Going Domestic

recent things in the hat department

Exhibit A: A hat for Madeline, knit in Noro Silk Garden. The pattern is Odessa, and this hat has had it out for me from the beginning. The pattern is not difficult nor were the individual stitches unfamiliar, yet I ended up having to start the entire hat over three or four times before the spiral pattern started to work for me. The pattern is for an adult-sized hat, and I was adapting it to fit my smallish child, so I figured that one ball of yarn would do the trick. She wore the hat on our holiday, and it wasn't stretchy enough to cover her ears and frankly, it sat rather awkwardly on her head. This adorable little rainbow-y hat was spiteful to the end! I put it in it's place when we returned to BKK and frogged the thing. 

Exhibit B: A bunny hat, knit in a semi-novelty acrylic from Sirdar (hey, it's soft and washable). I've wanted to knit this pattern since my copy of Itty Bitty Knits arrived in the mail (honestly, this book has been a brilliant investment - I've made three other hats from it). This one came together very quickly, and the only part that I am not happy with are the stitches between the ears. They seem really loose. I was worried that it would be kind of annoying to knit a yarn with little pokey bits on it, but it wasn't a problem at all. This hat was a gift for two month-old girl in a holiday exchange that I was involved in. Sadly, I didn't finish the hat until after Christmas, but I mailed it off as soon as I could. Shipping to New York was only 60 baht, or about two dollars. 

The Great Pumpkin (Makeover)

spooky bat
Originally uploaded by goingdomestic

I spent a few minutes debating which blog to post this photo to, and decided on this one. Madeline and I made this last week. She had the week off of school, and Halloween was coming, and I needed to find things to occupy her! The pumpkins that my fave grocery chain in Bangkok stock are small green ones from Japan - most definitely not the bright orange ones that I am used to seeing in Canada. Green pumpkins don't really put me in a festive mood, though, so I was not sure that a pumpkin craft was going to have a postive outcome. However, Family Fun magazine's instructions for Bat O Lanterns, and a coat of black bat paint is the perfect remedy for a green pumpkin ...

Halloween is such a strange thing here. I thought that moving to Bangkok would have given me a license to ignore Halloween for a few years. No worries about costumes or candy! But Thais of all ages appear to love an excuse to collect free candy door-to-door, and that ,combined with the fact that three-quarters of my neighbours here are Americans, means that I can't entirely pretend that the 31st is a day just like any other.

M and I also made this spooky spider out of chenille stems, glitter glue, and a paper plate. 

It's hanging on our door ...

attack of the giant knitted things

I checked out The Big Knit today - it's supposed to be the best (or three or so) yarns stores that have opened up since we came to live here the Bangkok area. I was greeted with a trio of giant-sized knitted dolls on the bench just outside of the entrance way, which were really amusing. Like I expected, inside the shop there was an emphasis on novelty yarn (eyelash, tape, etc.) and a lot of textured yarns. I didn't see any bamboo, but there was cotton, merino, cashmere, and microfibre. They had all weights, too. I found some worsted to make a flock of Boo the Bats, and added a skein of metallic fuzzy laceweight to knit in with the wings. I came looking for yarn for three potential projects, and it was hard to for me to find even the yarn for the bats. 

I've been trying to decide if the problem was that yarn in Bangkok isn't suitable for the stuff that I want to make, or that I am just overwhelmed when at yarn shops in general. I think it's normally been hard for me to pick yarn out in person, if I remember back a few years. Yet, I'm perfectly happy to order yarn online, sight unseen. 

showing off

Bunting!
Originally uploaded by goingdomestic

Sadie's birthday bunting has been finished for over a week now, and after at least three posts about the fabric, bias tape, etc. I figured that a photo of the finished project was only appropriate! I am very happy with this, and really glad that I put in the time with my iron and made the binding from scratch. I don't think that it would look as polished if the binding was plain instead of being from the coordinating fabric!

Anyone want to bet how long it will be before I drag the sewing machine out again, though?

Straight Grain Binding: Behold

quarter-fold cross-grain binding!
Originally uploaded by goingdomestic

This is one for the Things I Never Thought I Would Do But Have Because I Live in Thailand list ... I made binding for Sadie's birthday banner. Did not find bias tape at any of the fabric/quilting/craft stores I stepped into, so I sat down this past Wednesday night with my rotary cutter, Bernina, and the iron, and made the binding. And then I ironed it more so that it was folded like bias tape.

It didn't take long, but it was a tedious job, but I am really happy with the result. I would not liked how the binding looks on the finished bunting as much if it was a plain solid colour instead of striped!

mad hatter

IMG_2766
Originally uploaded by goingdomestic

Here's my latest finished piece of knitting - a tiny little Vine Lace Baby Hat, from Knitting Daily. When my friend Beth announced that she was adding another baby girl to her family of three daughters, I knew that I wanted to send her hat. And this was a good project for trying out lacework. As far as I can tell, I only made one mistake. I still have to block this project, but I think it's kind of cute just as it is.

The next crafty venture is working on Sadie's birthday bunting. The flags are stitched and awaiting ironing, and I have fabric strips ready to go for my first-ever attempt at straight-grain binding. I'm sort of following the tutorials here at Pink Chalk Studio and Crazy Mom Quilts and just hoping that it will all start making more sense once I get to the sewing stage. 

And after that, I get to think about making birthday cupcakes ... 

a hunting we will go

The fabric that I ordered for Sadie's bunting arrived in super-speedy fashion yesterday, so today I thought that I'd start hunting for the other supplies that I needed to make it. I definitely need a pair of pinking shears to get the effect on the edges that I want, and bias tape would be terrific as well. Even better would be iron-on interfacing to give the panels more stability, but I might have to leave that purchase as stretch goal as I have no idea how I would explain fusible interfacing at a shop in Thailand! Today I looked at the easiest place that there is for me to look - the Pinn Shop at the local shopping centre. The Pinn Shop sells supplies for fabric and yarn crafts, as well as embroidery. There were many pairs of scissors on the wall, but all of them were the standard straight blade kind, with the exception of a pair of funky-looking ones labelled "applique scissors". No pinking shears, sadly ... 

I wasn't truly upset by this because there was something else that I got a little excited about at the Pinn Shop - Knitpicks/Knit Pro knitting needles. I saw the large-size nickel interchangeable needle tips, the wood DPNs, spare cables, and nickel straight needles. I am kicking myself for not checking out what the pricing was like, and for not checking to see if they carried the 12" fixed circulars that are much talked about on Ravelry. And I'm chuckling to myself about all of the 8mm and 10mm needle tips as I tend to prefer small-gauge projects, but those big sizes are perfect to knit the fuzzy and furry novelty yarn that I see so much of here ... 

Back to the pinking shear hunt, I have no clue how hard it's going to be to find them. I really don't want to venture back into Chinatown. I never did write about the last time I went shopping there, but I should ...

Ironyarn

Well, I ended up just ordering the Baby Cashmerino from WEBS instead of checking out the yarn shops. I discovered that one of the ladies in my building is a knitter, and mentioned when we were chatting the other day that the yarn in the local shops is 3-4 times pricier than in Canada, so that kind of sealed the deal. I was only charged $8 for shipping to BKK, and that includes the two balls of Malabrigo Lace that I added to I am ready to put Knitty's Cold Mountain Stole on the needles when the urge to knit a really large rectangle strikes me again. 

the elusive yarn

I have a quandry. 

I've decided to try out lacework and make the Knitting Daily Vine Lace Baby Hat for my friend's new baby girl. The only suitable yarn in my stash is sock yarn, of which I dutifully have purchased in paired skeins. Do I use up one skein of sock yarn to make this hat, leaving me with an orphan ball? Or do I order some Debbie Bliss from WEBS? Or take my chances at one of BKK's yarn shops? 

The yarn shops are a wild card! I have driven the Knitting Hive on Sukhumvit Soi 24 a few times, but never stopped to check out the inventory (I'm a pessimist about yarn here in Thailand - I just assume it's the novelty or acrylic stuff the department stores carry), but today I stumbled upon this post at Traveller's Yarn about two other yarn shops in BKK. Hmm. I wonder if there might be sock yarn (or something similarly fine) there now?

yarn smuggler

Rosie Hat
Originally uploaded by goingdomestic

I think that knitting isn't the best choice of hobby for life in Thailand, really. Swimming would be much more practical, even if I have discovered a few more places selling yarn and knitting supplies than I knew about one year ago.

While in Edmonton in July, I visited three yarn shops and received two orders from Knitpicks. If I'd planned that one better, I would have only ordered once and saved on shipping, but oh well - I rather like their interchangeable needles and surely needed some Harmony needle tips in case my nickel ones have been claimed by some other work-in-progress. And then I realized that I might as well have DPNs in my favourite sizes as well ...

I finished up two hats while I was away. This one, from Itty Bitty Hats, is my favourite thing that I've knitted thus far.

Semi-knitting related, as soon as I was back from home leave, the Yarn Harlot started covering her blog with photos of Quidi Vidi, my old neighbourhood in St. John's. Lovely photos of Newfoundland follow for her next few posts as well. Gosh, I still miss that place. Wish I'd spent more time breathing in the fresh air there instead of frowning about the size of our snow drifts.