black of the light

The inspiration of crocheting this came from Keffier's beautiful brick color cardi. Having bought the book from Amazon Japan, I started the work. yet, the process of having this one done was frustrating at the beginning. I chose a burgundy color at first, but sooner I ran out of the yarn when I was halfway done! The worse thing was that the color was out of stock and the entire production line has stopped already.

Then I restarted the process again one month later, the yarn I picked up on my cardi was actually a nice gift from Keffier! :-) The crocheting went quite smoothly, pattern is easy to memorize and not too complicated to crochet, but I still, as usual,spent quite a long time to complete.

To saw and connect the sleeve with the shoulder is not difficult anymore, I am not sure how others do, but I use sawing needle instead and this method is so great! I just love the shap it creats, so femmine look! Actually I've noticed that all the cardis I've made creat a similar look, no matter how different the patterns or shapes, guess it's my Ashley's Style! :-)

Yarn: Kid Merino Black Color 8.5 balls

Tools: Crochet hook JP size#5

Period: 3 weeks

Pattern: Keito Dama 2004 Winter

In its original design, there are buttons used on the cardi, and the size of the cardi is not as fit as what I have. But as I don't have any spare time picking up the right buttons and that I prefer to have a fit wear, I just get rid of the buttons and used a small crochet hook instead, so that my cardi came out just as fit as I want! :-)

A Belated Gift

Yarn: Meillenweit cotton yarn
Tool: Clover needle #6
Period: 1 week

This shawl has a beautiful name - sun ray shawl, it was a free pattern at Elann.com and was also a project of TKA. Sun ray shawl is a traditional triangle shawl, quite easy to knit actually. The only frustrating part is the picot ending...I am not against this technique at all, but since I've spent two more hours doing this picot thing, I am not sure if I am willing to do this all again next time!

After blocking, the pattern is much clear to see, at least I could imagine thos falling lines as Winter sun ray throwing from the window.

The shawl will be packed and sent to Switzerland, to a professor who I like very much. The professor used to teach Civilization when I was an university student there. I love the way she teaches, and I think the most part her teaching was so interesting to me is because what I've learnt from her was completely different from what I've got in Taiwan. History is always like this, two sides, and you could inteprete either of them depending where and who you are...

Professor told me she loves the porcelain of Ming dynasty, but it's rarely to be seen in the market. So I promised her to send her some info on this, and 10 years has passed, I've not yet done anything!

Having this shawl done, I am going to the National Palace Museum on the weekend and hoping that I could be able to find some books or CDs about the porcelain of Ming dynasty.

This belated gift will be sent out soon and hopfully professor could get it before Christmas.

Shiny White Cardi

I should have done this cardi before my scheduled trip in October, because I wanted to give it as a gift to my ML. But since the trip was canceled, there seems no reason to continue the work...well, the truth was that I was just too lazy actually!

Autumn is past, and having too many half done work is not very comfortable. So I picked up the hook again, and finally finished this on the weekend. :-)

Yarn: from China, called九色鹿. It 's composed of bamboo cotton and silk. A golden colored silk was wrapped together with the white bamboo cotton, it creats a shiny feature and a soft touch , they are actually a big plus to the yarn! Besides, the price is really attempting as well, for one bag(40g per ball, 8 balls packed in one bag)it costs less than NT$1000(US30), compare to those pricy bamboo cotton, 九色鹿is really worth buying.

The only thing that I find no good about this yarn is that its QC process is not very professional cos I found a long hair wrapped together with the yarn, and blue ink identifying the lot number has polutted a small part of the yarn. I can not say anything about it, because no one will expect to pay such low price and receive goodies having strict QC process as what other big brands do...

Tool:Clover crochet hook#4 (JP size)

Pattern: Hand knits for Grandma 2006 Sping & Summer



Three different pattern for the edging, waist and the body. It's an easy cardi to crochet and this is actually my first time to connect the sleeves with the body...and I have done a pretty good job! :-)

the collar shaping...i love the small angle it creats, so elegant!


Sleeve close up...