clicking on the needles

It's passed twenty days since my last post. And that is because I am back to the same boat with some health issue again. I am trying to be optimist and not think too much until I know more about it. That explains why I haven't been commenting in your blogs lately. Thanks so much for stopping by and leaving nice notes to me. It makes me wanting to click more on my needles.

For couple days I've been worrying about my family in San Diego. As you might know there is a major wild fire issue over there. My parents, sister and brother's were all evacuated from their homes. Luckily they are all safe and sheltered at a friend's home. I can imagine how terrifying these past few days has been for the people in the area. It looks like that my family houses are safe, including my brother one that was in the most critical location. I was thinking about the orchard on the back of his house that I had just contemplated a few months ago. It's true that in time like this, you just feel blessed to be safe. But loosing your house, though is material matter is still too sad. There is a lot of sentimental value and your nest is where you find comfort.

I feel relieved and that makes me feel good and in the mood to blog. And all this time I have been working on these,

The violet top, is done by now but waiting for a couple of buttons, that I've yet to find a pattern, since I have in mind to either crochet or knit some flowers to use as button.

Did you notice the little plastic Clover needles? My new toys ,that I've just discovered since I started to knit the Lilac top. They are great for sleeves and the collar area.

Another project that I have been working on is this Vanilla top. It's a design that I've been eyeing for some time. The design is from one of my old AMU magazines. It's a combination of crochet and knitting, somehow I have an attraction for this type of project.

It has been put aside since I don't have time to go to the class these days. I need help on connecting the crochet flowers. So in meantime, I have other priorities like this,

Oh, I am so in love with dark reds like in my Bourdeaux top.

Ooops, there was an uneven stitch but all the way down. Apparently, I knitted through the thread and only caught a very thin one. I could feel it would rip very easily by itself, just a matter of time. It was much closer to the border but I just didn't want to unravel the border. There were a few difficult rows in there. I took the risk and frogged from the top instead, after all, they were just plain stitches. A bit risky because I run the chance to ruin the whole piece. But I did,

A crochet hook solved my problem and it is all fixed and I could not tell I had done a mini surgery there. I even decided to do a makeover for the sts adjacent. This design is knitted bottom up. First I knitted the back and front and sew the sides. Next was the sleeves and connected them to the body. I left all the sts for each part on needles and connect them all to form the yoke. It wasn't an easy job to sew the sleeves to the body. It shows my poor mending skills ; however, I think they won't be so obvious as the section will be hidden by the underarms. I am hoping.