The One About Inori

Why?

Because of this:

So it’s finally done – the handspun shawl that used handspun-from -scratch-fleece-to-yarn.

This is how it looked like, fresh off the needles. Not very good looking.

While blocking, I fell in love with it. I really thought it wasn’t going to look good since it was always so scrunched up.

Today was a dark and dreary day. So what was I doing out in the backyard with only a halter top on? (I was wearing pants too, just in case you misinterpret my meaning.)

This:

I had no dress or long sleeved black tops so I had to chatter in the cold wind while snarling at Nad to hurry up and take the picture already!!!!!!!

I also had to photoshop 3 or 4 pieces of doggie nuggets (poop) from the grass. -___-

I understand that the lighting is not very nice but I have to send out this shawl by tomorrow. And even then, tomorrow’s forecast is an overcast sky.

I don’t think my pictures did my shawl any justice. I need a better place to take photos. Like an emotionally charged, by-the-window-with-sunlight-filtering-through and light bouncing off the seed beads making them seem like diamonds shining.

Think I can commission this kinda photo on etsy’s alchemy? Lol.

So it’s now folded neatly and awaiting to be packed in some tissue and hopefully I can find a decent box to contain it before it takes it’s flight. I hope the recipient would be obliged to take a photo of herself wearing it and I can post it here!

Name of Project: Photosynthesis Handspun Beaded Shawl

Yarn: Handspun from scratch

Needles: Knitpicks Harmony. Can’t remember the size.

Cast On Date: 1 November 2009

Cast Off Date: 2 June 2010 (with a HUGE hibernation period!)

Learned: 1st time beading a shawl!

Modifications: Did two extra repeats of chart B.

Mistakes: Nil

Ok. I’m still cold from that ordeal. Everyone else is napping now and I’m very sleepy but I shall continue to knit!

Thank you for your comments on the bag. I will reply to everyone soon! (I’ve already replied most of you though I think!)

About a week ago, I gave Chubbs the bottle. Usually he screams and refuses to take it. That morning, he took it, chewed on the teat and was happy to hold it.

I walked away for awhile and when I came back to him, he was sucking from the bottle!

He had never done it before and has always refused the bottle until that day. He was 13 months and a few days old.

I refilled his bottle with more formula and he drank everything again. And another. And the 4th.

That day was the day I stopped breastfeeding my little baby.

Sunshine wanted to join her brother in the happy bottle session so I made her more milk too that morning:

It feels a little weird and sad not to breastfeed anymore. But yet, I’ve been tired and his teeth hurt me from time to time. We didn’t expect it to last for more than a year. We thought we’d breastfeed till he turned 8 months or so…. so these 13 months has been quite an achievement! Sunshine was only boobed for 2 months (I had to return to work then).

Anyway, I’m relieved as milk supply had been dwindling due to infrequent feeds and I was worried that Chubbs wasn’t getting enough calcium. Sure we give him lots of veges but children this age need much more calcium for their bones to grow.

So it’s a bitter-sweet moment for me. I don’t know if we will be having anymore children so he might be the last baby I’ll ever breastfeed. And I’m glad I did it. It helped us to form a strong bond and I’ll miss his snuggling up to my body every night. He still sleeps beside me but because he no longer drinks from me, he prefers to place his foot in my face instead of snuggling.

:/

Anyway here’s some pictures of the kids.

We gave him an apple to gnaw through church service. It really helped in keeping him quiet!

Look at his big eyes!

Peekaboo mummy?

Chubbs understands what ‘ball’ is. If you tell him to get the ball, he would. Notice Nad running away in the back? Lol.

Huh? Where daddy go?

Hi from my butt!

Cheeky bugger.

Chubbs is rather agile for his age we think. He’s able to climb up and down our bed with ease. A few days ago, I turned my head for a few moments and imagine my shock when I turned back to see him sitting on the dining table!

He had crawled up a stool, up the chair and then up to sit on the table! Amazing.

I’ve sewed a kick-ass bag which I love so much but the sun is hiding behind the clouds now so I’ll take pictures another day.

I will leave you with a link to a funny video of my heartthrob, Kimura Takuya. The guy who I’ve been in love with for about 15 – 20years!

Donguri Korokoro

It’s funny because everyone thinks he’s going to sing an emotional song but the song he sang, Donguri Korokoro is actually a children’s song. It’s about an acorn which rolled down the hill and fell into a pond. A loach (carp) then says hi and invites the acorn to play. The acorn is happy and plays with the loach but after awhile, starts to miss the mountain. He embaresses the loach by bawling.

There once was a girl woman young woman who went into a local yarn store (despite her owning a yarn store herself……and even if she didn’t have a yarn store, her personal stash was enough to be a store and she had no yarn stash), she came across this particular wool.

It wasn’t blue.

I had to state that first just in case you’re already shaking your head, thinking that since I’m such a sucker for blue items, I bought the wool because it was blue.

ANYWAY.

It wasn’t blue. It was light beige. It wasn’t merino (my absolute absolute absolute favourite kind of fibre). It was only 50grams in a ball but cost a whopping $9.50.

Now a 100g skein of Malabrigo Worsted only costs $13.90 (from my store… ) and if you double that $9.50 (it’s $19 for those who can’t double it – don’t worry, I needed a calculator as well because it was just in front of me and I only had 5 hours of sleep last night so I’m not judging you), that’s like……… a lot of difference. Because it wasn’t Merino. And because it wasn’t blue. And also I found it rather scratchy. But then again, anything not merino and is scratchy to me. I even find Cascade 220 (which I knitted my Central Park Hoodie in) scratchy. I don’t know why. Maybe I got sensitive skin.
And because I grew up in a family that believed in thrifting (actually.. just my mum… my dad splurges… don’t ya, dad? I know you are reading this… hehehe…) and Nad too is a very very thrifty person, I would have put that ball of yarn back into it’s shelf.

Did I forget to mention that it was also scratchy?

BUT!

Somehow… that beige colour was beckoning to me. And with Sasha by my side… she wasn’t the best person to go into a yarn shop in…. I mean… she doesn’t splurge… she’s more self-restrained than I am… but her problem is that she CAN’T restrain others!

The conversation might have been like this on that day… (it was in year 2008 I believe….)

Me: You have to stop me from buying any yarn that I don’t absolutely love, okay?
Sash: Okay.
Me: Oh look!!!! Should I buy this? I like the colour but I don’t LOVE the colour… and I don’t like the texture and I don’t like the price.
Sash: Don’t get it then.
Me: But I kinda like the colour.
Sash: Okay. Get it.

See? Doesn’t take much to get her to cave. *Pout*

Anyway… I bought 3 skeins ($28.50) and started a cardigan for Sunshine.

I didn’t like the way it behaved. It was scratchy, it was flakey, it was rough (on my tender hands), it was scratchy, it was flakey.

I knitted on it with full steam……. determined to finish it before my hands get calluses. And in my fervour, I picked up way too many stitches on one side of the cardi and as a result, both sides of the button/buttonhole panels do not match.

I got fed up. There’s no way I’m ripping back with this stupid wool!

Let’s just say it was banished and never saw the sun for more than a year.

Until a week ago, my mum was helping me get organised and we came upon the dreaded cardi again.She lovingly stitched on the buttons (which were all that it needed, really, to be considered as an FO).

I grudgingly weaved in the 3 ends I’d left and decided to try it on Sunshine.
It still fit her.

(I can’t seem to get her to pose nicely for a photo anymore.)

With the buttons, you can’t really tell that one side is longer than the other.

It’s not so scratchy in this bitter cold weather (same goes for my Central Park Hoodie…. the colder it is, the less scratchy wool feels to me). But er, I don’t think Sunshine really likes it because she was begging me to take it off her.

According to my Ravelry page, it says that this project was

…..except that we don’t eat pork.

Haha.

Umn…where was I? Oh yes.. Markets!

I was at handmadehobart with a bootload of yarn today and thoroughly enjoyed myself!

First of all, some pictures (from left of the table to the right):(smooooshy Malabrigo!)

(Pricelists and free knitting patterns. The Honeycomb scarf pattern was snaffled up in a short time!)

(My smooshy handdyed yarns.)

(Smooshy smooshy!)

I met many lovely people (stall holders and customers). Among them (in no order of preference), Jess from Jeka B Handmade, Meika from Wee Threads, Kathy from abeautifulramble and Penni, our lovely organiser.

My very interesting, talented and funny neighbours were Holly from Hiiragi HQ, Emily from Emily Snadden Design, and 2 lovely ladies from Jasmine Rose Boutique. (They had a wee little baby in their arms… my uterus was clucking away at all the tiny babies at the market!)

Holly sat behind us and we kept jabbing at each other as the space was rather tiny (and I’m not exactly the most adroit person around). If Nad hadn’t brought the kids outside to play for most of the time there, there would be 10 elbows and knees in a very small space.

She’s such a talented young woman – her handmade dolls are soooo cute! (Although they are deadly and certainly do not want you to think of them as ‘cute’). I love her drawings and we share the love for Johnny the Homicidal Maniac and Lenore. Not many people get these indie comics! (The only other person I know is Sasha!)

I got quite a bit of knitting done on the handspun shawl (only about 50 more rows to go before cast off!!!!! —– except that there will be about 1000 stitches in a row by the time I get to the end… -___- ;  )

I’m crossing fingers that I would be able to whip up more handmade stuff to sell at markets… maybe in July? I have quite a few projects planned.. I just need to get organised, get childcare (so that I can sew in peace!), quit school… etc.

Nah, just kidding… I won’t quit school… although it’s been a pain to me recently. I got about 3 assignments to complete in 2 nights. Assignments that take about 20 hours each to complete.

I can’t fit 3 x 20 = 60 hours into 48 hours (that is, if I don’t eat, sleep, pee). Go figure.

Okay….. on to happier stuff….

Sunshine was really really really well behaved this whole week, getting on with toilet training very well (she loves her new toilet bowl insert and would rather use it than the potty), she behaved VERY well in Church yesterday, sitting on the chair beside me throughout the entire service without behaving like she had ants in her pants.

So I bought her this at the market today:

Oooh! What’s in there?

Blocks! (Bought from Silver Nutmeg & a Golden Pear Designs)

{Does anyone know where I can get these kind of blocks in a set? I love wooden toys!}

Sunshine LOOOVEES her blocks. She stacks them up in different configurations everytime and says, “Look, mummy! SKY SCRAPER!”

Since she loves blocks, I got more to add to her collection.

I have to go off now. It’s dinner time!

I wish I had more time with my hobbies. Knitting, spinning, sewing, making books…. Sigh.

Kids take up SOOOOOOOO much of your time! When will they be more independent, I wonder?

Not me. My internet connection!

Somehow, when I feel the urge to blog, my ISP has to have problems. Statewide problems, no less.
Just doing a drive by post to show you guys what I received in the mail a few days ago!

There was something interesting in the mail and I ripped it open to find this:

Sooooo cute!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

For the past few days, I’ve lost plenty of brain cells trying to remember what this kind of art is called. (Alongside with my maths assignment.. I think I may have lost half of my brain).

Finally today I asked my dearest ‘brother’, Martin, WHAT it is called.

ANDY WARHOL!

Brainz, you haz the smartz, Martin. Nom nom nomz.

Anyway, back on topic. This lovely piece of wall hanging (tea towel? decorative cloth?) was sent to me by a Raveler named Therese.

She was visiting New Zealand and went to the Majacraft spinning camp featuring the very talented Lexi (Pluckyfluff).

I read that she was visiting our state after her exciting camp is over and we initially wanted to meet for some tea and chat (and I was hoping to wiggle out some info on the new Majacraft spinning wheel out from her or maybe, you know, she could smuggle one out for me… hehehe, *ahem*).
Her schedule must have been packed but she said she’d send ‘something sheepy’ to me from NZ.

That’s the ‘something sheepy’!!!!!!! Cute Andy Warhol sheep!!!!

There’s also a NZ cloth badge in the same package but Sunshine pinched it and I still CAN’T find it! Grrr…

But seriously, what a generous lady Therese is! Here I am, barely knowing her and she’s soooo thoughtful! I’m so touched.

Thank you, Therese. I will probably make it into a bag since I don’t know what else to do with it. Might as well put it into full use around! I love it!

We’re recovered from our bout of flu now. Thank you to all well wishers and your emails.

I tried to take a photo of Chubbs with him posing like the baby in my Yarnandkisses logo. No luck, though.

(Note the mismatched socks?)

Much dyeing to be done very soon! And then probably a huge update in the store!

Okay. Off to finish up my Science assignments. Have to hand it in at prac class tomorrow. Cyas!