Slowly...

I have been working on Teva Durham's Lace Blouse since last summer, and I haven't made that much progress yet. I finished making the back last year, and I didn't have any motivation to start working on the front, as I knew it would involve short rows...But the other day, I have decided to start working on it again, and here is what it looks right now:

Teva Durhamさんのレースブラウスを昨年から編んでいましたが、なかなか進みません。昨年後ろ身頃を作ってそのまま放置してあったのですが、前身頃は引き返し編みがあるんだ‥と思うとつい乗り気にならず、なかなか着手できませんでした。先日ようやく、やっぱりがんばるぞ、と思ってここまで編んでみました：



I knitted the ribbed part in short rows to create almost like a mountain shape, and start knitting on one side of the front again in short rows to fill the space created by short row ribbing, and this creates a diagonal line between ribbing and english lace. What a clever idear!

最初にゴム編みの最後の部分で引き返し編みをして山形にし、そのあと身頃を二つに分けて、片側を編み始めるときにまた引き返し編みをすることによって、ゴム編みの引き返しでできた斜めの部分を埋めていく感じです。すばらしい！

Here is the back that I finished last year:
去年終わらせた後ろ身頃はこちら：



What makes it very difficult to keep working is that it has 133 sts on each side... I am knitting this with addi's US #0 (2mm) and it makes such a slow progress... I should keep working on this, but sometimes I get very tired of working on, and ended up escaping to Hot Lava, which uses 7mm needles... what a difference!

これ、前後身頃それぞれ133目あるのです。なので、なかなか進みません（言い訳）。今回はAddiのUS0号（2mm）を使っています。なかなか進まないので途中で嫌になって、Hot Lavaに逃げてしまうのです‥Hot Lavaは7mmを使っているので‥

Shopping at Habu

Yesterday, I needed to go to habu to get some silk mohair for my hot lava cardigan. I was determined not to buy anything else but the silk mohair, but as soon as I went into that little space, I got so obsessed with their yarns again, and ended up bringing back home these yarns with me...

昨日、足りなくなったシルクモヘアを購入しにハブに出向きました。今回は、シルクモヘア以外は買わないぞ！と心に決めていたのに、やっぱりあの空間に足を踏み入れた瞬間から我慢ができず、結局こんなに糸をつれて帰ってきてしまいました‥




I got couple different colors of silk tsumugi, which is so far, my very very favorite. I am thinking about mixing colors somehow this time... One of the cones is called silk stainless, and it has 31% of stainless in it, so it holds shapes a bit more than regular yarns, and I can't wait to knit this yarn... The little brown skein on the right is called kakishibu tokkenshi, and it's 100% silk dyed with natural persimmon tannin... oh, such a beautiful color! I don't know what to do with this at all, but I just wanted to keep this in my hand...

今回は、シルク紬を何色か買ってみました。そのうちいろいろな色をあわせて編んでみたいと思っています。コーンのうちの一つはシルクステインレスという糸で、ステインレスが３１％入っており、少し曲げたりできるのです。これ、編んだらどうなるかと楽しみで‥右側の小さな茶色いスケインは柿渋特絹糸という糸で、あまりに素敵でおいて来れなかった‥何を作るかは全く未定。何も作らなくてもいいんです。ただ、手元に置いておきたいと思ったのです。

Habu always makes me happy.

ハブに行くといっつも幸せな気分になります。

Hot Lava Cardigan

These days, it's been quite nice here around NYC ... although it was a bit hot yesterday... and I wanted to start working on some fall stuff, and looked around to find what I can make right now. I have lots of stock up yarns, especially summer yarns that my mother sent to me (or correctly I asked her to send them!) and I have touched none of them (=guilty). So, I decided to work on this yarn:

最近めっきりいい気候になってきたので（それでも昨日はちょっと暑かった）、秋ものへ移行しようと思い、手持ちの在庫糸をながめていたら、そういえば母にリクエストしてせっかく送ってもらった夏糸、ひとっつもまだ始めてないことに気づき（ごめん、ママ）、これを編んでみることにしました。



Puppy Comosilk (100% silk, 40g/160m, Needle: JPN #4-6, Gauge: 20-21 sts/ 24-25 rows); Color: 55

I have four of them! They instantaneously became my favorite! They have just the right feel that I love... Not too rough, not too smooth, a bit nubby (which I love!!), airy light, perfect earthy color, etc, etc... I would say this yarn resembles habu's silk tweed (which I also love), but a bit thicker and more solid, not as soft as habu's. I almost wanted to get all colors just to try...Check out all the colors here!

今回は４玉送ってもらいました。初めて編んだのですが、とっても気に入ってしまいました。私のお気に入りの肌触り‥固すぎず、柔らかすぎず、とってもいい感じ。私、こういうツィード調というか、ネップの入った、雰囲気のある糸が大好きなんです。こういう糸、アメリカではほとんど見かけないので、貴重です。色もすっごく気に入りました。こういう色もまた、なかなか手に入らないんです‥ちょっとハブ（avril）のシルクツィードに似ている感じですが、あちらよりもっと張りがあります。全色そろえたいくらい！！

Here is the swatch that I tried:
スワッチはこちら：



The very bottom is this comosilk only. I was thinking about knitting Hot Lava Cardigan and the pattern called for US11 needles, I used US11 as well to make this swatch. Yet, because this yarn is so thin, it looked almost too loose to knit a cardigan, so I added habu's silk mohair in brown color (shown in the middle) and in gray ( shown on top) as I had a bit of each. I liked the brown a lot, but as I always ended up picking up some brown-cocoa color, I decided to work on a bit different --- the gray.

スワッチの一番下はコモシルクのみ。 Hot Lava Cardigan を編むつもりだったので、指定針の8mmで編んだところ、ちょっとすかすか、なので、手持ちのハブのシルクモヘアを入れてみました。真ん中が茶色で、一番上はグレー。いつもならほぼ間違いなく茶色にいってしまうところですが、今回はグレーにしてみました。

When I finished using the first balls, I knitted almost to the middle of the back... and I just started the second ball, and now I ran out of silk mohair. So, here is how it looks right now:

最初の１玉で、背中のセンターの近くまで編めてしまいました。やっぱり糸が長い！２玉目に突入しましたが、今度はシルクモヘアがなくなってしまったので、しばらくお預けです。



It looks so yummy, don't you think?

すっごくいい感じに出てきていると思うのですが‥

Lace Cami from VK Summer 2005

I am trying to consolidate all my blogs into this... I have a couple of them in Japanese and it's just too much to manage everything... and I just happened to find that this blog can be written in Japanese... horray! So, here it comes~

Butterflyを編んだあと、何を編もうか考えていたのですが、なかなかこれ、というものがなく、結局ずいぶん前にI Doを編んだときに一緒にオーダーした糸で、作り目だけしてほっぽっておいたキャミソールに着手することにしました。
糸は、Frog TreeというところのPima Silkです。

I started to work on the Lace Cami from VK Summer 2005... I casted on for this long time ago, and left it as I started to work on I DO instead... I used Frog Tree's Pima Silk for the first time.




Yarn: Frog Tree Pima Silk (85% Pima Cotton, 15% Silk; Sport Weight; 50g/155yds) Color: #851

Frog Treeは、ボリビアにある非営利協同組合（Non-Profit Cooperative）で、この地域に住む女性が家事の傍らに糸を生産し、家計の支えにしているようです。こういうCoopは、特に南米には結構あるようで、有名どころとしてManos-del-Uruguayの糸などがあります。Frog TreeはおそらくAlpacaの糸がメジャーなのではないでしょうか。秋冬になるといろいろなお店で見かけます。とても綺麗な色合いです。

Frog Tree is a Not-For-Profit Cooperation in Bolivia, and women in the neighborhood come over to this coop to produce these yarns. There are many coops of this type in Latin America, such as Manos-del-Uruguay. I think Frog Tree is famous for their alpaca yarns, as I have seen them at many stores in NYC. They have some beautiful color palette.

今回初めてこのpima-silkを使ってみましたが、あまりシルクシルクという感じではなく、コットンにかなり近い感じです。５０gで１５５ヤードあるので、こちらで手に入る夏糸の中では、かなり軽めではないでしょうか。他のコットンヤーンと同様、糸割れが結構激しいです。

This was my first time to work on this pima-silk...It feels more like cotton (of course! it has 85% of cotton). The yardage is 155 per 50g, which I think is quite long for the summer yarns in US.... ( I am always, always looking for nice and light summer yarns in LYS and it's very hard to find them!

そして出来上がったのがこちら：
Here is the finished cami:



Pattern: Lace Cami from VK 2005 Summer
Yarn: Frog Tree Pima Silk 2.5 Balls
Needle: US #6 & US #3, crochet hook 2.5mm

４玉買っておいたのですが、今のところ２玉半。オリジナルはシルク１００％でつくられていて、もっとゆったりした感じです。糸が細すぎたようで、思ったほどふんわりしなかった‥ゲージもずいぶん違ったようで、下の模様は１回余分に足してあります。それでも短め。上のダイアモンドの模様をもう１回足して、バンドをもうちょっと太くしないと、私の体には華奢すぎる感じです。

I bought 4 balls and used only two and half of them. Original cami is made of 100% silk, and it looks looser. I probably picked up too skinny yarns and ended up making something more tight and not airy... The gauge was off a lot as well, so I added one repeat on the bottom part of diamond and cable pattern. Yet, it looks still too tight for me to wear this...I probably need to add one more repeat on the top diamond part, and widen the band as well to make it a bit bigger. Or, I should completely frog this and redo it with larger needles, which is not likely to happen.

なかなか代替糸を探すのは難しい、と痛感した１枚です。

This came gave me a tough lesson about finding an alternative yarn.. it's very difficult and challenging!

Butterfly from Rowan Magazine 37

We just moved to a new apartment last month, and I was unable to find a time to knit at all...
So, it took over a month to finish this Butterfly, but it is done after all!



Pattern: Buttefly from Rowan Magazine 37
Designer: Jennie Atkinson
Yarn: Louet Sales Euroflax Paris (color: pewter) less than 50g
Size: XS
Modification: insead of making ribbons on the shoulder in garter stitch, i made i-cords to connect front and back

I wanted to knit this with some summer yarn, and it was a bit difficult to find a yarn that is thin enough to knit this. I was looking around to see what could work for this pattern, and all of a sudden realized that my favorite euroflax has a variety in size, and tried this 2-ply paris for the first time. This was such a wonderful yarn and I totally loved it.

Here is how it looks on me:



I am very happy with the way it came out. It could be a bit tight, but that's ok--- it streachs a lot in both directions. I am very impressed with this border design!! It is a bit intricated, but not too bad, and creates such a beautiful line...

Now I have seen VK Fall 2006, I would like to start knitting some fall/winter sweaters, but it is still sooo hot (especially when the heat weave is here) and I have lots of stocks in summer yarns, so I will keep working on some summer stuff...