redos

On last post, I wrote about my daughter's grown-out-in-length jeans.  We were glad my friend gave me a clear view to my somewhat vague idea about adding a fancy tape on the post-hem line (Thanks, Janet!) and talked a bit about designs, and...

Here.  Little crochet ribbons and a heart.  From the books I bought for exactly a project like this.
Books;

Edging & Braid Variation 106 (エジングとブレード かぎ針で編む、とびきりかわいいデザイン１０６

Crochet Heart Pattern はじめてのかぎ針あみ　ハートパターン100 

(Link to Ravelry pages.)

Heart pattern is #64 Heart Doily by Atsuko Takeda (link also to Ravelry page).

The air here is warming up these days.  One more stretch for these plain jeans.

I am finding more and more comfortable myself doing these "fancy mending" kind of work.  I knew I have an old-time set of mind, but these days, more and more so.  My age?

Bordhi-nized room shoes

When I first made Cat Bordhi's "Discovery" socks, I was afraid of snipping the yarn in the middle of my knitting.  After I made a couple of garments with steeks, I still have my fears.
Can I open the "mouth" without cutting ?

I have been thinking of making a pair of room shoes for warmth all along this autumn/winter, say, for three months.  I was eyeing a nice knit/crochet pattern, but I had almost used up my colorful bits and pieces of fingering yarns suitable for it (they turned into armwarmers).  And, I wanted my shoes to be practical if not fancy.  It can be in awful acrylic or anything, if it stays on my feet snugly and keep them warm.
Then, "stays on my feet" rang the bell.

What if I made just the foot part of Cat Bordhi socks, in thick acrylic?
And if I crochet them, I could open the mouth with chain loop without cutting, with a bonus of a speedy finish!

So the project began, at around 9:30 AM.

1. Start circularly, making increases every other round or so, to cover your toe.
(I like slip-stitch my final sc on the first ch to finish the round, by the way.  You can spiral up the rounds if it suits you.)


2. Once the circumference reaches your foot circumference, just crochet up to "leg" line, adding increases if needed.  The yarn was worsted-weight-ish thick, so I only made a 2 sts and a 4 sts increase once each.

3. Fun part made easy.  When you reach the leg line, make 1 ch st like you start every round (for sc), and add half the numbers of one round chain stitches.  I had 36 stitches, so I made (1 + 18) = 19 chain stitches.

And attach on the opposite side of the round with sc. Continue in sc like former rounds to the end of the round.

4. Crochet on the chain, 1 sc on 1 ch, for the first half and sc on for the second half of the next round.


5. Continue up to "heel" line.


6. Make decreases to finish the heel, just reversing the toe making process.


And Voila!  A shoe.


I added picot edging around the mouth, to strengthen the sides where instep and heel meets, and to make it a bit cuter.  I should have used, say, white yarn for edging to make it even cuter.

It took less than 3 hours for one shoe for me, including taking notes and ripping a round or two here and there.

Naturally, the second shoe was finished a lot faster and a bit tighter (my crochet skill is not as good as my knitting).

See the right one is a bit smaller?

Still, I'm satisfied that I finished before my daughter comes home from school at 3:00PM.  Warm feet make a happy smiling mom.

I think this is going to be one of my "no-pattern-patterns" which I can work whenever, wherever I got enough yarn and a matching needles & hooks.
(And my Personal Footprint, to make my world easy.)

Just going on

It's almost two weeks into new 2012, and those "new year" feelings is behind me.  You know, a blank-paper like, fresh "I can do anything" ambition.  I didn't find it at all in the first place, if I think back.  I'm in this burnt-out, post-holiday, flattened mind, sort of.  It's about time for me to make a resolution for this year if I want any reality to it.

A month ago, I was in the middle of this;

Knit and Crochet advent project.
One a day, all different, all with stash yarn - well, almost all, I bought a small amount of cotton lace thread with sequins.  I had a lot of fun making those.  Each one was done within half an hour or so, put in a vinyl pocket on medicine organizer I bought at 100-yen shop.

(Not a good picture.  I should have chosen a sunny day.)

My daughter was delighted to see a new stuff every day when she comes home from school. I think I found out a good tradition-to-be.

After we celebrated Christmas with this (Christmas eve)

and these (Christmas day) ...

(note; I did most of the cooking, but the steak in the upper pic and Christmas cake cooked and baked by my husband.  I happily say my marriage is a success.)

Here came the New Year.


Yes, I got 3 pounds more to shed off.

This year 2012 is a year of Dragon in Chinese Zodiac.  Our new year's card had this "kawaii"  /cute dragon family.

And of course, I had to make this;

Pattern; Fierce Little Dragon by Lucy Ravenscar
Yarn; Leftovers from this scarf.  100% wool fingering yarns, very likely to be more than 30 years old.
Hook; size D (3.25mm) aluminum


Other than this new addition to our family (my daughter loves her - she is a girl dragon, named Saphira, after the dragon in Eragon), I have a few things coming up.

My mother came back home last weekend from hospital where she was taking a series of tests and rehab programs for her back and neck issue.  We (means my mother, me, my sister and brother, and the social worker) have to arrange how we install handrails on the wall and AC in her living/dining/sleeping room.  Financially, she has no problems.  It's mostly an insurance procedure, and, we don't ask her if and she won't admit but, Mom's mindset.
She lives in Osaka, where its summer is scorching but her apartment has very good breeze most of the day, and its winter is not really hard.  35 years ago when my father bought it, he said he didn't like "unnatural coolness and warmth" because his back hurts or he feels too balmy too easily. It was his choice that we didn't have any drapes on the windows (Annoying!) nor AC (Unnecessary!)  My brother had a small electric heater in his room because it was the coldest place in the house, and we had kotatsu and small heating carpet in our living room.  And it wasn't so uncomfortable in those days' standard.  But, now the summer is hotter and Mom is older (Sorry!).  Every summer after we came back to Japan, every time we visit her at her apartment, I ask her if she doesn't need AC and she answers no.  For her health, I don't doubt AC is not a luxury but a necessity.  Mom doesn't say so, and I have not asked her, but maybe it has somewhat sacred meanings for her to keep the house as her husband liked.  I respect her faith, but it's about time for her to move on, sort of.

My husband will have a rather busy first third or half of this year.  His job requires him to fly abroad more often.  Good thing is, he enjoys most part of that.  He has great flexible taste for food. Thanks to the mileage he gathered last year, his Frequent Flyer status is upgraded that his trips will be a little easier.  Next year he might regain "Platinum elite" first time since the hectic "fly every week" times he had in 2007.
My daughter somewhat welcomes his absence (poor Dad) because she can slip in the big bed with me and her favorite dolls.  I will enjoy her warm love and admire for me while I can.  She is growing up so fast, means the day she repels me off like a filthy old witch is coming considerably soon.

My teaching job at a local college is going so-so.  I still can't believe my students treat me as "an expert in Windows OS and MS Office", about which still I'm on the way of learning so hard just to give them something to do every week.  I may have some kind of skills to use ordinary computer applications for whatever I need to do, from making report sheets and keeping track of science experiments to more every-day things like making new year's cards or knitting chart.  And that's the essence of my class.  My students, most of them are 18, are born in the age of internet and e-mails, but too used to them that they don't stop and try all what those applications can.  I want to show them the flexibilities and possibilities of simple word processor and spreadsheets.  The problem is, many of my students are not academically good, to be honest.  First thing I have to cover for them is usually the basic of basics - like, proper term and pronunciations, junior high school math and physics.  I try every week so hard to find out how to make our 90 minutes flow, from basic to advanced (not really, actually), without letting them sleepy nor overwhelmed, and always feel frustrated by the lack of my teaching skill.  I feel rewarded most of the time, though, when I check their reports.  Next week is the last one for this year, thank goodness, and I will surely get the same job for the coming year.

The job steals me of my crafting time for sure, but I guess I'm now in the stage of my life when I need to work for somebody else than my family.
For a long time already, I have wanted to be a retiree.  Yes, retiree.  Live slow and small, find happiness in subtle but beautiful daily milestones.  But in order to retire, I need to be in the position of some sort in the first place, I guess.  Now I'm in the "building up" stage.

So, I'll just keep going on, work for whatever I can, wherever I'm needed.  I'll not give myself a big plan this year.  I'll just spend my days to do anything I need to do on that day.  This is my new year resolution, or non-resolution more precisely.

Challenge and reward

Pattern; Clematis Vine in New Pathways for Sock Knitters: Book One by Cat Bordhi

Yarn; La Primera Junmou Chu-boso, color 13 (pink) 13g, La Primera Wool Multi Color Chu-boso color 105 (pink-orange-purple multi) 34g, Kanebo Cattleya color 201(white) 40g  - 40g of MC (white) and total 47g of CC (pink & multi)

Needles; US 1 1/2 (2.50mm) Brittany 5 inch DPN, set of five and KnitPicks nickel 24 inch circular

This is my Sock Knitters Anonymous Group Sockdown! challenge for March.  Challenge, it was.  I had to carry the charts and instructions everywhere I go.  I didn't imagine I would say "oh, it's nothing - just K1-K1 stripe with two colors!" 

I'm sure it's a gauge issue, but my socks have extra room (more like extra suite rooms) at heels.  I should have stop increasing for the heels two or three stripes earlier, to make gusset shorter and fit a little more better.  I'm OK with this pair, though, because it's my bedroom socks to wear over another pair.  I love these colors.  Original pair in the book used orange and blue yarn, stunning beauty of autumn blue sky and leaves just starting to change their colors.  Mine is meant to be more like dreaming spring flower garden (too girly?).  I am very proud of myself that I did it and did it from my stash - "leftover" stash, that is.  All the skeins were partial at the beginning.  I didn't have to buy any to finish.  

On the first sock, I read the instruction wrong and made only one round of CC stockinette after the picot row.  I wondered why the cuff rolls up so bad, and crochet SC one round to keep it from showing the gut.  It worked, and I somewhat proudly even took a picture of it, and wondered again, why THAT Cat Bordhi publish such pattern.  I read it again, and found "inch" after "k1" at the cuff instruction.  I deeply regretted while I re-do the hem the right way, not to have been more careful.

The second sock was on hold for days after finishing the toes.  

My daughter had lost Gaspard and I promised her to make the identical doll again, and the demand was enough to wake me up from ignorance (not really ignoring, but y'all know what I mean).

 

After Gaspard, I was all obsessed to make Penelope and her doll Doudou completed with the carry basket for him. 

And I had to finish something for a brand-new big sister of my friend's new baby (Welcome to the world, Ahren Kazuma!).

Of course, my daughter had to have one for herself.

Those amigurumi craze made the girls (including the one in myself) really happy, but took longer than I expected.

My mother went home the day before I finished the socks.  I helped her to leave the hospital, do the filling-an-empty-fridge-and-an-empty-pantry shopping with her.  My daughter and I stayed for two nights with her to fill her emptiness a little more  and help her go back in the action (meaning let her cook for us).

I finished the Clematis socks at her home, actually. (It's why the lighting was so bad and the color of the carpet is different.)

I am not so confident about consuming the now humongous stash of mine in my lifetime.  The final (big) box filled with Mom's yarns arrives on Friday.  There are acrylics in worsted and fingering weight, and beautiful wools in rainbow colors.  I am thinking of a log cabin acrylic afghan/rug/whatever and a few wool vests for my daughter to wear under her Kindergarten uniform bolero.

I totally agree with "Life is too short to knit with bad yarns".  Looks like my criteria for "bad yarn" leaves very few yarns in that category.  Acrylics has its own niche.

The busier I am, the more I knit (and crochet).

I haven't blogged about my FOs for a while.  I feel I'm behind of everything and still putting off everything.  I'm knitting all the time and still complaining I'm not knitting enough.

Here are my FOs done in these two month or so..

Hat from Pea pod baby set and EZ February Baby Sweater on two needles.  I knit it with a  circular, though.

Another hat, 

and another baby sweater for another recipient.

Fishhead decoration for Setsubun (it's supposed to be a real grilled iwashi head, but we ate fish the day before and I didn't save a head.)  

A pair of socks for my daughter.  It's just an everyday knit, y'all know. No frill, st-st sock with Yarnharlot's recipe.

Mitered Hand Towels with CotLin.  First three are for my daughter to use at her kindergarten.  Striped one is for my mother to use at her hospital.  (To my friends who's kindly thinking of her, thank you, she is fully recovered.  She could go back home two weeks ago, but for the sake of family's peace of mind, is still staying at a medical facility while her house remodel is going on. )

A baby sweater for my daughter's best friend, Markun the horse.  Another EZ baby sweater on circ.  I had had the pattern completely in mind when I made this one.  

Kay's Tess D’Urbervilles Shawl with double stranded Nikke Woolland 7.  Warm, and not scratchy at all.  My daughter wears it over her half-sleeve shirts and doesn't give it back to me.  Do I have to make another? mmm. 

Gaspard II.  Please don't go anywhere anymore. Please.

And, I am participating Sockdown challenge with Sock Knitters Anonymous Group on Ravelry three month in a row now.

for January (Beaded Socks or Socks from a pattern from an online magazine or Mystery Sock, designed by SKA mod Emmie), I knit Clover by Kate Blackburn.

The yarn is KnitPicks Essential, colorway is pine.  This pair was adopted by my cousin and she loves it.

For February(Socks for a Cause or Gigi Silva or Entrelac plus surprise designer Chrissy Gardiner), I knit Eleanor by Monkey Toes (Gigi Silva), with Zitron Trekking (XXL) 107.

The yarn was a present from Janet.  February challenge theme included "socks for cause", so I am going to add $20 (unused yarn budget) to my donation I'm going to make on July.  It's going to UNICEF, for we are thankful to have a healthy child in a peaceful community. 

I love the color of the yarn flew through my fingers. Pink, red, greens in different shades... so "spring".   I was amused to hear my husband say "oh, autumn color socks, aren't they?"

March challenge is Lace Socks or Cat Bordhi or Mystery Sock designed by Kristi Schueler.  I had long wanted to knit Clematis Vine in New Pathways for Sock Knitters: Book One. 

Mine started

well.  But I almost freaked out and frogged after about half the increase is done, seeing my sock "unusually short and fat".  I just didn't want to frog a whole day's worth of stranded knitting, so read through the pattern again, calculated again, and then I had an epiphany.  It is Cat Bordhi's pattern, my goodness.  Of course it looks unusual.  It IS unusual.  So I went on.

It fits.  Heel edge is wonky, but it's because of a wrong choice of needles.  5 inch Brittany DPNs are a little too short to keep all the heel stitches.  I'll switch to 6 inch KnitPicks Harmony DPNs around the widest part on the second sock.

Anyway, I'm happy knitting.

I have some sewing on my to-do list this month (scared) to get my daughter ready for kindergarten, so my knitting has to be set aside to make times for it.  But, there are some added knitting time.  My husband had set out for his 7-weeks business trip to the USA this morning. - more flexible time schedule.  I'll visit my mom at the hospital a little more often now that my sister needs more time at and around her home.  - more time on the train and some sitting time with her.

According to my husband, I am an addict.  He may be right.  

eight ninety-four in seventy-three

I finished cataloging my mom's yarn, all but one. 

My stash has now 55627.9 yards / 31.60 miles / 50.86 kilometers of yarn, plus 1062 grams / 2.34 pounds of Aunt Lydia's #10 crochet thread PLUS 894 grams / 1.97 pounds of Gokuboso (2ply or Lace weight).  And one more (next post).

894 grams of Gokuboso in 73 colors.  Yes, seventy-three.  

Almost all of them have lost their ball bands. There are some which weigh exact 1 oz. and still have small piece of paper at the end tucked in the center. They probably are new balls (Why, oh why did you take bands away, mom?) You can safely guess that she didn't care sticking to one brand. There are six bright reds and ten grays, two navy(!)s. They are not the same, you can tell when you se them side by side. They are in different colorways, not just in different dye lots, or so I think.

There are a lot of "embroidery thread" of 100% wool, too. I had no idea that such a thing exists.

I think this picture explains all above.

Grrrrrrrranny squares.

I think I am going to add it as a new project on my Ravelry notebook.  

Or try plying Gokubosos with my spindle.  Theoretically, plying two 2plys make a 4ply, which is fingering equivalent, right? 

Long loved

Pattern; Gaspard et Lisa Amigurumi Kit from Clover

Yarn; for Lisa (white) included in the kit.  for Gaspard (black) Hamanaka Wanpaku Denis, 17 (black) and 45 (blue)

Hook; included in the kit, 3.5mm

I can take my daughter to craft stores or yarn stores without any problems.  She enjoys taking a look at the buttons or yarns while I get at a loss in front of yarn shelves and taking in or out several balls from the shopping basket.  Often, she gets something just for her or for our "joint project" like this;

These are made of playdough (paper-mache? the one made from pulp), colored with watercolors.  The sticks of lollipops are tooth picks... you'll see how small they are.

These are not my original.  We saw them on TV.

When I took her to Yoshikawa to get yarns for my Baby Projects, she found this;

She wanted to get both Lisa and Gaspard, but one kit costs more than 2,000 yen!  I told her to pick one, either Lisa or Gaspard, "because Mommy can make the other with my yarns."  This claim turned out to be half-true, half-untrue.  I didn't have yarns nor eye parts in my hand, so I had to go back to get yarns, order eye parts online (and ordered a little more - yarns - with that), but I used felt (nose) from my stash and the kit included more than twice the amount of fillings and embroidery threads for two dolls.

Gaspard's eyes are yellow/black in picture books, but these small-ish blue ones turned out very pretty.  My daughter didn't want him exactly the same as in books, but "cuuuuuuute!"

I ended up using Wanpaku Denis again for my amigurumi project, and I think I love this yarn now.  It's 70% acrylic and 30% wool machine washable yarn, and has pretty wide variety of colors.  19sts per 10cm gauge (worsted equivalent), 410 yen per 50g ball is not the most inexpensive choice for a project using like, 10 colors, but not so bad.  I'd say this is a high-grade craft yarn and I-don't-care-if-you-roll-in-the-mud-with-your-sweater-on type garment yarn.  My mother made a sweater with this yarn for my niece about 20 years ago.  She loved it and wore it practically everyday for two winters.  My sister kept it after the last wash, and gave it to my daughter last year.  

The sweater has a character (Tendon-man) from kid's TV show (Soreike! Anpanman) on front side.  That TV show is still on-air and young children still is getting hooked on it.  Of course my daughter loves the show (well, that's why she got that sweater.)  I love standard, stapled stuff.  Maybe that's why I love knitting. 

Park bench skirt

Park bench skirt
Originally uploaded by O'Chica

Pattern; improvised - more like impromptu
yarn; Hamanaka Wanpaku Denis, leftover from Usahana plus one more each of purple and black.  672.5 yard total.  (wow, that's a lot.)
Hook; 3.75mm and 4.00mm aluminum


Ta-Da!

I needed something to keep me warm at the playground for up to one hour, while my daughter doing her daily exercise climbing up the slide and so on. Something like pillow/bench pad and belly/lap warmer combined. It has to be machine washable, quick project.
Thus, crochet over skirt in worsted weight.

Roughly, my plan was like this;
Ch 8+3, dc 8 to make construction row. Keep on working to make 9sts width dc band to wrap my belly with about 2 in overwrap, with one (ch1, skip next st) button hole. Pick up and sc on one side and keep on working only the width just to wrap my belly. Change sc to hdc, and to dc after several rows each, changing colors when the yarn run out. When the work grow long enough, join and keep working in rounds.
Start tr row/round at hip bone, working 2 tr in one st on every 5 sts (20% increasing) once or twice. Keep working until it’s long enough, adding edging from Nicky Epstein’s Crocheting on the Edge book.

Not only I changed the stitches gradually to more airier ones, but also I changed the hook one size larger somewhere (I don't remember). It worked.
About edging. I stopped at the 3rd row (round) of wave ruffle pattern (p.67 of Crocheting on the Edge by Nicky Epstein), because I didn't want to go to buy one (or two?) more balls of yarn and it was frilly enough for me.

   

I really wanted to make that curly ruffles. Make simple scarf or something and add this ruffle - mental note.I sewed on a pretty wide elastic on the wrong side at the top of waist band. I hope it keeps the skirt around my waist, not below my hip.

It is warm. I love, love, love its warmth.

It is warm.  And my right hand aches.  No more crochet for a while.

Now it's time to go back to my peaceful sock knitting.  May not be so peaceful because it's Christmas knitting, and I am planning at least three pairs before Dec. 10th (it has to be sent overseas).  Hum.

mini witch

witch with wand
Originally uploaded by O'Chica

Pattern; Little Witch Finger Puppet, Free Crochet Pattern fro Lion Brand Yarn (Pattern Number; 80770AD)
Yarn; KnitPicks Palette, Black and Mint
Hook; US D/3 -3.25mm aluminum

My Halloween Project.

It looks Halloween has got a pretty good position in marketing calender in Japan. There's a whole orange and black section in every 100-yen shop (what there are looks exactly the same thing you'll find in Dollar shop in the US. - they all come from China anyway). Pumpkins on windows of cafes, doctor's offices, grocery stores and beauty salons. There's only one thing I miss - costume. You can't find cheap Indiana Jones' jacket. No Spiderman outfit. No Pirates of Caribbean beads-dangling-wig. No angel, no skeleton.
There are some cat tail clips and witches' hat hair bands, but no "real garments."

When my daughter told me "I am going to be an angel on Halloween Day!", it meant I had to make up some costume for her. Her last year's angel costume was just the right size for her. No hope she'll fit in it even just one arm. Maybe skirt part... if I sew in an elastic at waist.... I thought and thought, and came up with an idea to use my blouse (white, soft, shiny) and little sewing. I let her try on my blouse, but she didn't want to, finally declaiming "I don't want a costume."
WHAT?! What have I done to her? Did she just slip her tongue? Is it just a 4-yr-old's mood swing/ attention span? Or as she lost some of her "American-ness" ?

She can't go trick-or-treating on neighbors anyway (Halloween is not accepted in Japan to THAT level) .
There are other holiday events in Japan she would never see if we stayed in America, we can't have both Japanese and American events, whichever country we were. If we get something new, we lose something what we had. That's the way everything goes. You can't have them all. If you can choose what to have, you are lucky.

Maybe it's not a Japanese/American culture thing for her. She just didn't want to try what doesn't fit on her in the middle of her "camp out" (in our living room), just that. Maybe she demands to have it on Halloween Day, and I'll need to ust a lot of safety pins to fix it in a hurry.

Still, I feel sad (overly sad, I guess) for her that she has lost some of what she was born into.

This little witch does have a magic power to make me feel better. Her name is Hermione. (Yeah, easy. Or we can't remember all the names of the dolls we have.)