Lauri Birthday Photos

Lauri celebrated her 4th birthday in her kindergarden last October. Here are some of the photos:

Do you see the boy that stood next to Lauri also helped Lauri to blow? Hahahaha!

Enjoying the cake

Another Pillowcase Project

This is my latest creation. Yup! Another pillow case for Lauri. I had leftover material from the previous small pillowcase (also for Lauri), but not enough to make big pillowcase. Then last week I got the urge to start a patchwork project. This time I didn’t want to start a big project, so after racking my brain, I came out with this design.

Do you see the wringkles? It was because I didn't iron it. To tell you the truth, I love the wringkles. It looks soooo... cottony (if there is such word).

It took me about 3 days to make this. The longest part was to embroidery the words although that was the part I enjoyed the most. The most important is that the fact that Lauri loves it!

Fiori: 5 Months Old

Her weight is 7.36 kg and her length is 70 cm. She can roll over by herself and can say "Mama".

New Yarn Shop

On Wednesday, we went to Queensbay Mall and guess what I found there? New yarn shop! Could you believe that they have already opened for several months and I didn’t know about it! How Shocking!


I guess it’s because I have never gone out much after I gave birth to Fiori. It’s been more than 4 months already since I have been to that mall.

Yiyi Craft, 2F-33, Queensbay Mall

I also found out that there is a new handy craft shop next to the yarn shop. They sell a lot of nice material for patchwork (mostly imported from Japanese). I was drooling while I was looking at all those nice prints.

The visit to these two nice shops inspired me to start a new knitting project. Actually, I am also tempted to start a new quilt project, but I still haven’t finished my old patchwork project yet.

No Progress

There is no progress on my new blanket. I am quite bored making the same square all over and over again. I think I need to see the designs of other blankets for inspiration to continue making my blanket. In the meantime, all my existing blankets are well used and well loved, even the colorful blanket that I didn’t like originally, is used quite frequently and I have started to like it very much. Mostly, I use it as a shawl when I work in front of my laptop at night.

Here is Babbete blanket used by Lauri:

Not My FO

Since I am still working on my blanket and still don’t have FO to show, I will show you my mother-in-law’s latest FO.

She made this crocheted dress for her other grand daughter. She got only 2 sons and no daughter and last time she was longing for one. Now she is blessed with 3 grand-daughters. She is happy that finally she has someone to crocheted and knitted for.

This dress made from 100% nylon yarn. It’s the same material that I used for making Red Knitted Top.

I like the way she add the flower ribbon and heart embellishment. It really make the dress looks pretty.

3 Months Old

My Fiori has already 3-months old. She was 6.2 kg the last time we weighted her. I could not get her to laugh in this photo. She kept moving and I could not get nice photo. In this photo, she was wearing home made dress. I made the dress long time ago, when I was pregnant with Lauri. However, somehow, Lauri had never worn it.

For comparison, below is Lauri when she was 3 months old.

Laughing

Finally, I managed to catch her laughing. This picture was taken before bath. The "hat" she was wearing actually was her shirt.

My Pillow Case

I got so many pillows and bolster on my bed and normally store bought bedsheet set only come with 2 pcs of pillow cases and 1 pcs of bolster case. Thus, I have to make pillow cases and bolster cases for the others.


I just made it simple. But, since I love details, I embroidery our names on the corner.

For you who is Harry Potter fan, you should notice that our name is similar with Harry Potter's parent :)

Progress of The Blanket

I have made 50 squares so far. Another 175 squares to go.

Simple Cable Cardigan Pattern For Sale

I designed this cardigan because I wanted to try to make cable motifs. Since I didn't want to overwhelm myself, I just added cable motifs in the neck, sleeve and waist, just enough to accentuate this cardigan.





I love the result and I always like the versatility of cardigans. I can always wear a good cardigan when I go out at night or out shopping in a fully airconditioner departmental store.

Sizes: See measurement table. The sizing of the sweater is easy to customize. I’ve included sizing guidelines, but keep in mind that you can control the size. I also included tips how to make it fit to your own measurement. Since this is knitted from top down, you can try it as you go!



Needle: 3.25 mm (size 3) and 3.50 (size 4) 80 cm long circular needle for Sport weight and 3.5 mm (size 4) and 3.75 mm (size 5) 80 cm long circular needle for DK.

Yarn: Sport or DK Weight

Yarn requirement:
Sport Weight: XS: 900 meter, S: 1000 meter, M: 1100 meter, L: 1200 meter, XL: 1300 meter, XXL: 1400 meter, XXXL: 1500 meter
DK Weight: XS: 750 meter, S: 800 meter, M: 880 meter, L: 960 meter, XL: 1040 meter, XXL: 1120 meter, XXXL: 1200 meter

Notion: Tapestry needle, buttons (15 pcs), marker, scrap yarn

Gauge:
Sport Weight: 25 sts and 30 rows = 4” (10 cm) in Stockinette Stitch (St st) using 3.5 mm needle or adjust the needle size to get gauge.
Double Knit Weight: 20 sts and 28 rows = 4” (10 cm) in Stockinette Stitch (St st) using 3.75 mm needle or adjust the needle size to get gauge.

Difficulty: Intermediate

All about this project in my blog

Click on the button below to buy a copy. This pattern is a pdf file, which you will be able to download once your payment is complete. Thanks!

US$ 5.00,-

add to cart

FO: Simple Cable Cardigan

After long overdue, finally I can show you Simple Cable Cardigan. This was my first cable experience, therefore I didn’t want to overdo it. I just add the cable on the neck, waist and sleeve. I had fun doing it. It was very easy and simple, hence the name.

As you can see, I finished it on March, but at that time I was heavily pregnant and was not able to model this cardigan. That is why I had to wait until now.

I love the yarn, it’s very soft and silky since it is 50% cotton, 35% viscose and 15% silk. As usual, I split the yarn to make it sport weight. If I am not wrong, it has 12 ply. I used 8 ply to make it sport weight.

Pattern: Simple Cable Cardigan

Source: Here

Materials: Debbie Bliss Cathay. Color: 12025 Beige. Dye Lot # 90. Qty: 6 x 50 gram

Needles: Addi Metal Circular Needle 3.50 mm

Cost: Yarn USD 23.94,-

Start Date: 22 February 2008
Finish Date: 30 March 2008

All posts about this project

The beginning of New Blanket

Started this blanket on 8 July. I have to make 225 squares, and so far I only managed to make 45 squares. I can only make about 2 square per day, so it will take me about 4 months to finish it.

This was made from 2 strands of Canon thread that I ordered from Mimi. I ordered about 50 balls and it looks like that I will need some more.

Fiori: 2 Months Old

She is 5.5 kg. Only 0.2 kg lighter than Lauri when she was 2 months old. She can smile and "talk" to me.

For comparison, I dug Lauri old photo. This is Lauri when she was 2 months old. They still look alike, but Lauri had bigger eyes.

Wholesale Order

Last month, somebody convo me in Etsy. She asked whether I was interested in selling my patterns wholesale, as she was going to open a yarn shop. Well, I had never wholesale my pattern before. Thus, this was an interesting offer.



After looking through all discussions about selling pattern wholesale in Ravelry, I agreed to sell the pattern half price with minimum 5 copies per pattern, but they had to bear the shipping cost. Actually, selling pattern wholesale is a troublesome, since I had to do all the printing and so on. However, the thought of LYS carries my pattern excited me.

Anyway, after calculating all the cost, I didn’t have much profit left. Not to mention that the actual shipping cost was higher than my quotation.

Still, this was a good experience for me.

Open Another Blog?

I was thinking to open another blog to blog about Lauri and Fiori. So I can dedicate this one only to blog about my knitting and crocheting. I am not sure whether I want to use Blogger again or to use Wordpress. I saw a lot of nice Wordpress blogs that made me drool. Look at this wordpress themes site that I found. So many choices that made me drool and think to change this blog theme.

For the new blog, I am thinking to use this tick-tock-tack theme, but I don’t like colored background. I prefer plain white. I think I will browse somemore.

I also read a lot of good review in Ravelry about Wordpress. The only problem is that I am so familiar with Blogger already and if I use Wordpress, I have to learn again how to post, how to change the layout and so on.

FO: Fiori Blouse

As I mentioned in my previous post, I want to make another blanket. I want to make blanket that is big enough for me to use. Probably like queen sized blanket. I already ordered the thread (yes, this time I want to make blanket using double strand thread).

While waiting for the order to come, I started to knit blouse for Fiori. It was a small project that won’t be long to finish. The yarn that I used is the yarn that I complained to bleed a lot last time. However, since I already solved that problem, I decided to use it.

Pattern: Fiori Blouse

Source: None

Materials: Naturalee (All Natural Dyes)

Color: Dusty Rose #213. Dye Lot: 8139. Qty: 1 x 50 gram

Needles: Addi Metal Circular Needle 3.25 mm

Start Date: 2 June 2008

Finish Date: 15 June 2008

Fiori 1 Month Old

This photo is taken on 21 June. Time fly so fast. It's been a month since I delivered her to the world!

Lauri Dress Pattern For Sale

I made this dress for Lauri. It's very simple and easy to make. To make it special, I put slightly ruffles sleeves and ruffles dress and also two pockets to put in some sweets. It's a perfect dress to play.

I also include in the pattern tutorial to make picot bind off, to attach the pocket, and to make button loops using tapestry needle (if you don't know how to crochet).

Pattern is available in both sport and DK weight yarn

Sizes: 2, 4, 6, 8, and 10 years

Finished measurement: Chest: 58, 63.5, 68.5, 72 and 76 cm or 22.8, 25, 27, 28.5, 30 inches

Needle: 3.50 (size 4) 80 cm long circular needle for Sport weight and 3.75 mm (size 5) 80 cm long circular needle for DK.
Crochet Hook (optional): 2 mm for sport and 3 mm for DK weight

Yarn: Sport or DK Weight

Yarn requirement: Sport Weight: 2 years: 725 meter, 4 years: 770 meter, 6 years: 850 meter, 8 years: 910 meter, 10 years: 975 meter. DK Weight: 2 years: 500 meter, 4 years: 540 meter, 6 years: 600 meter, 8 years: 640 meter, 10 years: 680 meter.

Notion: Tapestry needle, buttons (2 pcs), marker, scrap yarn, ribbon.

Gauge:
Sport Weight: 25 sts and 30 rows = 4” (10 cm) in Stockinette Stitch (St st) using 3.5 mm needle or adjust the needle size to get gauge.
Double Knit Weight: 20 sts and 28 rows = 4” (10 cm) in Stockinette Stitch (St st) using 3.75 mm needle or adjust the needle size to get gauge.

Difficulty: Easy

All about this project in my blog

Click on the button below to buy a copy. This pattern is a pdf file, which you will be able to download once your payment is complete. Thanks!

US$ 5.00

add to cart

FO: Lauri Dress

Remember about Lauri Dress? Finally I managed to take photo with Lauri as a model. I got a very good model. She was happy to model it for me. The pattern is also ready for sale. I will put it up for sale in the next post.

Actually Elann Sonata is a DK weight yarn, however, I felt that DK is too thick to my climate. The yarn is 4 ply, I remove 1 ply and make it only 3 ply to make it sport weight. The result is just nice.

I made the pocket apple shape, because I felt that just plain square pocket is boring. I am happy with the result as it really made this dress very cute. I also made the sleeves a bit ruffled by increasing in the shoulder. I made this dress a bit bigger so she can wear it longer. Too bad that I only have 5 balls of yarn, because I think I need another ball to make it longer.

Pattern: Lauri Dress

Source: Here

Materials: Elann Sonata. Color: Yellow. Qty: 5 x 50 gram

Needles: Addi Metal Circular Needle 3.50 mm

Total Cost: Yarn USD 10,- plus shipping USD 10,- Total USD 20,-

Start Date: 30 March 2008

Finish Date: 23 April 2008

All post about this project

FO: Colorful Crochet Blanket

Finished this blanket 1 day before Fiori was born, but only managed to wash and block a few days ago. I used the same pattern as the Baby Green Blanket, but this time I used 4 different colors. This was my first experienced working with wool, and I think I still prefer cotton.

Pattern: Colorful Blanket (125 x 145 cm)
Source: Lets Knit Series

Materials: Knitpicks Swish DK. Color: Petal (24051) 2 x 50 gram, Skyborne (24054) 7 x 50 gram, Pale Lemon (24059) 3 x 50 gram, White (24064) 5 x 50 gram.

Hook: Tulip Crochet Hook size 8 (5 mm)

Total Cost: Yarn USD 55.93,- plus shipping USD 15.94,- Total USD 71.87

Start Date: 23 April 2008

Finish Date: 20 May 2008

I am hoping to be able to get queen sized blanket for me to snuggle at night, but it turned out still too small for me. I was so frustrated that I could not make queen sized blanket, that made me planning another blanket to make. This time I want to make using double strand cotton thread. For the design I will share with you in another post.