Little Purl of the Orient

Socks through the mist

Thank you all for your lovely comments on the Ab Fab that really lifted my PMS, weather-induced and post school interview stress. Most of all, thank you for the kind words of support regarding the school situation. We'll just have to look harder through all the mist. That's what it looks like outside my bedroom window in the early morning.

What to do when you are in such a mood? I went back to my comfort knitting and finished the Little Arrowhead Lace socks. They are for my turbo-knitting colleague, Terry, who has been churning out ruffles scarves and Clapotis for other people. I think she deserves something to be knitted for her. Contrary to what I've thought, I realised that the heel I made is not the eye of the patridge heel as mentioned earlier.

Delta is waiting for me. A recap: I ran out of Rowan Denim when left with just the lower front triangle to knit. I found the yarn but those I knitted with earlier were from a really old batch that even the labels are different. Here're the two generations of Nashville, the old one on the right has more white stuff in it.

Fab* and the city

Featuring Ab Fab at Queen's Road Central, Hong Kong.

Fab* is for Colinette and is also for fabulous colleagues, The Shrek and Princess Fiona, who played with me and took these pictures for me in Central today during lunch.

Completely exhausted, both physically and mentally. Frustrated as well, as we were informed that Ji Yuan did not get accepted for the primary school we brought her for the interview yesterday because she refused to speak up or respond to the teachers. Of course she will not speak to strangers in a strange setting, isn't that what we've been teaching her all the time. It's so ironical when she has an excellent school report but is being penalized because of her quiet nature. It makes me love her even more. We'll have start to look for another option. Here's mama and Ji Yuan viewing the Renoir painting on loan from Musee D'orsay at the Hong Kong Museum of Art yesterday after the interview.

French vanilla revisited

Thanks to Kerstin, now we know that "French vanilla is made with a custard base. The egg yolks make the ice cream a creamy yellow." And here's more information on vanilla. It's not as plain as you might have imagined.

I'm loving the French Vanilla Ab Fab stole. One more repeat to go.

All about my colleagues

Completely out of agenda from my initial plans (what else is new, anyway?), I'm going to knit Kelly from Rowan 31 using the All Seasons Cotton, colour Copper, that my colleague bought for me at last year's Liberty sales in London. The yarn was destined for the famous, ultra feminine Apricot Jacke from Rebecca 27. However, I don't know what took over me, but I'm very in the mood for something shapeless, un-feminine, nondescript,  one skein difficulty rating, throw-it-on-and-go cardigan right now. If I hurry up and knit, I'll be still able to wear it this season. The pattern calls for 12 balls for size XS and I’ve got only 10. So began my search and thanks to Jimmy Beans who can't ship to Hong Kong, I found a source at ebay that sells at less than half the price and of course I bought something else on top of the ASC. It's my first foray into ebay and I realized it is a dangerous place to go.

And in support of the local bookstore yesterday, I bought the Amanda Griffiths' 1000 Sweaters. The reviews haven't been great but I flipped through the book a couple of times at the bookstore and love the crystal clear pictures where the details are sharp and not obscured by the models' pose as in most knitting magazines. It'll be very helpful when I want to make some changes to an existing pattern. And DK yarn is my favourite weight yarn and it won't be too difficult to work out for a different weight yarn.

Talking about my colleague, Shrek, who brought back the ASC for me all the way from London, well, this guy has got potential. See this scarf that he knitted for his Princess Fiona (also working at the same place as me) for Valentine's Day. It's his first project and he finished it in one night. Boucle for the first knit, not bad at all. I asked him how he did it and all he did was followed some links on my blog and powered off. About the casting off, he said he watched me casting off my Natalya mitts the other day during lunch and he just did likewise.

Knitting has become quite a hit at my workplace. There are at least 6 others excluding me who have caught the bug. The fastest and most skillful of all is none other than Terry. Here's her in her latest Clapotis using 7 hanks of Artyarn Supermerino #105, which is for her sister. Here's a closeup with a better representation of the colours, the pink is duskier though. I say her latest Clapotis because this is her 4th and her 5th is on the needles right now in colour #106, yarn specially delivered by Erika. Terry is such a speedy knitter that in the time I completed my ruffles scarf, she finished a dozen. Yes, 12! 2 of which are for herself and the rest for various members of her family and colleagues. This lady is amazing, isn't she. I'm in good company.

Crouching mama, Hidden needle

The idea of spring approaching seems good with the blossoms and cheery new clothes in the shop windows but when spring hits, it's awful. At least the Hong Kong spring which is here in full force. The humidity is unbearable. The concrete walkways are darkened and slippery with moisture like it had just rained. The carpets smells moldy and your laundry takes days to dry. Worst of all my hands get clammy and I can't knit on the bus, like I've just complained on Norma's blog.

On the homeward bus journey earlier this evening, the air-con was on full blast and my hands were dry enough and I knitted a bit the Little Arrowhead Lace sock. The decreases on the gusset were done and I was re-distributing the stitches when one of them flew off my hands. My precious Clover short dpns. I peered down into the narrow gap between my seat and the window. Nothing. Then I quietly slipped my stockinged foot out of my pump and gingerly probed under my seat for the needle. Still nothing. I contorted my body a little so that my foot can reach further back. Nothing. Now the woman next to me twitched in her seat. Desperate to find my precious, I turned around to look and saw the needle lying on the bus floor beneath the seat behind. So I got up, asked my neighbouring passenger to excuse me and I got up to the aisle, crouched down and retrieve my needle. I cleaned it with a piece of tissue and resumed knitting like nothing has happened. I can tell you it wasn't my most graceful moment but luckily the bus was not as full as usual and most of the passengers were dozing off.

This photo was taken this morning and it shows the heel turn which is called Fat Iron or Half Handkerchief. I didn't realized there's a new turn to learn and had modified the heel from the stocking stitch as called for in the pattern to the eye of the partridge heel which I thought would give a snugglier fit. I hope it will not contradict with the Far Iron.

 

French Vanilla and Pineapples

My mother-in-law was very happy to receive the flower basket shawl yesterday. She kept telling her daughters that 'Ah Soh', that's what she calls me which means daughter-in-law, made her a shawl, shaped like a bat (a bat?), which according to her, will bring good luck. I would rather she thinks that it looks like a butterfly but whatever. It's still CNY so everything you say has to be very auspicious.

Today, I went back to work and am I glad. To tell you the truth, the festivities stressed me out quite a bit. My sisters-in-law and their families came to my house everyday starting from the day before the New Year, that is 6 days in a row. To me, that's a tad too much but being the daughter-in-law, I'm not suppose to express any opinion in the household.

Instead of trying to take a better picture of the FBS (I'll do it this weekend in good light), I worked on the Ab Fab yesterday afternoon. 72 stitches for 4 repeats of the scallop pattern plus 2 garter stitch both sides. Here's one colour repeat. I was a bit apprehensive about the colour sequence, notice the darker colours 'pooling' at both ends? Then I thought, what the heck, que sera sera, whatever will be, will be. I'm going to stop worrying this every minute and knit on. And just what is French Vanilla suppose to taste like?

I forgot to mention earlier that my cousin brought with them goodies from my mum, yummy homemade pineapple tarts! There are many dialects in Chinese and hence there are different rhymes and different auspicious food. Pineapple tarts are what's lucky for us back in Singapore. Pineapple sounds like 'Prosperity Comes'.

This is the only thing I can make other than rock buns that I learned from Home Economics in secondary school. Click here for the recipe:

Best Wishes

Been busy as a bee these few days, as you might have imagined! Thanks to you all for kind wishes for CNY! I hope the new Rooster year would be good for everyone. We went for more wishes today, at the Wishing Tree in Tai Po, with my cousins who are visiting from Singapore. Wishes are written out on incense papers which are attached to oranges and they are to be thrown up onto the wishing tree. It's fun! Daddy and Ji Yuan writting out their wishes and Chung Yi making an inspection. And that's one of the tree (there are two). However, there was a mishap this afternoon. One of the branches couldn't take the weight of all those wishes and fell off.

Yesterday, Eva and Marjorie came to visit! We tried to do some knitting but the girls made us all too busy. Both of them brought scarves to knit. Eva had her Noro Transition scarf and Marjorie, her Ruffles scarf. And I started a couple of rows of the Ab Fab because my Flower Basket is finished. And I gave it to my mother-in-law. Here's a not so good photo. I'll try to take a better one when all the festivities have settled down. And do ignore the messy shelves. After being neat for the first day of CNY, the flat quickly resumed to its normal state. I just couldn't keep pace with my girls.

A Rousing New Year

Cock-a-doodle-doo! Gong Xi Fa Cai to one and all! Erika's husband asked the other day how we celebrate Chinese New Year. Basically, we visit our relatives and do a lot of eating. We make the house clean and presentable to welcome in the new year and the visitors. Our family has simplified a lot of the customs but essentially we must have (photos from left to right):

A) Lai See packets (Red envelopes containing lucky money) or Hong Bao (in Mandarin): For married people to give to single adults and children. Never leave home without them, they are more important than your credit card during the CNY period.

B) Flowers: Signify the arrival of spring, and the blooms symbolize a new start and growth for all in the family in the new year.

C) 8 treasure box: Containing sweets and other goodies with names that pun or have lucky connotations. E.g. melon seeds, sweet lotus. To be offered to the guests when they arrive in your house.

 

Got caught in the after work New Year Eve traffic last evening and I didn't mind a bit because I have needle and yarn with me. This's what I'm making, the Little Arrowhead Lace Socks designed by Nancy Bush.

And remember, old scores are to be settled before the New Year. I settled mine with the lace yarn last night. Eva couldn't locate her yarn but lent me her winder instead, which is even better. I really want to tackle my ball and see where's the problem. So it's all re-wound into a pullable ball, ready to be knitted again.

Here's the music meme, tagged by Knitties, Lyn.

1) Total amount of music files on your computer:
Zero.

2) The last CD you bought was:
Norah Jones. Come away with me.

3) What is the song you last listened to before reading this message?
One of those children songs. My children hoard my hi-fi nowadays. Maybe it's time I learn how to download music files onto the laptop or MP3.

4) What are your five favorite songs and why they mean the most to you:

The wind is blowing (Leslie Cheung's Canto-pop hit) – Beautiful singing that touches your soul.

Amazing Grace - I'm not a Christian but I still love the beautiful lyrics and melody of this hymn. This is the song I sang for my junior college choir audition. If I haven't gotten into choir, I might not have met my husband. I met him after one of the choir events.

Kathleen Battle sings Mozart – The entire album helped me through the hormonal ups and downs of my two pregnancies. Whenever I'm high-strung, it works magic to un-wind me.

Have I told you lately (Rod Steward) – Husband (then boyfriend) was in Paris, I was in Singapore, the song was playing.

I'd Really Love to See You Tonight (England Dan and John Ford Cooley) – Whenever I hear this song, it brings back the nostalgia of missing my husband when he was studying in Paris.

5) What 3 people are you going to pass this baton to and why
Have a go, whoever love to play.

Red is for ...

With the problem of the FBS put aside, I was able to finish the red scarf. It took one skein of Rowan DK Soft (Colour 172) which produced a nice, airy fabric, suitable for a light, dressy scarf. The pattern is from this Japanese book. If you love accessories, this book is for you. This is how the scarf looks like in the book.

Red is for Chinese New Year too. And we went out shopping today to get immerse in the CNY ambience. Around this time of the year, there are special markets set up to sell CNY goodies. We didn't go to one like that but a normal market in Wan Chai and the crowd and ware are just as festive.

Nestled among the stores is this one selling handknit sweaters. There are piles of them in all sorts of stitch patterns and styles. They are probably knitted in China. I quickly snapped a shot as Hong Kong hawkers are not the friendliest people on earth.

Then we went shopping at Knit Happens! No kidding, see. Special delivery by Erika who is visiting Hong Kong. The yarn are in the bag are actually for my colleague, Terry and Eva. The lovely sheep tape measure, a gift from Erika. Kids, husband and I met up with Erika and Marjorie at our favourite Cheer Wool and then a drink at the Pacific Coffee. We had a nice chat and in our excitement, I forgot to take a photo of us.

A mishap

Don't think that when you make a list, set out your priorities, focus on the task at hand and things will work out as planned. Sounds familiar, Margene?

Last night, I was at row 7 of the 11th repeat of the FBS when the yarn refused to give as I tried to pull it out of the ball. There must be a tangle, I thought. Nah, I'll just pull out a little bit more and try to locate the knot. So I pulled and there weren't just one knot but a tangled mess. Something must have gone wrong with the winding and it didn't help that I'm knitting with two strands of the lace weight, one pulled from the centre of the ball and the other from the outside of the ball. The strands just decided to hug each other tight.

The shawl is so closed to be done. A couple of rows to finish that repeat and then on to the edging. The lace merino must have sensed that the end is near and doesn't want to sever its relationship with me or the shawl yet. Or maybe because I'm having selfish thoughts of keeping it for myself and knitting something else for mother-in-law. Rather than cut and re-wind (the fact is I have no winder), I spent hours trying painstakingly to unravel the tangle and knit. I managed two more rows and had to stop, frustrated.

This morning, I rang up Eva who, thank goodness, still has her ball of the same yarn and offered to pass it to me on Monday so that I can finish up the shawl.

So that means red scarf this weekend and looks like Ab Fab may get an early start! Spring* is good! Leila may be starting hers in the Moonlight colourway soon too, watch her blog.

* Today is the first day of Spring according to the traditional Chinese Almanac. Normally, spring occurs after the Chinese New Year but as we are still in the (old) year of the Monkey, the new Year of the Rooster will have no spring and it is believed that such a year may not be auspicious for weddings. Nevertheless, I know of someone who is getting married this June, my brother! And I'm going to wear the Ab Fab stole at the wedding!