My special day

It marks the day where I passed my mid of twenty, another phase of my life. It makes me ponder more about my retirement. Should we try to save more money and grow more money so that we can retire earlier? Work is such a routine job. Maybe I should consider switching soon. Opps…

My day started off with a nice lunch at jacks’ place. As Hb says the other day that ”it’s a long time since we lasted went to Jack’s place to eat”, hence I decided to treat him with lunch there. The price is pretty reasonable. Both of us had a grilled fish set (consists of soup with a slice of garlic bread, the grilled fish, a slice of cake and a cup of tea). It costs me less than $20 for 2. ;) *No pixs taken for this*

Then we head off to kinokuniya. I intend to get some knitting books. BUT I end up with some fashion magazine instead. We also went to borders but did not manage to finish any books tat I wanted. Really wondering is knitting really that popular nowsaday or there isn't any demand for the books anymore. :( As it was raining super heavily, we went to the MacCafe to drink cappuccino. Enjoy the cool and wet weather.

The sky was so dark. But it was still a happy day for me.

Before we head off a dinner, I had a surprise gift. A wallet .

Dinner is at The line at Shangri-La hotel. The variety of food is good and the price is definitely good too. As the place is not really that easily accessible, I thought that it would not be crowded who know the place is almost full. Luckily I keep reminding hb to make reservations. The deco of the place is very nice with white and orange color. The cakes and pastry look super nice.

This was just a portion of the dessert. :)

We ate for about 3 hours before we decide to go home. Note: The table besides us had already served 3 different groups of diners. *LOL* It was still raining when we headed home. Although it is a raining day, my day is not gloomy at all.

Pinky

N72 is what I had for my birthday pressie. Thank dear I love the phone. It is a pink color phone. Hb has been doing researching on which handphone suits me more. My current handphone is giving me problems with the screen. Hence it is time to change one. After more research, hb think that I should have a camera that has at least 2MB as I had to take picture for my blog. With a good handphone camera, I would not have to take my camera around. Thanks dear thank you. I love the phone and I decide to name the handphone pinky.

I decide to take a pix of my icarus to show the progress. Here is it. Hopefully I can finish it soon. *Keeping my fingers crossed*

New Workplace

Well I finally had moved or rather stationed at my client's place. I would say I really MISSED my previous client. LOL although the previous client place is rather inconvenient but it has a nicer working environment, better PC, has Internet access, using MSN is legal, free coffee etc.

NOW I had a not so good computer, a very small area for 3 of us to squeeze in and NO internet access. I had to forgo the idea of using MSN in office for the next few months or years but this is not the main issue. The main issue is that I cannot find any information whenever i need to and I might need to note them down and find them only at night.

Hmm, but there are 2 plus points of this client's place. (1) location is more central meaning i can meet up with my friends easier. But do i still have the time to meet my friends after work as the project goes on? I really don't know. (2) There is a cafeteria meaning I can go for tea break. yeah!!! Similarly i need to ask myself do i have the luxury or time to go? Sighz..

I love purple

Thank you pal. I received my first SP surprise. I can now say I don't only like purple, I love purple. I LOVE the surprise. The wrapper, the yarns, the chocolates, the card and the letter. I love every bits of it.
Yes my pal is from Germany. I want to go there someday.
The surprise
The card to read last :)

The PURPLE yarns

Garnstudio's silke-tweed - It is so nicely tweed.
Lang new angora - super soft. I can't bear to knit it.
Yummy chocolate. Hb is eyeing them.
Silk blend Yarn dyed by my SP.
A new lovely card
linea yarn in tones of purple.

The parcel is just too lovely and beyond any descriptions. :) Time for me to think of what project that I am going to work on with them. I love PURPLE PURPLE PURPLE

THANK PAL!!!!

Thank bro!!

I got an early birthday card from my brother all the way from canada. This is the first time I ever receive a card from my bro. So happy and touched! Along with the card is a nice maple leave. :)

No Pictures

Recently I am getting more busy with work. More workload as the project moves on. Working for more than 8 hours each day. Is this a good sign? I am still coping well with it. I am learning new stuff as well.

I do had a lot of pictures stuck in my camera. I would try my best to post the pictures here. I had visited Night safari on one of the previous sat. It was fun. It was hb's first time there too. ;)

Despite being busy, I continue to knit too. But at a slower pace, I doubt I can finish my icarus for lacevember but one good news is I am moving onto chart 3. Yeah!! I had also cast on christmas projects (But i would post them only after christmas.) :) My yarn stash is growing rapidly nowadays. Faster than I can knit. Think I would implement yarn diet soon. hohoho

Time to head from bed. More pixs would be posted soon. This weekend I think.

Rusted roots aren't rusty at all

If anyone had noticed, my rusted roots has became a FO(finished object) for 2006. Yeah!!! This is the fastest project that I completed so far. It is a nice and easy knit as I am using the exact yarns as in the instructions. I do not need to do any swatching nor calculations. However, this results in a top abit too thick for Singapore weather. Maybe I shall keep in for cooler weather or go on diet coz it really make me look fat in it. :o(

Yarns used: Brown Sheep cotton fleece Lilac
Amount of yarns used: 3 and 1/3 skeins
Needles used : 4 and 3.5
Time took to complete : ard 3 weeks

Here are pictures on it.


For now, I trying to work on my icarus and it has past the chart 1. Working on chart 2 now. I am also trying to finish up my bumble bee top. Now I working on the last sleeves. I am near the finishing mark now. :)

Another Lacevember contest

What are your ideal lace making conditions?
The most important condition is the places should not have any television. I realised that having a television in front of me meet my speed reduces greatly. I simply cannot concretrate well. The number of errors increases too.

Another condition would be a nice and comfortable chair ;)

Christmas is coming!!!

Hb and I went to parkway parade on friday and saw these (Aren't they cute?). It reminds me that Christmas is coming on its way!! so happy n excited.....
Christmas tree

Santa with elves

Elf sitting on the wishing well

Elves are preparing christmas gifts

Presenting the snowman happy family

My lacevember questions

Here are my answers to the questions. Hope i am not too late.

The knitting questions, or the usual suspects

How long have you been knitting? Coming to a year

How did you learn to knit? I started learning at lys

Favorite thing about knitting? It give me a sense of accomplishment when a project is completed.

How long have you been knitting lace? About 6 months and crazily in love with it now

Favorite thing about knitting lace. The feminine look and romantic feeling that it gives

The yarn questions, or flash your stash

Favorite lace yarn? I had only tried jaggerspun zephyr and I love it. Had a couple in my stash.

variegated or solids for shawls? Both depending on the pattern

Favorite lace color? Warm and rich color. Sometimes pastel colors too.

Technique, or show us your skillz

Circs or straights? Circs. Straights are abit too bulky to carry around

Favorite lace knitting trick? None

Lifelines? If so with what? Yes. I started using lifelines for my swallow tail shawl. I’m using stitch hook to indicate a certain progress.

Fancy blocking wires, or just sewing pins stuck in your carpet? Just sewing pins stuck on my towel

Pattern, or can you follow directions

shawls or lacey items? Both

triangle, rectangle, or circular shawls? Triangle or rectangle shawls. By the way, what is circular shawl?

Charts or printed instructions? Both

Favorite lace you've knit? It is the small lace pattern use in rusted root

Favorite lace you want to knit? Icarus shawl. Something simple and elegant. Currently on my needles now.

Just Fun, yup that's right, just for fun

Favorite jelly belly flavor? Grape

Tell me everything you know about Eric the Red..... He is named Eric. But I don’t know why Red is related to him.

Coke, classic or with lime? Prefer lemon tea. I don’t like fizzy drinks.

Holiday carols, sing along, or wish they would be banned from all public airwaves? Fine with me as long as it is not outside my doorsteps.

What is the definition of irony? ? No idea. From dictionary.com “the use of words to convey a meaning that is the opposite of its literal meaning”

How many licks does it take to get to the center of a tootsie roll pop? Hundreds, thousands or million…..

Why is my cat always puking in front of my son's bedroom door? Maybe the cat doesn't have a good impression of the room

What is your superhero power? I can’t think of any. Oh no!!!

If the laundry is 9 foot by 11 foot (just dreaming, that's a big laundry room), and the walls are 8 feet tall, and you are going to tile the entire room in tiles that are 3 inches by 5 inches, what color should those tiles be? White. It makes me feel spacious.

What's for dinner tonight? Home cooked dinner by mum

What is clogging my children's bathtub drain? Rubber duck and hair…

New projects

Unable to resist myself from casting on. Two more new projects are added to my needles. Opps... They are rusted root and icarus shawl.

Rusted root
I bought this pattern from . It is a simple nice top that I think I could wear it out to work or on weekend. This is the first time and I attempting to knit in round. Everything is going on smoothly as of this moment. *Crossing my fingers* I am using Brown sheep cotton fleece for this top. It is nice to knit but I found that it is too thick after knitting one inch of it. But I decide to go ahead with it. At most I would wear it only in the Nov or Dec. :P Here is a peek of its progress.


The current length is alot more longer. Guess it still need another few inches before I can move on to do the ribbing.

Icarus
This pattern is from Interweave knit Summer 2006. I fall in love with this pattern the moment I saw it. I am still on the boring stage of the pattern - the 6th repeat of chart one. But it is growing. Zephyr teal is used for this project.The yarn is so nice to knit with and I just bought more. If you are wondering how many yarns I have now, I have over 150 balls now. LoL which is sufficient for me to knit for more than a year I suppose. But I just can't stop. ;)

New or Old?

We went to watch the movie "Sinking of Japan" last sat. It is a nice movie with an idea that might really happen in real life. But what make me wonder is why is there only two submarines in the movie? This movie is based on a novel. Anyway there is a similar film of the same title in 1973. This really make me wonder if this is a new or old movie.

Overall it is a nice, touching and sad movie. Worth watching. I give 4 star out of 5 ba. ;)

Hottest place in the town

Vivo city is now the hottest place in town. It is the largest shopping mall in Singapore. It has a very nice roof top environment facing Sentosa and with pools for kids to play in. Nice view!

This is the second time (24-Oct) we went to vivo city. This time round we went along with my MIL. The mall is super crowded. We jammed for 30 mins from the keppel roads before we reach there. The road was too small and due to public holiday many people are going to sentosa too.

This time round I aimed to visit the Fashion city (a shop that sells a variety of cloths at reasonable price) again. The last time I went I saw a lot of nice dresses. But I did not manage to get any this time round. The dresses do not suit me at all. However I manage to get a short sleeved shirt. *Grin* Hb is saying that I do not need to buy any more clothes for Chinese new year.

We also went to the Vivo mart which has a gaint in it. Hb managed to buy 3M mat for our car at a very good price $53.90 usual price $89.10. When we were making the payment, the scan price was $89.10. We were shocked and wanted to cancel our purchase but the cashier say cannot. We were stunned and angry looking at the long queue, we proceed with our payment and went to the customer service for refund. Luckily, it was really $53.90. So do take note if you are making purchases in Gaint (I had encountered several times that the cashier's price were not updated.)

Beside the short sleeved shirt, i bought this.


Have been eyeing this for quite some time. Despite the u channel is airing now, I cannot make it on time to reach home to watch. Hence I decided to buy and there is a 10% discount for it. :)

Have a tiring day.

Get to know you questions

I got these set of questions from one of the SP hostresses blog.

Here are my answers to the questions.
1. Where is your favorite knitting spot?
Sofa in the living room or my study table

2. If you suddenly could never knit again (shudder) - what would you do instead?
Maybe beads jewellery or pick up sewing.

3. If you could travel anywhere in the world - where would you go and why?
Anywhere that experience 4 seasons with my loved one. I experience summer all year round. Hence it would great to experience the 4 different seasons.

4. When you were little - What did you want to do "when you grew up?" Are you doing it?
Teacher, doctor, lawyer
Nope. I am far away from all these jobs.

5. What is your favorite flavor of ice cream?
Chocolate, strawberry. But I am in love with green tea red bean ice-cream for these few months.

Value-add

"You must do value-added task in order to get promoted or increment." This is the hottest phase that your employer say to you when you go for your appraisal.

What is the definition of value-add? what are the tasks that we perform are considered value-add? Task that are not within our job scope are they considered value-added task? Doing things that you are not in charge of, waking up early in the morning like 2am to work till evening time, slogging alone to complete jobs that required a few people to do are these value -added task?

Well all these are seemed to be normal tasks for my hb's employer. I feel really upset for him that the effort he put into his job are unappreciated. Sighz... Maybe we should serious considered to move on.

SP9 is going to start officially soon

Yeah SP9 is going to start.

I finally got the pal who I supposed to spoilt. Can't wait to spoilt her. I had dozens n dozens of plans and items on my mind. Hope she enjoy it.

But my SP had not contact me yet. :( Guess he/she is busy ba. Hope to reach email from him/her soon. :) 1 more day to 15 oct.

My first experience with blocking

Finally after weeks, I managed to push myself to block my swallow tail shawl. This was the first time I going to block my knitting FO. I decided to use the normal way of blocking. Put the shawl into warm water for 20 minutes. Then squeeze it dry using a towel. Then pin it on top of a towel and some board.

STS taking its bath in warm water

Pin out in my winnie the pooh towel

After one night, the shawl is dried. The pattern is more obviously now. However, the edges are still not obvious enough. The shawl is now softer after blocking.

Details of the pattern

STS after blocking the edges are still in a mess

Note: I had reblocked the edges using steam iron. Slightly better but seems like this yarn has super memory.

My project plans

Here are some of the projects that I plan to do in the near future. Notice the word “some” that means I had more than the list here. Kekeke

Lotus blossom tank from IK Summer 2006
Hb’s vest (I had not thought of the design yet)
Hb’s short sleeved top (I had not thought of the design yet)
Green gable
Hanging garden stole
Clapotis
Mum’s shrug (I had not thought of the design yet)

Mid Autumn festival aka Lantern festival

Lunar 15^th of the 8^th month (6 Oct for this yr) is the mid autumn festival also known as Lantern festival. The moon for that night supposed to be full and round but this year I could not even see the moon it is super hazy. Argh!

As usual u would see a lot of stores selling moon cakes before the festival. This year there is a lot of new flavors like Strawberry yogurt, passion fruit etc. The passion fruit moon cakes taste super sweet like passion fruit candies. As usual I got moon cakes for my MIL and mum. For me, I bought my moon cakes on the day before last minute shopping hahah and I manage to get some offer ($14 for a box). Being greedy and tempted by the moon cakes, I end up buying more than I need. 1 box of big moon cakes ( white lotus , pandan lotus, red bean and chocolate), 1 box of yam moon cakes (this is my favorite) and 1 box of mini moon cakes (green tea and durian from my mum). So till now I still have some moon cakes at home.

Beside moon cakes, there are also lanterns for the festival. There are those batteries operated as well as those traditional candle lanterns. I love those traditional candle lanterns. This year, I bought 5 of them and send 2 to my brother (don’t know whether he receive it already or not) and 3 for decoration at home. Hahaha

Another FO - my OSW

This is my version of osw. I knit this with help from my friend. Thanks gal.

Yarn(s) used: Sirdar
No. of balls: less than 2 balls
Needles used: 4 mm and 4.5 mm circular needles


The no. of stitches to cast on and so on are all based on own's instinct. It tooks me around 2 months to finish it maybe because I am a multi-project person so it tooks me longer. The knitting process is quite smooth except that I picked up 2 times for the necklace. Picking up stitch is such a headache. But after some help, I manage to do it right now ;)

Can't resist

Who can resist all these yarns when the colors are yummy and the prices are cheap?

All the yarns are acrylic yarns. I don't like to knit with acrylic yarns but they are juz too yummy that i cannot resist. I bought all these during the spotlight sale today. Each ball of yarn is only $1.59 after discount. I am going to knit cushion cover and bags out of these yarns and a clapotis using the purple varigated yarn.

SP9 Questionnarie

Finally oct is here. This is my first time joining SP. I had been looking forward to it. So excited and happy.

Hi to my secret pal !!!

1. What is/are your favorite yarn/s to knit with? What fibers do you absolutely *not* like?
Cotton blend or wool blend are my favorite yarn.
No acrylic n alpaca pls. I can’t knit well with alpaca despite that I love the feeling of it. I don't like to knit with fancy yarns too.

2. What do you use to store your needles/hooks in?
I store my needles in a dmc thread holder. Those straight needles are stored in ziplock bag.

3. How long have you been knitting & how did you learn? Would you consider your skill level to be beginner, intermediate or advanced?
coming to one year. I learnt from a lys, then went for lessons and now I knit with my friends. I had done simple pattern and working on cable and lace now. Maybe can consider as advance beginner.

4. Do you have an Amazon or other online wish list?
Nope.

5. What's your favorite scent? (for candles, bath products, etc.)
Lavender or any flowery scent. No peach and vanilla pls.

6. Do you have a sweet tooth? Favorite candy?
Depends on my mood. I prefers chocolate then candy.

7. What other crafts or Do-It-Yourself things do you like to do? Do you spin?
I do bead jewellery, cross stitch, crochet and scrapbook. Nope I don’t spin. But I am keen to learn to dye my own yarns now.

8. What kind of music do you like? Can your computer/stereo play MP3s? (if your buddy wants to make you a CD)
Jazz /love song/ smoothing music. I play MP3 on my computer and MP3 player.

9. What's your favorite color(s)? Any colors you just can't stand?
purple, blue. Basically I am fine with most of the color.

10. What is your family situation? Do you have any pets?
Living with my hubby and I don't have pets.

11. Do you wear scarves, hats, mittens or ponchos?
Nope. Not in my country unless I go for holidays overseas.

12. What is/are your favorite item/s to knit?
Nothing in particular. But I do prefer lace pattern then cables.

13. What are you knitting right now?
I am someone who like multi-tasking.
1 shawl, 1 tank top, 1 shrug, 1 top, 1 cardigan (the list just keeps growing)

14. Do you like to receive handmade gifts?
Yes. It is so meaningful to receive handmade gifts.

15. Do you prefer straight or circular needles? Bamboo, aluminum, plastic?
Circular needles (bamboo/aluminum)

16. Do you own a yarn winder and/or swift?
I own a yarn winder. Just bought it. Don't think i need a swift as of now.

17. How old is your oldest UFO?
6 months

18. What is your favorite holiday?
Birthday and christmas. I enjoy all holiday as I do not need to work.

19. Is there anything that you collect?
Yarns and beads.

20. Any books, yarns, needles or patterns out there you are dying to get your hands on? What knitting magazine subscriptions do you have?
Interested to get JB40 Roma collection, Rowan Magainze 39 to add on to my collection.
I have IK magazine subscription.

21. Are there any new techniques you'd like to learn?
Not too sure depend on the pattern that I want to knit.

22. Are you a sock knitter? What are your foot measurements?
Nope. Going to start with my first pair soon. Foot measurement:UK 8

23. When is your birthday? (mm/dd)
Dec 19


Really hope that we would enjoy SP9. Yeah!

Yarn winding

I meet up with my knitting friends last sat (23-Sept). We had a nice time chatting and discussing over our projects and looking at the shade card. Planning to buy new yarns or planning to constraint myself to buy new yarns. *lol* it is always a 2 way things isn’t it? Hehehe

Beside that, I collected my zephyr (Lady slipper) from Karyn. It is definitely a nice yarn n colour too. After that, Karyn and I spent most of the time on yarn winding. Thanks to Lois for lending us the yarn winder and weighing scale. It was a fun and tiring experience. Imagine either one of us have to hold on to the cone of yarn cannot be tilted and the other one winding the yarn. Here are the end results. Aren’t they looked like pieces of delicious yummy cake? ;)


After the yarn winding session, I called GD and order a yarn winder immediately coz I having alot of yarns to wind. Heehehehe.

Piling up

I’m back to head office for almost a month. Work has been piling up. More and more documents that need to be read and analysed. I had been reading few hundreds pages and there are a lot more to go. Of coz it is definitely better then nothing to do right. I am now involved in more stuff like testing competency. Have to come out with flowchart and document. In addition, I had a project assigned too. Going to start in oct (hopefully on schedule) it is going to be a start of another SDLC for me :p

A half happy monday

Y a half happy monday? Because I took a half day off-in-lieu today (when taking this off-in-lieu, I am actually amazed by boss's email on my justifications on this half day, coz it is already stated on my leave application system that i had an outstanding of half day off-in-lieu).

Time really flies especially when u r not working. I spend 2 hours shopping in taka today. So happy. Despite that it is a working monday, the store is still crowded. Y is everyone so free? haiz...I feeling down this 2 weeks juz feeling low in spirit. Work seems to lost its direction. Maybe i should lay down and execute my plan. :)

I spent most of the 2 hours at kino looking at the new knitting books and magazines and also the new arrival books c if there is any interesting book. I also looking for a nice organiser for a fresh new 2007. I also bought some products frm Haba to try out. Keeping fit and stay radiant is part of my plan too.


Oh, the thing that I dislike most out of my half day is the interview. I simply went there with an atitude of see see look look. But guess what the interviewers are late for 30 mins, shouldn't they be time conscious too. Waste my time. In addition, I had to explain what I had been doing for the past 1 and half year to them with them doubting what I say."From my understanding, it is not like this and that", C'mon lah I am the one doing the actual work. They simply think tat i am juz having a lala life there (how i wish). I also need to draw out examples and explain to them on the flow and architecture. Really make me feel like being a lecturer giving tutorial *faint*

OG card

The annual event to have the OG card has begun. In order to get the card, shoppers need to purchase $75 for a card. Hence, hubby n I had dropped by after praying at "si ma lu" on sat (16-sep).

We had spent almost 2 hours there walking and scanning every bit of the departmental store before we managed to get a purchase of $80+. *So tired*

New tops for me and new pants n socks for hb


Some table cloth for our home