Pierrot Yarns sampler box has arrived!

Guess what arrived in the mail the other day? A box of lovely yarns courtesy Japanese yarn company Pierrot Yarns! (That’s their international storefront. The main Japanese one is here.) Yes, the same Pierrot Yarns that makes hundreds of free knitting and crochet patterns available online. I hinted about it over on Ravelry, but recently I was approached by Pierrot Yarns to review their yarns as they expand into the international market. They’ve generously given me a box of their yarns, and in exchange, I’ll be testing them and writing reviews in the coming weeks and months.

I haven’t quite decided how I’m going to do my reviews, but at the very least I’ll be swatching every yarn, knitting or crocheting something with it, and give my opinions on how it handles washing, blocking, etc. I hope to do both knit & crochet swatches for each yarn. Let me know if you have any particular requests for what you’d like to see in these reviews.

Beyond swatch-level stuff, I have definite patterns in mind for some of them. Others are just waiting to inspire me, like these cones of Sawayaka Cotton:

My photo doesn’t do the colors justice – in person, these five colors complement each other very well, with the middle one being a rich chocolate that just doesn’t cooperate with my camera. I’m thinking something of my own design with Tunisian crochet, but I’ll have to give it some thought.

Speaking of colors, Pierrot sent not just yarns, but also one of their color card books, which has samples of all colors of all yarns they make. Very handy indeed! The color cards come in a nice plastic-covered folder:

The pages inside list all the yarn lines meticulously, with every color named (something that’s not true of all color cards, unfortunately). I love it because it’s a great way to check the thickness and texture of yarns before ordering them all the way from Japan. If you were worried about color matching when ordering yarns online, this would be a good idea to have.

So, that’s what’s been going on here. I’m so excited to be working with Pierrot Yarns! I’ve been a fan of their free pattern site for a long time now, but I had never seen any of their yarns in person before now. So far, I’m quite impressed. Details on each yarn coming soon! I’m starting with ett, a 100% merino yarn, but more about that later…

Lace in November

Not much going on around here lately. Both my husband and I came down with a cold, and it’s been a pretty miserable week. With a fever and stuffed-up head, I couldn’t concentrate on much, but I did make great progress on the lace tablerunner I’m making for my mother-in-law’s Christmas present. Once you’ve made the first square, the pattern is really easy to crank out without paying much attention.

The biggest problem I had was my hands cramping up – the last time I made something on tiny steel crochet hooks, I was a kid crocheting with my great-grandma (hi Momo!). Those tiny hooks really make my hands hurt. Anyway, I’m using this pattern, a Japanese charted one, and all that’s left to do now is crochet three rounds of edging around the whole thing. Then I hope some blocking will make the corners between squares lay down a lot flatter.

Hope she likes it! Both times I’ve been to Greece to meet my husband’s family, she’s brought out intricate needlework items to show me. Then she laments that “young people these days” don’t know how to do any of these traditional arts. So I’m hoping she’ll appreciate a lace tablerunner. I hope, anyway!

Already thinking about my next project. Since I’m tired of working with the tiny steel hook, I’d like it to be something with thicker yarn. Probably knitting, too, since there are more knitting patterns in my queue. I’ve had some lovely red Kilcarra Aran Tweed in my stash for a year or two, and I can never decide what to make with it. It’s single-ply, which I normally don’t like much, but I’m a sucker for tweed. Plus, it was less than $1 at a thrift shop for 12 skeins. I’m thinking about this sweater vest, but I’d have to resize it. Still undecided, so suggestions for nice tweed patterns are welcome!

Autumn in Paris

So now that I’m pretty much settled in in Paris, I thought I’d try to blog more regularly. Since I wasn’t able to bring my knitting machines with me, I’ll be focusing mainly on hand knitting and life in Paris as an expat. Right now the leaves are falling, and those that remain are a gorgeous blend of yellow, orange, and red, so it’s a pretty time of year.

Yesterday I ventured out to Paris’s biggest (only?) Japanese bookstore, Junku (ジュンク堂).It’s down the street from Paris Opéra, which is gorgeous even on a cloudy day:

Anyway, the knitting & crochet section was so crowded, I couldn’t even reach the books. Lots of interest in Japanese patterns in Paris, it seems. Eventually I got through and picked up the new winter issue of Keito Dama (#144):

I don’t know about you, but I think that cover pattern is hideous. You can’t see it in the picture, but inside there’s a picture of the skirt, a bizarre number with tiered ruffles. I can’t see how it could flatter the wearer at all. The hat doesn’t help, either. Luckily, though, there are many good patterns in the rest of the issue. The winter issue always has even more patterns than the other 3 issues each year, so it’s quite a bargain. You can see thumbnails of all the patterns here on the Nihon Vogue Keito Dama website. Don’t know which patterns in it I’ll tackle yet.

Speaking of Keito Dama, these gloves are the first Keito Dama pattern I ever tackled. They’re from last year’s winter issue (#140), designed by Mayumi Kawai (河合真弓). Had a wee hickup when I realized 3/4 of the way through the second glove that, hey, I don’t have two right hands. After a bit of frogging, all is well.

Now I’m working on a lace crochet tablerunner for my mother-in-law’s Christmas present. Hope I get it done in time. The pattern is another Japanese pattern, 29-44 Motif Tablerunner.

Update

Just realized it’s been forever since I posted here. I’ve just been so busy for the past year that I post projects only on Ravelry and don’t mention them here.

Here are some things I keep meaning to post about:

• I bought a Studio SK360 for $7.50 at a thrift shop a few months ago. So far, haven’t had time to test it out. At that price, though, you can’t just walk by and leave the machine sitting there.
• I’ve been knitting and crocheting almost entirely for stash for 2 years now. I don’t buy new yarn unless I don’t have anything suitable and it’s something that I need (such as for a gift). If it’s not needed, I just change my plans to use a yarn that I do have.
• I got married (!) a month ago, and my new husband and I just moved to Paris. Unfortunately, we couldn’t bring knitting machines with us, so they’re in storage at my parents’ house. This means I won’t be doing any machine knitting for a while.

Here’s one of the projects I made last semester on my Passap Duomatic 80. I’ve also done quite a few small hand-knitting and crochet projects, but this one I really liked. It’s pattern #2053 from Passap Babybook.

checkered baby blanket