Back again in Hongkong

Since my earlier posting, I managed to see new places and travel quite a bit. I left Hongkong for Jakarta where I stayed with my son for a few days. Together we traveled to Perth in Australia where I had never been. Perth's airport is quite small and rather nice. Budget rental had closed down at 10pm but
Avis agreed to rent us a car and with key in hand we went out to the lot and the car answered the key signal so off we went to Fremantle. We stayed at the best hotel there and I really walked around the place. I did find a LYS about half a block away which was well stocked with the latest yarns. I also found some used knitting books and was quite happy with them also. I did try to locate gold threads for embroidery and found a little
but it was rather disappointing. Beads: I went to the largest store and found that the prices were high so just bought a small amount. In Perth, I ate in Chinatown, but mainly I traveled on the suburban train system which was quite good.

After some days my son rejoined me and we headed off to Singapore where we stayed at the Intercontinental and I got to use their rooftop pool which was quite lovely. I went to the places I wanted to go and didn't have a lot of time so all my hours were really spent on this. I got to Borders which is absolutely amazing. All the needlework and crafts books are in the same area so this time it only took me 2 hours to go through them! Last time it was a 4 hour job. I was disappointed in the main with the books because they were pretty bad. All the newest books were there but it seemed like none of the good ones were. These books had perhaps one or two projects worth doing and the rest garbage. Quickie books. Also many books for the new knitter.

I did see one beading book which I should have bought. It was about $60 Singapore which kept me from buying as I thought I might find it later on Amazon. But no such luck so far. I didn't make a note of the author or title but did notice that the publisher was from Singapore and the author had a Chinese name like Han. It was written in English.

The next day I got to the Golden dragon in Chinatown. The yarns were disappointing also. Mainly lots of Rowan yarns and a few Japanese but not very interesting ones. So I went on to buy the Delica beads that I liked and they were nice enough to refund me the 5% tax from their till.

Finally I got to the Japanese bookstore where I found lots of great knitting books in Japanese. I did check the knitting section for the English books and noticed that their selection consisted of really good books but all of them had been wrapped!

We left Singapore and headed on to Jakarta. This time I stayed one week. I didn't like the transportation system as the roads are very clogged and it can take hours to get anywhere. I found a good place for Swarovski crystal beads on the way to Chinatown and checked out some of the recommended yarnstores and also the Japanese bookstore which seemed to be about the same price as in Singapore although they have a 10% sales tax as opposed to the 5% in Singapore.

My son made sure I got to eat a lot of Chinese food and the restaurants were very good. I also swam a lot at the 4 seasons hotel and they were quite lovely also. My son has a car and driver who drove me everywhere and also a lovely woman who cleans and cooks for him.
both spoke passable English and were very pleasant. I met up with my friend Tanti who I had met two years before and she took me twice shopping and introduced me to the beadstore which because of her gave me a 20% discount. I got to several of the malls which are really interesting. Some are very lavishly done up with gorgeous marble floors and others are hot and crowded with as many as 1000 stores all crowded around. I also got to the annual crafts fair with artisans from all over Indonesia displaying their wares.

I met my son's two great friends. Both are fluent in Indonesian and were very interesting. One of them is doing a 90 minute documentary on the street musicians in Jakarta and I got to watch a short digest of it although it's still in editing stage. I was absolutely fascinated and hope to see it when it's done. It had one fantastic scene in a local jail.

I didn't enjoy having to brush my teeth with bottled water or the pollution. But the people were very sweet and somehow they managed under difficult conditions. Many people are very wealthy also and are seen in the fancy malls and restaurants. Others can be seen on the roads. I did stop at one place after I saw shop after shop of used bookstalls on the road. I looked for English books and did find some, but nothing I wanted.

I got to the National musuem which had two treasure rooms full of beautiful articles in rare metals. There was also a room with huge maps showing Indonesia and it is really big too. I also climbed up to the National Monument which is quite a phallic symbol but I didn't bother with the ride to the very top.

Next time I go, it'll be time to explore other parts of the country such as Bandung and Bali.

I exchanged presents with a crocheter in Surabaya which is perhaps 1000 km from Jakarta. I used an interesting service to mail my package called "Tiki". I was also fascinated with some of the ways that the people use to solve various problems. For example there are lots of people on the roads who for a small fee will help the driver get back into the traffic from a parked position or to do a u-turn. or on one road where 3 people are required in a car, someone jumps in to ride along for pay. I also thought that the extra faucet next to the toilet was very useful as it is sort of like a bidet in function.

The wood of course is gorgeous. My son had a chest he paid $25 for which was heavily carved. His apartment had very high ceilings and the liv room windows had panes of colored glass. Because there are so many drivers, there are facilites in all the places for them. My son's bldg which had 4 apts, also had places for the drivers and workers to eat and sleep. While I was shopping, my driver was near the car and I would phone him when I was ready, but I also could have had a front desk call him on the loudspeaker. These desks are in the front of each mall. Many of the residences have doormen who open up the gate for t he cars to enter and leave.

There are almost no public parks and the only green areas are quite private or governmental but closed to the public. I didn't notice any ambulances on the roads, but apparently if one gets sick, you do go to the local hospital. I did see lots of drugstores.

Many people working in the shops can speak some English so language is not a problem. And perhaps they have some kind of inferiority complex as they want to be told how nice they are which I did tell them. I also found that they are quick to smile and also respond nicely to the same. since the weather is so hot everyone dresses in light clothing and since there is a lot of rain, umbrellas are pretty standard. I did notice in one heavy downpour that it was a lot easier to progress as most of the very numerous motocycles stopped and took shelter. I got a kick though out of seeing a bicycle traveling along. The passenger in the rear held up an umbrella over himself and the peddler.

One very interesting form of transportation is the 3 wheeler. It is apparently some kind of motorcycle but with 3 wheels. It is not air conditioned but can maneuver into much tighter areas. They told me it was brought from India.

There is a lot of street food which I didn't eat as I was worried about problems with it. But it seems very popular. The difference in income level is tremendous and there don't seem to be any kind of welfare programs. However, I didn't notice any beggars or other signs of misery. I did see a lot of people working very hard and very long hours and I think the populace is very capable and working under very hard natural conditions of climate, etc. I also noticed lots and lots of banks although Tanti told me that a lot of them had consolidated.

I did enter the country very quickly when I first came with help from my son's hotel friends and when I departed, one of them took me all the way to the business lounge and helped me as I had managed to lose the little piece of paper you get when you enter. The lounge is very good as it has decent bathrooms which are lacking in the public area.

Although this is mainly a Moslem country, the people seem to be rather blase about religon except for the usual small amount of fanatics. Women go everywhere and seem to suffer no discrimmination. The Chinese are a small minority but with most of the country's wealth and since there were bad riots back in 1998, they are quite aware of additional problems although they were quck to say that most likely it couldn't happen again. The Christians seem to be very interested in Israel but since there are no relations between the two countries, very little is actually known about Israel.

So now I'm back in Hongkong with my daughter and granddaughter who is just over 5 weeks old and absolutely beautiful. She is a sweetheart, very smart, and enjoys kicking and hitting out with her fists although she generally makes connection only with her own face! A few more days here and it's back to Israel.

Hongkong

I'm spending the week in Hongkong with my daughter and seeing my new granddaughter. So far I've managed also to get to 3 yarnstores and also look at the beadcenter in Kowloon. I bought some Diakeito yarns and some baby yarns plus some 16" circs and several new to me Japanese stitch books. I think the best solution for me personally are the stitch books rather than the pattern books. Each stitch book has about 300 stitches whereas one pattern book has only about 20 patterns. Plus since I can't read Japanese it's very easy for me to figure out the charted stitches but to make the sweater as written wouldn't work well as I'd have to redesign it for me anyway.

I was disappointed with the bead center as I was trying to find Delica beads. I did find a few stores that were selling what looked like Japanese seed beads but nothing was labeled and anyway I have found better back in Israel. Most of the beads I saw were Chinese, Taiwanese or Indian. I also found a wholesaler with Japanese bead books but again nothing struck my fancy.

I did finally finish the 4 color baby blanket for Asya but my daughter prefers a cotton yarn for now in a simple lacey pattern, but not too much lace. So I found this: http://www.knitlist.com/00gift/round-baby-blanket.htm
I had to restart the pattern several times until I finally got it going. I was using dps and had a few problems until I used a stitch marker for the beg of the round and paid attention so as not to drop any stitches. After that it moved very fast and within about one hour after starting I was already working on a 24" circ.
The other item I'm carrying around is from Folk shawls by Oberle: the heartland shawl and here I'm using a stash yarn I picked up in Australia about 6 years ago. Just proves I do use my stash! It's a Patons 4 ply yarn in red and very lovely to work. The pattern most likely will take most of my 10 balls and I plan on doing the edging with perhaps a sock yarn 4 ply. I recall that EZ recommended doing shawls while traveling and it certainly makes sense as it takes up less room and gives a lot of knitting.

Glass beach finished

Glass beach from the Pacific coast highway by AS is an fo. I'm taking it tomorrow to my son. It came out exactly the size I knit at 52" around. My gauge was 7 sts = 1 inch which seems my normal gauge although sometimes I do reach 30 sts=4". The vest was washed and blocked before the picture and it always looks much better after that.

wearing the shawl

My friend Ronit kindly agreed to model the shawl for me.

Spanish christening shawl

I've been working on this shawl from "Folk shawls" by Oberle for over a year. It went with me to South Africa and back home again. The center diamond section is great fun to knit but the edging takes forever and also while I had 13 ball of Pomfret sport wt yarn (50 grams each), it ran out about 1/4 way on the edging. Fortunately my stash came in handy and I was able to work in 2 balls of a New Zealand yarn and then another ball of an Aussie yarn. If I were to make t his one again, I'd make sure I had enough yarn first or use something in an easily available color so I could make subs easier. This blue teal isn't that easy to find. It's a lovely soft wool yarn and I'm gifting it to Asya's mommy.

Asya

I'm a new grandmother and Asya arrived March 16th in Hongkong. She weighs 9 lb, 14 oz or 4.5 kilo and is gorgeous and wonderful.

more on Japanese books below

The first book has some really terrific lace sweaters. It's more of a winter book with two crocheted shawls and a crocheted scarf as well plus a nice fairisle sweater.
The second book is also more of a winter book with some lovely vests and some lacey sweaters.
Third book also winter with crocheted and knitted items including some nice crocheted shawls and several items in variegated yarns.
Fourth book is Diakeito yarns. This means variegated yarns for many of them. A gorgeous crocheted shawl, an entrelac pullover, two nice fairisles and lots of knitted lace and some cables too.
The next book is by Hirose and looks pretty challenging and gorgeous also.
Sixth book is labeled best select collection and must be some of the best from previous books. The models are older women and men which is great as the sweaters all look good on them. Cables and/or lace, sweaters and vests, scarves, hats and shawls.
Seventh book sweaters, vests and one shawl. cables, lace and some with variegated yarns
Eighth book is the Richmore big one. Lots of lace in this one.
Final book is another gorgeous one with cables and laces.
Overall these books are more for winter sweaters, etc. But you could just take the patterns and create your own as everything is charted out.
These were the best books that I was able to buy then and I was looking in Tokyo and in Hongkong so I really had full choices. I also brought back some other great fairisle books but that one is for another time.

Japanese lace knitting books

I bought quite a few Japanese knitting books in 2005 and some of them have great lace sweater patterns or shawls. The list is as follows by ISBN #
4-277-11382-6
4-529-04021-6
4-277-11371-0
4-277-11351-6
4-529-03437-2-6
(Mitsuharu Hirose)
4-529-03744-4
4-529-04024-0
4-529-04099-2 Richmore spring/summer 2005
4-529-03162-4

DOMY heather

3 skeins of Domy heather in bayberry color. Fingering weight. Each skein is 475 yds or 434 meters, 100 grams each. It comes from Old Mill yarns in Michigan and costs $7.95 per skein plus postage of course. I've got a pattern from Goddess knits called "Diamonds are a girls best friend" and this calls for 1120 yds in this weight of yarn.

Meanwhile my old friend, the Spanish christening shawl from the Oberle Folk shawls book, is nearing completion. I will finish the edging today. It looks really big and that's before blocking. This shawl traveled with me last year to South Africa and has been going all over Israel while I worked on the edging. The center section was much nicer to do and if I were ever to do it again, I would definitely do a smaller edging.

Glass beach

This vest is from the Pacific coast highway book. I haven't heard much about anyone doing it. Turns out to be a very simple quick one. The colors are very bright and rather unusual. But the patterns are very small in stitches and in amount of rows which makes it easy to do. I've added 16 more sts to the largest size and I figure I'm about 1/3 of the way up at this point.

Book published by Kangaroo in Australia in 1993. ISBN 0-86417-554-X
Good luck finding it!

entrelac shawl started

This entrelac shawl is done in a different way from most entrelacs because it begins at the v with a rectangle, in this case of 10 sts. Every row adds 1 or 2 rectangles. So far there are no triangles but the last row will be triangles plus some kind of edging as the edges are a bit raggedy. The yarns are Brown Sheep worsted plus the main color is teal c olor from Himalaya yarn co in the Tibet yarn which is 50% silk/ 50% wool. I picked up the idea from a few different books and saw a picture of an entrelac shawl on the jojoland site. Looks like it will be a pretty fast project which is good because winter seems to be nearly over here.

Color of handpainted yarn

The colors from left to right are: coral rojo, amazonas, blue cielo, thistle on top and lago del bosque on the bottom.

It's here!

Two deliverymen carried my little package to me. Tney told me that if it had come just from Europe, I would have gotten it within a day. It arrived before I had even finished the previous blog entry!

Handpainted yarn from Uruguay

I'm following the tracking of a shipment on DHL from Montivideo, Uruguay to me in Israel of handpainted yarn. It left Uruguay on the 16th of Feb and reached Cologne, Germany on the 19th. That day it got to Brussels in Belgium. On the 20th it reached Bergamo in Italy and late in the night arrived in Tel Aviv where it was sent to customs. Today, the 21st, it has left customs and should reach me by the end of the day. When it arrives I will take a picture. This is so exciting for me.

Meanwhile I've started an entrelac shawl in some yarn sent to me as a gift by Carol in the teal color. It's Tibet from the Himalayan yarn co which is 50% silk/ 50% wool. I'm using two books to help me design this plus I was inspired by a picture I saw on a site of jojoland of such a shawl. The new Elaine Eskesen book on Silk knits has a cover picture which uses the teal color which is what I have plus other brighter colors. I decided to use the teal as my mc along with stash yarns mainly of the Brown Sheep worsted yarns. Then Brenda Horne's book :Enjoy entrelac knitting (1993) has instructions to make a small purse and I have taken that as the base to make this shawl. I will have to add triangles at the top row and do some kind of edging also.

Armagh

Armagh is the Starmore sweater in her Celtic collection. I used Jaggerspun Maine dk (colors are black and royal) instead of the Rowan in the pattern. I decided to knit the sleeves separately knitting them from the ribbing up to the armcycle, so I got help from the fairisle email group who suggested I use the 3 needle bind-off to attach the sleeves to the body. It took me many hours but I'm happy with the result. I made the sleeves a bit longer as I'm gifting it to a wonderful woman/doctor who helped me solve a medical problem after my medical group came up with a really awful ultrasound that was very scary but turned out to be just fine at the end. Looks like I'll be around to finish a few more AS sweaters!
I also have decided I've been knitting the sweaters for myself too big. I lost over 10 kilo this past year but I didn't change my knitting size and I finally realized that my raglans are coming out much bigger than I need. So now I've started to change that and on the needles is a raglan that is about 4" less in the body and the sleeves will also be about 1" less and I think I'll also knit less rows before I begin the raglan shaping. If it works then I can knit the Mountain Colors yarn I recently bought which is just stunning.

Tunisian stitch baby blanket

I used Teddywools baby dk acrylic to make this simple blanket in two colors of pink.
I used 300 gr of the mc and just a small amount for the trim.

It's been a while

These were taken yesterday on an all day trip to the Judean desert to visit Christian and Jewish religious places. I had a great time and met people from Japan, Louisiana and NYC who were on other buses. I'm wearing my warmest sweater using Briggs & Little yarn in one of their patterns with bicycles. I was the only person in my group who was doing my crafts and several women came up to ask me what I was doing especially using my Tunisian 14" bamboo hook. I'm working on an afghan in Tunisian stitch and was also doing a garter stitch shawl using a very old white plastic circular needle. I think it was Susan Bates.
The trip was 12 hours and we took along our own food and drinks. We saw 2 monasteries. The most impressive one was very hard to reach and as it had been built from a cave in a rockface and was a long way from the road going downhill. Back was harder. We also saw a Greek Orthodox monastery and church and Qumram where the manuscripts were found. Everything isn't far from the Dead Sea and also from Jordan.

gold embellished cube bracelet

it seems that the 4x4 cube beads are best done with square stitch which is easy and it holds them well. However they do need embellishment and with this item I think I've come up with a good simple answer. It also feels nice to wear.

clear crystal bracelet

another crystal bracelet with clear crystals.

another cube bracelet

This bracelet uses Czech cubes, also from Bo-gal.

cube bracelet and earrings set

These are Japanese beads from Bo-Gal using square stitch. After I made the bracelet, I used the extra for earrings.

Crystal tennis bracelet set

The bracelet is from B&B Feb. 2005 by Diane Hertzler. I added the earrings to match it. The crystals supplied by my daughter.

Square stitch bracelet and fairisle vest

This is a simple one. All you need to know is how to do square stitch which is an easy beadweaving stitch. I used 4x4 cubes I bought from Gloria at Bo-gal. Then I embellished it with some pretty triangle beads from her. Again very easy to do. The only problem with cube beads is that except for brick and square stitch you can't do much with them and they're also heavier than the usual seed beads. But I really bought some gorgeous ones which I intend to make into bracelets. There's a really nice on in brick stitch from the book by Fitzgerald and a few in some bracelet compilations from Bead and button. If anyone knows of others, I'd like to know about them.

I'm also busy knitting up a vest for my xl size son using Rowan yarns I ordered from England. Design is Dotty from Rowan 40 by Kaffe Fassett and it is a very easy fairisle to make. I like his idea of using a vareigated yarn on the pattern with a contrasting plain background yarn. Back is finished and when the rest is done I'll take a picture, maybe with my son wearing it. He's somewhere far away but says sometime this month he'll be passing my way.

Kureyon cotton shawl

This is the cover shawl from VK's shawls book and was designed by Linda Cyr. I used Kureyon cotton which worked out well and added 3 buttons and closed up for sort of sleeves.