The One About Inori

Okay.. since both ladies have received their pressies…. It’s safe to post them here!

This package is for Lois.

I made a project bag, a cowl, a small wheat bag and gave her the leftover silk/wool yarn I used for the cowl.

Everything in the bag!

The poor dear is suffering pains from a variety of illnesses including MS. But she’s such a selfless woman and would usually knit for her friends and relatives and not for herself! So I thought to knit a little something for her and give her something that would be helpful for her aches and pains (the wheat bag).

More on the lace cowl:

Name of project: Flared Lace Cowl

Yarn: Silk/wool lace blend. Hand dyed by myself!

Needles: Knit picks 4mm

Cast on date: 08 February 2009

Cast off date: 19 February 2009

Learned: Umn… nothing..

Modifications: Made it shorter *blush*

Mistakes: None. I think…… LOL.

Next!

Something for my SnB Sib SHAZZY!!!!!!!!

I made a project bag for her and also dyed up self-striping sock yarn for her little daughter Ms Brins.

Brins LOVES bumble bees. It’d be great when Shaz knits some socks out of the yarn for her!

I hope they love their little pressies….

Ok, that’s all.

Chubbs is giving me a hard time – kicking me 90% of the time. Even when I’m asleep! I get woken up by his kicks… can you imagine that? I feel like I’m bruised from the inside. I hope there is nothing wrong!

I’m going to sew more stuff now. Hehe.

A couple of nights ago I sewed this:

I followed a pattern, or rather, tried to follow a pattern in a very cute Japanese sewing book. However, I didn’t understand What-The-!@#$%^ they were trying to tell me… (I know I attend Japanese classes but they don’t exactly teach you sewing terms – I did consult the dictionary but some instructions were just plain vague).

I think I’m not that advanced in both sewing AND in Japanese yet. That’s why the pencil case came out a failure.

If you look carefully, you’ll notice the stitches running along the zip? They are NOT-STRAIGHT-AT-ALL. All because I was supposed to HAND STITCH it when I attach the lining. NOT attempt to use the machine which WILL cause the stitches to run in all directions. Well, how am I to know the symbol for ‘hand-stitch’ if there is no legend in the book?

Prior to all those stitching, while cutting out the pieces of fabric, I was supposed to leave a 0.5cm seam allowance for the pattern. I am so used to the western world’s patterns – seam allowance included – that I did not leave any seam allowance at all. I shall remember that Japanese do not include seam allowances in their patterns. I have to add it myself.

I know it looks okay in the pictures but trust me, it’s all wonky and twisty (because the lining is bigger than the main piece, don’t ask) and will not lie flat like normal pencil cases do.

Plus, every time I look at the stitches running in all directions but straight, I kinda want to kick myself.

Oh well, it’s usable by me. So will use it when I go for Japanese classes. I will do better next time.

Now for the fun part..- FABRIC STASH! Who wants to see my stash? Of course you want to see my stash! I know it!! Woohoo!

This is fabric from Spotlight;

They do have some amazing ones if you dig hard.

And then I bought some Japanese fabric from Fabric Tales. (Awesome service and incredibly fast shipping!)

All I can say is, “WOW”.

The quality is SUPERIOR. I told my mum that I can finally understand why people in the past trade and barter with fabric. These fabric look NOTHING and feel NOTHING like the cheaper ones you get from Spotlight!

They are worth every penny I paid for them!

On a side note – ‘Designer’ fabrics such as Amy Butler, I feel that they are grossly overpriced for their quality. I rather pay for these Japanese fabrics than buy designer fabrics again. I don’t find anything special about the designer fabrics other than that some of their patterns are really nice. But Japanese prints are much cuter and suit my style better anyway.

My very lovely mum then bought these for me;

These are also imported from Japan. Very lovely fabric! My dad lugged them down for me during his visit.

I’m in love with Japanese fabrics. OooOOooo.

I’ve been sewing with the ones I bought from Spotlight earlier though. Just to practice before I touch the expensive fabrics. I can actually sew straight now and follow curves. I just have to improve on sewing with zips. Can’t wait to sew more bags and cutesy stuff!!!!!!

I sewed these wheat bags yesterday. They were very very quick projects.

The top one was used last night, therefore the crumpled-ness. *Blush*. I heated it up in the oven and draped it over my shoulders to give some relief. It has 3 compartments to it so that the wheat and rice will not ‘gather’ at one spot.

The one on the bottom is sitting in the freezer. It’s for putting over the eyes when we nap or sleep. This doesn’t have compartments.

Both are stuffed with wheat and rice with a few drops of Lavender essential oil.

You cannot imagine how hard it was to find wheat… you’d think it’s easily available in supermarts and/or health stores but they only have wheat germ or wheat bran. -___-”

Finally found a bag in a obscure pet feed store.

I made 3 altogether. The last one is for someone special along with some other goodies for her but will wait till she receives the parcel before I post the pictures. (In fact, I’ve made a few things for a few people but will not post them until they receive their pressies!)

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When Janice was here, I made felted soap for the first time.

Amazing handmade soap which smelt OH-SO-GOOD and gentle on the skin too! Bought from thesoapdish .

I bought them from eBay but now found out about her webpage which has so much more choices! YummY! I’m definitely hooked and going back for more…

I bought fleece from Spotlight. These are very cheap. $3 per packet.

Wrapping the soap up with the dry fleece.

I wet it with hot water and touched it with my bare hands, which, was a stupid move bytheway, and scrubbed it against the metal airing rack (I used the airing rack for airing cookies).

This is how it looks like in the end.

I think this will be my first and last time making felted soap. It was fun but just not my type of craft. I prefer using the soap as it is with a separate bath mitt.

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I know this is long overdue – I have been given lovely gifts from fellow knitters from Ravelry.

Salihan sent me a surprise package few months back:

She knitted a beanie from Malabrigo Merino Worsted (American Beauty) for baby Chubbs and also knitted a wristband with wire and beads!

Then, lovely Sasha gave me this book for my birthday:

Picture from thebookdepository.

I also got a surprise package from Singapore from Rane. She sent a lovely dress for Sunshine and packets of food seasoning (Laksa and Chicken Rice) for my birthday!

I should have taken photos! Will take one of Sunshine in the dress soon though.

Last but not least, Beth and Maree sent me this:

And inside this huge bag was this:

Orange fibre! Orange handspun! Orange yarn from the ACS mill shop! Wow!

They sent me this because I had a bad orange swap and they wanted to cheer me up. Awww. How spoilt I am! These are people I’ve never met and they are sooooo nice to me… I’m really really touched!

Of course, there is Ms Debra, who has been sending me clothes for Chubbs and Sunshine. Comfy hand-me-downs which I love (I prefer clothes that have been worn in and all soft and smooshy and it’s also more eco-friendly) and she has mentioned that she and her daughters have been putting together a parcel that’s due to come my way. I don’t know the contents yet and I’m not supposed to be nosey. So I shall wait patiently.

I’ve been knitting and sewing diligently. Hopefully more updates on these in time to come. Especially when the recipients of these gifts have received their parcels – Can’t risk them reading my blog now and spoiling their surprise! I’m horrible enough at keeping surprises (ask Debra. She knows).

Thank you everyone who has spoilt me and my little family.

I have to apologise for not updating my blog for so long – I have been going out rather often with Janice here to visit. Janice goes home tomorrow. And my dad comes the day after to stay for a week.

Gosh, never ending stream of visitors! It’s good but it bums me out totally. I’m so tired!!!!!!! I hardly get any knitting or sewing done.

I did, however, cast off a lace cowl last night (it’s blocking now so I will update the details later) and also managed to sew a plastic bag dispenser one night when Nad, Sunshine and Janice were taking a nap.

This was how we used to store our plastic bags:

I got fed up and decided to use left over fabric to sew this:

Please pardon the horrible pictures – it was rather dark indoors and I didn’t want to draw the curtains for the fear of letting the heat in.

I should really start utilising my Nikon D70 to take better pictures!

Some updates on the babies:

- We found out that I have gestational diabetes AGAIN this time. But no biggie.. will continue to observe a healthy diet and try to exercise more. Try. Try.

- Chubbs is very active in there. Tap dancing on my bladder all the time!

- One night I gave Sunshine her milk in the bottle and since she was in the study, she took two cushions, lay them on the floor and lay down across them before taking the bottle from me.

No one taught her to do this. Neither have we done this for her before. She just knows what ‘being comfy’ is all about!

- We brought her out in this dress my mum sewed quite some time back.

Windy windy day!

- When Janice was shopping in Good Sammys, she went up to a fat woman, pointed excitedly at the woman’s bottom and exclaimed, “BUTT! BUTT! BUTT!!! BUTT!!!”

I was mortified and quickly did damage control, “Yes darling, the lady is carrying a BAG. Now come along!”

The lady must have heard her since she was only beside her but probably chose to ignore her. Thank God. Otherwise I could have gotten into trouble!

- Yesterday, I ripped a fart while on the toilet. Sunshine giggled, raised an eyebrow and deadpanned, “Poots…..”

How weird! Do 17 month olds usually possess such humour?

- We went out to the next town for shopping today by bus. This is Sunshine’s second bus trip. The first one was when she was very very young.

She looks very stoned because we woke her up this morning.

I dumped toys into the cart and put her in with them. Alas, she was only amused for a very short while. She soon started to whine and we had to let her walk around. She wasn’t tired. But we were. Just by chasing after her.

Amusing herself with shades.

And lastly, a picture of Janice with her loot.

I think Janice is not going to shop for a year from now. She has enough clothes to last her at least 3 years.

I must think she is weird, spending so much time and money on apparel. But it suddenly hit me that it’s even weirder spending time and money on yarn and fabric. :-/ I think I’m the weird one afterall.

PS: Blog contest ends tomorrow!

I finished sewing this bag a few days ago and put the eyelets in yesterday:

Pattern: Amy Butler’s Betty Shopper

The fabric is also Amy Butler’s (Damn expensive and overpriced!!!)

My only gripe is that I didn’t make the pockets sturdy enough. I have to get some stick on Velcros (I have sew-on ones but it’s too late to sew them on now) to attach to the pockets so they won’t flop around in the bag.

I don’t really know what to do with this bag. Hahahha. Maybe will use it as my hospital stand-by bag. Will pack in Chubbs’ blanket and cardigans and booties etc soon.

On another note, I dyed some yarn for the Aussie Favourite Colour swap.

It’s more purplish than pictured (my phone camera doesn’t do purples very well). I was amused when I wound the yarn into a ball because it kept its center ‘hole’. Maybe because it was still slightly damp. (Yeah I know.. I couldn’t wait for it to dry! Impatient me!) The yarn is 55% silk and 45% wool in 2-ply lace weight. Can’t wait to knit it up!

Here is another skein of the same colourway:

Yummy~ I wonder who the recipient is?!??!