On the backstage

Sorry for not posting any news for a while. It has been almost 2 weeks since my last post and it was due to my busy schedule with my boys' finals and after that I had to work on registering winter camps for them and work on a last minute trip arrangement.
With the boys at home ( in and out), I am even busier because that means more driving and cooking on my normal routine and less time for my knitting and blog. :(

Knitting had slowed down but on the backstage I have two FO's that were finished couple weeks ago. I wanted to post them asap as I am happy with both of them.
First in line is my colourway sweater, take a look

Pattern: Keitodama winter 2005
Yarn: Kid - Cool merino
Yarn: 100% merino wool
# of balls : 9 (50g)
needle size Japanese 5

It fits me quite well and the final product is a very soft sweater that I have in mind to save it for the Chinese New Year as long the weather permits. I absolutely love this merino yarn, it produced even sts and a good texture showing well the design (hmm, not so well in the picture but in reality it's).

My second FO, is this scarf that I was knitting secretely to my older sister for her birthday. The pattern (my creation) has this long tree with leaves that remindes me of the story "Jack and the magic beans" that i used to read with my kids when they were little. So I named it as Magic tree scarf and i think my sis will be able to have a good use for it as she lives in a windy city. The scarf was knitted with an Italian yarn ( Kid Silk) that is 70% wool and 30% silk. It's very soft and super light as it only used less than 3 balls on a Jap. needle 7. I am surprised that this yarn could give such a good and clear sts.




And on my needles now I have this project using my frogged yarn from the taupe bolero. This yarn is so soft but is not great for giving even sts. Even before it was frogged I was already not satisfied with the seed stitch I was using in the bolero. The yarn seens to be thinner than before, maybe I pulled it too hard when I was wind it up into a ball.

I added a waistline to this design but don't know if it's a good thing. We'll see how it works at the end. I have slimmed down recently maybe that's why I wanted to have a waistline! :D
I am working on the second sleeve and I have the feelings that I 'll need to redo the caps as it looks small and short on the first one. The bottom part of the sleeve was casted on afterwards and knitted down. Here is a close-up of it.

The design is from the Puppy winter 2005 book, same as the former bolero.
Can't wait to finish it so I will be completely free of wips. And that means the green light will be on for me to start new ones. Just don't know if I should start to knit for Spring. The weather here has been cold and occasionally warm that makes me think that winter is almost over. And to help this thought, Keitodama Spring 2006 is available, only in Japan though. Need to wait a bit more to have it in my hands! I think it will be in the shelves of Kinokuniya in a week around Asia. Unfortunately, their site is not giving so many previews as they used to. So do you think is it too early for Spring knitting?