London Knitters with kids

I helped Mel and Luise organise a picnic in Kew Gardens for our little Ravelry group - London Knitters with kids. The idea was that we would drag our other halves and kids for a knitterly meet up. We could knit and the kids could go play with daddies. The picnic had been in the diary for months and I kept my fingers crossed for the weather to co-operate. I needn't have worried. The weather was glorious - practically the first sunny day in London for months! The kids played well together. The menfolk got on well together. We got to knit and spin. Just brilliant!

Baby bell bottoms

I used to enjoy summer. The prospect of going on holiday and relaxing, barbeques and not having the kids on a strict regime for school and activities. But since being back to London, with no help and no extra entertainers (I mean grandparents and extended family), I have had enough of the kids. The constant attention and entertainment and cooking and cleaning after them is KILLING me. Plus the extremely crap weather in London has meant we've spent a lot of time indoors.

I have had very little time for anything else. Luckily, I booked them into a summer Day Camp program for this week, and I'll only have one baby for most of the day. this means I get a chance to get on the computer and update my blog!

I signed up for Ravelympics for a few events and heaven knows, how I'm going to manage as we've got less than a week left. I've managed to finished one project - Baby bell bottoms. I made this for Zoe in the 12 month old size. Unfortunately, it's still a bit too big. I'll arrange for the modelled shot in a few months time.

Notes:
Pattern - Baby Bell bottoms by Alison Hansel
Yarn - Brown Sheep Cotton Fleece in Pink-a-boo (1 skein) and Tea Rose (0.3 skeins)
Needle - 4mm
It was a relatively quick knit and I love cotton fleece. It wears well and is soft yet strong. I hope Zoe likes this.

Spinning course

I had the best time yesterday. I signed up for the Drop Spindle masterclass at Socktopus. The first instalment was yesterday and 3 hours later, here is my first hank of handspun. It's undyed BFL and I must have spun about 15g of yarn. You can't see too much from that pic, but it looks a bit like Rowan Chunky print - thick and thin. Yay!!! I see a new obsession developing......

Here's more roving to be turned into lovely handspun.


Photo courtesy of Alice of me getting a hang of using the drop spindle.


ETA : Kim, we'll be trying out spinning wheels for our next course in 3 weeks time. I can't wait.

Zoe is 1 today!

I know I must have said this before (at least twice!), but I can't believe how fast a year has gone by. Zoe celebrates her first birthday today. Happy Birthday, darling! A year ago, you were causing so much stress by turning up a week late. When you were ready to come, it took very little time for you to make your appearance. In fact, the midwife was completely surprised by your quick arrival, she didn't even have her gloves on. Look at you now. You've grown, but not by much (some 6 month old babies are bigger than you!) You can talk and certainly scold, without actually saying any words. You've learnt so many new things in the last few months - clapping, waving, crawling, cruising, almost walking - the list is endless. We all love you so very much - Happy Birthday!

Quick stop in Hong Kong

In our tour of the Far East, we also managed a quick stopover in Hong Kong to visit my BIL and SIL who are expecting their first baby.

What's even better, I got to visit some HK lys, well only 2 but it was great fun! I didn't buy any yarn, mainly because I didn't need any more and it was quite expensive. Anyway, here is Keira having fun in Yarn Mart in Causeway Bay. Sorry, I have no pictures of my adventure in Cheer Wool in Wan Chai.

But I did succumb to a few Japanese magazines. Yummm......
And I also managed to finish Keira's Ruby dress. It fits perfectly - mainly because I had to frog it and re-knit almost 70% of it. There was also "Will there be enough yarn?" drama. Because of that, I had to redesign the arm hole shaping and the straps. And because of all that, I made a little mistake with the neck shaping. I had to add button holes on one strap, otherwise it wouldn't go over her head. But it finished! And it looks pretty good.
Pattern notes:
Pattern - Ruby dress from Patons booklet, Sugar and Spice
Yarn - GGH Samoa in a dark pinky red, instead of Patons Fairytale DK
Needles - 4mm and 4.5 mm
Modifications - Knitted in the round. Changed the straps and neckline.

Holiday shots and holiday knitting

After the travelling saga, we did manage to have an enjoyable holiday. The whole family decided to meet up at Langkawi Island - us from the UK, parents and 1 sister from KL, brother and other sister from Singapore. Apart from forgetting that it's the South west monsoon (heavy downpours everyday), we had a brilliant time. We ate loads, drove around to visit interesting and ate some more, rested and ate some more (like the good Malaysians we are!). I must educate the kids about the Malaysian attitude to food because Aidan started complaining about having to eat some more.

Here's some of the beautiful sights we saw.



And I also managed to get some knitting done, although cocktails and knitting aren't always the best combination.

Stash enhancement

Before flying off to Malaysia, I was lucky enough to hit the sales at both Liberty and John Lewis. (I know, i know - not that I need any more yarn, but a sale is sale!! A girl can't help herself especially if it's on 50% off!)

I won't bore you with the details- but this is the addition to my stash. There's Rowan - Summer, Tweed, Kidsilk Haze and Night, Calmer, Bamboo Tape, RYC - Silk Cotton and Cashcotton 4 ply and Debbie Bliss Cathay. Most have been bought with projects in mind. But now to find the time to knit them all. Hmmmmmmm...............................

I also managed to buy stuff for other people as well. Kate - this is your stash!!

Lastly, I finished my Socks on Fire socks. They're great! I really love the yarn. It's Araucania sock yarn in the semi solid red. And there's loads leftover. Probably enough for a pair of toddler anklets.

Nightmare flight

I've had such a huge nightmare the last 2 days. We were supposed to fly to KL, Malaysia on Friday to visit my parents. But instead, we embarked on our second worst travel journey ever!!!

Here's the catalogue of our nightmare journey
1. Taxi we ordered went to Heathrow instead of coming to pick us up from home.
2. I got the time wrong so we arrived 2 hours early to Heathrow, at 7.15 in the morning.
3. Zoe wasn't booked on the flight, so we spent 1 hour getting her on.
4. Malaysia Airlines couldn't let us sit together, so that was another fight
5. Security at Heathrow was so overzealous that they confiscated the sealed baby food. And made me taste the boiled water I had for baby. WTF!!! (On the good side, they took one look at my knitting and waved it through!!)
6. Technical fault with airplane and after 5 hours of waiting around, we were sent home at 3 pm.
7. With a sense of deja vu, we set of again on Saturday morning. Our flight took off at 2 pm, even though it was advertised to leave at 10 am.
8. Zoe caught a bug on the flight and now has a fever, cough and runny nose.

It's a wonder that I fly at all!

Trip to Central London

We took the kids into the South Bank for some culture and fun.


View on Hungerford Bridge - St Paul's Catherdral, the City of London in the background
Enjoying the performances at the Alternative Village Fete, at South Bank.

Making icing sugar tiles for an exhibition. The butterfly and the flower are ours.



We love public transport.
Back soon with more stash enhancement and knitting news.

Life is busy

but that should not be an excuse for me to not update my blog!!!

I had the most enjoyable Friday. I went to Aidan's first school Sports Day. The morning session was only for the little ones (Reception and Form 1, ie 4/5 year olds and 5/6 year olds). It was so sweet to see the little legs running and the joy in their faces for winning a race. It made really my day.
I know everyone seems to talking about the February Lady sweater. I just wanted to show you the baby February sweater, knitted by Polly for Zoe. This sweater (actually a cradigan!) has seen so much wear. She wore it as a 3 month old and is still wearing it as a 10 month old and still has space to grow into it. Brilliant!! We love this knit. Thank you, Auntie Polly.

Purchases

Look what arrived in the post a few days ago. I succumbed to the word "sale" and made a few sneaky purchases. These are from Alice at Socktopus. From left to right:
Koigu, Cherry Tree Hill in Winterberry and Cherry Tree Hill in Java.

A meme

I've been tagged by Mel (ages ago, I might add!) and I thought it might be fun to do this.

"Peeps I want to know more about" meme.
The rules: Each player answers the questions about themselves. At the end of the post, the player then tags 5-6 people and posts their names, then goes to their blogs and leaves them a comment, letting them know they’ve been tagged and asking them to read your blog. Let the person who tagged you know when you’ve posted your answer.

1. What was I doing 10 years ago?
10 years ago in April- I started my second "real" job. I'd moved from a 3 partner accountancy firm to one of the Big Six (now Big Four!) accountancy firms and was probably suffering from a huge culture shock.

I was also going through a huge personal crisis during this time. Hubby and I were going through a separation of sorts after 8 years together. We did manage to work things out but not before a few years passed and major changes taking place. I guess, we do know that we do want to be together and we are really loving our little family.

2. What are 5 things on my to-do list for today (not in any particular order):

Spring clean - I'm being overrun by mess everywhere
Update my poor neglected blog
Photograph new acquisitions and progress on WIPs
Make sure I have enough things for 3 four year old girls to do for 3 hours
Cook and freeze food for Zoe (who will be 10 months tomorrow!!!)
Laundry - I have 3 loads to fold and put away and another 2 loads to wash and dry. UGH!
Look up how to graft toes AGAIN (I do this so infrequently that I never remember - I think it's knit, knit, purl, purl- but how??)

3) Snacks I enjoy:
Japanese rice crackers
Seaweed snacks
Nuts
Chocolate with nuts
Crisps
Malaysian snacks like dried plums, pickled mango and plums, dried cuttlefish etc
I could go on and on and on .........................

4) Things I would do if I were a billionaire:
Make sure my family never worries about money
Make sure the kids are set up for life but also teach the value of money. I'd hate for them to be rich, spoilt brats!
Give most of it away to deserving charities (obviously making sure that I had enough for myself first!! I love to travel)
Oooh - How could i forget - own the biggest yarn store ever!

5) Places you have lived:
Kuala Lumpur - for 18 years of my life
Bristol - for 3 great years
London - up until now. I've lived in various parts of London - Notting Hill, Chiswick, Putney, Richmond. I don't think I'll move out of London, it's home.

6) Peeps I want to know more about

Anyone who feels like doing this!

Busy, buy, busy

The countdown to Keira's birthday has begun. In 8 days, she'll be 4. We've been busy with the birthday preparations. I'm trying to buy less commercially produced "stuff", so I'm making invitations, party bags and favours. Check out the invitations. Pink ballgowns - what more can
a little girl want.
For the little girls (14 in total), I've made charm bracelets and for the little boys (all 4 of them!), I'll be making little monsters/aliens from Scoubidou. This has been keeping me super busy!!!!!


On the knitting front, I've started Anais from Norah Gaughan Vol 1. I actually started this 2 weeks ago, made a lot of progress but decided that the it was coming out WAY too small to fit me. So off to the frog pond it went. This is Anais Redux. I'm knitting this in Rowan Linen Drape in purple. The sense of de ja vu is slowing down progress. This is the 2" of 2x2 ribbing. (Yawn!)

I've also started a dress for Keira from Patons Sugar and Spice booklet. She really loves the heart motif in the middle of the dress. So far, this is progressing very quickly. I'm knitting this in GGH Samoa on 4.5mm needles. Joy! I'm going to run out of yarn, so I'll have to make the bodice in a different colour. Oops.

Viv

The weather in London has been glorious!!!! One day it was winter, and the next, summer arrived. Joy!!! It has made such a big difference to my life. I think it was because we had such a bad summer last year and being pregnant, we couldn't go anywhere. Now, I'm happy to be stuck in London. We've had barbeques and picnics. The only drawback is that Zoe is really suffering in the heat. Hope she gets used the heat.


On the knitting front, I've been very adventurous. I met up with Mel and her group at Amida in Hampton. It was such fun to be able to just knit for a few hours with other knitters and to have no children and husband to deal with. I'm pretty sure I'll be there for the next meet too!!

I have also finished Viv from the RYC AM to PM booklet. I think it's a great item of clothing which I will use a lot as part of my wardrobe. I'm also trying to branch out into different colours. My wadrobe and stash contains a lot of blue, grey, pink, black and some neutrals but not a lot of green, purple or bright colours. I am trying to diversify!

More FO and prgress

Finally finished the Wave Jacket for Aidan. I think I started this in July last year. Here 's Keira modelling it because I forgot to load the flash card into the camera when I had the original photoshoot with Aidan. Doh!




Pattern : Wave Jacket from Miss Bea's Seaside
Yarn : Rowan Denim in Memphis and Tennesse
Needle size : 4mm
Notes and modifications:
The largest size was for a 4 year old so I made a few calculations and added a few stitches and rows. The problem is that my finsihed garment didn't shrink as much as the 20% as stated or as much as my swatch. So the jacket is a bit BIG! It still needs a zip but I'm calling this done.


I also picked up another WIP which I started (some time in winter?) . This is Viv from RYC Am to Pm. I'm knitting this in Rowan DK Soft rather than the RYC Baby Alpaca, although it looks just like the book.

Awww, you guys!

Firstly, thank you for all your lovely comments.
Polly - Juliet was finished a month ago, I only found buttons for it recently. I wore it buttonless a few times though.
Kathy - Here is the chubby arm look!!!

I think women are funny creatures. I don't think I've met one who's completely 100% happy with how she looks. For myself - I could lose a few more pounds (post baby) especially around the tummy area. I could be a bit more toned in the arms and butt and tummy. I'll have to wear padded bras and "chicken fillets" to have womanly curves. Having said that, I'm generally happy with what I've got - so long as it's not falling apart!!! So thank you again, for ALL your lovely comments.

Apart from knitting, I've also been doing a few other things. I went on a beading workshop and made this bracelet and pair of earrings. The workshop was about the exploration of colour and basic techniques. I had a great time and I'm going to be digging out all my old beads for more projects.


Finally, I made banana fritters (Malaysian style). They were super yummy. And enjoyed by all including Aidan, who doesn't normally eat bananas and Zoe, who is so picky about food.

Stick a fork in me...

I've finally finished Bella Paquita. Apologies for a very crap picture. You will note that it's missing some sleeves. I took the executive decision to leave it as a sleeveless top. Not because I couldn't be bothered to knit them, but they made my arms look very chubby. It was the dreaded bingo wings effect. Sooo not sexy!

Here it is:
Pattern: Bella Paquita by Marnie
Yarn : Rowan Calmer in Coral 4.5 balls
Needles : 4.5 mm
Size : Small
Modifications : As mentioned, I've made this into a sleeveless tank. To stop the edges rolling too much, I added a single crochet edging. It fits really well and I think it will get a lot of wear.

I also thought I'd show my Juliet top with buttons. Really love this top! Goes with a lot of my wardrobe.

More knitting progress

I am nearly finished with Bella Paquita. Ribbing - finished. 1 sleeve started and hopefully , not long to go before I'm finished......

I haven't had time to take progress shots, but I thought I'd show how much I've progressed on the Ruffley dress (which might end up being a Ruffley top). 4ply knitting is not fast going!!!

More snow in April

I really do worry a lot about changes in the climate. I do try to make an effort in being green and reducing my carbon footprint, but, I fear, this might not be enough. This was taken from my garden at 8 in the morning. There were huge snowflakes falling from the sky.

And just for Kathy, I am knitting and making sloooow progress. Dammit - I'm stuck on 2x2 ribbing hell!!!! It is a slog. I should be finished soon. (Famous last words!) (Did you see that flying pig go by!)

We're back

Apologies for not posting for such a long time. I had planned on posting about my small knitting progress before going on holiday, but just didn't get round to it. Oops.


We took a family trip to the Lake District. It's about a 5 hour car trip from London , but it's worth it because it is just gorgeous there. The weather was very changeable with driving rain one day and beautiful sunshine the next day. The kids loved being out and about. Once they are bigger, we'll certainly be doing more hiking with with them.


This is Lake Windermere , on a gorgeous day.
This is Ullswater, another lake in the area.
The kids also loved meeting the animals (as you do in the countryside!) We even found some alpacas! Aidan was convinced he saw a llama on one of our drives. I haven't got the heart to tell him it was only a sheep.
We had such a lovely time. The only thing I missed was the internet connection. No wifi anywhere. No internet cafes. No hot spots. Just the local library and that was a 15 minute drive away. Well, we're back in London now and it's supposed to snow later today and tomorrow. Joy!