~ Tie a secure knot to join new yarn

Hello everyone!

Thank you very much for all your sweet comments on my last post. That's really a great motivation to me!

When making those granny squares for my blanket, I had an idea to make a tutorial on how to tie a secure knot to join new yarn color in a new round. In my beginning days of crochet, I often worked with the new yarn a few stitches, then turned the work and tied the new yarn tail with the old one in the back. I found it quite took time and but still kept working that way until I learned the easy but very effective way to tie a secure knot that I would love to share you in my post today. 

There are so many ways to tie a knot as well as to join new yarn. I found this saves much time especially when you have to change many colors for your work. This may be familiar to many crocheters, but I hope it's helpful to someone who is new to crochet or looking for a better way to tie a knot for joining yarn like I was before.

Okay, let's start. You have finished the first round:

 

Make a slip knot in the new yarn.

Wrap the old yarn over the hook and pull it through the slip knot.

Like this:

Slide the slip knot close to the first stitch.

Tighten the slip knot by holding two ends of the new yarn and pull tightly.

You have made a secure knot and ready to work with new yarn color.

It looks quite long with the detailed photos of demonstration, in fact this happens just within 1/10 second! :) Just keep going with your new yarn and weave all tails later on.

I love working with colors and was so happy to find my favorite way to tie a secure knot. I do the same with knitting too, and other things that need to be tied together...

Thank you for stopping by, I hope you all have a great weekend ahead - it's almost Friday today!!

~ Love and hugs, LS ~

BIG Project Started!

It's a granny square blanket. My first REALLY BIG project.

I have dreamed of a granny square blanket for a couple of years. I tried some granny square patterns before but not for blanket. It's so BIG and may take me years to finish... But I'm terribly inspired by so many talented ladies making their blankets, from ripples, squares, to hexagons, flowers,..., they are all adorable! So, took a deep breath (just as I was so excited! :)), I was headed to the craft store over the weekend and took home some more lovely yarns:

I decided to use the granny square pattern from Lucy at Attic24. It's so beautiful and caught my heart right  the first time I saw it. But it's most wonderful when I'm making it myself! Oh my Gosh, if only I know how amazing to make these sooner!

How cute to start from these lovely circles:

to bigger ones...

... turn them to these squares...

...from bigger and hot one...

and cooler one...

...to these!!! Here is how my blanket looks when it's finished! I've not yet counted how many squares for my blanket in total, it must be a lot!!! Well, still have a lot of work ahead, but attractive work, don't you think so?! :)

The more making these granny squares, the more I get addicted! I just love to take this basket when I get home from work every day! Happiness comes from just such little things!!!

Thank you all my bloggy friends for your time and words of encouragement always, you know how much it means to me!! ♥

I hope you are enjoying the beautiful rest of the week!

~ Much love, LS ~

P.S: I just realized I did post a drafted post (I fell asleep in front of my computer last night, urrrgh...) but you are so kind to leave such sweet comments. I just completed this and am so sorry for the silly confusion!

Sunshine award and sunshiny crafting day!

Lovely Jee Q at Learning to write and Rob at Men Crochet have passed this Sunshine Award on to me earlier this week. I'm so happy and feel warm in my heart for the thoughtfulness from our bloggy friends. Thank you both, it's so nice of you to think of me and send some sunshine to my days! I'm very hornored!

It's my turn to answer 10 questions: 

1. Favorite Animal: Dogs
2. Favorite Number: I have no idea :)
3. Favorite Non-Alcoholic Drink: Coffee
4. Facebook or Twitter? None
5. My Passion: Crafting
6. Getting or Giving: Both
7. Favorite Pattern: So many
8. Favorite Day of the Week: Saturday and Sunday (I love weekend!) 
9. Favorite Flower: As long as it's flower.
10. Favorite Country: So many

This time, allow me to skip the part of nominating this award to 10 blogs as I did previously with other awards. To be honest, there are so many beautiful blogs and all of them deserve the award so I think 10 is not enough. I would want to pass this award to all my bloggy friends and my followers who have been encouraging me so much with my crafting so far. Once again, thank you!

Well, back to my crafting topic (as usual :)), I have bought these balls of crochet thread, they will be used for my next project, a top pattern in my crochet book. I love this variegate color so much! Sweetie chose it for me knowing it's my favorite! I will try it soon!

I think these balls of thread is perfect for something lacy, they are just so sweet!

And these balls of cotton thread I don't know what to make with, just love the colors!

Here are 2 balls of yarn I will knit a sweater for my sweetie. When I first saw the pattern on my knitting book, I know I will make it for him! Oh I just wish I will retire right tomorrow (not 25 years later), so I can have full time for my crafting and do whatever I'd like to! :)

I love bamboo knitting needles pretty much, but the store I often visit doesn't have this kind. Last week I stopped by a small craft shop and found them there! Exactly what I was looking for! I took a set of 9 pairs, from 3.0 mm till 10.0mm.  

I just love, love, love it! Even though I have still not yet experienced bamboo knitting needles before, they are just too lovely! People say that if we use them a lot we may find they will benefit from a light sanding every now and then to keep them nice and smooth and to keep the tips from breaking our yarn. Sounds great!

My knitting needles case is now filled with these! But it's OK, I will sew a new one, as the fact is, sooner or later, I will take home more! :)

I also took this one from the mini craft store. A ball winder. I have some big balls of yarn and this is a good idea to wind them into many smaller ones to easily go with my purse - crochet on the way!

Some balls I have winded... Anything related to yarn is all so fun!!! :)

One more thing I would want to share with you, Hannah at Not Your Average Crochet is hosting a very beautiful Giveaway, just click on the photo below to check out and enter. Good luck! :)

Thank you so much for your time with my ramblings today...

Take care and hope everyone have awonderful weekend ahead! ♥
~ Best wishes, LS ~

I can't believe I can knit socks!

I love making socks but I was afraid to try, double point needles are so scary! I actually tried DPNs once or twice before, but then I quit and found it was so troublesome. I prefer circulars to DPNs. But lately after looking around some blogs and getting inspired by so many talented ladies making their beautiful socks, I came up with an idea: I would knit my own socks! Oh men! But, why not??!!

Picked out a ball of yarn and a set of 4 DPNs (4.00 mm as the pattern calls for), searched for a simple pattern and I was ready to go... You can find the pattern here - very clear instruction and easy to follow!

See how it came out! I can't believe I have knitted a complete sock, this is over my expectation! Hardly wait to finish the second one to have a pair of socks and show you! It's a very simple sock indeed, but to me, it is an achievement! :)

I got help with some videos from many kind ladies on Youtube for the gussets and stitch picking up. How cool to see the "transformation" at this part, little stitch by little stitch! 

The sock fits my leg but when wearing, its color looks like a tiger's skin! But does it matter, when the most important thing is now I can knit socks, and leave the scare of DPNs behind?!! :)

P.S: I'm having problem with my Internet, and unable to view any Blogs, both Blogger and Wordpress. I tried with Google Chrome but it doesn't help. However, I still can log on Blogger Dashboard, I can post, can edit post and read your comments, I just cannot view all blogs! How upset! Can anyone help please?

I just hope it will be fixed soon, soon, soon! Good news is I can try my lunch time to visit as many of your blogs as I can from my company's computer where such an issue doesn't exist!

Thank you for your time, wishing everyone a great week ahead!

~ Best wishes, Lovestitch ~

Knitted hat is done!

Finally some yarn left is still enough for this hat... I was so happy enjoying how it was turning out, stitch by stitch!

This is a very quick and easy project that only takes about 3-4 hours for a beginner like me to finish, I believe it's just around 1-1.5 hours for knitting experts to play with!

I made the hat using this pattern from Lion Brand. I was just worried about running out of yarn so I adjusted a little bit on the decrease for shape crown. But it was also fine, the hat still came out so much pretty and I love the rib edging very very much!

It's so soft and warm. I love this, as much as the cowl I finished last week. I believe my Mom does, too!

Wishing everyone a gorgeous weekend ahead.

~ Happy creating! x

Knit ribbed cowl

Hi everyone!

I just looked back to the date of my last post, it's almost half a month I didn't have any updates on my blog. Life has so many distractions to keep us away from things we would love to do... But I'm doing well and happy to be back now. I would want to thank you to all my bloggy friends, who always stop by for a visit, or to leave words of encouragement on my crafting projects, or just simply to say "Hello"... That means so much to me.

Well, not much for my post today, as I don't have many projects working on recently. I have just finished a cowl that I tried each moment I had the last few weeks to knit for my sweet Mom, and I'm so happy to show you here:

It's a ribbed cowl I made using this pattern from Lion Brand. It's so fun to make and easpecially very easy to such a beginer like me!

This is the first time I made my mom a cowl. She often wraps a scarf around her neck at night not to get cough. The combination of the yarn and the ridges makes it looks thick and very soft that she can wear during the cold days... I will make her a new scarf to use alternatively with the current one.

Maybe it's one of characteristics of tropical climate, sometimes very hot and dry all day, but getting so cold at night, that's why people still need to keep warm even though most of people here wear a lace scarf mainly for being fashionable!

In case you wonder, I made the cowl with three skeins of this yarn, 6.00mm circular knitting needles.

Still have some yarn left, I will make her a hat to have a set of "winter collection" (hehe). I just found a lovely hat pattern also from Lion Brand, hope I won't run out of yarn halfway! Wish me luck! :)

Thank you so much for your time, wishing a gorgeous new week to you all! x

~ My best ~