In less than 45 mins...

... I am leaving to the French Alps!

But I still haven't packed anything to knit!

Shall I bring some DK yarn to make another beret or maybe a cowl? Or shall I start another pair of socks?

Maybe both? or maybe none?

Decision decision decision...

Alright, maybe I just close my eyes and randomly pick something up.  Will tell you what I bring and knit when I come back home next weekend.

I'll also do a random draw to let you know who's the lucky winner for the skein of Wollmeise. Good luck and have a wonderful week!

Hola 2011!

Belated Happy New Year!

Ahem... I know... It's really embarrassing to say Happy New Year in the third week of the year. I wished I could have written my first blog earlier but I have many good excuses reasons for that.



We went to Egypt for 9 days. It was awesome! I was deeply impressed by inspired by the Egyptian Hieroglyphics. The trip was full of fun even Egyptians basically don't knit and I couldn't find any souvenir yarn to take home.

After I came back in early January, I started studying and working on my Computing assignments. I am taking 4 courses this year. Three of them have monthly assignments. They are not impossibly difficult but there are quite a lot to read, research and write. Anyway, after working quite hard for 10 days, I managed to finish and hand them in last weekend. Yeah!



We then went to buy some skiing apparels for our skiing trip. I did skied twice or thrice in Japan and indoor sites. But they were all half-day trips. This is going to be my first skiing holiday. We will arrive the French Alps on Sunday noon and stay there till Friday afternoon. Hope I am not going to break my legs or arms... fingers crossed.



I also went to see a GP for my thumb, which I hurt a month ago. It still hurts. Any attempt to straighten my right thumb only results in agony. No. I meant AGONY. The doc has written me a letter to refer me to a hospital clinic for further consultation. Haven't picked up my letter yet. So don't know how long I have to wait though.

At the moment, I try not to spin. Or not too spin too much. I had been a good girl and stayed away from my wheel for quite a while, until...



... a beautiful maple lace weight spindle from Wildcraft arrived. The shaft is made of maple timber. A piece of red maple leaf is embedded in the resin in the top whorl. Simply gorgeous. I couldn't spindle.



I took a few grams of Corriedale (or maybe Falkland?) scraps out and spun right away. The spindle is so feather light (about 24 grams) and spins like a breeze. Great balance. If it was my first spindle, I probably wouldn't have bought my wheel out of frustration.



Last but not the least, I finally cast on my first project in 2011. It's a Hedera in Wollmeise Twin WD Kornblume (it means Cornflower) for the Knit Love Sock knitalong on Ravelry. My green Marlene was almost done, but I wasn't too happy about the size so I will rip off the toes off to reknit and add one more pattern repeat. Will try to do it later though. Now I am feeling like to start a new project! :)

Merry Xmas

Merry Xmas!

I was quite upset about the fact that my Secret Santa swap parcel hasn't arrived yet -- I think my partner probably still didn't have chance to get it sent before the holiday. I don't know what happened. But I can understand there must be something important or serious coming up which makes her impossible to make a trip to PO. I just hope everything's fine and she's doing alright.

Anyway DH got two days off before the Christmas Day so we did spend some quality time together.

We had a very lovely "post-winter solstice celebration dinner" in Gaucho on Wednesday night. They certainly have the best beef steak in London, almost as good as those we had in Buenos Aires two years ago.



On the following day, we took a lunch cruise from Embankment. I have been living in London for 1.5 year now but it's my first time to cruise over the Thames -- I am trying to live like a local and such cruising sounds a bit too touristy. But touristy or not, indeed it's a wonderful experience to appreciate the scenery on the riverbanks while enjoying festive Christmas lunch.



Since Embankment is so close to Waterloo, I naturally took a quick detour to I Knit. I didn't buy any yarn though but just got what I need: another pair of 2.75mm circular plus the winter issue of Spin Off magazine. I am planning to knit more socks this year and want to do 2 patterns simultaneously to avoid SSS.



Then we went to John Lewis to shop for Secret Santa gifts which we were going to exchange with some other friends on the Christmas Day. I picked two little boxes of very challenging puzzles.



DH picked a Maze ball which he adored and almost found it difficult to part with.



On the Christmas Eve, we headed out to Westfield pretty early to do some last minute Christmas shopping. I managed to get two pairs of cord pants from Marks & Spencer, plus some skincare products from Boots. Then we found the newly opened Lego Shop where we got some brick box and figurines.



We then went to Chinatown to have yum cha (Dim Sum lunch) and dessert with another friend. After that I took a little detour to Mitsukoshi bookstore. My new friend Eva is the one to blame. After she brought me to this Japanese bookstore, I am totally hooked and it has now become a regular spot to visit whenever I am in the area. I love Japanese knitting books. They have very stylish photos and have everything charted clearly and logically. But the books are quite expensive. This booklet (size similar to Rowan booklets) costs about £15, a bit over my budget. Guess I can have a pass... at least till my next visit.



On the Christmas Day, we went to a friend's place for a Christmas dinner. Interestingly, when he told us that party would start at 2pm, I thought we were going to play games or scrabbles or whatever till 7pm when the dinner really started. We were quite shocked to see a table of food ready when we arrived. Oh the British Christmas Dinner actually IS a Christmas Lunch.Friends and relatives treat it as a traditional gathering and start eating around noon till evening or whenever. That's how the lunch also becomes a dinner.



We just finished packing and I am leaving to Egypt in three hours. We will spend 9 days there and come back on 3rd of January. Am bringing my Java programming textbooks (the electronic versions that I can read on Kindle!) with me as I get three homeworks due by 15th of January. But I am also tempted to bring something to knit along on the road. Hum... Maybe a pair of mindless vanilla socks? Or my all time favourite Swallowtail or Ishbel?

Alright. Should try to sleep for two more hours before leaving home. See you all in January.

A lovely week

Just opened the 13th window of my advent calendar. Christmas is less than 2 weeks away!

I had a very lovely week:

(1) I had all the parcels sent out to my in-laws in Hong Kong and Australia. Two scarves and one shawl, if you cared to ask. It's a pain to meet the seasonal deadline. I swear I'll start doing Xmas knitting earlier next year. Maybe June or July.



(2) My Lopi Sweater is done! Have been wearing it for days. Love it. I call it Icelandic Michelin because of its bulky appearance, although it's quite light with only 370 grams in weight. A bit itchy but it's ok as I usually worn a turtle neck base layer underneath. Very warm. Very very warm. Will write a better FO post soon after I have chance to take some better pics.



(3) I went to Bristol last Wednesday to visit Cynthia (CrochetCynth). It's the first time we met in person after many months of messaging and talking on phone. Interestingly we did go to the same univ and we shared some common friends, but we didn't know each other till we met on Ravelry. We went to yum cha, which literally means "drink tea" in Cantonese.



(4)  We visited a farmers' market and bought some cheese and fresh pesto. Then Cynth brought me to Get Knitted, a lovely LYS located in the outskirt of Bristol. It's a lovely shop, with friendly staff and a VERY wide range of yarn collection from workhorse yarn to handpainted yarn. I am quite proud that I was quite well behaved and came home only with...



(5)  ... a ball of Flying Saucer plus a tiny bottle of sock stop.


(6) My reason for being able to stay frugal is... DH just got my a wonderful Christmas pressie: Blue Moon Rockin' Sock Club 2011. The photo below is a skein of Blue Moon Socks That Rock medium weight in my stash. Isn't it amazing? There will be 6 lovely skeins and 12 matching patterns arriving at my door next year. Awesome!



(7) And the legendary Cookie A's new book is finally here. It's one of the most beautiful knitting books I've ever seen.



(8) Some patterns are obviously too challenging for me, but I am very determined to finish at least 4 pairs from the book next year. Yes yes. I'll write it down in my Kniting Resolution list next week.



(9) At the moment, I am working on Marlene, another design by Cookie A. Have had lots and lots of frogging due to my exceptionally tight gauge -- I usually got about 8.5 spi with Wollmeise Twin and 2.75mm needles, but this time I got 11.5 spi. Lots of problems: Leg being too tight, heel flap being too long, heel fabric being too loose blah blah blah... But glad it's alright now. I have turned the heel and finished all gusset decreases. Guess it only need 3-4 more repeats before decreasing for toes.



(10) Ahem... although I've been quite successful in my yarn diet so far, I am not that good at keeping my fibre stash under control. A kilo of spinning fibre is coming on the way. There will be 64's Merino, Merino/Silk, Baby Alpaca, Shetland of 4 different natural colours and Massam. All are natural-colour ones from World of Wool. Very reasonable prices -- £19.4 for all 1000 grams of fibres. I got lots of plans with them. You'll see later. :)



 (11) Last but not the least, it's a sunset I saw the other day when I was walking back home after grocery shopping. The Winter Solstice this year will be on December 21. Hang in there! We've almost done half of the winter. There will be longer daylight hours afterward.

Three Parcels

Before looking at the parcels, let's talk about weather. (People said Brits love to talk about weather. Though am not a Brit, do in Rome as the Romans do, right?)

We finally have had the first snow of the season here in London. It started at about 2am when I was binding off my Echo Flower Shawl. At first it was just flurry or very light snow. I took this photo at about 6am.



But it hasn't stopped snowing for the whole day. Became heavier too. It's another photo I took when I went out to PO at four. I haven't been in London for too long but I bet it's still a bit abnormal to have such a heavy snow in late November? I remember the first snow last winter was in mid Dec.



It was only a five-minute walk from the post office back to home. But I already got half buried by snow. Quite glad that I did put on enough layers before going out.



Okay. Have talked enough about weather. Time to talk about parcels!

(1) The first parcel is the one arrived this morning. Yay! Christmas comes early! It's a Sliding Jumbo Flyer for Ashford Traveller wheel. I also got 3 extra jumbo bobbins. They're from Sheila of Handspinner.co.uk. She not only has the best price (among 6 online shops I've checked) but also offers super fast FREE delivery. I placed my order on Monday morning, they're already with me on Tue at 9am. Very very impressed. I think I'll try them out tonight. Wait... or am I supposed to wait till Boxing Day before I can play with my pressie?



(2) The second parcel is... sorry to disappoint you, it's not a knittery one. They are the textbooks I need for my study. Usually I use Amazon.co.uk or Bookdepository for books. But I found them cheaper by two independent sellers sold via Amazon Market Place. The saving was quite significant. They cost £90 on Amazon but I only paid about £68 now.

However I found some light scuffs and bent corners on the front/back covers on both books. They look perfectly fine and brand new otherwise.Maybe that's why they were sold at discount? I don't really mind a few imperfections. I would still have bought them even if I knew it earlier. But I think it'd be a better business practice if the sellers have mentioned it earlier in the descriptions.

(3) The third parcel is the one I sent out this afternoon. It's for Socktopods Secret Santa Sock Swap. So if you're participating in the swap and haven't received your parcel yet, it can be yours! Please don't click into the following spoiler link to ruin the surprise. For those who aren't in the swap, feel free to have a peek... :)

I am quite nervous about the swap. It's my first time to do a Secret Santa Swap, I honestly don't know what to expect or what people are expecting. After seeing the photos of other parcels on Ravelry, I feel mine doesn't have enough non-knitting festive goodies. Have to admit I was a bit upset about it. Hum... Fingers crossed. I hope she'll love what I picked.

By the way, I really love the yarn I gave away. Almost can't part with it. I'll need to restash it as soon as I have chance.

Southbank Christmas Market

While many parts of UK had suffered (enjoyed?) with snow, we haven't had any wintery showers in London yet. But it's quite cold. Day time temperature was at freezing point. Honestly I won't mind staying at home, having a cuppa and then sitting next to a radiator, either to knit or spin, or simply watch some trashy tele.

But we did go out. DH has been working for 90+ hours a week lately. Today was the very first weekend in months that he didn't need to work. We felt obliged to go out to get some fresh air so we headed out to Southbank Christmas Market. We stayed at bed till noon so it's already getting dark when we arrived there at about half three.



The market was right next to The London Eye. There were only about 20-30 shops, all selling some very ordinary things that we can see in any Sunday markets. But I guess that's the best we can get in London unless we travel hundred miles to Bath or Lincoln?



Well. The market wasn't too bad. At least we got some festive food and drinks, which are always the highlights of Christmas markets. DH got currywurst, which was mildly curry-ish.



I got Käsekrainer, a cheese-filling sausage. YUM!



Then we got crêpe with Nutella, marshmallow and syrup. Soooo sweet. The melted marshmallows were simply divine.



Of course there's mulled wine. Am never a big fan of this spicy warm wine. But a journey to Christmas market can never be completed without having a sip of it.



That's all for now.

In the meantime, I am busy wrapping up a parcel for my Socktopods Secret Santa Sock Swap partner. Will talk about it later. My Echo Flower shawl is still happening, too. I finally have gained some momentum and am currently on the 2nd edging row. Only 6 more rows to go. Hopefully I can show you a FO next time.

Thursday

Just a quick post to tell you what have been filling up my life lately:



I started an Echo Flower Shawl after knowing my friend CrochetCynth's doing one. It's been growing very slowly because I am spending more time on another thing...



... which is an Icelanic Yoke Sweater. Am about to start another sleeve then can proceed to the yoke. I know a chunky sweater is the last thing I should think of given my chubby body shape. But I don't care. I need something warm. Really really warm. I don't care if I look like a Michelin man.


(Méribel, image from Wikipedia)

Non knitting wise, we've just booked a skiing trip to Les Trois Vallées in late January. It's one of the largest ski areas in the world with over 300 slopes and 600km of pistes. Honestly I am just a beginner so it doesn't bother me as long as they have some green and blue runs. We'll go by overnight channel-crossing coach so it's gonna be a tough ride. I can never sleep on overnight coach. But it will give us more time (a whooping 6 days!) on slope and about one-thirds cheaper than the flight option.



Also I've got my iMac back. DH fixed it by replacing the dead hard drive with a new one. Now it has a huge 1.5TB hard drive in which I can keep lots of photos and music.



We went to Adelphi Theatre with DH's cousin who's coming from Dublin for a medical conference last weekend. We went to the musical Love Never Dies, which is a sequel to The Phantom of The Opera. Hum... it's not too bad but can't say it's my fav. A bit disappointed.



We dined in Belgo Centraal, my favourite mussel place in London. They also get a very wide selection of Belgian Beer. Can't recommend enough.



Last but not the least, I've got a new mate -- Mr Monk. Looks familiar? Yep. He's the monkey in PG Tips tea.

Alright. Time to return to my knitting. I wanna get my Michelin-Sweater done by next week.