Celia's Knitting Adventures

Kaya means rich

2012-01-29T21:15:00.006+11:00

That's kaya, a Malaysian coconut spread. Like lemon butter/curd, it's like a custard, made with eggs and sugar. My grandmother and mother used to make it when I was growing up, and since moving out, I have had to put up with the thin commercial stuff thickened with starches. It's simply not the same!

A couple of weeks ago, I decided to try this. I make lemon butter all the time and don't end up with scrambled eggs..heck, I have made hollandaise sauce and not ended up with scrambled eggs, so why can't I make kaya? I looked up recipes online and found one that sounded "authentic". Well.. no, didn't work. The recipe used 10 eggs to 1 can of coconut cream and it turned out eggy in flavour and really sweet. I also overcooked it and it turned out like... yup, you guessed it! SCRAMBLED EGGS!

So, back to the drawing board. That's where mum came in (thanks, mum!) with her recipe:

the cream of one coconut

7 eggs

600g sugar

pandan/screwpine leaves

1 tablespoon sugar for caramelisation (optional)

Now, I live in Sydney and don't have easy access to fresh coconut. I use the canned stuff. So I tweaked the recipe and this is my version of mum's recipe

1 400ml can of Ayam brand premium coconut cream

7 eggs

5-6 pandan/screwpine leaves

550g sugar

Crack all 7 eggs into a large bowl. Mix gently with a fork to break the yolks (don't whip air into it). Shake the can of coconut cream and add to eggs. Stir with for to combine. Scoop up 1/2 a cup of sugar from the 550g. Add the remaining sugar to the egg and coconut cream mixture. Mix gently to combine.

Wash the pandan leaves and tear length wise. Knot every 4 or 5 strips together and place in a double boiler. I do not have a double boiler so I perched a bowl over pot. Strain the egg mixture over the knotted pandan leaves into the double boiler to remove impurities. Heat over medium heat, stirring constantly. Make sure you scrape the sides and bottom. Keep stirring till the mixture is as thick as pouring custard.

Now, put the 1/2 cup of sugar that you had set aside into a small pot. Add a tablespoon of sugar and heat. The sugar will dissolve and then caramelise. Do not stir the caramel. Keep stirring the custard. When the colour of the caramel is a lovely golden brown, turn off the heat and pour the caramel into the custard mixture. the darker your caramel, the darker your kaya will be. Keep stirring the custard.

At this point, mum leaves the custard to steam for another 30-45 minutes. I am not so trusting after my scrambled eggs experience, and so I stand and I stir the custard till it is the consistency of a thick spread. All up this takes about another 30 minutes. So if you have a bar stool, it will be handy!

Remove the pandan leaves before storing in an airtight container in the fridge.

Enjoy spread on thick toast with lashings of butter, or if you're like us, spread some on toast, add matured cheddar cheese and grill. Yum!

A taste of home

2012-01-27T20:20:00.005+11:00

Tonight I made nasi lemak for dinner. For those unfamiliar, it is a Malaysian dish comprising of coconut flavoured rice and some accompaniments.

First, the rice. I used Ayam brand coconut cream. If you're able to get it, the "premium" stuff in the green can is best. It has no additives, no water, nothing but good old "santan". I threw in 4 or 5 pieces of screwpine (pandan) leaves, torn lengthwise and knotted.

When cooked, the rice is nice and fluffy with the fragrance of pandan and coconut. Oh, and don't forget to add a pinch of salt (like I did!). It makes all the difference!

I also made beef rendang using cubes of gravy beef, coconut cream (yes, the Ayam brand premium stuff - it is the only coconut cream I use now), water and Jackie M's rendang paste. It's the first time I am using her rendang paste. I have used her laksa paste before, which is delicious, and so I had high hopes for the rendang. It turned out very well. I did not follow her instructions, though. I used about 1/2 a tub of paste, 800g of beef, 3/4 of a 270ml can of coconut cream and who knows how much water. I thought using the whole tub of paste for 1kg of meat seemed like overkill. I now have enough for another serve of rendang.. perhaps chicken or lamb rendang?

That's the rendang in the large bowl on the left. In the front is a bowl of fried anchovies (ikan bilis) and roasted peanuts. At the back, on the right, is a bowl of sambal. No, I did not cook it. My mum gave me a pack of sambal when she last visited. Up the back, oiled eggs.the green that you see, is sliced cucumber and halved hard b

I nearly forgot the turmeric fried chicken. I was not sure that Alex would eat the rendang (turns out that he did have some) and so I thought I should cook some chicken that everyone would enjoy. The next time I cook this, I will use chicken thigh fillets and cut them into smaller pieces. The drumsticks were very difficult to fry.

This dish is inspired by my late grandmother (Ah Mah). She used to make turmeric fried chicken all the time, and I think hers is far tastier than mine is. I don't know why I thought of cooking this today. Perhaps it is because the anniversary of her passing is coming up soon. Anyway, the chicken was appreciated by the boys (since they have never eaten my grandmother's turmeric fried chicken), and I'm glad I made it.

So there you go.. a taste of home!

A belated happy new year, the year that was and the year to come

2012-01-07T11:28:00.004+11:00

Hello, readers.

Happy new year!

Yes, I do realise that I am about a week late with my greetings, and that I have totally missed the Christmas greetings. This year (or should I say, "last year") we decided to spend the 2011 Christmas holidays on the road. We spent the last 2 and a half weeks on the road, but more of that later.

We now welcome 2012 with open arms, and I, in particular, am looking forward to a better year than 2011 as 2011 was a mixed bag, and I hope this year's bag of surprises holds more pleasant than unpleasant ones.

Celia's Basket saw more pattern activity than hand-dyed yarn in 2011. I am coming to terms with the reality of trying to run a hand-dyed yarn business without a proper workshop or studio. It is just too hard. My focus has moved to pattern-writing, something that I can do in small chunks that gives me great pleasure. I fit pattern writing into my evenings, a few minutes or a couple of hours after work daily, and I can manage to complete my patterns without too much stress. Hand-dyeing, on the other hand, requires me to set up, do the dyeing, clean up, wait for the yarn to dry (rainy weather is not your friend here) and then check the yarn for faults before photographing and listing in the store. I simply do not have the time for that anymore. Our weekends are too precious.

In 2012, you will see more patterns from me. There will be a few store stock updates, but I am planning to dye in large batches or to allow pre-ordering so that I don't have to photograph and list each skein separately. If you're after semi-solid colours in adult garment quantities, you'll be happy to hear that I will be working on that this year. My plan is to dye up a small selection of semi-solid colours from which you can order larger quantities - dyed to order.

I have about 6 incomplete patterns that require testing. That will probably be the first cab off the rank this year as they are mostly complete. I have another dozen or so less complete patterns that require editing, tweaking and testing. There some scare are some scarves, hats, shawls and children's garments. The adult garments.. well, there are two but not in any shape to be released in the near future! If I work hard, perhaps they will be done by the end of the year.

This poor neglected blog... ever since the birth of Alex, it hasn't seen that much activity, has it? Certainly not enough to keep the readership up. I suppose the erratic posts and unpredictability of it has not really helped. In 2012, there will be at least 1 post a month. I am committing to that for now. If you are on Facebook, you can follow the blog using the Networked Blogs app.

You will also see more food-related posts. I am a foodie at heart, and I married one, and as it turns out, I am raising one too! I enjoy cooking for the family. I have two willing "testers" who happily sample my experiments. We also enjoy trying out new eateries and I want to share that with you. In 2012, I am looking forward to widening my cooking repertoire and trying a few new restaurants.

In 2011, Alex moved for a daycare with a preschool program to a preschool and he thrived. He had a great time there and we were sorry when the year ended. We watched him grow and mature. In 2012, he starts primary school. On February 1st, he will be a "big school boy" as he calls himself. Perhaps I will shed a tear watching him enter the school gates, as my little baby is now all grown up, or perhaps I won't. The past few years have gone by quickly, and I can't believe he is the same baby we met 5 years ago. It has not always been easy, but the good times have made the harder times all worth while. I am sure all you parents out there will agree. We're all set for school. Aside from sports shoes, all uniform items have been purchased and we're ready to go!

In terms of personal crafting, I have big aims for this year. A few months ago, I upgraded my small Ashford knitters loom to a larger rigid heddle loom. It is still sitting under the guest bed, and has not been used yet. I intend to weave a couple of shawls and a few scarves on it. Weaving is such a calming activity. Passing the shuttle back and forth is almost like meditation. The action is automatic and soothing. I need more meditation in my life. 2012 is, I hope, a year of less stress and more contentment.

During the Christmas trip. I also started a Nuvem using a 300g ball of Wollmeise lacegarn in the colour Taube. I weighed it today, and I have barely knitted 50g!! So, with that in mind, Nuvem is going to be a long term project. I intend to complete by my birthday which is in June. I want to wear it this winter! I also have a couple of unfinished projects which need to be finished. Aside from that I am not committing to any more. I will just "go with flow".

So.. that is the year that was.. and who knows what the year that will be holds. Let's just go with it and see what happens.

Happy new year, everyone!!

I scream, you scream, we all scream...

2011-09-19T21:00:00.003+10:00

for ICE CREAM!!

Look what we bought on the weekend!

Can't read the writing on it? It is a Cuisinart icecream maker. It's just the small one with 1.5L capacity and freezable bowl, but what's important is that it works!

We froze the bowl for a day and then started churning. I made one batch using the "basic" recipe (which is just milk, cream, sugar and vanilla) and 1 batch using the "premium" recipe which uses a custard mixture. I had some home-made strawberry sorbet sitting in the freezer so I tipped it into the bowl while it was churning and made strawberries and cream icecream with the basic batch.

Both were delicious. The basic recipe is lighter than the premium recipe. Not lighter as in lower in fat - both contain the same amount of cream - but lighter in taste and texture. The premium recipe is definitely smoother and more well-rounded in flavour.

I wonder now why I waited this long to buy an icecream maker!

Wedding leaves

2011-09-19T16:50:00.002+10:00

Well, the original pattern called it Indian feathers - remember this post?

I did finish it in time for the wedding and posted it. It arrived 2 days before the wedding! Talk about cutting it close! Well, due to the time constraints I did not get a picture of it between the blocking stage and the posting stage. So here's a picture of it blocking on the guest bed.

It's the first time I knit nupps, and I don't think I did too badly.

Teeny tiny

2011-09-16T12:03:00.003+10:00

Recently I got involved with Project Halo, a charity organisation that made hats, blankets and small items of clothing for premature babies, and distributed them to hospitals and families in need. They have now merged with Little Angel Memory Boxes, but the work continues.

It was heartbreaking to see how tiny the hats were, and the blankets were barely the size of tea towels. Why do premature babies need hats, you may wonder. Babies have disproportionately large heads. Even full-term babies have heads that are very large relative to their body size, and this is the case for premature babies as well. The babies lose a lot of heat through their heads. When babies are taken out of their little cribs for skin contact with their mothers, hospitals put hats on their little heads to keep them warm. If the hats fall off, it is is replaced with a clean one. You can imagine how many hats they go through daily!

Yes, those are real eggs. I made these hats (and a few others) to donate to the cause. The pattern has been written up and tested and available as a free download on Ravelry. They are called the Archie and Aubrey hats.

About a year ago, Lara, pregnant with twin boys discovered that her waters had broken early. What followed was a mother’s difficult and heartbreaking journey to try to save her boys. She lost one baby in-utero and kept fighting to save the other. In November 2010, she gave birth to both babies. The second baby was born alive but lost shortly after. She named her boys Archimedes Hare and Aubrey Michael. These hats are in remembrance of the precious lives of these babies who are still loved and missed every day.

For these hats you need a small amount of fingering, sport or DK weight yarn. Depending on the size you’re knitting, you need needles ranging from 2.5mm to 4.5mm. Don’t worry too much about exact sizes and gauge as hospitals need hats of all sizes. Each baby is different. The hats are very stretchy and each hat covers a range of different sized heads. I urge you to knit them for your local hospital as neonatal intensive care units always need hats to keep the little heads warm.

Book Week 2011

2011-09-06T21:14:00.003+10:00

We celebrated Book Week for the first time this year. Alex's previous preschool/daycare did not have Book Week so I never had to do this before. This year is the first time that I had to make a costume for him to dress up as a book character.

Someone should tell the kids that they should let mum off easy the first time. Alex didn't get the memo. Let's just say he had decided and there was no way he was going to change his mind. After I bought the fabric I was hoping that there would be no way he would change his mind as I had bought what felt like miles of red fleecy. I decided to use felt and fleecy because I did not want to have to finish the seams properly. There was simply not enough time!!

2 full hours of cutting and sewing later, we have...

Can you guess who he is?

Pickles pullover

2011-08-31T18:16:00.003+10:00

This week I finally released the pattern for Pickles.The Pickles pullover uses a top-down seanless hood construction and was inspired by my nephew Dylan. It comes in sizes from Newborn to 12 yrs old, but I think the 12 yr old size would be easily adjusted to fit any tall skinny teen. The sizes are:

Newborn(6mths, 12mths, 18mths, 2yrs, 4yrs, 6yrs, 8yrs, 10yrs, 12 yrs) to fit chest sizes 16(17, 18, 19, 20, 22, 24, 26, 28, 30)in or 40(42.5, 45, 47.5, 50, 55, 60, 65, 70, 75)cm.

Final garment circumference is approximately 18.2(19.6, 21.1, 22.5, 23.6, 26.2, 28, 30.2, 32, 34.2)in or 45.5(49.1, 52.7, 56.4, 59.1, 65.5, 70, 75.5, 80, 85.5)cm.

Here's the little one who inspired the pattern. He's now 17 months old and the sample he is wearing was knitted in size 2.

Here's one modelled by the son of one of the test knitters. As you can see the hood is generous but not monk-like in its proportions. Thefit should be slim (not tight), with the hem coming down just under the hip-bone.

There is absolutely no seaming required. There are some stitches to be picked up but that is easy, especially with the photographic tutorial included with the pattern.

Interested?

Feathers, leaves.. close enough?

2011-08-20T20:46:00.003+10:00

I was looking for a shawl pattern with leaves but none seemed to fit with what I wanted and I wanted to knit something tried and tested for once, rather than design my own. I searched Ravelry, I googled and found nothing. Nothing at all.

Then I saw this pattern by Alina Appasov.

image taken form the pattern page on Ravelry

Isn't it gorgeous?

What I did not account for was that the cast on involves 411 stitches, and it has nupps! I have never knitted nupps! After a brief moment of anxiety, I firmly took a hold of myself and decided it can't be that hard and proceeded to cast on. Now I am about 9 rows into the 27 patterned rows, and it's not looking too bad at all. I am loving it!

My mother-in-law's spring rolls, with a twist

2011-08-18T21:31:00.003+10:00

My mother-in-law makes the best springrolls on this planet. Honest to God, she does!

Last weekend I learned how to make them. So this week, I decided to give it a whirl. The recipe is simple enough.

The original recipe used spring onions, carrots and pork. I decided to add to the vegetable content and use chicken instead of pork as the pork mince at the butcher looked a little manky this morning.

My version of the recipe:

Ingredients:
500g minced chicken
1 medium carrot - grated
1 large zucchini - grated
salt
white pepper
5in square springroll wrappers

Put vegetables and meat in a food processor and process till well mixed. Sprinkle with a little salt and white pepper and process further.
Separate the spring roll wrappers a few at a time. Place teh unused skins under a damp tea towel to prevent them from drying out.
Place a wrapper diagonally facing you. Place about a heaping teaspoonful meat mix on the lowest third of the wrapper. Pick up the corner closest to you and roll it upwards once, firmly encasing the meat mixture. Fold the two corners on the sides inwards and then continue rolling the bundle upwards. Lightly moisten the upper corner and stick it to the bundle.

In a medium pot, heat about 1 inch of peanut oil. Fry the springrolls a few at a time. Be careful not to overcrowd the pot as that will lower the oil temperature and the rolls will be oil logged. Fry till golden brown and drain on a wire rack or paper towel.

You can also use the same mix and shape it into nuggets. Lightly coat in breadcrumbs and pan fry till golden on both sides.

Absolutely delicious. Goes well with tomato sauce, sweet chili sauce or Vietnamese dipping sauce.

Who's a slouch?

2011-08-15T11:04:00.002+10:00

Since I am home with a sick child today anyway, I decided to work on some completed and tested patterns while he curled up in front of the tv watching Wallace and Gromit and the were-rabbit. These patterns were just sitting around waiting for me to look over them once more before they were ready to be published.

First off the line is a slouch hat.

It's knit in one piece from the bottom up. The cabled button band features a simple chain with a buttonhole that fits right between the two sides of the chain.

The pattern is now up in the Ravelry pattern store and ready for purchasing. Or simply click here to buy it:

A sight for sore throats

2011-08-14T18:39:00.005+10:00

Today we have a little man who woke up with a very sore throat. All day he has not been keen to eat, and by evening, not only was he hoarse and miserable, he was starting to run a temperature.

So for dinner I made seafood congee. For the uninitiated, congee is rice porridge - cooked by boiling up rice with lots and lots of water.

Ingredients:
1.5 cups rice
7 cups water
500g mixed boneless and shell-less seafood
A knob of ginger the size of your thumb - peeled
Soy sauce, white pepper and sesame oil to taste

In a large pot, wash the rice. Then add 7 cups of water and the ginger and boil till the rice grains are soft (like porridge) and the water starchy. If you have a large rice cooker, you can do this in a rice cooker too.

In a bowl mix the seafood with about 1 tsp of soy sauce and a dash of white pepper.

When the rice congee is ready, keep it boiling and add the seafood mixture. Remove from heat and stir the seafood into the congee. Add soy sauce, pepper and sesame oil to taste.

If you like, you can garnish with chopped spring onions and coriander.

A mountain of biscuits

2011-07-28T11:40:00.006+10:00

Okay, so if you're American, you'd call them cookies, but here we call them biscuits. At least in this house we do, aside from when they are being eaten by the Cookie Monster, according to Alex.

One of the blogs I read is Frills In the Hills and a couple of years ago, she posted about a biscuit recipe she had tried with her children. It makes a whopping 120 biscuits, but she had made larger ones and managed to get about 60 out of the recipe.

I don't know whether I have mentioned it before, but the preschool that Alex attends is nut-free, egg-free and seafood-free. Sure makes making lunches difficult. It also makes it hard for me to bake things for the teachers. So here's where this recipe came in. It's egg-free! Usually I just make shortbread for the teachers as that is egg-free but now I have another recipe that is egg-free and I wanted to try it.

I made the recipe with all 5 cups of self raising flour. I didn't want 120 tiny biscuits so I made what I thought were large ones, thinking I would end up with about 60 or so biscuits. A manageable number. However, oh no.. 95 biscuits later...

I split the dough into 1 separate batches and flavoured them separately:
1. I rolled 1 match into little balls and used the back of a knife to press a hole into each ball. I filled the holes with lightly warmed raspberry jam
2. I added 1 tablespoon of cocoa and 2 tablespoons of peanut butter into this batch and mixed well. I then rolled into balls and pressed them out lightly with a fork. Obviously this batch is not intended for school!
3. I rolled this batch into little balls and pressed a smartie into each one. The leftover dough when I ran out of smarties was simply rolled into balls, pressed lightly and sprinkled with cinnamon.

For those of you needing to send your creations to a nut-free school, bake your nut ones last so that you're not baking the nut-free ones on contaminated trays.

They were surprisingly delicious. Next time I make them, I'll be making a batch with shredded coconut and raisins, I think, and maybe another with chocolate chips.

Degustation @ Cala Luna

2011-07-14T15:13:00.007+10:00

It's evident that we are a family that likes food. Even little Alex finds it exciting to go to a new restaurant or to have something new to try. Recently we realised that the voucher for a pre-purchased meal we had at Cala Luna was going to expire at the end of this month and we hastily booked a table for ourselves. The question we were asking ourselves was whether to bring Alex or to have him babysat.

I decided I'd call the restaurant and their reaction would help me decide. So I called Cala Luna and asked them whether we they welcome children for a lunch time booking. This is not the first time I have used the phone call as a test of whether a restaurant is child friendly. If they hesitate, I know they are probably not prepared to have young children, or at least not welcoming for young children. To my delight, the person who answered the phone seemed more than happy for us to bring a child and even told me there are items on the menu that would be child friendly.

So we went for our "big outing" last Sunday. We packed a little backpack with a book, a magazine and Droidy - our android tablet. We weren't sure how well behaved he would be, seeing as the 6-course degustation meal would probably take us a couple of hours to get through. Nervous parents, we were. Alex was excited, though. We explained to him that we were going to a lunch which would have LOTS of new things to try.

We ordered the degustation menu for ourselves and a meatball sandwich for Alex. While we sat and wait for our food, and between courses, Alex asked for his book. He is currently enjoying the Tashi series of books and was more than happy to do some reading while he waited.

Along with our meal, our voucher included a bottle of wine. We chose to have the Chianti, which an imported Italian bottle. It was a very drinkable wine. Easy to drink and more-ish. I am sure tehre are better ways of describing it, but I'm no connoisseur and so I'll just call it "tasty".

Our first course was fresh pea and truffle soup. Before I tasted it I could already smell the truffle oil on top. Alex could smell it too, and he was not a fan. He turned his nose up at it and although he had a little sip, he declared that he did not like it. Well, fair enough. House rules are that he has to try everything but he does not have to like everything.

Next up was the antipasto plate with fried calamari. It was a little different from what was on the menu since the menu said it would be "Italian regional antipasto (home-made salami, Italian imported Prosciutto, olives & cheeses)". We didn't mind as what we had was delicious. Alex enjoyed it too.

From left to right, we have a cured meat of some sort (parma ham? pancetta??), fried calamari rings and arancini ball with cheese inside.

After that we had the pasta course which was "house made angel hair pasta with spanner crab, zucchini, garlic, chilli". Absolutely delicious. Alex saw the chillis and politely declined this course. He preferred to read his Lego club magazine instead.

Then we had a short break with a palate cleanser - blood orange sorbet with campari. Alex tried a little. I tried to avoid the campari that was pooling around it, but I am not sure how successful I was. We all agreed that the sorbet was lovely and refreshing with just a touch of tanginess.

Then came the fish course and Alex's meatball sandwich.

The fish was a John dory fillet on a lemon and fennel salad. The fish was nicely cooked and not at all dry as it sometimes can be. Alex ate about a third of my fish and about half of Chris's. In fact he preferred our fish course to his own meatball sandwich.

See it was not a bad meatball sandwich. In fact, Chris and I enjoyed it very much. The meatballs were moist and the sauce was fragrant and fresh. In fact if we go back again (and we probably will), I may order the meatball pasta for myself.

Next up was the meat course - home grown milk fed veal with organic eggplants, chianti & pomarola tumips. One of the features of Cala Luna, if one may call it that, is that they have their own farm in the Southern Highlands of NSW and source much of their produce from there or other local farms.

The veal was nicely done and oh so tender. That was Chris's favourite course. The eggplant had a nice char on the outside and was soft and flavourful on the inside.

Finally we were up to the dessert course. By this point of the meal, we were two hours into it and Alex had progressed past books and magazines to watching something on the tablet with headphones on. I know, it's not good manners to be reading and watching a movie at the table, but hey, would you rather a noisy child at the next table or a quiet one watching a movie quietly? I know which I'd prefer. We were allowed to order any dessert off the menu and I chose the chocolate tart and Chris chose the sticky date pudding. Since Alex had been quite well behaved, we ordered him his own serve of dessert. It was quite steep for $7, but hey, it was worth it! The sheer delight on his face was obvious. He even offered some to us!

My chocolate tart with raspberry ice cream was magnificent. The chocolate was dark and rich.

Chris's pudding was soft and luscious and went perfectly with the accompanying scoop of vanilla ice cream.

Oh and how could I forget the chips? We ordered Alex a side of chips and of course we ended up digging into it too. The chips were perfectly fried to a beautiful golden brown and crispy on the outside and fluffy on the inside. Absolutely delicious and oh so more-ish.

All in all we were very pleased we went. Even Alex enjoyed the whole experience, even if it did take two and a half hours in all.

Oh, and I am trying out having larger photos to see hwo they go. What do you think? do you prefer these larger photos or the smaller ones of my previous posts?

Pickles

2011-07-03T20:47:00.003+10:00

So.. this is my latest design. It's not *just* another hooded pullover. It's Pickles. It is slightly "spicy" in its construction. It looks simple, and it is simple, but a lot of care needs to be taken in the construction. Knitted top down, it's seamless from the hood all the way to the hem. I don't want to give too much away before the pattern is released, so here are justa few little "action shots" of Pickles on Alex.

Testing will begin in the next week or so. If you're interested in testing, keep an eye on the Celia's Basket group on Ravelry.

Brrrrr.. it is cold indeed

2011-06-30T20:25:00.003+10:00

I am sure I say this every winter, and it does feel true every winter, "This is the coldest winter yet!"

Does being cold make you feel like cooking warm hearty meals too? i know it makes me crave comfort food like chicken noodle soup (tonight's dinner) and macaroni cheese (most likely tomorrow night's dinner). Diet? What diet? It's impossible to lose weight in winter. Winter is when I cook lots of soup and stews. It's when the dutch oven comes out, the roasting pan is in use and the slow cooker makes an appearance. Nothing like a warm meal on a cold winter's night.

For a person who cooks a lot, I am still missing a few cooking appliances and various things. Among the things I'd love to have and still don't have are a waffle iron (one ofthe traditional ones,not an electric one), an icecream maker and a pressure cooker... which brings me to the "real" reason for this post. There is a competition to win a pressure cooker/slow cooker 2-in-1 thingimajig over at Frills in the hills. I want to win it! I can already imagine all the things that I can cook in it. Oh yum! If you want one of those things,a nd a whole lot of cookbooks, just head over there to read the terms and conditions. no, wait. DON'T head over there. I don't need anyone else fighting me for that pressure cooker!

Another hooded pullover

2011-06-25T22:55:00.002+10:00

Alex loves hoods on his pullovers and jackets. He's still at an age where he loves wearing his mummy-made clothes. How could I resist? He's outgrowing his handknits rapidly. Ihad to whip up another pullover to keep him warm, but I experimented a little. It didn't all work out, unfortunately.

As you can see the neckline is a little wide. It's so wide, in fact, that I don't have to undo the buttons to pull it over his head. I wanted to make the neckline a crew neck but that didn't really work out.

I do like the cable on the sleeves, though. It is a simple 9 stitch 3x3x3 braided cable, and it's very effective in adding some interest to the jumper.

I used a skinnier version of the same cable (2x2x2) on the pocket, but the photos are not clear enough for you to see the cables.

Alex loves his new jumper. He loves it more than I do.

You know me, though. I don't give up. I am now knitting him another hoodie, with a different hood. Same concept as the hoods on my Alex jacket and Lee pullover, seamless from the top down, but a different shape with a lot less room around the face. It will also have a different neckline. That's all I can reveal right now. I'm working out the details and I'll have a picture soon. Interested? I hope to be calling for test knitters in a few weeks' time.

Cars 2!

2011-06-04T17:40:00.003+10:00

Alex has always loved Cars - well, both the movie and the things on four wheels. He wanted to be Lightning McQueen. He loves the movies, reads the books and even has a quilt cover with lightning McQueen on it (Thank you, Cousin Beck!) My mum did not understand the attraction of the Pixar movies till we visited a couple of years ago and brought with us some movies to keep Alex entertained on the plane. She watched them with him when we were in KL, and found herself enthralled by the stories. "They're almst human", I think, was one of her comments.

So they are too. I love how the cars in Cars are given human characteristics and expressions. I love that they have such human emotons that sometimes it is easy to forget that they are "just cars". So Alex loves Cars, but he's not the only one in this household.

Coming soon, is Cars 2. Alex doesn't know about it yet. I dare not tell him as he will otherwise be nagging me to take him to watch it. Here's a sneak peak of what is going to be in it.

If you're in Australia and have a blog, post about Cars2 to win some movie passes to go see this movie! Terms and conditions

mmmmm... caaaaaaake...

2011-05-18T23:58:00.004+10:00

Okay, so I am not very good at arranging pear slices.. but it was still very delicious, pears falling off the cake or not!

The recipe is from taste.com.au - here.

Be warned, this cake is NOT good for people on diet. It is tasty and more-ish. Very more-ish. See that shiny glossy caramel on top? That's brown sugar and butter. I told you it's not good for people on diet (unless it is a weight gain diet).

Last Sunday, I went to Canberra with some friends to have a look at Wool Day at the Old Bus Depot Markets. I didn't end up buying any wool but instead came home with some very delicious dip, sweet sweet persimmons, goat's milk soap and some nuts... and a recipe for pear and almond upside-down cake. The girls were talking about it in the car and made it sound so delicious and easy, I could not help myself.

So there you have it, hardly a week has passed and I have already made my first pear and almond cake. Not only that, I am already dreaming up variations.. persimmons, apples, peaches, apricots, quinces, and so many other varieties of fruits.

I did not follow the recipe exactly, though. I did not have buttermilk in the house, and so I substituted with half a cup of yoghurt and half a cup of milk. Seems to have worked. The cake is lovely and moist. Despite reducing the sugar by a touch (and substituting with a little extra yoghurt), it is a touch too sweet for me and I will probably reduce the sugar content further next time.

Maybe apples next time?

First knitting project!

2011-05-14T16:50:00.002+10:00

Not for me, obviously.

Alex has been nagging me for quite a while about learning to knit. I finally decided that I should give in and at least attempt to teach him. I brought out a pair of old Boye needles and some sugar and cream cotton scraps. He wanted to knit a scarf for his new Star Wars dollie that we bought today.

I cast on 30 stitches and knit the first row and cast off for him. He knit two rows. A pretty good start if you ask me!

He's pretty proud of his first knitting project.

Hot stuff

2011-05-09T22:33:00.001+10:00

From time to time, Chris and I crave hot food. Not temperature hot, but chili hot.This is expected for me, having grown up in Malaysia with curries and lots of hot food (though, I must confess I was not much a fan of hot food till I reached my late teens and then something changed, and I still don't know what that is), but Chris was never brought up with hot food and yet, like me, the craving hits and then nothing will satisfy it like a good dose of Szechuan food.

To the uninitiated, Szechuan is a province in China known for its hot and spicy food. Liberal use of chilies, garlic, ginger and szechuan pepper feature in their cuisine. many dishes are topped with peanuts or sesame seeds. Among the better known dishes are kung pao chicken, mapo tofu and dandan noodles. However, szechuan cuisine extends far beyond these three dishes that have made it onto the menus of most Chinese establishments.

Our favourite place to eat when we're hit with the "hots" is a little eatery in Eastwood, just northwest of Sydney. You park at the multi storey council car park there and walk across the road to a little doorway that looks like it leads to a hole in the wall. Walk up the stairs and you will find yourself in a large-ish dining hall filled with people enjoying their "hot food".

What we order is pretty standard
Tripe and ox tongue in chili oil

Fried chicken in dried chili

While we proclaim that this is as delicious as Szechuan food gets, Alex does not agree with us. "It makes my mouth hot", he whines. Fortunately for us, they do have a few dishes for the non-chili-eater. Their dumplings are delicious and they have two varieties of that - one with a light soy sauce dressing and one in soup. Alex declared that the soupy one is better. They also have a tasty dish comprising of steamed egg with a meat sauce topping. Alex enjoys that dish with some rice on the side or a side of spring onion pancakes - fried crisp and delicious.

So next time you have a craving for something hot, try your local Szechuan restaurant. I hope you enjoy it as much as we have been enjoying "the hots".

Not an April Fool's Joke

2011-04-01T17:00:00.000+11:00

All through the month of April, 50% of the price of all patterns sold through Celia's Basket will be donated to the Australian Red Cross's Japan appeal.

I am sure you have seen enough on the news and read enough in the papers about what has happened in Japan and I don't need to go on about the tragedies that they have endured. While the focus is now on the nuclear reactors, let's not forget that the earthquakes and tsunami took many lives, destroyed many homes and businesses. There are thousands there who need to rebuild their lives from scratch.

Sometime late this month, I will also be releasing a pattern for a girl's cardigan. I am pledging 100% of the sale price of that pattern in the month of April to this cause. So if you have been looking at one of my patterns and have been mm-ing and ah-ing, wait no more. Help me raise funds for Japan.

As with the previous fund raiser for Queensland, I will post a picture of my donation receipt in May so that you know money has been donated as pledged.

Of earthquakes, tsunamis, etc.

2011-03-14T20:00:00.003+11:00

As you know I live in Australia, where we recently experienced heatwaves and floods, and our neighbour New Zealand experienced an earthquake. I prayed for a better year ahead for all of us, but it appears that Mother Earth is unhappy, and we have seen yet another natural disaster - this time, in Japan.

I was in a conference call with colleagues around Asia, including Japan, when the earthquake was first felt. We heard screaming and one colleague had time to tell us there was an earthquake before the line went dead. It was many minutes before we received an updated by way of instant messenger saying they had just experienced what most of them felt to be the worst earthquake of their lives but everyone in the office was safe and accounted for. Phone lines were down. Train lines were down and they could not go home that night. Those were scary moments, and obviously more so for them in Japan than for us over the phone line.

We watched it on the news. My four year old son was shocked by the footage of the tsunami. He does not understand why it happened. I don't understand why it happened. It just did.

What can we do, being so many miles away? There are various organisations collecting funds for the Japanese victims of the earthquake and tsunami. We can give. Give generously. We can pray. I am sure every little bit counts.

Looking for somewhere to donate? Try these:
http://www.japansociety.org/news (Japan Society)
http://www.savethechildren.org/site/c.8rKLIXMGIpI4E/b.6115947/k.8D6E/Official_Site.htm (Save the Children)
http://www.redcross.org.au/japan2011.htm (Australian Red Cross)

I also want to say how ashamed I am that a Malaysian newspaper has chosen to publish a comic panel (is that what they are called??) making light of the tsunami. I don't see how that is funny. I assure you, I do have a sense of humour, but laughing at other people's misery is just not on. That crosses a line. I am sad that there are people who find it funny. It was not that long ago that the northern states of Malaysia were affected by a tsunami that caused great devastation there and in Thailand and surrounding areas. It wasn't funny then, and it is still not funny now.

The Tines - a new shawl

2011-03-14T10:21:00.002+11:00

I don't think I mentioned previously this shawl that I was knitting for mum. Mum wanted a shawl, but something a little more unusual in shape. Not a triangular one, and not a rectangular one. So I ended up with this:

I named it The Tines. Seemed appropriate at the time as the pointy bits poking out of the smooth body of theB a shawl looked like tines.

Then came the writing of the pattern and the testing of said pattern... About a month later and a few minor changes later.. we have a new pattern on Ravelry!

Click here to buy the pattern for USD5.00

Mary, Mary, quite contrary,

2011-03-06T00:40:00.002+11:00

How does your garden grow?

Well, I am not Mary, but my new "garden", if one may call it that, is growing quite well indeed. Aside from the plants that were killed by the heat wave we had a few weeks ago, almost everything else has been growing well.

This is what it looked like a few weeks ago, after I replaced teh poor scorched herbs. I now have another planter with rosemary, continental parley and lemon thyme and a pot with a chilli plant. Unfortunately the coriander in thsi picture is now on its last legs. Poor little thing. It's looking quite withered, and i cannot work out why as it is getting plenty of water and plenty of sun. The basil is now looking very lush, despite my constant raiding of its leaves.

What I am most proud of, though, is my tomato plant. Look at my latest harvest!

Yes, they ARE that red, and yes, they are that shiny. Not the world's sweetest tomatoes but they are full of tomato-ey flavour. Farewell bland shop tomatoes, hello homegrown flavour. Pow!

Pears and bamboo

2011-02-26T09:50:00.004+11:00

I have been buying fruit and vegetable boxes from Flemington Direct. The quality has been great and compared with what I pay locally, the prices aren't too bad either. One of the things I like about it is that I have limited control over what variety of fruit and veg I get and it challenges me to find new and interesting waysto cook what I receive. However, that is also part of the problem. For example, we received an abundance of pears and I only eat them unripe (soft pears? eeeeuw!) and they don't stay unripe for very long at all. Chris only eats them when I cut them and serve them with cheese. Alex has never been much of a fan of pears. So.. what do I do with all these pears I have received?

My own recipe.

Ingredients
250g butter
1 cup sugar
3 tablespoons cocoa
2 cups SR flour
3 eggs
3 tablespoons plain yoghurt
3 tablespoons milk
2-3 pears diced

Method

Preheat oven to about 165 degrees C
Cream butter in a medium bowl
Add sugar and beat till light and fluffy
Add eggs one at a time a beat rapidly
Add milk and yoghurt and beat till combined
Fold in flour and cocoa
Line a baking tin
Pour about 2/3 of the batter into the rpepared tin
Add pears - do not stir
Add remaining batter. It does not matter if not all the pears are covered
Bake for about 50 minutes or till a clean dry skewer comes out clean. Turn oven off.
Rest in oven for ten minutes
Tip out the cake, remove the paper lining and leave to cool on a wire rack
Serve plain or with a dollop of heavy cream. Delicious!

Okay, so that's the pears.. and what about the bamboo?

I got some undyed bamboo blend yarn yesterday and decided to try dyeing it to see how it will turn out. The heathering wasn't as bad as I expected and the yarn took colour well.

A closer look...

Perhaps this is something I should stock in the store. next thing to do - knit it up into socks and seehow they feel!

Thank you for helping us raise funds

2011-02-07T19:13:00.000+11:00

Today I transfered $180 to the Premier Relief Fund for the Queenslanders affected by the flood. This money came from 50% of pattern sales and 10% of yarn sales made on Australia Day + a few dollars from me to round it up into a nice round number. So thank you to everyone who supported this effort. I am sure every dollar counts when it comes to helping these people back onto tehir feet.

A sourdough virgin no more

2011-02-05T12:38:00.003+11:00

About a week and a half ago, I started making my sourdough starter using the 7-day starter recipe from The Sourdough Baker. It was easy enough and before too long, my starter was busy bubbling and doing all the right things. I was slightly concerned that it did not smell like fruits or ripe bananas specifically. Instead, it smelt more like acidic and alcoholic bread - imagine the smell of spilt vinegar on an alcoholic baker and you know what my starter smelt like. I was assured by other home bakers that all is well and my starter was healthy. All good...

Fast forward to last night. I started my bread using a white loaf recipe, again from the sourdough baker. This morning, my dough had risen and doubled in volume and was ready for the final stage of proofing. A couple of hours later and we had our first sourdough loaf.

Looking good? I'll say!

But the proof of the pudding, or in this case, the baking, is in the eating, right?

A little more dense and a little more sour than I like my bread, but not too bad at all. Next time, I will allow it to rise a little more before popping it in the oven. I will also try to make sure my starter is not quite as ripe. Perhaps that will work. Right now I have enough bread to feed teh family for a week so the next lot of sourdough will be made next weekend.

Travelling Woman

2011-01-25T12:27:00.004+11:00

She sure is going to travel. I made this as a project for the "Will work for yarn" group on Ravelry. The incentive was that I got to work on a shawl in my knitting queue with yarn provided by someone else and get paid for my efforts with yarn. Brilliant! I probably wouldn't do this often or for many people, but the yarn supplied was a skein of Wollmeise Twin in Blau Tinte and I was paid in Wollmeise as well. So, I am just waiting for the floods to recede a bit before sending her off on her journey to her new home.

Travelling Woman is an easy pattern to follow. the best thing about the pattern, to me, is the instructions for upsizing the shawl. I added a few extra rows of stocking stitch to the centre bit and lace repeat to the outer part and voila! a shawl large enough to wrap like a warm hug. It is not as deep as your typical triangle shawl. In fact it blocked out into a shape that resembled a crescent more than a triangle.

Here she is, folded and waiting patiently...

Wollmeise, universal currency for knitters?

Queensland floods and a small pledge

2011-01-16T15:51:00.004+11:00

Have you seen the news about the floods in Queensland? Well, it's not jsut Queensland that is flooded now. The floods are affecting areas all up and down the coast of Australia. If you haven't heard about the floods, do a google search. You will find some pretty horrific news coverage about lives and belogings lost in the torrent of rain that has hit Australia over the past few weeks.

The Queensland government is appealing for donations - http://www.qld.gov.au/floods/

To date, over $64million have been raised, and I am sure this is not yet enough to cover all the losses and o help the people affected to get back on their feet. Aside from our own personal donation, I have also pledged to give 50% from the sales of ALL my patterns for the month of January to the appeal. I will tally up the sales on 31st January and make the donation on 1st February. I will post a picture of my donation receipt here on the blog. So if you have been mm-ing and aah-ing about buying any of my patterns, now is probably a good time to buy as half of what you pay is going towards the relief fund.

Also, there are auctions popping up everywhere to raise funds for Queenslanders and others affected by the flood. Dig deep, folks, as there are people who have lost everything, for whom every dollar counts!

Happy New Year!

2011-01-01T09:15:00.002+11:00

Did you stay up for the fireworks last night? We all sat together for the 9 o'clock fireworks and then Alex went to bed after that. I was surprised that he didn't seem to enjoy them all that much. Chris and I sat up for the midnight fireworks and saw the old year out and greeted the new year.

What's in store for this year?

Knitting-wise, I am going to shop from my stash as much as possible. You may have noticed the knitmeter I have added to the sidebar. I'll be updating it with information as I go along. My target is to knit20km of yarn this year. There, I have said it now.. and I'll have to try. I am rather proud of teh nearly 16km of yarn I knit up last year, but I also probably added more than that to my stash!

I hope to have at least another 3 patterns completed and published. In fact, i am starting off the year ahead! I have a pattern for a pullover and another similar one for a cardigan which I will be publishing later this month. They will be two separate patterns also available as an e-book on Ravelry.

For the store, I am still trying to decide whether I want to focus on the thinner yarns. I first need to use up my stock of thicker yarns I suppose. I am also considering adding a few new products to the store.. more about that later.

This year is Alex's last year in daycare before he goes to "big school" in 2012. I am sure it will be a fun year with lots of surprises. He's come a long way this past year with his reading, writing and counting. At the beginning of this year, he only knew the letters of the alphabet and was only just starting to work out the sounds. He is now able to work out words (most, not all) from their sounds. A year ago, he could count to 10 and was making attempts at counting to 20. Now he's happily counting to over 100, can read numbers up to the hundreds and can do basic addition and subtraction. His ability to reason astounds me. Perhaps I just have low standards.. but I am quite amazed by his ability to work things out. Alex has come a long long way in 2010 and I wonder what he has in store for me in 2012.

Have you seen this giveaway?

2010-12-19T17:46:00.003+11:00

No, not me.. it's here.

Isn't that gorgeous? She's giving away 20 fat quarters from this range. What a lovely giveaway!

Our first Christmas tree

2010-12-13T20:27:00.001+11:00

Our big road trip part 6 (Philip Island)

2010-12-09T08:37:00.003+11:00

We could not possibly visit Melbourne without visiting Philip Island. After all there are penguins to be viewed, right?

All through the preparations for the trip, I said to Chris,"gee, I hope it doesn't rain while we're there", and when we woke up on Wednesday, the day of our "penguin trip" as Alex called it, it looked like God was being kind to us and there wouldn't be rain. Sure it wasn't sunny, but there was no rain.

We set out that afternoon and arrived on Philip Island in time for afternoon tea. After a short stop at the first information centre we came across,w e decided to have a quick bite to eat and a drink at the Chocolate Factory across the way. It boasted fine chocolates and a factory tour. Sure, why not?

We were very disappointed when we got in and found they were charging a princely sum of $12 per adult (can't remember the child rate) for the factory tour. So we just had a look around, stopped for a slice of cake and some iced chocolate and went on our way.

Second stop, Churchill Island, which has a farm and lots of animals for Alex to see. Well,w e saw them too but I think it's more a kids' activity. Alex enjoyed going from animal to animal and he even managed to pat some of them.

This peacock was far from shy.

Little show-off!!

Alex also enjoyed the animal statues. he wanted photos taken with each one, and this is one I thought was pretty cute:

After that we moved on to the Koala Sanctuary. The koalas were mostly shy creatures and we strained to spot them. Mostly they were to far up in the trees for us to photograph and to keep Alex entertained, we played "spot the koalas". This little guy must have thought he was well hidden, but he wasn't. Alex found him and we managed to photograph him. Amidst all the cameras flashing and noise around him, he managed to stay very still and barely moved. There were jokes about them being stuffed animal props placed there as a tourist attraction.Had I not seen one of them move ever so slightly, I'd have been tempted to think that was true!

This not-so-little guy wasn't shy. In fact he looked to us as if he was wanting to eat Alex for dinner. It was, after all, close to dinner time.

"Mmm.. come here, little boy. Let me see how sweet you taste! Mua ha ha ha ha!"

As we exited the Koala sanctuary, it started to drizzle. Nobby's Centre next, where we saw wild birds nesting. The slight drizzle did not stop us getting out and walking on the foot path built around the rocky edge of the island. Lots and lots of noisy birds. Very fascinating. Chris took lots of birdy photos which I am yet to get off the other camera. By the time we got back to the car, the rain had become heavier. We weren't sure that going to see the penguins would have been a good idea but since Alex was so eager, we decided to hold off the decision for another hour while we went for dinner.

We had dinner at a Tex-Mex type place in one of the little towns on the island. Food was reasonable, and not as touristy as we thought it would be.. and prices were certainly not as high as we expected. As we left the restaurant, the rain came bucketing down. What were we to do? If we went to the penguin parade, we would definitely be drenched, even with raincoats and umbrellas and who knew what time the penguins were going to appear?? So we ended up driving round to the ticketing centre for the penguin parade with our pre-paid tickets and I ran in to claim a free soft toy for Alex and we had to tell Alex that the rains were too heavy and the penguins were probably not going to come out that night. Alex was so disappointed. I felt so bad for him. He clutched his little stuffed penguin and I am pretty sure he cried a little but he agreed that maybe we should go home and we can try again another time when we're in Melbourne. Yes, maybe next time..

Our big road trip part 5 (Melbourne)

2010-12-09T08:36:00.006+11:00

We pre-booked our Melbourne accommodation online. I receive newsletters from the Shortstay apartments people and in a recent newsletter they announced the opening of their new apartments on A'Beckett Street. having never step foot in Melbourne City before I just had to rely on their website and Google maps (yes, i do love Google maps) to tell me where the apartments were and whether they looked ok. We arrived and they were very ok indeed. City Tempo looked almost brand new and was at a very convenient location. We were, as we soon found out, only 10 minutes' walk away from Queen Victoria Markets, within stone's throw of La Trobe street where the city circle tram passed (a free tram service, I might add!) and not far at all from the busy hub of the city centre. At $149 for a 1 bedroom apartment, it was good value too.

Now what is it with us and apartments? Well, we realised earlier on that there is no way we can sleep with Alex in the same room. He wakes us up and we wake him up - not deliberately, mind you. So, we need him to be in a separate room for all our sanity, and a studio or hotel room just won't cut it. Ah, the joys of travelling with your offspring!

On that first evening in Melbourne we met up with an old friend of mine from school days in Malaysia. We had dinner at Tiamo2 on Lygon Street - Melbourne's little Italy, where the food was good and plenty, and then moved on to Brunetti for dessert. Have you ever been to Brunetti? The display of cakes and desserts is simply overwhelming. It's quite amazing, really and I don't think I have ever seen anything quite like it before. After getting over the initial "wow!", we settled for a rather large macaron and tiramisu. I wish I had taken a photo. Unfortunately when there is food before me, I often forget to whip out the camera. You'll just have to take my word for it that it was pretty good, and I'll be going back again if ever I were to visit Melbourne again.

After an indulgence like that, we decided that we should walk home and attempt to work off some of the sugar and fat. I'm not sure that the walk was long enough to put much of a dent in our sudden weight gain, but it was certainly nice to see some of the city at night. We did not pass through the centre of the city but many of the places we passed were still busy, especially the eateries.

One of the little discoveries we made during our walk to Lygon street that day was that there are more Malaysian eateries in that little part of Melbourne than you can poke a stick at. Yes, really! I'm not sure whether any of them are any good but we did stop at one for a snack of kaya (coconut jam) on toast. I think it was called Little Coconut House.

Very disappointing. It was made with thin wholemeal bread. Who makes kaya toast with thin wholemeal bread?? The bread should be thick, but light and white. The kaya should be sweet and rich with pandanous and slight caramel flavours coming through. Aside from being sweet, our serve of kaya toast exhibited none of those qualities. Fail!

The next day, we explored Queen Victoria Markets, had breakfast there and then took the Melbourne City tourist bus from tehre to Chinatown. It was a pleasant, but long ride as the bus took us all around the city. We viewed the city from air-conditioned comfort, making notes of just where we wanted to get off next time to see more of the city. The bus had a pre-recorded commentary which told you what landmark we were passing and what there was to see and do at each location.

We stopped at Chinatown for lunch, but not before sending a text to our friend, Hui Leng, to ask where we should go in an attempt to try the famous Melbourne yum-cha (or dim sum). She recomended trying Shark Fin House on Little Burke Street. When we got there I was expecting to see huge queues like we see in Sydney yum-cha restaurants, as it was right in the middle of lunch hour, but we must have been lucky as we breezed right through the doors and were ushered to a table immediately. Good food, but we were a little underwhelmed. I am not sure what I was expecting but it was just "yum-cha", you know? It was good, but amazing?? I am glad we tried it anyway. Next time we're in Melbourne, we'll try a different place for comparison.. all in the name of research, no?

Our tummies now full of dumplings and an assortment of other yummies, we set off around Chinatown. Alex loved the stone lions along the street and I think we must have stopped at almost every one and taken a photo. a small (yes,very small, believe me) selection:

Poor little man - Alex's legs could only carry him that far before he needed a rest, and another.. and another.

He mastered "the squat".

Finally in an attempt to lure him to walk a bit further so that we could get back to the apartment for a rest, we promised him a tram ride. Can you tell he was a happy boy once we got to the tram stop?

However, it was good 20 minute wait (or more??) before the tram finally arrived, and boy, were we glad to see it!

That night we met Hui Leng and her family (sans daughter who was at a school function) for a very ducky meal at Old Kingdom, Fitzroy. In Sydney, Peking duck is normally served in two courses. Apparently, this is not the case in Melbourne, where it is served in three courses. So, 4 ducks later... we all walked out very over-ducked and very satisfied. This was to be the first of two ducky meals this trip...

Another successful trade

2010-12-08T22:56:00.003+11:00

About 2 months ago, a friend in Victoria, a fellow Wollmeise-aholic, asked whether I'd knit a shawl for her in exchange for some yarn. Would I ever!!

She chose my Salsa Roja pattern, which I was more than happy to knit again. She wanted it a little larger than the original version and provdied 2 skeins of Wollmeise 100% superwash in Magnolie Dark. It is a gorgeous colour and I truly enjoyed knitting it.

After adding a couple of lace repeats, the final measurement was about 180cm from side to side and about 100cm from top to tip. It was HUGE!

The hardest thing about this job was parting with the end result. I loved it!

I had half a skein leftover so I offered to make her a hat and she was happy with my petals and plumes pattern. That was definitely a quick knit, taking me about two nights and only about 40g of yarn. Easy peasy!

They finally left my hands today and is flying down to Victoria as we speak. I hope you love the shawl and hat, and enjoy it, Jen. Thank you for my beautiful skeins of WM! It was a pleasure doing business with you!

Ad break

2010-12-02T20:48:00.002+11:00

Just interrupting the series of posts about our big road trip with a short ad break.

Celia's Basket is stocked up with yarns and stitchmarkers again. I may add a few more markers tomorrow but aside from that, everything is up, waiting to go live tomorrow night at 8pm Sydney time.

Someone asked me recently why I am now setting everything to preview before going live on Friday nights. Well, I was previously getting complaints that I stock the store at odd and unpredictable hours and certain somebodies - you know who you are :) - said that they kept missing out on the goodies they wanted. So now everyone can see what is going to go up and if you really want something, you know what time to jump on the store and snag it!

We are also introducing a new yarn this week. I have named her Beauty as she really is a thing of beauty - firmly spun superwash merino 4ply with a slight sheen. Put up of about 330m per 100g, there's enough for a pair of socks or a scarf. If you want a stole, you'll need 2 skeins. As I am winding these skeins off myself, if you want a larger skein to avoid knots, just send me a message through the store and I'll be happy to dye up a custom lot for you.

Our big road trip part 4 (On the road to Melbourne)

2010-12-01T11:35:00.004+11:00

After 3 nights in Wangaratta, we proceeded to Melbourne, but not before I indulged in some woolly goodness. A knitter can't go to Wangaratta and not visit the ACS mill, can she? Of course not! So, on Monday morning before we left Wangaratta, we stopped off at the mill shop. Having recently attempted to take stock of what I have at home (note, the word is "attempted"), I was reasonably restrained, buying only some balls of Patonyle 8ply for a jumper for Alex and some cones of mill-end stuff. I'd tell you what they were if I knew. Most were unlabeled and I am yet to do a bleach or flame test on them. For $10 a bag, I figured it was worth the risk. What's the worst? If it were all acrylic or something equally yuck, I could use it for core spinning or donate it to charity. I have high hopes for the Patonyle 8ply. if it is anything like the Patonyle 4ply I have from years and years ago, it will wear like iron and I can make a slightly larger jumper for Alex and have it last a good 2 or even 3 seasons! I did indulge in a couple of balls of Patonyle 4ply as well. I intend to overdye those before knitting. I think overdyeing it may give an interesting effect, but first I need to re-skein it and I can't think of a more boring task!

Onwards we pressed.

First stop, Glenrowan. We were told it is a historic town. When we arrived, we realised that "town" was a little bit of an exaggeration. It was more like a village. There were a handful of shops along both sides of a small stretch of road, probably less than a kilometre in length. Still, we were there, so we got out to have a little look around. It was quaint. It was touristy. Everything centred around a Ned Kelly theme. It was Ned-this and Kelly-that, or Bushranger-something-or-other. There was a Ned Kelly Museum and a massive statue of the bushranger himself. Photo op!

Despite or initial disappointment, we did decide to stop fora breakfast/brunch and we were pleasantly surprised. We ordered a big breakfast, a sausage roll (home-made, or I should say "shop-made"?) and Devonshire tea. I wasn't sure what to expect of the scones. Very often , I am disappointed by the scones I find in Sydney as they are massive and bready and not the least bit scone-y. These were quite nice. Light, fluffy but not bread-y. They were large but not as huge as some of the monstrosities you find in Sydney cafes. It came with cream and strawberry jam. The big winner was actually Alex's sausage roll. It was a change from the commercial sausage rolls we were used to. The meat was not as finely ground as what you find in most sausage rolls and it had a nice tomato-ey flavour to it. The pastry was light and flaky and not overly greasy. We nearly ordered a second but decided that would just be overdoing it.

Next stop, Euroa!

Why Euroa? Well, Euroa is home to First Edition Fibres. Everything I have ever spun from them has been of good quality, and I could not pass up the opportunity to buy more, especially not when we were literally driving right beside the town.

This is what the place looked like. You'd be forgiven if you were to drive past it thinking it was just an old shed. We did.. twice, I think! We finally drove around the shed, and found a spot for the car out the front under some shady trees. I think Alex was rather unsure about getting out and visiting "the big shed". Neither was he impressed by the treasure trove of all things fibre-y in it. He did like their dog, though. Jacko. He was friendly but not overly so and wasn't boisterous. Not having grown up with dogs, Alex is never quite sure what to make of them, but he was happy to pat Jacko, and Jacko was happy to be patted.

I walked away with two bags of fibre. Nothing too serious, but we did have trouble finding room in the boot of the car for it after my slight enthusiasm at Wangaratta. Fortunately, fibre squishes easily and soon we were on our way again.

We finally reached Melbourne in the late afternoon. Not without some minor drama, though. As we approached the city limits, Chris asked me to look up traffic cameras in Victoria to see whether they need to be sign-posted like they do in NSW. Hmm.. why do you ask, husband dear? Anyway, I may as well tell you so that you'll know if you're ever to drive into Victoria. No, it does not appear that they have the same sign-posting requirements. It was rather handy having the mini laptop and mobile broadband connection after all.. even if I didn't really need it for maps at that stage. The Tullamarine freeway is a very very long road, as we discovered! I am ~~pleased~~ relieved to say that we have not received any traffic offence notices yet.

Our big road trip part 3 (Rutherglen and Beechworth)

2010-12-01T09:19:00.011+11:00

Day 3, and we were still staying at Wangaratta. Our friends left on that morning. Alex was sad to see his mate go and kept pestering us with question - "When will I see Caelan again?", "Is Caelan coming to visit us in Sydney?", "Can we move Canberra closer to Sydney?Why not?", "What about if we move Sydney closer to Canberra?". What is it with this child? We cannot move cities, no matter how much we want to!

Alex and Caelan had one last playtime together at the neighbouring park before we bade our friends adieu, and we left to go up towards Rutherford. This is when we made the discovery that perhaps my trusty pocket wifi isn't so trusty after all. Midway through our drive, my maps refused to reload!! It really wasn't the fault of the device so I should not blame it's reliability. The mobile broadband coverage was pretty much just around the Hume highway. the further we strayed from the highway, the weaker the signal. This was also when we realised that the roads in the area are very conveniently named. The road between Chiltern and Beechworth is called the Chiltern-Beechworth road, for example. So as long as we knew what was behind us, we could easily work out where the road would end. Very convenient when Google maps isn't working.

Our first stop at Rutherford was at the Stanton and Killeen winery. They had some really nice stickies, and I wish we had the money and space to bring home more bottles than we did. We ended up with some nice muscats. Their topaques (also known as tokays) were nice, but not as nice as the muscats. They let us try some of their 25 yrs aged muscats and wow! It had amazing flavour that lingered. I am no wine expert and don't know all the right words to describe it but it was very very nice. It was tempting to buy a bottle (or three) but we refrained. At about $80 for a half bottle (375ml), it would have been a very expensive drop. The trouble with expensive wine is that I can't bring myself to drink it! What a waste. The other wine worth trying there is the Auslese, which we ended up buying as well. It is a light dessert wine with lots of flavour but not in-your-face-sweet. I would describe it as a sweet Traminer-ish kind of wine.

Next stop was lunch at Rutherglen. We ended up at a pub, and the food wasn't bad. I had the poacher's pie which had beef and game in it. They never did say what sort of game meat was in it but by the two small bones I found in it, I'd guess that it had some rabbit or hare in it. It was tasty. They also served really good chips, much to the detriment of my disappearing waistline. Chris's lunch order was the mixed grill which was okay, but as mixed grills normally are, it was just average. Everything a little overdone, but there was plenty of everything. The chips were good, though. Alex had sausages and chips. Can you see a trend here? Well, aside from the chips, the steamed vegies were also good, but when you douse any food in that much butter, it has to be good!

poacher's pie
mixed grill.. notice the lack of vegetables??
sausages and chips. Alex was impatient.

The next winery we visited was All Saints. It's a lovely setting, with a "castle" built on large grounds. There was a rose garden to explore, a little lake (or pond??) you could sit beside for tea, and a cheese shop on the grounds as well as the cellar door.

We very quickly discovered that the rose garden would have been more aptly named the mosquito garden. We took some quick pictures before venturing off elsewhere for more photo ops.

Peek-a-boo!

We moved on to Beechworth after that. Google maps was still out of action (or at least our mobile broadband connection was) so we relied on a map that only showed the main roads, street signs and road names. We did end up in Beechworth without any trouble at all. The roads were mostly straight and boring. The town itself was interesting. It was quaint and quite pretty. There were many old buildings and interesting little shops for us to poke around.

Down one end of the street is an ice-creamery. Perhaps I have been spoilt by good ice-cream, as I was very disappointed by the ice-cream there. The almost fluorescent green pistachio ice-cream seriously lacked pistachio flavour. We also ordered rum and raising (which had 1 raisin in the whole serve) and another flavour which I can't remember. I don't know why I thought a small time ice-creamery would have excellent ice-cream, but I did. I now know better.

Our big road trip part 2 (Millawa)

2010-11-30T10:52:00.004+11:00

So this is the aim of our stopover at Wangaratta - to attend the BB gourmet food and wine festival. This was our first visit to the festival but our friends were old hands at this. After a quick trip to KMart for some sunscreen, we met up with M, S and C at the Brown Brothers' Estate where they had already scoped out the place and bagged a nice table in the shade to share with us. It was close to being equidistant from the playground, the market hall (where the food was), the cellar door (where wine tasting was being conducted) and the music. As we entered the estate we were offered a glass of sparkling white. It was delicious. I can't recall what it is called now, but I know we brought a bottle home!

After hassling me for a whole morning with, "Where is Caelan?" and "what time will we see Caelan?" and "Can we go see Caelan now?", Alex was happy to be reunited with his friend.

The boys enjoyed each other's company and I realised that there was no way I was game to come to another of these events if there was no other child with whom Alex could play. The boys kept one another entertained , even if they did have the occasional tiff.

At one point, S's iphone was brought out and the boys were kept amused by the light sabre app. If you haven't realised by now, Alex is a bit of a Star wars nut. He loves everything Star Wars-y. A few weeks ago, he was apparently Luke Skywalker and I was Pricess Leah. hmm.. something odd, incestuous and wrong there, my child!

We adults were busy eating, drinking and being merry. The food was good. When I first saw the plates, I thought they would not be enough but they were enough. they weren't huge meals by anyone's standards. No, not even large. Every "main" was more of an entree sized dish and it came with a glass of wine. the menu included the suggested wine pairings but you could ask for a glass of any wine you wanted. We tried the Durif, which we liked so much we ended up with 4 bottles of it. We also enjoyed the Cienna. A lovely drop for a warm summer - like the one that we're heading into right now.

We forgot to take photos of the main dishes, which were very good indeed. I had the lamb neck, which was really much better than it sounds. Chris had the steak sandwich (well, that's what I called it, but the description on the menu was fancier than that) - and it was very good too. We did whip out the camera for a few shots of the dessert.

This is Chris's. I think it was a panacotta of some sort.

This is what I had. It was a prune and chocolate flan with rum and raisin icecream. I thought the flan was heavier than what it should have been. I think of flans as being light but the cake was quite dense and heavy. It was delicious, nonetheless. the rum and raising icecream was nice, but I think it could have done with a sprinkling more raisins and a dash of rum.

There was plenty of entertainment for the children. there was Trixie the clown whom the kids thought was fantastic. She did not freak me out as much as clowns normally do. She was quite nice. A funny sort of clown. No, I don't think they are ALL funny. Some are rather scary looking! The children also got their faces painted. C was a tiger and Alex was a pirate. He was a rather dirty looking pirate too.

Who's that knitting? Why, me of course! It was a relaxing day for me. I had my knitting and a glass of wine and the company of friends. Could not have asked for more. I had started a toe-up sock for Alex in the car and I was aiming to have it done by the time we got back to Sydney. You'll have to keep reading if you want to find out whether I achieved my goal. That wasn't the only knitting I had on the go. I was also knitting a shawl, but I can't show pictures of it as the owner of the shawl wants it to be a surprise. It's a commission job so I do as I am asked, especially when she's asked so nicely.

I think we adults could have stayed all day but by mid-afternoon the boys were getting cranky. Yes, the little boys, not the big boys. The big boys were happy to be entertained by wine and music and I am sure they could have stayed all day. So we left around mid-afternoon and headed towards the Millawa cheese factory. Oh my, the cheese. I'd go back just for the cheese. They had a lot of goat's milk cheese which were not too "goat-y". I loved it all. the 3-year aged cheddar was delicious, as was the King River Gold and Millawa Gold (a washed rind sort of soft cheese - a little smelly but the good sort of smelly). What I loved the most was the Tomme. I had not had it before. I saw the little wheels (wheels? mounds? whatever..) of Tomme uncut and the mould was rather frightening to look at. However, taste a sliver of it and you'll know you're in cheese heaven. Another not-too-goaty goat's milk cheese. It is a hard cheese, almost like a parmesan. Very nice and flavourful. Mm.. I could do with a slice now, but unfortunately it would not have survived the ride to Melbourne, around Melbourne and back to Sydney, so we had to forgo it.

We had a little snack at the cafe next to the cheese factory and then it was back to the motel for some rest and dinner. Alec fell asleep on the way back and I had to carry him from the car to the apartment. In the course of doing so, I lost one of his shoes (a croc-style shoe). Oops. After a frantic search around the car and on the path back to the apartment, I gave up. Alex woke up from his slumber a very cranky child but after dinner he was right as rain again, and (most unfortunately for us) raring to go! We stayed up for a little bit watching the (free) DVDs which we could borrow from the front desk of the motel.

Did I mention where we stayed? It was the Parkview Motor Inn at Wangaratta. The folks running it were lovely and ever so helpful. they even found Alex's missing shoe the next day! We had a 1 bedroom apartment which was nice and spacious. There was plenty of room for the kids to sit on the floor and colour in or have a little dance. All in all, for what it cost, I think it was pretty good.

Our big road trip part 1 (Wangaratta)

2010-11-30T08:49:00.005+11:00

For a long time, Chris and I have been talking about taking a road trip together. If I recall correctly, this discussion started even before we were married. Then we got married, and I got pregnant, Alex arrived and then it was all too hard (or so it seemed) to take a baby on the road with us.

Alex is now nearly 4 and in just over a year he will start school. It hit me all of a sudden that if we didn't find time to do this trip now, we may not have another chance for many years to come. Once Alex starts school, we'll have to start thinking about school holidays and school activities and plan around all of that. So we decided to go.

And go, we did.

Well, I did anyway. I got into planning mode and started booking accommodation, looking up touring maps, etc etc. It didn't long at all. The two things that took the longest were deciding whether we were going to fly in to Melbourne and hire a car and drive it back to Sydney, or drive the whole way there and back, and deciding where to stop on the way back. After a few quick calculations we worked out that it would not cost us that much to drive the whole way and driving offered us the flexibility of packing extra bedding for Alex in case we needed it. We didn't decide on where to stop on the way back before we left.. but that's a whole other story!

Before we left, we had to work out what we were going to do about navigation. We don't have a GPS navigation system, you see. So, do we buy one for the trip and see whether we like it enough to use it after? Do we buy a whole lot of different street directories and maps? Then Chris had a lightbulb moment. How about if we just get a mobile broadband subscription (which we need anyway as a back up for my work) and bring a little laptop along with us? Google maps will see us through, right?

We set out on the morning of Friday 19th November, headed towards Wangaratta our first stopover. Chris drove. I sat beside him with my trusty pocket wifi beside me and little laptop on my lap. I was fully armed with a bag of knitting and a bag of food at my feet. Alex sat at the back and he was armed for the trip with a back pack full of goodies. I had gone out and bought a "Shrek movie pack" from my local QBD bookstore for $4.99. It included a sticker book which kept Alex entertained for ages. There were other things in the pack including a book which I could read to him and a "movie novel", which held his interest for all of 2 seconds until he realised there were no pictures in it. I also included Alex's drawing book, some reading books and a colouring book in his backpack.

Alex slept for much of the journey,which was excellent for us because when he was not asleep, he was talking. No, I am serious. These days Alex is like a talking machine. He's either asleep or talking ALL THE TIME! You can imagine how grateful we were when the chatter subsided and we could hear gentle noises of slumber coming from the back of the car.

Alex woke up in time for lunch at Yass. We stopped there thinking we'd scout it out and decide whether we want to stop there on the way back to Sydney. We very quickly decided it really wasn't interesting enough for us to want to stay there. Lunch was lovely, though. We ate at Cafe Dolcetto on the main street. The boys claimed the banana smoothie there was "to die for", but I don't like bananas so I took their word for it. My chicken salad was pretty good as was Chris's pasta. Alex just ate off both our plates.

Having the mobile broadband connection and the laptop with us was very handy as we could look up towns along the way to see whether there was anything interesting to see or anywhere nice to stop for lunch or tea. Chris had a mad craving for sashimi, and I did a search. the nearest was at Albury, and no, we did not stop for that. There's plenty of Japanese food to be had in Sydney and Melbourne so there was no need to give in to his mad cravings.

We pressed on to Wangaratta after that, arriving not too long before dinner time. Our friends, Megan, Shane and Caelan were already there. Megan and I left the big boys to nap, study or just relax while we took the little boys out to the park. The park was conveniently located about 5 minutes walk away from where we were staying. This proved to be very handy over the three nights we spent there as Alex just needed somewhere to expend his energy. The kids had a ball, and it was nice to be able to just sit and catch up with Megan.

On the first night, our dinner consisted of fairly average Indian fare from the restaurant next door. We over-ordered (as usual) and ended up with leftovers which became dinner the next day.

It probably would not have been as bad had I not gotten angry with them in the first place. We placed our order on the phone and was told it would be ready for pick-up in about 20 minutes. I arrived there 20 minutes later to find that they could not find my order. What had happened? The lady who took the call still had my order attached to the order pad and the order pad was in her pocket. So I was told that they would rush it and I could have my food in 15 more minutes. Fuming, I walked to Coles to pick up breakfast supplies. After all it would be between waiting 15 more minutes for our Indian food or going elsewhere and being prime dinner time then, it would probably have taken longer to get our food. about 15-20 minutes later I arrived back at the restaurant. The lady who was looking for my order greeted me with horror in her face and the question, "Wrong order?" Uhm, no, I haven't received my order yet, remember? Anyway, about 10 minutes later I finally made it out of the restaurant with our food. Our 20 minute quickie dinner run ended up taking an hour.

In the picture you can see a curried chicken dish in the front (chicken pishwari or something) which I found a bit ho-hum but Alex enjoyed. It didn't make his mouth hot :) I chose the saag paneer (usually called palak paneer in Sydney, I think) which was hotter than I was accustomed to but not too bad. We also had a chicken tikka briyani rice - I told you we over-ordered, didn't I?- which was again ho-hum. Hot but not spicy enough.

We settled in to an early night that night. We were all tired after all that travelling. Besides. We had a big day ahead - at the Brown Grothers Gourmet Food and Wine festival at Millawa.

Socks socks socks

2010-09-16T23:37:00.002+10:00

I must be on a roll for socks right now. I have completed the socks I was testing for Margaret. There's my Royal Pair.

I love them so much I am wearing them now. Nice comfy socks with just enough stretch to be firm but not too tight.

Can you see how the two socks don't match exactly? It's not just the pattern (which is my mistake) but the yarn. I knit it from two 50g skeins of handdyed yarn that I bought in someone else's destash some time back. It's not her fault they don't match - she did not dye them herself. I am just a little disappointed that tone skein had quite obvious grey spots in it and teh other didn't. I amactually glad now that I did nto use the yarn for a scarf like I had intended to at first. the mismatch would have been very obvious when I changed skeins. At least in socks.. well, they are just socks.

I also completed the second sock using my own Toughstuff yarn in colourway "ed". I call teh second sock "Ed Slipped". It is a simple design using a variation of the linen stitch for the leg and the instep. The fabric is firm with a little stretch, but not so stiff that it stands on its own. Another very comfy sock. I like how the slipped stitch pattern breaks up teh varigation a little but still allows some of it to show through.

I am calling for testers now. If you are a Raveler and want to test for me, sign up here.

When you have no time to knit...

2010-09-10T08:49:00.003+10:00

You make time. Wait, isn't that what everyone does?

Life's been frightfully busy here. If it is not one thing, it is another. For a start, Alex has a social life. That's right. My 3 1/2 year old has friends and as a result of that has parties to go to. Sometimes I wish I could take him and leave him there so that i can have a few hours to do the grocery shopping or clean the house, but, as I have also been reminded, this stage will not last long. Soon I will be wishing that I am allowed to stay and see what goes on at the parties! Right-o. Enjoy it while it lasts, eh?

Alex loves parties. it's the only time when he gets "party food"- sweets, chips and other "sometimes" foods. I still remember when he was still naive and had no idea that gummi babies are to be eaten. He was offered some, he chose two colours and was marching them along in the sandpit like little toy men. These days, he knows they are edible and that they can be quite delicious. There's no keeping him away from them now. the downside to not having party food at home is that wehn we go to parties, he likes to hover near the food table. I often wonder whether other parents think we don't feed him. Then I look at his little pot belly and his round cheeks and realise that nobody could, in their right minds, call him a starved child. Just look at this face!

That picture was taken a couple of weeks ago. He was modelling one of his new "knit by mummy" jumpers. A better look at the jumper:

Yes, I know, it is a little on the large side. You know what, this child grows like a weed!! It looks big now, but give it a year, or even half a year and it will fit just right. Since it's coming to the end of winter, I am hoping that it will last through next winter as well.

I have been asked for the pattern, but I never did plan to write it up. Perhaps I will, but it won't be for a while yet as I need to get through some of the other patterns I have sitting around first.

I used Bendigo Woolen Mills' Luxury 8ply in Stone and Oceanic to knit this. It took about 1.5 balls of Oceanic and about 1/4 of a ball of Stone for the stripes. Love love love the colour combination and I think I'll knit him something else in these colours. The design is simple. It is knit from the top down in one piece. The neckline is a simple placket neckline and the shaping is just your basic top down raglan with a few simple cables thrown in. I added ribs down the side to help with growth room. Who knows how rotund the kid will be in a year's time!

So, not only have I been busy with the knitting needles - more about that later - but I have also had to sew Alex some clothes. Purely out of necessity. Chris's grandmother, Lola, passed away a couple of weekends ago. Lola was 102 years old, so she's had pretty good innings, I think. Sadly, I never managed to have much of a relationship with her as she did not speak English well, and I did not speak Tagalog well. I still don't speak Tagalog well at all. I understand some words and phrases and can guess what is being said but most of the time I need an interpreter to communicate with Lola. Lola, may you rest in peace.

For the viewing and the funeral, Alex needed black clothes. Now, do you think it is possible to find basic black pants and shirts anywhere? No, of course not. Everything black in the shops is plastered with some sort of licenced picture of Ben 10 or Disney characters or Mr Men or something. Even the button up shirts had stuff across the back and/or front. Don't people make plain clothes anymore? Don't people buy plain clothes anymore? So I sat at the sewing machine on the night before the viewing and made Alex a pair of black corduroy pants and a black corduroy jacket. Poor planning on my part meant that I did not have any black/white fabric with which to make the jacket lining. Oops. The jacket was lined in blue fabric (with colourful trucks, no less) and I hoped it would not be too noticeable.

Alex had a great time at the wake playing with his cousins. We don't see them very often, but every time we do, I am reminded of how much fun it is to have cousins. We really should make a point of keeping in contact with them more often. Seeing each other's updates on Facebook really isn't quite the same. Alex was qute attached to a coupel of his cousins and he spent hours playing with them outside. Look how red his cheeks were, and it wasn't even a hot day!

Okay, on the knitting front, what else have I been up to?

I realised that I never did announce on my blog the launch of two patterns.

First there's the Lazy Sunday bedsocks.

It features a spiraling rib on the leg and short rows on the heels and toes. There is absolutely no seaming or grafting needed on this design. It is knit using 8ply (DK) wool and is great for lounging around at home. Designed to be a comfortable fit, and loose enough to not "strangle" your feet and ankles whilst firm enough to stay on all night or all day, as the case may be. It is a downloadable purchase on Ravelry. I think it is an ideal introduction to socks - no grafting to worry about and no teeny tiny stitches on teeny tiny needles to manage.

The other pattern that I neglected to announce here on the blog is the Hoo hat.

It comes in two variations, with the other having a band of owls around the hat.

This design was originally inspired by the baby owl vest by Jodi Haraldson. I thought theuse of cabels to knit the owls was really clever, and made it up to knit a hat, but the pattern sat on my computer for months and months waiting for me to get round to tidying it up and having it tested. Finally, a couple of months ago, I got my act together and now the pattern is published. My pattern is knit on 10ply (worsted) weight yarn and is sized ffrom newborn to adult. It is a pretty cushy hat.

Here's one of my nephew modeling the hat:

Isn't he a cutie! He's wearing it with the ribbing folded up. There's lots of stretch and plenty of room for growth. that's in teh smallest size, and I think it will probably fit him till next year. He was only about 4 months old at the time and has since grown heaps. The last time I saw him with the hat was at Lola's funeral, and it still fitted well, with room. Have I ever mentioned I love "room for growth"? No use spending all that time and effort knitting somethign only to have it fit for all of 2 or 3 months, right? Besides, I think little boys look kinda cute in oversized clothes, or maybe that's just my excuse.

Also, I did not announce the re-launch of the Scallops on the Bias hat. I took it off the store for a couple of months while I modified it to fit in with my pattern template and while I was at it, I added more sizes and instructions for an alternate crown.

The new crown looks like this

I have seen it knit in both solid and variegated colourways and both work well with the pattern. It is now sized from newborn to adult.

Okay, that's it for teh sales spiel. no more patterns to talk about, but it's not the end of teh knitting news. Yup, I have been a busy little bee!

I finally completed my regia socks. Which Regia socks? These ones

I started them back in 2008 and then lost the mojo to finish them, so they have been sitting around in their half finsihed state for about two years. Finally got round to finishing them, and they're a great fit. I can't remember what the pattern is called. it's a Fibertrends one and it's got somethign to do with railway lines or tracks or something of that sort.

Having finally tackled that sock, I felt more confident to sign up for the testing of Margaret's Royal Pair socks. I am midway through the second sock now. Now that i have found my "happy knitting place" with this pattern, it is working up quickly and error-free.

I boo-booed on this sock and the leg has 2 repeats of the chart instead of three and I made the second set of twisted cable stitches too long. On the second sock, I knitted two repeats again but fixed up the error of having the cables too long. So I have two socks that won't match, but that's okay. We can all be Dobby sometimes, right? I am really enjoying knitting this. It's a brilliant design.

Petals and Plumes

2010-07-27T20:37:00.003+10:00

That's the name of my most recently released pattern on Ravelry.

Petals and plumes is a hat pattern sized from baby (suitable for a newborn) to an adult extra-large size (will fit heads up to about 60cm in circumference). It uses a miniscule amount of yarn with the child and baby sized ones using as little as 20-30g of yarn. It is knit on 3.75mm needles using fingering (4ply) weight yarn. perfect for all those little bits of yarn you have leftover from shawls and socks.

The crown of the hat has a flower motif. the number of petals will depend on the size you are knitting. the larger the hat, the more petals you will have.

The body of the hat is knit in stocking stitch with a lace edge around the bottom.

The design is simple and the lace repeats are easy to memorise. It can now be bought and downloaded here.

Salsa Baby.. I am on a pattern roll!

2010-06-30T20:13:00.003+10:00

It's now available here

My own photos aren't so great, but look how it knitted up for one of the testers (jenandmaddie)

The pattern comes in two sizes - 70cmx70cm and 100cmx100cm. It's a good size for babies and the larger size will last a child up to about 12 or 18 months old. I tried the smaller size on my little nephew who was about 5 or 6kg in weight at the time and I had to fold it in half so as not to smother him.

Salsa Roja pattern now available

2010-06-23T08:54:00.003+10:00

Indeed, I am on a roll.

I have released another shawl pattern today.

Presenting Salsa Roja - a little spicy, simple to make, and very hot to look at!

I have set it up as a purchasable download from Ravelry - here.

If you have a look at the projects completed from this pattern, you'll see a number of other projects. It is written for both fingering (4ply) and lace (2 ply) weight yarns. Starting in the centre, the pattern is worked outwards in 3 different lace stitches, ending with a slightly pointy lace border.

Surefoot Basic Sock Pattern

2010-06-21T22:25:00.003+10:00

Yes! It's finally published.

I set it up as a purchasable download on Ravelry - here

The pattern is written for 8 sizes from 13.75cm foot circumference to 22.5cm foot circumference. Tehre are also separate colour coded instructions for dopuble pointed needles and magic loop using one circular. I tried to make it the "go to" pattern for simple socks that covers a range of sizes, and judging from the test knits, it comes pretty darned close.

Yes, still knitting...

2010-06-16T22:13:00.004+10:00

Yes, I am still here. Work has not eaten me alive.. well, not quite yet.

And yes, I am still knitting. I actually do have a lot of completed work to show off, but have been really slack. Where do I begin?

Let's start with my crochet kick. A couple of weeks ago, someone in my online mum's group ( I have forgotten who it was) asked for someone to crochet her daughter a hat. Well, as you have probably gathered from my work, I am a knitter, a spinner, a dyer, but my crochet skills aren't quite up to scratch. for a start, I can't read a pattern to save my life. Anyway, I had to take up the challenge didn't I?

So, a few days later, I had these to show for my little crochet kick

This was the first one, which Alex very obligingly modeled for me. It's more a summer hat than a winter one. It really doesn't do much to keep your head warm!

I have also been testing patterns for others, including this face cloth which I have given to my not-so-newborn nephew

... and this beret, which I have also given away

... and this cabled hat which I gave away as part of a prayer swap on Ravelry

... and this cardigan for Alex

Yup, that's a lot of testing and that's not all but that's all the piccies I have to show for now.

Finally something for myself:

I cast on a jumper for myself this past week. It's knitted in Wollmeise 100% superwash merino in the Dunkle Kirsche colourway. I am loving how the colour is truly a semi solid piece of art with dark bits here and there, and none of it pools. Thank goodness. i really wouldn't want it to pool. There is no pattern. I am winging it. Simple neck down seamless raglan with a (hopefully) deep "u" neckline. I started off thinking I will knit a v-neckline but decided that a "u" will look better. gosh I hope I am right!

What else have I been doing? Let's see.. pattern writing? Yup.

I need a basic sock pattern to go with my yarn so I decided to write one up. It's simple - cuff down, heel flap design, and best of all it comes in 8 sizes! I have tested it in a couple of sizes and have got testers testing the other sizes. Did I mention that it is written for both DPN and Magic loop? That's right. I try to cover all bases, and I think I am nearly there. I have a few people still testing, and those who have completed have found that the socks fit their intended ~~victims~~ recipients. This one is in Alex's size

I also have a shawl pattern that is at the tail end of testing. It is written for fingering weight (4ply) and laceweight (2ply). It will use only one skein of Surefoot or one skein of Grace. Thanks to my current addiction to Wollmeise colours, I tested it in Wollmeise 100%superwash merino wool (as did one of the testers) and we found that it can be knitted using 1 skein of Wollmeise 100% superwash merino wool. Perfect! 1 skein, with almost no wastage. After casting off, I only had about 5g of yarn leftover. How close was that? The tester who used the same yarn found she had a touch over 6g leftover, I think.

I am very proud of this pattern. I may be a little biased but I think it is lovely. It's easy too! We're right at the end of testing and so you'll be seeing a pattern release next week (fingers crossed).

Last but not least, a baby blanket pattern.

No, it's not triangular. It is square.

Please forgive the poor image quality. I had this laid out on a bed and I was trying to capture the whole blanket without casting shadows. It really was harder than I imagined it to be.

It comes in two sizes - 70cm x 70cm and 100cm x 100cm. testing for this ended some weeks ago but I did not get round to formatting the pattern. I am nearly done now, so it can be released together with the other too.

I have been a busy bee, haven't I?

Store update, new line of yarn

2010-06-11T21:24:00.002+10:00

Celia's Basket is updated again, and this time with Surefoot, the sock yarn that keeps going and going, and Serendipity, a ned fingering weight wool and silk blend.

Of late, I have been in love with semisolid colours, and I have been dyeing a whole lot of semisolids along with some variegated colourways. Neither should pool. i have turned into the queen of no-pooling.

Take a look at these babies

Those are some of the Surefoot skeins I dyed. Some ended up being a little underweight, and some were little "rogues" (2 or more knots, not quite the expected colourway, you know, rebels) and these have been discounted in the store.

There will be a few more skeins updated to teh store over teh weekend as I find time to re-wind them to check for knots and other rebellious behaviour.

Announcing the winners...

2010-05-27T16:57:00.002+10:00

Just a quick post to announce the winners.

Katrin from Fimmelminna's Ecke
Emy from Vintagefusion Knits and Crochets
Oiyi from Oiyi's crafts

I'll be sending you the pattern shortly. Congratulations!

Pattern giveaway

2010-05-19T08:25:00.004+10:00

To celebrate the release of the Salsa Verde pattern, I am giving away three copies for free. If you are a member of Ravelry, click on the link above and you will see some of the lovely projects others have made from this pattern.

Leave a comment here (don't forget to leave your email address!) before Sunday 23rd May 2010 for a chance to win. Link to this giveaway from your blog and post a link to your blog post, and go into the draw a second time.

Comment away, people, and don't forget to spread the word. Thanks!

Salsa verde Pattern released

2010-05-12T16:52:00.002+10:00

My pattern for the Salsa Verde scarf and stole was released today. It can be bought and downloaded from Ravelry now.

I have written it in 4 sizes -

4ply/fingering scarf - 24cmx140cm
4ply/fingering stole - 50cm x 160cm
8ply/DK skinny scarf - 14cm x 145cm
8ply/DK broad scarf - 20cm x 145cm

And instructions and charts are both in the pattern.

Go take a look at the projects page. The lovely ladies who tested this pattern will be linking their work to the pattern over the next few days.

Of course no blog update is complete without Alex

2010-04-04T10:06:00.002+10:00

Alex has recently learned how to hold a pen properly. He can only do it if the pen is fat enough, like the pen attached to his Magna Doodle. He used to hold it as if he were going to stab the board, but now he holds it like most grown-ups do - if I can remember the name of the grip, I'd use it, but for the life of me, I can't.

A few nights ago, Chris asked Alex to draw something for me while I was working. This is what he came up with - a robot. I think it looks more like a person than a robot but he reckons it is a robot. In fact, he is convined it is a robot, and here's his explanation of what he drew.

Falling into bad habits

2010-04-04T08:01:00.006+10:00

I blame it on Ravelry. I really do. I keep my stash and projects pages on Ravelry updated (for the most part) and you, my dear blog readers are sadly neglected. I thought I'd do better this year, and the year was off to a good start with a couple of posts in January but it looks like I have fallen back into old habits. Old habits die hard, but this one will die! So, here's my first update for April - the first of many, I hope.

I have been knitting like a madwoman, with not much to show. I do have a couple of patterns up my sleeve, one of which is being test-knitted. Let's start with that one.

Salsa Verde

I have this pattern written for 4 sizes - skinny 8ply (DK), broad 8ply (DK), 4ply (fingering) scarf and 4ply (fingering) stole. I am tempted to extend it to include a 2ply (lace-weight) stole.

The scarf is knitted from both ends and grafted in the centre, with a scalloped edge and three lace stitches. The centre panel is stocking stitch making it easy to graft, and giving the wearer a nice warm neck or back covering.

The one in the picture above is knit from Wollmeise Twin "We're Different" Mistelzweig. While we're on the subject,I should confess that I have jumped onto the Wollmeise bandwagon. The colours are simply amazing!! I have acquired some.

Yes, just a few skeins...

The colours are even more vibrant and more magnificent in real life. No wonder people go nuts over this yarn and at every store update there is a mad rush to grab whatever Claudia puts up. Even the "We're different" "rebel" skeins are gorgeous.

I do have to admit, though, that I found the Twin a little stringy to work with. It split, even on my very blunt Addi Turbos. I was very worried that I'd end up with a stiff scarf that could stand on it's own (almost) but once washed, it softened up nicely. It's nowhere as stringy and stiff as it was when knitted - thank goodness! It is, in fact, quite lovely. I heard someone say that it sheds, but I had none of that problem, and with the state of my allergies, thankfully too!

What else am I working on?

This is the triangular shawl version of salsa verde. I don't think i will put a scalloped edge on it. Instead, I think I will put some Bell lace on the edge so that we have nice pointy edges. i think the scalloped edge may look too heavy for such a light shawl. It's still work in progress and I doubt I will have the pattern ready for testing by the end of this Easter weekend.Charting it is quite a nightmare, and I think I may have to re-think my stitch count.

The loom was neglected for a little while but I pulled it out last week to weave a scarf for a swap.

It's actually all done, twisty fringe and all but I have no pictures. It's just a little lightweight scarf that she will be able to wear under a coat. I hope she likes it. I will be sending it along with the DK skinny version of the Salsa Verde scarf and a few other little things. I do love swaps.. I never know hat I will get but it is lovely knowing someone else put some thought into it and made something just for me.

About a week ago, my sister-in-law gave birth to a gorgeous baby boy. You'll just have to take my word for it that he is gorgeous (and I do assure you that he is) as I am not sure how she'd feel about my plastering pictures of him all over my blog. No photos of the wee one, but I do have a photo of what I made for him

The yarn is Bendigo Woollen Mill's Luxury 8ply in Brick. It washed up nice and soft, and best of all, it's machine-washable! Perfect for a new mum, I think. I know not everyone wants to hand-wash their woollens, and with machine-washable wool, you don't have to. The design is my own, but probably not that much different from what is available commercially. I made it all in one piece so that there are no seams and fewer ends to sew in. I hate sewing in. The real pain in the butt was the zip. The only open ended zip I could find that was not too long was an invisible one. I did end up managing to sew it in securely but it was a major pain. I have been taught an easier method for next time, so I will try that next time.. maybe I'll knit a similar one for Alex.

I have also been knitting hats.

A tiny one for my friend's newborn preemie boy

Another tiny one for a friend's baby who will be born in May - a girl this time.

A couple of girly jackets (pattern written but not reviewed)

So, as you can see, I have been busy.. oh and this is not including the stuff I have been doing for the store.

Some Silken Lace

Some Silken Sock

Some Toughstuff Sock

Some Warmth8 and Warmth10 (DK and Worsted weight respectively - 21.5micron Australian merino, spun locally)

I should also mention that I am hosting a sale which ends tomorrow night. 20% is taken off the price of almost everything in-store. That is everything aside from the samples ($3 a s sample, including postage.

Cooking with Alex

2010-01-30T22:36:00.003+11:00

It's fun cooking with Alex. It's slow as he wants a go at everything, but it's fun. I love seeing the obvious joy on his face when he is allowed to help. Alex loves being "helpful". If you ever need him to do anything, the best way to convince him to do it is probably by telling him that he would be very helpful if he did it , and most of the time he WILL do it right away!

Last weekend, we made pasta. Alex helped me roll the pasta sheets out.

Then when the sheets were ready for cutting, he helped turn the handle to cut the pasta sheets while I fed it through.

After a lot of hard work from both of us..

Voila! Pasta!

Lots of it!

Alex enjoyed the fruits of his labour that night. We had the pasta with a tomato based sauce cooked with some leftover baked ham.

Then last Tuesday, during the Australia day holiday, we stayed home and cooked some more. We made dumplings on that day. I wasn't sure how Alex could help, but he wanted to, so I gave him a lump of dough to play with.

He made a worm. He lso wanted to wrap some filling when I started filling the dumplings, but I did nto want him messing around iwth raw meat, so Chris gave him two macadamia nuts to use as filling. We should have taken a photo of his "dumplings" but sadly we didnt.

We did, however, take a photo of my dumplings.

I was very proud of my dumplings. The pleating looked better as we went on. Practise makes perfect!

Well, not quite perfect, but they were very tasty!

Oh, and on that day, we gave Alex my old camera. He likes taking photos but we really didn't want him messing around with our cameras and dropping them, so we figured that siince the old one was sitting around anyway, he could use it.

Like Father like son.. need I say more? :)

I have been a-crafting

2010-01-27T22:21:00.002+11:00

I finished spinning some optim and ELxMerino lamb some time ago but never took it off the bobbin. in fact it is still onthe bobbin. I am waiting to finish spinning this before I put on the skeiner and start winding emptying the bobbins.

That's the optim which I dyed myself about 4 or 5 years ago. Yup, it was pre-Alex. It's finally made it from fibre stash to wheel.. now how long will it stay in my yarn stash before it gets knitted?

I was spinning the ELxMerino lamb's fleece to ply with the optim. Unfortunately, it snapped. yes, unfortunate is right because when it snapped, it wound itself into the bobbin and now I can't for the life of me, find the end. I have tried following the outside strands around the bobbin. I hgave tried brushing gently with an old toothbrush. i even tried the suggestion of rubbing a balloon and bringing it near the bobbin so that the static electricity can pull the "loose end" up. The end is not "loose" and I think that's the problem. So I think I will have to break a strand and continue spinning from there. What a pity!

There's also been some knitting...

Chris's sister is expecting a little boy at the end of March and aside from a little beanie, I haven't made anything else for him. So I started knitting a blanket. I thought it would be quick, but as it turned out, it was anything BUT quick. I started in September last year, and finished it yesterday. The yarn was thick and soft, but the 9mm needles I was using were unwieldy and awkward. It wa sthe blanket from hell for a while then. I stuffed up the decreases and ended up having to frog back some 40% of the blanket and re-knit. Oh my, I did not want to do that but did not have a choice as the shape was so strange due to the odd decreases. I can finally say I am done. I will NOT be knitting with such HUGE needles again.. no, not ever!!

In my next installment, I'll show you what it is like to cook with a toddler!

Enough said

2010-01-27T22:15:00.002+11:00

So, just an update from my rpevious post. Apparently if you are in Sabah or Sarawak, or Penang or Kuala Lumpur, you can use the word Allah even if you're not a Muslim. however if you live in any of the other states, you cannot. To use a commonly used phrase, "WTF?"

Is my God in Kuala Lumpur not the same God when I am in the state of Perak?

How are they going to enforce this?

All in all, it is very clear that the motives behind this is not religious, but political.

So, I'd just like to say to those who think I, and other Christians, cannot use Allah to invoke God, "That's between Allah and me, and none of your business!"

My right to use a word, your right to use the word, OUR right to use any word

2010-01-10T21:09:00.003+11:00

That's what the row in Malaysia is apparently all about - the right of anyone to use the word Allah. There are Muslims (not all Muslims, but a significant enough number) who say that Christians should not be allowed to use the word Allah when referring to God. Apparently, Allah is a word only to be used by Muslims for "their God" and the use of the word Allah will confuse Muslims (in Malaysia only, of course, seeing as no other country seems to have this issue).

1. If Allah is the only God, then surely He is God of all people, not just Muslims. Surely, then, it is right for me and you and anyone else who believes in God to call Him Allah if we choose to. It seems that it is right for Middle eastern Muslims, Christians and Jews, and also for Malaysian Muslims, but it is apparently not right for Christians.

2. Why are other Muslims in other countries not confused by the use of the word Allah by non-Muslims, but Malaysian Muslims will be confused? Are Malaysians somehow more stupid than residents of other countries?

3. Those who oppose the use of Allah by non-Muslims are also claiming that if Christians use Allah, then it will be easier to convert Muslims to Christianity. I simply do not understand this, especially since Christians in Malaysia have been using Allah at least since the 1800s, and we are not seeing any evidence of masses of Muslims being converted to Christianity. In fact, it is illegal to preach teh Gospel to Muslims in Malaysia. It is illegal for Christian and other non-Islam literature to be sold to Muslims. It is illegal for a Muslim to step foot into a church or other non-Islam place of worship. In Malaysia, but not so in most other countries. It is illegal to convert a Muslim to amy other religion in Malaysia. So, given all of the above, how will teh use of the word Allah result in it being any easier to convert Muslims to Christianity? Inquiring minds want to know

Well, a Catholic newsletter's printing licence was pulled by the government because they use the word Allah in the newsletter. You know what? The newsletter is not distributed to non-Catholics. yes, non-Catholics. Not being a Catholic myself, I can't even subscribe to it although I am a Christian. So what chance has a Muslim got of subscribing to it? On the front of the newsletter, it says that it is for Christian use only (as required by law, I believe). The Catholic church took the matter to court where it was ruled that they should be allowed to use the word Allah. Dissatisfied parties have now taken to fire-bombing churches. Not just Catholic churches (not that restricting it to Catholics would make it any better) but random churches. As I type this, 7 churches have been torched. I bet that is 7 and counting.

I guess I should also add that the majority of the Christians affected by this are the indigenous Christians of Malaysia. They speak Bahasa Malaysia as their main language aside from their indigenous language and the Bible they have been using all these years is actually in Indonesian (very similar to Bahasa Malaysia) and it uses the word Allah to mean Lord. If this is truly a problem, a religious problem, surely this would have come up earlier .. perhaps some time in the 1800s when the Indonesian Bible was first used. However, it is only now that it has come up.

At the end of the day, is it really a religious issue? Other Muslims don't have an issue with it? Are they somehow lesser Muslims? I think not. Some who are opposing the use of Allah by Christians say, "That is them, but this is Malaysia" Right, so what is so different about Islam in Malaysia that others should not be allowed to use the word Malaysia? Perhaps it is simply politics.

I don't normally write about politics, the economy, religion or other such heavy matters much, but this bothers me. It bothers me a lot. The country I grew up in does not behave like this. Well, it did not. We used to pride ourselves as multi-racial, multi-religious. However, if one religion were to be allowed to dictate how another religion prays and worships, this is no longer a multi-religious society. It saddens me to see this. I may not live in Malaysia now, but inside I am still Malaysian. The recent happenings makes me ashamed that my fellow Malaysians would not consider the spiritual needs of their (mostly indigenous) brothers and sisters when swaying to the tume of politics.

Christmas, new year, and a birthday

2010-01-07T12:38:00.002+11:00

You think you're going to be seeing lots of photos, right? Wrong! I haven't had time to sort out all my phots from Christmas, new year and Alex's third birthday yet so those will come in the next post.

For now, I have some knitting news. I have a finished object.. FINALLY!

I have been plodding along on this project which was started in early December, but it did not progress much until I was sitting on my behind, recuperating over the Christmas holidays.

It was knitted on 4.5mm Addi turbos using Handmaiden Sea Silk in Ebony. The colour and sheen is gorgeous! I can't get over the fact that it is made from silk and SEAWEED. Seaweed! What next?!

Okay, so I stuffed up. I was meant to cast on 101 stitches but I cast on 111, and I did not realise that till I was knitting the scalloped edges and I could not work out why the stitch pattern was not working out. I recounted and discovered my boo boo. I fudged the edging. Itd oes nto quite line up with the cascading leaf patterns, but does not look too bad. In fact you probably won't notice it unless you were looking closely.

I have given it to my mother, and she has taken it with her to the Blue Mountains. I hope it keeps her nice and warm!

Oh, and soem Alex news..

We gave him a pair of training chopsticks for his third birthday. He loves using them. I think they make him feel grown up. It did not take long for him to work out how to use them.

He was even able to pick up peanuts with them! I am very impressed. Maybe I should get a pair for myself. I still don't use chopsticks the correct way and I am meant to be a grown up. Hmm.. meant to be.

As daycare is clossed for the year end break, I have Alex home with me till next week. We decided to make some gingerbread shapes. i cll them that because I don't actually have a gingerbreadman or gingerbread girl cutter. Instead we made snowmen, Christmas trees, stars and angels. The biscuits went quickly. I tooks ome over to Janet's to share with her family and we're down to the last few here. What better excuse to make another batch!

Distraction

2009-12-29T15:32:00.003+11:00

Distraction comes in many forms, and for me, these holidays, it come sin the form of the Cocoon lace wrap. I have had the pattern for many years in my library but never got round to knitting it. Recently I was given a huge hank of Handmaiden Seasilk in Ebony and thought it perfect for this pattern. I believe the original pattern was intended to be knitted in a brushed mohair yarn but brushed mohair (or brushed anything) and I don't get along too well. It makes me sneeze. It's still a pretty pattern, though, and I still wanted to knit it and so I am making it in a smooth silky yarn.

That's what it looks like held up against the light. I am well into the 14th repeat (out of thirty). It will probably be completed befor the year comes to an end, or so I am hoping. Just 3 more sleeps to go.

I must say that what I do like about this pattern is that it is almost reversible. Almost. The back looks like this

This is unblocked, of course, and it will look much more crisp and the pattern much mroe defined once I have completed it and blocked it. I do believe the seasilk is meant to block out nice and cripsly too!

Christmas 2009

2009-12-26T21:11:00.003+11:00

Thank you for all your kind comments and messages regarding my recent surgery. I am recovering very well, and will soon be back to "normal".

Merry Christmas to all of you. I hope all of you had at least as good a Christmas as I did.

On Christmas eve we had dinner with my in-laws. This is the first time my parents are in Sydney for Christmas and so they were invited too. As usual, I made roast pork with crackling.

The recipe is actually very simple. This year I ordered 2kg of boneless pork belly with the skin left on. I left it out in the open to "dry" from about 9 in the morning. Every couple of hours or so, I sprinkled some salt on the skin and wiped off the moisture with a clean paper towel. At about midday, I used a knife to puncture the meat side of the pork belly and rubbed liberally with light soy sauce and Chinese 5-spice powder, and left it to dry further with the skin side up. By about 2 in the afternoon, the skin looked nice and dry. I baked it in the oven for about 2 hours, with the skin side up on a rack in a tray with about 1cm of water. Oh, and the oven (fan-forced) was set to about 180 degrees. I checked on it about 1 hour and 30 minutes into the baking time to see what parts had crackled and what had not. teh parts that did not crackle were gently dried with a clean paper towel and brushed lightly with some lemon juice (you can also use vinegar). The pork was then popped back into the oven for further baking and pulled out just before two hours. if you are not sure whether it is cooked, use a meat thermometer to check. Cutting it to check for pinkness and then re-baking will cause it to dry out. There you have it.. my very simple roast pork with crackling.

I also made potato bake, but this year it was a failure. As I am still recovering and did not want to have to do everything in one stretch, I peeled the potatoes early and soaked them in water, ready to be assembled into a tray in the afternoon. Unfortunately they must have absorbed water and released said water during the cooking. My potato bake turned out more watery than usual and definitely not as rich and delicious as it normally is. Very unfortunate!

Chris's mother made her very popular coconut prawns dish. Don't ask me for the recipe as I have never made it. I know it has prawns, pumpkin, chokoes, ginger and coconut milk in it and it is very delicious. Unfortunately, I was unable to indulge as prawns in large quantities make me itch. I did eat a little, and it was definitely delicious and rich.

During dinner, Chris's parents pulled out a headband with antlers for Alex. I made the bad bad mistake of calling them ears. Oops. Now he calls them "Rudolph's ears".

As usual, Alex scored the largest number of presents, including a new bike. It came with a helmet and although the bicycle is not yet assembled, Alex has been wearing the helmet daily. He just won't leave it alone! He wears it in the car, falls asleep and then my dad who sits next to him in the car has to try to take it off without waking him!

The other big present he received was from my parents - a bed! Alex now sleeps in a toddler bed. I am very surprised how good he has been. i was expecting to be woken at all hours of the night by a little boy wanting to climb into our bed, but he only comes round in the morning, usually at about six, but soemtiems at seven. When he does come in he is very good and climbs into our bed and snuggles. Sometimes he even goes back to sleep!

I think I did better than Alex this year, though. Amongst my many presents, i got a Food safari cookbook and a handmade shawl! I participated in the Christmas exchange on Ravelry and Helen, the person who sent to me, made me a shawl. It is a pattern that she saw was both on her queue and mine. How lovely is that?!

You have probably noticed how shaggy Alex was looking in those Christmas photos. He was long overdue for a haircut. I had grown used to seeing him shaggy and quite liked the look. Today we decided to give him a haircut.

Haircuts are a family affair here.. Alex to sit still, me to hold the scissors and cut, and Chris to take photos!

I much prefer him with long hair. Luckily, it will grow long again before too long.

One tube down...

2009-12-21T08:13:00.002+11:00

It was my intention to post after Christmas with photos of knitting and spinning done over Christmas, and news of an impending bundle of joy. However, that was not meant to be. On the Friday that just passed, I had to join the queue in the emergency department of my local hospital with what I thought were terrible gas pains. I am now so relieved I got it checked out, eventhough I did think at the time that I'd really look the fool if they did turn out to be "just gas", as they found that the pregnancy was ectopic and it had ruptured my right fallopian tube.

It all went very quickly after they found the ruptured ectopic pregnancy in the ultrasounds. What I did not know when I was at home was that the aches and gas pains I was experiencing was from internal bleeding caused by the rupture. According to the obstetrics registrar on duty that day, if left too long, I could have died! I have never "nearly died" before. I had never, up till that time, had surgery before. I had never been under any sort of general anaesthetic before. It was all quite an experience, and not a very pleasant one.

I wanted my "regular" obstetrician to do the surgery and for that I would have had to transfer to the local private hospital which was about 10 minutes away. That would have been doable, but the private hospital did not have room for me. My "regular" was very good about it, though, and recommended an obstetrician in the hospital where I was and assured me I was in good hands. I was indeed. He turned out to be very nice, and in some ways reminded me of my "regular".

The surgery was successful and took less than an hour. It was minimally invasive (and that is not to say it was NOT invasive) as it was done via laparoscopy. I am now left with three tiny holes (stitched up, of course) in my belly and just some residual pain. I was lucky they caught it in time and managed to find the ruptured tube easily and removed it and the ectopic pregnancy and cleaned out what they could. Who knows what the outcome could have been had I waited. I was going to wait for Chris to finish work on Friday, and I am now glad I did not. He missed his office Christmas party. Had I waited, I would have been much more sick from the bleeding. In the 3 hours when we waited in the emergency department's waiting room, my blood pressure dove down to about 97/68 (or thereabouts). I started feeling a bit light-headed and a lot more pain. The pain that had started in my tummy had started to spread up my backto my shoulders. By the time they wheeled me into the theatre for the operation, the pain in my shoulder was quite unbearable.

This is not the most desirable outcome from a pregnancy. Far from it, in fact, but I am grateful to be alive. The staff at the hospital took great care of me and they were all very gentle and sympathetic. Even the nurse removing my catheter tried to distract me while she was doing it when she found out I had never had one before.

It was a scary time for all of us. Something I hope to not have to go through again.

I think not enough is said to pregnant women to encourage them to seek medical attention when they have aches and pains during the pregnancy. I have heard others tell me that they have been told, "You're pregnant, what do you expect?" Well, I thought that too. I was pregnant. gas is part of being pregnant, what did I expect? I was lucky, I think, because I have a GP who is vigilant. I had been spotting very lightly for about 2 weeks prior to the ectopic pregnancy being discovered. He was monitoring my HCG levels very closely, and they were going up satisfactorily. In fact, the last test, taken the day before, showed the HCG level to be at about 3700, an acceptable level for someone who was 6 weeks pregnant. I was meant to have another test this week and then a scan, but of course that is probably all unnecessary now. My GP emphsised to me every time he saw me or spoke to me that if I had any pain I needed to go to the emergency department and tell them that I was pregnant, spotting and had pain. It was because of him that I decided not to wait. Better safe than sorry, and this time, it was certainly much better safe as sorry would have been too late.

Aside from the recuperation that needs to happen physically, there's probably going to be a lot of emotional baggage that will come along. This pregnancy was never going to be a baby as such since it was ectopic, but for a few weeks, it was the promise of a baby. We were all excited. Alex had placed an order for a sister. In fact he was absolutely convinced it was a sister. When I told him I did not know whether it would be a boy or a girl, he retorted, "YOU don't know, but I know! It is a sister!" None of us have said anything to him about there being no more sister, but he has not mentioned her once since the operation. He knows that I am not feeling very well and I have "owies" on my tummy where he should not press on me, but we have not said anything about the sister being gone. He just seems to know. I wonder how. He has not asked to say goodnight to his sister since I came home from the hospital, but he used to say goodnight to my ytummy every night before that.

From now on, if we were to get pregnant again, we'll have to be ever so vigilant. I am sure my GP will be. He always is. I will have to be too. I am sure we will all be very nervous about a repeat of this happening and will probably not be able to rest till we get a scan showing the baby to be in the uterus. Oh, what a lot of stress!

On the bright side of things, I am glad it is Christmas and I am able to take the next couple of weeks off from work to rest and to enjoy my family.

Merry Christmas everyone! I will be back after Christmas (if not before!) with photos of more completed projects.

The long overdue post

2009-11-12T15:35:00.003+11:00

A lot has happened in the last couple of months. Where do I start?

Chris left his old job, and started a new one. There was a bit of uncertainty while he looked for a new job but he found a new one quickly. He wasn't dismissed. He left, in case you're wondering, because things just weren't so pleasant anymore. I am pleased that he seems much happier to go to work now and comes home a happier man. Happy husband/Daddy makes for happy wife/child.

I have been busy. The project I am working on didn't go so well once it was in production and I have been working hard, osmetimes late at night supporting users, testing patches, etc. Pretty much doing the things I normally do, and more. That has now calmed down too. Thank goodness. I was not sure I could handle much more stress. In that time I found a white hair. Oh my! I hope it was just stress and not old age. I am not that old yet, am I? I haven't found another, but to be honest, I am not looking that hard either. If you see one (or two or three), please don't tell me. I don't want to know!

As for Alex.. well, as you would probably have guessed from the previous post, he is growing up quickly. He likes painting and drawing, and gluing and folding, but not cutting, apparently. There is something about cutting that frustrates him. He hates it and won't do any craft that requires cutting, or so I am told. He is also slightly obsessed with cutting straight lines and gets frustrated when his little fingers can't manage it. That said, he does have a "thing" for straight lines and orderliness. Hmm.. I am nto so sure that this child is related to me after all. Orderliness is what I am not!

Aside from work, I have also been very busy knitting and sewing.

I found a kit to make this at my local Salvos shop:

It only cost me $9 and the only thing I had to supply aside from thread was the cotton batting inside. Alex loves it and calls it his duck blanket. It really is Mother Goose, but he thinks it's a duck and who am I to argue with toddler wisdom?

It was completed in one day and easier than I expected. Don't look too closely, though. The applique work is really dodgy, despite it all having been cut out for me and all I had to do was sew. It's also not bound at the sides like a "real quilt" normally is. I sewed it all together (inside out) leaving a gap and turned it right side out and then top-stitched it. The layers were then tied together with bits of thread. A bit of a cheat but an effective one! My binding skills are crap, despite having watched dozens of tutorials on youtube.

I am now working on a shawl (which can be used as a lap blanket).

I am using some handspun Blue-faced leicester (hand-dyed by me, of course) which I had plied with two strands of commercially produced cashmere/silk.

Then.. horror of horrors, I ran out and it was still too small for a shawl. So I had to find another yarn to go with it and finally settled on this:

I am way past that point now, having completed about 10 repeats of the pattern. I am basing it on the Kiri Shawl buy Polly Outhwaite, but making it a square instead of a triangle. It's actually working out quite well. I have a gazillion stitches on the needles now though and each round is taking me longer. I think I will give up soon, maybe when I reach twelve repeats of the pattern. I still need to make sure I have enough yarn to finish the edging. I'd hate to run out again and have this look like a scrappy shawl, which it should not be.

More recently I have also been dreaming up another simple pattern for a hat. this time it's a girly hat.

It's pretty simple and can be knitted up in a day or two. I took longer because of many interruptions and also feeling the need to concentrate on the shawl, which must be finished and blocked by the end of November as it is a gift for someone very special to Chris and I. I'll have to fine-tune the pattern and get it test-knitted. The yarn I used for this hat is actually a "seconds" lot from my store. the brown part has spots that are darker than the rest, and so it is a "seconds". I actually don't mind that and I think it's not very noticeable, and it goes well with the white/cream spots.

I have been spinning too, but don't have that much to show for it.

This one I call "Pure Dark Chocolate"

Spun from Bond fleece purchased from Shiloh Wool. It’s deliciously soft, which is, to me, so unusual for Corriedale, but I guess Bond is very special Corriedale. It is bred to have finer fleece than your run-of-the-mill Corriedale. It is approximately 24 to 25 microns and I didn’t think it would spin up so nicely, but it did.

It’s going to be a scarf for Alex as he wants a scarf to be “just like you, Mummy”.

Then there is this one which I spun for a customer, who is also a friend.

The hand-dyed superfine merino top is from Selah. It's not one of mine. It was a joy to spin as it really is quite soft. I navajo-plied it to keepthe colours together. I would imagine that it would stripe madly across whatever Anna decided to knit with it. I love how bright the colours are. they're not "my colours" but I did enjoy spinning them and just looking at the colours make me happy. The yellow is such a cheerful yellow and the reds and blues are so bright.

That's all I have energy for today.. but I do have more to post later.

Alex's masterpiece

2009-11-10T10:50:00.002+11:00

Names written by his teacher at daycare, drawing by Alex.

Has it been nearly a whole month?

2009-09-05T18:07:00.004+10:00

I think it has..the last time I posted was on 13th August. I have noticed how many blogger start posting less and less and then start apologising for not posting and before you know it, the blog is dead. I am determined not to let that happen, although the apologising has become more frequent and the posting less so.

Every time I think of posting, the sheer number of updates feel so overwhelming taht I jsut give up and then days and weeks pass before I get around to posting again. I shall keep this one short, and with hope shorter more frequent posts will make it all feel less daunting and you'll hear from me more often.

This is Alex's Joe Jumper. Why Joe? Joe is the name of the sheep from whom I got the fleece. The yarn is hand washed and handspun. I love teh natural variation in colour from the brown/gray fleece. At first I thought I'd rip back the sleeve because of that very obvious stripe, but then I thought about it again and decided the stripe isn't ugly and it makes this jumper truly unique. So I left it.

I finally got the pattern for Alex's Emergency 1 Day hat tested and uploaded to Ravelry. It is a free pattern so if you are looking for a quick satisfying knit, this is it!

We have some videos of Alex signing that we filmed this morning. I'll have to go sort them out, upload them for the next blog post. Stay tuned!

Emergency 1 day hat

2009-08-13T10:37:00.003+10:00

So.. I knitted up a hat for a swap. Alex decided to claim it.

No go!

So, I knitted another for him to claim.

The pattern is going to be a free Ravelry download. I'll link to it when it's up. It is still being test-knitted at this stage. It's easy peasy, and really quick to make.

I think I will make another few!

Oh, and a reminder tha Celia's Basket is still having a 25% off everything sale till this Sunday. Go now before the one you've been eyeing goes!

Clear the Decks Sale - 25% off everything

2009-08-04T17:49:00.003+10:00

That's right, folks. I want to clear the decks of as much stock as possible. There is a 25% off everything discount at Celia's Basket till 16th August. Some things have already started selling out so go grab your bargain quickly.

I have in stock a lot of spinning fibre and yarn. The children's clothes MUST go! It's taking up room.

So, why am I so keen to have it all gone? I will be having a new line of yarn come in. It's 100% 19micron Australian merino in 8ply weight. If that works out, I will also be stocking it in about 10 or 12ply weight. It's a lovely soft yarn, light and airy. I have tested it, washed it and rubbed it and it is still very soft. It will felt well too! I can't bring that in till I have cleared some room, hence, the sale.

During the sale, I will still be happy to take orders for custom dyeing and spinning, but all custom jobs will not be discounted.

Celia's Basket at the Glebe Market

2009-07-18T09:16:00.000+10:00

I just spoke to Ness and she has a stall. Yay!

She will be near the front entrance - go in and turn left. See you there!

At the Glebe market

2009-07-17T17:20:00.005+10:00

I am hoping Vanessa will be at the Glebe market tomorrow and this is why:

I have sent her off with about 14kilos of stuff today, including stitchmarkers, handknit winter warmers, handwoven scarves and lots and lots and lots of yarn and fibre for spinning.

She's going to queue at 630am tomorrow to try to get a stall. Wish her lots of luck and send warm thoughts her way as it is going to be very very very cold at that time of the morning here in chilly Sydney.

I have finished knitting a jumper for Alex - the one I was test knitting. The yarn has washed up lovely and soft. It feels cottony soft and so nice to rub against my cheek. Alas, Chris does not think it is very masculine and so I have sent it to the market with Vanessa.

It really doesn't curve in at the sides. It's just the way the photo appears.

It's not like I have been sitting around twiddling thumbs

2009-07-03T21:15:00.004+10:00

Life, and work, just got in the way of blogging. I have so much to share I don't know where to start.

Perhaps I will start with the smallest.. a tiny little cardigan for my colleague who is expecting her first after a long journey towards motherhood.

She has been a great help to me specially in the last couple of years. I am going to miss her when she goes on maternity leave for six months, but I know she has been waiting for this for a long time and will be savouring every moment she has with her baby girl.

The pattern is Paxton, written by StitchyMama. It is a free Ravelry download and comes in three sizes. This is the middle size and only used about 60g of Bendigo Woollen Mills 8ply cotton yarn in Mango.

I also managed to finish knitting a jumper for Alex out of Utiku Multicolours (Ocean colourway) and grey Scheller Stahl Edelweiss(now discontinued). The boy is growing so fast that he's nearly too big for the one I made for him at the end of last winter. I made it big, so that it will last all of this winter as well. Alas.. it won't be long before he outgrows that one. This one, I had hoped, will last him till the end of next winter. However, when he tried it on, I realised that it is not as big as I had thought.

If I am lucky, it will last till the end of this winter.

I have another one in the works.

The yarn is an 8ply 19-micron merino yarn I bought from a local mill. I am testing it out as I intend to stock it in my store. It's knitting up quite nicely. Once I know that it washes and wears well, I will be more than happy to stock it. It is nice to knit as it is lovely and soft. I find it not the slightest bit prickly.

I hand-dyed it in shades of green, blue and brown. I am hoping that the colours won't pool. You know how unpredictable that can be sometimes. It is looking like it won't. So I am happy.

I also dyed up a batch of organic 19-micron merino wool from the same mill. It is dryign outside right now. I am hoping to be able to stock that too.

The wheel has not been at rest either. I have been busy spinning some corn and bamboo as well as some soybean fibre. I found teh corn very difficult to manage. It is like cotton - short fine fibres and the fine line between enough twist and too much twist. I gave up and ended up carding it with some bamboo and spinning a thick/thin lofty single which I plied with a bamboo single. Bamboo and Soybean are both a joy to spin. Lovely soft fine fibres with a long staple. Photos next time as I have not managed to snap decent pictures of them yet.

Now that I am done spinning all that I have moved on to some English Leicester lambswool that I bought from Moseley Park. It has a lovely sheen and nicelong staple. Being lamb's fleece it is also soft, but not in the same way as merino, which I am used to spinning. I am hand carding the locks together into large rolags and spinning those long draw. See, here is where a drum carder would be really nice, and I am still saving up for one of those babies.

I also bought some "Joe" from Jane, who runs Moseley Park. Joe is a Border Leicester x Corriedale x English Leicester x Finn. Definitely a cross-bred sheep! His fleece is a joy to spin. It practically spins itself. Once I am done with the English Leicester lamb, I plan on spinning up all of Joe's fleece taht I have and turning it into a jumper for the kid. It's quite a soft fleece - soft enough that Alex probably won't complain.

Oh, and the sewing machine has been busy too.

Presenting...

my first quilt!

I am so proud of it. I used pre-cut blocks for most of the top, matched with strips cut from some curtain fabric remnant and some blue homespun cotton. In case you can't see it, the picture blocks are Bob the Builder blocks.

I used a printed cotton flanelette fabric for the backing

You know what's the best thing about this? Alex likes it. He has been sleeping with it all week!

I have also been making reinforced undies for him. My little boy is growing up. He has been very good about going to the toilet and trying to keep his nappies dry and clean. Soon he will be in undies. I am sewing on an extra few layers of absorbent fabric for catching little accidents. I am using 1 layer of bamboo and 2 layers of plain white cotton flanelette. It's not mean to catch a lot of liquid, just enough that it doesn't go everywhere. I hope it works!

Mother's day, atrip to Canberra, and a couple of birthdays

2009-06-05T22:41:00.003+10:00

So.. since the last time I posted, we've celebrated Mother's day.

We went to the Kiribilli markets and then to Luna Park. Alex had great fun looking at all the colours at the market and then going around Luna Park. We were only there for a short time and so did not go on any rides. As it was threatening to rain all day (and did rain towards the afternoon), we took a few photos and left.

He's wearing a jumper I made for him last winter. It was HUGE on him when I completed it and now just look at it. he's about to outgrow it!

Alex also had fun getting to know his fat little twin in the funny mirror.

We all had a bit of fun with our distorted twins in on of the other mirrors.

However, what he loved most of all was the carousel. We'll have to go back another day and let him ride on the horses. Unfortunately I have a sneaky suspicion that there will be a massive tantrum when we try to leave, and I will be very sick going round and round on it with him!

In June the Old Bus depot Market at Canberra had Wool Day (or was it Wool Week?). We decided to make the trip and take Alex on his first long-ish car ride. He travelled surprisingly well. He slept between Bowral and Canberra and woke up just as we were approaching Canberra city. The first words out of his mouth were.. can you guess? "Are we there yet?"

We stayed at the Mantra on Northbourne and it was great. We had a whole one bedroom unit to ourselves with Alex in a portacot in the living area. The unit was fully furnished and they even provided dishwashing detergent. crockery and cutlery.

We had a takeaway meal on the night we arrived. After hearing a lot of good things about Sammy's Kitchen, we were looking forward to a good meal. Unfortunately it was anything but good. We ordered three dishes and not one was good. Chris described it as being "just on the right side of edible". The vegetables and seafood was frightfully overcooked. The fried noodles lacked flame and flavour. The chicken was a little odd but probably the best of the three dishes.

The following day was market day. Chris was very good and looked after Alex while I looked around and shopped. I didn't end up buying much - just a little fibre to play with and a few cheap (yes, really cheap) skeins of wool and alpaca.

By the time I was done, Alex was restless so we had to let him outside for a run.

Okay, maybe it was a little more than a run. He wanted to play a game he had made up and was busy telling us where to stand, how to stand and where to put our hands. Hilarious for the first couple of minutes, entertaining for the next few and then from there on in... let's just say I got tired of it rather quickly.

After that we went to the Belconnen market and had lunch at Beppe's Tuscan Kitchen. We will certainly go back there again. We ordered two dishes which were both excellent. After lunch we decided to have some dessert and we had a slice of ricotta cheese cake and a coffee and a hot chocolate. The hot chocolate was to die for. If for nothing else, I will go back just for that!

It was, according to the lady behind the counter, made from "cream and real chocolate" and frightfully "decadent". It certainly lived up to my expectations, and then some.

On the way home, Alex slept for most of the way and woke up as we were approaching the M7. I think the first thing we heard from him was, "It is dark"; and so it was.

Last weekend, Chris and I celebrated our birthdays by having Alex babysat and going out for a grown up meal and a movie. We watched the new Star Trek movie at the Imax cinema with free tickets thanks to a local radio station. We both enjoyed the movie, but I thought it was not trek-y enough. It was almost as if it was a commercialised version of Star Trek. It was not dorky enough. Oh, and don't get me started on the romance in that movie. That was just all wrong!!!

I am participating in a birthday swap on Ravelry, and for my birthday, I have received two presents. I know I have at least one more on its way. Yay!

My slightly early Mother's Day gift

2009-05-08T22:16:00.003+10:00

I have a new baby and I have not mentioned it here.

This is what I have been sewing on for the past couple of weeks.

I love it.

This is my first computerised sewing machine (aside from a short fling with a Singer Curvy 8770). I love all the nifty little things it has that my old dinosaur did not have. Funnily enough, it is the little things that thrill me most. A needle threader! Yes, something that threads the needle for me. How good is that?!

It does not have as many stitches as some other machines, but it does have all the stitches I would use. It does not have many embroidery stitches but really, how often will I use those?

Okay, so my short fling with the Curvy 8770. I bought it on Ebay for a song and Mum was going to take my dinosaur, but after sewing on the Curvy, there was no way I could give Mum the dinosaur. So Mum got the Curvy for Mother's Day and I got the Janome.

In comparison, the Curvy does not feel as sturdy as the Janome although it is heavier. It doesn't matter for Mum though, as she would rarely use it to sew heavy fabrics.

Lots and lots of new wool in stock!

2009-05-06T12:17:00.002+10:00

I have just updated my store with new stuff

Some sock yarn.. well LOTS of sock yarn

Some Cestari Fine and Superfine merino in worsted weight

Some Bluefaced Leicester tops

All prices are in Australian $ with $5 flat postage rate within Australia. Extra for registered post or express post. If you're not in Australia, drop me an email to ask for the international postage rate.

Winter is here and we need pants

2009-05-06T11:41:00.004+10:00

I guess it's technically still AAutumn but the cold weather has arrived and Alex needs more pants. He has outgrown some of those that I made last year so I have had to make him more.

While mum was here, I cut out a pair intending for her to make them but I ended up sewing them up while she was busy cooking us some yummy yummies. Unfortunately they are now work, well loved and in the wash. No photos.

I have since made another two pairs.

Here's the first.

I love the pocket detail on it.

Well, some of the pocket detail anyway..

I clearly failed the "pocket placement" class. Oh well, Alex won't mind as he won't even notice that those are there.

After that failed attempt, I decided to make another.

I chose to use a lighter fabric this time and to make the lower panel the same fabric as the pocket detail. Oh, and no back pockets this time!!

I also like the faux fly detail in this pattern. It makes it look more like "real" pants, in my opinion. The darker pair had the same detail but it can barely be seen as the corduroy is too dark.

Oh, and pocket detail once again.

I am not sure I like the different coloured lower fabric that much. Makes it look a bit pyjama-ish.. don't you think?

I guess it will be okay for daycare.

Still alive

2009-04-30T21:26:00.003+10:00

Only just barely, though.

I got wet in the rain last week and must have caught King Cough. Now King Cough won't leave me alone. I have been sniffling and coughing ever since.

We have been indulging in chicken soup and congee, and even some homemade dumplings.

Okay, so I cheated. These are frozen. Homemade, but frozen. I normally make up batches of up to 100 dumplings, freezing them in batches of 10 or 12.

I love dumplings, do you?

I have also been busy spinning.

Here's one of my latest

It's 60g of BFL top which I bought in the US and handdyed myself in mint green with hints of lavender. There's about 140m of it. It's enough for a small lacey scarf or a neckwarmer of some sort I think. I'd love to keep it but it's going to my friend Anne.

Vanessa had a stall at the Glebe market a few weeks ago. She was selling some of my stuff. She may be at the Kiribilli market next week with more of my stuff to sell. I know it's Mother's Day weekend, but if don't have other plans, Kiribilli market is always fun. There's lots of bits and pieces to look at. I hope to be there with Chris and Alex if it is not raining.

My parents were here visiting. They arrived on the Thursday before Easter and left yesterday. It's been so good to have them here. Alex enjoyed time with his grandparents. It's not often that Alex gets to spend so much time with my parents, so it was a real treat for him to have his grandparents sleeping in the room next to his.

They visited the Hunter Valley on their last weekend here and look what they brought home

It's an early birthday present for Chris and me. We were naughty and broke into it early. It's not our birthdays till end of May/start of June, but we have already drunk a third of it.

Thanks, Mum and Dad!

Stitchmarkers

2009-03-11T23:08:00.003+11:00

I have been addicted to making these little things and now have quite a few sets. I have more than I can use and more than I can swap so I listed some in my Etsy store.You can see them in the stitchmarker section of the store.

Some sadness

2009-03-10T21:53:00.004+11:00

That's my Ah Mah, my maternal grandmother in the background. She only got to see Alex, her only great-grandchild twice.

Less than two weeks after we returned to Sydney, I heard from my parents that she was not doing so well. She passed away on 19th February, a day before her birthday when she would have turned 97.

I went back to KL again, this time for her funeral.

Whilst it was sad that she was gone, it is a relief to know that she is now in peace. The two nights of wake and the funeral were well attended. The wakes were held at my parents' house, where my grandmother lived and died. Every day and night, we had friends and relatives visiting. There was lots of food and conversation. That's how she would have liked it. She always liked a house full of people and lots of good food to go around!

Rest in peace, Ah Mah.

I'm still here

2009-03-10T18:34:00.005+11:00

It's been a long while since my last post but I assure you, I am still here.

I have had a busy January and February.

In January, we went back to Malaysia to celebrate Chinese New Year with my family. Theoretically it's Alex's third CNY, but really, it's only his first "real" one. Last year and the year before, we spent CNY here in Sydney and since Chris and I were both working, there wasn't much of a celebration. All we did was have Chinese food on new year's eve and gave Alex a hong bao on new year's day.

This year, Alex received more than one hong bao. In fact, he very quickly realised that they are like presents and he can open them! It was tough prying them from his little fingers so that he did not extract the contents and wave the money around. How embarassing that would have been!

We stayed at my parents' house the whole time. Alex very quickly sussed out the place and worked out where everything was kept. He even knew that the goodies (cookies, sweets, crackers, etc) were kept in the store room

When he wanted something he could not reach, he'd drag one of the maids into the store room, point and say, "Please?". He knew better than to try to ask one of the family members to get it for him!! Sneaky little fellow!

He spent a lot of time sleeping

and eating

with a little excercise to work it all off..

In KL, he got his first taste of durian. First he inspected

then he tasted

ah.. happiness!

He also got to see his second lion dance ever. The first was when he was a mere few months old here in Sydney at a Chiense restaurant. He loved the drums but the lion scared him. This time was different. He was intrigued by the lions but the firecrackers scared (and deafened) him.

The warm weather also meant that he spent a lot of time semi-naked in the presence of a fan or air-conditioner.

I call this the "I am just like my Daddy" pose.

This is the "Let's boogie" pose

Victorian bushfires

2009-02-13T20:00:00.005+11:00

It saddens me that the fires have left so many dead and even more homeless. Although I don't know anyone personally who have been affected, I know friends and relatives of friends have been. Everyday we see the plight of those left grieving on the news and in the papers.

It makes me even sadder to think that some or all of these fires were deliberately lit. even today, after the terrors that we have seen, more fires have been deliberately lit. What kind of screwed up a$$hole must you be to do such an evil thing?

There are people raising funds for the victims of these bushfires everywhere. Some people I know have put together webstores specially dedicated to raising funds for these people and many of us who sell handmade things have donated items for sale. The proceeds from all these sales and auctions will go to the relief fund. Yes, 100%. Not just the profit or a percentage of the takings. ALL of it will go to them. That's the least we could do.

So, if you're looking for a gift for yourself or someone else, have a look at these stores and buy something or bid on something.

Cherub's Kiss
Possum Pouches
Victorian Bush Fire Relief on Ozebaby Check out this one.. I have my things here!
Victorian Bushfire Appeal at the Cloth Pad Shop
Minicuteture
Yarncollective
CGR design
Winemakerssister She is pledging 50% of her sales from now till end of February to the cause
WahmNaps
Oz Bushfire Appeal @ Etsy

Creative pursuits

2009-01-07T22:49:00.003+11:00

It hasn't just been party party party around here. I have been "working" too. Granted that I have had two weeks off from my day job for Christmas and New Year. I have, however, been doing lots and lots of dyeing.

I have a few lots of Blue Faced Leicester combed top listed in my Etsy store. As well as that, I also added two lots of hand-dyed Optim. I love Optim. It's gorgeous and soft while being silky and with lovely drape. It actually feels quite heavy.

What I am most excited about is my newly dyed merino silk laceweight yarns. I only managed to get 7 skeins of that and so have made them one of a kind never to be repeated colourways. There are only 5 left so hurry if you want any of them.

At first I wanted to keep them all for myself but realised that there is no way I will every get around to knitting that much lace, especially not with Alex climbing all over me. The wool base is a beautiful mix of 50% silk and 50% merino. It's so soft and silky, it's almost unbelievable. I dyed them in gentle blends of colours suitable for lace knitting. If you're like me you won't want your colours to flash all over your work detracting from the beauty of the knitted piece.

Oh, and I almost forgot to mention my new line of sock yarns. It is a blend of merino and nylon but so soft you would not know it has nylon in it.

Alex is 2

2009-01-07T22:33:00.003+11:00

I can't believe it's been two years since I popped him out. How time flies!

It doesn't seem that long ago that he looked like this

I still remember willing him to come out earlier than expected as it was so hot and summer was killing me. It didn't help that my blood pressure was rising and poor Chris was bearing the brunt of my increasing grumpiness and narkiness. I think we were both grateful when Alex finally decided to be born a couple of weeks early.

We had a look at photos of his last birthday and could not believe how tiny he was.

There's no way he'd sit still on the table now. Neither would we attempt to sit him in front of a pile of cakes with a lit candle. He would
1. reach over for a cupcake
2. knock the candle over
3. probably damage the table and himself in the process

This is this year's photo. He had two cakes. Chris' mother made him a mocha cake in the shape of the number 2. I made him a mango and cream sponge sandwich cake because he loooooves mangoes.

We tried to make sure that his birthday was not overshadowed by Christmas and so split his presents between Christmas and his birthday. I am not sure we did so well on that front. He did receive lots and lots of books which he loved. He actually stopped between opening each present as he wanted to read the books there and then.

Hasn't he grown!

He had a great day running around, eating everything he wanted, opening presents, playing in his kitchen, and watching some of his new dvds. He finally went down for a nap (with much protest) at about 5pm.

Phew!

I'm still here...

2009-01-07T21:54:00.002+11:00

That's right. I'm still here. Just a little busy over the Christmas and new year period but definitely still here.

So.. happy belated Christmas. I hope you had a good one. I sure did!

As usual we spent Christmas eve with Chris' folks. For dinner, my contributions were roast pork and potato bake.

It was not till we looked at last year's photos that we realised that I contributed the same dishes to last year's Christmas eve dinner! Could this be the start of a tradition?

This was Alex's dinner. He had pan fried chicken drummettes, hand cut chips and some potato bake. I can just hear some of you asking yourself about his high carb diet. He refuses to eat salad and that was the only vegetables we had that night. I did offer him some, which, to his credit, he did try. He spat it out and proclaimed it "YUCKY!".

After dinner, we opened presents. Alex very quickly went from not knowing what to do with the wrapped packages to ripping them apart and asking for "An one" (another one).

Here he is, surrounded by his haul of presents:

He loved the kitchen Chris' family bought for him. The apron and kitchen utensils Emily gave him came in handy too. He wears the apron every time he plays in his kitchen. I think it is a good sign that he has not tired of it yet and he runs to it as soon as we get to my in-laws' house.

Amidst all of that I even managed to get some knitting time in:

They are socks for a friend's child. I used some of my own hand-dyed wool. It's "Sock" in the Fern Gully colourway.

A few days after Christmas, Alex and I caught up with some of the mums and bubs from an online mothers' group I frequent. All the "babies" were born in January 07 and it is astounding to see how much they have all grown. He had a great time playing in the sand and water, climbing on everything, and just getting hot and dirty.

He did remember to stop for a snack.. but not for very long.

Sock yarn club

2008-12-20T16:38:00.002+11:00

I don't normally join yarn clubs. The control freak in me does not like not knowing what I will get. It's the element of surprise that really does my head in. So.. what is different about this sock club? I know, at least, that I will be getting all stripes. I also know what's coming - look at all those lovely colours.

I am just not sure I need any more sock yarn or that I need that many pairs of striped socks!

Which lot of wool was mine?

2008-12-20T16:17:00.002+11:00

Some people asked which of that massive pile of wool was mine since they could not see much aside from a huge mess of colours. I bought 2 skeins of each of these:

I haven't worked out what to do with them yet, but I thought I would use two matching skeins for a Clapotis. I love the elegant simplicity of the pattern but am afraid that the vast amount of stocking stitch would drive me insane.

What else have I been up to?

I bought 100g of some Pear Tree Merino from a friend on Ravelry and then discovered that it was really 50g of 12ply and 50g of 8ply. What can I do with two small skeins of yarn in the same colourway? Hats of course!

With the 8ply, I made a small baby/toddler hat.

With the remaining 8ply I knitted up the ribbing for an adult hat and then used the 12ply to knit the rest of the hat in a 6x1 rib. It has plenty of sideways stretch and is nice and soft, as you can imagine seeing as it is Pear Tree Merino.

I like the softness of the wool, though I must say it intrigued me to find that the twist and thickness of the wool was so uneven. After all it was a mill-spun wool, not handspun. Some of the 8ply felt more like 4ply and overall, it knitted more like a 6ply.

After all that, I realised that I'd probably never wear the hat as I have not been wearing hats for the past two winters. I put both up for sale in my store. I like the idea of selling the two together, as a cute (kitsch?) parent/child set.

Thank you, HL, for the lovely Christmas pressie that arrived this week

It is a skein of Fiesta Yarns' La Boheme, in the "Australia" colourway. I am interested to see how it will knit up.

Lots more photos to share and works in progress, but that's a post for another day when I don't have a toddler tugging at my pants and trying to push the screen of the laptop down. "Close close close close.." I am hearing in my left ear...

BT4 received

2008-12-12T23:53:00.003+11:00

Thank you, Emily!

The package arrived today and it was chock full of goodies for me and Alex (and Chris thinks some of it is for him too).

Starting with goodies for me:

A gorgeous needle roll, a pair of needles with giraffe tops and some lovely stitch markers. In case you can't quite make it out, the stitch markers have on them little charms in the shape or a pair of scissors, a spinning wheel, a ball of wool and a piece of measuring tape. How apt!

I am saving the giraffe needles for Alex. He already pretends to knit with my needles now when he can get his little hands on them. It will not be long before he is ready to learn, I think. He taps his forefingers together and tells me, "Mummy knit knit" Some times he drapes a piece of scrap yarn over his finger and says "wooo knit knit".

Next, a jar of gingerbreadmen. This is a big hit with Alex. He had three today.. well, most of three anyway. I think I will have to get the recipe for them. there are far worse things he can be eating and the sugar and colouring did not affect him in the least. There was so little of the colouring, I guess it wouldn't have mattered anyway.

Emily also included an apron for Alex. Alex does not know it yet but he is getting a play kitchen for Christmas. Emily included some miniature wooden cooking utensils for him as well. He will be the best dressed toddler chef this Christmas, but then one could say I am biased.

I tried to get a picture of everything but did not quite succeed. Emily also sent some napkin rings that she painted herself, a box of chocolates (which Chris thinks is his part of the present) and a book for Alex . All the presents for Alex are being wrapped up to go under the tree. He has not seen them yet.

Oh and I must mention the pretty ornament that came with teh package. A glittery dragonfly. Did you make it, Em?

Packed, posted, received

2008-12-10T17:34:00.003+11:00

My Backtack4 pal is Emily from Embelish. After many emails back and forth trying to work out what we both like and who we both are as people, I finally put together her package. The theme is Frankincense, Gold and Myrrh. As the BT4 blog says:

"The first item is something that sparkles [the Gold part]- cards, decorations, calenders.....see where your imagination will take you. [It doesn't need to be gold]

The second item is something which has some sort of sensory aspect to it [the Frankincense part] - either smell or taste. Baked goods? Shortbread? Chocolate, soaps, the mind can run free here, but be mindful of customs regulations in different countries. Sealed food stuffs are generally ok, but check with your partner before sending anything.

The third item is a small gift for your partner for Christmas [the Myrrh part] Perhaps a small item for the tree, or mantlepiece. Quiz your partner to see what their theming is for this Christmas, and tie in your gift! or make them something they might like to use through the year - a calender, a purse, a scarf."

So.. what did I send her?

Lets start with the Frankincence part.. some home-baked shortbread with apricot jam, a jar of said home-made apricot jam and a jar of home made cherry jam. I also added a chocolate scented candle.. after all, who doesn't like chocolate?

Then the gold part.. That was quite difficult, really. I chickened out of this and didn't end up making it. Instead I bought her a desk calendar with photos of local sights. I then realised that it did not have to be difficult, so I made her some stocking shaped tree ornaments and filled each one with a gourmet lollipop from See's Candy. Mm.. See's lollipops... mmm I could just drool thinking of those giant lollipops.

Then finally the myrrh part. I wanted to make something for both Emily and her son Lucas, who happens to be the same age as Alex. In fact there is only about a week's difference between them! What a coincidence. Did I mention that Emily is my age too? yes, the BT4 organisers did well matching us. Strange coincidences. Anyway, What could I make?

I sent Emily a neckwarmer with a matching flower pin to hold it together. For her son, Lucas, I sent a pair of handmade shorts with a cars and buses trim. Emily said he loves all boyish things like vehicles, animals, dinosaurs (yes, I know they are animals too), etc. I thought the blue cars and buses fabric was quite appropriate seeing as Alex loves his shorts from the same fabric too. Since she sews, I thought I'd send her something for that too, and so I included a "vintage" Gutterman box with thread and a pin cushion.

Phew! Sounds like a lot, but it wasn't really. It was just a large assortment of small things. I really enjoyed this swap and I am looking forward to the next one. What a lot fo fun it was!

Look what landed at my doorstep

2008-12-06T02:41:00.003+11:00

I recently ran a Fibreworks co-op with some friends on Ravelry and it arrived today. I really only paid for it on Tuesday and she posted it on Wednesday and yesterday (Friday) it arrived! Obviously not all of it is for me. My order consisted of (only?) 8 skeins - the bag at the top of the pile.

If you're not familiar with Fibreworks, you're missing out. Yes, really! It's soft squishy wool. Most of that pile consisted of 18micron merino wool.

Lots of weaving and not much else

2008-11-21T23:23:00.004+11:00

and

Both scarves will be up for sale on Etsy shortly. I just need to make sure they are dry and measure them up for the description in the listing.

I have done some knitting, but just a little

Yes, that's right.. little. They are little sock shaped tree ornaments. I will need to weigh them down and I am thinking that perhaps a mintie or a small piece of chocolate will do.

On the spinning side of things, I haven't got anything new to show.. just something I spun a while ago but was having difficulty photographing.

The red wasn't coming out quite right. I finally managed to get a photo and so the yarn is now up on Etsy. It's over 200g of a single ply yarn spun from Crown Mountain's hand painted Corriedale. I love the red red redness of it and am now wondering whether I should keep it for myself.I guess if I decide to make something with it I can always cancel the listing, and if it gets sold before then, I'll just have to get more of it to spin!

for one of my swaps I have made a little foldover envelope thing for keeping nappies wipes, bibs .. you name it. I don't know what to call it. A mum's pouch? It has a little compartment for some plastic utensils and plenty fo room for wipes and nappies and even a bib or two.

On the inside I lined it with some cotton batik fabric.

I hope the recipient likes it.. She has a child Alex's age, and so she will be, like me, carrying lots of wipes and nappies around with her.

Alex is well and very noisy now. He has worked out how to string words together and sometimes it all comes out as one big word like "tissuepaper" or "idoit"(I do it). Today I managed to get him some sunglasses from the Pumpkin Patch outlet store and he loves it. I guess it's the novelty of it. He likes putting them on and taking them off. It's cute to watch, but I think the novelty will wear off soon and it will be, like many of his toys, put aside. I hope he gets used to them though.

Back to old habits

2008-11-09T20:20:00.005+11:00

2 weeks since my last post. Admittedly, it's not as bad as what it was previously, with entire months passing between posts, but still!

Normally Halloween is not a big deal here in Sydney. If we're lucky, we may get a couple of trick-or-treaters come our way. Otherwise, it's a night much like any other. This year, however, Alex's daycare decided to have a Halloween party. We had to dress the kids up for it. So, what could this very slack mother come up with?

I present to you, Alex the wizard:

He actually had a wand too, but we didn't have a good photo of him with it. The hat was from the $2 shop. The robe was home-made out of fabric scraps and the wand was made from cut up strips of cardboard wrapped in aluminum foil.

Not much has been done on the sewing front. I did make a pin cushion for a swap but it was a pretty basic one. It was my first pincushion and I stuffed it as tightly as I could, and even then, I am not sure it was stiff enough.

I packed it with a few little goodies and sent it on its way... and then I discovered that I had left part of the intended package out of the package! Can you say "careless"? So another package is on its way.. oops.

The package I received was nothing short of stunning. The pin cushion was more like a plushie than a pin cushion. I am not sure I want to poke pins into this little cutie.

Thank you, Donna!

Enough to clog your arteries

2008-10-28T23:14:00.004+11:00

So I didn't tell you about our deep frying extravanganza a few weeks ago. My sister-in-law was given a deep fryer as a wedding present and we decided to try it out.

Onion rings

Chicken wings

Spring rolls

Wontons (dumplings)

Those were SERIOUSLY the best chicken wings I have had in a loooong time. It's my sister-in-law's sister-in-law's recipe. It's sweet, salty, crispy and wonderful all at once.

For teh onion rings, Chris found a recipe for beer batter online and we used that. They were good too, but not as good as the wings. Sssshhh.. don't tell Chris that ;)

Alex loved the spring rolls. What am I saying? Alex loves spring rolls all the time. He insisted that eh wanted a spring roll that day, so we gave him one. He fells asleep eating it but refused to relinquish his hold on it. When I tried to extract it from his greasy little fist, he batted me away with his free hand and moved the springroll to hide it behind his head.

All this while his eyes were closed!

Yes, that is a springroll he is holding behind his head!

All that greasiness makes me queasy just looking at the photos, but I can't help but regret that I didn't indulge in another chicken wing or two!

I have been rather busy lately. I have done some spinning and putting the fruits of my labour up for sale on Etsy.

This is the latest:

I call it flame thrower. It's a lovely hank of squishiness that is typical of merino wool. The colours don't photograph as well as I would have liked as it is a deep intense read with blue and yellow higghlights. It's not as cherry-ish as the picture shows.

I have another hank that is just under 300m in length that will be listed tomorrow or the day after. It's a softly spun skein of single ply yarn from hand-dyed pure Corriedale wool.

Recently I participated in a swap on Ravelry. I sent out a skein of handdyed alpaca in girly pink tones. I received these balls of wooly pleasure:

Mmmm.. what shall I make with it?

I do have other sewing news but I'll leave that for another day.

New stock on Etsy

2008-10-16T10:19:00.003+11:00

Just wanted to say I have added some stock to the store

Calzones and shorts

2008-10-14T23:21:00.005+11:00

Let's start with the shorts...

When I saw this fabric at Spotlight, I just knew that I had to make something out of it for Alex. Alex is totally "wheels" crazy. He loves everything with wheels - cars, buses, vans, trains (which don't really have wheels, I suppose), tractors, you name it, he loves it. In fact, one of his first "real" attempts at saying 3-syllable words is "bulldozer" which comes out more as "zoozozer".

Then there's the fabric that I used for the trim on these shorts

Alex loves these very much. He did not want to let me take them off.

The pattern that I used was Burda 9793. It has a good range of sizes (2 to 6) and comes in three different lengths and styles. What I love most are the hip pockets (a first for me) and the mock fly (another first for me). I haven't quite perfected the mock fly yet, but we're getting there.

Now for the calzones.

I was craving pizza but didn't really want to get some yucky chain store ones so I made my own on the weekend. Well, I made calzones as we wanted to see whether Alex would enjoy them.

I started with some basic pizza dough

I kneaded and rolled

And for dinner we had calzones!

I was a little over-enthusiastic with the dough and made enough for pizzas the next day!

For the filling we had an assortment of different things including leftover bolognaise sauce, sauteed mushrooms, onions and chorizo, and vegetables.

Alex calls it bread. I tried to tell him it's calzone but he said, "No, BREAD!"

Not part of Blogtoberfest, but...

2008-10-08T00:05:00.003+11:00

This is my second post for the month! I don't think I have posted this frequently in quite a while.

I have been knitting a lot lately, considering that the weather has warmed up a lot as well. In the past week, I have completed a cabled hat using this pattern, and am about half way through the Irish Hiking scarf. It's a matching set (in case you didn't notice). I am using some hand-dyed alpaca in variegated pinks and lilac. It's pretty, and I want to keep it for myself! Unfortunately, it will be posted out shortly after I am done as it is for a swap on Ravelry.

The theme of the swap is "No sheep for you", so I am knitting with a 100% alpaca yarn. It's soft and buttery and almost feels like it will melt in my hands. Hmm, perhaps it IS melting in my hands.

Weather has been a little strange lately. Super hot days (for spring) and then rain and storms.

So many things...

2008-10-03T22:02:00.003+10:00

so little time.

I really should post more than once a month. Well, now that I have signed up for the Backtack swap, I will have to, won't I? The rules say that I have to post regularly. At least once a week is what it says, I think. So you'll see more of me (or Alex) even if it is only to say "hi" and provide evidence that I am still alive and knitting/sewing/spinning.

I guess I should start buy announcing that I have (finally) restocked both my stores with new yarn. About time, eh? I have put up for sale some skeins of 8ply (DK) and 4ply(sock/fingering) weight yarns at the Ozebaby store and some 4ply yarns at the Etsy store. Bear with me while I experiment with the photos. All the photos I have taken look quite dark and don't really show off the colours of the yarns all that well.

And.. that brings us to our project for the long weekend. Chris has said he will make me a lightbox. We're going to try out a few things tomorrow and go to the shops for the stuff we don't have. I hope that by Monday, my photos will be looking much better!

Not a lot has been accomplished in the past month. I have managed to do some knitting, weaving and spinning, btu don't really have much to show for it.

Let's see, first there is the Hourglass sweater from Last Minute Knitted Gifts

I used some KnitPicks Andean Silk in chocolate. Well, when I say "some", I really mean "some 13+ balls"! It's a good fit, but I only just completed it days before the warmer weather hit us. I have worn it twice and now it has to be put away for next winter.

This jumper of Alex's will also not see much use

He has worn it a few times since it was completed, but since tehre isn't much room for growth (who's a silly Mummy now?), it is unlikely he will wear it next year. What a pity! The Waverley Mills merino that I used for it is lovely and soft too.

Speaking of Alex... he has been growing like a weed. Fortunately (or unfortunately) the growth seems to be focused on height and there is next to nothing happening to his circumference. He has been eating like a horse, and probably can eat a horse too, if we let him!

Recently he has discovered that my handbag is a good place to look for delicious "bikkies" (biscuits/cookies).

I now have to put my handbag where he can't reach it. In fact I have to put all edibles (and non-edibles) that I don't want him to touch where he can't reach them.

One evening when I brought some groceries home, I left them outside the kitchen while I started cooking dinner. Alex was sitting outside the kitchen as he is not allowed to wander around in it. I could hear him naming all the things he was pulling out of my bag - "capcum" (capsicum), bread, "ah neen" (onion), "tay toe" (potato) and so on. All of a sudden he was quiet. I peered around the corner and there he was, sitting on the floor with a mouthful of crumpets. He had found a packet of crumpets in the bag, opened them and helped himself to them! When he saw me, he offered me the package, "Mummy, mumpet?". I started scolding him for not asking before opening a package, and he gave me the saddest look and said, "ungwee.."(hungry). How could I be angry when he didn't know any better? Needless to say, he had an early dinner that night.

Of late, he has been eating more of our food. I have stopped cooking him his own "special" food unless we are out where the food is too heavily seasoned for him. We've found that he loves his noodles. He can say noodles and pasta and can't tell them apart. It doesn't matter as he likes both as much.

As you can see, there is much slurping action in the dining room when pasta or noodles is on the menu.

Tonight we found out that he enjoys pizza too. I made lebanese bread pizzas for dinner with a homemade tomato sauce on the base. He ate about a third of a lebanese bread, and believe me, those things are LARGE! On his pizza, I used some minced beef, carrots, peas and corn for topping and then added some shredded cheddar and mozzarella on top.

Here's a photo of him pre-haircut. We cut his hair tonight. He squirmed and protested. "Itchy itchy", he said. "TICK ISH" (ticklish) he scremed, but I persevered.

I'll have a post-haircut photo for you in the next post.

6 Random Things

2008-08-12T09:37:00.004+10:00

I was tagged by Leah, so here goes...

1 My first "job" was at my mum's shoe store. I was about 12 then. It was a real job since I was paid and I did work for it. By the time I was about 14, I was looking after the store on my own after school and during school holidays when she could not get staff.
2 I'm a private school "snob". I have absolutely no experience with the public system.
3 It takes a lot of effort for me to "think positive". I think I am probably inherently negative and have to work hard at seeing the brighter side of things and the better side of people.
4 Meeting new people make me feel awkward. I hate it.
5 I love animals (for the most part), though I probably could not be coerced to touch some of the more creepy crawly variety.
6 I have a very short attention span, hence the "craft ADD". I need to have many many things on the go at the same time. I feel lost without activity.

I am tagging Cynthia, Gilly, Lisa, Tara, Corrie and Julie.

Alex saw sheep

2008-08-03T21:19:00.003+10:00

Yes, he did!

We stopped by at Virginia Farm Woolworks(VFW) on the way to Chris' parents' for lunch. They had their monthly fibre day today.

I don't know whether it is normally this small but there were only two stalls. One of them was Susanne's. We used to attend spinning classes together at VFW. She had some really pretty yarn for sale, but seeing as I am tripping over the many skeins of stash yarn in the house, I was very restrained.

It was hard.. seeing as there were a few skeins that really caught my eye!

You know what else caught my eye? This:

For $60 I could have bought a loom, but then I had a storage problem to deal with. Where do I put it? Where can I use it? There is simply no room in our house. Perhaps I need a bigger house! I decided to wait. Jenny, in all her wisdom, suggested that I think about the loom again when Alex is older and I have more time on my hands. Ah, she is a wise woman...

To distract me from my loom lust, we visited Jenny and Phil's sheep. They had a couple of Corriedales and some Merino cross. It was the first time Alex saw live sheep and what did he do? He buried his face in my shoulder! It took a while for him to warm up to them and even when he did, he wasn't willing to go down on the ground or go near them.

It wasn't as if they were milling around in the area around us.. they were behind a fence!

Just to prove that he is the son of a knitter/spinner, just look at how at home he is in the wool room!

When we got to the in-laws', we spent some time in the backyard while waiting for lunch (fried chicken!! woohoo!!!) to be bought from the shop. There Alex discovered the joys of plucking flowers. Little sweetie that he is, he picked flowers for each of us and gave them to us. He also wanted one for himself, which we put behind his ear.

When it was time to go back in, he wanted to put them back where hehad picked them!

I don't think he understands yet that once flowers are picked, they cannot be "unpicked". He will learn.. one day...
One last shot of Alex...

Celia's Basket restocked

2008-07-28T17:11:00.004+10:00

I managed to get round to doing some sewing and finally listed some wraps and bibs in the store.

When Alex was littler, and would only sleep when he was wrapped, I had a hell of a time trying to find wraps that were large enough. I finally resorted to making my own. I noticed that there is still a significant shortage of wide wraps out there in the market. Why? Surely people realise that babies outgrow the 1mx1m wraps rather quickly.. I have put up for sale two extra-wide wraps and two regular length wraps.

My favourite is this one:

This is in addition to the 4 extra-wide wraps that I made for my sister-in-law who is expecting twins in a few months. She was moaning about the lack of fabric stores and anything crafty where she lives (Jersey, UK). So other sister-in-law and I are sending some wraps her way.

I also made some bibs. I love putting colourful funky bibs on Alex. Chris is rather picky about what Alex wears and prefers boring blues and browns. I would opt for brighter colours and funkier designs if I could. Oh well, we compromise. I make bibs out of all manners of fabrics and as they are only "temporary", Chris does not seem to mind too much.

Making bibs is so addictive. I just can't stop. I love seeing how they turn out with different coloured backs and fronts. I use a layer of fleecy fabric to back all the bibs as they keep Alex dry. It's amazing how much food and drink he manages to spill on himself at mealtimes. The fleecy backing isn't 100% waterproof but does a pretty good job of keeping his clotehs and him dry.

These are also in the store now:

I also obtained permission from Loopy Loo Designs to use her bib design. these scoop bibs have been a life-saver for us ever since Alex started feeding himself. the scoop part of the bib catches all the food he drops and because the scoop part of it is made using snaps, I don't have to spend ages picking out yucky food remnants from the corners of the bib. I just unsnap and throw them in the wash with everything else. Fantastic!!

Have I been busy or have I been busy!

Old Red Barn Co giveaway

2008-07-22T23:13:00.002+10:00

Want to win a quilt? Click here.. or on the piccie on my sidebar, or on the piccie below.

More sewing

2008-07-10T23:26:00.004+10:00

A friend gave birth to a baby girl on July 1st. I started out making her a pair of cloth shoes, and then decided to use some of the scrap fabric to make a matching singlet.. and then finally decided that while I was sewing anyway, i can make her a matching burp cloth. Here's the set.

You can see the singlet in more detail here

Aside from making that, I have not had much time to sew. I have started a cabled pullover for Alex but it's slow going. I am making up the pattern as I go along, so I hope I size it correctly!! I haven't taken any progress pictures of it yet, so maybe there will be more show and tell in my next post.

See, I am getting better at this..

2008-07-03T21:52:00.003+10:00

It's only been 4 weeks since my last post rather than 6 weeks.

We've been rather busy here, as always. We've had some illness, not a lot, and I've probably had the worst of it. Miraculously (and fortunately), Alex has escaped mostly unscathed. There was a confirmed case of chicken pox at the daycare centre where he goes, but he did not catch it. He also escaped the hand, foot and mouth bug that was doing the rounds. He hasn't been quite so lucky with conjunctivitis and right now is nursing two rather sore eyes.

I have been busy sewing.. and there are never enough hours in a day to finish everything that I want to make.

First up, we have a soft toy which was for a swap. I can reveal it now as the recipient has received it today.

I made the body using some fleece backed interlock type fabric (is that what you call it??) It doesn't unravel, which makes for easy sewing. The "features" on it are made from cut up pieces of felt and fleece.

Oh and the little green one in the background is Alex's "Momo". I made it some time ago and at first I thought he'd hate it as it is rather ugly. Alex has grown rather fond of it and pretend play has taken off in a big way. Alex now tries to feed Momo and "read to" Momo and invites Momo to sit with him. He seems to understand that Momo does not really eat as he offers Momo a sultana, makes eating noises and then pops the sultana into his own mouth!

I also made Alex a couple of jackets:

front back

I made another using grey fleece as the lining and a blue dinosaur print fabric as the shell. It's come out rather cute, but I don't have a good picture of the finished piece. Here it is before I put the zip in.

The whole jacket is reversible aside from the zip. I have since discovered that there are such things as reversible zips. I can't find them at my local Spotlight, so I'm guessing they are a bit of a rarity and I will probably have to look in my not-so-local sewing specialty store.

I am on a self enforced yarn diet, mainly because we are running out of room to store it. I did buy some whilst at San Francisco last month. I'll post pictures later when I have retrieved them from the server. I went to Artfibres and drooled over everything there. So many pretty colours and textures, all wanting to come home with me! I managed to restrain myself, which was rather difficult considering that I had a couple of credit and charge cards with me. I ended up with 3 small balls of yarn. I have plans to weave them into lovely scarves for myself, but that has yet to happen.

Speaking of San Francisco, did I mention my very long walk? I don't think I have walked that far in a day since, and it had certainly been a while since I last did that. My muscles ached for days afterwards, especially the ones I had forgotten.

The red line traces my route. I walked from Portrero Hill across to one discount fabric store, then another, and then all the way down Market St to Artfibres. Oh, and then I headed back again, finally giving up and hopping on a bus somewhere around the intersection of Market and 6th.

I couldn't possibly have a whole post without sharing more photos of the little man, now, could I?

He patiently allows me to try his hat on for size...

still not big enough...

All completed.. along with a matching jumper.

Both the jumper and the hat were knit out of Regia Banner yarn in greys and black. I don't like the way the front of the jumper pulls up. I think it is because I have not cast on enough stitches around the neckline. However, I am too lazy to fix it so that is the way it will stay.

And we leave you with...

Hellooooo...