Another FO: Anthropologie-inspired capelet

I had these 2 balls of DMC Senso that my sister in law brought from US. I did not know what to do with it since it was only 2 balls. So, I made Anthropologie-inspired capelet. I know..I know…probably you are bored looking at it since everybody else already made this item. Actually this is intended for me, but I run out of yarn and could not make the body long enough. So, probably my daughter will end up wearing it and she still can grow into it since it is too big for her.

Actually, I started this for sometime while I was waiting for my Addi circular needle to arrive. So, I am not a fast knitter.

Flat on my bed before I put the leather string on

On the hanger

Close up on the hanger

Pattern: Anthropologie-inspired capelet
Source: This site
Materials: 60% Cotton 40% Acrylic DMC Senso Denim 2 Balls (43gr/150yard/ball)
Needles: 3.5 mm Bamboo and 3.5 mm Addi circular
Total Cost: USD2.5 x 2 plus = USD 5
Start Date: 28 July 2006
Finish Date: 25 August 2006

This is my first experience to knit top down and no seaming to do. Too bad that I don’t have enough yarn, otherwise this would be perfect for me.

Up-date on 5 Sept 06

This is how it looks on me:

Lauri Fell Down

Hari Rabu lalu Lauri jatuh dari Cot dia. Aku pas ke kamar mandi, tiba-tiba aku denger ada barang jatuh. Ternyata Lauri udah di lantai. Dia nangis, cepetan aku angkat dan aku peluk. Dia nggak nangis setelah aku peluk, terus keluar keringat dingin. Mungkin saking kagetnya. Habis itu dia lemes. Aku liat dia ada beset di dahi. Jadi ada kemungkinan dia jatuh kepala duluan. Karena kuatir, aku bawa dia ke Dokter.

Kata dokter, dimonitor selama 24 jam. Kalo dia muntah-muntah harus segera dibawa ke rumah sakit untuk di scan.

Untungnya selama 24 jam berikutnya dia nggak muntah blas dan aktif seperti biasa.

Tapi……
See below pictures:

Mommy, I got big booger on my left nose. Can you pick it up for me. It's itchy and annoyed me.

(BTW: Can you see the red mark on my forehead because I fell down yesterday?)

I can't wait anymore, I will pick it up myself!!

Berhubung dia nggak bias ngambil itu upil, dan mungkin karena gatal ato ngganjel, sama dia sedotan yang dimasukkan di idung. Hasilnya: Mimisen alias Nose Bleed. Aduuh ada ada aja.

Oh ya, dari photo di atas juga keliatan beret merah di dahi karena jatuh. Tapi besoknya udah nggak ada. Juga nggak ada benjol ato lebam. Nothing.

Perkembangan dia yang terakhir:
Kalo misalnya aku lagi lari terus tiba-tiba berhenti, ato aku tiba-tiba nutup wajah pake tangan, dia pasti berhenti ngelakuin apa yang lagi dia buat, terus mendekati aku sambil menunjukkan wajah serius dan bertanya: Why? What is wrong?

Memory

I was about 5 years old when I started to learn how to crochet. It’s nothing fancy, just made a chain. I learned from my auntie. I normally did my crochet in the terrace of my grandparent's (from my mother side) house. It’s one of those “kampung” houses. So a lot of people passed by. Normally they would stop and looked at me crocheting and asked me what I was making. Then I would reply that I was making tablecloths. Then they laughed. At that time, I did not understand why they laughed as I was not joking when I said I want to make tablecloths. I was very serious. Now, I can understand why they laughed.

About 4 or 5 houses away from my grandparent's house, there was an old lady who also loved to sit in the terrace and did her knitting (it’s not crochet as she was using 2 needles). I loved to watch her knitting and actually wanted to learn to knit. But, I was to shy to ask.

About 5 years ago, my mother in law was trying to teach me to knit. I could make a knit but kept forgetting how to make a purl. Also, I didn’t understand the concept. So, I gave up.

Only recently that I found out there is a site that teach you how to knit complete with the video. Not only that, I also found out there are several method to knit. Soon, I found out that I prefer continental method. It suits me better.

Anyway, at this moment I am making the famous Kiri shawl. Here is the picture:


I am using DMC cotton tread size 10 from my stash and use 3.75 mm circular needle. At this moment I am at 10 repeat, but since I am using smaller needle it still not large enough. I am anxious to see the result.

Koala Backpack

Sekarang kalo keluar jalan-jalan ato belanja, Lauri bawa tas sendiri. Isinya? Diaper plus permen. Diaper buat jaga-jaga kalo dia kebobolan. Permen, kalo dia rewel karena bosen ato ngantuk. Sebetulnya aku juga bawa tas yang lengkap dengan botol susu, air panas, dan bubuk susu, dll. Tapi itu sekarang aku tinggal di mobil. Tas nya itu James yang dapet gratisan dari Hard Rock Cafe Melbourne. Soale pas itu dia beli banyak kaos, minta diskon nggak dikasih, tapi dikasih tas ini. Lucu ya? Dapetnya sih duluuuu pas Lauri belon ada.

Lauri tried to ride bicycle in Giant Supermarket with Koala bear back pack. Notice that now she has new hairstyle. Tied one on the back rather than two on the sides

Sekarang Lauri udah nggak makan bubur lagi. Udah peningkatan. Makan nasi. Sejak makan nasi dia nggak pernah bangun jam 5 ato 6 pagi lagi. Bangunnya jam 10 ato 11 siang. Jadi non stop. Tapi tetep makannya susah.

Apa lagi ya? Oh ya dia kalo nonton video Disney kadang dia hapal dialognya. Jadi sebelon dialog diucapkan, dia udah duluan ngomong. Jangan dibayangkan dialog yang panjang-panjang. Ya dialog yang cuma satu kata. Misalnya: adegan di "Huchback of Notredame II" pas anaknya si Kapten diculik, khan teriak "Papa..!" Nah sebelum teriak papa, Lauri duluan teriak papa. Atau pas adegan si "Mulan II" ngajarin anak-anak kecil silat sambil teriak "Hah..Hah, Lauri teriak duluan. Ato kalo video lagu anak anak, dia kadang hapal lho lagu berikutnya apa.

Terus kamarin dulu, dia khan lagi mau tidur siang. Mata udah merem, tapi belon pulas. Ehh tiba-tiba hujan deres. Tau tau dia bilang : Raining. Lho, aku sampai bingung. Padahal nggak ada yang ngajarin lho, dia tau darimana kalo itu hujan.

Kalo lagi kejar-kejaran sama aku, dia nggak cuma ngomong "move" aja, tapi sekarang ditambahi: Come on mommy, come on....

Selain itu Lauri juga lembeng. Kalo ada baju baru, sama dia dipegang, terus bilang: Ooooh.. Nice! Terus sama dia minta dipake. Setelah dipakai, muter-muter dia sambil kepalanya di miring-miringkan. Lembeng!

First (Knitting) FO

Finally I got my circular Addi on Friday to do the edges around the cardigan and around the sleeves. After several mistakes (first, I picked up to little stiches around the corner -> rip, then I found out that there is a "hole"-> another rip), finally I manage to finish this project. Then directly try it on my baby on top of her shirt. And ...... it fits nicely.

Here the front photo:

The back photo:

Pattern: : Lauri Cardigan (well, that is what I called)

Source: Japanese Magazine

Materials: 100% Cotton Miami Four Season in Pink 2 Balls

Needles: 3.5 mm Bamboo and 3.5 mm Addi circular

Total Cost: RM 26 x 2 plus 1 Button RM 1.5 = RM 53.50 or USD 14.50

Start Date: 16 July 2006

Finish Date: 14 August 2006

It took me so long because I had to wait for my Addi circular needle to arrive (see this post).

Overall, I like my knitting experience although crochet is still my first love. I hate it when I had some mistake and I have to unpick. Regardless, I would like to take more chalanging project in the future. Probably some lace and cardigan for myself.

About my new needle? I love it!! I love knitting more after I use this needle. Probably I will order another sizes.

Sliding

Sekarang Lauri suka kejar-kejaran. Tiap hari habis makan, dia minta aku ngejar dia keliling sofa sampe puyeng (aku yang puyeng, dia sih nggak merasa). Kalo aku berhenti, dia nyeret bajuku sambil bilang "Move mommy, move!" Aduuuuhhh!!!!

Terus tadi pagi pas lagi mandi, dia bawa boneka anjing nya ke kamar mandi. Aku ambil terus aku taruh di atas tutupnya toilet sambil bilang kalo anjingnya nggak boleh ikut mandi, nanti basah. Ehhh!! dia liat tangannya yang emang udah basah kena air dan sabun, terus di.... lap-kan ke bajuku! Hehehehe....

Photo di bawah aku ambil waktu dia lagi main slurutan untuk pertama kalinya di taman.

No... Not Yet Finish

I still need to do the edging for my first knitting project. Since this edging need to do it in circular knitting needle, I need to buy it first. There are so many circular needle brand in the market. Actually I was tempted to buy Bryspun flexible circular needle, but I couldn't find any in ebay with reasonable shipping cost. So, in the end I bought Addi circular needle, but it's not arrived yet.

While waiting for the needle to arrive, I am working on my crochet project. It's also pink color. I don't know why I got so many pink yarn and thread.

In the meantime, yesterday I did some market reasearch on three handycraft stores in Penang. You see, I am not from Penang, so I brought my mother in law along (or more precisely, she brought me along) since she has more extensive knowlegde about these stores and even knows them personally.

I manage to buy 10 balls of cotton yarn, 1 Inox circular needle RM14 or USD 3.8, 1 pony circular needle RM 4.5 or USD 1.2 and some buttons. Actually, they also sell Japanese pattern book, but I couldn't find any book that interest me. Yes, there is 1 or 2 pattern that interesting in one book, but why have to buy the whole book?

Tall Girl?

Padahal ini Lauri masih belon 2 tahun. Masih kurang 1 bulan, tapi dia udah keliatan kayak anak umur 3 tahun. Ini di foto, dia berusaha keluar dari kot nya. Belon bisa sih, walaupun kaki udah keluar satu :)

Dia udah bisa ngomong beberapa kata jadi satu, misalnya kalo dia lagi nonton cartoon di TV terus habis, pasti dia bilang: Oh oh Mommy no more... How come?
Ato kalo aku tanya ke dia: What is this? (sambil megang rambutnya). Dia pasti jawab: This is hair...

By the way, aku ngambil foto di atas waktu dia baru bangun. Jadi itu tampang baru bangun dan masih pake piyama.

Two Sleeves Needed

I already finished the back and front part and also joined the shoulder together after blocking. I did that without starting the sleeve, because I wanted to know how it looks like after joining.
It looks OK although I must confess that I did not do a good job at joining shoulder together. I made several mistakes and only realized it after I cut off the thread and waved in the end. Well, at least I know what to do on the next project.
Now, I have to start the sleeve.

Hi-Tech Baby

Apa emang sekarang semua bayi canggih-canggih ya? Lauri paling seneng mainan hand-phone dan computer. Kalo liat orang pake telpon bawaan dia pengen ngrebut aja. Kalo liat orang pake komputer, dia juga pengen ikutan nge-klik.

Dulu dia puas cuma maen hand-phone, sekarang dia nggak puas kalo nggak ngomong di handphone. Sasaran orang yang ditelpon, ya papa nya.

Dia udah kubelikan hand-phone mainan yang bisa bunyi (dua biji malah), tapi ya itu, hand-phone palsu layar monitornya nggak interaktif. Nggak seperti hand-phone sungguhan. Kata siapa anak kecil bisa dibohongi. Nggak sampe 10 menit, sama dia hand-phone mainannya udah nggak dianggap.

Kalo papa nya lagi mainan game di laptop, wah.... dia juga ikutan liat. Expresi nya seolah-olah dia ngerti. Pertama dia duduk tenang, terus 10 menit kemudian mulai nunjuk-nunjuk, selang 5 menit kemudian mulailah mau ikutan pencet.

Lucunya kalo dia liat orang udah kelar pake laptop, dia akan membantu membuka tas laptop dan ikutan membantu memasukkan lap-top ke tas.

My First Knitting Object

I decided to knit short cardigan for my daughter. I bought the yarn and needle from local yarn store near my house. Since I bought the yarn there, I could choose the pattern as well. The yarn is very expensive. It's 100% mercerized cotton made in Germany. One ball (50 gr) is RM 26.50 or USD 7. Luckily I only need 2 balls. As for the knitting itself, I learned it from here.

Here is my progress:

Who is Wearing Grandma's Slipper?

Sekarang Lauri senang pake sandal yang ada haknya. Dia punya sandal sendiri. Tapi berhubung nggak ada hak dan dari karet dia nggak seberapa suka pake sandal itu. Soalnya nggak ada suaranya. Kalo sandal yang berhak khan bisa bunyi tuk..tak...tuk...tak. Jadi dia mesti ngambil sandal emaknya terus dipake jalan jalan keliling ruang tamu, sambil nggak lupa megang tas.

Again....

Last week I went to Kuala Lumpur to meet customer. I wore the new white cardigan. Again, I forgot to take picture. So, I decided to take the cardigan itself without me.

I started this on end of January 2006 and finished it on end of June. I used up 5 balls of white DMC Tradition 100% cotton size 10. Actually I bought 4 balls from ebay, then realized that it was not enough. At that time (March) I have finished everything: front part, back part, and two sleeves, even already joined together. Only needed to finish the edging part. It's so frustrating. Then I ordered another 2 balls from the same seller. Since my sister in law is planning to come back to Malaysia on April, I asked to be delivered in her US address. In the end she only came on May. I had to wait for 2 months.

Anyway, I am happy with the result. It fit me nicely

Another news is that now I am learning how to knit. I finally decided to learn because I could not stand looking so many nice free design on the internet.

The first piece I am knitting is for my baby. The reason is because it will be small enough for me to finish it quickly.

Up Date on 5 Sept 06:

Finally I manage to take photo of myself wearing the cardigan.

This is the original photo on the Japanese mag:


This is how it looks like on me:

Trying to Play Organ and Eat Garlic Bread at The Same Time

Lauri sekarang isa ngajak orang salaman. Aku juga nggak ngerti dia belajar dari mana. Tiba-tiba kemarin dia bilang: "Mommy, shake hand.." sambil menjulurkan tangannya ke aku.

Dia juga bisa minta disetelkan TV: "Mommy, TV"

Selain itu dia juga belajar pake celana sendiri. Kalo liat celana pasti sama dia mau dipake walopun dia udah pake celana. Kebanyakan 2 kaki masuk satu lubang, tapi kadang bisa berhasil.

Finally....

I manage to finish a project. Too bad I have no opportunity to take a picture yet. Actually I already wore it once, but forgot to take picture :)

The photo on left side is the DMC thread that my sister in law brought from USA.

Introducing Puppy, Bobby, Bear-Bear and Snowy

Semua itu nama mainannya Lauri. Dia paling senang "Soft Toys". Sama dia suka dipeluk-peluk dan dicium (terutama hidungnya) sebelum tidur. Bangun tidur, pasti dia juga nyari-nyari.

Nih, photo Lauri lagi "stretching" setelah bangun tidur dikelilingi temen-temennya:

And some kissing action:

Oh ya, Minggu kemarin ada kejadian lucu. Bangun tidur dia bilang ke aku: Mummy.. ech..ech..

Aku nggak ngeh maksudnya apa. Terus aku tanya dia lagi: "What?"

Lalu Lauri ngambil si Puppy dan sama dia punggung si Puppy digaruk. Ohhhh! Baru aku ngeti kalo dia minta aku nggaruk punggungnya.

Emang kemarinnya aku ngajarin dia kalo nggaruk itu "scratch". Tapi berhubung bagi anak 20 bulan agak susah bilang "scratch" ya jadinya "ech"

Too Many Project, Too Little Time


I got soo many project on hand and soo little time, no wonder no FO so far. I only have 1 hour or so in a day to do my project. I am starting to wonder why we have to sleep? Do you know that if we sleep 6 hour a day, it means we use up a quarter of our live to sleep and do nothing? I know.. I know... we need to sleep to recharge our energy and so on and so on.....

Hmmm.... people do crochet or knit while watching TV right? Why don't we also just do that while sleeping? Probably I should try that.

Anyway, photo shown above is another project that I am starting a while ago. Planning to make a cardigan.

What....?

Tau nggak? Lauri sekarang isa nyetel DVD. Cara megang CD pun dia udah ahli. Dia nggak megang di track nya, tapi jari telunjuknya dimasukkan di bolongan CD. DVD player di "on" kan. Terus open the rack, masukkan CD nya, close the rack and play.
Waduh, aku yang liat sampe terkaget-kaget.

Terus, kemarin waktu belanja di Giant ada kejadian lucu. James beli "baget" (itu lho roti keras yang panjang), sama dia dimasukkan di kereta belanjaan. Eh.. waktu kita pilih pilih mau beli permen untuk Lauri, dan diskusi mana yang kira-kira dia suka, sambil lalu aku ngelirik Lauri untuk ngecek dia lagi ngapain. Masa ampuunn...! Itu "baget" udah lepas bungkusnya, sama dia dipegang tangan dua dan ujungnya dimakan sambil bilang "Nyaaamm..." Sampai salesgirl yang melayani kita beli permen ketawa liat tingkah Lauri.

Crocheted Teddy Bear

After found this site and this, I was inspired to make my own version. Nothing fancy, just a plain white teddy. This is the result:

I used White DMC Tradition size 10 for the whole body and embroidered normal black cotton sewing thread for the nose and the eyebrows. For the eyes, I used 2 black plastic beads.

When Lauri saw this, she said: Mommy... Bear... Bear.... and she open her arm very wide. When she got the Bear, she hugged it and kissed the black nose.

Taking a Bath


Waktu Lauri masih bayi, dia hepi banget kalo diceburin ke air. Mungkin waktu itu dia khan masih belon isa melihat dengan jelas, and nggak bisa ngapa-ngapain. Jadi diceburin ke air anget enak kali ya.
Sekarang, maunya banyak. Dia minta dikasih sabun, mainan sama busa sabun, terus kalo kepalanya dibilas sama air pasti teriak teriak. Kadang, dia nggak mau diangkat dari bak mandinya. Nakal!

Hari Sabtu kemarin khan aku, Lari dan James balik kampung ke Surabaya. Nah, pas waktu mandi kerena di Surabaya nggak ada bak mandi bayi, ya aku mandiin Lauri berdiri pake shower. Waduh! Nangis dia nggak mau diturunkan dari gendonganku. Jadi akhirnya aku paksa dia berdiri, dan mandi ala koboi super cepat.

Foto di samping adalah perbandingan waktu dia umur 1.5 bulan dan 20 bulan.

Can I make crocheted blanket ?

I made doily before. I also made cardigan. However, I never made any crocheted blanket before. Why? Because a blanket, in order to give you warmth, it need to cover your body, if you know what I mean. I don't know whether I have the patient to crochet that big of object.

Anyway, I decided to give it a try.

I am trying to make below pattern that I got from japanese crocheted book.

I bought 9 balls of acrylic yarn (each 40 gram) from local handicraft shop. They are cheap. Each only cost me RM1.5 or US$0.40. So, total only cost me less than US$4.

I made 4 motifs, and this is how it looks like:

After making 36 pcs:

According to the pattern, I need to make 155 pcs total. But, I can not wait to see the result. So, after I made these 36 pcs, I joined them together to see how it looks like. Here is the result:

Nice? I think so. The problem is: I have to make another 119 pcs!

The thing I don't like about this pattern is that there is a lot of strands that need to be weave in due to color changing. Oh well.....