knitting and crochet, life
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Burdastyle’s Best of 2008 and some more knitting

I just found out today that Burdastyle has published a Best of 2008 album on their photos section, and two of my creations are there! Thank you, Burdastyle! On the other hand, I’m in the middle of two new knitting projects. Yes I’m so greedy. The first one is a scarf in this pretty pattern called Argosy and the other one is a fingerless mittens in beautiful Noro yarn. I found both pattern from Ravelry as usual. I don’t know what I can do without the internet. These two patterns require some new knitting techniques that I’ve never tried. Like: […]

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knitting and crochet
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Dropped stitch scarf

I think Sidra needs another scarf since he only had one, so I knitted this short scarf last night. The pattern is based loosely on a scarf pattern in one of the knitting pattern books that Yoshimi has so kindly sent me (thank you so much, Yoshimi!). The books are in Japanese, but one of my favorite things to do about Japanese pattern books is figuring out the diagram. It feels like playing a puzzle game. The original pattern calls for 21 cast-on stitches and the stitches are dropped every 5 stitches. But I only did 11 cast-on stitches and […]

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knitting and crochet, menswear
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very orange person

Now that I know that Japanese knitting needles size are different than US needles, I finally use them for my first ‘proper’ knitting! My husband likes the color orange and he wants a scarf with stripes of orange on it, so I made it with these super bulky orange and beige yarn and JP15/6.6 mm knitting needles. The yarn is a mix of nylon and wool and it has different widths on it, creating some interesting bumpy texture to the scarf. I knitted it in simple stockinette stitches, so the scarf kinda rolls into a tube. To complement the scarf, […]

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kidswear, knitting and crochet
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Donguri hat

Excuse my model, he just woke up this morning when I wanted to take these pictures. Crocheted with very chunky wool yarn and 10 mm needle hooks, the pattern is actually for a hat with earflaps. But as it was being crocheted, the hat slowly turned to the shape of donguri (acorn) in my eyes, so I decided not to make the flaps and put some chained strings instead. I also added a chained loop on top of the hat. It kinda looks like a tea cozy when not being worn, but once on the head, I think it looks […]

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kidswear
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Winter cape

The school requires that the children should wear school smock to school and any jacket or coat should be taken off before entering the schoolbus. That is why I decided to make a cape for Sidra because it can be easily taken off once the bus is coming. Sidra has specifically requested something with green fur for his coat, so I bought half a metre of this green fur to use as a lining for the black wool. The pattern is an alteration from Sidra’s navy jacket. The cape also has two slits for hands and a pair of pockets. […]

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knitting and crochet, making other stuff
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Face wash puff

The pattern is actually for a bath puff, but I made it smaller for washing my face with. It is made of organic cotton yarn, crocheted double-yarn with a 10 mm hook. The original pattern calls for 4 round, but I only did until second row, then replaced the third row with all single crochets into the chain 1 space. The pattern was confusing me at first, but when I don’t really understand, I just start doing it and it usually get figured out along the way. So that was what I did, and it turned out pretty quick! Finished […]

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kidswear, menswear
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His and his long-sleeved shirts

The fabric was bought in Nippori, in another fabric shopping trip with Yoshimi about 10 days ago. It’s a transparent knit fabric in beige colour, very soft and comfortable. I really like the fabric that I also bought another one in grey. I turned the fabric into these long-sleeved shirts for Sidra and my husband. The necklines are a bit wider than usual, and the neckline and bottom of the sleeves are finished in the similar way as my husband’s striped shirt (unfinished and zig-zag stitched).

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life
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Christmas trees

Actually we don’t celebrate Christmas, but with all the Christmas things going around, it’s only natural that Sidra had been asking for a ‘Kurisumasu’ tree. This has been going on for a few days, and I kept saying that we can’t buy one because there’s not enough space for it. Today, Sidra was kinda bored because he had to stay at home. He’s got cough for these couple of days. So he was very excited when I said that we should make the Christmas trees by ourselves. We used things around the house, cardboard boxes, tissue paper, colorful origami paper, […]

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bags and purses
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Reversible Charlie Bag

Feel like haven’t sewn anything for ages. This Charlie bag pattern is pretty popular in Burdastyle, and I finally join the crowd and make myself one. My Charlie is reversible, white fabric with red stripes on one side and black linen with red Matryoshka dolls pattern on the other side. I make it without any pockets or anything, so it was finished pretty fast, about half an hour or so. The size is perfect for me, as I love big bags. It’s pretty roomy for all my stuffs but doesn’t look too enormous either. Now I understand why this pattern […]

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knitting and crochet
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Orange lace scarf

The orange yarn was originally meant to be a knit hat, but I made mistakes with the stitches halfway and didn’t really know how to fix it. I think the yarn was not really a right choice for the hat anyway, so I unravel it and reclaimed the yarn for this crochet project. This scarf was pretty quick to make, I started last night and finished it this morning. As only one skein of yarn is used, the scarf is pretty short, about 90 cm in length. I really like the pretty lace-like pattern, I’m thinking of making a longer […]

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