Tempting & Shorts

I started 2 new projects right after I am done with the baby poncho.
One is Tempting top from Knitty and the other is Knit Picks shorts pattern.

Tempting
For Tempting I used Sea Queen yarn from Japan and it's hemp cotton.


The color is so lovely. I will post my progress at the tempting knitalong page. So far I just finished about 2 rows. 200 stitches to accomodate the tiny stitch (3.5 mm needle). The yarn is also soft. I could not resist buying it after seeing some fellow disciples knitting a top with it at teacher's shop.

Shorts
I am using Sirdar Breeze. It says it is cotton rich yarn and I love how it feels on my hand. Apparently SO also likes the feel. I promised him after I am done with the two I will start knitting a vest with the same yarn.
I have gone past the picot edget with long-tail cast-on and I am waiting for someone to tell me how on earth I can seam the two of them together.
On top of the that, I have started doing the body. Unfortunately I have about 70 rows to go before completion, but I am looking forward to this shorts

Knitting in Tropical Country - humbled by man's invention and nature

Living in tropical country where there is only 2 season (dry or wet but all year sunny), initially I did not give much care on winter patterns and yarns. I only knit those for people I knew has 4 seasons.

How about for myself? From all patterns available I thought what's relevant for me are baby stuffs, lace shawl, fingerless glove, bags, tops, skirts & shorts (Yippe, I found pattern from KnitPicks after much searching & help from Knitters' Review community).

Well, today I went to church, and of all the places that I could sit, I had to be seated at the most dreadful place.. Right underneath the (cold) air outlet!
Well, you see, we rented Expo hall 7 and 8 for our services (there are 2 per week unless some special occasion) and I guess due to the nature of the place (for conferences and exhibition) gets the organizer to invest in an *excellent* aircon system.

During P&W (Praise & Worship) it was okay. Barely 10 minutes after you sit down and hear sermon, you start feeling the cold air blowing at you. I took out my shawl that a kind friend bought for me from Nepal. It was very soft to my touch. Sitting next to me were a big guy and his girlfriend (I assume) and another girl wearing lace-knit coat.

Around 2 hours later, both of them look uncomfortable. Me underneath shawl was also uncomfortable. I bet temperature has dropped to 16 degrees, or maybe 14 because we're underneath the aircon.
So the shawl helped blocked the air but my hand still feel cold.. Brrr.. Shiver shiver shiver.

So, man's invention and nature has eventually lead me to knit semi-winter standard of clothings to survive in Church, Office and Public transport (aka bus and some taxi). During December or wet season, if you take bus in Singapore and it happens to rain, you can expect the temp to drop to around 14.

Coming out from church was another issue. As soon as I came out, the full force of the sun hit me. First few minutes was just 'shiok' as I defrost. Afterwards came the perspiration.

Similarly at home, I am beginning to entertain thought of knitting legwarmer for myself so I won't wake up with frozen feet in the morning (it's daily occurence since I injured my ankle that somehow affected my entire feet) and won't feel so crappy in office coz of the chill.

So, here I am, eating my humble pie and decided I need to learn to knit those winter items after all, coz winter *does* come to tropical country in another (much milder)form.

Finished Baby Poncho

So I finished Baby Poncho last Wednesday. The only thing I have to do is to weave in all the ends. And I am still on time to give it before baby is born! Yippe!

This is halfway before it's done:



These are just taken after I wash it (before I dry them). Apologize the quality of picture as the room is lit up with yellowish spotlight




Veron has so kindly taught me how to crochet the 'belt' instead of using i-cord (I hate i-cord, fyi, anything that uses multiple dpn and knitting in round is totally off for me - maybe I will change later but not now). She has even added flowers using the crochet stitches on both ends. Did I tell you she finished everything in 5 minutes? She is superb and I am very touched at what length she goes to help. All in all it was worth bracing the freak rains that I went thru to go to see her last week.



See the flower? See the crochet cord ? It's so nice *cooing* Thanks Veron!

Now, my next target is to do baby wrap dress that I've been eyeing at her shop. I will post it another time after I see her.

Heatiness & A (hafl) day of rest

TCM

Last weekend my dearest had fever. He literally slept the entire weekend away. I dropped by and I brewed him luohanguo. Different to the previous rounds, this time I added red dates.

The taste was good and not overpoweringly sweet, but for some reason, I felt something was still missing to make out the complete taste. I just couldn't figure out what it is. Is it the dose? Is it because of too much water? Contrary to the popular drink, I think adding longan will not work and will just waste your effort boiling. Luohanguo is cooling, Red dates is neutral (it helps against fatigue and nourishes blood). Longan is heaty. In terms of strength, I don't know which is stronger, luohangouo or Longan but it serve no purpose having them together.

Next time round maybe I will add Chinese Wolfberry (Qi Zhi?). I'll let you know how it turns out. But the drink cleared my heatiness. As for dearest's fever, well it turns out that it is caused by viral infection instead of heatiness.

As the title rightly said, I had half-day worth of rest. This morning when I wake up I was grumpy and could hardly open my eyes. I was just aching all over. After lunch, I went for foot massage and I am glad I did. I did, however, feel kind of embarrased with the many black and blues that I have of which I can only account 2 of them (knocked against bed frame). The other few, I don't know how they ended up there. I am thinking if I should go and visit Sinseh though.

Project update:

On the knitting part: Hurray! I finished little Megan's present. Megan is the name of my unborn niece yet. The thing was wide enough to cover my shoulder..ahahaha...
Veronica really helped me a lot. She stayed back extra hour to help me with the last 3 rows (decrease pattern unknown), sewed them and casted them off.
Not only that, she also helped me crochet a pretty string to tie around and shape the size.

No, it is not one of those single chain crochet. It is a 3-chain crochet, and she did a half-treble (? is this right?). So far learning from her has been a joy because Veronica is willing to share her experiences and impart her skills and knowledge. Thank you Veron :)

Needle case finished

In an attempt not to fork out $34 for a circular needle case, I decided I am going to make my own with leftover curtain fabric from Spotlight and another $2 lacey fabric for window curtain from Daiso

I got the pattern on the internet, and after cutting and seaming, I decided that it was too thick for me to sew. So I brought it to a tailor to help me sew it.

How much does it cost me? $6. Am I happy with the result ? No. The uncle who did my case was apparently having problem sewing straight even with his machine. The end result is that the end of the case was slanting *GRRRRR*

Anyway, after putting in some of my needles (I have some still being used and as we speak I have also acquired a few more), here is the result:


How is it?

Progress

So far so good. This week I sped up on the baby poncho and I finished the body. Only left the hood.. Only problem is that I have about 70 rows of hood to do. *sigh* I hope to finish them soon though. But that means it is a halt for other projects.

I can't wait to start on Knitty's tempting though. On my visit to teacher's place, I bought a nice hemp cotton yarn (oops, flicker is down so I can't link the pic just yet)

The crochet project is nearly finished. I need to sew in the lining and crochet the strap but that have to take back seat too.

The first entry and how it all started

Yippee.. Finally got the site up and running. I have been wanting to do this blog for sometime but always get delayed and 'procrastinated'. Maybe the freak rain that hit me today have anything to do with it?

Not just that but I also managed to get the progress bar up and running after fiddling with it for the past 1.5 hours. I won't say I am done with the setup but I will do more when inspiration strikes..

How it all began

Anyway this is a story on how it all began.. It started before Mother's day 2003. I had been pondering and thinking of what to give her and also pondering of the thought of learning to knit especialy after I see a girl on bus doing that. She looked stylish, not somekind of old-auntie, slim and attractive.

Anyway, an ex-colleague told me to go to Chinatown to have a look at Golden Dragon Store (a must-visit if you drop by to Singapore, they are the 'it' shop for needlecrafts, beading/jewellery making,etc etc). The only thing I don't like was that the ladies there are middle-aged and above, and all looked so strict and all spoke in Mandarin or Hokkien(dialect)

I walked around, and for some reason, I found myself at Handicraft Center at Chinatown Point, just across the bridge from Golden Dragon. I walked around to survey the place and found out there is only 1 shop that fit what I want.. I see a couple of ladies there sitting down and knitting and chatting. My feet dragged me in and that was the beginning of how I met Veronica.

I told her I wanted to learn to knit to make something for Mother's day, which was only 11 days away. She recommended to knit a scarf /shawl and there and then I began my first lesson. Veron was very patient with me and together with her "army" of disciples, she begin to teach me.
I couldn't control my tension at first and I managed to break a bulky wool yarn. She was so amazed at me..ahahaha (at that point I wanted to give up and cry out of frustration). But I managed to get thru it.

What happened to the gift? Well, I managed to finish it on time, I think.. I knitted day and night, even on dates. However, I am just wondering what had become of it though. It was a winter type of shawl which is definitely out of place for Singapore.
Oh well..