Yarn Obsession

What to do when your manuscript is stuck somewhere and you're just too uninspired to start another one? Well, you can always crochet and make beautiful things. ;)

I started learning this craft when I was only 9. Back then, in my kampung we only had electricity supply from 7pm to 7am. So, in the afternoon, there's not much to do. No TV to watch, no video games to play and off course there was no smartphones. What the aunties in my neighbourhood would do then, they'd have lepak sessions or mesyuarat tingkap from 2-6pm almost everyday. My mom and I would join them sometimes. 

There was a time when some of them started bringing their crochet yarn and needle and made table runners, baby hats, baby socks and the most famous one was chair backs. It is so nostalgic now when I visit friends' houses and see chair backs in their living room. The popular design back then (even now, I think) was bunga nenas and spider pattern. 

After seeing the aunties making pretty pieces of chair backs, I asked my mom to buy me crochet yarn and needle. One of the aunties taught me to do 'tali air' that's the most basic crochet. She asked me to do 1000 'tali air'. So I did and made a thousand more until I was so expert I could do it my eyes closed. 

Once I've mastered that, I asked my mom to buy me more yarn. I started to pester my late grandma to teach me more. So, I went for a sleep over at her place and she taught me a few more basic crochet stitches. 

After that I started coming up with my own crochet pattern. Back then it was not easy to buy the pattern book. Some of the aunties had photocopies from their friends or families. The first thing I made was supposed to be a dark blue chair back. When I was half way done, one of my brothers told me that it looked like 'alas kaki'. Yeah, brothers are zalim like that. So, I un-crochet everything and started something else from scratch. I don't quite remember what I made after that but it was a very small piece and I used it as a radio cover. 

When I was 11, the sundry shop in my kampung sold a few new colours of crochet yarn. I was attracted to the striking green one and told my mum to buy a few of them. That was when I designed a water bottle sleeve and brought it to school. Off course I received mixed reviews from friends and teachers (not much different from writing books, eh?) The bottle sleeve lasted until I finished primary 6. When I went to STF, I had no idea what happened to that it. 

So, during CNY holidays this year, out of the blue, I took out my old crochet needle and yarn from my sewing basket and started a project. It was a telekung bag. I never knew I needed a telekung bag. I only go to the mosque a few times a year. But I just thought of having one would be nice. Once it was done, I put in a pair of my telekung and I liked what I saw. The telekung could 'breathe' too as the crochet bag had many lubang-lubang. 

After the telekung bag, I went to Daiso to see what kind of yarns are available and I fell in love with a few colours. So, I bought a few (6 balls of colourful yarns, to be exact) and started another telekung bag, followed by a few bottle sleeves. 

This seems to be an on-going project as I'm getting orders from friends and families who love crochet  bags/sleeves/table runners/chairbacks as well. 

OKlah kan? If my book project got shelved, I can always crochet. Hehe.

And the best part was when one of my gym friends told me, "ingatkan awak ni tahu melompat je. Ada soft side juga rupanya, ya?"

Have a nice day, peeps! Muah! Muah!

The simple things in life

A few years ago I wrote something here about things I love like gardening, traveling and crochet. Well, crochet is a craft almost forgotten by the younger generation nowadays. I was lucky because my late grandma taught me how do it when I was only 9 years old. 

My mom never planned to get me to learn this craft because to her, I was too boyish to be doing anything this girly. Well actually this is not really a girly stuff because I've met a few men who know how to make beautiful crochet. 

So, one day in 1983 I went for a sleepover at my grandma's house. She was all alone. Well, in fact she's been living alone most of the time as my youngest uncle who was a teacher, was posted quite far from our hometown. My mom and I used to visit my grandma during the weekends. So, that Saturday I didn't follow my mom home and decided to stay with my grandma. 

My grandma was a strong woman who's not only independent but also very determined. So, that night she lectured me about a few things (not to be a tomboy was one of them). The next day she brought out a funny looking needle and crochet yarn. First she showed me how to do it, then she passed the needle and yarn to me. 

My hands are not that flexible, so it was very difficult to yarn over and sticking the needle in the right stitch without hurting my fingers. After about 4 hours, finally I managed to produce a decent looking basic stitch. 

Crochet pun ada encyclopedia, don't play-play.

So, that was what happened 28 years ago. Ever since I could master the basic stitch, I've been learning a few other stitches and patterns from relatives, friends and books. The funny thing was, most of the patterns I got were passed down from older relatives. They were photocopied from Japanese crochet books. I couldn't understand any of the instructions, so I just guessed them based on the patterns.
In 1998, I found the first crochet book written in English. I bought 3 of them. There are about 20 patterns in each book, but they were expensive. One of them cost me more than RM40.
I've completed about 10 projects ever since. The pieces are lying at a few places in my house: the coffe table, shoe rack, computer monitor and book rack. Some are kept in the drawers as I don't know where to put them. Some are just too 80s and don't match my furniture.
The last project I did was way back in 2001. After the birth of my first child, I couldn't find the time for crochet. I was either too occupied, or I was afraid that my baby would find the needle, play with it and hurt himself. So, my crochet box and books have been hidden in the loneliest corner, collecting dust.
Last week, as I was browsing books at MPH, I found the Crochet Stitches Visual Encyclopedia (picture). There are hundreds of stitches and patterns that I've never seen my whole life! I was so excited that I bought the book without a second thought.
Now that this major project I'm doing is almost completed, I'm planning to start a crochet project soon! However, I'll need to find a way to hide the needles from Zarif. He's just too curious about things.

Baju baru semangat baru

Starting last quarter I have been attending many meetings at government offices. I usually wore dark pants and cotton work shirts as most of the offices were quite far from the parking spaces provided for visitors.

Sometimes I wore skirts, especially offices where I knew there were some Pak Haji there who won't look at women in pants. (Pants saya adalah made of stretchable material, maka memang nampak agak ketat).

After a while, somehow I felt out of place when I sat down in their huge board room especially on Thursdays and Fridays where everybody would look in their best batiks or baju raya/baju tunang/ baju bertandang. (It's so obvious ok. Sometimes ada aweks yang pakai kebaya with laces and labuci-labuci).

I have been doing some window shopping in the Subang - Shah Alam shopping malls searching for nice looking baju kurung/kebaya. I managed to find 3 pairs of cheap baju kurung from PKNS during Ramadhan (dan secara automatic telah menjadi baju raya). However, I just couldn't affor the nice batik sold at SACC mall. Sepasang can cost you RM2,200 kau! Terjojol bijik mata aku tengok price baju kat satu kedai next to Thomas & Guys tu. They all look really elegant, some even resembles the baju kurung that Kak Ros usually wore to officiate events. (Note: Kak Ros and Big Hair adalah orang yang sama).

One day my friend, Yen from Kelate recommended a friend on FB. I didn't know who she was so I messaged Yen. She told me the girl is a tokey batik and she has some really nice collections of baju kurung, kebaya, jubah and caftan. So, I added her on FB and browse her photo album. Here's her website. Not many pieces are featured in the blog, more pictures can be found on her FB album.
I ordered this baju kurung below:

I liked the batik design immediately. I've seen enough of batik bunga-bunga and daun-daun in those government offices, so this geometrical design really caught my eyes. I booked and then paid for this piece. The parcel arrived two days after I made the online payment.

I told her to post it to my office address as sometimes there's nobody at home during day time. So when the parcel arrived, the receptionist received it. She called me to pick it up during lunch break and she asked me to open it in front of her. Since I was over excited, I ripped the package open and both of us were so impressed with the baju. It's crepe, so it's soft, quite thick and when you wear it, it fell nicely complementing your figure. I loved it immediately. In fact I wore it to office two days later. Hehehehe... First, I thought I was going to wear it for Raya Haji, tapi sebab excited tak hingat, terus pakai pegi office.

I wore it on 20102010, to mark the special date. It really is a beautiful batik piece as I was getting compliments from so many people that day (the picture above actually doesn't do the baju justice sebenarnya). I wore it to Subang Parade and actually jalan betul-betul depan satu kedai baju (which happens to sell baju of the same material - but almost double the price). I noticed a few shoppers were really staring at my baju (or saja-saja staring at me, tak taulah kan...) I caught a thirty something lady who turned to admire my baju a few times while queuing for coffee.

Oh, BTW this baju can be handwashed. No need to dry clean (like my last pair of silk batik which I bought 8 years ago). I am so happy and satisfied that I'm going to buy more. Hooray! Boleh chelen makcik-makcik gomen punya batik dah in the next meeting.

So, if you're interested in baju batik, click the link above and have fun! Selamat rambang mata.