Yarn party

A few weeks ago,  Shirin showed me a Substation flyer calling for knitting volunteers.  My first reaction was to be completely gobsmacked.  For serious?  Since when does anyone in Singapore ever do anything like this?

Once I investigated the cause though, I was thoroughly excited and signed up for two sessions, the first of which was today.  

Basically, a group of knitters is planning to "yarn bomb" the Substation pillars with an art installation come September and since they need a grand 50 kilos of worsted to do it, they decided to call for reinforcements.

I wondered if it was going to be silent and dreary with nothing but the sound of staid clicking, but figured that there was only one way to find out.

This afternoon, I packed a couple of needles in my tote and set off for the Substation at 2pm.  I was briefly confounded by a group of rockers gathering in the foyer and stood next to them, shuffling from foot to foot and wondering how they had picked up knitting until I realised that the yarn party room was on the second floor.  (The last couple of times I set foot in the Substation, it was for metal gigs, so I suppose I assumed everyone there naturally looked that funky.)

I found my way upstairs and was set to work immediately, at a table with five other delightful ladies of varying ages (and yes, they were just as funky as the scene kids).

We were basically told to go crazy and do whatever we wanted in any colour, any pattern, any shape and any size, which was freeing.  In short, it was so.  Much.  Fun.

The radio was blasting, and there were cookies and drinks.  

Everywhere I turned, I saw someone doing something new from a woman who cast on using a chain stitch, to one lady who made beautiful purple and blue loops of yarn using her wrists as needles, to a young man who made a lacy half-fichu type thing that put us all to shame.

It was like being in a village and doing crafts together and the very experienced older ladies were so kind and patient with the beginners like myself.  (My mother pointed out that to do any kind of sewing or fabric-making, you have to be fairly stoic and calm.)

The lady on my right taught me two easy new patterns that I'm dying to try, and the woman on my left, who was wearing a beautifully crocheted hairclip and kept proclaiming that she'd been knitting since "Nineteen seventy two!", showed us how to do a basic cable.

We kept laughing and joking about where to buy yarn and all the various things we'd made and everyone very shyly and graciously passed round photos of their work.  Even though I was only doing very simple knitting and purling, I felt completely at ease.  Everyone showed everyone how to do various things that they knew and even the simplest tricks were received without any exasperation or condescension. 

At about four, a reporter from the local news channel came by to do a piece for television and we were greatly amused to see the cameramen waving at bottles of needles and shouting, "Take the stick!  Take the stick!"

My table ended up exchanging numbers and some of us will be coming back for the next Saturday session.  Holy cow, it sounds nerdy, but I can't wait.

In the meantime, here's the big square I finished for the art piece today - a purple and yellow pattern with strips of stockinette, garter stitch and yarnovers.

Projects

So far, it's been a pretty quiet month and now that the weather is getting increasingly rainy, I've been really enjoying my quiet days off at home.  I love hanging out with friends, but sometimes, I'd rather be knitting and watching old episodes of Buffy.  Can you believe I've never watched the season where Spike falls in love with her?  Yeah, neither can I.  (Thanks, Gail!)

This is the longest scarf I've made to date.  My brother, Shen, decided to dress up like a hipster to model it.  He took it to Sapporo during the winter season so that he could use it when he was out and about for work.  He's a lot taller than me and I made it long enough to go round his neck twice and still hang at a decent length.

I made it using a truly beautiful 8mm yarn that I got from Spotlight.  The yarn has a tiny bit of wool in it for warmth, but otherwise is made of a material that's almost silky to touch.  It's already woven in a braid so that even with a simple 3-by-3 rib pattern, it had a great deal of texture.  I loved that the yarn felt complex and high quality when I was working with it and it knit up pretty quickly.

A couple of inches from the ends, I knit the rib pattern in reverse to create a bit of a border and interest.  Because the rib stitch folds like an accordion, I'm quickly learning that it is always a lot more narrow off the needles than on, and that I have to cast on a lot more widely than I think.

In between, I had time to celebrate Melodie's and Sid's birthdays!  (There may or may not have been drinks.) 

After an evening of hysterical laughter, I stayed over at S's house and woke up to the beautiful light in her room.  Every time I spend the night, I have to take a photo in the morning because it looks so interior design catalogue worthy.

Now, I'm working on a straightforward garter stitch scarf with colour blocks so that I can practice joining new colours.

I'm using three different 4mm yarns and even though two are made of wool and one is acrylic, I'm happy to report that I can't feel the difference so far.  The blocks aren't any particular number of rows; I'm just knitting by feel and it's lots of fun to just let the colours run until I feel like it's time for a new one. 

Oh, and I'm on the last package of my favourite cookie - the one that you can't get anywhere else except once or twice a year when a certain fair rolls round into Isetan and they make it on the spot.  It's sad, but they've been such a treat to look forward to.  

Goodbye, delumpshious Hokkaido biscuit!  See you next year!

That is all.

Yesterday/Today

Yesterday, I was a bridesmaid at my dear (and very beautiful!) friend Ann-Marie's wedding.  She looked so radiant and happy and I was delighted and very grateful to watch her walk down the aisle to a wondeful and very caring man.

Today after work, I hunkered down with a new scarf in graded yarn, tea, good herb cheese and Buffy.  Delighted and grateful once again, even if in a very different way.

Tonight

Enough work!  Tonight it's mango tea, matcha cheesecake, knitting and back-to-back episodes of Dance Academy.

Hazy

I'm really hating how stupid and dazed this smog makes me feel.  I just want to stay indoors all day and do sedentary things so that the lightheadedness doesn't bother me.  While I'm at it, I thought I'd put up some pictures of a scarf I knitted recently.

Amanda picked the seafoam green colour for her scarf in a nubbly wool by Panda called Vervale.  I got four balls of it at Spotlight and stupidly failed to check the meterage on each ball.  Before this scarf, I didn't even know such a thing existed.  I would measure the yarn in my palm attempting to guess how many skeins I would need, without realising that the springiness of the yarn added bulk.

Where most of the balls I've purchased would cover up to a hundred metres when unfurled, the silly Vervale yarn only went up to 38 metres because of its nubbles.  I remember feeling horrified when the first skein ran out and I couldn't even wrap the material round my neck. 

When I went back to Spotlight for extras, I decided to surprise Amanda with one ball of cream coloured yarn and a contrast at the tip (thankfully, she liked it!).   I learnt my biggest new lesson here - how to join two colours together!  Look at the ridiculously small mileage one ball gives.

I cast on 28 and knitted a slightly larger rib with a 3 x 2 pattern.  Despite all the yarn misadventures, I'm really pleased with the way it looks!

Lessons learnt from Amanda's scarf:

1) Check the damn meterage!  I don't know how this didn't occur to me before.  At 38m, for a barely 60 inch scarf, you're going to need at least six balls. 

2)  When a wool is nubbly, it's more difficult to see whether you're knitting or purling because everything looks like purl bumps.  Sometimes it's better to knit a little more tightly so that you can see what you're doing.

3)  On the plus side, the wavy yarn hides all manner of sins and the edges of the scarf tighten up very nicely.

4)  Stockinette stitch curls like crazy.  If you want to make an entire scarf in stockinette, it will become a tube.  I didn't make Amanda's scarf in stockinette but I stumbled upon this information this month.

5)  Learning to join two colours was my biggest triumph yet.  I tried to learn from youtube when I first started out but I was far too new to knitting to understand what the woman in the video was saying.  I joined solid colours with an invisible knot. 

After a while though, the steps finally started to make sense to me.  It's important to find a video that you can understand and if you're a beginner, I think it really helps when the person in the video knits with the same hand movements that you do.  I spent far too long staring at people who tensioned with their left hand and wondering what the hell they were doing.  

I've started on the next one and it involves my next mini challenge: yarn overs.  Pictures soon.  For now, I'm going to bed now to try to avoid feeling any worse.  Good evening!

A scarf for Shirin

I mentioned a couple of posts ago that I would put up some pictures of the first scarf that I ever finished, so here they are.  They're not the best pictures because I snapped them in a hurry before giving them away, but I hope they give a rough idea of what the scarf looks like.

I'm halfway through a couple of slightly more finicky personal projects but I really wanted to start making things for my friends and Shirin was first on the list.

The yarn is a soft, basic, grey yarn called Shiver from Moda Vera, which is Spotlight's resident yarn maker and I only needed two balls to make a 60 inch long scarf.

Each time I make a new scarf, I go for something slightly different to make it a little more challenging.  I'm not particularly daring, so I figure if I alter one variable each time, I'll slowly but surely get to making extremely complex things.

Prior to this yarn, I had only knitted with very neat five mm stock so it took a little while to get used to the 10mm needles (pictured with a pen for scale).  Twice as big, they can feel clumsy in the hands and the entire product becomes heavier.  The yarn itself is distractingly furry and splits easily if you're not paying attention.

Once I acclimatised though, the whole thing was a breeze.  I blazed through most of it while finishing the first season of Bunheads (Bailey Buntain ftw!).  Shirin likes things simple, so I kept them basic and chunky with your everyday two-by-two rib stitch.

Believe it or not, I weaved in the tails with a paperclip that I bent to my purpose.  Don't try this at home (SEE below). 

Because things like this amuse me, I thought I would put in a short list of the lessons that I learn with each scarf.  If anyone out there is a beginner knitter too (Amanda, my minion!), who knows, these tips might be some help!

Things Shirin's scarf taught me:

1)  With bigger needles and yarn, it's important to knit a bit more loosely so that the yarn transfers easily over the needles.

2)  Happily, it's also much easier to knit close to the needle tip because there's less danger of the wool just shooting off the slope and unravelling.

3)  Bamboo needles offer more traction, but for a very wispy yarn, can catch annoyingly.

4)  The looser and fluffier the yarn, the more important it is to pay attention so that it does not split.

5)  It is possible to perform a ribbed cast off.  (The very fact that I was unaware of this one is testament to what a n00b I am.)

6)  Do not, I repeat, do NOT weave in the ends with a bent paperclip.  Any yarn that has even a little hair coming off it will catch disgracefully as you pull the paperclip through and you risk tearing out chunks or even breaking the strand altogether.  I ran out and bought a yarn needle right after I finished.  

I've really grown to love knitting - the repetition is incredibly therapeutic and yet when I'm counting and troubleshooting, it keeps my mind working furiously.  I may never need to make anything more complex than long rectangles, but it's immensely satistfying.

I'm already halfway through the next scarf!  I can't wait to finish it.