Knit Sew City Girl

Time to Move On

2010-06-15T12:54:00.000+01:00

It is kind of funny that most normal people start to make changes or resolutions at the start of the year, but I’m a bit slow. It takes me approximately three to six months to decide what kind of changes I want to make in my life. In May this year, I’ve decided to change job. It is not that I didn’t like the company I was working for, it is just that I needed a change in focus and a change of environment. Now, after some thought I have decided to move this blog to another site. The reason for the move is to streamline my blog and my shop, so the name of the new blog will be Intertwined Crafts. I know I have been a bit obsessed with my knitting lately, but this new blog will bring me back to the reason why I starting blogging in the first place which is to blog about knitting and sewing. I might also have a dab at other crafts too, such as quilting and patchwork or printing will be fun too. So watch this space. I hope you have enjoyed reading this blog, but I’m sure you will enjoy the new one too. Please pop over (and remember to change your blogfeed) when you have the time.

Time for some Organisation

2010-06-08T20:04:00.002+01:00

Our car broke down this weekend. It has got to a point where I'm starting to see the funny side of things now....really. My husband took Friday off to take my daughter and my Inlaws to Chessington World of Adventures and the car broke down on the way back. I found out whilst having dinner with a friend at Carlucios after work. She asked me why I wasn't bothered about the whole thing and why I was still able to enjoy my tiramisu. Well, I know my daughter will be well looked after as my Inlaws are there, it is most probably the car battery that is causing the problem, my Inlaws live close to Chessington and we have road recovery so it's not much of problem. Anyway, we bought a new battery over the weekend and our car is fixed now.

I have got so much tidying up and organising to do. At the moment, you can find yarn and unwashed/unblocked knitted items everywhere. I still haven't finishing sewing up my garter stitch cardigan (only one side to do) and I still haven't blocked my blue cropped knitted jacket. I need to sort out my book keeping for Intertwined Knits (this is naughty considering I'm an Accountant) and I need to list more items. Arggg....so much to do. Kyoko and I are planning a trip to Ikea one evening. She needs to get some storage for her bread making ingredients and I need to get some storage for my yarn stash and a new clock (yes our old one is broken).

Here is some proof that I really need to start getting myself more organised:

Yarn scattered at the bottom of my wardrobe

Left over yarn on top of my drawers

Yarn still in the bag in need of some storage

Yarn on top of my craft books

Knitted good in need of some washing

I will let you know how I get on.

Relaxing weekend

2010-06-02T20:33:00.004+01:00

I'm feeling more relaxed now. I took three days off work last week and the long weekend also helped. My fridge is still not working properly but we are going to get an engineer to fixed it this weekend (fingers crossed it can be fixed). Luckily it was working when I decided to make a birthday cake for my daughter (click here ) last week. I've also been doing some yoga and I managed to convince Jax to come with me. For those who do yoga or Pilates; do you find that it is like having a good massage? My stiff back is a lot better now. The view of the docks while doing an headstand (well attempting to do one) is strangely relaxing.

During this time we went to the Museum of London to see their new gallery.

Such beautiful shoes and dresses. I can only day dream of wearing the brown sequin dress and the golden shoes at my ballroom dance classes.....sigh.....

We said farewell to a neighbour who are moving to North London, if you look closely you can spot her off to do their last shopping in this area. We are going to miss them.

Then over the weekend we cheered Kyoko at the 10k Bupa race followed by dim sum and Hagaan Das.

The last 400 meters towards Buckingham Palace.

Well done Kyoko! Read more about her run here.

So it has been an enjoyable time off.

I can now reveal the secret project/thing that has been keeping me busy lately. Well, I've decided to change jobs. I didn't think it would be good idea to blog about it until I had secured my new job and resigned from my existing one. My new job will still be based in the City and it is still close to both I-Knit and Loop (I had to get my priorities right), it is also very close to the British Library which I'm hoping to visit after work one day.

I hope you all will have a relaxing week/weekend (and enjoy the sun if you live in London).

Fixing Things

2010-05-24T11:41:00.006+01:00

Gosh, it has been a while since my last blog post. I've been busing dealing with a few issues over the last few weeks so I haven't had the time to sit down and blog. Well, first of all my fridge decided to break down on the very day we decided to stock up on food for the week (we normally buy as we eat). We had to give the food to my Mum who lives nearby. We then popped over to her place for dinner for the past week. We also fave some frozen food to our neighbours. I'm so glad we live so close to my parents and such good neighbours. We switched the fridge off for 48 hours (as suggested by a trouble shooting website) and gave it a good clean and now it is working now.

Then there was a fraudulent transaction on my credit card of approximately £5,000 ($8,000). It took several phone calls to the credit card company for them to resolve the issue and then clear the payment and fees on my account.

If that wasn't enough, my daughter's optician made an error making her first pair of glasses. Luckily she has been refusing to wear them and we have not forced her to until her next appointment with the eye doctor. I went to meet the store director this morning who has apologised and promised to sort out the problem.

So it has been a little stressful, but thanks to family and friends (and some knitting) it hasn't been too bad. I've also taken three days off this week to relax and hopefully do some baking and knitting.

As well as fixing these things, I have also been mending some clothes and I've started a new project. I'd thought I'd better add some photos to this blog post. :)

New project:

My small haberdashery basket, a present from Gracie.

Mending a hole in my jacket

Have a lovely week everyone.

Eating and Sleeping

2010-05-09T21:57:00.003+01:00

I said I was planning on spending the long weekend eating and sleeping, well, that is exactly what we ended up doing. Yes, I said I was joking, but I couldn't resist a lie in and who would refuse good food?

Over the long weekend we went to Bumbles with friends who knew the owner there.

My friend's starter; frog legs.

I stuck to the classic salmon.

This weekend was Jax birthday, so we went on the London Eye.

Followed by a friend's Sashimi and Sushi party (don't worry, I didn't eat a lot of the seaweed, just one or two).

Now, I need to get back to my knitting. I've started knitting something for the shop today, so I better get going.

Have a lovely week everyone.

Busy Week

2010-04-30T20:39:00.005+01:00

Oh gosh, I've been so busy this week. Well first of all, I had to make sure that the shop order was knitted up and dispatched. Coincidentally, I had one of the busiest week at work. I've also been busy with something which I can't reveal just yet. It's a secret, but hopefully I'll be able to reveal all soon.

All is done now, so I can relax and enjoy the long weekend (it is a UK public holiday this coming Monday). I'm just gonna eat and sleep. Hee Hee Hee!

Only joking. I'm planning on visiting friends and family and also do some knitting. I've just got the left front and collar of my beige cropped cardigan to knit up. I also need to block my turquoise cardigan so I can start wearing it. Then if I have time, make a start of my Ishbel (from Ysolda's first book). I went to Loop a couple of weeks ago to buy this lovely yarn:

Malabrigo Lace (100% baby merino).

Hopefully, mine will look as lovely as this.

Have a relaxing weekend everyone.

London Marathon 2010

2010-04-25T17:50:00.005+01:00

We watched the London Marathon today and we had an amazing time. It was so inspirational to see all those people running for charities. Some were dressed as Rhinos, Mr Men characters and all kind of animals. We were all clapping and shouting the runners' names supporting these amazing people. It was a lovely atmosphere indeed.

There was a man juggling whilst running.....truly amazing!

On our way to the pub we bumped into some friends so decided to have some Sunday roast together. The food was lovely and it was nice to have a relaxed Sunday afternoon chatting with friends and eating some good food. We then went for a walk by the river and look what we saw:

Did someone leave their knitting behind? ;) I've heard of a group of people who knit things and leave them around London, so it could be them. Or maybe someone did leave their knitting behind. What do you think?

Anyway, I have some good news.......I've made my first sale on Etsy. Yay! I was so happy, that I've been telling everyone. :) This month has sure been a strange one, I will talk about this in another blog post.

Have a good week everyone!

Easter Break

2010-04-17T10:50:00.000+01:00

I hope everyone had a lovely Easter break, or secretly looking forward to when the kids go back to school. Hee Hee Hee! I took some time off from work and we drove up to Leicester to the National Space centre:
Amazing spacecraft.

Where I read the weather, which was fun.

We also went to Cadbury's World in Birmingham, where we ate too much chocolate.

Chocolate family photos

Gigantic Easter egg.

Handmade chocolate shoes.

I've also decided that these long car journeys are good for catching up with your knitting. I've already finished the back of my other cropped jacket.

Have a lovely week everyone.

Spring and a Time for Change

2010-04-08T18:37:00.005+01:00

Being British, we love our tea and talking about the weather and the weather has been lovely recently. 17 degree celsius! The birds are singing, people are outside enjoying the sun and I've been taking my daughter out cycling. Spring is also a time to reflect and make some changes. We've been spring cleaning and I've got some plans to sort out my craft area (i.e. my flat really as I don't have a dedicated craft area). So we have a trip to Ikea planned to get a few things.

I've recently heard from my doctors that I can stop taking my pills for my thyroid as they suspect that my condition may have been temporary, however, I still need to go to my regular appointments so they can monitor the level. So in a way that is good news, hopefully I'll be fully recovered soon. :)

I've also finished my Mimi cropped jacket just in time for spring. All I need to do is to block the jacket. Yay!

Do you remember I won the give away at Claire Montgomery's book signing at Loop last year? Well, I've started the summer cropped cardigan. It is very straight forward to knit so hopefully I'll have another cardigan to show everyone. I'm hoping knit something more advance next time, my daughter's Hawaii will involve some lace and shaping with lace, so that will be interesting. I'm also planning on knitting some garments from Ysolda's patterns which will involve knitting the garment in one piece top down. Kyoko has got some lovely children patterns which involves cables, frills and eyelets, so I'll be checking them out.

In the mean time, I'm still waiting for a few supplies to knit a few more items for my shop, so I'm keeping busy. :)

Have a lovely week everyone!

Knitting at the Ideal Home Exhibition

2010-03-28T22:33:00.004+01:00

Another weekend and another visit to an exhibition. This weekend we went to the Ideal Home Exhibition at Earls Court. I met Jax at Earls Court through a friend of a friend in 1995. He was selling burgers there for his summer job and I was at a computer exhibition looking for a PC for my first year at Uni. We discovered that he was studying at the same Uni that I had enrolled on that summer. We then decided to meet up afterwards. We went on our first proper date with at the Ideal Home Exhibition in 1996......oh gosh it has been 14 years already! Such a long time ago. :)

Anyway, it was extremely busy there, especially on the second floor where they had the food demonstration. We saw a demonstation by Aldo Zilli. I'd love to try out his vegetarian restaurant in Soho.

For the first time (that I've been going to the show) they actually had a knitting stand. Yes, I was so pleased to see I-Knit there.

I'm looking forward to going to more exhibitions and shows this year such at the KnitNation Expo at Imperial College this summer, the I-Knit Weekender and the Knitting and Stitching show later on in the year. Hope to see more blog friends there.

Have a lovely week everyone.

Stitch and Creative Craft Show 2010

2010-03-20T18:36:00.006Z

I've just come back from the Stitch and Creative Craft Show at Kensington Olympia where I met the lovely Ruth (Two Hippos) and Ling (Musing and Doing). Ruth was with her daughter and Ling was teaching people how to knit and crochet. It was good to meet up with fellow bloggers, I've met up with Ruth at I-Knit last summer, but it was the first time I met Ling in person. Here is the photo that Ruth's daughter took (she's gonna be a good photographer):

Ling is standing at the far right, Ruth in the middle and I'm standing far left.

It was very crowded on the train there and more crowed in at the exhibition hall. There was so many people and so many stands. My favourite stands have to be Doughty, Fabric Galore, Millamia and the Knit Box. Millamia is owned by a Swedish lady who designs lovely knitted garment for children. It's just a pity that all her patterns only go up to 5 years and my daughter is almost 6 now. The Knit Box is owned by a lovely Turkish lady who told me that knitters there knit from memory and do not use patterns (they haven't heard of the word gauge). She had some amazing knitted Turkish shoes displayed (sorry no photos, but you may find them on her website).

I bought some 100% merino yarn, some bamboo cotton yarn, one ball of 100% virgin wool yarn, half a metre of Amy Butler fabrics, one button (yes just one) and a fabric marker pen. So I'm really pleased.

Have a lovely weekend everyone.

Happy Mother's Day!!

2010-03-14T21:11:00.005Z

It's Mother's Day here in the UK.

We spent today at Greenwich as the weather was lovely, look at the blue sky:

We then went to the pub to have a Sunday roast. Yum.

Instead of flowers I got some basil to have with some tomatoes, mozzarella, olive oil and some crusty bread. All I need now is a tomato plant. :)

We then had a photo shoot for the Audrey Summer Scarflette that I was making and it is now listed in the shop.

Happy Mother's day to all Mothers and I hope you all had a lovely day.

Spring Walks

2010-03-06T20:17:00.005Z

It feels a lot like spring here in London. The sun has been shining and the birds are singing. :) Last year I started to walk part of the way home from work for some exercise and for relaxation purposes. Now that it is warmer and the days are getting longer, I've started to to do this again. The views around London are amazing near sun set, I must upload the photos from my phone and show you guys.

This week I walked from Barbican to London Bridge passing St Pauls, the Millennium Bridge, the Tate Modern and Borough Market. Last summer they placed several pianos around London for people to play some music (if you can play the piano). I love this city.

I've also been working on some items for the shop, here is a quick preview of one item in progress:

A nautical feel in Navy and White cotton yarn.

I'm also working on some thing for my daughter, although I haven't quite got my head around the design yet.

Have a lovely weekend everyone, and for those in London, enjoy the sunshine.

Intertwined Knits

2010-02-24T14:20:00.002Z

Hello! We all have the cold at the moment, there seem to be a bug going around, although Jax is well enough to go to work. I just feel tired if I just move around the flat, so I'm lying on the sofa with my rascal watching Pingu. Hopefully, I'll be well enough to go to work tomorrow. Fingers crossed.

[I love the one with the knitting machine]

Over the last week, I've managed to upload some photos onto my Flickr account. I opened the account in 2008. I have to wait till next month to upload more photos, as my monthly limit has been exceeded. Hmmmm, I'm still working my way around Flickr. You can click on the link on this blog to have a browse if you have the time. :)

I've also taken the plunge and opened an Etsy shop, Intertwined Knits. It's taken me two years to decide to open the shop. Initially, I didn't know what to sell and finding the confidence and the time was another issue. I love knitting, so I've decided to sell small hand-knitted accessories. There is only one item at the moment, but I'll be adding more items over the next few days/weeks. I'm looking forward to my new hobby venture and I will be designing some new accessories over the next few weeks. :)

I'd better finish my Dad's fingerless mittens first:

Take care everyone, I'll go back to the sofa now. :)

Gifts from Japan - from Australia

2010-02-16T12:20:00.000Z

I received a package from Australia last week and it was my giveaway prize from Lisa and Sarah (aka Spoon full of Sugar). I was so happy, look at all the goodies:

Cute paper bags, lovely origami paper, three fat quarters, two tapes, a plastic bubble to make a teddy bear head, tags, a note pad, a Japanese doll origami kit, fabric tape and a frame for purse making.

Thank you Lisa and Sarah for the lovely giveaway! They all look so pretty that I don't want to take them out of their packaging, but I've got some projects in mind which I will do with my daughter. I'll show you when they're done.

Mimi Update and Quick Udon Noodle Soup

2010-02-09T12:14:00.009Z

I've been trying to get my act together and make some progress with Mimi (my cropped spring/summer jacket) which I started last September. I keep putting it down or procrastinate on the next knitting step. So far, I've knitting the two front sections and I'm currently knitting the back. It is knitted in one piece, so I'm knitting the sleeves as well as the back which is so time consuming (I'm a slow knitter), so I've set myself a target of knitting five rows of the back each evening, so by the end of this week I should have knitting the back sleeves and half the back. This will just leave me with the bottom section, pockets and collar. I'll hopefully have it ready by this spring or latest summer. :)

Front view
Back view

As it has been so cold lately, I've been eating a lot of hot soup noodles (inspired by Lisa's blog post). This is my favourite and it is really based on one of my Mum's recipe. I don't have a name for it, but I call it Quick Udon Noodle Soup . Here's the recipe:

Ingredients

A pan of hot water for the stock (you can use the soup bowls to measure how many water you need depending on the number of bowls you need to make and an additional half a bow)
Another pan of hot water to cook the udon noodles I have used diced pork but you could use chicken, ribs, beef, fish balls or mushrooms and carrots if you are vegetarian.
Pak Choi
Garlic
A small amount of vegetable oil
A pinch of soup
Ready made Udon noodles (you can get packets of these in Chinese Super markets or you can use egg or rice noodles if you like)

Method

Boil the pan of water for the stock and add the pork (chicken, beef, ribs, fish balls or mushrooms and carrots) and salt and leave to simmer.
Mean while cook the udon in the other pan of hot water according to the packet, the one I buy says 3 minutes. Drain.
Meanwhile heat the oil in a small frying pan or sauce pan and fry the garlic till it is golden brown. Then leave to cool.
Add the pak choi to the stock and simmer for about 4-5 minutes, then add the udon noodles.
Drain the garlic from the oil and add to the noodle soup.
Serve

This noodle is not very salty, so you may want to add a bit of soy sauce/fish sauce, but I like it as it is, because if the meat is fresh, this should be enough for it to taste good. The vegetarian version will take about 5 minutes longer as we want to cook the carrot and mushrooms (you can use any mushrooms). I also like to add carrots to the non-vegetarian version, but from the photo, you can see that I didn't have any in the fridge.

Let me know if you have any questions, but happy cooking and knitting/Sewing. :)

A Happy end to January

2010-02-02T20:54:00.005Z

Well, January is over now and we welcome February, the month of love and it is actually Chinese New Year's Day on the 14th too, so it will be a double celebration. I received some good news at the end of January. First of all I've won Lisa and Sarah's (A Spoon Full of Sugar) giveaway. Yay! I can't wait to see the lovely craft goodies, that they bought from Japan, with my Rascal. I'm so happy. They are such an inspirational mother and daughter team. I love all the crafts they make and the goodies that they bake. Check their blog here.

My thyroid condition is getting better too, the doctor has lower my medication (a little, but any progress is good).

I've also finished some small knitting projects.

A colourful pair of fingerless mitts. I bought the yarn from I-Knit, it is self patterning and I love the result. Cool huh. :)

I used Debbie Bliss Cashmerino chunky to knit this slouchy cable hat. I'm not sure about the colour, I should really stop buying purple yarn. :) I'm so tempted to buy more yarn in cream, grey, pink or blue yarn this time. Hmmmm.......I can see a yarn shopping trip to the Stitch and Craft Show at London Olympia next month. :)

A Book and A Bag

2010-01-27T12:39:00.003Z

This is long overdue, but look at what my lovely friends got me for Christmas last year (craft presents only :)) :

This is truly a beautiful book, and there are so many unique patterns and inspiration. These are some of my favourites.

This reminds me of something a heroine would wear in a fairy tale.

This fish net scarve/shawl is so pretty.

I also got a Cath Kidson knitting bag, which has come in very handy. I now carry all my small knitting project in this dainty bag.

Thanks darlings!

Update: Would you like a copy of the book? Please go to Cotton & Cloud's blog and enter the giveaway. She has also written a great book review.

Mitts

2010-01-22T19:35:00.001Z

Last year, I decided to make some fingerless mittens to give as Christmas presents for family and friends. I tried to stick to making/ buying handmade goodies and books as gifts rather than buying mass produced products. So here are some cool photos taken by Gracie and Viv:

This one was for Gracie, made using Debbie Bliss Cashmerino DK

This one was for Gracie's other half and (my Uni friend)Alex, made with Debbie Bliss Cashmerino Chunky.

Here are the love birds with their mitten on a lovely winter's day. :)

This is the one I knitted for Viv, knitted with Debbie Bliss Cashmerino DK. I do love their photos.

Here is another pair of mitts I knitted for my friend, SY, with Rowan Cashmerino DK.

I also knitted one for my Rascal, I will update this blog once I get more sunshine over the weekend to take some photos.

Yarn Sale

2010-01-16T20:31:00.010Z

Hi All, I've finally managed to upload my yarn photos. :)

I didn't intend to go to the John Lewis yarn sale over the holidays, but we were meeting some friends for dim sum near Bond Street and it was so cold that we decided to popped into John Lewis to keep warm. We had a few minutes so I thought I'd check out the yarn section, and it was the first day of the sale and boy did they have some gorgeous yarn. There were many people loading trolleys full of yarn and they were reduced to half price. I managed to squeeze into a small space and the Rowan lady passed me some Rowan Big Wool which were reduce to £3.50 each. So I bought 8 as I wanted to knit 'Temptation' from Kim Hargreaves's Thrown Together knitting collection.

The pattern is so lovely, now all I need to do is find some time to knit it, once I finish Mimi, so may sometime later on this year?

I also bought 8 balls of Rowan Wool Cotton to knit 'Hawaii' from last summer's Let's Knit magazine.

Isn't it pretty?

There were also several Debbie Bliss Cashmerino Chunky yarns, which I brought in brown, purple and blue. These were selling like hot cakes, and for under £3, I can understand why. I've knitted a cabled hat using a pattern, using the purple yam, that I made up with some advice from Kyoko, which I will post later on next week (see above).

I'll also blog about some of the small accessories that I knitted for friends for Christmas presents next time. Have a lovely weekend.

Opps no Camera

2010-01-11T20:27:00.001Z

Remember I said I'll show you all the lovely yarn I bought in the John Lewis sale? Remember I said I'll show you all the lovely presents we received over Christmas? Remember I said that I'll show you some of the items that I have knitted over the holidays?

Well I managed to take some photos on Saturday morning where we got some natural sunlight, instead of the miserable grey sky we've had recently. However, I can't show you the photos because I do not have my camera. My hubs took our camera to watch snooker on Sunday and he accidentally left it with his brother. My mother in law is coming over on Thursday, so I should be able to upload the photos then. :)

In the mean time, I'll just have to read my copy of Sew Hip magazine to keep me entertained. There is a wonderful tutorial for a zipper make up bag and an article on machine foot by Florence which is exactly what I need. I bought my zipper foot over a year ago and I've been too afraid to use it, so I'm gonna pluck up some courage and try it out this weekend.

Have a lovely week everyone, I'll see you Thursday.

A New Optimistic Start - Kids Style

2010-01-04T13:51:00.009Z

[Designed by my brother in law, Andrew Cheung]

Did everyone have a good holiday? I'm finally back to blogging and to work as well. Everything is back to normal, which is a good thing. Also, my health should be back to normal soon. You've may have gathered that my blogging and crafting went downhill from March/April last year. Well, I've been diagnosed with an overactive thyroid, which explains the unsual weight loss and tiredness. I'm starting to feel better now, my mind is also less muddled. Hee Hee Hee. Hopefully I'll be back to my healthy and organised pre-illness-self soon. The only down side is that I have to watch what I eat now.

What have I been up to during the break? Well;

spending a lot of time with my Rascal and her friends,

making gingerbread people,

visting the Childhood Museum again (I love that place),

[my hubs being silly at the Childhood Museum and lots of 1960s Sindys below]

eating lots of roast dinners, we also had two steam boat and several dim sum meals,

yarn sale shopping (I will blog about that later)

and sleeping really

There is so much to blog about this month, I want to show you the lovely christmas presents we received and a few that I made this year. This will have to wait to the next blog posts. :)

Have a good week everyone!

Holiday

2009-12-22T13:21:00.003Z

I'll be taking a short break from blogging for the holidays to catch up with family, friends, sleeping and knitting. Hope you will all have a lovely Christmas and a great New Year.

I will see you all in the New Year!

Treats

2009-12-20T22:39:00.006Z

We had another busy weekend. We went to visit our friends the Edwards, and more importantly their lovely baby J on Saturday. They are in the middle of moving house, so Jaxs helped move some of the large and bulky furniture. I helped look after the baby and carry some lighter items.

On Sunday, we helped move some of the large furniture and then we visited Gracie who invited us to her pre-Christmas Roast. Boy, did we have great meal and I was so stuffed afterwards. Alex's (Gracie's other half) made a great black forest trifle and Gracie made a great Oreo cheesecake. Thanks darlings for a great meal!!

[A non-alcoholic version especially made for my Rascal]

As promised, I have posted some photos of the goodies we bought at the Wemake Craft Fair:

Here is the colouring pencil holder we brought from Florence. Isn't is lovely.

Here, my Rascal is using the colouring pencils to draw pictures inside the Christmas cards for her friends.

A card Sculpture bought from Cool4Cats. The are a huge King Kong climbing up a tower sculpture at the show, my Rascal absolutely loves it.

A pretty crocheted flower hair band.

I have two more days of work then I break up for Christmas, yay! Anyway, have a great week everyone.

One of my Favourite Places: Greenwich

2009-12-14T16:14:00.001Z

Did everyone have a nice weekend? I spent Saturday shopping and eating dim sum with my parents followed by Chinese Steam boat at friends in the evening. On Sunday I met up with Kyoko at Greenwich and then spent some time relaxing at her place. My daughter was a bit scared of Kumo and Wata (Kyoko's cats) at first, but she liked them afterwards.

Talking about Greenwich, this is one of my favourite places. I use to go to Chinese School on Sundays where I met Gracie and Big Viv. I got my first job there as a group leader at a summer camp for children. I actually got paid to go ice skating, swimming and on day trips with children, how cool was that.
Greenwich University (Trinity College of Music) Greenwich Park in the background.

Jax and I use to go on dates around Greenwich and we take our Rascal with us now (she loves cycling there). For some reason we like to go through the under river footpath.

Greenwich is also a lovely place to knit for all seasons. In the summer, I like to knit in the park and in the winter I like to knit in one of the cafes (drinking a soy decaf latte).

Not forgetting the lovely Greenwich market that sell lovely handmade goodies. Hee Hee Hee, I sound like a tour guide (I did get an A* in Travel and Tourism GCSE). I haven't forgotten to blog about what we bought at the craft fair, I just need to take some photos in day light. :) Have a lovely week everyone.

Wemake Craft Fair and I made a Purse

2009-12-06T21:41:00.010Z

Most of the Jubilee Line was working this weekend and it made our trip to the Wemake Craft Fair, at Chelsea Town Hall, so much easier. Gracie and I decided not to sell any cakes this year, due to personal reasons, so I took my Rascal there to do some shopping instead. The hall is so grand, people must have thought we were a bit strange; I couldn't help taking a photos of the ceiling and my daughter decided to take photos of people's shoes (yes, she did the same thing last year).

We stopped by at Jo, Helen and Florence's stand first and they kindly let us put our bulky coats behind the stand. We also met Lisa there too. Before going to the fair, I've been chatting non-stop to my daughter about them. How they all make lovely accessories for children and the home. So she was a little shy when she met them.

The Make Lounge had a Christmas Decoration workshop on the stage, so my daughter (with some help from moi) made a star out of felt and buttons.

We had such a good day and we bought a few things there this time. My daughter has taken her goodies to show my Inlaws so I will blog about this later with some photos (one of them I will need to make). I was so inspired by what I saw, that I felt a bit bad for taking so long to make the purse that I was working on for a good few weeks now. But, I had some sewing time this afternoon and finished it off and here it is:

Pattern: Kyoko's Cotton and Cloud Round Cosmetic Purse

A Cowl

2009-11-30T20:40:00.000Z

Hello, I'm back in Blogland. I've been very busy lately. I've finished knitting two Christmas presents, yay! I still need to make one more and then complement them with other gifts. I've also met up with a childhood friend from Australia, could you believe that we have not seen each other in person for 23 years. So there was a lot to catch up on.

As the weather has turned colder, I bought out the scarflette that I made when I started to knit again, which is just under two years ago. The button was getting a bit fiddley, so I turned it into a cowl the other day. It is so much easier to put on now, I just throw it over my head and it is still nice and warm.

Here is how I wear it:

Worn wrap around twice

Worn over the shoulders.

Wrapped around

Just thrown around the head.

I've only got 2 more weeks to the end of my ballroom class and it has been great. There will be an improver's class next year in January for 12 weeks. I'm not sure whether I should attend. What do you think?

London Bridge and the Paso Doble

2009-11-06T20:15:00.004Z

Did everyone have a fun Halloween? Have a look here to see what we got up to.

Anyway, a few weeks ago my husband twisted his foot and damaging some ligaments while getting out of bed. The poor guy was in a lot of pain, but I couldn't help laughing. I'm such a bad wife. Hee Hee Hee.....I did make it up by driving him to hospital and pushing him around in a wheelchair. He was on crutches for a week and half, but he can walk (very slowly) now.

Last week hubs wanted to rest and some peace and quiet so I took our Rascal on a bus trip to London Bridge. It may appear to be place for business people and tourist, but there are many things for children to do there. We went to the the Fashion and Textile Museum first which is the bright pink and orange building along Bermondsey Street. There we saw the Foael and Tuffin made in England exhibition.

Don't you love the swinging 60s. I recognised a few clothes that were similar to what my Mum use to wear. We also so some cool fabrics, knitting accessories and sketch books:

They also have knitting workshops there too, but they are quite expensive.

We then popped over to More London, Hayes Galleria (see photo below) and the Unicorn Theatre, which is a theatre specifically for children. The model of the unicorn by the entrance is amazing. We didn't buy any tickets to see a show, but will definitely do so one day as it is so close to where we live.

A short update from my ballroom dance class: we learnt the basic steps of the Paso Doble. It is such and dramatic dance and a bit embarrassing to do.....Hee Hee Hee......but I think my dance partner and I made a good first attempt.

and no, he didn't drag me across the floor like John Sergent......so funny....photo from Strictly Come Dancing

I don't believe that we have covered the basic steps of the five ballroom dances; Slow Waltz, Foxtrot, Quick Step Viennese Waltz, Tango and the five Latin dances; Cha Cha Cha, Rumba, Samba, Jive and Paso Doble. We have a break from dancing next week and then we will be adding more footwork/steps to the dances.....I can't wait!

Wishing I could sew and tango.....

2009-10-19T19:40:00.007+01:00

While at the Knitting and Stitching show I saw a so many people at the Sewing Today stand. So I went to look for myself. There were so many sewing patterns selling for £5 for 4. I bought some dress patterns because they looked so pretty. The silly thing is that I did not know that the dress patterns come in different sizes. Two of the patterns where for the correct size A (6-8-10-12-14) and BB (8-10-12-14).

The other two were totally the wrong size FF (16-18-20-22) and EE (14-16-18-20). Since I'm just going to just look at the covers and photos (I can't sew clothes) I guess it doesn't matter too much.

On the knitting side I've started knitting some Christmas presents, so I can't put the photos on the blog yet, well not until after Christmas.

On the dancing side, well we learnt the Tango and the Jive this week. I love the Tango, its so dramatic and yet graceful. I like the fact that you don't have to look at your partner, it's less embarrassing. The Jive is so bouncy, not my favourite dance, but a good workout. Next time we do the Jive, I'll make sure to wear trainers and not my high heels. All good fun.

Inspiration at Ally Pally

2009-10-13T22:45:00.006+01:00

On Saturday Kyoko and I had a great time at the Knitting and Stitching Show last year so we decided that we were going to do exactly the same thing as last year. So we packed our lunch and headed off to Alexander Palace at the same time as last year. Hee Hee Hee! Yes, we, well me actually, are like knitting babies as we take comfort in routine. The only thing we did differently was to head straight to the Jamieson stand to drop off some of Kyoko's knitting purse pattern. They are great and selling really fast, check it out here.

Then we walked around in the same order as last year to ensure that we get to see everything. There were so many things to see this year and we met familiar faces as well. We popped over to the Loop stand to say 'hello' to Susan and Claire. They had some gorgeous baby knitting patterns there. Here are some photos I took on the day (yep, I remembered to bring my camera this time):

The knitted mast by the entrance, isn't it amazing.

Catch of the day

I fell in love with this cowl.

I didn't know you could do that with fabric.

I also bought some clothes patterns, I will blog about this later, the days are getting shorter so there is less time to take photos in natural day light. Once the photos are done, then I'll blog about it.

Oh well, until next year Ally Pally......

Knitting and Cha Cha Cha-ing

2009-10-05T12:44:00.008+01:00

Thank you for all your advice on adding stitches to create the sleeve on the cardigan. In the end, I read the instructions a few more times and silly me, I forgot to look at the diagram they had on the other page. After looking at the diagram, it clicked. All I had to do was cast on extra stitches using the two needle method (I think), fingers cross it will be ok.

Now, what is with this Cha Cha Cha-ing. Well, I've recently (actually three weeks ago) started a 12 week Beginner's Ballroom Dancing course at Pineapple Studios. I'm going by myself as my Hubs wants to wait until he's fit enough, so he has agreed that he will not complain if I dance with another guy. Luckily there were a quite a few single guys there, so I teamed up with my dance partner called Mike. The class is very fun and very basic really, we are only learning the steps so we won't be dancing like this yet:

[Photo from Strictly Come Dancing]

I've also start Salsa as well so it's a good thing Pineapple Studios and Dancia International are all located in Covent Garden. Here are the latin dance shoes I bought from Dancia (mind my ugly feet).

Better get back to the knitting.

Adidas 5K Run

2009-09-10T12:16:00.008+01:00

Hello! I'm still here, it's been a bit chaotic at home during the school holidays (hence lack of blog posts during this summer), but now my Rascal has gone back to school I get to have my evening back....hee hee hee.....I'm such a bad mum. I took a day off work this Monday to take her to school. She has been looking forward to going back to school throughout the summer holiday. Her new teacher is lovely and her friends were all hugging her.........so sweet. When I came to pick her up from school, she had so much to say, especially about making a windmill form cardboard boxes.

I watched day time TV that day, something I haven't done for a long time. They were talking about children's homework involving making thing out of felt, card boards, fabrics. One of the presenter said that they do not have any of those things at home, she would have to go to Tescos and buy some cornflakes pour it out of the box in order to get some cardboard. I was thinking, I have all those things at home because I like making things (i.e. I'm a big kid). My Rascal and I have is planning on making a jet out of a Dove body wash container, this is our project at the moment.

Back to the main point of the blog post. Kyoko, Gracie and I participated in Adidas 5k Run last Sunday. Kyoko ran for WWF, Gracie for Sparks and I ran for Great Ormand Street Hospital, all for a good cause. Kyoko was very good and completed the run in 26 minutes running all the way. I've been relying on my dance classes (will blog about this later) to keep me fit for the run, and I completed the run in 36 minutes.

I was very dopey that day because we left Gracie behind. Sorry darling, I still feel bad about it. What happened was that I thought Gracie had joined the race already so I thought she'd be at the front of the race. Kyoko and I were keeping an eye out for Gracie, then at the finish line I realised that the race was split into three groups. The group at the front of us were the professional/fast runners, we had got into the semi fast runners group and Gracie was actually behind us in the 35 minutes plus group. Arggggg......I think all is forgiven as she still texts me.

It was such a lovely race, the atmosphere was great, the weather was great, the runners were great and the crowds were great. It was such a great time, here are some photos of the day.

We finished the Run with Dim Sum. Yum....

Mimi

2009-08-20T12:00:00.005+01:00

It's starting to get cooler here in London, although I've heard that is going to get warmer later on in the week.

As mentioned in my last blog post, here is the project that I'm currently working on.

The pattern was in Lets Knit magazine last year and I fell in love with this cropped jacket pattern, Mimi, from Begere de France. I meant to knit last winter so I can wear it in the summer but now I should hopefully be finised by next spring. I bought the yarn from Disswool where I found out that the Esterellle in Calpico has been discontinued so the lady helped me find altertive colour which I prefered more than the one in the original pattern.

I've only manged to knit part of the left front, I'm not too sure how to cast on extra stitches for the sleeve (the cardigan is knitted in one piece). Any tips will be wellcome. Hee Hee Hee. Yep, I'm kind of stuck. I also want to learn how sew up the side of the cropped jacket using the mattress stitch. Still so much to learn.

and the Winner is.....

2009-08-17T12:11:00.007+01:00

On Friday I put the names of fellow bloggers into envelope and my colleague picked out Maria. Congratulations. I will e-mail you my e-mail address and we can arrange to get the book sent out to you. Here are the photos that I promised in my last blog post.

It is such a lovely book that I want to make everything and it is clear that Claire put a lot of time and effort in writing such lovely and practical children's knitting clothes patterns.

I also managed to take some photos of the prize that Kyoko and I won at the book launch:

The Debbie Bliss Eco Fair Trade Collection pattern book and 10 yarns in cream and here is the pattern that I have chosen.

I'm working on a knitting project at the moment and I will show you my WIP in my next blog post. So this will have to wait.

Hope you all have a lovely week and those of you in London, enjoy the good weather while it last.

Book Signing and Giveaway!!

2009-08-07T12:44:00.002+01:00

Despite the torrential rain last night, Kyoko and I went to Claire Montgomerie book signing of her new book 'Easy Kids Knits' at Loop. When we arrive, we found the shop full of happy knitters each holding a book. I bought two signed copy, one for myself, and I would like to give the other signed book to a lucky (more about being lucky later) blogger. So to enter the giveaway just leave a message on this blog post and I will draw a name in on Friday 14 August 2009.

Thank Kyoko for the photo: Me with Claire (me with flat and frizzy hair after the getting drench despite having an umbrella)

It is such lovely book, just like the author Claire who spent hours knitting for the book for the past year. The knitting pattern age group goes from 3 to 10 so I have got some time to knit something for my daughter aged 5, as you probably know by now that I take months/even years to do anything. When we brought the book we both got a raffle ticket for the prize draw and then went to have dinner at Ottolenghi and planned to go back to Loop to look at some yarns afterwards.

Photo taken by Kyoko

The food was great and dessert was very yummy . We both had the Passion fruit Meringue Tart which is highly recommended! When we were finishing our dessert, we got a phone call from Sarah saying that we have both won the raffle prize! We were both shocked and very happy of course. There were only two prizes and imaging Kyoko and I both winning?! So we were both giggling like school girls and left Ottolenghi to collect our prize of 10 balls of Debbie Bliss Eco range and her Eco Knitting pattern book. How lucky. Thanks Sarah and Claire!!

I will post some photos of the signed book and all other stuff tonight, so keep posted.

I'm back

2009-07-30T21:58:00.002+01:00

Gosh, I've been away for almost 2 months. I've missed everyone in blogland and glad to be back. What have I been up to during my break? Have a look:

My daughter was a flower girl at my friends' wedding. It was such a lovely wedding at a beautiful venue.

The weather in London has been so great that we decided to have a bbq on our communal terrace. Kyoko (far left) came with her fiance, my friend who had recently got married (second left) and my childhood friends. I found out that the headmistress at my previous Chinese school (and a MBE) also knits in her spare time. How cool is that!

My Mum taught me how to make some Vietnamese Jelly (chocolate and milk flavour) which is made of Agar. It was really good!!! Gracie, I will make you some to change your mind about this Jelly.

Talking about Gracie, she made me the most gorgeous cake, ever for my birthday. Have a look here to see.

I have decided to get some plants (that my husband and daughter will not be allergic to) and I have started with this beautiful orchid.

Kyoko and I have decided to be more active and do more for charity so we have both signed up for this September's Addidas 5k run. I have been trying to train for this as, from my older post, I'm not very good at running. I've been cross training, playing badminton, dancing and power walking to train for this (see that I haven't been jogging :D, I'll leave that till later).

I haven't forgotton the giveaway.......although it is very late.....sorry......I'll sort it out in the next blog as well as a recipe for a Chinese Steam cake.

Little Break...will be back soon

2009-07-06T12:26:00.002+01:00

Oh dear.....no blog post for a whole month..... been a bit busy lately, so I'm taking a little break from blogging. I will be back soon......

Change of Plans

2009-06-08T12:12:00.011+01:00

Last week we were planning to watch Star Trek and being a secret Trekkie, I was really looking forward to it!! So we went to the O2 and Jaxs went to buy the tickets. When the film started I noticed the name 'Christian Bale'...hmmm......what is he doing in Star Trek?? Then it dawned on me that my husband had bought the wrong tickets, so we ended up watching Terminator 4 instead. The film was ok, too much action for my liking, the only thing that was good about it was Christian Bale and Sam Worthington. Hee hee hee! No seriously, their acting was good as well as their looks.

Then on Saturday we were planning on accompanying my Dad to buy a new car. However, my Dad's old car was not being itself (I think it is breaking down as it is more than 25 years old) and our car was left at my Inlaws, so no car. Instead we caught the bus to Borough Market. Here are some photos:

At Borough Market we were handed a card from the Crafting Creatures about their Crafternoon that day. My Rascal and I decided to go to the Crafternoon, and we really enjoyed ourselves. My daughter made aPom Pom I tried to do some knitting, there were also felt creature making and cross stitching. We also enjoyed some cake, tea and a live acoustic band playing some great music. This was their second Crafternoon, so it will be interesting to find out when their next one will be.

We then went to the Tate Modern for some exercise........have a look:

Bubble Border Cardigan and Chocolate Brownies

2009-06-04T22:08:00.004+01:00

As Jo, from 'Today we are....' , would put it, here is my FFP:

Yay, I've finally finished my Rascal's cardigan, yep, the one I keep going on about...hee hee hee. She tried it on and it fits, the only problem is that it is so hot here. Hopefully the weather will cool down here in London. I started this project because I wanted to learn the basic of garment knitting, such as pocket, collars, and the bubble border. It looks complicated, but is actually really easy. The finishing is not that good, so I'm looking for a finishing technique workshop.

After knitting the cardigan I treated myself to a bowl of chocolate brownies with yogurt and fruit sauce. Yum. I used to eat this when I was carrying my Rascal. It has lots of calcium and iron and no I'm not preggers. I just felt like eating this again. Yummy......

British Holiday

2009-05-29T12:00:00.007+01:00

We went to the lovely seaside town of Bournemouth, Dorset, to celebrate my daughter's birthday during the long weekend and we all really enjoyed ourselves. It was one of the best holidays that we've had this year. There has been a lot of news that more people are spending their holidays in the UK due to the recession, but Jax and I have been holidaying mostly in the UK while we were dating. I remember one year we went to the Cotswold's where there are beautiful scenery, gardens and cottages during the foot and mouth disease (we had to disinfect our tires everywhere we went) and was nobody there. We have a few photos of me on this lovely old fashion village all by myself. Hee hee hee, we were almost the only tourist visitors in the town that day.

Here are some holiday snaps.

The award winning beach was lovely and so clean that we wanted to go swimming there. From the photo you can see the rascal trying wall climbing for the first time. She managed to climb all the way up but could get down. The guy had to climb up to rescue her. Hee hee hee, I love wall climbing too (I use to go to the one near Swiss Cottage), so the rascal clearly takes after me.

I need to find some time to take a photo of the finished cardigan, I will post it as soon as the photo is done. I'm off to dance class tonight to burn off all the chocolate font and donuts I've been eating.

KIT - that's my middle name

2009-05-22T12:14:00.006+01:00

Oh gosh, it has been that long since I've blogged. A lot has been going on recently so been a bit at work and out of work. Also my puffed up eyes is making me really tired. I think it is hay fever, but I'd better get a diabetes check as well, it tends to puff after I've eaten a lot of sugar. I hope it is not diabetes, image not being able eat cakes, chocolates and biscuits.

Anyway, I've received two lovely sewing KITs from Ruth (I won the giveaway...hurray!) and Kyoko.

Ruth's package was so pretty that I didn't want to take it apart.

Kyoko's lovely purse tutorial KIT so pretty too.

Thanks you girls!!!

We met up at I-Knit this week, so I can say thank you in person. It was so nice to meet up and chat about wool and knitting. It was so full inside that we decided to sit outside and we got lots of attention and questions from people walking by and the Lovely Craig gave us lots of sweets. He's so sweet.....get it....hee hee hee. I'm so glad that Kyoko and Ruth was there to give me moral support whilst sewing up my daughter's cardigan......and I'm happy to say that it is finished, just in time for her birthday next week!! Yay! Thank you girls (again). Well almost, I need to sew on the buttons. Hee hee hee. Here is a choice of buttons we had....which one do you think will go with the cardigan?

Now that the Rascal's cardigan is finished, it means that I can start on other projects. I think I'll better catch up with my sewing. I'm heading to Clapham/Tooting that way, so I'm planning on visiting my favourite craft shop. Yay, for the long weekend. Hope everyone have great break...I know I need one.

I haven't forgotten about the giveaway...it will take place, just need to think about what to giveaway....hee hee hee.

Have a nice long weekend everyone.

Hubby's Birthday

2009-05-11T21:48:00.005+01:00

Didn't we have a lovely weekend! I took Friday off to bake a cake for my hubby and to take my daughter to her reception class which is my first time in the school term. My hubs have taken her a few times already, but as I start work at 8.30am I don't really get the chance. It was fun as I went into her classroom to see the caterpillars and had a little chat with her teachers. Here is a photo of the birthday cake which hubs and Rascal helped decorate:

Hubby is not too keen on Birthdays means he's getting older you see (being the wrong side of thirty), but hey look at Hugh Jackman....he looks good for forty something. Hee Hee Hee!

Rascal's cardigan is nearly done! Just need to knit one more side and finish the sewing up. I tried it on the Rascal and I think it may be a bit too small. Hey, kids grow up SO FAST! Or I KNIT TOO SLOW. Hee hee Hee! Next time I will knit two size larger than her age/size.

The Spring Ball and London Marathon

2009-04-29T12:04:00.004+01:00

I've been a bit busy socially recently which is why I haven't been blogging....tut tut tut, but I have been working on finishing my Rascal's cardigan. Honest. Well, it started last Friday when I went wine tasting with Gracie at Vinolopolis. I do like my wine/champagne/Cocktail now again, but I do drink sensibily. Heeheehee! According to Grace, I was talking to my cocktail and I remember almost spillling it down myself. Anyway, I'm sure she will tell you a lot more funny antics that I was up to that day. Heeheehee. I highly recomend a visit to Vinopolis when in London.

After having a jolly time wine tasting, we had our company's spring ball the next day at the Dorcester. Nice champange they have...and according to Jackson I slept like a pig afterwards. Heehee. Here is a photo of the both of us on that night.

We watched the Marthon with a hangover on Sunday which passes our road, I managed to take afew few photos. Wasn't it a lovely day? Probably a bit too hot for the runners though. I really admire all the runners, I'm not very good at running, always the last few at the School's cross counting running. Hee! Hee!

The finishing of my Rascal cardigan is coming on slowly. I've finished the collar now, so all I need to do are:

- Knit the two sides

- Sewing up

Hopefully, I'll finish it before her birthday next month.

Colours and First Blogversary

2009-04-19T21:51:00.006+01:00

Oh goodness...I've been blogging for just over one year. This blog was started so that I could comments on other blogs instead of lurking around, also to improve my knitting, sewing and photography skills. I have to say that my knitting and sewing have been coming on slowly, but I felt that my photography skill need more improvement. So on my trip to Norwich and I decided to take some colourful photos inspired by Janet Brocket, whose blog have so many lovely photos full of colour (without using Photoshop). I've asked my husband to get me photoshop, but he's been ignoring me, so will have to wait till he has some time to install it for me.

These photos were taken at the French Market at Norwich:

Ripe tomatoes

Artichoke

Strawberries

Liquisious - forgotton how to spell this

I've noticed that other blogs have giveaways for their blogversay, so I will sort something out.

Easter Break

2009-04-14T21:26:00.009+01:00

I hope everyone had a lovely Easter Break!!

We had a very busy Easter over here. I had written notes of all my plans for Easter, including Easter Egg Hunt with clues and handmade hot cross buns and chocolates. However, there was a change of plan. Instead of clues we had a one where all the kids ran wild around the flat looking for their eggs. The hot cross buns and chocolate will have to wait until later....as my Mum would say......'you don't have to wait till Easter to eat hot cross buns and chocolate'. Hee! Hee! I will try and make some later.

The reason for the last minute change of plans is that Jaxs wanted to take the Rascal and her friends to the V&A Museum to made Easter Egg bonnets. I have never been to the V&A Museum and there is just so much to see. I didn't get a chance to see the hat exhibitions, so I'm planning another trip there in the near future.

Also Jaxs and his best mate planned a trip to Norwich over the long weekend so we all went including my Rascal and De (Jax best mate's wife). We stopped over at Colechester where we visited Colechester Castle and its Park.

Our hotel was right next to Norwich football pitch (yep my Jaxs is a football fan) and very close to Delia Smith's restaurant which had table for that the weekend!!! But we didn't go in the end....again, I must make another trip up there just for Delia.

The next day we went to Great Yarnmouth, the weather forecast mentioned rain at 1pm....so we were prepared to get out brollies out...but it didn't rain. Hooray!! It was a lovely sunny day where Rascal and I collected pebbles and drew pictures in the sand.

The last day was spent in Norwich town centre and a lovely town called Lavenham.

Jarrolds in Norwich Town Centre

The Wonky Art Center in Laverham. We went to a lovely 4 star pub/hotel were we ate cream teas, which was lovely and the shops there were so pretty. Yep.....I need another trip there.

I'm hoping to get some time to do some crafting later on this month and finish the Rascal never ending cardigan. Fingers crossed.

Principles

2009-04-04T21:58:00.008+01:00

Last week, everyone who worked in the City were expecting major disruption on Wednesday and Thursday during the G20 Summit. At work we were told to dress down or work at home by the Senior Partner, but a few of us (including me) decided to go to work as usual and wear our normal work clothes. The protesters have a right to put their message (I agree that the banks have been too greedy and are partly responsible for the mess we have at the moment) across peacefully which most of them did, so we have to the right to go to work and not be attacked. They should be sensible enough not to attack innocent people trying to go to work to make a living who are all hoping that they will not be made redundant. My husband told me not to wear a suit but my stubborn side took over and I decided to stand up for my principles.

In fact I had a easy commute all last week, I even got a seat on the tube! A nutter (not a protester) gave me a bit of trouble on my way to work on Thursday, but a police was present later on and then for the rest of the week. At work all we could hear were police car sirens, helicopters hovering around and there was a dummy horse on Old Street. I realised the chaos on Wednesday evening on the news but still wore my normal work clothes the next day which turn out to be relatively quiet in the City.

[Bank of England on Thursday...relatively quite. The protesters only used chalk to write on the wall]

Anyway, enough politics for now. I'm on my Easter break, one week off work...hurray!! I'm going to stay at home and get some sleep. Hee hee hee! Partly true, I'm planning on spending some time with my family and friends.

Check out this Scandinavian website, lovely Swedish handicraft. I found this website at the Ideal Home Exhibition where they had a they had a Stand. I love the hand knitted Shaw.

Have a nice Easter Break everyone!

Ideal

2009-03-30T20:54:00.005+01:00

I had an interesting week just gone. I baked some cakes for charity and ate lots of them too, including a coffee cake and walnut loaf that my colleague made. I've started taking dance exercise class to burn of all the calories from those cakes and chocolates. Gyms don't agree with me, I just get bored and give up, but dance is fun (and we have a sexy male instructor....hee heeee).

Jaxs and I went to the Ideal Home Exhibition on Saturday. I met Jaxs at Earl Court almost 15 years ago and then kept in touch at Uni. Gosh, I can't believe I've been with him for so long.......Hee Hee Hee......Jaxs is OK.....we've had our moments, but we're still going to Earls Court together...Hee Hee Hee! Also he's been very sweet buying Let's Knit Magazine for me while the checkout guy and the couple behind him laugh.

The Ideal Home was fun and interesting, there is a lot of focus on home improvement and making the most of what you have got than buying and renovating. Jaxs was surprised by the amount of focus on textiles and now understands my obsession with fabric and yarn. Here are few photos of what we saw:

A beautiful beach hut decorated in light blue and cream, my favourite colours.

A wooden boat...yes...I'm thinking of the sea now.

Pretty French Macaroons from a Laduree stall.

On our way home, I couldn't resist taking a photo of this Ikea poster, there were more of them at Earls Court Station. Funny eh...

Sunny Mothers' Day and the Stitch and Craft Show

2009-03-22T21:16:00.009Z

I had a really bad time last week (London Transport related as usual and will blog about this later) so this weekend I decided to really treat myself.

On Saturday I went to the Stitch and Craft Show at London Olympia. There were more people than last year, I guess lots of daughters (and/or sons) decided to treat their mothers this weekend. Before I went I had a chat with Gracie who told me to not to buy anymore yarn, which is good advice as I'm running out of space in my small flat. I said I wouldn't buy yarn but I didn't say I wouldn't buy fabric...Heeheeheeee! The first stand that caught my eye was Fabric Galore. Two Hippos is so right, it is such a great shop (in Battersea). The lady at the stall said that what she had on that day is just a fraction of what she has at the shop. I must make a visit there when I get the chance. Anyway, this is what I bought:

When I miraculously find time to do some sewing, I'm hoping to make a skirt with the green Liberty fabric and a bag with the leafy fabric. Two more weeks to my Easter Holiday, when I hopefully get more sleep and time to spend with my Rascal...and do some sewing or knitting.

I also had a good day today...the sun was shining, the birds were singing and Rascal and I skipping by the docks (yes....this is not a joke...we really were doing that....that's what people do around here when the sun is shining ....Gracie knows all about that).

I received a lovely daffodil (in a mini Evian bottle) and a card from my daughter. We decided to have strawberry muffins for breakfast and tea (from a teabag given to me as a Mothers' Day present.

We spent the rest of the day around the Docklands and then to the Childhood Museum.

I hope everyone had a great Mothers Day!

Cables and more Painting

2009-03-16T12:22:00.006Z

I have been avoiding cables since I started knitting. A lot of my knitting friends have said that it is very easy, but for some reason it just looks too fussy to me. Anyway, the other day Jackson's Aunt knitted my rascal a beautiful cardigan with lots of cables (will post a photo when I'm at home during the day instead of being at work). Also, after reading Kyoko's blog which have lots of pretty patterns involving lots of cables, I simply had to overcome my fear. So last week I ask my Mother in Law to show me how to knit cables, and it clicked! I can do proper cables and read knitting instructions with them now. Here is a small swatch of our practicing session. Not bad eh...

This weekend, I took the rascal to Greenwich to Biscuit the pottery cafe to do more painting. She painted pretty plate which should be ready for us to collect next week.

Jax is not very keen on kids painting, playing with Plasticine and play dough. To be honest I don't think my parents where either as I don't remember don't any of those things when I was a child. However, my Rascal enjoys all of these things so I have some play dough, Plasticine and paints in our flat so she can be creative and enjoy painting and making things. I've also bought two compact water paints as well so we can both do some painting over Easter. Hee! Hee! Hee!

Stitch and Creative Craft Show

2009-03-10T20:09:00.000Z

I took my rascal to the Stitch and Creative Craft Show at London Excel on the 28th last month. The venue is smaller compared to the Knitting and Stitching Show, at Alexander Palace which is a good thing, because I could take my rascal there and still be able to see everything. My rascal tried silk painting and thoroughly enjoyed it, here is a photo, I must frame the painting.

[Half way through the painting]

There wasn't much in terms of knitting and sewing there, but I'm planning on going to the one in London Olympia this month [if my daughter is ok] which promises two floors of crafting, one for sewing and the other for knitting. Yay!! Looking forward to that... let me know if anyone is interested in going, it would be nice to meet some fellow bloggers there.

On the cardigan front...not much happening but I've started another hat....Hee! Hee! Hee!

Here is a photo of some seriously delicious [I can't remember what these are called...choux...something] made by Gracie (it was so yummy that I secretly ate 3....Hee! Hee! Hee!)

[My daughter helped with the chocolate topping and the cream...]

Spring and Female Icons

2009-03-02T20:17:00.001Z

Happy Spring! It's lovely that the days are getting longer and the weather is getting warmer (I hope the reports on more snow and cold weather are not true). I'm still finishing of the cardigan and avoiding new projects so I have nothing to show. Hopefully I'll get my act together, but feeling very tired after work. Anyway, I found this meme on Sweet Tiding's blog and thought I'd test it out. I was secretly hoping that I would end up being a Audrey (Hepburn) or a Grace (Kelly), but look who I am:

Your result for Are You a Jackie or a Marilyn? Or Someone Else? Mad Men-era Female Icon Quiz...

You Are a Katharine!

You are a Katharine -- "I am happy and open to new things"

Katharines are energetic, lively, and optimistic. They want to contribute to the world.

How to Get Along with Me

* Give me companionship, affection, and freedom.
* Engage with me in stimulating conversation and laughter.
* Appreciate my grand visions and listen to my stories.
* Don't try to change my style. Accept me the way I am.
* Be responsible for youself. I dislike clingy or needy people.
* Don't tell me what to do.

What I Like About Being a Katharine

* being optimistic and not letting life's troubles get me down
* being spontaneous and free-spirited
* being outspoken and outrageous. It's part of the fun.
* being generous and trying to make the world a better place
* having the guts to take risks and to try exciting adventures
* having such varied interests and abilities - not sure about abilities, but I do have a lot of interests. Hee! Hee!
What's Hard About Being a Katharine
* not having enough time to do all the things I want - you can say that again
* not completing things I start - well apart from ballet, piano and my yoga course, I think I have completed most things....ok I will finish the cardigan.
* not being able to profit from the benefits that come from specializing; not making a commitment to a career
* having a tendency to be ungrounded; getting lost in plans or fantasies
* feeling confined when I'm in a one-to-one relationship

Katharines as Children Often

* are action oriented and adventuresome - my Mum knows all about this. I was fairly active as a child, you can often find me hanging upside down in the playground and/or on the monkey bars (until I broke my arm)
* drum up excitement
* prefer being with other children to being alone
* finesse their way around adults
* dream of the freedom they'll have when they grow up

Katharines as Parents

* are often enthusiastic and generous
* want their children to be exposed to many adventures in life - Jaxs knows all about this
* may be too busy with their own activities to be attentive - ahem...yep guilty, but only when I'm reading or knitting. Honest.

Take Are You a Jackie or a Marilyn? Or Someone Else? Mad Men-era Female Icon Quiz at

Go on have a go....

Pancake Day and Baking

2009-02-24T21:04:00.006Z

Happy Pancake Day everyone! I hope everyone have been eating lots of yummy pancakes. I made some over the weekend and thoroughly enjoyed it.

I haven't been doing much crafting as I'm still finishing my daughter's cardigan and I'm trying not to get distracted by other projects. However, I've been doing some baking. After reading Domesticali's blog on making cinnamon buns, I had to make them. It's funny how you could give the same recipe to two people and the end product will always be different. The buns tasted lovely (even Mum said so......so it must be good) but it looked nothing like the ones Domesticali made nor does it look like the ones The Black Apple made. I think I need to knead the dough a bit more next time and perhaps glaze it before baking. The next thing I must make is Jo's Heritage Lemon Cake which looks absolutely scrumptious.

Ok...I'd better get back to the cardigan.

Finishing Techniques and an 80s Strawberry Cake

2009-02-18T12:08:00.012Z

I hope everyone had a lovely Valentines Day. Here is a photo of the London Eye that I took while waiting for the river boat with my Hubby.

It's currently half term and I took Monday off to entertain the kids. We bought some popcorn and I made some hot dogs while they watched High School Musical III at my flat. It was all good fun, the older kids watched and sang while the younger kids got a bit bored and brought out the train set.

I'm very close to finishing my daughter's cardigan. This is my first attempt at knitting a garment and I am a bit confused with all the finishing instructions. What do they mean by picking up stitches? I have a some yarn still attached near the neck bit...what do I do with that? How do I sew up the pockets? To try and teach myself these techniques I bought this book.

Hopefully it will answer my questions.

On another subject; I've been addicted to 'Dancing on Ice' recently. I just love it! I was watching a documentary on Torvill and Dean...could you believe that it has been 25 years since they won the Winter Olympics! I remember watching bolero on TV and being completely mesmerised. I haven't been ice skating for more than 10 years....must go one day. Anyway, being inspired by the 80s, I picked up an 80s cookery book that my Dad bought me and made a strawberry cream cake. I was assisted by the Twins who helped to decorate...what do you think?

I-Knit Tomorrow

2009-02-11T21:42:00.008Z

Oh dear. I've been telling everyone that I will be going to I-Knit tomorrow. However, my rascal has caught a bug and is not feeling too great. Poor thing. So I will be spending some time with her tomorrow evening. A few e-mails have been sent but I thought I'd better let everyone know by writing a quick blog post as well.

I'm hoping to go to I-Knit next Thursday evening and I have arranged to go to Loop next Thursday lunch time with a colleague too. Fingers cross. There are also plans to go to the 'Stitch and Creative Craft Show' at Excel this month with my daughter. I took her with me last year and we had a really good time. Here is a photo of my cheeky girl and a lovely lady showing us how to spin yarn.

Trying to do too much

2009-02-07T00:45:00.011Z

There is SO MUCH I want to do and make....better make a list:

Finish my daughter's cardigan

Take some photos of a fellow bloggger's photo cards (I'm struggling due to poor lighting...where is the sun??) that I received during Christmas and to blog about this month
Goodie bags for my daughter's birthday in May (I need to plan ahead as I do take a long time to do things)
Knit an apple hat for my daughter
Attempt to knit some socks with this Harry Potter yarn and with my new Brittany needles both from I-Knit

Knit another hat, but this time with this yarn

Try making some mittens/wrist warmers (I've drawn up some designs I want to test out)
Attempt to make some summer clothes
Make my first knitted garment for myself - I'm thinking of making a vest using the Debbie Bliss Stella yarn, but I'm not sure whether I have enough yarn, I might look at Ravely. Also I really like the Bergere de France Cropped Jacket

Do anyone have the same problem?

On another subject; I've been asked by Annie from Overmilkwood to show a photo of the finished hat in my last blog post. However, I was so excited to give it to my Mum (third attempt at knitting her a hat after my previous attempts), that I didn't take a photo of her wearing it. Luckily I asked my hubby to model it for me just after knitting it (he doesn't like wearing hats but I forced him to model it...Hee! Hee! Hee!). The hat looks better on my Mum though, I'll take a better photo once I have finished the blue version and I will model it myself next time.

Snowed In and a New Hat for Someone Special

2009-02-02T21:40:00.013Z

On Sunday evening when it started snowing I was joking with my hubby that we will all be snowed in and there will be no public transport to take us to work. Well, that is exactly what happened today. My Mum got totally snowed in so she could not look after my daughter and I could not get to work. This is the first time my Rascal has ever seen so much snow. At lunch time we went for a walk nearby and helped our neighbours make a giantic snowmen. The view was absolutely amazing. Look at the palm trees covered in snow and the statue below looks like it is wearing a hat and a cape.

[knee deep snow!]

Over the weekend I managed to finish a hat (using the lovely yarn from I Knit) for some one special (my Mum), just in time for the snow. I got this pattern from my first knitting book, Knit 101 (Vogue Knitting). It is a straight forward pattern knitted in the round. It's quite a masculine hat, but the size is just right. I might make another one in blue and purple next time.

In the evening I felt like eating apple pies so I made some mini ones.

The snow is melting now...fingers cross the snow will melt and things will get back to normal.

The Knitting Haven

2009-01-30T13:52:00.013Z

I was really please when I Knit moved from Vauxhall to Waterloo. It is a bus journey from my current work place and quick tube journey home. So yesterday I arranged for my Mother in Law and husband to keep my daughter entertained while I went to one of their Knitting nights (every Wednesday and Thursdays). I arrived just before six and it was almost full already, but I was feeling a bit hungry so I went to have a quick dinner nearby. By the time I got back (approx 6.30pm) it was absolutely full. I managed to squeeze my way to back and was offered a stall to sit on. I bought my daughter's cardigan with me and started kniting one of the sleeves.

This is the first knitting group I've ever been to and it was lovely. Chatting to fellow knitters and looking at each other's projects and yarns. So I really enjoyed myself and I hope (if I have the time) to go more often as it is so conveniently situated. I also bought a ball of yarn, I saw this guy knitting with it and it looked lovely. Here is the progress I made with the sleeve and the yarn I bought:

I made a little mistake which I corrected at home...I was too busy listening to some gossip.

Before I forget, here are some photos of the New Year Hot Pot we had at my Mums. There were some yummy oysters in the blue bowl. All the ingredients are prepared and everyone helps themselve to the food; cooking it in the hot pot of soup. Yum.

First Awards

2009-01-25T11:36:00.003Z

The lovely Hannah from Span's Stitchin' has given me my first awards...yay! Thanks! There are some rules (although according to Hannah they are not compulsory..) which are:

1) Put the award on your blog - will be there in a minute

2) Put a link on your blog of the blogger who gave you the award - done

3) Nominate 5 other bloggers - I nominate:

Kyoko from Cotton and Cloud - amazing knitting and tutorials.
Lupin from Bugs and Fishes - the first blog I read
Helen from Angharad - Lovely knitting and sewing
Two Hippos - I always get good tips on where to buy crafty things in London
Jo from Today we are - Great blog and always to the point

I use to lurk around blogland reading these blogs and it looked like fun so decided to join in....thanks for all the inspiration girls!

4) Leave a comment on their blog notifying them - will do

5) List 5 things that I'm addicted to so here goes: Hmmmm there is quite a few:

Blogging is one....it is very addictive
Knitting
Buying books and magazines - Amazon and books shops are very dangerous places....
Puddings and cakes - I always like to have something sweet after a meal
This is a recent craze but puzzle games....especially sudoko

Today is Chinese New Year Eve, so will be popping over to my Mums for Hotpot tonight. Yay...will post some photos if I get the chance. In the mean time the lovely Grace Lee has baked an amazing Chinese New Year cake... have a look on our blog.

Simple Scarfette and Buttons

2009-01-18T20:16:00.002Z

My daughter has got to the age when she wants to be 'just like Mummy'. So when she saw my scarfette she asked whether she could have one but in green and pink (her favourite colours apparently). Being a bad Mum, it has taken me several weeks to make her one. Tut tut tut.... But last week I got the yarn and knitted her a very simple scarfette. We had a good time talking about what it should look like and then choosing the button.

She can only wear it during the weekend because her school uniform colours are red, grey and white. 'The Twins' (you know who you are), if you are reading this let me know whether you like the pattern and I will get going with the knitting, you can also choose your own buttons from my 'small' button collection.

On another subject, everyone seems to be knitting mittens/hand warners these days (well in blog land anyway). So I have been experimenting and I have made this lace warmer...

I use part of the Purl Bee pattern and made a few mistake, such as forgetting to change to the purl stitch when I turned the hand warmer to knit the thumb hole. Also, I thought I'd be clever and finish the pattern in a different way. Oh well, I think I'd better stick to something simpler next time.

Computer problems

2009-01-17T21:16:00.003Z

I'm currently experiencing computer problems and won't be able to blog for the next few days. Hubby is currently trying to fix it, but it may take some time. Fingers cross it will be fixed soon as I have a few things to blog about.

The 'Husband Scarve' is finished!!

2009-01-11T08:30:00.001Z

I hope eveyone has settled back to their normal routine and not missing the holidays too much. The weather has been exceptionally cold here in London, today it was -2 where we live. To cheer myself up before starting work again, I made some carrot cakes for friends and family (I ate 3 which was very naughtly) last Sunday. Yum Yum, I'm tempted to make some more, but I think I will make the healthy version instead of the 'ultimate' one next time.

Waking up at 6.30am instead of 10.30am was definately a shock to the system. Although the walk to the station in sub-zero temparature is not something I would do out of choice (we have unreliable buses here) but the scenery was absolutely beautiful in my view. Here is a photo I took on my mobile:

I wanted to just watch the ducks and swans 'iceskating', but I had to get to work on time. I arranged to go to Loop on Thursday lunch time with a colleague and bought two circular needles, two row counters and needle point protectors. The lady at Loop gave me some advice on the magic loop technique, which is to use circular needles with a longer cable (80cm to 100cm). I told her that I wanted to knit some socks, mittens and hats, using this method. She was so helpful, no wonder they won 'Local Yarn Shop of the Year' (Lets Knit Magazine Award).

Anyway, the whole point of this post to say that I've finally finished my husband's never ending scarve. I initally knitted it using 4mm by mistake, so I unwinded it a re-knitted it using the correct 8mm needles. Yay! Just in time for the cold weather too!

Crafting: How to save money I - Buying Yarn

2009-01-08T20:06:00.005Z

I do love crafting as a hobby, but at times it can be very expensive. I like to have a rough budget on what I spend (with the exception of food though), but I've been very naughty when it comes to buying yarn, fabrics, etc. So I thought it would be good idea to get some advice on how to save money but not comprise on the quality of the end product. Please let me know if any of you crafty bloggers have a blog post or any advice on this subject.

I have got some advice already and will list my top 10 below. The first one is buying yarn. I must refer to this excellent blog post by Moo Cow Knits, this is more about which yarn to buy, but gives excellent tips on alternative 'cheaper' yarns. I have used the Robin SuperChunky yarn mentioned in the post and the quality is quite good. You could also put the knitted garment in the washing machine at 30 degrees (celcius). Other tips I have picked up from others and from experience are:

Wait till the John Lewis/Liberty/Peter Jones sale. They usually have two; one after Christmas and another during the summer. Put the dates in your diary, decide on your knitting projects and then stock up. Yarns are often discounted to 50% of the price.

This one is quite obvious but go to a local charity shop. My friend, Delene, goes to one in Wimbledon and always come back with beautiful yarns which are new and/or in very good conditions.

Bought a jumper in the sale and then hated it, or it does not fit and nobody wants it. Unwind it and make something else.

Do you know anyone who is having a spring clean and want to get rid of some yarn that they bought, but never used? Ask whether you could have them. I kept on hinting to my friend Alex on how I love knitting etc, so when he was having a clean out he gave me some left over yarn, needles and some great knitting pattern books.

Go to the local habberdasheries. They often sell good quality yarn, sometimes, in bulk, at a good price. I go to the Wimbledon Sewing Centre Craft Store which is not in Wimbedon, but between Balham and Tooting.

On holiday? Spot some nice and good quality yarn? Good price. Have a project in mind? Buy it!

I find that craft shows are a bit hit and miss with regards to yarn, but Kyoko and I found some wonderful Norweigen yarn at the Knitting and Stitching Show.

I'm not sure about Ebay as I don't really buy much yarn from the internet (I like to touch and feel the yarn before I buy), but according to some bloggers, it is a great place to buy good quality yarn at a good price.

This may not be a good thing to say and it may horrify most dedicated knitters, but 'buy as you knit', decide on your projects, write a shopping list and stick to it.

If you know how to and have the right tools, spin and/or dye your own yarn.

I don't think I will be able to follow all these advice, but I guess 5 out of 10 is not bad....Hee! Hee! Hee! Again, please let me know if anyone have anymore tips on buying good quality yarn for a good price....I'm always up for a bargain.

A New Start to the Year

2009-01-03T23:00:00.003Z

Happy New Year!! I hope everyone had good New Year. As usual we had a small party on New Year Eve at ours, and then we headed to the communal terrace to watch the fire works with our neighbours. I forgot to take my camera so here is a photo on television that I took later on.

As a start to the new year I decided to give our small flat a tidy, the bookshelves were rearranged to accomodate all the new books, food cupboard re-organised, other cupboard cleared, a few teddies had to go to storage and my small craft draw got rearranged, here is a before and after photo:

Before:After:

I don't think I will be buying anymore yarn or fabrics....no more space I think....Hee! Hee! Hee!

Christmas Pressies - I love books!

2008-12-31T20:00:00.009Z

I hope everyone had a good Christmas. We had a lovely Christmas with family and friends. My daughter loves watching Wallace and Gromit which is always on the television during the Christmas holidays. While she watching 'A Close Shave' she pointed out that Gromit knits just like Mummy, which made everyone laugh. Hee! Hee! Hee!

Ahhh...my friends and family know we so well. I love books especially knitting, sewing, crafting and baking. So I'm so grateful to have received these wonderful books for Christmas. I love you guys/gals....thanks!

Pretty Knits: A beautiful knitting book by the owner of Loop:

One Day Summer Clothes: I might attempt to sew some summer clothes next year

Nigella Christmas: Arr the Goddess...I enjoyed the programme and now I have the book...yay!

Cakes and Desserts: This is from Santa at work (secret Santa)

My husband got these pressies for Christmas:

Chinese Cooking made Easy: He has been watching and learning...now he has the book

Teapot and tea cup plus cozy:

Have a Great New Year everyone!

The Sales are on!

2008-12-27T19:20:00.010Z

Just to let everyone, who lives in the UK, know that John Lewis is having their post Christmas Sales (starts 27 December 2008 and ends 18 January 2009). There is a good range of Rowan and Debbie Bliss yarns for sale at up to 50% off their original prices. I have never knitted with Debbie Bliss yarns and wanted to buy some, but they kept on disappering. I only had half an hour to choose my yarn and a budget of £10 which I went over by £1. So this is what I bought for £11; Rowan Pure Wool, Rowan Little Big Wool and Rowan Cashsoft. Not bad eh...I'm thinking about using these yarn to make some accessories for the rascal and her friends, but lets see.

I didn't get a chance to see the fabric section, but I'm wondering whether they have any Amy Butler fabric in the Sale? I doubt it, but I might check next time I go there.

Times flies when you are having fun...Merry Christmas Everyone!

2008-12-22T12:17:00.006Z

Gosh, I can not believe that it will be Christmas this week (in fact in 2.5 days)!! What a year it has been! I've met some wonderful fellow bloggers and learnt so much (personally and craftwise). I'm so glad that I have started knitting and sewing again. The baking has been fun too.

I'm so glad that my rascal has recovered from her flu, now we can have a nice, relaxing and stress free Christmas break. I'm still at work at the moment, I finish for the year on the 23. This is what I have planned for the Christmas break:

Christmas Eve will be spent at my Inlaws as it is my Father In Law's birthday
Christmas Day will be at my Mums for a Christmas Roast
My hubby wants to spend Boxing Day at the 'Sales' ...I wonder whether John Lewis will start their yarn sale early this year?
The other days will be spent relaxing with friends and family. I need to do my Tax Return, but it depends on whehter I have the time (or whether I feel like it.....I could also do it in January?). If I get a quiet moment, I'd like to work on my knitting projects (mainly hubby's never ending scarf and the rascal's cardigan)..but lets see.

I hope you all have a great Christmas and New Year. I'm planning a short series of blog post on how to save money whilst crafting in the new year. So I will see you then...Happy Holidays!

Back to My Knitting and Something Old

2008-12-15T20:34:00.002Z

Out of all the crafts I have say that knitting is one of my favourite, its so relaxing and you can easily knit and/or purl all your stress away stitch by stitch. As the weather is getting colder and Christmas is coming, things at home has become a bit stressful, so I'm glad I have my knitting to keep me sane.

I have also started using a tissue cozy I knitted last year and which I have forgot to blog about...oh gosh how did that happen?? The pattern can be found here, the every talented lady behind Zakka Life. I made some small adjustments to the length and added a pink gingham lining. It has been lying in my craft draw for while, but I now use it to protect my mobile phone. At a recent craft fair (it was a private corporate one, so I can't give the name of the company) a stall holder saw the cozy and wanted a bright pink one, so I gave her the pattern.

My daughter's cardigan is going well so far....touch wood. Here is a photo of the progress (she has dark hair, her head is there....Hee! Hee!):

I'm Back from my Baking & Chocolate Adventures

2008-12-09T20:30:00.000Z

Wow....what an adventure! We had such a great day and we are so glad that our cakes and chocolates were so well received. To read more, refer to the my other blog. After the fair, I just slept and slept....I was completely knacked. The Wemake Fair was great, there were so many crafty gifts to buy, but I was so busy with the cake stand that I didn't have time to buy anything. Luckily my lovely husband got me a free goodie bag with lots of business cards to check out and few handmade goodies. I really like the crochet face cloth, it is so nice to feel.

After the fair, I had to tend to my 'To Do' list which was getting a bit out of hand, and this explains why it has taken me so long to start blogging again. Most of them includes things that I promised my daughter such as getting the Christmas decorations, finding a T shirt for her school play, getting her Advent Calender (I think I will make one next year which is re-useable), sorting out her school trip to London Zoo, writing letters to Santa (and members of the family), writing cards to her friends...etc...

I'm going to slowly ease myself back into my work in progress, mainly my daugther's cardigan which I have finished the back and pockets. Hopefully my husband's scarf will be finished by next winter...Hee! Hee!

Now I'm going to catch up with all the lovely blogs which I have missed over the past few weeks....

Debbie Bliss Magazine

2008-11-21T20:30:00.003Z

I know I'm not suppose to be blogging and I should be focusing on my baking/chocolate making project, but I just can't resist telling you fellow bloggers about a bargain I found today. Most lunch time (when it is not pouring down with rain), I go to White Cross Market near where I work. They have great food there (I recommend the salad, falel and the Italian stall) as well as a discounted magazine stall. Look what I found today for 60p:

The first edition of the Debbie Bliss magazine....the premier issue (Fall/Winter 2008). Inside is packed with wonderful patterns which I should be capable of knitting......yay.....I'm very excited..........I oh do love a bargain.

Now, I have to stop and calm myself down now....breathe......I will have a look at the projects after 6th December 2008....otherwise Gracie will kill me (Hee! Hee! Hee!).

Taking a small break for Simply Scrumblicious and being a 'Yappy'

2008-11-17T12:57:00.005Z

I'm taking a 'very short' break from this blog over the next two weeks as I need to focus 100% on Simply Scrumblicioius. I don't believe that we only have two weekends left till the Wemake fair. Arggg! You can keep up with our progress on our blog.

On my way home from work today I picked up the London Paper (another free paper provided on the streets of London) to ease the stress of communting home during the rush hour (sound familiar doesn't it). I found another article on Knitting (also on jam making and owning your own allotment) written by Johnny Vaughan (yes the guy from the Big Breakfast). According to this article people in their 20s and 30s are turning into Happy Yappies - Young Aged Pensioners?? I'm typing this wearing my old peach (hand-knitted) cardigan that my cousin made me. Hee! Hee! So instead of going out and wasting money on drinks and clubbing we prefer to stay at home and attend knitting groups.

Knitting in the Metro

2008-11-11T20:59:00.000Z

On my way to work I always pick up the Metro (a free newspaper provided in the London Underground) to relieve the stress of commuting during the rush hour. Look what I found today:

Photo taken from Today's Metro

A whole article on Knitting by Kristina Georgiou, how cool is that! It certainly cheered up such a miserable start to the week. It promotes knitting help.com and ravelry.com for new knitters and cool patterns on Knitty.com (yes Kyoko the one you recommended). I'm really interested in checking out these website, but will have to resist until the craft fair is over as I really need to focus on my baking over the next few weeks. I have noticed that there has been an increase in articles in British magazines and newspapers on buying 'Handmade', there was an article in the Metro a few weeks ago promoting Etsy.

Unwinding and Starting Again

2008-11-06T21:16:00.000Z

Remember the beret that I was suppose to knit for my Mum a few months ago? Yes the one that I messed up? Well, I have taken my Mum's advice and I have unwind everything and started again. This time I followed a new pattern from Let's Knit magazine called Renee. You can get the pattern free on their website. The instruction was bit strange as it requires 7mm and 20mm needles. So the base fits snugly whilst the body is nice and loose. This makes the beret nice and light. The good thing about it is that it only uses one ball of Rowan Little Big Wool. I also made one for myself in purple.

My Mum also complained that the handle of my first bag looks too messy. So she taught me how to correct my mistake by:

ripping out the seam,
make a larger gap towards the top of one side of the handle,
turn the end of the two handles so the right sides are facing each other and sew across,
turn the handle back to the right sides should all be neatly sewed together
close the gap that was opened when top stitching the edge.

It is a difficult to explain so please excuse the inexperienced instructions.

My Mum has agreed to teach me how to sew now...yay! She has refused for 30 years, probably because I broke my first sewing machine....Hee! Hee! Seriously, I think she wanted me to get a career first, but now that I'm a Mother and a Wife, I need to be able to sew so I can mend/make basic clothes at home....so she has agreed. I originally thought of spending £390 to learn, but there is a lot more I can do with that kind of money, so I have decided to buy some books and patterns instead.

Knitting Clouds

2008-10-31T20:29:00.000Z

My fingers are crossed as I've started my first knitted garment. You may remember a while ago that I have been dithering as to whether I should knit a tiny cardigan for a baby or a slightly bigger one for my daughter. Well, my daughter has won and her cardigan is currently being knitted. I'm still not sure how it will turn out......yep I'm pretty nervous about this project.

I really like this pattern as the border reminds me of fluffy clouds. I better uncross my fingers and start knitting.

Goodies.

2008-10-27T20:43:00.000Z

Oh dear, I went on a little shopping spree at one of my favourite craft shop this weekend and look at what I bought. Some lining (green and orange), two pretty pink fat quarters, magnetic bag clip, self-cover button, some zips and this pretty buckle/closure. Ohhh...I'm going to fun with these. They have some new quilting cotton in bolts and fat quarters as well, but I resisted.

I really like this buckle/closure. It is so dainty. I'm not too sure what I'm going to do with it at the moment, but it would look pretty on a child's knitted cardian/bolereo. What do you think?

First Bag is Finished

2008-10-24T12:23:00.001+01:00

Yay, I've finally taken the plunge and made my first bag. It has taken me a few months. Being a bit slow I found it difficult to understand some of the written instructions in books. So I browes the web and found some really useful 'photo' tutorials by some clever bloggers. I have left a link on my blog as a reminder to myself and also to share with everyone.

Well the bag is from a tutorial by 'Tiny Happy'. Her instructions are very clear and the photos made it easy to understand. I made a few minor changes, such as not adding the button and adding a larger pocket inside with a section for my mobile. I had a few problems with the strap as well, as I thought I try and be clever and see whether there was another way of sewing the straps together which didn't work.

Overall, I'm pleased, considering it is my first attempt. I stole the knitted flower from one of my daughter's hats which I'm sure she doesn't mind. Next time I will use a different fabric, make it smaller and use longer straps. Now that might be interesting.

Now for the Simple Tote, SuperEggPlant has a great tutorial.

Cutting and Buying Fabrics

2008-10-19T23:02:00.000+01:00

There seem to be lots of bugs going around; my daughter has been coughing and last night her eyes were so sticky that she couldn't open her eyes this morning. I had to use cool water (which had been boiled) and cotton wool to help her open her eyes. It was quite difficult as she has really long eye lashes, poor girl. She was feeling much better today. I've been feeling a bit delicate recently, but not ill enough to take time off work.

I went to Ikea this weekend and bought some lovely fabrics (see above) which I'm planning to make my first tote bag. I intend to the use the blue fabric on the outside and the cream fabric as the lining. Yep, I know that I have been going on about sewing my first tote bag for a while now but it will get done one weekend/evening when I find the time. I have also cut some fabrics to sew a shoulder bag. All I need is half a day with no distraction to sew the bag together.

I was planning to sew the bags up today, but wanted to spend time with my rascal, so we spent the whole day with my parents, chatting and eating lots of yummy food.

Woolly Hats

2008-10-16T21:57:00.000+01:00

The deadline for the Innocent Big Knit is tomorrow and I had to rush to the post office at lunch time to get my hats posted (I didn't use to be such a last minute girl). I didn't knit as much as I wanted. I think I'd better continue kniting these mini hats, so by this time next year I will have lots of them . By the way, the Clover mini pom pom maker I brought from the Knitting and Stitiching Show is so useful, it certainly speeds things up.

Here are some of my favourites modelled by our little Sheep from Wales:

I'm planning on going to Sainsbury this weekend to buy some Innocent Smoothies.

THE Knitting and Stitching Show 2008

2008-10-12T22:29:00.000+01:00

I have been looking forward to the Knitting and Stitching Show for a while now. So on Saturday I woke up extra early to make my packed lunch of baked salmon, corgettes and couscous (sorry no photo as I was so hungry at lunch time that I gobbled it up really quickly). This really reminded me of school trips where I use to get so excited. I would have all my packed lunch ready in one of those retro plastic packed lunch box with a flask of warm drink (yes, I was an eighties child)..... I was more concerned about lunch and getting all my other things ready that I forgot my camera. Opps.

I had arrange to go with the lovely Kyoko who was so kind to drive me there as the Jublie Line was not running (again). We set off early and got there just before 10am, so the timing was just right. The Show definately lived up to my expectation and even surpassed it. I had such a great time, being in a large 'Palace' filled with yarn, fabrics, and such creative people was amazing. Kyoko introduced me to more craft shops in London and facts about yarns and knitting. I'm very keen on learning the magic loop knitting skill. I am also very interested in the Scandinavian yarn that they had and the all the knitting patterns, I took a card and will be checking out their web-site.

(Photo from Kyoko)

My daughter wanted to come with me but I was a bit worried about the amount of people there and I know that it will definately be a long day. So I promised that I would buy her a very special present. She had been asking me to teach her how to knit for a while now, but I'm a bit worried about the sharp needles hurting her and I still think that she is too young. So I bought her a Clover mini knitting tool and a pom pom maker. She was SO HAPPY with her present, I got lots of hugs and kisses from her in the evening. With my help she has made this with her favourite green yarn.

I also bought the first edition of Sew Hip magazine and I had a lovely chat with the Editor about making childrens clothes. I am really inspired to do more sewing now, especially now that I have my ZIPPER foot (yay!) and these lovely fabrics from the Eternal Maker . I met the Mother and Daugther team at a show at Olympia where I brought several of thier fat quarters. This time they have more fabric on bolts, clever girls.

Kyoko and I was SO tempted by the embroidery section and the lovely pattern of mini bettles, bugs and butterflies. I use to do a bit of embroidery at school and I was also surprise to see a stand selling batique fabric which I tried at school as well. There was also a button bank where anyone can fill the jars with their choice of buttons. How cool.

(photo from Kyoko)

I look forward to the next craft fair and the Christmas fairs to come.

Craft Fairs Galore

2008-10-06T13:31:00.000+01:00

I remember writing on Mumsnet.com last year asking whether anyone was aware of Craft Fairs/Exhibitions in London. I didn't get a response so I deleted my query as I was a little embarrased. A year later, I'm much more informed after reading lots of crafting blogs and noseying (is there such word??) around.

I've been informed by Terry Howes (a talented jeweler who uses crocheting techniques to make jewelry, how unique), who has a studio at Cockpitt Art in Holborn, that Somerset House in London, will be holding the Origins Craft Fair for two weeks starting on 7 October 2008. There is an £8 entrance fee though, but I'm sure it's worth visiting.

Also the Knitting and Stitching Show will be starting on the 9 October 2008 at Alexander Palace, which I'm planning on going this weekend. Yay!

On the 6th of December 2008, there will be the Wemake Christmas Craft Fair, where my friend Gracie and I will be selling Homemade Cakes and Truffles. There will be many talented crafters selling their handmade goods. Gracie and I have both been working quite hard doing our R&D for the fair, which is why I haven't been knitting and sewing as often as I should be (my to do list is very long now), but I have one and half weeks off in Christmas to catch up. You can see some photos and read about this on our blog, Simply Scrumblicious.

If anyone is aware of more craft fairs, please share.

Childhood Museum and Stitch Club

2008-09-28T20:00:00.000+01:00

I've been reading Maria's blog about how her son's friend had never seen a sewing machine before. I guess during the 90s and early 00s many parents would rather buy their children computer games or just let them watch TV. However, I've noticed that during the mid 2000s to date I have seen more parents sewing, knitting and encouraging children to play with hand-made/non-computerised toys. As a parent myself, I do play computer games, but together as a family. I also encourage hand-made toys and crafting, so I think it is good to have a good balance.

I took my daughter to the V&A Museum of Childhood in Bethnal Green this weekend (for a pinic as well) and it was such a lovely experience. I felt really old as many of the toys such as Cindy (the 70s and 80s type not the modern version), Strawberry Shortcake, etc, were displayed in the museum as retro toys. I also noticed that they have Knitter and Knatter afternoons for keen knitters to get together for tea and 'knit'.

There were also a display of children sewing machines, one which I recognised. My Mum bought me the blue and yellow one when I was about seven or eight. Unfortunately I broke it on day one, which kinds to explain why it took me so long to start sewing again (I started again in my thirties). I also want to share this website with everyone: Stitch Club. Children aged 8 and upwards can learn how to sew. How cool is that.

6 Quirky Facts

2008-09-23T22:43:00.000+01:00

I have been tagged by the lovely Philipa to state 6 Quirky Facts about myself. I was suppose to do this last week, but I got a bit distracted with all that was going on in the Square Mile. So here we go:

1) My job is quite 'quirky'. I used to be an Auditor/Accountant and I have audited some strange clients ranging from rubbish tips (their business was rubbish...get it ;>) to glamous retail stores. I now work in the Technical Department.... you have to be a bit quirky to work there, but hey I enjoy it. On my honeymoon a fellow passenger asked me what I do for living and she laughed when I told her. Well, she said that I am too 'happy' to be an Accountant.

2) I have a love/hate relationship with London Transport. It gets me around London, but at times it really annoys me (to put it politely). I have lots of stories of my travels on London Transport, but I won't bore you...well, last year I got stranded on Chinese News Year's Eve (a big thing as we all have a big meal with our family on that day) because they decided to shut the Jublie Line, and I missed the meal. Boo!

3) When I was small I use to adopt 'Grandparents'. Both my Grandparents lived very far away so I grew up with no one to knit and bake with. So I adopted my friend's grandparents. I have a Granny in Kent who sent me a set of lovely spoons for my wedding. That's why I make sure that my daughter has a good relationship with my parents and Inlaws.

4) I love to sing and I have performed on stage with several Hong Kong celebrities. What happened was I literally climbed on stage voluntaring to enter a singing competition. I can't really sing that well and I came joint last in the competition, which was a bit embarassing.

5) I love the smell of babies. It is such a natural smell.

6) I love Ikea. Could spend hours there browsing the furniture, kitchen ware and fabrics of course.

Knited Cozy for Soup & Strawberry and Cream Scarf

2008-09-21T21:26:00.001+01:00

There is a yummy soup shop that also sells the best breakfast in Old Street called Nusa. They have lovely packaging and each year they have a special Winter Soup printed cozy. Last year it was the knitted handmade soup logo which I really liked so I kept them all. They now have the baby bear porridge package which is really cute. I'm looking forward to seeing what designs they have this year.

I haven't been doing much sewing lately, mainly knitting. I found this lovely yarn at the Knit and Stitch Show last year and made a scarf for my daughter. It kinds of reminds me of Strawberries and Cream. What do you think?

Happy Moon Cake Day!

2008-09-12T23:34:00.000+01:00

This coming Sunday is going to be the Chinese Mid-Autumn Festival. It is a time for families to get together for a meal then afterwards there would be plenty of fruits and moon cakes to eat for desert. The children would play with paper laterns and everyone would enjoy the view of the full moon.

Just for fun I thought I'd sew a felt moon cake from this Japanese Craft Book.

My grandparents would make and sell the real cakes during this time, and my uncles still continue the tradition. There are different types of moon cakes, even ice cream moon cakes.

My innocent hats are coming on, I now regret not starting them earlier...oh well I will knit as much as I can and send them before the 17 October. Fingers cross.

WIP

2008-09-07T10:58:00.000+01:00

I've been working on my little Innocent Hats and sewing a little something using felt which I will hopefully reveal on the 14th of this month. I've also cut up the fabric for my yoga bag which I have been meaning to make for while now.

My rascal is starting school tomorrow and I have taken the day off tomorrow. So while she is at school, I might have some time to do a bit of sewing.....fingers cross.

Wedding Anniversery

2008-09-01T12:20:00.000+01:00

Gosh, time flies when you are having fun. My husband and I celebrated our 5th year wedding anniversery this weekend in the beautiful North Wales, Snowdonia.

We got married on the London Eye. Those of you who live in London may remember the day when the whole of London had a power cut, yep it was on that date, but luckily we didn't get stuck on the wheel. We had a candle lit dinner at the Chinese Restaurant close to the Wheel (now Ozu), the electricity came back within half an hour and everyone clapped....it was all very romantic.

Anyway, Wales was beautiful, lots of mountains and lakes. The Welsh are also very into their handmade crafts. Their 'love spoons' are beautiful and the different signs represents specific meanings...how sweet. I also got a receipe for Cawl, which I will try in the winter when it gets colder.

Wordle Fun

2008-08-29T22:24:00.000+01:00

The Blog World seems to be having fun with Wordle. This is mine:

Gosh, I've been going on about my trip to Sweden a bit haven't I......must be boring everyone. I like the way I have the words 'Started' and 'New' but not 'finished'. Hmmm...it appears that I want to start and do lots of new things, but never get around doing them. This is quite fun. Looking forward to seeing more of these wordles on other bloggers sites.

Innocent Big Knit

2008-08-26T16:59:00.000+01:00

Hey the Innocent Big Knit has started again!! Thanks Lupin for the reminder.! I didn't get involved last year as I only found out toward the end of October and by that time it was finished. However, I did buy a mini woolly hat. It is all down to this little hat that I started to knit again and gained the confident to knit more. Here is a photo of the hat I bought and the one I attempted to knit:

These mini figures represent a married couple and was given to me as a present by my business partner who was also my bridesmaid. The wooly hats have been keeping them warm. Hee! Hee!

Crafting and Baking with the Rascal

2008-08-25T23:11:00.000+01:00

The long weekend was dedicated to baking and crafting as well as my daughter's first visit to the dentist. She asked the dentist, Mr Lee, was whether he was a good person, after that she allowed him to count her teeth. I have to say that she was very well behaved, unlike her Mum who was terrified of the dentist and had to be dragged screaming and kicking. Hee! Hee!

I made some chocolate walnut brownies and strawberry fresh cream roll. Both so yummy. Due to our new venture I will be doing a lot more baking from now on.

I wanted to do some crafting with my daughter this weekend to keep her away from the Nintendo and Television. She is still too young to start knitting and sewing. So I got some ribbons, craft glue, a piece of fabric, a picture frame and some buttons together and we made this:

I made sure that my Husband got rid of the glass pane first, we then stuck the fabric and ribbons onto the cardboard. It was my daughter's idea to stick the buttons onto the frame and now she has a pretty frame to clip all her hairclips. This frame is inspired by this book, which we originally bought to get some ideas for her bedroom.

Finished Airy Scarf and A New Venture

2008-08-20T12:17:00.000+01:00

Last week I met up with the lovely Kyoko from Cotton and Cloud after work at Canary Wharf. We planned to have coffee, but ended up having dinner AND coffee. It is so nice to meet up with someone who loves knitting (and sewing) just as much as I do, but her work is far more advance than mine. She gave me so much advice on where to buy the best knitting supplies (on Etsy) and offered to teach me Fair Isle knitting.....wow...what can I say. She also asked me how my knitting is comming on...and 'slow' is the answer. So that evening and (the next evening) I dedicated the my free time to finish off the Airy Scarf from this book. Here is the finish product: (Photo taken by the lovely Grace Lee, my new business partner and the new owner of this scarf)

I also told her about my new venture with Grace, Simply sCRUMBlicious TM. We have started a small business baking handmade cakes and chocolate. We have been doing this for a while, informally and free of charge to friends and family, but we decided to really go for it now. I have started a blog, but it is still a work in progress. Our first 'formal' project is the Wemake Christmas craft fair on the 6 December 2008. I sent them an e-mail asking whether we could have a table to provide Cake, Tea and Chocolate, and they were very welcoming and enthuastic. Yes, we are very excited about the whole thing. I'm hoping to get the new blog up and running soon, and will send a link once it is done. I will still blog about my knitting and sewing on this blog.

Sweden: Part III (Final) Stockholm

2008-08-14T23:06:00.000+01:00

Stockholm was our final journal before we headed by to Gothenburg to take the plane back to London. My rascal and family decided not to go to Stockholm because they were feeling a bit tired so they drove back to Gothenburg, leaving Jackson, one of my cousin and me to travel to Stockholm by ourselves. I think this was a good plan, as my rascal wanted to go to Lisberg Fun Fair again.

We found out that it was the Euro Pride festival at Stockholm and there were so many 'proud couples' there. We thought we go to Kulturhuset (Culture House - art exibitions) for a coffee and apple cake on the top floor, where we dined with lots of proud people, which was a bit strange but interesting.

We spent our whole day walking around Stockholm (good exercise) passing the Royal Palace, Riddarhuset (Swedish Parliament), Nobelmuseet (Nobel Museum - history of the Nobel Prize), Queen Street, the old shopping street. The next day (we stayed at one of my Cousin's flat in Stockholm) we visited the Swedish Millenium Dome, a market where they sell Flowers and Fruits, and serveral department stores including NK as it was raining.

We then took the fast train back to Gothenburg for our flight back to London.

I would definately visit Sweden again and now that we have done all the touristy things, next time I will visiting more Arts and Crafts places.

Here are some photos:

Swedish Craft Shop

Guards outside the Royal Palace

Fabrics and Fabric Gifts

The Swedish Millenium Dome

Sweden Part II: Jonkopping

2008-08-08T08:28:00.000+01:00

Jonkopping is where my Aunty and Cousins were originally based, a lovely city near Sweden's second largest lake. Only one of my Cousin, her husband and her dog still live there and we decided to take the whole family to visit them. As we travelled there by car the scenery bought back memories of my first trip there when I was 11 years old. I remember lots of forest and plenty of green space to cycle. When we got there it had changed so much that I almost didn't recognise it. There was a lot more roads, building and new apartments. Children still swin in the lovely lake, but I could not find the small shop where I bought my straw hat. Well it has been 20 years.

As we were driving there we drove past the Husqvarna Fabriksmuseum, however, I was travelling with non-crafty people so I had to give it a miss (if anyone has been there let me know whether it is any good). We spent a day in the lovely village of Granna and Visingso. I remember climbing up the church tower in Vinsingso when I was 11 and I found the stairwell very cramped compared to last time, must be all the baby weight which I haven't been able to lose....Hee! Hee!

Here are some photos:

Tarta - a Swedish Savory cake in layers of prawn, chicken, vegetable and salad cream. Made by my cousin

Arriving by ferry to the Island of Visingso

Finally getting to the top of the church (we travelling around the Island by a horse carriage)

One of the famous sweet shops in Granna where they make the sweets by hand at the shop

Sun set at Sweden's 2nd largest lake, if you look carefully you can see shadows of my family

Sweden Part I: Gothenburg

2008-08-05T19:24:00.001+01:00

Hello! I'm back from my week off and we manage to pack so many activities during this time. My rascal went to the cinema for the first time to watch Kung Fu Panda. She also went on her first holiday to Sweden with my husband, my parents, my brother and course moi. I have an Aunty and five Cousins who we haven't seen for two years. It was so lovely meeting them again and visiting Sweden after more than 15 years.

I have decided to split this post into three parts as we visited three cities; Gothenburg (Goteburg), Jonkoping and Stockholm.

First stop was Gothenburg where my cousins are based where we spent three days:

Salhuhallen Goteborg, indoor market in Kurgstorget

Gotheborgs Utkiken (The Lipstick Tower) and views from the top

Inside a lovely Sweden 'Handmade' shop which also sells yarn and fabrics.

Lisberg Park, on a Dala Horse (the Swedish people makes these by hand)

A Swedish Moose (pronounce as 'elk' in Swedish) at Slottsskogen where they have the largest stuff Whale at the Natural History Museum in the Park

We also went on the Paddan boat trip where, at a two points, you have to sit on the floor so the boat can pass through two low bridge (cheese slicer), the Gothenburg Art Museum, Universeum (not advisable to go in when it is more than 30 degree celcius outside as it has an indoor rainforest) and the open tour bus. Part II will follow.

Short break

2008-07-27T00:26:00.000+01:00

I'm taking a week off work to spend some time with my family and enjoy the summer. I've may have a few treats when I come back (depending on how well my daughter behaves).

I'll be back in a weeks time.

Have a nice summer!

A Flag and A Scarve

2008-07-21T22:38:00.000+01:00

We were planning to have a picnic at Greenwich Park on Sunday, but the weather was unpredictable, so we decided to go to the O2 (The Milenium Dome) instead. It was the first day of the Summer of Sport event and there were so many activities for my rascal, such as a sandpit, giant chess board, tennis, hopscotch etc. We also met some atheletes and the best part for me was when my rascal signed the giantic England Flag.

I've started the Airy Scarf from the Last Minute Knitted Gifts for my friend Gracie. Yes, I'm rubbish at keeping secrets, I've showed her the work in progress already. I used the Rowan Kid Silk Spray that I bought from John Lewis. I will then use the reminder of the yarn to knit one for myself. I found this yarn very sticky to knit with. What I mean is that it sticks to my hands and clothes. But its so lovely to feel and delicate. I'll finish it in a few days Gracie if you are reading this.

I also found out why my husband scarve was taking so long....I used 4mm needles instead of 8mm (as stated in the book).

Help! My username on Blogspot has changed?!

2008-07-17T13:45:00.000+01:00

Hi all fellow bloggers. I seem to have a problem with my blog. My user name has changed to K&amp'S City Girl? I haven't changed my personal profile, it just changed by itself. Do anyone know how to fix this or should I report this to blogger (if so how??). Is this a virus/bug? Has someone hacked into my account? Is this a temporary thing? Oh gosh. Help!

Relaxing and Enjoying Life

2008-07-15T17:37:00.000+01:00

I'm coming clean and going to explain why I haven't been crafting lately. The weather has been SO lovely and now that it is coming to the end of the school term, there are so many activities to do. We had the school carnival followed by the school sports day. Then I've been going out and having picnics, bbq and enjoying food like this:

Livebait at Waterloo (photo taken by the lovely Miss Grace Lee)

School Carnival (taken on my husband's camera phone)

You've got to enjoy life. Apparently, it's going to be raining soon, so there is some incentive to do some crafting.

Birthday Photos

2008-07-13T11:28:00.000+01:00

Finally got my husband to upload the photos onto the laptop. It was such a lovely day..

I haven't been doing much crafting lately apart from knitting my husband's never ending scarf. Its almost end of school term so there are lots of school activities and parent evening to attend. I have a very lively and funny daughter according to teachers....Hee! Hee!

I'm hoping to do more sewing later on, there are so many things I want to do, but I have to be more patient and wait till I have some time.

Birthday Weekend

2008-07-07T12:16:00.000+01:00

It was my birthday the weekend just gone. I had a lovely day spent with just my Husband and Daughter and then my Parents and Brother joined us in the evening. We took a river boat across the Thames to Canary Wharf to Royal China for Dim Sum (Brunch), then at a short walk around Canary Wharf to digest. We then took the Docklands Lightrail to Greenwich, where we went on the Greenwich wheel and walked around the park which was followed by icecream and tea. We had dinner at home and baked some fairy cakes for desert. So it was a nice pleasant day.

I've never really been the partying, fancy dress, clubbing, drinking type that a lot of my friends do for their birthday. Hee! Hee! So no mad photos to show but pictures of clouds and scenery in London. I didn't have my camera with me, so most of the photos were taken with my husband's camera phone. I will post these later....I'm still working how to transfer his photos onto my laptop.

Yay for the sale....great bargains at John Lewis Habbers!

2008-07-03T23:56:00.001+01:00

I had some free time this evening after work because my Mother in Law came to look after Vivian. So I went to catch up with some shopping. I couldn't resist a 'quick' look at the habberdashery department in John Lewis, then I found Rowan Kid Silk Mohair for £3.25! They are normally £7.25, well the one I bought last time was that price. There are A LOT of bargains! This is what I bought.

Now I can make this Beret from Let's Knit magazine.

I wanted to make it a while ago, but thought it was a bit too excessive to pay over £15 in yarn. There are also many lovely fabric in the curtain/home furnishing department where you can find lovely fabric for £6 per metre! I also some found some fabrics selling for £4 per meter. I might go again tomorrow.

Ohhh, so many pretty things I want to make! I need to squeeze some time some how. Wish me luck.

Update...yep I couldn't resist it and went to buy this fabric which was only £6 per metre (half price). I may make something out of this lovely book.

Baby Knits

2008-06-30T17:31:00.000+01:00

Everyone seems to be having babies recently. One of my childhood friends has just had a baby girl, who was born last week. I didn't have time to make her anything so I boughter her a baby bottle steamer. I did buy this knitting pattern book from John Lewis a long time ago, but haven't got around learning the patterns.

I may have to ask for help. Also my daughter has made me promise to make her something before I make anything for the baby. Yes, she can get a bit jealous sometimes, but we have been trying to teach her to be more generous. The patterns in the book are for new born babies to 5 year olds, so I may attempt to knit her a cardigan, but with my track record, she is lucky if I finish it by next year.