knits n stitches

i finished my first knitting project yesterday!!! ever since i first started it in February, haha. i think i did a lot of tinkering as much as i knitted because i have yet to learn how to pick up dropped stitches (i can't even identify the problem, kept staring and staring until got cross-eyed). Dayana decided while i was teaching myself how to bind off the project to purposely yank my project away from me, resulting in more dropped stitches and me literally crying because i was so close to finishing T_T. but anyway, i finally finished it, yay!

(photo of my dishcloth)

i used up 5 balls of yarn for this kononnye mini blankie for my daughter. i knitted the whole thing using the garter stitch (the only stitch they taught me at Lily Handicraft that time). once i finished, i handed the blankie to Dayana, and you know what she did? she sniffed it, and immediately chucked it away and said 'suk' (busuk). yaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa...!

perhaps i should've washed it first or something.

there's a few things i could say for my first 'work of art':
- i am still clueless as how to weave in the loose ends. i think i have about 7 loose ends dangling about. in the book it mentioned about untying the knots first before weaving the ends in. i'm thinking, what if the whole project decides to unravel on its own? :O i cannot imagine weaving in the ends to make it look like it isn't there in the first place.
- the color combination sucks literally. at first the entertwining of blue + yellow seem to give a nice soft buttery effect. but then i realized the yellow had occasional red and black strands weaved into it, so the whole combo reminded Significant Other of a dishcloth T_T. but i can't turn it into the discloth because that would mean i had just made the most expensive amateur dishcloth ever :O
- the store gave me the second ball of yarn in the wrong shade. if you scrutinize closely at one end is blue + yellow, the other is green + yellow. the latter combination makes it look abit sickening in my opinion, further adding on to its 'dishclothness'. sigh. furthermore i used 1 ball of blue, 2 balls of green, so the color is definitely unevenly distributed.
- the blankie seems a bit on the small side. i wouldn't mind knitting it to make it longer / bigger, but i don't think the price per ball of yarn would be worht it (at this rate i should've bought one of those yummy baby blankets at Babies R Us and that might've costed less than my project, haha). probably the size is just nice for a newborn, and would make a nice security size blanket for a toddler, i dunno (i'm simply justifying the size to myself =P). but at least it's smaller than the Bumblebee blanket that Dayana loves to drag around the house. i tried to Clorox her blanket back to whiteness but failed miserably.
- my needle kept getting stuck between the thread strands, so in some places the yarn had already started to bulu-bulu. can't do much about it, so oh well.
- my mom said the material i used made the blanket heavy. i think so too.

i'm starting on my second project, this one not for me. mil's birthday is today, so with the guide of a knitting book i bought in Houston, i thought i'd knit her a scarf since she'll be going to UK for a while, so a scarf might come in handy, don't u think? (or not). for most of her birthdays we'd give her perfume since she loves perfume and you can never go wrong giving her that. not sure how soon i'll be able to give her her gift, depends on how soon i'll be able to finish it. lol.

i learnt how to bind off using the book, and for this project i'm teaching myself how to cast on and do the rib stitch. at first it looked horrible (to me, at least) but after knitting a few rows, my second project actually began to resemble something in the book, hahahahhaha. my only problem is how to switch to another color of yarn when the time comes. doesn't say exactly how in the book. in other words, there's no colorful illustration to help me out. kekekeke. i found out i'm a visual learner at this rate.

so here's my short attempt last night before i went to bed:

me likey. but i dunno how to connect different colors! =(

we went to the SONY Expo fair at Midvalley as soon as the F1 race ended yesterday on TV. we didn't go to see F1 live this year. anyway, Dayana seemed to have fun, she got two ballons. the Mommy had to participate in collecting chops and mini games (which incorporated various Sony products) to win ticket stubs so that the Daddy could get vouchers to buy his memory card.

we went to buy one item in mind, ended up with him buying a whole lot of other things NOT in his mind. cheese. and Dayana got a bruised lip for falling down while attempting to run away from me T_T.

Dayana & Daddy

Dayana & Mommy

today i went to see my Gynae. i was supposed to see her last Saturday but the waiting list was bloody long so i took a gamble and rescheduled for Monday morning. and even today the crowd was equally huge, despite being a weekday. i think i spent almost 2 hours at DEMC for a 15-minute appointment? sigh. oh my results came back ok, yay. we still have no idea what the gender is though. Significant Other has started to daydream over the possible names to give the baby. haiz.

congratulations to first-time-Mommy Dina for her delivery yesterday! i know just how much she'd been looking forward for this day, lol. have a very happy confinement, dear =D