Merry Christmas!

After waiting days to open the presents under the christmas tree, finally today she was able to do it. She woke up early in the morning before everybody else. I was quite surprise that she was able to wake up that early considering she slept quite late.

Oh, and the christmas tree, she hang all the ornaments herself.

Lauri's First Stage Performance

On last 29 November, Lauri was having her first stage performance. Her kindy organized a concert for celebrating their 10th anniversary. Lauri’s class had 2 performances, dancing and singing.

Lauri singing and dancing on the last good bye song with the entire kids

I brought Fiori along to see the concert since my in laws were attending wedding dinner. Since I had to carry Fiori with me, it’s very difficult to take the video properly. My hand could not hold the camera (it has video function) properly. Hubby was taking the DSLR camera since that camera was much bigger and heavier.

Fiori was watching her sister's performance attentively

Lauri was enjoying her experience and the next day she even asked to go to concert again. Hahahahaha!

Fiori Start Solid Food

Since Fiori already 6 months old, on 3 December I started to give her solid food. I was hoping that she won’t become a picky eater like her sister, but I guess I have to face the reality.

Here was the first spoon:

And her reaction:

Then when I gave her another spoon, she started shaking her head.

Actually, when I gave Lauri her first solid, she was enjoying it. The first few months it was fun to feed her, because she opened her mouth everytime I fed her, and she finished her bowl of porridge very fast. Then somehow she became more difficult to feed until now.

Waving Balloon...!

This video was taken when we visited Gurney Plaza on 16 November. It was the first trip for Fiori to a Mall. At that time Sakae Sushi was having grand opening. They opened another outlet in Gurney Plaza’s new wing. Thus, both Lauri and Fiori had a balloon each. To my surprise Fiori could grab the balloon’s stick and she even waved it. See the video yourself.

Sneak Peak

Here is the sneak peak of the lace pattern. How do you like it? I got this pattern from The Knitting Stitch Bible by Maria Parry-Jones called Falling Leaves.

And these are the button that I plan to use. I think I have about total 16 pcs of these buttons. They are made of glass. I got them from ebay at $10. I am going to use some of them on the sleeves part.

We Are Sisters

We sleep together .........

and we play together.

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In case you are wondering what they were playing, here is the close up:

My Next Original Design

Probably you are wondering what is on my needle. Even though I was neglecting this blog for such a long time, I am still knitting. I am knitting my next new design using this 4 ply cotton Jaeger Sienna.



I didn’t make any drawing this time, because it is a simple design with interesting details on the sleeves and lace from the waist down. I still don’t have opportunity to take photo, but even I did, I don’t think it looks interesting in this stage. My prediction, it will be finish in the next 2 weeks. Anybody interested to test the pattern? It is boat neck, raglan sleeve, knit from top down and in around, and lace design from waist down.

Lauri Birthday Photos

Lauri celebrated her 4th birthday in her kindergarden last October. Here are some of the photos:

Do you see the boy that stood next to Lauri also helped Lauri to blow? Hahahaha!

Enjoying the cake

Another Pillowcase Project

This is my latest creation. Yup! Another pillow case for Lauri. I had leftover material from the previous small pillowcase (also for Lauri), but not enough to make big pillowcase. Then last week I got the urge to start a patchwork project. This time I didn’t want to start a big project, so after racking my brain, I came out with this design.

Do you see the wringkles? It was because I didn't iron it. To tell you the truth, I love the wringkles. It looks soooo... cottony (if there is such word).

It took me about 3 days to make this. The longest part was to embroidery the words although that was the part I enjoyed the most. The most important is that the fact that Lauri loves it!

Fiori: 5 Months Old

Her weight is 7.36 kg and her length is 70 cm. She can roll over by herself and can say "Mama".

New Yarn Shop

On Wednesday, we went to Queensbay Mall and guess what I found there? New yarn shop! Could you believe that they have already opened for several months and I didn’t know about it! How Shocking!


I guess it’s because I have never gone out much after I gave birth to Fiori. It’s been more than 4 months already since I have been to that mall.

Yiyi Craft, 2F-33, Queensbay Mall

I also found out that there is a new handy craft shop next to the yarn shop. They sell a lot of nice material for patchwork (mostly imported from Japanese). I was drooling while I was looking at all those nice prints.

The visit to these two nice shops inspired me to start a new knitting project. Actually, I am also tempted to start a new quilt project, but I still haven’t finished my old patchwork project yet.

No Progress

There is no progress on my new blanket. I am quite bored making the same square all over and over again. I think I need to see the designs of other blankets for inspiration to continue making my blanket. In the meantime, all my existing blankets are well used and well loved, even the colorful blanket that I didn’t like originally, is used quite frequently and I have started to like it very much. Mostly, I use it as a shawl when I work in front of my laptop at night.

Here is Babbete blanket used by Lauri:

Not My FO

Since I am still working on my blanket and still don’t have FO to show, I will show you my mother-in-law’s latest FO.

She made this crocheted dress for her other grand daughter. She got only 2 sons and no daughter and last time she was longing for one. Now she is blessed with 3 grand-daughters. She is happy that finally she has someone to crocheted and knitted for.

This dress made from 100% nylon yarn. It’s the same material that I used for making Red Knitted Top.

I like the way she add the flower ribbon and heart embellishment. It really make the dress looks pretty.

3 Months Old

My Fiori has already 3-months old. She was 6.2 kg the last time we weighted her. I could not get her to laugh in this photo. She kept moving and I could not get nice photo. In this photo, she was wearing home made dress. I made the dress long time ago, when I was pregnant with Lauri. However, somehow, Lauri had never worn it.

For comparison, below is Lauri when she was 3 months old.

Laughing

Finally, I managed to catch her laughing. This picture was taken before bath. The "hat" she was wearing actually was her shirt.

My Pillow Case

I got so many pillows and bolster on my bed and normally store bought bedsheet set only come with 2 pcs of pillow cases and 1 pcs of bolster case. Thus, I have to make pillow cases and bolster cases for the others.


I just made it simple. But, since I love details, I embroidery our names on the corner.

For you who is Harry Potter fan, you should notice that our name is similar with Harry Potter's parent :)

Progress of The Blanket

I have made 50 squares so far. Another 175 squares to go.

Simple Cable Cardigan Pattern For Sale

I designed this cardigan because I wanted to try to make cable motifs. Since I didn't want to overwhelm myself, I just added cable motifs in the neck, sleeve and waist, just enough to accentuate this cardigan.





I love the result and I always like the versatility of cardigans. I can always wear a good cardigan when I go out at night or out shopping in a fully airconditioner departmental store.

Sizes: See measurement table. The sizing of the sweater is easy to customize. I’ve included sizing guidelines, but keep in mind that you can control the size. I also included tips how to make it fit to your own measurement. Since this is knitted from top down, you can try it as you go!



Needle: 3.25 mm (size 3) and 3.50 (size 4) 80 cm long circular needle for Sport weight and 3.5 mm (size 4) and 3.75 mm (size 5) 80 cm long circular needle for DK.

Yarn: Sport or DK Weight

Yarn requirement:
Sport Weight: XS: 900 meter, S: 1000 meter, M: 1100 meter, L: 1200 meter, XL: 1300 meter, XXL: 1400 meter, XXXL: 1500 meter
DK Weight: XS: 750 meter, S: 800 meter, M: 880 meter, L: 960 meter, XL: 1040 meter, XXL: 1120 meter, XXXL: 1200 meter

Notion: Tapestry needle, buttons (15 pcs), marker, scrap yarn

Gauge:
Sport Weight: 25 sts and 30 rows = 4” (10 cm) in Stockinette Stitch (St st) using 3.5 mm needle or adjust the needle size to get gauge.
Double Knit Weight: 20 sts and 28 rows = 4” (10 cm) in Stockinette Stitch (St st) using 3.75 mm needle or adjust the needle size to get gauge.

Difficulty: Intermediate

All about this project in my blog

Click on the button below to buy a copy. This pattern is a pdf file, which you will be able to download once your payment is complete. Thanks!

US$ 5.00,-

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FO: Simple Cable Cardigan

After long overdue, finally I can show you Simple Cable Cardigan. This was my first cable experience, therefore I didn’t want to overdo it. I just add the cable on the neck, waist and sleeve. I had fun doing it. It was very easy and simple, hence the name.

As you can see, I finished it on March, but at that time I was heavily pregnant and was not able to model this cardigan. That is why I had to wait until now.

I love the yarn, it’s very soft and silky since it is 50% cotton, 35% viscose and 15% silk. As usual, I split the yarn to make it sport weight. If I am not wrong, it has 12 ply. I used 8 ply to make it sport weight.

Pattern: Simple Cable Cardigan

Source: Here

Materials: Debbie Bliss Cathay. Color: 12025 Beige. Dye Lot # 90. Qty: 6 x 50 gram

Needles: Addi Metal Circular Needle 3.50 mm

Cost: Yarn USD 23.94,-

Start Date: 22 February 2008
Finish Date: 30 March 2008

All posts about this project

The beginning of New Blanket

Started this blanket on 8 July. I have to make 225 squares, and so far I only managed to make 45 squares. I can only make about 2 square per day, so it will take me about 4 months to finish it.

This was made from 2 strands of Canon thread that I ordered from Mimi. I ordered about 50 balls and it looks like that I will need some more.

Fiori: 2 Months Old

She is 5.5 kg. Only 0.2 kg lighter than Lauri when she was 2 months old. She can smile and "talk" to me.

For comparison, I dug Lauri old photo. This is Lauri when she was 2 months old. They still look alike, but Lauri had bigger eyes.

Wholesale Order

Last month, somebody convo me in Etsy. She asked whether I was interested in selling my patterns wholesale, as she was going to open a yarn shop. Well, I had never wholesale my pattern before. Thus, this was an interesting offer.



After looking through all discussions about selling pattern wholesale in Ravelry, I agreed to sell the pattern half price with minimum 5 copies per pattern, but they had to bear the shipping cost. Actually, selling pattern wholesale is a troublesome, since I had to do all the printing and so on. However, the thought of LYS carries my pattern excited me.

Anyway, after calculating all the cost, I didn’t have much profit left. Not to mention that the actual shipping cost was higher than my quotation.

Still, this was a good experience for me.

Open Another Blog?

I was thinking to open another blog to blog about Lauri and Fiori. So I can dedicate this one only to blog about my knitting and crocheting. I am not sure whether I want to use Blogger again or to use Wordpress. I saw a lot of nice Wordpress blogs that made me drool. Look at this wordpress themes site that I found. So many choices that made me drool and think to change this blog theme.

For the new blog, I am thinking to use this tick-tock-tack theme, but I don’t like colored background. I prefer plain white. I think I will browse somemore.

I also read a lot of good review in Ravelry about Wordpress. The only problem is that I am so familiar with Blogger already and if I use Wordpress, I have to learn again how to post, how to change the layout and so on.

FO: Fiori Blouse

As I mentioned in my previous post, I want to make another blanket. I want to make blanket that is big enough for me to use. Probably like queen sized blanket. I already ordered the thread (yes, this time I want to make blanket using double strand thread).

While waiting for the order to come, I started to knit blouse for Fiori. It was a small project that won’t be long to finish. The yarn that I used is the yarn that I complained to bleed a lot last time. However, since I already solved that problem, I decided to use it.

Pattern: Fiori Blouse

Source: None

Materials: Naturalee (All Natural Dyes)

Color: Dusty Rose #213. Dye Lot: 8139. Qty: 1 x 50 gram

Needles: Addi Metal Circular Needle 3.25 mm

Start Date: 2 June 2008

Finish Date: 15 June 2008