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Click HERE to visit the best ever site for knitters in the Philippines or elsewhere but have connections to the Philippines. You need not be a full-blooded Filipino or Pinoy (that's what we like to call ourselves) but you need to be a knitter, newbie or expert.

Let's see...maybe one of your Pinoy neighbors cooks that smelly sauce called bagoong, so yes, you do have a connection to the Philippines already, even if you hate the smell wafting through the entire apartment complex while you're trying to get some knitting done.

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Tell your fellow knitters about it :-)

What have you finished lately? Me: A Yellow and Green Hand Towel

Haven't been knitting much, nor have I been blogging much lately. Just thought I'd show off my little FO, a small hand-towel in yellow and green mercerized cotton.

I love this simple slip-stitch pattern. I'll make more hand-towels in this pattern with other colors, all in mercerized cotton.

What have you finished lately? Show it off in Pinoy Knitters in Multiply :-)

The writer is taking a blog break

Try not to miss me so much :-) it'll just be for five to seven days, I think.

I've just finished my third article for Educator magazine, but still have to write my second piece for Cocoon magazine, plus my AnamCara piece about studying "A Course in Miracles" using the multiple intelligences theory. Oh, and I just gave a new list of articles I can write for Educator magazine's future issues.

For the meantime, I'd rather be knitting plus giving readings... and attending to personal stuff :-) have a great week, everyone.

Knitting updates: Two colorful hand towels

I'm designing my own patterns for hand towels, for use by guests, using my stash of mercerized cotton crochet thread in myriad colors.

My main design goals were to produce well-done small and pretty hand towels in lively colors.



I decided to go for slip-stitch patterns which produce a dense fabric. Slip-stitch knitting requires using slightly larger needles than usual, for example, for the variegated Linen Stitch hand towel, I'm using a US Size 7 (4.0mm) and for the two-color combo of yellow and green, I'm using US Size 4 or 3.5 mm. Usually for knitting with one strand of crochet thread, a US Size 2 or 3 (2.75 mm or 3mm) is enough.

I'm loving my slip-stitch knitting, even if they do not produce reversible cloths. I like the density and the texture.

For this yellow and green venture, I found the slip-stitch pattern online, simply called "slip-stitch pattern" and uses two colors. Yup, I have some errors, but otherwise, I love how it's turning out. The pattern can be memorized easily.



Linen stitch, another slip-stitch pattern, had been a bane for me, when I tried it before with my tencel yarn. For some reason I would dislike the growing output and would end the project.

But with this variegated crochet thread, despite the challenge of knitting cotton even with metal circulars, I loved how the colors were turning out, as shown in this 'right side".



But I also like how the "wrong side" is turning out, below.




Linen stitch is like knitting "seed/moss stitch" but stitches are slipped every other stitch, instead of knitting/purling accordingly.

I also had another hand-towel project in yellow and violet, using Barbara Walker's Tanbark pattern. However it wasn't turning out nicely so it's now frogged. I'll probably need to use maybe bigger needles or something next time I try Tanbark.

I'm halfway through these two hand-towels, and that's another thing I love about my current knitting focus. Hand towels in slip-stitch knit fast, and maybe if all I did was knit all day, I'd probably finish one a day.

Lunar knitting: starting projects in the light of the new moon

After I finished knitting a hand towel in basketweave a few days ago, I decided not to start another hand towel until today. I wanted to make the most of the fresh lunar vibes, because the Moon has some say in my creative efforts. Saturn, which is smack in my House of Creative Expression, rules my 4th house, which is Cancer's natural domain, and not only is the New Moon in Cancer, this sign is ruled by the Moon itself. Luna is plainly powerful today until Thursday.

This also means that my efforts at producing anything artistic is best focused on home and family, or in making others feel at home, or secure. Which is why I've got more energy knitting for my family, and people I consider to be family, including charity recipients, rather than for myself. And it also means I like knitting at home :-) although I do have projects that I bring along in case I have some waiting to do elsewhere, e.g. the bank.

While waiting for the New Moon, I printed out new patterns that had been saved in my Knitting files. Amazing how much stuff I have in my computer just for knitting!

My recently finished domestic creations include two hand towels and a bath mat. Works in progress include three hand towels, with two of them in slip-stitch patterns, and one in ripple pattern. I also have two bath mat projects.

I just started a woven pattern for a hand towel this morning, and tonight I plan to cast on another hand towel project, in two colors, using slip-stitch. If I remember, I might record these stuff in my Ravelry project notebook, and take pics of my finished projects. Otherwise, let this blog post be my record :-)

Enjoying my blog break

Because I'd rather be knitting, that's why :-) anything I want to blog about these days is about my knitting. It's a particularly creative dance I'm enjoying lately in the Silence, when the only sounds I make, aside from breathing, are the knitting needles clicking against each other.

I am very much at a lull, a necessary phase before things pick up again. I find it refreshing that I do not need to work at my PC all day. I love it that I'm knitting useful and practical stuff for the home. The tropical shawls have been set aside, including my sweetie's red scarf, for the meantime, in favor of the functional yet lovely bath mats and hand towels. None will be for sale, and it's been amazing how my knitting flows when I take out the monetary aspect and focus on domestic beauty.

I want to buy more white natural unmercerized cotton yarn, in cones, the sort used to crochet curtains and tablecloths. That means a trip to Divisoria's Tabora street soon, since I don't know where else I can buy them. The rainy weather however is making me rethink this desire. I have loads of colored mercerized cotton anyway.

This post technically ends my blog break... but it might also extend it. A lot depends on what Spirit whispers in my heart that I simply must share it online. Let's see what comes up as Mercury goes direct by tomorrow.

Two shawls and one scarf on the needles

At the rate I'm going, I'm just gonna have maybe about four or five shawls to sell in Boracay when I go there early July. Well, I estimate that if I were to do nothing else but knit, I might probably finish one shawl in one day. But since I don't knit that way, i doubt if I'll ever find out if that's possible.

Sorry, no pics yet, but here's just a list of what I'm busy knitting lately:

1. My sweetheart Nazer's red scarf I call "half-half basketweave". I've got about a third done, but since this is being done with only one strand of tencel, which is laceweight, on size 2.5mm needles, I think this might take more time than expected.

2. Garter stitch triangle shawl, combining purple and peach mercerized crochet cotton thread, 1 strand each, on size 11 (US) needles. An intriguing color combo and coming out nicely.

3. Seed stitch triangle shawl, royal blue mercerized crochet cotton thread, 1 strand only on size 8 (US) or 5mm needles. Elegantly simple.

I decided to use up my sizeable mercerized crochet cotton thread for the shawls I'm selling. Cotton would be more attractive since it's machine-washable, whereas tencel is handwash, although they say using gentle cycle on the machine works.

Pics coming up soon. Still need to finish one magazine article first. As it is I only get to knit a few rows a day for each project.