to grab some circulars but orders are full and they didn’t have the 2.5s yet. So I decided to buy DPNs. Just 4 since that is my usual technique. I did a small swatch with these and they are gorgeous!
I can’t wait to cast on for socks and use these stiletto tipped needles.Oooh, more yarn! Remember the Blue Moon sale? Well, they finally arrived today. These are the mediumweight skeins for Lindsay. I think she hit the jackpot here because the rare gems colourways are amazing. Jackie and I ordered lightweights and these are our Fire and Water skeins. Not sure which ones she wants and I’m happy to take whichever so I’ll let her have first dibs.I do have more coming, but mostly from club subscriptions. I have subscriptions to the Lotus Club on Etsy, Club Dragon Witch, Skein Queen’s Film Club and Reading Room, Rockin’ Sock Club, The Plucky Knitter’s Plucky Classics, Yarntini Semi Solids and hopefully The Loopy Ewe Sock Club.

Too much?

Preeti, did you receive your Tosh Worsted yet? Mine have not turned up and I’m worried that it is now lost.

Pretty exciting stuff.

Level 1 is Flash Photography so guess what I bought tonight. Ta-dah!
It’s a Canon Speedlite 430EX II, the most compatible model for my EOS 400D. One of the tips they gave us in Basic Photography Class is to buy a flash unit with a fully adjustable head, not just rotational but something that can be tilted up to 90 degrees. These controls on the back are scary. I tried reading the manual but gave up just after the first few sections. I’ll figure it out tomorrow along with the rest of the class.Bernie is not taking this class with me since he has more important things to focus on. More on that later.

I’m excited about this new class. Can’t wait to get started.

This is only my second full year of knitting so bear with me if I am still a bit too excited about my accomplishments.

I give you the 20th pair of socks I knitted in 2009. That’s 40 socks and probably a combined total of over 250,000 stitches! Assuming an average of 70 stitches per sock, 30 rows for the leg, 35-stitch-35-row heel flap and another 40 rounds for the foot and toe. Rough estimate of course.

Anyway, who’s keeping score, right?

This particular pair was modified to allow for my fat feet. I added an extra column of cables since the pattern is designed for narrow 9s. So I cast on 72 stitches and my charts have 36 rows. I did a bit of stitch-wrestling when I got to the heel flap, but it went alright. I did end up with a higher than usual heel flap but it was still alright.
I finished the second sock while waiting for my husband at Costa’s at the City Centre. I just knitted away and sipped my enormous cup of Mocha Flake and between bites of the carrot cake I decreased for the toe and kitchenered it shut!
I even took these shots right under my table! I quickly took off the Mossy Leyburns I had on, put these cherry babies on and posed. If anyone was giving sideways glances then I was oblivious to them. I was just so happy to finish these socks. They were a very enjoyable knit and Star Athena is an excellent designer. The pattern was simple and enjoyable. Freshman all the way!
Project: Cherry Cables
Pattern: Freshman Cable Socks by Star Athena, published in Knitscene Fall 2009
Yarn: Cherry Tree Hill Supersock Solids, colourway Cherry
Needles: 2.5mm
Cast on: 22 Dec 2009
Cast off: 31 Dec 2009
Notes: Added one more cable panel so my rounds have a total 72 stitches and 36 rows.

This next project was my last one for 2009, the very last one. I cast off at 11.30pm on Dec 31! I have no photos a la Brooklyn Tweed but will try to get some done.
This is also the project that took me the longest time to complete! Took 4 balls of yarn, much frustration but in the end I enjoyed working on it. Will I knit this again? Maybe, but I will cast on less stitches and also use a different yarn. I am not a fan of the scratchiness.
Project: Striped Noro
Pattern: Noro Striped Scarf by Jared Flood
Yarn: Noro Silk Garden,
Colourways: 2 skein each of 244 and 82, 2 skeins of 249
Needles: 4mm
Cast on: 15 Jan 2009
Cast off: 31 Dec 2009
Notes: Finished size is 65.5 inches long, cast on 35 stitches and mixed and matched the colourways to get the colour stripes I wanted. Still not happy with it but it works.

Will I knit this again? I don’t know. Not sure I want a project to languish for another year in my knitting bag. If I do knit this again, I would make it skinnier. And I would not use Noro. Even after a soak it is still scratchy as hell.

What does Thorpey have to do with this blog post? Nothing really, apart from the fact that this hat I made at the request of my husband is called Thorpe. Although the designer had another Thorpe in mind. This Thorpe actually, which is fitting since my husband and I enjoy watching American football too. I miss the NFL! I don’t get it on our cable subscription anymore. Thank God for Friday Night Lights!

But I digress, sorry.

He wanted a hat and he wanted something that covers not just his head but also his ears. And he wanted them while the weather is still suitable for hats. I had two similar patterns which I showed him. He found Mintyfresh’s Roman Earflap Hat to be a bit feminine because of the fancy seed stitch borders. So we decided to make Kirsten Kapur’s Thorpe. Go ahead and click, these are not Ravelry links.

Don’t fall off your seat but I made a gauge swatch. Yes I did! I had to do it twice the size because the first set of needles I used (5.5mm) gave me the wrong gauge so I switched to 6mm needles and got gauge. Ish.

Oh the yarn! I was looking after the UAE Roaming Bag (note to self: take a photo of the Roaming Bag to show everyone!) and rummaged through it, left a couple skeins of something I know I will never use but someone else might find interesting and saw 4 skeins of this black with tan and orange stripes. It felt soft enough, smooth enough, but alas! it was 100% acrylic. *shudders*

I kept petting the yarn and decided that it was alright for what I have in mind. Actually I used it for something else, the naughty Spiderweb Brassiere which is posted in my Ravelry project page but will never see the light of day in this blog due to sensitive reasons. And no, the spidey bra were not mine, they were made for a friend at her request. They turned out quite well if you ask me. Anyway, so I held this yarn double and swatched and got gauge so I cast on thinking it’s easy peasy.

It was worked from the top down so I started with 4 stitches and worked to 80 stitches. It looked flat in the beginning and I wondered how the heck was it supposed to be a hat. Just look at it! Would you have been able to guess that this was supposed to be a hat?
I just kept on working and working until I got the desired length for the body of the hat, and guess what, it did taper down and formed a dome. I have to say that I did most of the knitting while we took the Metro last Saturday. We went to see our Canadian Immigration agents (more on that later!) and decided to take the Metro just for fun. I whipped out the knitting on the way back from Terminal 3 of the airport where we had a quick meal and I had people looking at me like I was crazy. And I know Bernie was so embarrassed about trying the hat on while it was still on the needles but he was game for it. At the end of our line, back at the Mall of the Emirates, I was ready to do the second earflap. I just didn’t bring my notions kit so I had no scissors to cut the yarn with.

I finished knitting it last night and did the trims as well so he has a new hat! He tried it on last night and it fits so he is quite pleased with it.
He was playing basketball with his buddies last night so I got to try it on before him. It feels comfy, warm and quite soft. Trying to get a self-portrait in such close proximity with a 50mm lens is not recommended. Sheesh!
Project: Thorpe
Pattern: Thorpe by Kirsten Kapur (link to her website is above)
Yarn: Nako Derya’nin tercihi Super Inci
Colourway: Black/Orange/Tan, 1 full skein, yarn held double plus a bit extra from a second skein for the pompom and braids
Needles: 6mm
Cast on: 29 Dec 2009
Cast off: 10 Jan 2010
Notes: I didn’t do the half double crochet edging because I felt that the cast off edges are neat enough and with the black yarn it doesn’t really matter. I’m all about the pompoms so I cracked open my new pompom maker courtesy of Caroline (thanks!) and did a real fluffy one.

Bonus photo! We bought UV and polarizer filters last week and I got to try them on yesterday. We only bought the set for the 50mm and the 18-250mm since we reckon these are the lenses we will be using for outdoor photography.
I love how the colours pop!

It’s cold enough now for me to wear my shawls and scarves and hats and fingerless gloves. And I love it! It’s nice to get compliments on something that I made with my own hands. Makes it all worthwhile, plus it keeps me warm too!

This blog post aims to show you two FOs of recent months which to my surprise have not been photographed properly. First up is Liesl, a cardigan I knitted back in July, right smack in the middle of summer. I have worn it a few times already and it is pilling . I do love this garment and maybe I will knit it again in a different, more durable and easy care yarn.

This is my Liesl with my godson, Jon Eduard in his super cute Santa’s Little Helper outfit.
Here’s another project I am proud of, and incidentally designed by Ysolda Teague again just like the Liesl. This is a scarf/shawl with lace edging knit out of silk and alpaca blend yarn. I have worn it a couple of times already and have fallen in love with it!Moving on to more recent FOs, this is my Lacy Baktus which I finally finished the other day. It felt like a battle with this one but I hope it pays off.Project: Lacy Bella
Pattern: Lacy Baktus by Terhi Montonen
Yarn: Socks that Rock Mediumweight
Colourway: Bella Coola (from a trade with Liette)
Needles: 4mm
Cast on: 27 Oct 2009
Cast off: 4 Jan 2010

In the spirit of challenging myself, I am learning how to double-knit. Yay! The instructions in this Knitty article is so easy and simple, it was only a matter of doing it. So Igrabbed two contrasting balls of leftover sock yarn and 3mm needles and just went for it.

After two attempts at the fiddly cast on, I had this on the needle yesterday before going to work. Fun!
I have since completed the cast on and have started knitting (gasp!) the first round. It’s a bit crazy with the yarn ends all over the place but there is a sense to all the madness. I will keep working on it and show you my progress as I go.

Hopefully later this year I will use this technique to knit actual adult-sized socks.

By the way, you mayhave noticed I do post more regularly now on theblog. It doesn’t mean I sit on the PC all day typing away. I do write up the posts and then save them in draft scheduled to post at a given time. That way I don’t have to worry about not having a blog post for days on end ever again.

Thank you, Blogger!