Pattern: Zweig by Caitlin Hunter, Boyland Knitworks - size M,
Yarn: Knitpicks Pearlescent Stroll Tonal and Knitpicks Black Stroll
Needle size: 4mm main and 3.75mm for neck and sleeve ribbing

Here is my second sweater from Caitlin Hunter's knitting pattern bundle I purchased a while back. The Zweig!

This design included both colourwork and lace that gives a very elegant looking sweater. It is my first attempt to knit lace and I was so confused when I saw the 'no stitch' icon on the lace chart. After googling, I finally understand what it is for.

The 'no stitch' symbol is use to mark a non-stitch column, which is needed to provide an offset for the increase round in the other rows. In other words, don't see it as a block on the chart, just ignore it and move on to next stitch block.

Caitlin's pattern also includes the written instructions, so I can always double check if I'm confused.

After finished this sweater, I fell in love with the fingering weight merino wool yarn. They are so comfortable to wear and superwash wool means I can just throw it into washing machine whenever I need to!

While round yoke is great for knitting colourwork design, the neckline is always a bit too high to my liking. Merino mix with nylon yarn solved this problem. The nylon helps the sweater drape nicely while merino is light and pleasant to wear.

I used the Stroll yarn from Knitpicks The black yarn is from their basic sock yarn collection and light gray is from their Tonal collection. The Tonal series yarn has 7 different shades of the colour. The shades change is just slight, which is kind of interesting to see on the sweater's lace section.

Yarn used:
Black stroll - 5.5 ball
Light gray Pearlescent Stroll Tonal - 0.5 ball.

I changed my needle to 4mm instead of 3.75mm on main sweater fabric as my gauge is smaller. The body part has these tiny 'x' cable stitches that you can barely see from the photos. These 'x' stitches are made from 4 cable stitches and I learned the cable without cable needles trick from craftsy class - Explorations in Cables by Patty Lyons. She's such a fun teacher, really enjoy her class! The pattern also listed a youtube video showing a similar trick too.

I am thinking of making a green colour version after saw the finished project by Knitosophy. Very beautifully made!

While changing colour, I did try the slip stitch to avoid the jog, but it does not seem to help much. I think I will try pick up the stitch from the row below and K2g next time.

For this sweater, I also tried knitting two sleeves together at the same time. Loving it, I can see myself a definetly two sleeve syndrome knitter...

Well, another sweater done, I still have one more sweater to go. I wonder if I can finish it before the Spring.

Pattern: Tecumseh by Caitlin Hunter, boyland knitworks - size S,
Yarn: Drop Lima - off white, goldenrod and dark grey mix
Needle size: 4mm and 3.5mm for neck

Super excite with this sweater! It's designed by Caitlin Hunter, Boyland Knitworks. It's my first stranded colourwork, a big love when I finished it!

I first saw this pattern on Instagram when I was searching top down sweater, (yes I'm not a fan of seaming...). I got hit right away. When I'm on Boyland Knitworks' page, I was blow away to see Caitlin's design. I end up purchased 4 patterns right away.

I first knited a swatch to try out the colourwork, I would say this is the longest swatch making ever! But it's great, because I get to try out the colourwork, see what I should watch out when I start the project. As for many first timer, I was a bit worry with the tight swatch due to the float at the black. So I did a proper blocking and it got a lot better afterwards.

I Follow the pattern instruction to get the yarn and what I left are:

1. Off white 0100 - purchased 10 and left 1.8 ball
2. Goldenrod 2923 - purchased 2 and left 1.1 ball
3. Dark grey mix 0519 - purchased 3 and left 1 ball

I quite like the yarn, it's 65% Wool and 35% Alpaca, super warm and soft. Just they may be too warm for Brisbane weather so I may not be able to wear it often.

The wool keep the shape well but because I like oversize look, I'm thinking to try another option that's more drapy and not so warm, may be I should give tweed a go next time?

I have to admit that I'm not a fan of blocking, but I did it properly this time for Tecumseh. I would say it's still not a very good blocking as I can still see tightness in some areas, especially my neck area. I'm not sure if it's because the round yoke or my shouldner is too wide, the neck keep sliding up even though I did give this area a big yank when I was blocking. I think I would up a size in neck area and add more short rows if I make it again.

Overall, it's a lovely design as I didn't even want to change the colour, I would want to try the Farmer’s Daughter Fibers Juicy DK yarn if I make this design again!

Pattern: Benton by Julie Hoover- size 49¼,
Yarn: Stroll Tweed Sock Yarn- Prussian and Rabbit
Needle size: 4mm

I made a lot of things, but don't usually document them, but I started to find a lot of benefits from documenting the things I made. I can find out what's my thought during that time or the materials I use if I ever forget them and use my lovely camera a bit more so it won't get lots of dust....

I opened my wardrobe and this sweater is first thing I saw, I made this last year around this time. Probably the first sweater with fingering yarn. This yarn is so soft to touch and I do found it's very comfortable and light to wear compare using thicker yarn. It does take more time to finish but it's worth the time and effort as I've been wearing this sweater so often!

The Benton pattern is a popular one and after seeing a lot of lovely finished sweater made me purchased it. I didn't use tubular case on as I still have no idea what that is at the time. The pattern instruction is a bit wordy but it's a great pattern. I lost a bit with the v-neck finishing, so I just sew it together and hope the best.

I brought 4 skins for each colour, light brown and navy. Really like this colour combination. I end out left 1 full light brown skins and 90% of navy. Thinking to use what's left to make a winter sweater for my doggy friend. I guess she will have many sweaters from now on hah.

I made it quite long (or may be I'm just too short!). The back of sweater is past my hip, but front is good, just the perfect length I like.

Pattern: Romper by Marta Porcel. Baby hat by Tracey Kay
Yarn: Abbey Road Kung Fu Cotton from Spotlight
Needle size: 4mm - romper, 4.5mm - baby hat

2018 is a baby shower year for me. So making baby gifts are marked with big red star in my to do list. This free baby romper pattern is designed by Marta Porcel. The instruction is on her website - creativaatelier It's a pretty simple fair isle pattern. The only down side is clearing up the ends.

I would definitely having a headache if I have to weave/sew in all these ends. So I searched Youtube and found many videos teaching how to carrying float in fair isle.

I finished this romper in 2 afternoons, use English Slip Stitch Selvedge Edge from this Youtube video for the side seam, really like the result and this technique also make seaming a lot easier.

I saw this funny name cotton yarn from Spotlight, organic cotton and made in Italy. It's pretty soft on hand and I quite like the blush colour. Use around 1.5 ball so I knit up a baby hat to go with the romper.

The magic coffee baby hat pattern is free and have an icord option. I choose not to have icord since I've done the fair isle already. It turns out great, wash, blocked and ship out to friend's baby girl!

Here is another crochet project I finished recently. Super Mario Bros! Pattern is designed by Aradiya!This little guy is so far the most difficult one I've done, but thanks to the detailed instruction from Aradiya, I did finish it without too much struggle.

I was thinking the fingers would be the most difficult parts but actually they are okay, I did encounter little problems with the shoes and the cap. I still  have mo idea why the cap didn't stay flat. There are a lot sewing involved in this project, so I did feel a great satisfaction when I complete it!

Overall, I would say it's a great project to try, the Mario is so cute and I will look out for another Mario family from Aradiya for sure!

Recently, I've been so into crocheting toys (amigurumi). I discovered these super cute amigurumi patterns by Little Bear Crochet on Etsy. Look how many I've made in a run! Her designs are so cute that I just couldn't stop making them!

I am a beginner in crochet and her patterns are quite easy to follow. I would get on my best friend Youtube for a quick tutorial if I'm confused. There were couple of things that struck me, which were the bear snout and joining of the legs.

The bear snout required crocheting an oval and I learned the basic idea from this video on Youtube - How to crochet oval. After few trials, I finally got the idea. To get oval shape, I always need to have 3 stitches in every corner.

I tried different kind of yarns to see the differences. The pink bear above did give me a little hard time as those little yarns keep stuck into the hook. But it looks pretty cute after I finished. So I would say it is worth the struggle.

I follow the pattern to join leg but later I found there will be a big hole in the joint area, so I search again and find a better join method from this video on Youtube and I did had better result.

I love the little hat on the elephant, it make the toy looks quirky. To shape the nose, I just bended the paper clip instead of wire as that was the stuff I can access during the time, I think it's a good replacement if you don't have wire.

This is definitely good pattern to try if you are interesting to make some toys. I also saw a discount on her Etsy shop for 10% off on 3 patterns or more.

I fell in love with the Yuzu coat pattern from Waffle pattern when I saw it on Kollabora. I made the coat for my trip to Melbourne and it certainly serve me well from the windy Melbourne winter!

I usually have to edit the pattern for my forward leaning shoulders but not with this one, the shoulder line just sit nicely on mine, maybe because of the loose fit? So the only changes I did is to shorten the sleeve.

The pattern comes with English and Japanese, separate files for lining and main fabric. The seam allowance is also indicates on the pattern, great feature to save me times that I can just cut SA out for fitting first.

Yuki's pattern instruction is the most detailed instruction I've ever see so far. Every step has a diagram to show the reader what to do and she also has the real photo tutorial on her website for the difficult part like the welt pocket.

Most of all, big love on her layered pdf pattern! I can just print out my size without the interruption from other sizes's line. Great feature!

One tiny thing is hope her instruction can be in white background so I can save printer's ink :p

The fabric is from Taobao and the buttons is from MRecht.

And a quick showcase on the inside. Tessuti Our Fav Top and Closet Case Ginger Jeans

I recently received a great present from my partner - A Bernina 830 Record! It was in great condition with the original manual, knee lift, extension table and the accessories box. So excited! The previous owner has gave her great care, the inside is clean and sews smoothly in my first test.

The result is pretty good, it has taken most of the yellowing off, even with my low sunlight apartment balcony. But you should get better result if you have access to a better lit area.

Below is before and after of the removal process

And here is my take on removing the ugly yellowing:

Stuff I use:

• Hydrogen Peroxide - You can get it from salon supplier, get the highest percentage you can get. Mine is 12% (40Vol).
• Disposal gloves
• Duct tape - for labelling
• Cling Wrap or some sandwich bags for covering up the plastic
• Cotton tips

1. Remove the side and top back plastic plate from your machine.

The side cover can be easily removed by unscrewing the bottom base screws. For the top back piece. Take a look at this guy's video:

Remove rear plastic

Installing the rear plastic back

2. Removing the motor case

This would be the most difficult part, I suggest you find someone who has a good knowledge with wires and motor would be good. I had my partner help me as the wire is a bit complex. So before you start, please make sure you have your duct tape and camera ready. Unscrew the case screws from the bottom base, keeping all your screws in one place is a great idea to avoid losing them. Once you open it. Make sure you take a photo of how the wires are connected.

Before you start taking the wire out, make sure you mark/label them before taking them out.

3. Cover the parts with Hydrogen Peroxide cream

After you have all the plastics, wear the gloves and cover them with the Hydrogen Peroxide cream and wrap them with cling wrap to avoid the cream drying out.

4. Sun bath

Then leave them out under direct sunlight. Now let's wait. As I said earlier, I don't have too much sunlight at my place so I left them out for around a week. Take it out and wash it to check the result.

Here are the results after a week:

Not too pleasing, still have many yellow spots. so I covered them up with cream again and left it for another week.

Oh yay, looks so much better this time. One thing to note is when you wash the plastic( I just wash it with soapy water). Take extra care of where the switch connector is. I use cotton tips to clean the water away and remove any grease.

Make sure you remove the copper residue (the green stuff), but they can be taken out by using cotton tip. Make sure everything is fully dry before you put them back. Do a test run on the motor in an open space and install everything back if they are working as per your expectation.

Since I took the case out, I also clean out the motor with rubbing alcohol, eraser and change the motor brush.

After cleaning with eraser:

Change new motor brush

Then, here is my cleaned Bernina 830 Record!

That's it, hope this helps you. :D

While I'm settling down in my new place, I realised that my mouse isn't too happy with my new Ikea desk. So I started look for a mouse pad and the result isn't too pleasing. Then I found one of my spare A4 cutting mat back in Uni. An idea pop into my head to use it as mouse pad, but I'm not too into the ugly green and yellow grid. To solve this, I made a little cover with a pretty Japanese floral fabric. The cotton fabric provided a good grip and my mouse can move smoothly and no more flying pointer on my screen!

I use adhesive velcro dots to close the cover, save time and easy to match the dots position. And I can still take my cutting mat out if I ever want to use it again.  

The pads is in good A4 size and the cutting mat has provide enough stiffness. The whole project took me less an hour to finish. Quick and easy little job!

After I completed 2 bra sets, I decided to try nani IRO fabric this time. I choose Pocho Soda, a super cute mint polka dots, which I love a lot. It is 100% cotton fabric and as we all know, making intimates usually requires stretch fabric. So with my best friend Google, I found a good tutorial from Cloth Habit on band adjustment. There is some math involved to make this work. For the bra, I only cut the band in bias and rest are still following the grain. For the underwear, I cut both front and back in bias too and use a size larger than my current one.

I also used the form as the bra lining, same technique as the previous bra. I really like this form from Makebra.com, as it's very comfortable against the skin.

I guess I might have cut off too much seam allowance, so the elastic isn't able to cover the form completely on the side. Oops...

Interesting thing is when I test wear the bra, the first time I didn't wear it right, I would instantly felt an uneasiness on my chest. I thought I failed, but I took it off and tried it on for few times and didn't feel it again. so I'm assuming it could be the fit that is just right and the cotton fabric that doesn't have many fabric ease. So if it didn't sit on the right spot, it will tell me right away. But I didn't feel it at all after I washed it. Overall, I think both bra and panties are super comfy and well fitted. nani IRO fabric are so soft against the skin. The bra with form lining gives it a great shape. so I'm happy with the result.

Hope everyone had a great Christmas and New Year break. I made 2 sets of bra and panties during the holiday! I first saw the Marlborough bra on Etsy and couldn't resist the temptation. This pattern was designed by Orange Lingerie and it's super pretty! The instruction is clear and detailed with illustrations. I also have Norma's ebook - Demystifying Bra Fitting and Construction. Her ebook really helps in fitting the bridge and editing the wires as my wire was a bit too long.

My first soft bra is a contrast white and black lace bra, I use lace trim from my stash and white lycra from Rathdowne fabrics. The rest material are either from Booby Traps or Makebra. Fitting the bra is a bit difficult at first, but eventually I got the idea. With Norma's bra, the fitting is quite good, I widen the bottom of the bridge and reduce about 1/8" of band width. The lace soft bra turn out pretty good! I made a pantie using Cloth Habit Rosy lady shorts (which is free) to go with this bra. Too bad my lace trim isn't wide enough so I had to get creative and use lycra with it.

I usually prefer form-cup bra over soft bra as I'm small bust and saw this good post from Cloth Habit on Make form cup bra. So I decide to try this with my second bra. I use the form lining from Makebra, really like it as it is very soft against skin. The tutorial from Cloth Habit sew the form to the top of the cup but I have lace on top, so I sew it to the bottom cup's seam allowance (where it connect to the frame) instead.

I dye the fabric to light green with liquid ColorRit Liquid Fabric Dye, Kelly Green and Teal and did noticed that the colour is a bit different on different types of fabric. So decide to use the white lace on cup as it shrink quite a lot after I pop it to the hot dye bath. I dye the form lining twice, the first time, the inside layer shrank quite a lot :( So if you plan to dye it, make sure you allow extra fabric for the shrinkage and don't cut it until you finish dying the fabric.Since I always fancy those super cute Japanese designed bra but can never get them in Australia, I thought to go a bit crazy with this experiment. I added lace trims to the top of cup and bottom of the frame and made big bow with the lycra fabric. I kind of like the result. I did notice that making form-cup bra I have to adjust the cup size a little bit bigger, otherwise it might be too small. So I would recommend make another sample testing for it as well.I use Ohhh Lulu Lola pantie for my second set. Because the lace shrink after the dye bath, I have to replace it with something else. So there is a not white but ivory lace on my pantie. I better go grab some super wide trim next time....  I like both Rosy and Lola panties, they are very similar design. I do prefer Lola as it has wider crotch area, which I find more comfortable wearing it. Ohhh Lulu have some pattern hacks tutorial on Lola like lace edge finish and lace back tutorials. Be sure to check them out if you are interested in making lacy lingerie!

Pattern: self draft
Fabric: nani IRO Colourful Pocho Opera (dark green)

How's everyone's Halloween celebration yesterday? I'd like to share the DIY pet costume that I made for my little creature. As Melbourne is pretty warm recently, nani IRO's fabric would be a perfect choice to go with. I picked the Colourful Pocho, the vivid polka dots are super cute and it would be a great fabric to make a spotty dinosaur costume. My idea is pretty simple, I drafted a hoodie pattern for Pepper and added spikes on the back and the hat. It's my first time pattern making for pet's clothing so it does take me a while to figure it out.

Here are shots when I testing my pattern and also testing my model's patience... (please excuse my messy sewing table!)

Pepper has pretty big ears so I decided to include 2 huge buttonholes to let them out and included drawstrings in the hat hoping it will stay on her head. But I still lost to Pepper's crazy doggy shake.

This little project doesn't need long time to sew, but it's quite fun.

Here is the finish shots.