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Has it really been THAT long?
My last post was over a month ago. Wow! Anyway.. what have I done in the past few weeks? At the beginning of April, I had some meetings to attend at Houston. It was my first trip to the US and was quite fascinating for me. Everything seemed larger in Houston - from the food serving sizes to motorways! Being there for meetings meant that I didn't have time to go anywhere much aside from the hotel and the office. However, I did tag along to the local Walmart Supercentre one evening and it was HUGE. I tried to describe it to Chris, but I don't think I did a very good job. I don't think we have anything quite that size here in Australia - not a single store by itself anyway. Alex was the sole beneficiary of that shopping trip. I was lucky that it's starting to warm up in the northern hemisphere while we are heading towards cooler weather here in the south. I managed to get Alex a whole lot of cheap sleepwear and teeshirt sets. He also has a pair of new shoes which he loves. I can't believe that I only paid all of about $11 for them when they would have cost at least twice that here in Sydney. I stopped over at San Francisco to see B1 and B2 on the way home. I stayed with them for a night, and it was fortunate too that I planned on visiting them. My flight from Houston was terribly delayed due to rain and a stalled plane on the runway and I would not have made the flight to Sydney had I chosen to fly out on the same night. Anyway, they live 1 street away from the steepest incline I have ever seen on a street. Then again, the slope of the street where they lived was pretty steep too!   I spent all of Saturday with the Bs, and what great hosts they were. There was more shopping and some sightseeing. In many ways, San Francisco is very much like Sydney. It has that "city by the water" kind of feel to it. I tried to squeeze as much as I could into my one day in San Francisco, and I must confess I worked my hosts very hard. Poor B2 came shopping with us, and he was very tolerant too! Along the way, we passed by the Transamerican building (or at least that is what I think it is called). It was a strange pyramid looking thing that shot up iinto the sky and appeared to almost go on forever,   One thing that was a must have on my list of things to get was See's Candies lollipops. I have now stocked up enough for the next few months. I was first introduced to these pieces of heaven on sticks a few years ago, but seeing as they are very much an east coast of the USA thing, I had to wait till this year to be able to get some. We ended up finding a See's Candy store at the Embarcadero Centre, which is also where I saw this sculpture  I was fortunate enough to be able to have lunch at Boudin - home of sourdough. The clam chowder was rather good. The sourdough was pretty good too. I'd be more than happy to go back there again.. Oh, and the fresh food markets in front of Ferry Wharf. That was fun too. Everything looked so good. If only I could bring more home with me, and if only the Australian quarantine rules weren't as strict.    At Pier 39 I saw wild sea lions and a "double decker" carousel. It's the first time I have seen either...    A side trip to the Gap store proved to be harder on my pocket than I expected. I went in looking for pants for myself and came out with a stack of discounted clothes for Alex. No, no pants for me, unfortunately. Oh, and I only saw Alcatraz from a distance and caught a very very foggy glimpse of the bridge.   On the weekend after I returned from the US, we celebrated Chris' grandmother's 100th birthday. It was a big party with about 70-80 guests. The party had been planned months in advance, and what a lot of planning it was. I think the party was a success and Chris parents did very well organising it. They even organised entertainers and all. On the weekend just past, Granddad turned 78 and we had a (much smaller) party at Orso for him. Alex was unbelievably well behaved in the 4 or so hours that we spent there. He was well entertained, and I think rather entertaining. It was good for both Chris and me that everyone wanted to play with Alex and so we had some "free" time to talk to the folks there. These days, "Free" time is defined as time when Alex is not hanging off us.  Alex is now a walking talking little boy. Whenever I see him, I am reminded that he is no longer a baby. He has quite a repertoire of "words" - enough to make himself understood most of the time. Amongst his favourite words (and most annoying to us) are "no", "more","more blish" (more please), "ree blish" (read please) and "no". Yes, I know I mentioned "no" twice, but he really does use it at least twice as often as the other words! You may be wondering why it is annoying when he asks us to read to him. It's a good thing that he loves his books and wants us to read to him, but too much of a good thing... Seriously, he is constantly shoving books at us asking us to read to him. He moos like a cow, baas like a sheep and meows like a cat very well. He also tells you when he wants to eat, or have a bath, or go upstairs, or go downstairs or go out. My boy is growing up so quickly. He had a playdate with Bernice recently. They played together but not with each other, if that makes sense. It is amazing to see how much the both of them have grown. They were actually due to be born on the same day. Bernice's mother and I were in the same pre-natal class. However, Alex arrived early and Bernice arrived late, making the births about 3 weeks apart. Not much has been done on the sewing/knitting front. My sewing machine stopped working before I went to the US and it took me forever to get it serviced. It's finally home now and works very well. I did make some small project bags but I don't have any photos of them yet. I did make Alex a hat but it is a wee bit small for him. Aside from trying it on, he has not worn it. I need to make him a bigger one.  Also on the needles is an Arctic Diamonds stole. I have only just started it and have a fair way to go yet. I am knitting it in some white baby yarn and I plan on dip dyeing the stole when it's been completed. Labels: Alex, Arctic Diamonds Stole, Bernice, birthday, hat, knitting, US
Has it really been 6 weeks?
Oh dear, time does fly! Aside from a trip to Malaysia, we haven't really done all that much in the past six weeks. We went to Malaysia for the last week of February and first week of March, and although it has been a couple of weeks since we arrived in Sydney, I am still getting over our trip. I think I can speak on Chris and Alex's behalves when I say that we all miss KL very much. Alex, of course, misses all the attention he got. Although it was not the first time he is meeting my parents, I think he thinks that it was. The last time my parents visited was last Easter, when he was only 3 months' old. Alex also got to meet my grandmother who he calls "Ah Chor". Well, it sounds more like "Chor" or "Shore Shore" when he says it. Once he warmed up to her, and it did take a few days for that to happen, he was more than happy to go up to her and share his toys with her. Often my grandmother would find herself running out of hands to hold all the toys he had offered her.  He also met a few of my parents' friends. Alex was happy, as long as he was the centre of attention. While we were in KL, Alex had a lot of room in which to practise walking, and he very quickly went from toddling to walking. In fact, he even tried to run.     I am SO not ready for him to start running. I have enough trouble keeping up with him when he's only walking. I'd hate to think what mischief he'll get into when he is able to run. It actually surprises me how quickly his little legs can move. One of his favourite games whilst in KL was running away with Daddy's shoes. He would pick up Chris's shoes and try to get away with them when he wasn't watching. He would then try to push them out of the window, like this    Another game he enjoyed was walking in Daddy's shoes  The main reason for our trip, aside from introducing Alex to my extended family, was to Attend my grandmother's 95th birthday. It was only a small party with soem family members coming for lunch and dinner. Our contribution to the festivities came in the form of a pair of suckling pigs. Picture is here for those of you who are squeamish. ( Note: the photo includes the roasted head of a piglet) It was great fun seeing my cousins, aunts and uncles whom I otherwise probably wouldn't have seen this trip as they live in Singapore or Penang. Alex loved all his relatives and it didn't take long for him to warm up to them and start sharing his toys with them! Alex also had a few dips in my parents' pool. It's his first time in a pool, and I think he rather enjoyed it. I guess to him, it's no more than just a giant bath.  Madalena from my mums' group lent us some floaties and Alex enjoyed being pushed around in his "water throne". Alex enjoyed the pool so much that we'll probably sign him up for some swimming lessons next summer. Since coming back to Sydney I have not had much time to sew or knit. As I came home to over 1200 emails in my mailbox, I have had quite a hard time catching up on everything that went on at work. believe it or not, I am STILL catching up! I think it is true what one of my colleague said - that it takes a month to catch up on work for every week that you're away. However, I did manage to make these:  One of the carers at Alex's daycare is going to go on maternity leave soon. We bought her some little baby bodysuits (otherwise known as onesies?) in KL btu I wanted to give her something handmade. The shoes were easy to make, though finicky. The instructions are here. On the knitting front, I have started Tahoe from knitty. I am using some Schoeller Esslinger Edelweiss from my stash in light gray. I think I will use either a darker gray for the edges or add some colour to the piece by using some maroon or blue variegated yarn. I haven't quite decided yet. Labels: Alex, cloth shoes, KL, sewing
Where has the time gone?
I haven't been sitting on my hands and not posting... I have so many finished objects to show... where do I begin? Let me preface this by first saying that I don't have any knitted finished objects.. just sewn ones. First up, we have a skirt for me.  I made it using some cheap cotton fabric that I purchased as a bundle together withs ome other fabrics from a seller on EBay. I ended up with about 13m of assorted fabrics for $18 including postage. They were all of useable lengths too, with the smallest peiece measuring about 0.7m x 1m. What a bargain! As I had 2m of that fabric, even after making the skirt, I had enough leftover for a bag. I coupled it with some Hawaiian print cotton fabric, and voila!   It's reversible too!  I am pretty pleased with how it came out. The pattern I had was not reversible, so I had to fiddle with it a little to make it reversible. I eliminated the flat oval base this time. My next project, I think, is to make the same bag, a little larger, reversible with the oval flat bottom. I think it will sit much better with a flat bottom. So much more practical to have a bag that will stand on its own rather than a floppy one, which this is. I used medium weight interfacing to make it stiffer, but it is still not stiff enough to stand by itself, and I am sure that after a little more use, it will be totally floppy. Nonetheless, I am proud of my first sewn bag. I will just have to find the time to experiment with the pattern.... maybe on the weekend. It's hard to find the time to do much these days because.... ...we have a little walker in the house now. Alex walks about 99% of the time now and only crawls when he is really tired. He is getting so quick that unless we have him trapped in a high chair or on someone's lap, it's almost impossible to take non-blurry photos of him. It's not for lack of trying on our part, but it's just darned near impossible! He's also started to feed himself. Oh joy.. not! Meal times are always messy and there's always food EVERYWHERE these days. He hasn't qquite mastered the use of a spoon yet, but that doesn't stop him from trying. See for yourself!   By the end of every meal, he looks at least as dirty as this:  That was on a good night, and you can't see all the food that he's managed to drop in his lap. Fortunately, his post dinner routine is a little play time followed by a bath, a bottle and sleep. I don't think I would be able to tolerate the mess otherwise. I hope this phase passes and passes quickly! Labels: Alex, sewing
He walks!
And so the trouble begins, I have been told... The pants I made him were a little long.. and look what he does..  Otherwise they do fit quite well.. plenty of room for growth and comfort.    Labels: Alex, pants, sewing
More pants, and a needle roll
I told you sewing is addictive!  The little man wore them to bed tonight so I don't have any action shots. Maybe tomorrow.. I also made this   sans pattern! Can you tell I am very proud of myself right now? The sewing is rather imperfect but not too bad for a beginner. I got a little ahead of myself there and thought I'd round off the corners. Hmm.. Bad move. As you can see, the 4 corners are all curved differently! Next time I do this (which will probably be tomorrow if I have time), I will stick to squared corners. They look neater and at least all four corners will look the same. Labels: needle roll, pants, sewing
Definitely addictive
I cut and sewed a pair of pants for Alex last night, and you know what? It fits! Admittedly, it's a little on the long side, but he's a growing boy. It's growth room!  Oh, okay, so maybe it is more than "a little" long, but hey, if he is a tall lean child, he can probably wear these till he goes to school!!  Plenty of room in front..  Plenty of room at the back  He can sit comfortably in them without the back drooping too much.. I think I have a winner! The pattern I used is the one from Simplicity (look at my previous post) and it is easy and works well. The only change I will make to it is probably adding a little more room to the back so that it doesn't droop at all. I don't think any of these pants account for nappies. I'd show a photo of Soleil in progress but the camera batteries are being charged. She's coming along well. I am past the lace now and into my first lot of waist decreases. If all goes according to plan, I am sure I will have something new to wear in Malaysia. Labels: sewing, Soleil
Sewing is addictive
I went to Spotlight on Sunday and walked out with 3 patterns and a whole lot of fabric. In my defence, the fabric was on special for about $3 a metre. I bought enough to make some (more) pants for Alex and maybe a needle roll for me. I decided to go with the "easy" patterns, so I had two Burda Easy ones and one Simplicity one. I have this one:  and this:  and this:  That should keep me busy for a while! I don't know whether you remember the silk that I spun up oh... ages ago... I decided today that I'll make it into a neat little tank top for myself. I am using the Soleil pattern from Knitty and so far it's turning out well. I love the subtle changes of colour and the slight sheen that silk always has. My plan is to have it completed by the time we visit Malaysia in February as it will be perfect for the humidity there. Pictures in my next post as there really isn't enough knitted up to be worth looking at yet. Labels: sewing, Soleil
A new hobby??
 Yes, I made them... in fact I have made two pairs. The first (the one above) could barely go over Alex's thunder thighs. I enlarged the pattern (rather poorly) and sewed a second pair. That only barely fit. Sewing is addictive. I want to make more stuff! Not to worry, though. As the title of this blog suggests.. I knit. I don't think I will ever stop knitting. Perhaps sewing is just a passing fancy.. and perhaps it will hang around for a bit. Here's evidence that I HAVE been knitting...  These three hats are going out tomorrow to the lady who ordered them for her baby girl. Aside from the mint green one, they are all made to fit a head up to about 50cm around. The green one is slightly smaller. Baby Anabelle's going to have a very warm head! Labels: hat, sewing
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