Some loves for the family~
I can hardly remember the last pair of socks that I have knitted. I believe it was at least 3 years ago. Due to the Ravellenic fun events in Ravelry, I decided to join in for some fun. I represented Wollmeiseholic group in the Sock Put events and I managed to make 2 pair of socks within 3 weeks when the London Olympic game was on.
Socks knitting is fun and apparently the socks bugs were all over me badly that I can’t stop making socks. I made a pair of Skew with a skein of Wollmeise Twin Schwammerl WD and it is a fun and interesting pattern with a whole new construction technique. The 2nd pair is also a fun pattern but an easier one, it is the Spider socks. I used a skein of Wollmeise Twin Olio Vergine for it. This socks is knitted for Gloria as her birthday gift. It has been gifted away this evening and she was so excited to see them. Rosanne wants me to make her a pair too and she want them in hot pink! I will have to look up my stash and see if I have any hot pink sock yarn.
Skew
Modelled by Hubby
Spider socks. How cool!
Big spiders!
I changed the pattern quite a bit at the back and I love the outcome.
Itsy bitsy spider…
After such a long time that I din’t knit any socks, I can say it loudly that I really enjoy making them. I realize that I can always finish making a pair of socks much faster if they are gifts for someone. Of course, an interesting and make sense pattern contributes a big factor as well. I plan to knit myself another pair of socks for this winter, most probably a Cookie A pattern. I can see myself knitting so busily soon because I have many new shawl design ideas in mind. Sometimes, I just wish I could be more productive and spend less time surfing internet and procrastinating….
Besides socks, I have knitted a cardigan for baby Elijah. Elijah is our dear nephew and he is such a cute sweetie pie of the family. He brings so much joy and happiness to us whenever he is around so he definitely deserves a lot of lovie loves from Aunty Kitman. I was too lazy to design a cardigan so I just browsed through Ravelry and picked a pattern that I really like. Gramps cardigan is exactly something I wanted to make for Elijah. In fact, I have the perfect choice of yarn for this project. I purchased some beautiful Debbie Bliss Donegal Luxury Tweed Aran quite some times ago and they are just perfect for making this cardigan.
Gramps cardigan is a fun and fast project and I made a serious mistake for NOT reading some feedback at the project pages. The sizing of this cardigan seems a little problem for most knitters because it runs small. Elijah is 7-month old and I made the cardigan size in 18-month old. Even for this size, the sleeve size is so small. Anyway, I enjoy making it very much and I am sure it will keep Elijah warm for at least a winter~
Four wooded buttons that I got from Hancock Fabrics. Not cheap…
Love the colar!
The back
For baby Elijah~
Cable details on both side of the sleeves.
I learn a new short row method and I used it for the short row colar of Gramps cardigan. It is called shadow wrap. The short rows seem much nicer and neater at both side and I am really really happy learning this new method and technique. Oh, talking about new technique, I heard so much about this contiguous method. It is a whole new technique of knitting the shoulder seams and sleeve caps of a garment from the top down. It is a new raglan top down method that I can’t wait to try out. I already saw some beautiful pullovers and sweaters that are designed with this method show up at Ravelry and they are beautiful!
The coming weekend will be a 3 days weekend, after that, I will be all ready to fly off to UK for my 10 yrs after graduation trip. 
I am all excited to be back to Scotland again. A land that gives me so much sweet and fond memories~ E.X.C.I.T.E.D !!!
Visiting MadTosh at Fort Worth!
This happened 2 weeks ago when DH and I visited Diana (my SIL) at Fort Worth. I heard about opening of MadTosh retail quite a while ago and I always wanted to pay it a visit. Finally, we made a trip there after a nice lunch at Bernito.
It is a very spacious retail store at the corner of the shop lot and if I am not mistaken, it used to be a yarn shop too but a much smaller shop. That was a Sunday and there were few ladies having some sweet fun there. Besides madelinetosh yarn, MadTosh carries some other brand of yarn too. I believe I saw some Rowan, Blue Sky Alpaca and Debbie Bliss. Also, there are a collection of beautiful yarn section at another room of the store. That can be a heaven for sewers~
It din’t take too long for me to pick few skeins of yarn. I always like Madelinetosh yarn and the colorway they create are amazing! I picked 3 skeins of merino lite in 3 different interesting colorways. I definitely want to design something using Madelinetosh yarn one day. I will let the photos speak the rest.
MadTosh Retail
Cute deco craftie lanterns in the store
I asked permission for photographing while she was busy winding the yarn. I forgot to ask for her name but I did tell her I gonna post some photos about the stores to make some knitters to get jealous! :p
My favourite racks – All the fingering weights!
Fabric! Rainbow way!
Another section of beautiful goodies! My eyes were real busy!
yarn yarn yarn!
The 3 skeins beauties I got! Which one speak the loudest to you?
West Palm Beach + Drop City
July is a fruitful month eventhough it still has another 10 days to come to an end. I been telling myself to blog. I do have things to share but the lazy bugs in me win all time. I was just too lazy to post.
Anyway, I had a short getaway trip to Florida West Palm Beach with my girl fiend. Ashley is my ex housemate about 12 years ago when I was still at college in Malaysia. But faith has its way, we both come to the States about the same time but different places. She and her family stays at NYC and I stay at the lone star state. We have been keeping in touch all these years and I visited her twice at NYC and she came see me in Dallas last year too.
About the last week of June, she rang me up and told me that she quit her job and she will need a break before starting the next one. So she suggested to go somewhere for a short vacation. After some serious discussion, we both decided to go to West Palm Beach. We wanted a simple, relaxing beach + sun + resort holiday.
Omphoy resort was the hotel we stayed and I personally love this hotel. It is a very modern and contemporary hotel. It is located at the West Palm Beach with a nice swimming pool and Spa. Ashley and I spent most of the time at the pool at day time. We went to the beach too but we both not liking the sand and sea water too much. LOL! Weather was not too good for the 2nd day we were there. The sun dint come out till late afternoon about 5pm. Overall, it was a pleasant vacation and the only thing I would complain is the food variety choices there. The room service and food from the hotel restaurant is pretty pricy and all of the restaurants closed by 5pm. We din’t rent any car so we couldn’t get to the downtown street for food. Good thing is, we discovered a nice breakfast/lunch place on the beach too, Benny’s on the beach. We went there twice to have some nice meal and coffee. That is a very unique restaurant. I really like it. Not only the food but also the nice sea view from there.
Very nice hotel room of Omphoy!
Patio at the beach side
The sea water is clear and sand is soft
Coconut treas … many of them!
The very blue sky, clear sky!
Love this pool! So nice!
Nice cabanas for relaxing at the pool!
Sunsetting!
Friendly staffs that bring us water with frutis in it and also clean towels.
Tex Mex wrap from Benny’s on the beach!
Beef Quesadilla
Coffee!!! I am a coffee addict!
Smoke salmon egg benedicts. Very yummy!
Steak and Eggs that Ashley had!
I have designed a shawlette/scarf and I have fun with it so much that I have actually made 4 of them in few different kind of variegated yarn. Drop City is the name I gave this design and it is already published few days ago in my Ravelry store. It is such a simple and addictive knit. There are 2 versions in the pattern, which is the thinner version and wider version. I really think it is a very good yarn busting project. I am glad that finally I can knit with some of those variegated colorful yarn I got. In fact, I just casted on the 5th Drop City with some Noro Aya.
Knitting a drop city using Noro Sock colorway 226
First Drop City that I made, with Wollmeise 100% Pure
Very beautiful bright color scarf. I really like this one!
You see some colorful nachos?
I used a skein of malabrigo sock Rayon Vert to make a wider version Drop City too.
scarves overloaded.
Planning to get some Christmas knittings going? This probably will be a good one because it is so easy and such a mindless knit. I actually plan to knit few more when the Olympic games are on so I can watch TV and knit at the same time without worrying if I mess up the pattern.
Oh, I almost forget to mention that DH’s birthday is on July too. We had a small celebration with the family and he was spoiled a little by most of us with some gifts. This year, I finally made him a pie. He is a pie lover and he always want me to make him a pie. I don’t grow up baking anything due to the culture difference but there is always the first time for everything right? So I took a big courage and make him a Coconut Cream Pie from scratch. And…. the pie turned out to be PERFECT! Ok~ For a first time pie-baker like me, I really think that is a perfect one! :p We all enjoy the pie very much and I get so excited that I want to make more pie! Guess what I will be making for the family this year Christmas dinner? hehe~
I got this pie crust recipe from http://www.allrecipes.com and it is good. I am really impressed with myself. *blushed*
Hubby said it looks like a pie that you buy from store. I like how the meringue browned up!
Coconut cream pie!
Seigaiha
The Summer Mystery KAL has been a fun and successful one. I am so glad to see good responses from knitters and I appreciate that very much. Seigaiha is the name of this shawl as the cloud wave at the second part of the shawl resembles very much like ocean wave and Seigaiha means ocean wave in Japanese.
Just like most of my other designs, Seigaiha is a bottom up shawl that comes with only 1 size. Inspired by the story Jack and the Beanstalk, there is a leave like pattern lace panel at the middle spine of the shawl growing from the bottom all the way till top. This can be a challenging knit but like I always say, it is doable. You just have to do it slowly. There are both chart and written instruction in the pattern and you can always refer to the written instruction if the charts confuse you.
There are already some beautiful FOs posted at my group at Ravelry and I love seeing FOs photos. I am thinking to submit my Seigaiha that knitted with beautiful The Plucky Knitter to the State fair this year. John thinks I should knit another one in other colorway since he is not a big fans of bright green. I don’t think I have enough time to do that as there is only 1 month left till the date for submission and I am busy with few designs on hand.
I really should have updated this blog more often. 
I will post again pretty soon with a new fun EASY pattern.
So here I introduce my latest shawl design, the Seigaiha. A very rich textured triangular shawl that is knitted bottom up. I hope you all will enjoy making this!
Yarn: Fingering weight (650-700yard) solid,semi-solid,gradiant -
The Plucky Knitter Primo Fingering Oz
Needles: 5.5mm, 3.75mm
Shape: Triangle
Structure: Bottom Up
Difficulty: Advanced
6.00usd
Mystery KAL Summer 2012
To make the summer funnier, I will have a mystery knit-along (MKAL) in this coming June. Have you participated in any MKAL before? If no, maybe you will be interested in playing this with us. It is rather exciting to knit something that you have NO idea at all what it will look like and can only know more about it row by row when the work grows.
I drew this for the June mystery KAL!
This is the 3rd MKAL of mine and the excitement is not any lesser than the previous two. This mystery KAL shawl is inspired by the interesting story, Jack and the Beanstalk. In fact, I used a beautiful green colorway to knit this shawl. Like most of my shawls, this one is knitted bottom up too. And if you want to find out more about this MKAL, please visit to MY GROUP in Ravlery and you will get all the information you need for this KAL. Please come join us~
The Memorial day long weekend is coming and do you all have any special plan? I will have a busy weekend ahead. John and I are invited to a lake party on Sunday. This friend of ours has a beautiful family lake house not too far away from Dallas. They will have a life band lake party that night. I believe many people are invited and I will bring my camera along to snap some pictures. Can’t wait to see the lake and have a nice relaxing evening there! Also, we will go to a baseball game on Monday~~~ Woo Hoo~ I will be watching my first ever Rangers game. I want to see Yu Darvish! Will he be pitching that night? I definitely need to get a Rangers hat or top! Good weekend to you all~
Frogged! and the yarn turned into curly noodle! Love this yarn and what exactly am I making?
Happy Mother’s Day~
The first time I saw my mom knit, I was 5 yr old. She knitted me and my brother sweaters. I still remember she used a variegated yellow white yarn for that sweater. Some photos were taken at the highland trip and they are not with me. If there is a chance, I will scan it and post it up here.
I always know that I inherit the crafty and artistic genes from my mom as she is always interested in doing that. She can write, draw very good. She did not knit anymore after the sweater project till I was 21, the year I went Scotland for college, she picked up the needles again and knitted me few scarves.
I love my mom dearly and just like most other mothers and daughters, we have our love-hate relationship too. She was very strict to me all the years I was raised. Of course I know she just wanted the best for us. I am not a parent yet but I always know that when I am one, I will raise and educate my kids the way my mom did probably less harsh. LOL. The older I get, the more I see the similarities between my mom and I. The way we talk, we laugh, we eat. Even the way our fats store.
Marrying this far away is not easy to me. I always miss my parents but I never call home crying and tell them how much I miss them probably not wanting to worry them. Things get much better after my mom gets internet access and we can talk online almost everyday but I truly wishing to have them around me all the time.
It is Mother’s day this coming Sunday. I want to wish every mom a Happy Mother’s day. Being mom is the hardest task in the world and I am glad that I have three wonderful moms in my life. (my mom, mother in law and godmother). Word can’t express how much I love my mom. I wish to spend more time with her and do a lot of things with her; traveling, shopping, knitting, watching TV, swimming, chatting… I don’t think she is a reader of this blog but I will definitely ring her up this Sunday to tell her that I love her~
I love you, my mama~
My little brother and I wearing the sweaters that my mom knitted. Precious~
(I went through all the old photos I brought with me from Malaysia and I found the photo of my brother and I in the sweaters my mom hand-knitted us. Sigh, I miss my family badly!)
May May May!!!
Wow, 2 months passed since the last post I had made. I have been back to Dallas for about a month and I am back to my daily routine lifestyle too. ONLY if I could push myself harder to back to the gym, things will be probably much better. Anyway, it is good to be back and enjoy the Spring. This year, John and I finally conquer the lazy bugs and work on the front yard. We build two little flower bed around two trees with some annual flowers and we are really happy with that. We have more plans for the front yard and weekends seems more exciting than usual because we get to work on the front yard together and honestly I enjoy those quality time. I just wish that Spring will not slip away too fast because Summer is just too unbearable for me.
I trimmed those bushes. My weak arm muscles hurt after that. bleh!
We name it the Dolores garden!
Before n After
Rec Rev is finally done!!! and I love the outcome so very much. The pattern is already released week ago and it is free with the purchase of the triangular shawl Rev or you can purchase it alone for 4usd. I wish I could have time in the future to make a bigger version of Rec Rev with a skein of beautiful Wollmeise lace and I believe it will be even a prettier shawl.
Rec Rev
Besides Rec Rev, a lace shawl that I designed for A Verb For Keeping Warm has published too. Kyri is a large shawl that knitted up with a beautiful skein of AVFKW high twist lace weight yarn. The colorway name is a cute one – Eva, Ana, and all 3 letter names. Kyri is designed when I was having my Malaysia trip. I brought it with me to everywhere when I travel around and I am happy with how the pattern turns out. This shawl is only available for the pro-verbial club subscription at the moment and it will become available to the public at October.
Kyri
I am currently working on a shawl that planned for a mystery KAL by June. The progress seems promising so far and I believe a test knit can be done real quick before I start the KAL. Mystery KAL is always fun and I can’t wait to play this with some knitters again.
I am going to end this post with some photos that I took at Malaysia and Singapore. I hope you all will enjoy them!
Penang – beautiful old city of Malaysia
One of the old temples at Penang
Ge Lok Si temple at Penang
Melaka Jonker Street
Petronas Twin Tower Kuala Lumpur
USA bear
Malaysia Bear
Singapore Skyline – amazingly beautiful
Cute merlion at Singapore
Sunset at the beach of Miri town
