Ama and Akong’s Visit

Last month, from 17 to 26 May, Ama and Akong came to celebrate Fiori’s first birthday. It was also the first time they saw Fiori. Lauri was very happy because she has another 2 persons to spoil her. My parents told me that Lauri was prettier than their last visit 1.5 years ago. They also marveled at Lauri’s good behavior and her ability to steal their heart.

Example:
Akong was teaching Lauri to write 1 to 10 in Chinese character.
Ama: Isn’t Akong very clever? Not like Ama.
Lauri: But, I love you….
Ama: Oooohhhh…. (heart melt)

Lauri also drew Ama and Akong.

Left to right: Castle, Princess Lauri, Akong, Ama (the one with curly hair)

At first my mom tought that she was drawing a flower, it turn out it was my mom’s curly hair. Hahahahaha!

Happy First Birthday, Fiori!

My Baby is a toddler now! How time flies to fast. Fiori’s birthday was actually on 21 May. However, since I was lazy to download the photos, I can only post about it today.

At 1 year old, Fiori was almost 10 kg (about 1 kg less than Lauri at the same age), however, length wise they are the same. Unlike Lauri, Fiori still could not say Mama and Papa yet, however, she could say “clap” and clapping her hand, pointing at things and said “duck” and she said “ba-ba” (instead of bye bye) and waved her hand.

Trying to touch the cake

Cutting the cake

Heart Applique

I am trying to make a patchwork tablecloth with heart applique. Here are the steps to sew the heart on (not sure whether this is the correct method, but this is the way I did it) :

1. Trace the heart shape on the right side of the cloth. Trim the fabric around the design leaving a quarter-inch seam allowance. Fold the seam allowance toward the wrong side of the fabric and do running stitch around.

2. Place the appliqué, right side up, on the right side of the background fabric and sew the appliqué piece to the background fabric.

3. Iron the finished result

4. With sewing machine I sew around the inside of the heart.

Patchwork

Sometimes after looking at nice looking quilt like in this photo below, I got the urge to make one myself. The problem is, I always got the problem finishing it.

In my life, I only managed to finish one patchwork (here is the link to the project). I still have one patchwork project that I have started long time ago and until today still unable to finish it (here is the link to the project). The main reason is because lack of time and also since it’s on the quilting stage, it’s very difficult to carry it around.

Since the temptation to start a patchwork project is still there, probably I will make small pillow case again like this one.

Knitting Pattern-A-Day Calendar

About a year ago, Susan Ripley contacted me and asking me whether I wanted to submit any of my patterns to Knitting and Crochet Pattern-A-Day Calendar. Since I can submit my existing pattern and still selling it in my website, I thought “why not”. So, I submitted my Lauri Dress knitting pattern for 2010 calendar. I forgot all about this until yesterday night I received notification email saying that I won the second prize winner! True enough, when I went to their website, I saw this:

As a second winner, I am about to get USD 250,- check from them. I can’t wait to get the check and the free calendar. If you order the Knitting Pattern-A-Day Calendar, don’t forget to check my Lauri Knitting Pattern on 15 March page.

Lauri Cut Her Finger

On last Wednesday (6 May), Lauri got a nasty cut in her finger. She used her grandma’s big and sharp scissors and accidently cut her left forefinger. The blood was everywhere and we quickly brought her to the ER.

Since she is below 10 years, it was impossible to keep her still in order to give her local anesthetic jab on the finger. She didn’t even let the doctor saw her wound. So the only choice was to give her full anestethic so the doctor was stitching the wound. It cost us about USD 600,- for total 4 stiches on her finger.

Lauri in the hospital room before the operation

On the wheel chair to go to operation room

In the recovery room

Back to the room

Smiling

Yellow Riding Hood?

When I told her to pose with the hood on, she was quite reluctant because she said that she would look like a boy. Does she look like a boy?

By the way, can you find "Lauri" word on the board?

Measurement Tape

Fiori likes to put everything inside her mouth, including the measurement tape :)

Wordless Wednesday

A Necklace From Lauri

This is Fiori wearing new neckace that Lauri made just for her. The necklace is Lauri’s first original design. Fiori was happy with the necklace. You can tell from the big smile in her face. Probably I should open one account in ETSY for Lauri to sell her necklaces! LOL!

Lauri Hairstyles

Lately I am having fun playing with Lauri’s long hair. I came across this blog, and inspired to try some of the hairstyles there.

These two below are my favorites so far. However, it took quite a long time to do it. I only do these styles when Lauri woke up early, otherwise she will be late to go to school.




I remember that I also had a long hair when I was at Lauri’s age, and my mom used to do my hair every morning before school. I sat down in front of her dressing table, and she would ask me what hairstyle I wanted to have that day. I always cherish that memory and I hope that Lauri will also cherish hers when she grows up.

Lacy Sleeves

After I published my Falling Leaves Top, on 15 Feb I was immediately starting to design a new knitting top. I know ….. It’s knitting project again. I am not in the mood to design something crochet because I haven’t finished my crocheted blanket yet. Also I don’t have enough spare time lately. I need more time to write crochet pattern. Drawing all those crochet chart really taking a lot of time.

I did not do a sketch for this new design as I really didn’t have a strong idea how it is going to look like. One thing for sure is that I want to have long lacy sleeves and a v neck. After that, well, I am not sure.

I am using Baby Georgia yarn. It’s fingering weight and it’s going to take forever. When I wrote this, I have already working on this project more than a month and yet I am only starting my third skein. I am planning to use up all 10 skeins, so I am only 20% finish. Like I said, I don’t have time to knit lately as both my daughters need my attention.

Clapping Hands

On Sunday 15 March, when I and Lauri were clapping hands together to follow a song in TV, suddenly I noticed that Fiori was also clapping her hands. I had to run upstairs to my room to get the camera and luckily managed to get a nice photo of her clapping her hands. Another milestone for Fiori.

Fiori is Enjoying The Cake

Remember my birthday cake? Well, Fiori loved it very much. Look at how serious she ate the cake.

I tried to gave her solid since she was 6 months old, but she did not want to eat. She took her tongue out everytime I tried to feed her. Then last month, all of the sudden she started to eat a lot, and she seemed really enjoying her food. Mash carrot, meat, apple, manggo, banana, potatoes, everything went in. However she doesn't like something too watery.

Happy Birthday To Me

Nothing fancy, I celebrated my birthday with hubby and my daughters. My hubby cooked for me and Lauri sang happy birthday song and kiss me. This year is final year of my thirties decade. Next year is the beginning of my forties era.

Playing With Tassles

On 22 December 2008, we were having Christmas dinner with my in laws cell group members. During the whole dinner, Fiori was busy trying to get the Christmas presents.



Finally, she settled by playing and eating my MIL tassles (handbag tassles).

Falling Leaves Top Knitting Pattern For Sale

The idea of this design came to me after I saw a nice lace pattern on one of my knitting books. The name of the lace pattern was "Falling Leaves" so I decided to keep the name. This is a very simple and cute top with some lace on the edge and button details on the sleeves. You can also make it longer and wear it as a dress. I imagine that this top will look elegant with black yarn, gold button, and beads on the lace part. This top is knit in the round, from the top down, and in one piece, so there’s no seaming. The pattern is available in 4 ply/sport weight and DK weight yarn.







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:
4 Ply: 3.00 mm (size 2) 80 cm long circular needle for the neck band, 3.50 mm (size 4) 80 cm long circular needle for the yoke, body and part of the lace, 4.00 mm (size 6) 80 cm long circular needle for part of lace.

DK Weight: 3.25 mm (size 3) 80 cm long circular needle for the neck band, 3.75 mm (size 5) 80 cm long circular needle for the yoke, body and part of the lace, 4.25 (size 7) mm 80 cm long circular needle for part of lace.

Yarn: Sport or DK Weight

Yarn requirement:
4 Ply: XS: 1000m, S: 1100m, M: 1200m, L: 1300m, XL: 1400m, XXL: 1500m, XXXL: 1600m DK: XS: 800m, S: 880m, M: 960m, L: 1040m, XL: 1120m, XXL: 1200m, XXXL: 1280m

Notion: Tapestry needle, buttons (8 pcs), marker, scrap yarn

Gauge for body:
4 ply/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,-

add to cart

Official Post for Falling Leaves Top

Falling Leaves is my first FO and my first published pattern for 2009. Last year I managed to reach my target to publish 3 patterns in a year. Hopefully, this year I can publish another 3 patterns as well.

It took me almost 3 months to finish this top, since I had to frog and re-designed almost the whole thing when I didn’t like the result of the original version. Actually, the original result not so bad, but I could not live with a “not so bad” FO. So, after sleeping over it I decided to frog.

I really like the result of this new version and I have worn this top many times already. As for the yarn, this is my first experienced to knit with 4-ply yarn. As you probably know that I like to knit using fine yarn. DK weight yarn is too thick for me to wear in this tropical island. This is the reason why sometimes I split my DK yarn into two to make it finer. However, since I know that most of people don’t like the idea to work with fine yarn that is why I write the pattern for DK weight yarn as well.

Pattern: Falling Leaves
Source: Here
Materials: Jaegar Sienna 4 ply. Color: Blue, SH 405, lot 1697051
Qty: 8 x 50 gram (140 m / 153 yards per ball)
Needles: Addi Metal Circular Needle 3.50 mm
Cost: Yarn USD 26.60 + button USD 10
Start Date: 3 November 2008
Finish Date: 22 January 2009

Happy Valentine's Day

Five years ago Valentine’s Day also fell on Saturday. I remember this because that day was the day I found out that I was pregnant with Lauri. I remember vividly like it was just yesterday. Hubby just got back from his half day work and gave me my Valentine’s roses. I asked him to buy test pregnancy kit for me. My period was late almost 2 weeks but it was nothing usual. However, since I had to go overseas the following week, I wanted to make sure that I was not pregnant. It turned out that I was pregnant.

Look her now! Almost 5 years old already. How time flies.

Fiori also got a rose from Papa

Many Faces of Fiori

Sitting on Trolley

Fiori got a chance to sit on the trolley for the first time last Sunday 25 January. We went to Giant Hypermarket near our house to buy some mosquito repellents because Fiori and Lauri got bitten by mosquitos lately. See! Can you see a mosquito bite on Fiori’s right cheek.