Neckline

What little I have been knitting lately is mostly boring. But, I haven't shown the sweater in a while, so here it is:
(grey sweater+lavender bedspread+flourescent lighting = crappy photo. Sorry.) I decided to go with short sleeves, because I live practically on the equator and even if the A/C is blasting, it's crazy to have a long sleeved wool sweater in Singapore. The sleeve on the left has been in that almost-done state for like five days now. How lame is that. But, sometimes there are things more important than knitting. Such as making friends and socializing when one is alone, 12 time zones away from home.

Anyway, I am happy that at least the neckline is done. It gave me such a headache, and I am still not sure that I found the best solution. But, here is what I did.

First of all, I cast on waayy too loosely, so when I picked up the stitches at a rate of one new stitch per cast-on stitch, it looked totally wonky. I ripped, tried a few things, and in the end I picked up 2 new stitches per old stitch on the cast-on section of the neckline and one new stitch per row in places where I was picking up along the side of the knitting.

Then I did a row of k2togs. I should not have done all k2togs, because it puckers a little at the shoulders, but I am willing to deal with that.

Also the way I picked up the extra stitches is making the neckline bend wildly... I am hoping against hope that blocking can help this out. But at least the part of the neckline in the Cleavage Zone isn't too bad, don't want to give people an excuse to stare there!

My goal is to have this sweater done by next Wednesday, so I can wear it in the arctic blast room where my weekly seminar at work is held.

Well, I wouldn't want to leave without showing a couple pictures of Singapore. I haven't whipped the camera out very much lately, but I did go to the Esplanade to see Afro-Cuban All Stars last weekend. Here's the view from outside:
You can see the Merlion in the foreground. The Esplanade building itself is really cool, I didn't get a good shot of the whole building, but the surface of the roof is neat. You can see why many people call the building the Durian:
I'll be going back to the Esplanade for a SSO concert tomorrow. Yay!

Paradise via rail and bus

This is going to be a pic-heavy post, because today I went here:

and inside it was this, the top on my list of things to do while in Singapore:


I am a sucker for orchids and I love taking photos of flowers. These gardens were gorgeous, I was moved near tears by the orchid gardens. I will be braving the humidity to visit again and again, for sure. I will try not to turn this into a blog of flower photos, but here is a tiny tiny portion of what I saw today:



Besides visiting the gardens, I have been getting used to using public transportation as my only means of travel. Over the weekend I went downtown and wandered around a bit, found my way to Ikea, did some grocery shopping. This country truly is clean - the MRT (rail) and public buses are freakishly devoid of litter, grime, and graffiti.

Anyway, let's talk about knitting somewhere in this post. This is another WIP I brought with my from the States. It's pretty gloomy here today, and the yarn is grey so excuse the lame pics.

The pattern is Mary Jane from an issue of Twist Collective (Rav). I worked the size that fits my bust but then did some decreases because women with chests my size (DDD) look like barrels without some shaping in their tops. I wanted to keep it simple so I chose to keep doing stockinette until I finished the decreases, I hope this looks alright in the finished top. This is my first knitted sweater, which comes as a surprise to me considering how much knitting I have done in the past five years, and I am hoping I worked the decreases out in a reasonable way. This thing is taking me forever, but I am enjoying it quite a bit. I especially like the Snakeskin stitch pattern:

even moreso now that it reminds me of a going-away present that I received:
It's almost the same stitch pattern on this pouch, knit by my friend Nadine. She's really new to knitting so I know that this pouch was a huge effort for her, which makes me love it more. What really shocked me though, is what my friends chipped in to get which goes inside:

Yep, that's an amazon Kindle. I had been babbling about how badly I wanted one for months, and I am already in love with the thing. I've used the crap out of it too, with all the flying and waiting I've done in the past week.

I have made great progress on the sweater since I arrived in Singapore. It makes so much sense that I am fired up about finishing a sweater now that I am practically ON the equator. Good grief.

Slow, slow progress

Well, my knitting is in chaos right now. I've got WIPs out the wazoo and in disarray. By disarray I mean



And of course, there are a few things I am itching to cast on.

The project that I've been working on the last few days is the Hourglass socks that I've been plinking at for ages. I am on the toe decreases on the first sock, though, and that ups the excitement.



I might actually finish something soon! So what if it's just a single sock. Usually I'd rather knit my socks two-at-a-time, but knitting one-at-a-time at least there is a celebratable halfway point.

Once I finish this sock I will allow myself to cast on for a sweater, Mary Jane from Twist Collective (Rav). I've got a vest on the needles right now (I'll show that another day), but I have never knit a sweater before. I'm going to use Colourmart Merino DK, and I've already swatched:



I usually don't wear a lot of grey, but I think it will work well with the pattern. I'm not sure if the yarn is oiled or not (other Colourmart yarn is), but I washed the swatch in hot soapy water and it softened up considerably. Also, it didn't felt so I'm guessing it's oiled.

The light in my apartment is a little weird right now so I couldn't get good pics of my other WIPs, but let me introduce you to some of my cohabitants. This is Big Boy, a swiss cheese plant/ split leaf philodendron/ monstera that I have been keeping alive for about 6 or 7 years:



Maybe it's weird to name one's plants but Big Boy and I have been through a lot together. My other plants don't get names.
Like this little mini rose, a new addition to the household:



One of my plants died while I was gone so I got this cheery bush to replace it. I never have luck with rose bushes of any kind, so we'll see how long it lasts. If we make it to Valentine's day I'll be happy.