Luskentyre

I'm working on Luskentyre again. I must have started it several years ago and last year I actually got past the armholes. At this point in time, I might finish the neck today and then do the ribbing around the neck. This turned out to be a tough fairisle because of the colors which are pastel and the pattern, which is a bit hard to see, because of the pale colors. However it is gorgeous.

I made the larger size for 45" but at the time I started I didn't understand that I get a gauge of 7 sts= 1 inch no matter what I do. Therefore it's coming out nearer to 52" in width. So it's going to my daughter and since she's tall, I had to add several more inches thus at least one more day of work. However, perhaps the sleeves will need to be shorter. She's arriving in a few days so I'll get to measure her to make it exact.

Luskentyre is one of those really special fairisles which is in the Tomato factory book, the Scottish collection, from Alice and a few others. I actually bought it at the store, I think.

My son is complaining again that he doesn't get enough fairisles. A few knitters in Singapore saw the number of sweaters that came in from storage in LA. He admits that he is suffering only in comparison to his sister who has even more fairisles.

great yarns

Picture below shows the new yarns from J&S that arrived a few days ago. Two are chunky 3 ply and the blue heathered is dk. All of them are great and it's sad to know they are being discontinued now. But they are still available from J&S. The second picture shows me wearing a raglan that I did using a blue/green chunky which is also available. I had thought it would be a very warm heavy sweater but after washing and blocking it, it became much softer and lighter while still being a great sweater for the cold winter days when we don't have heat.

I use the Jacqueline Fee book on doing raglans from the bottom up and can't recommend it highly enough. In fact, I have it in two different eds and I use whichever one is found first.

6 skeins of the chunky made this sweater with just a little left over. It is about 45" around and about 24" long.

This morning I had to rummage through my stash looking for one skein of the Jamieson jumper wt yarn in a dark olive. I was thinking I wouldn't find it as I try not to buy Jamieson and I knew this was not a J&S color. But there it was: in a project for an AS fairisle that had been in VK years ago and which I haven't done yet. I only needed it for 5 rows near the end of the second sleeve.

Jewelry: I'm working these days on the brick stitch and really enjoying it. But I've started doing the same hearts bracelet now in the tiny Japanese delica beads and tomorrow I'm going to have the optometrist check me with the beads in hand to give me a stronger prescription as I'm having trouble seeing the beads and the thread as both are red. The hearts bracelet is by Yvonne Rivero from one of her Beaded bracelet books. I can't recommend them highly enough. They have great instructions that make it easy to figure out what to do.

J&S new arrivals 

J&S chunky plain raglan 

brick stitch bracelets 

making progress

Well, I'm working on the fairisle again. I finished the first sleeve and immediately picked up sts around the armhole for t he next one. The first sleeve came out much better than I deserve and pity I don't have a picture; but I'll get one of the fo. And there is a 7 stitch steek in the center front. Usually I've done 9 or 10 sts there, but thought I'd go for less.

Next step is going to be making my own designs not just using other people's designs so I've ordered the update to the Stitch and motif maker by Carole Wulster. This is going to be a lot of fun and a new toy for me. Especially nice when it's too hot to knit. And Noah, her son, was so pleasant also. No problem mailing to Israel and the extra postage was $1.20 and this is fast airmail too. And even though my edition is the original in the floppy, he only wants to charge me $30 for the upgrade.

I think I've peyoted out for now. I've made 3 more bracelets and it's time to move on maybe to a close relative: brick stitch.

NO MAIL TO FOREIGNERS

Well, I received an answer from the editor/owner of Inknitters and Crochet fantasy. Here it is:
Dear Ms. Poller,

After several tries to get an uncorrupt foreign subscription file from
the previous subscription company, we have just gotten that worked out.
Issues 180 & 181 of CF were mailed last week. It generally takes 6-8
weeks for international magazines to arrive. As far as INKnitters, and
renewing your CF after it expires with issue 185, I just refuse to
handle international orders. They require 2-3 times more work in the
office to get to the postoffice and then we have a high theft/loss
rate.

Bye
Diane Piwko

I am extremely annoyed and have mailed this onwards to the crochetpartners list and to the big knitlist and also to the little one. I think there are enough "foreigners" on those lists to get together on this one. The only magazines I ever have trouble getting are some of the bead ones because they put their magazines in clear see-through covers so they get ripped off before they reach me. This has never happened to anything on knitting or crocheting.

WEll, the knitlist (the big one) just refused to print my letter to the members. I'm not surprised. They say there's no knitting content in my letter.

FI body finished

Well, I got a shot of me wearing the fairisle cardigan. The sleeves are still to be knit but it looks ok so far. The blocking will probably enlarge it. I'm not sure it's wide enough and long enough for a cardigan in which case the next one will be designed bigger. I also want to add pockets. The way I make these sweaters is to complete the neck ribbing before I do the sleeves so I can get an accurate measurement for the length as I am fussy on that point. I think the size would be fine for a pullover or a vest but it does seem to be pulling in right now.

Tami dropped in last night and criticized my bead bracelets in Peyote so I have to restart them. She said they have to be much tighter.

I'm trying to swim everyday now and the foot tendon is starting to behave. Last night I walked the hill up to the start of Ramat Hasharon business area and back again. I did have some pain afterwards though. I noticed yesterday at noon when I was walking to my phy therapy appt that the cars were stopping to let me cross the street. This never happens to me when I can walk my usual speed so it means I'm still in trouble. When the cars don't stop anymore then I know I'm ok.

Today I went to a demonstration of jewelry made with wires and crochet and using all kinds of interesting beads. It looks pretty simple so I bought the wire to try.Certainly looks easier than the spiral bead bracelets using crochet.

original fi (sleeves still to go) 

Peyote bracelet

I'm on a roll. I just followed the instructions by Alice Korach in the latest "step by step beading". Her instructions were just great and it was such fun. I have to make more. Also, beading is wonderful to keep from over knitting and possibly injuring something. And fairisle is pretty rough on the arms and hands so one needs to take frequent breaks. Meanwhile I've run out of one color and have ordered it today from J&S.

peyote 

green bracelet 

original fairisle cardi 

FROGGING

Yesterday I frogged two ufos: both fairisles. I have finally realized that I get a certain gauge when knitting fairisles and it's best for me to use approx the same # of sts on each of them to get the right width. The first frog was being knit on 3.5mm needles at a rather big gauge for the pattern. However, I was still getting a tighter gauge and I realized after almost reaching the armholes that I needed to add more stitches. So when I reknit it, I will have to compute the whole thing based on my normal gauge with 3mm needles. The second fairisle was being knit on much smaller needles than I prefer and it was coming in very tight. Also I discovered that the beginning garter stitch type section was curling at the bottom so again, this one will be done the way I want to with my preferred size needles getting the usual gauge I usually get. Lesson finally learned, I hope.

Painful. I had put both of them away for nearly a year and finally it was time. Sometimes it's impossible to frog right away; it just has to wait a certain time period.

Today I managed to continue with the cardigan fairisle I had previously frogged and restarted. I'm now past the armhole steeks and moving up fast. I redesigned the whole thing and decided to cast off for the armholes about 2" on each side or 8" total. The first fairisle I designed was done straight up so it'll be interesting for me to see if I like the fit of this one better.

And the chunky raglan is now on the second sleeve with the rest waiting on needles for joining. I get a lot of pleasure now from raglans. I used to hate them as I couldn't figure out how to do them right. But now I am a big fan of J. Fee's book on the subject. In fact I own both editions! My favorite raglans are stripes as I love the way the colors curl around at the top.

I also finished a green bracelet today using both c-lon and superlon threads. What a difference. c-lon is so much better. Superlon is pretty much the same as Nymo, maybe a tiny bit better. But c-lon is much easier to thread the needle and doesn't split and doesn't need wax and doesn't knot. However, it is also thicker and it might not work on everything either. I have found a good source in the states for c-lon. However the bracelet is a tiny bit small for my wrist so I have to gift it to someone. I also want to make it again with delicas. I'm just beginning to use delicas now as I bought a lot in Singapore and they are definitely better than anything else I've got.

My ankle is finally starting to act normal. Still pretty painful here and there; but now with my new sneakers (Brooks) and new insoles specially made for me, walking is starting to be ok again. However, I think I need a refresher course in walking. I'm so slow.

sisters 

fairisles

The weather lately is cool, compared to Singapore anyway. I got to work on a fairisle project and had to frog it as I wasn't enjoying the knitting. It was hard for me to see the pattern and too complicated for me. I really prefer something I can quickly memorize. I don't mind checking the pattern on every row, but once is enough per row. So I decided to use the yarn in my own design and since I'm very lazy, this is only my second fairisle design. However, it's very exciting to see it come into life and last night I reached the armhole steeks. I decided to dec 2" on each side or 8" total to make it less bulky but it does mean more work on the arms.

So anyway, I've gotten into a fairisle period finally and today I'm looking over my ufos to see what to do. I also want to make the AS Morning Glory see above, center vest. I made it once and gifted it to my sister and when she refused to return it (!) I ordered yarn to make it again, only Jamiesons decided I was ordering from them when I was just checking so they sent it to me also along with the amount I did really order from J&S so now I can make it two more times. It's a beautiful vest though.

A word of caution about Jamiesons here. They overcharged me on the wool and it cost me $100 for the vest. I asked why and they said they charge more for AS designs. Now I had checked off each color individually on their site and never once said it was for Morning Glory. So in the future, if I ever order again from them for an AS design, I will mix it up with something else so they can't overcharge me for an AS design. When I complained that it wasn't even an order, they offered to take it back providing of course I would pay the postage. Nix. And as far as I can see there is absolutely no difference between J&S and Jamiesons. So why does Jamiesons overcharge?

So anyway, I have the yarn in two bags one using some J&S and one pure Jamiesons and quite frankly, I prefer the J&S colors.

I am planning to make the largest size which has 43" for the finished chest. Since this is a cardigan vest, I feel that isn't going to be too wide. AFter that I will figure out what to do for my DD as she needs it bigger.

The sweater for myself I'm now doing is figured for a 45" cardigan which is roomy enough for me. I'm getting 30sts=4" on size 3mm needles so my tension is pretty good. I sometimes only get 28. I'm using my first design to help me get the right measurements.

At the same time with all of this going on, I finally finished the cotton pullover for DD in Heirloom cotton from Australia. This thing has traveled twice now to the far east so I was getting tired of lugging it around. Unfortunately DD was here yesterday but it wasn't ready and she flew off to Hongkong saying she'll be back in 2 months. It's a gorgeous periwinkle blue.

And I bought some chunky yarn from J&S recently as they're discontinuing a lot of their dk and chunky yarns. Now why would I need chunky for Israel? Well, it can double as a coat no less in the winter. I decided to make a raglan in plain st st and it is going really fast. Today I set aside the body and started the first sleeve. I ordered 8-100 gram skeins and it looks now like 6 will be enough. They got the yarn to me in 6 days from my original order. Impressive.

stars bracelet 

BEADS AND YARNS

Jennifer and Holly Doyne dropped in yesterday and we had a swell time catching up with Holly after her last trip to this region 5 years ago. Since she's a doctor when she's not knitting socks, we bombarded her with knitting related problems: shoulder pains and ankle pains and got good advice. She also gifted us with sock yarns. The Opal is new to me and is currently knitting up nicely. Also some tiny rosewood needles for fingers and toes which I had never seen before.

I got Jennifer to take some photos of the new yarns and beads you see below. The beads are all from this trip but a lot of the yarns are from the earlier trip 6 months ago when I got as far as Tokyo. In that time, I've only knit up two of them and my daughter is complaining that she doesn't want to have to knit them.

I gave Holly a tour of my complete stash and she had to admit I win. I have more than she does! She threatened to have Jennifer take some pictures of it, but I got out of that one.

I also ordered a slew of books from Amazon after I saw the new books at Borders in Singapore so 6 packages arrived yesterday and it was like a birthday as both girls sat down to open up the packages. I'll write next time on them as there's a lot to digest first.

If anyone has questions on what is in the pictures below, just email and I'll try to figure out the mess. I prefer the Diakeito Japanese yarns so there's a lot of that in the photo. Also some Filatura di Crosa and one Grignasco. The beads come from Bangkok (the silver ones) and the rest from Singapore and Hongkong. There are Delica seed beads, some unusual hex and bugle beads, a few Swarowski or Czech crystal beads, and some special ones from Japan that I had to have.

Oriental yarns addition 

bead purchase 

Dayana, me and Danny at roofless restaurant in Bangkok 

BACK HOME

I had a good trip and it's even better to be home again. I got to be with my kids a lot. My son just moved into a really gorgeous apt in Singapore near an active street of nightlife (if one can say that about Singapore) so we had a lot of fun going to furniture stores buying him stuff. He's a great purchaser and didn't waste his money. But what he bought was good and inexpensive except for his hifi. I first flew to Hongkong to my daughter's apt up on the hill with her great views in two directions. A few days later we flew off to Bangkok for the weekend and my son joined us too. WE did the night market and the weekend market and I found great silver stuff for jewelry at both places. These markets are huge so when I say I found good stuff, I have to congratulate myself for surviving as the weather is terribly hot and damp. We ate at a restaurant high up with no roof and I will get a picture up to show it.

Then my son and I flew off to Singapore (my first time there) and he put me up for about 2 weeks and was very hospitable and lots of fun. While I was there he got his sweaters I had made him over the years from the storage place in LA (USA)and it was absolutely amazing to go through them all. I told him in the hot weather there the only way to clean them is drycleaning or else they may not dry and get moldy. I made some great friends in Singapore who have blogs and their own stitch n bitch group and they kept me busy running around to the LYS in town. I liked the Golden Dragon the best as it had the most and also lots of Japanese beads. I'll have more photos of some of the new stash to put up shortly. Also in Singapore the Japanese bookstore Kinokunyia had a 20% discount sale on everything so I did well on Japanese knitting magazines. I also am excited about a book on beading and embroidery in the Straits which I bought.

Then on the last week, we flew for 24 hours to Jakarta and I have to say that was the real focal point of this trip. Danny took me to meet again some of his friends and they took me around the whole day and he went off to work. No beads or yarns here, but I did find some really cute cats and some great batik pants. Towards evening I met up with Tanti, a self-taught knitter. She works in a bank in the same bldg where my son used to work and he dropped around and met her too and we invited her to join us and his friends at a revolving restaurant in town. I have a picture of her too. I'm hoping she will manage to travel to meet the other knitters I've met in Singapore and Hongkong. Anyway, talking to her and to my son's friends, helped me to understand what I was seeing in Jakarta. I also bought two books by a friend of my son's: Daniel Ziv. One on Jakarta and one on Bangkok. Both are definitely not your normal travel book.

Then back to Singapore for a few more days and then on to Hongkong where I met up with Eva and Marjorie who had returned recently from the states. We had a wonderful day together. I told everyone I plan on returning in November and renewing friendships with everyone I've met.

Hongkong

After a very strange flight experience, I made it to Hongkong. This is my third visit and won't be very long as I will be mainly in Singapore this trip. I suggested to Siow Chin that she or the other HK bloggers add a list of Hongkong LYS for people like me who leave all the information back home! Anyway, Siow Chin and Eva have come to my rescue and tomorrow I'll be searching in Kowloon for some very good Japanese yarns: Diakeito and Noro.
Today I got to the Hongkong side and found the LYS Cheer wool. I bought only some
circs and some bamboo Tunisian hooks. They seem very good as I've already started two hats with them.
I had no problem bringing my hook and needle on the El Al flight but 2000 people were pretty late getting off the ground due to a fuel mixup.

Dayana's new sweater

The sweater below was finally finished and it fits my daughter who isn't here so Israel kindly put it on instead. It was done fairisle style using the kit I bought years ago at Liberty. I'm moving on now to summer sweaters. Yesterday sadly I put away all my wips with a few small exceptions and today I'm starting to pull out the wips from last summer. I have finished quite a few projects this winter and I'll be adding pictures gradually. I held the line on purchases since Sept so I'm pleased on that point too.

I bought two small beadpurse kits from an online email group called Beadknitting. I also got an older sweater kit of a fairisle sweater with a pre-knit yoke. According to the Feitelson book, this yoke is one of the older ones from the 1960s. The yarn came from McAuslan in Glasgow and Hunter. The previous knitting was something that had to be frogged which I did. It was apparent that two different knitters had been working on it. What was sad was that somewhere along the line, it got damaged by spillage of tea or food and I also ripped out all of those sections. I wound up the yarn and washed it and it will be ready to knit again; only this time doing it in the round.

KF tweedy checker