I knit my dreams

Ravelry stores to patronize

2012-01-27T05:47:00.000-08:00

As a way to support my fave social network for knitting, I hope to buy some stuff someday from these Ravelry advertisers :-) my priority is those selling organic cotton yarn.

1. KnitPicks--already bought some yarn from them before. Maybe will buy some needles here, especially those I'll need for knitting hats (circulars and DPNs).

2. ArtFibers--hmmm, they have organic Egyptian cotton, ecologically dyed. They also have nice-looking linen yarn.

3. Lantern Moon--Known for their handcrafted knitting needles. I also badly need stitch markers. I can buy them via Paradise Fibers, which also sell linen yarn on cones. Or maybe over at Verra Yarns.

4. Yarn Mountain--carries lovely handpainted linen yarn by Claudia.

5. Verra Yarns--sells interesting organic and socially conscious yarn from the Mirasol project. I dunno though when I'll have to buy wool yarn again, since I'm currently destashing for my current charity knitting projects. Fortunately Mirasol also has organic cotton yarn.This online store also sells fair trade organic yarn, Rowan Purelife. Here's another online source for Mirasol yarns.

6. Yarn Market--sells Himalayan Aloo yarn as well as Louet Euroflax yarn, etc.

7. Fiber Organics--also sells Mirasol Sampa yarns, based in California.

Charity knitting plans for 2012

2012-01-20T06:45:00.000-08:00

Currently I'm just knitting wool squares for KAS, but I also want to knit hats for charity. I'm going for an international flavor this year, destashing my wool and acrylic for these projects.

1. Knit-A-Square (KAS)--South African AIDS orphans

2. The Ruth Mailbag Group--also South African-based, giving baby items to the destitute moms and babies at the state hospital.

3. Eastern European and Russian Orphanages Project (EEROP)--handmade items for poor orphans in cold climates in Europe

4. Hearts for Warmth--for the US. I like this since collection point is in Connecticut, where my older sister also lives. Just a matter of finding someone going to her in CT.

Also forgot my plans to knit handcloths/face towels and sell them, to raise funds for charity. I'll be using the expensive but earth-friendly Qoperfina yarn from Peru, if ever I get to fulfill my wish list this year. In the meantime, I'm stuck with using up my current stash of cotton, cotton blend, tencel, hemp, and linen yarns.

Yarn Wish List, Jan 2012

2012-01-15T04:15:00.000-08:00

All organic, natural, and mostly ecofriendly. I'll prioritize cones and large skeins, where available :-) ha ha, I practically ordered most of the colors available for the Pakucho cotton.

ECOBUTTERLY ORGANICS

1. Rich Cinnamon Chocolate Pakucho Organic Cotton Yarn (Worsted) Skein

2. Vicuna Qoperfina Organic Cotton Lace (Cone)

3. Deep Green Qoperfina Organic Cotton Sport (Cone)

4. Cafe Pakucho Organic Cotton Fine Flamme Sport Yarn

5. Moka Chocolate Pakucho Organic Cotton Yarn (Worsted)

6. Deep Golden Brown Qoperfina Organic Cotton Sport (Cone)

7. Sage Qoperfina Organic Cotton Sport (Cone)

PARADISE FIBERS

1. Louet Euroflax Linen Yarn Sport 1/2 lb Cone

Colors: Willow, Crabapple Blossom, Pewter, Violet

2. Louet Euroflax PARIS Linen Yarn Lace Weight 14/2 1/2lb Cone

Colors: Island Moss, Aqua, Sandalwood, Terra Cotta

3. Louet HAND DYED Euroflax Sport Linen Yarn 100g Skein

Color: Nature

GREEN SHEEP SHOP

1. Hemp for Knitting AllHemp3 - Brick

2. Hemp for Knitting AllHemp3 - Deep Sea

3. Hemp for Knitting AllHemp3 - Raspberry

4. Hemp for Knitting AllHemp3 - Cinnamon

5. Hemp for Knitting AllHemp3 - Sprout

6. Hemp for Knitting AllHemp3 - Lilac

7. Hemp for Knitting AllHemp6 - Marble

8. Hemp for Knitting AllHemp6 - Wineberry

9. Hemp for Knitting AllHemp6 - Pumpkin

10. Hemp for Knitting AllHemp6LUX - Olive

QUINCE AND CO.

1. Sparrow--Organic linen yarn, undyed

A productive year, so far

2012-01-12T06:48:00.000-08:00

What I like most about my current knitting projects is that they knit fast and easy, ha ha.

Done: one wool square for the Knit-a-square project in South Africa, in garter stitch, and two hand towels, both in stockinette. For weaving in ends.

On the needles: second wool square and two hand towels (one in seed stitch, the other in stockinette). When done with the second square, will snail-mail already.

Hand towels are also square, between 8 to 9 inches, more or less. I think some will end up rectangular :-)

Saw a pattern for knitting a square in the round, and I think I'll try to master that. Trying to get the right gauge for an eight-inch square was rather challenging, but I finally got it :-)

Wish list for 2012

2012-01-01T21:38:00.000-08:00

1. Destash--I'm still using up my wool yarn that I bought in 2005 at a store in Divisoria. Will knit squares and hats with them, all for charity. Once I use up most of them, I'll use up my acrylic. As for my cotton, tencel, and hemp, will knit hand towels.
I'll probably buy more yarn when I reach 25% supply for my wool, which I'd rather knit than acrylic. Unless I find acrylic that's soft, and thus kind to the hands. As it is, knitting with cotton is already tough for me, and that's already using metal needles.

2. More needles--I want to have more circulars and DPNs, metal and wood, for my hat knitting.

3. Local charity project--I have some ideas but at the very least, I will knit squares that can be made into blankets.

Back to knitting!

2011-12-30T09:00:00.001-08:00

And it feels so good :-)

Knitting updates, anyone?

2010-01-05T15:01:00.000-08:00

I've got a woolen beanie (head-hugging hat) in the needles...making use of my stash of 85% wool, 15% rayon Japanese yarn I bought in Divisoria a few years ago. I really don't know who's this for, but from my experience, I can always send off my beanies to my loved ones abroad, when there's a way to send them via visiting folks. Will take pic soon...

What are you knitting lately?

2009-11-28T23:43:00.000-08:00

I'm still doing my hand towels :-) What about you?

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

2009-08-26T00:16:00.000-07:00

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

2009-07-27T04:24:00.000-07:00

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

2009-07-21T02:39:00.000-07:00

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

2009-06-22T21:58:00.000-07:00

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

2009-05-31T02:42:00.000-07:00

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

2009-05-14T06:07:00.000-07:00

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. 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.

Shawl knitting in da Pinas

2009-04-28T00:50:00.000-07:00

I have a feeling I already mentioned this in my knitting blog elsewhere.... but anyway, it's been a major challenge for me to look for shawl patterns online that do not involve lace knitting, since i've decided that lace is not my major passion as far as knitting is concerned.

Much of the shawl patterns online are designed either for "heirloom" show-off lace pieces, to be worn on formal occasions such as weddings, or for warming the body like a huge blanket. I suspect that no knitter living in a tropical climate, like me, has ever posted a non-lace shawl pattern online. Just a suspicion.

So I've had to make my own patterns in which I come up with triangular shawls that can be used on cool summer nights, or when one has to go out into a hot sunny day and beat the heat inside an airconditioned refuge. When i finally finish one such shawl I'll write up the pattern and post it online, although I doubt if there are many takers for such patterns :-)

For now, I'm being mindful of Saturn Retro making me seek closure in creative projects I've long wanted to do (technical details: natal Saturn in 5th House of Creativity, retro in 11th House of Hopes and Wishes). This means setting aside my plans for knitting tropical shawls for Bora, except... for me! I had long wanted to knit myself a shawl, though I do have one already using Laines du Nord's Zahir--in fact, to use up my remaining yarn, i'm making another one, rectangular this time, in seed stitch.

But I have no shawl yet in tencel yarn, so that's what I'm doing. Tencel or lyocell is like rayon, made from tree cellulose, and is absorbent like cotton but soft as silk. I'm planning to knit myself at least 2 triangular shawls in tencel, one in black and the other in red.

Tropical shawls, this time

2009-04-13T05:39:00.000-07:00

Inspired by my forthcoming foray to Boracay, I decided to knit up my lovely ribbon yarn Zahir, by Laines du Nord (pic). Finally. it's now all done and it turned out unexpectedly well.

I had long wanted to use this Spanish shawl pattern in an old knitting book called "Knitting for the Home". Apparently for the author, the Spanish shawl can also be used to drape over a piano or sofa... her triangular shawl had drop-stitches which are the best to use to show off ribbon yarn.

And so, instead of doing an easy rectangular shape, I gamely went into knitting my first-ever triangle shawl. I'm just too lazy to take pics. Someday when I'm wearing it over my string bikini...which means, never. Ha ha ha. I still have some Zahir yarn left, about 3 balls more...maybe for a rectangular piece this time.

Anyway, having been done with the shawl, and happy with the result, I had a brilliant flash of inspiration ...why not knit more shawls for tropical weather, and try to sell them in Boracay in June? I can also sell them to anyone anywhere who wants a nice light cover-up for the tropics.

I decided to use up my stash of tencel yarn, since it drapes well, it's soft and absorbent... perfect for tropical shawls. I'm starting with the dark green yarn cone, and I hope to finish it in a week. I've experimented with patterns that can use either stockinette seed stitch in the body, with a nice lacy border. So far so good.

Will I actually want to sell these shawls? They could all be mine, in various wonderful colors.

Two pics of G's chemo cap version 1

2009-03-17T00:31:00.000-07:00

Version 1 of the chemo cap: cast-on of 100 stitches, stockinette body, and 2x2 ribbing for the brim... covers almost all the ears.

I'm now doing Version 2, started it March 15 Sunday night... the body would be 2x2 ribbing, and cast-on is just 80 stitches. I'm varying the number of cast-on stitches because i read, belatedly after finishing Version 1, that tencel stretches even more than cotton. So I decided to reduce the cast-on to 80 stitches for Version 2, which is gonna be stretchy already being pure ribbing (except for the crown). My plan for Version 3 would be stockinette body with roll brim.

Tencel in itself being a shiny yarn is not easy to photograph even when it's cloudy natural lighting. Sorry for how my pics do not do justice to the sheen of the yarn.

Knitting updates: chemo caps and more wool beanies

2009-03-13T00:20:00.000-07:00

Frankly I wish I didn't have to be knitting this. This weekend I'm aiming to finish one chemo cap for my friend G who has had her second chemo session, and now sports a bald head. I'm combining one strand of black tencel with one strand of multicolored tencel, with blue and purple shades. She wanted her cap in indigo which I don't have in tencel.

It's done in stockinette with a spiral top and 2x2 ribber edging. No pic yet...maybe when it's done. I'm gonna do another chemo cap in 2x2 ribbed. Hope they fit my friend G and I hope she likes them. She's somewhat of a design doyen in her field, so it's a big deal to actually give her anything handmade.

Many thanks to Punay who had recently given me the circular needles I exactly needed for this project: a metal pair, 3-mm thick and 40-cm long. The smallest needles I had for 2-strand tencel knitting were US size 4 (3.5mm) bamboo dpns and circulars, and i used the dpns for the spiral top...in a way, I was glad they were bamboo so they "grabbed" the slippery tencel. It's a major hassle knitting with FOUR thin bamboo needles and I probably wouldn't have lasted with metal dpns. Still, despite being able to "grab" the tencel, the bamboo needles kept falling off... so I immediately changed to the metal circs the moment I could. The metal circs were heaven-sent.

After I finish this couple of chemo caps, I'm planning to knit again woollen beanies. First dozen were already sent to the US a few months ago, and I might have a chance to send some more around May or June...

Happy news for my charity knitting

2009-01-02T00:13:00.000-08:00

I found a way to send at least 6 woolen hats from the Philippines, where I'm based, to the US, where one charity knitting organization collects woolen items for kids and teenagers. Yehey! I just need to weave in ends :-)

Happy new year everyone!

Project updates for Dec. 08

2008-12-13T00:38:00.001-08:00

I was able to knit a bunch of hats and scarves, and they're soon going to the US to provide some warmth to relatives gathering together for the holidays in the East Coast. Still have to finish a couple of hats though, but I'll do them later tonight.

I just feel bad I have this bunch of charity projects here. I'll check with my brother if he has space in his return luggage even for three or four hats...to be snail-mailed to an American nonprofit who'll take care of shipping them to Mongolia! Wow, those hats will certainly go around the world.

I'm almost finishing color therapy mug rugs for a couple of special people. I might get to give them around the New Year though.

So far, it's been a productive year.

Knitting update: my ripple shawl

2008-10-28T00:30:00.000-07:00

As of today, it's just about 15-20% done. I'm still deciding on how long I want it to be... i might make it 72-inches long... so I can engulf myself in it, like some blanket.

I combined two strands of tencel yarn, "olive green" and "golden yellow"... using US Size 6 circulars, 24-inches. At left is a horizontal shot of the shawl's rippled texture. I really wanted to use ripple stitch precisely to give my shawl a nice, wavy texture. I enjoy this stitch. It's a 10-row pattern that has yet to bore me.

Here's a pic of the two cones of tencel yarn I'm using up for this shawl. I hope I have enough! The cones approximately weigh half-pound each. Because tencel yarn is naturally shiny, yes, the yarns do gleam nicely in the pic... but not as brightly when knit together. I'm also planning to make more Ripple Shawls in other colors, such as brown-red and orange-peach.

Here's a close-up of the horizontal texture of the ripple stitch. It was kinda hard to make it show up in pics, I had to hold the shawl in an almost vertical slant just for the camera to get the shadows, for contrast. Professional photog I ain't:

Vertical pics of the shawl will show how the ripple stitch becomes a zig-zag stitch! And this is mostly how it'll look when the shawl's finally done, according to how I'll be wearing this shawl. I'm aiming to finish this shawl in time for my birthday this year... a gift for me, from me!

I changed the camera settings to see how the shawl would look under different lighting. Unfortunately I can't recall is this shot was done under "automatic" or "fluorescent" setting. I like how it shows the zig-zag effect of the ripple stitch, vertically:

Knitting again for family

2008-10-05T17:12:00.000-07:00

Having done about half a dozen woolen hats for charity, I cleaned up my knitting workstation and realized I didn't have enough hats to send to the US for the holidays! Technically, I do... I've got about 15 hats, in acrylic... but not in the favorite colors of my intended recipients.

So I'm wrapping up my charity knitting to focus on family this time... this month is good enough, giving me time to do a scarf or two along with about 3-4 more hats...I have siblings on both sides of the Coast, and for sure some of them will be going through a snowy winter there... brrr...i'm still deciding if I should send my older sis woolen hats, as she may not like them since they're not machine-washable.

Then I want to try knitting berets, using tencel... I think they would be one way to differentiate what I'm making, for sale, compared to the machine-knitted hats I saw recently being sold in some stall somewhere... stockinette mostly... some hats were crocheted, but in garish colors. I need to differentiate my stuff by making them stylish and pretty. Not everyday pang-masa. Maybe I should just get orders for specific colors and designs...

I've soon take pics of my woolen hats... need to weave in ends first :-) besides, my energy is rather strange lately... there's the sense of going on a slowdown, preparing for a revving up...

I've been re-thinking my entire knitting wish list... need to hold off getting more tencel yarn as I do have enough to last me for years... well, considering my knitting pace, yeah, for years... I'd rather de-stash these days, that's why I'm using up my woolen yarn which has been around for a few years, ever since I started knitting. My goal would be to use up ALL my woolen yarn first, then ALL my tencel...

Return of the Mad Hat Knitter, for charity

2008-09-25T20:49:00.000-07:00

Recently I realized I had at least two opportunities coming up to send items to the US for snail-mailing, and so I decided to do some charity knitting.

This time, I decided to use up my wool yarn, which I had bought at bargain prices a few years ago in Divisoria when I was just a beginner in knitting. Some charity groups prefer woolen items for donation, since they warm the body well.

I checked the Warm Woolies group which, like my previous beneficiary, Dulaan, send woolen items to Mongolia, particularly for kids and teens. They prefer knitted and crocheted items that can be worn, like vests and sweaters, and hats!

And here are my first two creations:

Right, a mostly pink head-hugger hat, using four strands of yarn--2 strands of 100% wool in pastel pink, 1 strand of 85%wool and rayon in pale yellow and 1 strand of the same yarn, in bright pink.

Left, a 2x2 ribbed hat in bright orange and bright pink (85%wool and rayon).

The mostly pink headhugger is sized for a teenager. I just used the free Warm Woollies hat patterns as guidelines, since they were designed for knitting from the bottom up, whereas I knit my hats from the top down.

Here's a close-up of the pink headhugger, done entirely in stockinette, and will have a rolled brim. I can't wait to bind it off sometime today and start another one:

Here's a close up of the cheery ribbed hat which is sized for a kid up to maybe 11 or 12 yrs old:

I'm planning to knit up at least 6 pieces, for now, in various colors and sizes. Need to email first those who'll be bringing them to the US for me, and check if they have space in their return luggage...

Making a wish list, and checking it twice :-)

2008-08-28T06:51:00.001-07:00

Being aware that I have at least two possibilities of folks traveling from the US to the Philippines in the next 6 months, I dutifully made a wish list of knitting stuff I badly need from there.

The needle brand would most likely be Susan Bates, as I'm familiar with it, and satisfied with the performance so far. Affordable too...

Here goes, a list in progress:

Size 1 circular needles, metal
Size 6 double pointed needles, metal
Sizes 8, 9, 10 circulars, 16 inches long

Another row counter (well, maybe 2)

Elann's Canapone hemp yarn in the following colors, including Green Tea, which I already have some of but will get maybe 2-3 more balls, just in case:

FREE PATTERN: Simply Dotted Hat

2008-08-17T00:47:00.000-07:00

The "Simply Dotted Hat" pattern starts from the top down and is knit in the round. This is a modified version of the "Simple Seed stitch", page 64, The Harmony Guide to Knitting Techniques and Stitches, edited by Debra Mountford.

Multiple of 4 plus 1 (I had 81 stitches)
Yarn: worsted weight acrylic
Size: US 7 mm /4.5 mm

INCREASE portion
Using 4 dpns

Cast on 9 stitches, and divide evenly on 3 dpns, 3 stitches per needle.

Row 1: Knit (and all other odd rows)
Row 2: Knit into the front of back of each stitch (kfb), producing 6 stitches per needle, total of 18 stitches.
Row 3: Knit
Row 4: kfb every 2nd stitch, producing 9 stitches per needle, total 27 stitches.
Row 5: Knit
Row 6: kfb every 3nd stitch, producing 12 stitches per needle, total 36 stitches.
Row 7: Knit
Row 8: kfb every 4th stitch, producing total of 15 stitches per needle, total 45 stitches.
Row 9: Knit
Row 10: kfb every 5th stitch, producing 18 stitches per needle, total 54 stitches.
Row 11: Knit
Row 12: kfb every 6th stitch, producing 21 stitches per needle, total 63 stitches.
Row 13: Knit
Row 14: kfb every 7th stitch, producing 24 stitches per needle, total 72 stitches.
Row 15: Knit
Row 16: kfb every 8th stitch, producing 27 stitches per needle, total 81 stitches.

VIEW OF THE SPIRAL TOP

START OF "Simply Dotted" pattern-- switch to circulars

Row 17: (Row 1 of pattern, right side)
Purl 1, *knit 3, purl 1* until last 4 stitches, knit 4.

Row 18: (Row 2 of pattern)
Knit

Row 19: (Row 3 of pattern)
Knit

Row 20: (Row 4 of pattern)
Knit

Row 21: (Row 5 of pattern)
Knit 2, Purl 1, *knit 3, purl 1* until last 2 stitches, knit 2.

Row 22: (Row 6 of pattern)
Knit

Row 23: (Row 7 of pattern)
Knit

Row 24: (Row 8 of pattern)
Knit

Repeat Rows 17-24 until desired length.

Basically, the pattern's rows 1 and 5 are where the dotted stitches are worked, and you knit 3 rows between Rows 1 and 5.

For this hat, I preferred having a rolled brim. After getting about 5-6 inches, I stopped at either Row 4 or Row 8, and just knitted all rows, up to at least one more inch.

If you wish to end the hat with a 1x1 rib, stop knitting in pattern when you reach either Row 4 or Row 8, depending on your desired hat length, then start knitting in single rib.

Bind off loosely.

Free Pattern: Arrow Rib Hat, from the top down

2008-08-06T03:09:00.000-07:00

My first ever hat pattern is an adaptation of the "Little Arrow" stitch from page 62 of The Harmony Guide to Knitting Techniques and Stitches (Debra Mountford, editor, 1992). I knitted this for my "bunso" (youngest) sister, Marie, who asked for something in orange... she lives and works in San Francisco, California and has a handsome Irish-American bf who lives in upstate New York... so I guess she'll probably get to use the hat in both coasts.

Since the hats I've been knitting have been geared more for keeping heads warm and dry during rainy season in the Philippines, I had to look for a pattern that would keep my sis really warm, and I wanted something beyond the usual rib pattern.

I also had to find something that would go with my stitch count of 81 stitches, since that measurement more or less comfortably fit my own head and I assume my sis too...

Then I had to modify the "Little Arrow" stitch pattern since it was given for flat knitting, and I was knitting in the round with my 16-inch circulars.

I knit my hats from the top down. My increases are 9 stitches every other row. Basically the pattern produces a horizontal zigzag interrupted by single rib columns. Regarding my photos, please forgive the varying shades of orange... i took them on a cloudy afternoon by the door, and changed the camera settings midway the photo shoot :-)

Arrow Rib Hat

(NOTE: This pattern starts from the top down. It produces two rib columns at the join, between the last stitch of each row and the first stitch of the next row.)

Multiple of 8 plus 1
Yarn: worsted weight acrylic
Size: US 7 mm /4.5 mm

INCREASE portion
Using 4 dpns

Cast on 9 stitches, and divide evenly on 3 dpns, 3 stitches per needle.

Row 1: Knit (and all other odd rows)
Row 2: Knit into the front of back of each stitch (kfb), producing 6 stitches per needle, total of 18 stitches.
Row 3: Knit
Row 4: kfb every 2nd stitch, producing 9 stitches per needle, total 27 stitches.
Row 5: Knit
Row 6: kfb every 3nd stitch, producing 12 stitches per needle, total 36 stitches.
Row 7: Knit
Row 8: kfb every 4th stitch, producing total of 15 stitches per needle, total 45 stitches.
Row 9: Knit
Row 10: kfb every 5th stitch, producing 18 stitches per needle, total 54 stitches.
Row 11: Knit
Row 12: kfb every 6th stitch, producing 21 stitches per needle, total 63 stitches.
Row 13: Knit
Row 14: kfb every 7th stitch, producing 24 stitches per needle, total 72 stitches.
Row 15: Knit
Row 16: kfb every 8th stitch, producing 27 stitches per needle, total 81 stitches.

START OF "Arrow Rib" -- switch to circulars

Row 17: Knit 2, purl 2, knit 1, purl 2, *knit 3, purl 2, knit 1, purl 2* repeat until last 2 stitches, knit 2.

Row 18: Knit 3, purl 1, knit 1, purl 1, *knit 5, purl 1, knit 1, purl 1* repeat until last 3 stitches, knit 3.
Row 19: Knit 1, *purl 1, knit 5, purl 1, knit 1* repeat til end
Row 20: Knit 1, *purl 2, knit 3, purl 2, knit 1* repeat til end

Repeat Rows 17-20. If you wish to end the hat with a 1x1 rib, like I did, stop knitting the Arrow Rib pattern when you get 5-6 inches, depending on your desired hat length. Bind off loosely.

I've got another hat pattern to upload, the "Simply Dotted" hat. Need to sked another photo shoot for that :-) stay tuned!

The color therapist and her current projects

2008-07-23T02:34:00.000-07:00

Since I've now become the "Mad Hat Knitter", I have been able to have at least two projects going on at the same time, one in my size 6 circulars and the other in my size 7 circulars, both 16-inch long, ideal for hat knitting, and made of metal, also ideal for acrylic yarn.

So... I usually plan my hat projects around the colors. What I do is choose the bright, warm, stimulating colors ranging from reds to yellows for hats to be knitted during the day, up to early evening. Then I switch to another hat project that's using yarn made of greens to purples/violets, or beige, or black... colors which are either neutral or cool and "depressing," to prepare my energy for ending the day.

I am almost finished with two such pairs: First, is the orange hat I promised to knit for my youngest sis Marie, although she did want it with blue... I'll probably knit her another one, since this is all in orange, as the design, for me, was best done in one color. The orange shade is a muted, more like "bright peach". This one I knitted daytime. I experimented on a rib pattern called the "arrow rib" and will post pattern soon:

Second is my "evening" project, another one from my jumbo ball of variegated yarn featuring green, blue, light yellow and violet. I was able to figure out the best pattern, using stockinette only, that would make the colors "pool" together in interesting combinations. Two "pools" had the light yellow beside the violet in nice contrast:

While another "pool" had the yellow surrounded by green:

Since I've been enjoying the "pooling" patterns produced by the variegated acrylic, using 81-stitch stockinette rows at an exact number of decreases to shape the crown, I might use other variegated yarns.

My ball winder

2008-07-10T23:30:00.000-07:00

Queen of Hats

2008-07-06T06:42:00.000-07:00

My knitting workstation is chaotic as ever... and I've got hats that are almost done, just need to weave in the ends!

As I continue to focus on hats, which are primarily head-huggers or beanies, i'm mulling the color lines I want to focus on. So far, here's what's come up:

1. Primaries--bright red, green and blue
2. Coed--school colors such as Ateneo blue, La Salle green, UP maroon and dark green
3. Fire and Ice--brilliant colors that can either warm you up or cool you down (a bit of color therapy here!). All brights, jewel tones here
4. Earth Classics--nature-inspired colors including beige and floral shades of lilac, etc. Where the basics and neutrals would fall, e.g. all-black hat, or black-and-white, etc.
5. Trendy Combos--Brights paired with neutrals, etc. and crazy combinations

I even checked the fashion forecasts for this year and next just to get a handle on what might appeal to the "fashionista", since Pinoys generally like being "in" but my decision has been to appeal to a wide range, since I am definitely not a fashionista.

I'm also pondering doing hats in cotton and even tencel... and experimenting with a lot of stockinette-based stitch patterns. Unfortunately, the pattern books give instructions for flat knitting, and not for knitting in the round, requiring some tweaking.

Overall, I'm excited about this new phase. I do still have my shawls in progress, plus the hemp blanket which I've decided will have touches of Green Tea hemp yarn, courtesy of my 3 balls of Elann Canapone. And other stuff...

New project, shush!

2008-07-01T02:12:00.000-07:00

I've just agreed to a new project that includes a confidentiality agreement... which means I have to change the way I blog, because even mentioning where I am is not allowed. It's exciting!

What's great about this new project is that I'm gonna have time to knit! And some travel is involved... so there really will be days when i won't be blogging at all... and this probably means more blog posts about knitting.

I probably flatter myself in thinking that there are people, including strangers, who actually read what i write online... and no, they're not hackers or spammers (just got one today, a spam comment in one of my other blogs).

Still... for my dear friends and beloved readers, expect some changes. It'll start with a new theme soon.

Hats again! For June and beyond

2008-06-22T03:27:00.000-07:00

I've let the blanket hibernate briefly, primarily because I can't decide if I want to include my green hemp yarn (Elann.com's Canapone, Green Tea). Since I only have 3 balls of this yarn, which is a bit thicker than my natural-colored hemp weaving yarn, I'm sure it won't be enough for the entire blanket... it was just supposed to be for a scarf. So.. the design challenge is how to incorporate the green hemp yarn, considering that I've started Strip 2 which, as I blogged earlier, is actually two strips (now called panels) knitted in one piece. If I decide to include the hemp yarn, for some color, I'll have to frog Strip 2 (I've got about 2-3 inches down).

So... I went back to hats, just hats, until I make up my mind about Strip 2 and the green hemp. The hats focus is kinda against my aim to knit from my stash and to just buy earth-friendly yarns, because for hats, the best yarn so far to use is acrylic, even if I have some wool yarn, and I have to buy more yarn for this project, since I don't have that enough acrylic for hats.

I would knit hats for Pinoys here in the Philippines who can use a beanie. For me, I'd probably use one when I go out in the rain, so my head remains protected when I have to open and close my umbrella... i guess those who work in air-conditioned offices, a beanie could be handy. And I promised to knit hats for some folks abroad too... that has to be a priority since next thing you know, time to send to abroad in a few months!

I'd probably use the wool yarn for hats I'd knit for charity, such as those for Mongolia or Afghanistan, since they specify wool for their projects, as it warms the best. But charity projects are now lain aside.

I was supposed to have a tarot client yesterday at 5:30 pm, in Megamall, when she asked me to move it to an hour or so later. I agreed, and decided to kill time not by going to the grocery as I had planned, but went to my favorite source of cheap acrylic yarn, Carolina's Lace Shoppe... and I was happy to find myself the only one there perusing the yarns. This is important since Carolina's is rather tightly-packed with all sorts of sewing stuff, and the yarns are tucked in a corner near the lace section...not conducive for choosing yarns leisurely, since people come and go around you, you have to keep moving about.

But last night, aha, I was all alone, and the other yarn shopper beside me was able to quickly come and go... I used up about half an hour just choosing various yarn combinations.

So... I've added to my stash, and not earth-friendly stuff at all. Guilt aside... I'm excited! In fact, I goofed off this afternoon and browsed for more hat patterns, happy to discover that over a few months, when I had last searched for hat patterns that are knit from the top-down, there weren't many choices. Today I think I added about four to five new patterns that were uploaded within the past few months! What a great response by the Universe, since I had forsworn knitting from the bottom up (well, maybe if I get bored with the top-down style).

Someday I'll post the links to all the top-down patterns. They're now all safely stored in my PC, ready for printout when I finish my "real" work (yeah...anyway, I just have about 10 to 12 items to do tonight).

Blog break

2008-06-10T04:16:00.000-07:00

Sorry, won't be blogging much until next week, am swamped with errands, reunions and deadlines! I'll probably just be changing the videos and pics I post in my Multiply homepage, maybe every other day... otherwise, my wordiness is reserved for work these days :-)

World Knit in Public Day on June 14! Join me!

2008-05-25T01:56:00.000-07:00

Click HERE to visit the official website :-)

I’m looking for someone to join me that day somewhere in Metro Manila… :-) it’s a Saturday! Payday weekend, so lots of folks in malls.

Possible venues, a bit halfway between people from North and South (and east) of Metro Manila, and they usually have a lot of traffic on weekends:

SM Mall of Asia
Greenbelt Mall, Makati
SM Megamall

Suggested time: it would be nice to do this almost all day, from 11 a.m. to 9 pm.

Or we could move from one venue to other, like maybe spend 2-3 hours in Mega, then another 2-3 hours in Makati, then 2-3 hours in SM Mall…

I’m open to suggestions :-)

Dreaming daily

2008-05-24T05:15:00.000-07:00

I have been knitting daily for quite a number of weeks! Sure, some days I just knit only two to four rows, but otherwise... it's such a habit, to start my day's routine in the morning, while brewing my coffee in my French press, to knit a row or two, then letting the pressed coffee cool a bit...

Then after a hard day's work, while I run my anti-malware program on my PC, I knit again. Sometimes, when I have a hard time falling asleep, even if I'm already in bed, I get up and go downstairs to knit until I feel sleepy.

And on the days that I don't do any ESL writing work, that's when I have more time to knit, to clean up my knitting table, and to check all works in progress.

I can't imagine not letting a day go by without knitting. It relaxes me and it grounds me.

These days, when the rains bring thunder and lightning too, I turn off my PC right away and knit instead. This is primarily why I was able to finish the blanket's Pattern 5! Yup, as of midnight, I was able to start Pattern 6, which is Diagonal Seed Stitch (supposed to be Caterpillar Stitch but I liked how the pic for the Diag Seed St looked). Pics to follow soon :-)

Pattern pics

2008-05-22T03:34:00.000-07:00

I felt like goofing off today because my period has just arrived, which makes me really lazy since all I wanna do is sleep. But if I were to sleep during the day, I wouldn't be able to sleep at night! So... with such bad concentration, I just chose to do stuff I had to do... like take progress pics of the blanket... which is all I've been knitting lately.

First, a close up of one of my favorite stitch patterns, Ripples (Pattern 4 of Strip 1)

Then, see how Ripples segues upward to Pattern 5, Woven Texture:

Here's Pattern 5, Woven Texture:

My nephew's hat

2008-05-07T01:32:00.001-07:00

Photo-0107
Originally uploaded by Dreaming Knitter

Almost done... ready for binding off sometime today. Was able to use some leftover purple yarn for the accent... nice combo.

Pattern is a modified version of Pi Topper hat, will someday post the pattern which starts from the top down.

I'm still deciding if the last 2 rows will be done in 1x1 rib or also in garter

May is official HAT month

2008-05-06T05:17:00.000-07:00

Last night, when the rains brought in thunder, I had to stop my writing job and switch off the PC. Sure, that kinda ruined my deadline-meeting plan, but it also gave me the excuse to knit instead.

What to knit... I went through all my WIPs and decided, nah, I gotta do what I promised to do. So I sat and started to knit a cute little hat for my godson Anthony, now in the Bahamas but maybe will winter at my sister's in Connecticut, if his family can afford the airfare. Still, I heard it can get cold in the Bahamas, so he could still use his cute blue-and-purple acrylic hat there.

I'm about 80 percent done with the hat. Then I'll make him another one in green. Then I'm gonna knit hats for the rest of his family... that would be a total of 5 hats to knit.

So yeah, for May, I think I'll just finish the hats even if they'll get to the intended recipients in December. At least they'll all be done and washed by then.

I love knitting hats from the top-down. I like experimenting with the design as I go along... do I make the hat just one solid color, or add stripes from some left-over yarn, for some color? Do I make it all stockinette, or make it ribbed?

After this batch, I also have one more hat to make, ordered by my friend Melis, for her niece in Indiana. Frankly I have no idea how cold it gets there, I'm still gonna make the hat. I already got the order, and the yarn.

Personal projects for May

2008-05-04T05:52:00.000-07:00

It's kinda impossible NOT to have any project, since I've got all the materials and tools I need, and I need to knit to relax from my work. It's a life, and I like it.

My cousin Sonia wants a purple shawl, and that's now in progress. I also promised my cousin I'll knit for her and her family a bunch of hats, which I can do between projects for instant gratification. Since I can only get them to her sometime December, I can space out these family projects with my professional ones.

I'm still working on the hemp blanket, almost done with third pattern, and excited to start the fourth one. At the rate I'm going I should have Strip 1 done maybe in a month or two.

I'm also knitting myself a simple garter stitch shawl. Just a way to love myself :-) it's triangular and I've got 10 percent done.

Need to finish the magenta mug rug and take pics soon. But I want to have reasonable progress with Ate Sonia's shawl and finish at least one hat before I do another mug rug. I guess that means foregoing mug rugs for this month.

Color Therapy thru Knitting: Magenta this time

2008-05-02T21:45:00.000-07:00

Having done my GREEN mug rug, I had to balance its energy, which is about loving others, with MAGENTA, which is about loving myself. After all, one cannot truly love others without loving oneself first.

When I guide others in color meditation, I always balance the colors since making the client focus only on one color would of course lead to imbalance.

I actually finished the MAGENTA mug rug last night, but I still need to weave in ends and take pics. I had to adjust the number of rows to make it match the size of the green rug.

Here's a pic of the magenta WIP on my circulars:

And a nice shot of the green and magenta (WIP) mug rugs...

This is such an unexpectedly nice color combination. In terms of color theory, they were supposed to match, being opposite each other in the color wheel :-)

So how do I feel, now that I've knitted green and magenta? I do feel better. No more crying bouts for more than 24 hours, I think I have my appetite back and generally, I am in a better space compared to last week :-)

I have always been resilient, and I have more to write about my reflections in my other blog.

Green mug rug, FO

2008-04-30T23:09:00.001-07:00

Green mug rug FO
Originally uploaded by Dreaming Knitter

Finished this last weekend, and now I'm doing the magenta version, to balance the green energy of this mug rug. Pics to follow :-)

Update: Green mug rug after 10 more rows

2008-04-23T23:13:00.000-07:00

I usually knit before I go to bed at night and soon after waking in the morning. It helps to relax me, and to ground my energy, since I view knitting as a form of active meditation.

Anyway, so last night after taking pics of the first three rows of my green mug rug, I went on to knit 6 more rows before calling it a night.

This morning (actually, around noon), I was able to knit some rows. My row counter is a major motivating factor, since I look forward to clicking it once I finish a row...it's such a tangible proof that I've accomplished something! I know, it's such a simple (babaw as we call it here, or "shallow") joy, but I still like it... :-)

I reached Row 13, where I was able to switch from dpns to my bamboo circulars that's got a length of sweet 16 inches. It nicely lays out the mug rug flat...here's a pic with the freed dpns, and the safety pin is my stitch marker, to know where a round begins.

And here's an up-close shot of the mug rug... I might still tweak the design later, or switch to US Size 5 needles for a looser knit.

Healing my heart: knitting with color therapy

2008-04-23T07:21:00.000-07:00

Just started tonight, a round mug rug with my bamboo dpns, US size 4, using two strands of crochet thread in a very nice apple green shade... cool to the eyes yet warm to the heart, since green is the color of the heart chakra and has a balancing, healing effect.

And that is why i purposely chose to knit green tonight. I'm hoping to make a complete set of the 7 rainbow colors plus magenta, the color that shows up when you combine red and violet. These 8 colors comprise the basic color wheel.

As you see above, I've already got three rows, according to my very useful row counter. I used to just note down the row number I'm working on, but the notes have a way of disappearing on my messy workstation... the row counter is supposed to be worn like a pendant, but in our hot summer days, who'll want anything strung around the neck?

Here's another pic to show the two balls of mercerized cotton I'm using:

Not everyone likes to knit with dpns, but I do. Maybe it's because I have small fingers (small compared to my size!) and I don't mind working with 4 to 5 dpns.

Eventually I'll switch to my 16-inch long circulars, which are just perfect to get the 4-5 inch circumference.

And one last final group shot... the pattern is something I found from "Knitting for the Home" by Rita Weiss, and it's really a pattern for a round floor rug, I'm just adapting it for a smaller mug rug :-) basically it's a seed stitch pattern with increases after so many rows.

To balance the green effect, the next mug rug I'll work on is its complementary color, magenta. Then, let's see which color I'm gonna feel like doing next.

This is a combination of process and project knitting :-) I'm into the process but it must have an end, not just the means.

I am so glad I'm doing knitting for color therapy. If I need more green energy, I'm gonna make a triangular shawl next in my dark green and olive green tencel :-)

2008-04-20T07:42:00.000-07:00

Just wanted to note my latest loot, which had arrived a few days from my SF-based sister, who had asked me what I wanted from San Fran, since we had a nephew who had just planed in from Manila and was gonna be there a couple of weeks for a Silicon Valley job interview, free plane ticket and all that. He finally came back recently and ta-dah, look what I got:

What I really wanted were those ArtFibers tussah silk yarn (my sister's office is near the ArtFibers shop), but being on a yarn diet, I chose to be practical and focus only on what I really needed: a row counter and size 6 needles. Besides, it's kinda hard to ask for something that costs $30 when you don't know if your sister will suffer from the worsening US economy or escape scot-free.

Since my sister's query had coincided at a time when I was kinda going through a tough time, she kindly threw in some comfort food I hadn't asked for (I had thought of Ghirardelli dark chocolates but somehow forgot to ask in the midst of my turmoil).

I am so gonna use that row counter tonight (and taste a bit of those goodies too). I'm knitting my first mug rug for color therapy purposes, and it's knit in the round and I need to keep track of the rows. Such perfect timing.

Tagged: Six things I like to do

2008-04-12T03:26:00.000-07:00

I've been tagged by Monica Silva of A Knit Skinny Scarf and I have to tag 6 other knitting bloggers. As she said, it's a great way to know fellow knitting bloggers. I'm also doing this in honor of Ravelry's first anniversary, a.k.a. Bobmas Day :-)

Six things I like to do
(as of April 12 2008 anyway)

1. Knit. But of course :-)

2. Study astrology. I'm such a geek, really :-)

3. Change the theme of my Multiply website at least once a month :-) see the latest theme by clicking HERE.

4. Laughing at funny animal pics at the I Can Has Cheezburger website not just for comic relief but also to change the pic in my Multiply's homepage almost everyday.

5. Visiting the Lagoon at the nearby university campus where I commune with Nature and I listen to the birds and the trees.

6. Take pictures of my cats, especially when His Royaleness harks back to his previous incarnation as a yogi :-) here are his latest poses (giving me an excuse to post cat pics in my knitting blog!)

I'm tagging the following fellow bloggers:

Gene of gene + experiments

Mimi of Crochet and Other Stuff

Jinky of Life as a Stitcher

Kim of Craft ni kim

Lyra of Odd Little Lyra: Crocheting, Knitting and Other Things

Pamela at Multiply

P.S. What a nice Bobmas Day gift, Google has unblocked my Hand-Knit Dreams blog! It had been reported as a spam blog and now it seems they've reviewed it and decided it's not so...

Learn to Knit for Color Therapy

2008-04-10T05:22:00.000-07:00

I've decided to make a unique offer nobody else in the Philippines (I assume) can do: teach knitting for color therapy!

Actually, I've been into color therapy longer than knitting. I've offered it in one-on-one and group sessions and I've talked about it with groups, on radio and TV...

This time, I see the benefit of learning how to knit according to color therapy purposes. This involves concretely connecting with colors that one needs to feel better, to get insights and basically, to achieve balance.

This is different from learning just to knit for knitting's sake. Why?

1. Knitting for color therapy will take at least 2 sessions. In the first, I introduce both color therapy and explain why I'm teaching knitting with it. Then we initially explore where the learner would most need color therapy and I teach the basics of knitting too. Overall, first session would take two hours. Second session would be a follow-up and lets learner give feedback, and I teach more techniques and principles to let him/her continue to use knitting for color therapy. It would take one to two hours. Follow-ups may also be scheduled.

2. Because knitting for color therapy is primarily counselling, the session can only be one-on-one. Everything shared will be kept private and confidential. The modality for using color therapy is through knitting. Before, I use meditation, visualization and drawing/sculpting for color therapy. This time, I'm using knitting too.

3. Knitting for color therapy would be most helpful to those who are seeking ways not just to relax and relieve stress (which knitting by itself can accomplish), but also want to learn more about themselves and face important life issues, e.g. heartbreak, confusion, etc.

4. My rates are lower for knitting for color therapy. I just charge P300 for one session lasting 2 hours maximum. To teach knitting to one learner I charge P400 for a 60-90 minute session. (Fee does NOT include knitting materials).

Sessions are by appointment only. Venue can be my apartment in Sikatuna Village or somewhere public. Please PM or email me at soulsearchgroup AT yahoo.com for inquiries.

Wanna join Pinoy Knitters?

2008-04-06T23:43:00.000-07:00

I've just started a yahoogroup for knitters who are Filipinos in the Philippines and abroad, or are non-Filipinos in the Philippines or who have a connection to Filipinos and/or the Philippines.

This is our venue for discussing all about knitting in the Philippine setting--projects, techniques, sourcing, patterns, knit-alongs, etc.

I'd especially want this group to have charity projects, and to spread the craft in the country.

To join, you must have a love for knitting and the Philippines. Application for membership is moderated.

Click HERE to get to the Pinoy Knitters website :-) or just go to http://groups.yahoo.com/group/pinoyknitters

It's baaack! Sort of

2008-04-02T00:50:00.000-07:00

Am I glad my knitting groove is back, albeit in a restrained manner. I only have energy to knit the hemp blanket I'm making for someone really special. That, and trying to finish the green-and-blue striped place mat I'm using as a sample for my classes.

I have a growing list of knitting projects for family once more, specifically a hat for my inaanak (godson) Anthony, shawls for his sister and mother, my cousin. I'm thinking of making place mats and coasters for my sister in Connecticut, since she likes to entertain, and I want it to be sort of a Filipiniana motif, like maybe having small shells at the borders.

In short, most of my knitting groove this time is for family once more. I think I know the astrological energy for this... but I won't bother you with the details. Let's just say, I probably need to balance my knitting, some for strangers and some for loved ones.

I'll soon post a pic of the hemp blanket strip, which is my 3rd attempt. I think third time's the charm, since I'm happy with how it's turning out.

Where is it?

2008-03-26T05:22:00.000-07:00

You know, that darned knitting groove that kept me really busy most of March... it's hibernating like some UFO (Unfinished Object)...

I'm doing my best to knit away, just to help me ground my restless energies... physically I'm not at my best these days, and I thought knitting would at least be tolerable aside from surfing and blogging. Well, barely...

Maybe this is just because of the Void Moon happening almost of the day until 10 past tonight here in the Philippines.

I dunno. I.just.don't.have.the.knitting.groove.now. It.sucks.

Mug Rugs!

2008-03-24T07:17:00.000-07:00

I designed and knitted these mug rugs...

Why knit?

2008-03-24T03:39:00.000-07:00

Just some links to articles I found online about the benefits of knitting...just click on the article title to get to the page. Most of them are from North America. Someday I'll write about knitting in the Philippines :-)

1. Knitting fad doesn't discriminate

2. Knitting as therapy

3. Knitting provides calming pastime

4. Discover Why Knitting Is A Great And Timeless Hobby That You Can Benefit From

5. 2005 Research Shows: Younger Consumers Spur Increase in Yarn Projects (more of a business profile of the industry in the US)

I'll post some more links later.

Busy working on my dreams

2008-03-20T06:10:00.000-07:00

I've actually been a good girl.

I've more or less organized my knitting table, found my missing bamboo needle and categorized the project samples. I am so ready to teach!

I've been knitting up stuff I need for my knitting classes, such as stitch samples to show the learners. These includes samples of patterns I made myself, for mini-towel, mug rugs, and placemats. Here's one, which I love, for a face/hand cloth or mini-towel, in mercerized cotton:

Today, I've started my new blog devoted to selling my knitted items, called Hand-Knit Dreams. (UPDATE AS OF MAR 23: SORRY, Google thinks this new blog is a spam blog... so for now, I'll delete any links to it since you can't access it anyway.)

I just posted there tonight prototypes of some mug rugs I designed myself. Will knit some more, some on these actual designs, some will be variations. Also a pic of the Fancy Herringbone scarf in red.

Other updates:

I've had to re-do my hemp blanket, strip 1. Now it's strip 1.1 since I totally frogged the first version and re-did everything from scratch. This time, cast on is 32 stitches but the pattern remains at 30 stitches, the extra 2 are just for edgings, which the first version didn't have and it came out ugly.

I'm on a roll... with 3 new projects: first is the Lemon Basketweave scarf, made of gold and olive green tencel, and also a basketweave pattern. Second is the Coral Desert Shawl, a simple triangle shawl of garter stitch throughout. Third is also a triangle shawl but in the dark colors of Black and Iris Combo.

A happy find

2008-03-13T08:40:00.000-07:00

Despite entering PMS mode, I had an unexpectedly good day, simply because I came across a very nice, pre-owned book, The Complete Book of Knitting by Barbara Abbey, which got a good book review online (click here).

Got it at the Books for Less branch in Congressional Ave., Quezon City for P200 bucks, around US$5. Click here for a pic of the cover and some more reviews by Amazon.com customers.

This new find will keep all the more busy the next few days... which is rather welcome considering my upcoming downtime due to my period, and other stuff I don't feel like blogging about...

Preparing for a new career path

2008-03-12T09:25:00.000-07:00

I've got two hand-knit scarves to sell, but will take pics first then post them ASAP. Still have two more to sell soon...

Aside from scarves, I've also decided to expand my list of hand-knit items for sale. More on that soon :-)

Basically, I have been busy with mostly knitting stuff :-) I'm getting ready for my summer knitting classes at Miriam College where I'm putting together my own starter kits and project kits...I'm pretty fired up about becoming a knitting teacher. I've decided to teach knitting as a freelancer, and more on that again later...
:-)

A Yarn Shop called Dreams

2008-03-05T06:25:00.000-08:00

Isn't it great that this store is called Dreams? I met the nice owner, Tita Lilli de Leon, tonight when I went there... I told her about my blog title and my Ravelry name. Although I think her store began before I came up with them, and I did come up with them not knowing that such a store existed here in the Philippines.

This store definitely deserves to be called the Philippines's true Local Yarn Shop, or LYS. For one thing, it does call itself one: Dreams Yarnshoppe. For another, it has the best collection of yarns, needles and other knitting supplies to the serious knitter. They're mostly imported, even the locally distributed Red Heart is from China. I think it's only the crochet thread with Anchor and Cannon brands that are truly made in the Philippines (I'm not sure though.)

However, being located in the upscale business district of Makati (the country's version of Manhattan, more or less), the prices cater to its moneyed residents, the locals and expats. You can find Addi Turbo circulars (didn't check the prices, since I knew I'd rather spend the money on yarn, someday) and Berroco yarns and other brands. There were some bulk yarns on sale, mostly acrylic and yarn, at reasonably fair prices, for the budget-conscious. I would have bought some if I hadn't joined knittinghelp.com's Year of the Stash, which is basically about stash management. For now, I have enough yarn. Really.

Anyway, I rarely venture out of my little apartment in Quezon City, except that I had decided to check out the local availability of knitting supplies in anticipation of my summer classes at Miriam College. Much as I wanted to rule out the Dreams Yarnshoppe, since it's about an hour away by car in traffic from the school, I thought I couldn't be a good knitting teacher without being able to inform my future learners about the state of the local market. (More on that later, in another post.)

Granted, you could say that Craft World in Megamall (formerly at Robinson's Galleria) is some sort of LYS too, except that it has marketed itself more for general crafting. It does have its fair share of yarn, needles et al, but they sell some yarn hanks without any label if it's wool, acrylic, or whatever. Just a nice hank of gorgeous colors, and I'm not that much of a yarn expert yet. It's most likely acrylic. I bought a lot of my needles from this store when it used to be at Galleria, when I was just beginning to knit. They had a few double-points in various sizes. Tonight I got to buy size 15 (10mm) straight needles there, for roughly US$4 dollars. A good deal, and I badly needed that size.

My third source for knitting yarn and needles in Metro Manila, Philippines is Carolina's Lace Shoppe, and it's more known for sewing supplies including lace and beads, lots of them.

I'll soon make my prognosis re knitting supplies in the Philippines, since I have yet to check the downtown supply stores in Quiapo and Divisoria.

No longer a wanna-be!

2008-03-04T06:55:00.000-08:00

This is one reason why I'm so glad to have a separate blog for my knitting. In my Multiply blog I've got sad news. In this blog, I've got happy news!

I learned yesterday that my knitting classes will be offered in summer at Miriam College... I suppose they're open to outsiders.

I'm already brimming with ideas... I'll also teach knitting as a freelancer. More on that later...

Also yesterday, my neighbor saw me taking pics of my latest shawlette and asked if I could knit her a hat. She asked for my fee... and now I'm thinking I'll knit hats for sale too...

Today, I checked out the knitting supplies to be had at Mega, since I intend to sell the beginner's kit at the Miriam classes, and elsewhere. I found that I could put up something basic. I just need to go to Divisoria to buy crochet thread in cones, to teach knitting washcloths.

I also decided today to sell some of my stashed yarn. A way to lessen my stash and make money at the same time...

And I'll add beads to the fringe of my Lacy Garter Stitch scarf, to make it look lovelier.

Now, some pics of my latest project, the Lacy and Spicy Scarf, based on the slip-stitch weave pattern, to be bound off tonight after this:

Here's a pic of the yarn I'm using, which is the Spice solid 2/8 tencel (no pic) combined with Spice combo variegated 2/8 tencel yarn, in pic:

The Knitting Teacher Wanna-Be

2008-03-02T04:03:00.001-08:00

That's me. Last night my friend Gay suggested that I might be able to teach knitting for the summer at Miriam College, and so, despite my busy-ness, I sneaked in a list of subjects I could teach, from April to May.

And again goofing off from work now, I decided to make a list of what I can teach regarding knitting, based on actual experience and personal knowledge:

1. Two kinds of cast-ons, since they're what i use: the basic long-tail and the chain cast-on popular in Japan and which I almost always use. But for bind-off, I only know the basic one.

2. Knitting and purling (Continental/German, not American/British style)

3. Increasing and decreasing

4. Basic stitch patterns: garter and stockinette

5. Knit and purl combinations: seed/moss, double moss, rib, basketweave, etc.

6. Slip-stitches: Barbara Walker's Charted Knitting Design such as Alternating, Pebble, Tanbark, Fancy Herringbone and others from Knittingfool.com, including Honeycomb, Linen, Pebbled, and Slip-Stitch Weave

7. Lacy stitches: Garter drop-stitch, Honeycomb cluster, open star and the usual yarn-over

8. Projects: headbands, squares, washcloth, hand/face towels, scarves and shawlettes (rectangular scarves larger than the usual size but smaller than shawl size), hats (top-down designs only) and blanket. I've also made small circular pieces.

9. Making a swatch to get gauge, and measuring gauge (for an afghan square)

10. Weaving in the ends

11. Finishing a scarf: blocking, washing and fringing

12. Color knitting: combining two strands of yarn of differing colors throughout, or alternating the colors in knitting

13. Knitting with double-pointed needles and circulars

14. Reading patterns and pattern charts

15. Basic knitting lingo, e.g. FO, UFO, WIP, CO and BO

I cannot teach how to knit a garment, since I've never done any and maybe the closest I'll ever get to one is a poncho (which can be done by putting together two rectangular shawls). One reason is that, I only know basic sewing and I don't like sewing.

I cannot teach lace knitting, since I hate doing it.

I cannot teach advanced techniques like cable knitting, intarsia, entrelac and Fair Isle knitting. I plan to learn entrelac this year, but the others don't appeal to me, since they are more for those who knit garments and wear them in cold climates.

I've knitted various types of yarn: wool blends, acrylic, acrylic blends, unmercerized and mercerized cotton, cotton blends, hemp and tencel.

I've knitted with various needle types and sizes: bamboo, plastic, balene, metal, 16-inch and 31-inch circulars, 7-inch and 10-inch double-pointed and 14-inch needles as big as size 19s.

I've designed my own patterns especially when doing my scarves for charity knitting. I like to modify existing patterns to adapt them to my needs. I want to continue making simple, easy patterns, such as the 13th Rib.

I own around seven books on knitting, mostly bought in second-hand stores (really lucky finds!). Only one of them was bought online. I also have some back-issues of knitting magazines.

I intend to be better in my knitting. Not just in terms of quantity and quality, but also in skill and knowledge. Aside from entrelac, I'd like to learn mosaic knitting (involves at least 2 colors) and maybe the log cabin pattern.

Most immediate desire: make myself a triangular shawl.

The week that was

2008-02-29T02:08:00.001-08:00

I finally finished FULLY one project... when I say FULLY, that meant having knitted, washed (if needed), blocked (if needed), the ends have been woven in and any fringes have been added. This makes the finished object, or FO, ready to give to the intended recipient.

That's why in some projects, I have 95%-99% ratings which mean, the knitting's done but I still need to do something more with it before I can declare, finito.

That said, my only FO this week is, or rather, are, the two headbands I made for my friend Gay, whose father left the body recently. That sort of moved up the date when we were going to see each other again, and the day i went to the wake, her headbands had just been washed, and still being dried. Plus the ends still needed to be woven in...

This just means I'll see her again soon, to give the headbands and make chika.

This also means, I still have at least 3 knitted projects that have already been washed and blocked, but still need end-weaving and fringing. I had wanted to do that by today, but an editing racket came my way and right now I'm playing hooky from it, so I could do at least a weekly update here.

From Lacy Woven to Lacy Seed

2008-02-22T22:32:00.000-08:00

I changed one of my projects this week, the one I was knitting with the tencel colorway, Painted Desert. Originally, it was called the Lacy Woven Scarf, using as my stitch pattern that of the Slip-Stitch Weave. It was knitting fast, but after about 12-14 inches of knitting, while the body of the fabric was shaping well, the sides weren't. I was using too loose a selvedge... but it was similar to what I had used in the swatch. Apparently maybe I should have swatched at least six inches to see how the selvedge would "hold" the fabric together.

So now... the Lacy Woven Scarf is due to be frogged.

And I decided to move on the another slip-stitch pattern, called the Pebbled Stitch. Because this stitch pattern has alternate rows of seed stitch and slip-stitch, I decided to call the scarf pattern as Lacy Seed. And the scarf is designed to be about 10-11 inches wide, making it a "shawlette", so I'm calling the project "Lacy Seed Shawlette."

I've also used a seed stitch selvedge, knitting the first and last stitches. So far, looks ok...and I'm almost done!

The stitch produces a nice-looking reverse/wrong side too... here are some pics, along with a view of the Painted Desert yarncake...

View of the right side

View of the wrong/reverse side

A view of the Painted Desert colorway, again, this time as a "yarncake":

Latest pics

2008-02-18T03:13:00.000-08:00

Finished objects first!

1. My Black and Beige headhugger, a modified version of the Pi Topper Chemo Cap, a pattern that starts from the top down and was the very first hat pattern I knitted, for my mom.

I changed it a bit so that after reaching 144 stitches, more or less, I'd do single rib instead of continuing in stockinette, so the last 3-4 inches sort of hugs the head, nicely... it practically covers all of my short hair!

By the way, if you're looking at this from my Ravelry page, you'll notice I try to put different pics from what I have there... just to make the experience of clicking to this blog post a bit worth it :-)

2. Next, ready for fringing is a Lacy Garter Stitch scarf done in tencel, Iris combo colorway from WEBS and solid red-purple. I just call the color combination as Blue-Purple. Just the usual garter stitch done with size 13 needles. It's been washed, to shrink it, since I read somewhere that tencel will shrink once only... might as well do the job before selling it to anyone!I also blocked it so it would stretch. It nicely drapes!

Unfortunately, I can never do justice to the rich and glossy colors of the tencel yarns... this colorway doesn't really have any white colors, it's just the light reflecting off the yarn :-(

Here's how Iris combo looks like:
it's a cool, classy mix of iris blue, dark blue, red purple, black and grey. I think it also has some silver too.

I'm also going to combine this with black to make the colorway stand out. The scarf above emphasized the red-purple.

And now, what's been keeping me busy are the following Works In Progress (WIPs):

1. A unisex scarf based on the Linen Stitch, using one strand each of Dark Teal and Black

This pic more or less captures the color the yarn. Here's how Dark Teal looks like, from the WEBS page:

2. Another WIP is a Lacy Woven Scarf made of two strands of Painted Desert tencel colorway, using Slip-Stitch Weave which knits beautifully and speedily:

Here's how the Painted Desert colorway looks like, online :

It's a yummy mixture of coral, amethyst, olive, lavender, teal... a feminine combination that's ideal for lacy designs. I might make a shawl for myself from this colorway!

3. I've saved the best for last. I call it Strip 1, which would be 4.5 inches wide and about 72 inches long. Because it's made of natural hemp, its color is, well, natural. I'm thinking if I'll dye it or not... for now, the natural color works. The work looks stiff because the yarn IS stiff... it will soften when it's washed.

The pattern is a Baskwetweave Variation, includes 5 rows of garter stitches between the knit and purl blocks... I'll post the pattern someday soon.

How much hemp do I have? Well, here's a pic of the humongous cone I ordered online from downbound.com, which says the hemp came from Romania. I expect this should have all the yarn I need for the blanket... or else I'll have to order another cone again. Only problem is, I don't know when any of my 3 sibs in the US are coming over to the Philippines.

My Fancy Herringbone Scarf, Red for Valentine

2008-02-11T03:09:00.000-08:00

Not really red for Valentine... it just so happened that the color combination was irresistible: two strands of 8/2 tencel solid Spice, which is nice, muted red, and one strand of the 8/2 tencel variegated Spice combo, which has spice, black, a shade of pink and brown...

Then I found an interesting textured stitch in my one and only Barbare G. Walker book, Charted Knitting Designs, bought in a secondhand bookshop just when I began my knitting hobby a few years back... the stitch looked a lot like that used in "My So-called Scarf," which I had wanted to try but was knida intimidated by the seemingly elaborate knitting and purling techniques.

The Fancy Herringbone stitch pattern was rather easy... alternate purl and knit rows with slip-stitching, yarn-over and psso... and produced a lovely, thick fabric which wasn't so thick since I knitted with 3 strands of laceweight yarn ons size 8 needles...

This scarf, I hope, will be my first ever scarf to be offered for sale, marking by debut as a professional hand-knitter. I'm thinking of calling my work, Handknit Dreams...

In view of the season, though, I'm nicknaming this my Valentine scarf. Unfortunately, because tencel is shiny, the pics I've taken have not been able to properly capture the spicy red-ness of the yarn combination.

These shots were more for showing off the Fancy H stitch rather than the color.

This one at left is closer to the actual color. The one at right is too orange (I just can't remember which light setting I used in my camera-phone so I won't use it ever again). Both shots were taken outdoors but one was during a bright sunny day (most likely the orangey shot).

The reverse side is just as pretty looking, although oddly circular vis-a-vis the angular "right side".

I'll soon take pics of my other tencel scarf, a plain garter stitch scarf in a luscious Blue Purple combo. It's done, just needs fringing...

Some more Tanbark shots

2008-02-08T03:05:00.000-08:00

Happy as I am that one of my Tanbark shots, a close-up, is being used for Ravelry, I still wish I can decent shots. Well, all I have is a cellphone camera with no tripod. Anyway, here are more shots I took of my Tanbark Towel, already done and awaiting to be gifted to the beloved recipient.

Left, the "right side" which looks like an exaggerated or embossed Moss/Seed stitch.

Right, the "wrong side" which is the loopy one and just as attractive.

Thick, dense fabric with slight curl, probably needs more selvedge. Since it's a towel, I didn't bother blocking it... maybe if I use this stitch for a scarf. I'll probably use seed stitch selvedge.

Hot hats!

2008-02-05T03:21:00.000-08:00

My brother in Oakland called long-distance today, just to say thanks for the hats I gave him when he was here in the Philippines, just before he was about to fly back home across the Pacific Ocean. He especially LOVES the bright blue-green hat that wasn't even really for him, but for my sister in San Francisco... well, it fits his bald head so well.

It's a cool color combination of Peacock Blue and Lime Green... I adapted a pattern for a chemo cap, here, to make the 2-inch rim (I think) in head-hugging single rib.

I realized today that I hadn't posted pics of this hat here in my blog, but have done it already in Ravelry ... so here's how it looks:

Left, a pic of the hat in progress, and right, the finished hat... I'm gonna knit at least two more in this color combo...

Here's a work-in-progress pic of the hat I'm knitting now, an orange acrylic hat :

It's almost done, I'm now making a single-rib rim. Will soon post pic of the finished hat...Just like with the chemo cap pattern, I adapted a basic, top-down pattern called Karlchen to give it a longer rim, maybe 2.5 inches instead of 1 inch.

Hot on the needles

2008-02-02T00:22:00.000-08:00

My first attempt to make a scarf to be sold commercially, my first ever project as a professional knitter, went pffft yesterday.

I used the wrong needle size and the very nice mint-colored scarf, in light blue and mint green yarn, produced a stiff fabric. This means size 8 needles are not good primarily for the Carmencita yarn... unfortunately, acrylic totally hates plastic and wooden needles, and my sizes 9, 10 and 10.5 needles, both circulars and straights, are either both...

I have been saved only by size 11 metal dpns, ten inches long, SB Silvalume... set of 5! Ther acrylic slides so smoothly with these metal needles. (Note to self: buy more metal knitting needles! Sizes 9 onward--only if I plan to buy more acrylic for my commercial stuff. Need to think about it well.)

So now, I'm using one pair for my second attempt to become a professional knitter, this time making a leaf green scarf in simple alternative 6 rows of seed and garter stitches. My other extra Size 11 DPNs will be for the mint-striped scarf.

So far, it's been knitting up well except that I realized I didn't have enough yarn! One skein only produced around 9 inches of fabric... I had to scrounge and found 2 skeins of black Carmencita yarn. What I'll do is use the black yarn for the center portion of the scarf.

I'm calling this project the Green and Black scarf.

I like using seed stitch since it produces flat fabric. I had to alternate with garter stitches so it would knit up faster than usual....

Update: As of February 2008, I've officially declared this green and black scarf project as DEAD OBJECT. Not yet frogged but on its way to being frogged...

Project notes

2008-01-31T00:13:00.000-08:00

Yup, I did end up frogging the Tanbark towel, and now I'm halfway through the second version, making my selvedge stitches 3 knit stitches (first stitch slipped as if to purl, then yarn back) . The side doesn't curl so much now...

Also done: two headbands for my friend Gay, though I'm not happy how they turned out... might make another one.

Yesterday I gave to my fave gay pal, Cyrus, a lime-green and purple scarf I knit last year. Will make him a matching hat soon. Comes in handy since he works in a call center. He was happy with it and wore it right away to work after our kaffeklatsch. I'll also knit a hat and scarf for another friend who's due to work again in a call center soon.

Towels update

2008-01-27T05:34:00.000-08:00

Uh-oh... much as I'm 50 percent into the Tanbark towel, I don't like how one side is curling up. I can't decide if I should just rip the whole thing apart and start all over again with some slight changes to the selvedge. I'll take my time with it... the fabric in itself is lovely, it's just one side that's really troublesome.

Here's a pic of my curling problem:

Also, I've decided that I'll use up the remaining 2 skeins of Pakucho for a bigger towel, I suppose it would be a hand towel this time. Probably similar to Wavy pattern if i can't solve the Tanbark curl.

Latest dreams on the needles

2008-01-24T07:45:00.000-08:00

These days I have more energy for my knitting projects in general than for my bread-and-butter telecommute job. In fact, I've sort of set aside the purple square I was knitting, for charity, but I'm gonna get back to it when the Tanbark towel's done.

But will also finish my purple square for the Many Colors knit-along at knittinghelp.com, and knit another square, maybe also in Tanbark.

Done!

2008-01-23T02:39:00.000-08:00

Since I have 4 skeins of Pakucho organic cotton from Peru (via elann.com), I can make four face towels, since one skein is good enough for an 8 x 10 inch towel.

Face towel no. 1 is patterned after the Chinese Waves dishcloth pattern but I renamed it "Wavy Pakucho Towel" since I think the waves in China are not really little (the reason for the name).

Here are some pics I took today of the finished object (FO), right after bind off, hiding the ends that I still need to weave in, and in some of its "poses", placing the FO on top of the next skein of Pakucho that I'm using for Towel no. 2 (Barbara Walker's Tanbark pattern. Can you believe it, Ravelry's asked me to submit a pic of my knitting for this pattern... I feel honored... I'm such a knitting geek...)

Rolled up

Folded

Half-folded

I'm now officially a Knitting Amy!

2008-01-22T05:59:00.001-08:00

Just got my approval tonight that my blog is part of the webring of Knitting Amys worldwide!

Here in the Philippines, my name is pronounced as Ah-mee. But when I'm talking with Americans and Westerners in general, my name becomes pronounced as Ey-mee. Either way, it can't be denied that I am definitely an Amy who knits.

Sorry, I just realized that there's no mention anywhere in this blog that I'm an Amy. But links in my other blogs, at soulsearch.multiply.com and amycavosora.blogspot.com will all vouch for my nickname...

Detail shot, 13th Rib Pattern version 2

2008-01-16T04:01:00.001-08:00

Photo-0106
Originally uploaded by Dreaming Knitter

In Version 2, double moss stitch, the striping effect of the 13th single-rib stitch is a bit less noticeable but still there to break the monotony.

Detail shot, 13th Rib Pattern version 1

2008-01-16T03:56:00.001-08:00

Photo-0105
Originally uploaded by Dreaming Knitter

Notice striping effect of the 13th single rib stitch, after knitting 12 rows of seed stitch/British Moss (k1 p1 one row, and p1, k1 next row, even number).

13th Rib Scarf

2008-01-11T01:06:00.000-08:00

Basically, much as I love moss stitch, I wanted something to break the monotony.

And so, I decided to do something different with the 13th row. To explain the pattern name, it means the 13th row is a rib stitch, where the previous row's knit stitches are purled, and the purls are knitted.

Cast on an even number of stitches.

Version 1, British Moss Stitch (aka Seed Stitch):

Row 1: Knit 1, Purl 1
Row 2: Purl 1, Knit 1

Repeat Rows 1 and 2 for Rows 3 to 12:
Rows 3, 5, 7, 9 and 11 -- as Row 1
Rows 4, 6, 8, 10 and 12-- as Row 2

Row 13: Purl 1, Knit 1

Repeats Rows 1 to 13 until desired length:

Rows 14, 16, 18, 20, 22 and 24 -- as Row 1
Rows 15, 17, 19, 21, 23 and 25 -- as Row 2
Row 26: As Row 13

And so on

Sorry, for now this is my only available pic of a 13th rib scarf pattern, using Filati FF Sailor cotton yarn, Po River colorway. Notice the slight stripe effect of the 13th row.

I'll take more and better pics of the other scarves in this pattern.

Version 2, American Moss Stitch (aka Double Moss Stitch):

Rows 1 and 2: Knit 1, Purl 1
Rows 3 and 4: Purl 1, Knit 1
Rows 5 and 6: Knit 1, Purl 1
Rows 7 and 8: Purl 1, Knit 1
Rows 9 and 10: Knit 1, Purl 1
Rows 11 and 12: Purl 1, Knit 1

Row 13: Purl 1, Knit 1

Repeat Rows 1 to 13 until desired length.

Version 2's striping is subtle too and this pattern works best with solid yarns... I think. Haven't tried it with variegated yarns.

Here's a link about the 2 types of Moss Stitch.

Dreams to knit in 2008

2008-01-07T04:17:00.000-08:00

1. Knit-along: Many Colors squares--at least 2
First square: Light Purple Square, Vertical Zigzag moss stitch
2nd square: ???? Scrap yarn square? Peach-pink-lavender?

Target: to send to US by March, thru Ate Sonia? (or June, when she comes back and forth)

2. Zahir scarf for Beng-- dropped stitch pattern--finish by May!

3. Brown headband for Gay--ASAP--find pattern first

4. Caps for Au and Matt-- finish my March/June--send via Ate Sonia

5. Tencel scarf for Pat--try to finish by July for her birthday

This is an incomplete list... because I'd like to knit a few wool hats for Dulaan again and another sleeping cap for Mama... well, what I've listed above are my priority dreams.

Busy dreaming at

2008-01-04T17:14:00.000-08:00

As DreamingKnitter

Ravelry.com isn't public yet...but I love it so much!

Now, if only I can figure out how to add this darned badge to my blogger page... I'd love it even more!

The Year of My Stash

2008-01-02T05:30:00.000-08:00

At first, it was pretty overwhelming trying out the wonderful features of Ravelry, which is THE social network for knitters and crocheters.

The very first feature I tried out was My Notebook, which lets me record my knitting projects, yarn stash and other knitting supplies, etc. It's a cool feature because the site links you to other members who have the same yarn or pattern.. well, so far that's what I know. Plus it can automatically add up the yardage of one's yarn stash, e.g. if you have 3 balls of a yarn that's 120 yards long per ball, the total of 360 yards shows up, making it easy to calculate if one has enough yarn or not.

Anyway, I felt like I was just invited to a fabulous buffet with lots to offer. I've only dipped into it, barely. I've been so busy with my non-knitting but equally essential parts of my life, so haven't had time to go deeper into Ravelry, although today I signed up for two groups.

My Ravelry membership came at the right time for me, since it will help me with my own Year of the Stash aims.

All I want this year is to use up my current yarn stash by knitting more hats, scarves and squares. Well, maybe some hand towels too... I also owe someone special a blanket :-)

I won't add to my yarn stash unless I use up around 30%, and only when I know there's someone coming in from the US to bring the stuff to me. Besides, I have enough yarn to keep me busy for about two to three years. I could probably wait until 2009, when my siblings come over from the US for my mom's 80th birthday.

Aside from using up my stash, I'd also like to organize them and store them properly.

Got in!

2007-12-21T00:58:00.000-08:00

My happy note today: got accepted to both Ravelry.com and the local yahoogroup of "Stitch n' Bitch" Manila.

Yarn heaven

2007-12-20T04:45:00.000-08:00

That's where I am right now... my dear brother from Oakland planed in today, and while I had thought I'd get my stuff tomorrow when I'd see him at the hotel (today is reserved for his gf, who's here in the Philippines), I got to talk with him earlier and apparently he had left my goodies at our aunt's place nearby. Our aunt's place is the family's general 'center' since it's big and well, it's where our aunt and cousins are.

Anyway, so instead of working today I immediately rushed to my aunt's to go through my brother's big box and packed off with my goodies in tow. Although... I didn't see the Artfibers' tussah silk I had asked him to get me... maybe he's giving them for Christmas. Maybe. That's okay, I'm kinda yarn-overwhelmed now. Ooh, and I think my other two sisters planing in this weekend might also bring me knitting stuff. I informed one of them of the elann.com organic cotton on sale. Something to look forward to.

I'm kinda too busy to put all my goodies together and take a pic, but basically, what I have in my apartment are:

From Joann.com
A dozen set of needles, dpns and 16-inch circulars, bamboo, metal and balene, for my hats

From Heritage Yarns
Six 8-oz cones of 8/2 tencel yarns, yummy colors

From WEBS
Three 1-lb cones of 8/2 tencel, solids
Three 1-lb cones of 8/2 tencel, variegated

From KnitPicks
4 Shine worsted
3 Shine sport
A ball winder (Royal brand, made in Japan)

From Downbound.com
1 1-kilo of natural, fair-trade hemp weaving yarn (very fine... might need to use 3-4 strands together!)

Whew... I already have a grand idea. I'll probably wind up 100-gram balls of hemp and tencel and sell them. I've already tried out my ball winder once, and I while I didn't have a swift (too expensive), I improvised with a plastic bag, kinda easy since the yarn already came in cones.

This is one way to lessen by stash. I can't think of a name yet for this batch, since they came from different sources...

For a touch of the scientific, I could call this stash Batch B-2007, since elann would be Batch A-2007. Although I do have a bunch of crochet thread, made of mercerized cotton, I also bought this year. I dunno...

Back to work.

My knit-alongs

2007-12-19T03:42:00.001-08:00

Having joined a few online knitting forums, I discovered a few things:

1. There's a very small group of knitters who meet either in Makati or Ortigas. They have a yahoogroup and I've already emailed them. On the other hand, early next year I'm also due to form a small public knitting group with Cyrus and his friend, who might find Makati a bit too far for them. So maybe we'll have our group meet in Ortigas instead...as it is, I live in Quezon City which is a good half-hour away from Ortigas, and 45 minutes to an hour away from Makati.

2. One online forum, knittinghelp.com, has 2 knit-alongs (having a common project/purpose in mind) to which I've signed up for. One is the 2008 Year of the Stash where the aim is to use up one's stash before adding up to it... in short, freeing yarns which have been cooped up in Yarn Jail and avoiding reaching SABLE (stash acquired beyond life expectancy).

My basic solution: go on a yarn diet first, no "reward yarn" until maybe later in 2008 when I should have knitted up enough scarves and squares and whatevers from my current stash. Knowing my Oakland-based brother, he's probably traveling back to the Philippines for another visit in June. I have until May to work on my current stash (and paying off my credit card debt!) so I can reward myself.

In my case, I do have a little Yarn Jail which I had thought I had declogged this year by doing some charity knitting, and even dispatching some wool yarn to the States for a charity group, but in exchange , I ordered more stuff online at elann.com plus more tencel et al at WEBS and Heritage Yarn... in short... whatever space was freed up in Yarn Jail is now alloted to my elann stash plus my incoming yarn (which I hope to be laying my hands on this Friday at the earliest... when my dear brother will have unpacked his luggage...woohoo!).

Sooo... part of the 2008 Year of the Stash effort (although there are no rules to follow, we set our own aims actually) is to be able to put some order in the Yarn Jail. Knowing what one has, how much yards per yarn, colors/fibers available. Kinda like having a yarn dossier. Then it would be ideal if you could match the yarn to an actual project, e.g. a scarf, hat, etc.

Which brings me to the next knit-along I joined, so it can help me with my annual effort to declog my Yarn Jail and at the same time, do some charity knitting.

3. The "Squares of MANY COLORS!" knit-along just asks knitters to knit a 12-inch square to be sent to someone who collects these squares and sews them together for blankets etc. to be donated. There have been many similar projects I've read about online, but I never felt like joining any of them until I saw this at the forum.

I like it because there's no deadline, so I need not rush when to send the square to the US (since I would rely on someone traveling there rather than sending it by postal mail, which may never reach its destination). And I get to practice knitting all sorts of stitches! Plus I get to use up my yarn stash. I can only use yarn that's machine-washable so that rules out my tencel, which is handwash only. But this means I can use up my cotton and acrylics.

The funny thing is, I expect 2008 to be a more busy year work-wise, and for stress relief, I would have to do more knitting too.... he he he. My only consolation is being able to earn more money for my "reward" yarn.

Travel pains

2007-12-16T02:06:00.000-08:00

My Filati sailor scarf is doing fine... sorry, haven't had time to take pics yet.

I was thinking of my upcoming hectic week right after Christmas, and up to the New Year, when I have to travel to two resorts within the week...

I'm usually OC about my plane flights, I like to arrive way ahead of my flight, not only because I don't want to miss the flight but also because I want to avoid the long line at the check-in counter. I like to travel relaxed, not in a harried, hurried mood.

This means bringing along some of my knitting stuff, since that's all I'd rather do these days.

My concern is that, knitting is not well-known here and the airport security guys might give me a hard time with my hand-carried knitting stuff.

In fact, we have no native word at all for "knitting." The closest local term used for it is the same as the one for crochet--"gantsilyo" (from Spanish ganchillo, the term for crochet) although I just checked now that in Spain, the word(s) for knitting is Punto de malla which I've never heard in our native language, which has lots of Spanish words since we were a Spanish colony for 300 years. Although if I were to Filipinize the term, then knitting would be called "punto de malya".

Anyway, enough of the linguistics lesson. I'm going to be optimistic and take the advice of other traveling knitters (abroad, not in the Philippines): use plastic needles, have some yarn on the needles and pack them in clear plastic bag. Plus, I'm going to bring some yarn for winding by hand, and some unfinished knitting for "frogging".

My only problem now is what plastic needles to bring, since my size 4's are pointy (risky) while my size 11's are blunt (better).

I'll have to decide by the 25th, my last chance to pack for my first trip out on the 26th.

Let the river flow

2007-12-13T23:39:00.000-08:00

Correction: The yarn to the left is not Filatura di Crossa yarn, as I had posted earlier, but Filati Italian Collection yarn... got it from elann.com

I decided to knit it on its own, rather than match it with the Camila "chamois" yellow yarn, since the orange/yellow bits in the colorway already brighten up the rest of the yarn... as intended. This makes me curious to see the Italian place that this colorway was named after, Po River.

I remember now why I chose this colorway. I wanted something in blue, to tone down the orange and maroon yarns ... yet I also wanted to have something in orange bits (his favorite color). So there... it was rather hard to choose the colorway. I loved their color combos... trust the Italians for having good taste even in matching colors. I'm sure it's in their genes...

I'll soon post a pic of this scarf-in-progress. As usual, seed stitch played out better than garter. I love how it's turning out.

Only problems I've had with Filati sailor: splitty, and the usual challenges of 100% cotton yarn, making me kiss my metal needles for making the work easy.

Unfortunately, I won't get to buy anymore Filati Sailor yarn, much as I love their other color choices. After buying my elann.com stash, I've opted to buy only nature-friendly yarn, so that means sticking to organic cotton... and tencel, and tussah silk, mostly.

Brilla busted, Pegasus pegged, Sailor-Camila paired

2007-12-12T09:01:00.000-08:00

Unfortunately, I had to frog my Brilla scarf... it just wasn't working. But I remain hopeful I can still knit up what I've dreamt for it: seed stitch for a certain number of rows, interrupted by 1 rib row.

Now I'm figuring out what to do with the Elann Pegasus cotton-viscose yarn... in red magenta. Just like Brilla, I'm dreaming of a unisex scarf ... but the seed stitch rows would be interrupted this time by garter stitch. Maybe. I'm tempted to do something in basketweave. I'm also tempted to wait for my tencel yarn to arrive (the 20th! that's when my brother arrives with my loot...next week... can't wait)

Another option: knit up another nice classy scarf, combining these two, Filatura di Crossa's Sailor cotton yarn, Po River colorway, with Elann Camila's cotton-linen yarn, Chamois. I want the Chamois yellow to liven up the Po River's subdued colorway... there's a bit of yellow in the colorway, which would be played up if I knit it with the Chamois. At least this time, I do have enough yarn for my peace of mind...

Brilla by itself

2007-12-08T23:20:00.000-08:00

I decided to knit a scarf using Brilla only, without the green tea hemp. I thought it was a shame to tone down Tangerine Dream, when I consciously chose the color because of its brightness. That, and it was the only color left at elann.com! In fact, up to now it's still available, but this time along with Brilliant Yellow... very tempting to break my yarn diet... but no, this time it's my credit that's on a diet until I pay off some stuff this month.

Brilla's indeed soft, but slippery on the needles, making it feel like mercerized cotton yarn. A bit splitty but only when I'm careless. Maybe because it's four-ply, Brilla certainly doesn't feel like it's fingering weight... I ended up using size 7s.

As expected, seed stitch turned out better than plain garter stitch. I love seed stitch. It is predictable in its flatness and beauty. I'm loving the sheen of Brilla...

The coloring is turning out nicely. Since I can't decide on the ultimate recipient, I'm making the design unisex. I hope to dream up a 6-inch wide scarf that's at least 60 inches long. I just have 2 balls of Brilla, and if more colors are offered on elann.com, I might get some more. Mmmm...

I'm using a pattern that knits an interesting fabric, based on my experience with an orange-and-black scarf, knitting rows in seed stitch, and one row in rib. It produces a subtle stripe effect, to break the texture's monotony.

Here's a pic of what I got to knit up so far with Brilla. Notice the "stripe" produced by one row of rib stitch (technically, that would produce two rows since I'm just knitting and purling according to the previous row). I think I'll try it with a 2-row rib next time:

Anyway, my elann stash being the first time I ever ordered yarn online, I've learned something since then. If my budget allows it, I should always get one more ball than I really need. That way I need not worry if I'm gonna run out or not. I'm very bad at math, so I can't rely on my calculations at all.

2007-12-08T01:35:00.000-08:00

I've decided to just wait for my tencel yarn to arrive and experiment pairing it with the Zahir, for Beng's scarf. There's no real hurry anyway plus my deadlines are killing me.

So for now... I'm still dreaming up various Zahir permutations and starting to eye my other yarns... especially my two balls of Filatura di Crosa Brilla, "Tangerine Dream" which is a blend of cotton, viscose and rayon. The photo below doesn't show the subtle sheen of the yarn, which makes the actual yarn brilliant in texture and bright in color.

It would make a cheery, summery scarf... the colors don't seem appropriate for a guy.

Well, I could tone down the sheen by pairing it with my hemp yarn, the Canapone, in green tea. I'll think about it and wait for my dreams to show the way...

Trying to knit Zahir

2007-12-06T04:33:00.000-08:00

Arggh...I've lost the number of times I started and stopped and re-started my Zahir scarf for Beng. I'm experimenting on the needle sizes, the number of cast-on stitches, the number of garter rows before the drop-stitch row, and the number of yarn-overs to make the drop stitch. I can't believe how OC I'm getting over this...

I just can't find the perfect width and I get so critical of the uneven stitches... although later I read online that even if the tape yarn, which is flat, twists and folds, the knitted effect remains the same... so that means I need not worry of having a weird looking but gorgeously colored scarf on my friend. I'll give it another go when I knit tonight. These days I knit before and after I do my bread-and-butter day job at home... only way to keep me sane!

Maybe it's because Beng wants to wear it while singing onstage that's making me nervous. I'd rather make her something dramatic and beaded... yet I want to put a touch of the tropics there, like the seashells I used on my sister Marie's yellow scarf, one of my first ever scarves. Marie loved that teeny detail, which I knew she would... I wanted to give her a touch of home.

I just have to find seashells to match the Zahir yarn... or maybe I'll get to find some nice ones when I hit the beach later this month... in Palawan and Bohol. Let's see what Nature dreams up for me and Beng's scarf... :-)

Other drop-stitch scarf patterns I'd like to try

2007-12-03T23:10:00.000-08:00

Not just with the Zahir ribbon yarn... I love drop-stitch patterns since I hate lace knitting, so the drop stitch is the closest I can try to achieve a lacy effect, aside from using my big needles.

So anyway, look what I found, from Monica Silva's blog, A Knit Skinny Scarf at 1knitscarf.com:

Knit Skinny Denim-Color Vertical Drop Stitch Scarf

http://1knitscarf.com/2007/07/31/knit-denimcolor-vertical-drop-stitch-skinny-scarf.aspx

Black and White Striped Drop Stitch Knit Scarf

http://1knitscarf.com/2007/07/18/black-and-white-striped-drop-stitch-knit-scarf.aspx

Zahir Scarf for Beng

2007-12-02T05:06:00.000-08:00

Yarn: Laines du Nord Zahir ribbon yarn, called FIESTA by elann.com but a.k.a. 4012 Turquoise Gold, a mix of 51% cotton, 4% polyamid and 45% silk. Each ball is 119 yards.

For my first entry to my knitting blog, let me report my first project with my elann stash: a drop-stitch scarf in ribbon yarn for my friend Beng, a fantastic jazz singer who belts out Ella Fitzgerald in the glitzy Millenium Bar in Singapore.

Fresh in Manila for a much-deserved vacation, she dropped by my small and messy apartment. We exchanged gifts: I haven't opened hers yet, since her daughter had insisted on wrapping the stuff in holiday gift wrapper which automatically meant I cannot open it until Dec. 25 (yeah, I'm an OC about such stuff...) and I handed her the wool-rayon drop-stitch scarf I had dreamt up for her in blue and green yarn. I don't know how she'll ever get to use it in Singapore, which is even nearer the equator than the Philippines, but she said she does work in a cold, airconditioned place to accommodate the mostly Western crowd.

Then I told her, like some 7-year-old schoolgirl, that I was expecting more yarn coming in from the U.S. and I proudly even showed her, from my PC, the yarn pics I took from the elann website, so I'll know what to expect. She fell in love immediately with the Laines du Nord Zahir ribbon yarn, in Fiesta. She could already see herself wearing it at work, as an accent piece. So I told her I'll make her another scarf soon as I get hold of the yarn.

So here I am now, with Beng about to leave in five days, and I doubt if I'll finish the yarn even if I'm using size 13 needles and it's a simple garter drop-stitch pattern like what I had made for her first scarf. I didn't know ribbon yarn was pure hell to knit until I read online other knitters' experiences. Yet I loved how the fabric was knitting up, so I'm sticking to it, a few rows a day. I'll have to tell Beng she'll get her scarf next time she's in town, about mid-year next year. I can't rush this. A lovely scarf like this takes time to dream up well.

Anyway, one of the ribbon yarn patterns that inspired me came from
http://www.keyboardbiologist.net/Patterns/DropStitchScarf.htm and here's a detail pic:

My yarn stash from elann

2007-12-01T23:09:00.001-08:00

Actually, there's more to this stash but this is the one I bought online from elann.com two months ago, which was then delivered to my sister's home in Connecticut and which she sent in a bigger box that she sent to me in the Philippines along with other stuff. This bigger box was then shipped across North America by land and then across the Pacific Ocean... whew! I just finally got hold of these yummy yarns rather recently... What a wait. Of course, that meant saving about twenty dollars (yarn money!) if I were to have ordered international shipping instead.

It's a sign that I have become a serious knitter who spends money on yarn, to knit stuff to give and maybe sell... well, maybe I'll knit myself a scarf or two. But most of the yarn I ordered here were for others, not for me.

To distinguish this from my old stash, I'm calling this batch the elann stash. I have more coming soon... tencel from WEBS and Heritage Yarns, mostly. Yummy. Can't wait!

And now, I start to knit... having already dreamt of patterns, in my heart.