The Artsee Side

Of late, I am beginning to realise that I am re-discovering the joys of creating stuff with my hands. It started with crochet late last year.
And to date, I’ve made like a dozen or so things and given them away: bookmarks, little amigurumi toys, a baby blanket, balls. I even completed a large piece, a work of over two months, for my sister who sort of commissioned it. (Well, it was more like she paid for the yarn and made me crochet something for her!). It’s supposed to be a poncho, but in this weather, I figured she’d be a roast duck if she wore it. So instead of making a poncho, I revised the pattern a bit and made it into a long, stretchy stole. She can pin it up with a brooch if she wants it as a poncho. Otherwise, it would look quite glamorous by itself.

This is how the stole looks like, modeled by my bunny soft toy.

A closer look at the stitches.

Yesterday I spied some glorious ear-rings in Metrojaya while CNY shoe-hunting. (Nope, it was a fruitless shoe hunt as they did not have the size nor the colour I wanted. And this utterly pushy sales woman tried to sell me a pair of peach heels instead of the lilac heels. But that’s usual I guess.) Swarovski glass beads in all colours. Lovely shine too.
But then I thought better of buying it since I saw the same beads in Sin Soon Lee (located at Rangoon Road) just last week! Now my hands are itchy because I want to make some ear-rings for myself. Already I visit Sin Soon Lee rather often these days. It’s hell trying to park in Rangoon Road on any day but I’d do crazy things just to go and drool over their yarns.
But this will have to wait until Chinese New Year is over. As it is the last minute rush to do things, buy things, is getting to me. And I have to get up early to catch a plane on Tuesday for Kuching. Not fun transitting in airports, especially KLIA which is like Siberia.
Anyway, the artsee side of me is rekindled. And madness of madness, during one of my trips to Sin Soon Lee, I actually (gasp!) bought 2 pairs of knitting needles. Just to try to learn how to knit and purl. I’ve been putting it off because I don’t want to spoil the love affair I have with my first love – crochet – but I know that my stash of yarns (growing by the month) should be tried out with knitting too.
I’m still struggling with my gauge and my knitting looks really awful – I dropped a stitch and added a couple more and Nic laughs at me because the piece (a purple swatch of a wannabe scarf… I call it my test piece because anytime now I will rip it apart and start all over) looks all crooked.

Oh, purple horror!
I must say my crochet is a hundred times better. But I don’t think I’ll be giving up knitting soon. There’s something different about knitting. Just two stitches, knit and purl, create many types of patterns. In crochet, there are 300 different types of stitches and I haven’t even mastered my Granny Square yet.
Hmm, I wonder if the airport people will allow me to bring my knitting needles on board?

5 thoughts on “The Artsee Side”

  1. Aaaaahhhhh….I love BOTH crochet and knitting but my first love is….(DRUM ROLL) knitting. But I guess you knew that. 🙂 Think I meantioned this some time in my blog or something. Now, you’re in my territory. You have a hole in the left bottom of the scarf-wannabe and aiyo, you’ve got quite a few wrong stitches in every single row of your knit piece and it doesn’t look like you’re using the right size needle for a scarf. It’s too thin. And why are you knitting a SCARF for yourself….so that you WON’T wear it?????
    Quick, kick me!!!!!!!

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  2. Hey, I tried some knitting and crotchet too during my younger days. But hangat-hangat tahi ayam saja. Didn’t last. I’ve given away a green shawl (can’t remember who knitted it for me) I used to wear in my teens/twenties. So regret it now but a friend is in the process of knitting a brand new one for me. Yeh!
    Marsha, you’re so pro-lah. Can detect all those errors in Maya’s purple shawl. It’s oklah, she’s a beginner mah.

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  3. Ah ha.. latest love affair in the year of the Dog… with knitting.
    My mom taught me knitting from a tender age of 12 and have been an ardent ‘knitter’ since. Is a real sucker when it comes to pretty yarns from Japan or Korea and costs me a fortune too. To date, I have knitted countless blouses, cardigans, scarves and shawls. I usually wears them as it is representative of me and my ‘brand’. But each time, I stopped by at the shop which sells yarns, I usually end up hundreds of ringgit poorer.
    But nevertheless, knitting is my ‘anchor’ for it is the only activity I reckoned which can ‘calm’ me down since I am usually very edgy, aggressive and impatient. Seeing loop after loop, row after row of yarn turning into a piece of art gives me tremendous pride. Won’t you agree with me, Angel?

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