paperwhite

I bought 5 bulbs of paperwhite in November at one of the best nurseries I've been to, called Roger's garden in Newport Beach. They finally started to bloom. The flowers smell absolutely fantastic. They looked so divine under the misty rain this morning....(yes, finally raining in SoCal!)

The bulbs were a good deal (99 cent a piece). I should have bought more! I wonder they still carry the bulbs. Roger's garden is gigantic, beautiful, and very inspirational. Even my husband was excited!!! We got lots of ideas (as well as some plants including the bulbs). I was especially drawn to the white (and dark purple) garden........

I need to go back there and get some shade tolerant plants for a corner of our patio (maybe white hydrangea and Japanese anemone? I wonder they carry lily-of-the-valley....). I saw some white amaryllis bulbs when we were there last time. I wonder we can still plant those. I am not crazy about the red ones, but white amaryllis would be very pretty in our patio.

Eveleen 2

I've made a bit of progress with eveleen. I have actually knitted a bit more than the pic. I am on the third set of the lace pattern (I need to do total of 9 sets). I am finally getting the hang of the lace pattern. Although I will never remember the whole pattern in million years, I am making fewer mistakes. Nonetheless, it is going to be a very slow going project. I was a bit skeptical about the combination of 4 ply soft in victoria (raisin) and lurex simmer in bronze (since the colors are not identical), even though that is the same color combo as the magazine, now I actually see it knitted, they actually look great together.

FOs!

I finally finished Faith as well as a couple of other projects! I am quite happy with my Faith. I love the little black buttons (made in Japan) that I bought at Jo-Ann. It took me forever to finish it, since I couldn't focus on it and starting other project in the mean time. I just did not enjoy reverse stockinette stitch or the lace pattern. I did, however, enjoyed knitting the bottom part, although it was not easy to do the decrease without making it look ugly.

I don't think I chose the right kind of yarn for the project either. The yarn (Jo Sharp alpaca silk georgette) doesn't have the sheen I hoped for from silk, and it shows every imperfection due to its oddly stretchy nature. It 'unwinds' easily too. If I were to knit this again, I would choose a yarn which results in more drapy fabric (hence, the originally suggested yarn is Rowan bamboo soft, though I would not dare to use the yarn based on all the negative reviews on Ravelry. )

Yesterday, I gave my sis-in-law a scarf as a Xmas gift, which she loved very much. I used Louisa Harding Kimono Angora, which is the same yarn I used for my twin set, as I mentioned before. I didn't think the yarn was a great choice for the pattern, but as long as she likes it, that's all that matters.



Another FO, the shell of the twin set is very warm and soft, although I would like it to be tad longer. Now I need to get to the cardigan (one of those days......)



I started a few new projects too. The first one is called Sophie, another Louisa Harding pattern from Dauphine with LH yarn impression in color #15, which is a beautiful combo of blue, green, and lavender intertwined with black mohair yarn . The yarn is very soft, but the black yarn tends to get separated from the main yarn. The picture doesn't really show the beauty of this yarn. I have a few more patterns that I want to knit, which call for impression. I would definitely use it again and try other colorways. I just love LH's sense of color. It's so unique yet beautiful. So inspirational.

The pattern doesn't have any waist shaping, and the picture in the book looks fine without it. However, all the pics of FOs in Ravelry made me wonder if it would be more flattering for my body type to have some waist shaping. Therefore, I casted on only 133 stitches, instead on 163 (somehow LH's patterns are always waaaay too wide for me) ad added some waist shaping. I'm done with the back and working on the sleeve. I casted on only 93 stitches (instead of 123) as well.



Another project I started is vintage-inspired Eveleen from Rowan 40. I love anything vintage and feminine, so that this is absolutely perfect. I am a bit scared of knitting the rose in the front....we shall see. The lace pattern is super complex and intricate. It's going to take FOREVER.

This is my first time using Rowan 4 ply soft. I love it. It’s not fuzzy, nor super soft , i(but not scratchy either); perfect for SoCal winter. Victoria is an absolutely beautiful raisin color (a bit darker than in the photo). One of my favorite colors on the earth!

My eveleen is going to be exactly the same color as in the book. It took me a while to find all the yarns (especially 2 skeins of Lurex Shimmer in Bronze!), but now I have all. Just looking at all the yarns makes me so happy. I wonder why Rowan discontinued 4 ply soft. I am assuming that they are suggesting to substitute 4 ply soft with either 4 ply wool or cashsoft 4 ply. Although I have never used 4 ply wool, I assume that it is not as soft as 4 ply soft (sorry if I am wrong). While I do like cashsoft 4 ply, it results in completely different fabric from 4 ply soft (due to its uneven, fuzzy nature). Too bad that they discontinued 4 ply soft, especially I wanted to knit many patterns from Rowan 44 (full of vintage-esque patterns! One of my favorite volumes. Another favorite is Rowan 37) which suggest 4 ply soft.



Well, everyone. Merry Xmas!!! (our under-decorated Xmas tree.....since this is the first Xmas at our home after us getting married, we don't have lots of ornaments yet. We need to start collecting more. I bought some absolutely beautiful ornament in a Xmas shop in Solvang, where we went for our 1 year Anniversary, since I loved there soooo much when we visited last time in July).

I sent my mom a flower arrangement, as usual, which she loved very much. I ordered it from a florist near my mom's, where I had never ordered from before, but apparently my mom liked it the best of all those years I've been sending her flowers (for her birthday as well as Xmas). When I first saw the picture sent by the florist, I wasn't really crazy about it, since I like more delicate arrangement with less colors. But now I know that my mom and I have a different taste......

From now on, I am going to order the flowers from there.