Next Year

It’s November! Time flies. I can’t believe it’s November already. I’ve come to UK for almost 7 months. And Christmas is just around the corner. Only 7 weeks to go!! Am I too silly to start counting this early?

Anyway, as it’s close to the year end, I start to think about 2010. There are quite a lot of things I’ve screwed up in 2009, and I wish I can do well or at least better next year.

Knitting Blog

Recently I’ve newly subscribed many knitting blogs in my Google Reader. I don’t always have time to read them all, but I enjoy reading some whenever I have time in the office or on bus.

I saw a very interesting blog application counting how many yards one has knitted in a given year. I really like this idea! Seems helpful to keep myself motivated. I may add that app later to my blog.

I looked at my blogs, this one and my other two Chinese blogs. They are all very messy and not organized enough, not to mention I lack fabulous FOs to show off. I hope I can reconstruct my blogs a bit sometime in December to make them more organized. I want to have a knitting blog which really serves the functions of recording and sharing. Take and show more photos of FOs, WIPs and stash, as well as some interseting experience of shopping in LYS.

Working-Holiday Blog

Currently I wrote about my daily ramblings in my Chinese blog. I somehow want to build another one talking about working-holiday specific experiences such as applying visa, opening a bank account, finding a dwelling, looking for a job and travelling, or getting CHEAP tickets to travel in particular. Of course I shouldn’t forget other UK-specific experience like Royal Mail Strikes and the numerous 241 deals. Quite some Honkies are interested in the idea of working holiday in UK. Information is scarce since most HK people choose to go Australia or New Zealand for working holiday (as it is a lot easier to make a living given the abundant supply of farm works and fruit-picking jobs). I hope I can write and share some of my experience with other HK people who may wanna come to UK for a working holiday in future.

Knitting

Looking at my Ravelry project page, I have finished 13 projects so far and should be able to finish another 3 making it a total of 16 by the end of this year. Most of them are small or medium projects like scarf, dishcloths and shawls. I tried making sweaters and cardigans but never got luck to finish anything anything pretty enough to wear. I also have somehow developed an obsession in lace. In 2010, I hope I can focus on bigger projects like sweater and vest, plus making some more REAL socks in 4-ply sock weight yarn.

Dyeing

The new apartment have a slightly bigger kitchen than our current open plan kitchenette. It may allow me to learn and experiment more about dyeing. With the bathing tub, maybe I can revive my stash by over dyeing some horrible yarn such as the bubble gum pink Cascade Ecological Wool plus the teddy bear sandy brown Bocilline Revolution.

Travelling

We so far haven’t confirmed anything for next year yet. But I really want to do a little ski trip this winter. There are plenty of budget airlines to Geneva where we can easily go to Swiss Alps, French Alps or Italian Alps within 2 hours. However the resort and lift pass and equipment rentals are very expensive in the region. As a budget option, maybe taking bus or train to Glasgow and drive up to Glencoe is more feasible.

Where is my Wollmeise?

I still haven’t received my Wolmeise order which was made on October 22 and dispatched on Octboer 27. I know I know. With all these bloody Royal Mail strikes, delays are now regarded as normal. But last night I saw a fellow Raveller Rachel (a.k.a. knittingtastic) added a few skeins of newly purchased wollmeise in her stash page — well it’s not a few, but two dozens though I didn’t really count!!! I am very envious!

Since Rachel is also living in London, I suppose I should get mine today. But the parcel hasn’t arrived yet. I am very anxious. I want to receive this parcel before this weekend as I want to include one skein in the swap gift to my friend. The parents are flying back to Australia this weekend. I hope they can bring back the parcel and post locally to save up some postage and time. RM is on another strike again this Friday (and next Monday! WTF!!!). If the parcel doesn’t show up tomorrow (Thursday). Then I probably need to run to iKnit or Loop to get a supplement.

Because of these industrial actions, I dare not to order anything online these weeks. I am really very angry with Royal Mail. Nah. I am very angry with the Royal Mail staff. They have ruined London’s mail delivery and harmed many small business and killed lots of online shoppers’ joy. While most private sectors in the UK (as well as other parts on the earth) are experiencing pay cuts and lay offs because of technological advances and global financial crisis, I think it is absolutely shameful to keep their own jobs safe by threatening the whole economy and forcing other tax payers and consumers to bear the cost.

I loved UK. Despite many rude people and some racial discrimination, I still love UK. But these tiny (tiny?!) little (little?!) things like selfish strikes kill the city and make London lacklustre.

project polygamy

I’ve been quite well behaved in the past few months without starting too many projects. However things got worse these weeks… There are many projects on my needles.

First of all, I got a Travelling Women Shawl half done with a very beautiful purple Blue Moon Socks that Rock. Basically I finished all the boring stockinette part when I was travelling in Greece during late September. But then I just didn’t know if I want to continue as the lace part of this pattern is not particularly appealing to me. I was thinking to change it to Ishbel as they both got a similar stockinette part before starting the lace (the only difference is the number of border stitches which should be easily modified). However, I am not sure if I should do another Ishbel. I’ve completed two Ishbel since July. I love the pattern but I don’t want to be too obsessed with one single pattern. As a very beginner, I think I should try knitting different types of patterns in order to learn more and improve my techniques. Hence, the idea of another Ishbel is out. But… I simply don’t like the edge of Travelling women.

When I came back from Greece, the chilling weather in London made me feel an urge to make a sweater. Then I cast on an Owl Sweater with Cascade Ecological Wool in coffee. It knitted up really fast. I managed to finish the body and two sleeves in 5 days. However problems came when I started the yoke. I screwed up the cabling owls. My cable works are simply ugly. Maybe I knitted too loosely so there were ladders between owls. I decided to frog the yoke after 10 rows. Am still thinking if I should give it another try or just make something else. I may do some Scandinavian style intarsia work instead of cabling. But this project is too bulky (after all Ecological is a bulky yarn!) to bring along, I cannot bring it to work and knit on tube. Guess it has to hibernate a bit until next week when I have more private knitting time after the parents went back to Oz.

The third WIP is a red swallowtail shawl made with Fyberspates Nef Lace. It’s my second lace-weight project and the yarn is so much better and easier than Rowan Kidsilk Haze. Despite its thinness, it’s a dream to knit with. However I felt a bit tired with the pattern after finishing 9 repeats of the budding lace patterns. No hate at all. The pattern is perfect. I am just too stupid to use the same pattern again in 3 months. This thing was supposed to be a swap gift for my friend Kylie in Australia. But I don’t think I can finish it for that.

Urgently looking for a new pattern idea for the swap gift, I cast on a scarf yesterday. I use the pattern of Woodland Shawl (For some reasons I tend to type Woodlane instead of Woodland all the time. Thanks to the Westfield Shopping Mall). However this pattern is not easy at all. 16 different rows each with 12 stitches. The wrong side is also patterned to keep my brain and hands busy. It is virtually impossible to memorise the pattern, at least for me. The progress is a bit slow. I’ve only finished 3 repeats so far. It takes me around 45 minutes on average to finish one repeat even I am doing a scarf version with only 41 st cast on. I think I’ll need at least 16 repeats to make the scarf wearable. Not sure if I can finish it on time… hum… It’s my first time to do swapping. I really don’t want to be late. But paying £30 for an express mail to send a £30 worth parcel doesn’t make much sense. Sigh. Maybe I should burn some midnight oil to finish the scarf…

Meet the Parents + Irish Weekend

I went to Ireland last weekend with my bf and his parents. The main purpose of this trip was to visit my bf’s cousin who’s going to medical school in Dublin. It’s my second visit to Ireland. Last December we flew in Belfast for Giant’s Causeway, then we drove down to Dublin to meet his cousin and went for Yum Cha (literally means Drink Tea, the Cantonese way to call a meal with Dim Sums in traditional Chinese tea house). I did not have much time to explore Dublin, but I got an impression that Dublin is VERY EXPENSIVE. It’s even more expensive than central London prices.

Hence you can imagine I didn’t expect much for this trip. I in fact felt very reluctant to go. I never met his parents. Going to a family trip with them on the very next day after they arrive London sounds a pretty bad idea. I am not a socially active person. Nor particularly interested to meet new people. The trip sounded very intensive and too full-on for me — in order to save money, we even booked a quad room instead of two double rooms. I was very unhappy about this arrangement although it saved us a great deal of money.

Anyway, enough complaints. The good news is, I guess I’ve survived it. The even better news is apparently his mum likes me.  So far, so good.

It rained a lot during our two days in Ireland but the Irish countryside was beautiful. On Saturday, we drove to Wicklow. After a good-but-a-tad-too-expensive lunch in a local pub, we did a short walk in Wicklow. Honestly it’s quite similar to British countryside. It got nothing new but I still enjoyed it very much. We also spotted a wild deer in bushes. Managed to take two photos but too busy to upload at the moment. Maybe later. As we left during mid day, we could only visit St Patrick’s Cathedral and The Guinness Store on Sunday. They were quite interesting, but I think Wicklow is still the highlight for the whole trip.

Bushwalking wasn’t the only thing I did in Wicklow. We passed by a local yarn shop and of course I brought back some souvenir. I got one single skein of locally spun mohair boucle (€7.95) plus two bags of fibre. One is 45g of Merino dyed in pink, purple and fuchsia (€5.95). Another is a bag of Ashford Merino Silk containing 3 different colours each of 25g (€6.95). I know merino and merino silk are too fine and too challenging for beginner. Plus I don’t want to ruin these gorgeous fibre with my medium-weight spindler. Guess I’ll only spin them after I got enough practice with my first spinning  wheel which I haven’t got yet. I’ve already decided to get a Ashford Traveller. But I am too busy to go these weeks. Now I hope I can get it sometime in late Nov or early Dec so I can spin a bit during Xmas day — yeah. We are staying at home on Xmas day before flying out to Iceland on 26 Dec. Talking about Iceland, I am so so so looking forward to it. So looking forward to blue lagoon, golden circle and northern light… and the Lopi yarn and fibre!

New FOs, new yarns and new plans

New FOs

I’ve finished two small projects last two weeks.

Pudsey Bear

First, it’s the Pudsey Bear. The pattern is from the October issue of Simply Knitting. The pattern is easy. It only took me around 3 hours to finish all parts while watching The Simpsons. But the sewing and making up took me another 3 hours or maybe longer. It’s really very exhausting. And my embroidery is really bad; the facial expression of my Pudsey looks a bit weird. Yet it’s my first ever knitted toy, it’s a perfect excuse for an imperfect FO. Right?

Meret the Beret

Another little project I’ve done is a beret. I only bind off last night and haven’t done any photo yet. I used Meret which seems to be the easiest lace Beret I could find on Ravelry. It is pretty easy and knits up very fast. I managed to finish it in two days. It’s pretty too. I can’t wait to block it and take some pics this weekend. This beret will be gifted to my friend Wings for her 30th birthday.  She always complains her head is too big that no hat or beret fits, so I said I can make her a slouchy one. In fact I added one extra repeat of 10-row lace pattern to make it extra slouchy. I hope she’ll love this extra slouchy beret.

New Yarns

I have been crazy this week. Very crazy. Ok. It’s somehow related to the fact that I was unhappy this week. I am very unhappy with my boss and the work. I think I am going to resign soon or very soon.

I bought quite some extraordinary yummy yarn this week.

Last Sunday we went to IMAX cinema to watch the 3D “Under the Sea”. As IMAX is in Waterloo, you know where to go after the movie. YEP. It’s iKnit in Lower Mash. I in fact was hoping to get some roving to practice handspinning with my spindle, but I turned out to have bought two hanks of yarn:

Dream in Color Stardust in Plenty Purple. Although it is labelled as purple, it looks very very much like black to me. I saw a similar hank in iKnit Weekend in mid September. I didn’t buy it at once coz I thought I should look at some other stalls first. When I returned after two hours the yarn has gone. I finally got another skein of stardust in reddish purple colorway but always wanna get another in black.  Dark purple with shiny silver sparkles. It reminds me the starry night. I think it’s gonna be a lovely shawl!

Another skein from iknit is this beautifully handspun yarn. Unfortunately there’s no label nor information at all about this yarn. I love it so much that I really love to know who’s the spinner and would love to get more of her or his handspun. I hope someday I can spin something as beautiful as this one.

It’s not the end of my recent addition list.

I’ve bought two hanks of Lorna’s Laces Shepherds Socks from another Londoner on Ravelry. The colourway is Flamingo Stripes with stripes of dark and light pinks! As a pink addict, I can’t afford not to buy them. I think they’ll be my first pair of sock-weight socks.

Nah. Not finish yet. The list still goes on. Last but not the least…

My most recent new items will arrive in my stash is…

10 skeins of Wollmeise!

I was lucky enough to catch the update last night. All stocks was grab bags with 5 skeins of sock yarns (either 100% superwash or 80/20 twin) However, I wasted some time hesitating what colours to get. When I have made up my mind, the Lila superwash grab bag was gone.  Then I immediately got the Lila 80/20, but as it’s my first time to purchase in the shop, it took me a while to complete the form and input all information. And I forgot my phone number and spent around 5 minutes to retrieve it… After I finished the whole form, Lila 80/20 was gone too. Well. I love Red as well, so I finally picked a grab bag of  Rot 100% superwash (which is supposed to have 5 different skeins of red shades) and a bag of Gunterbunt (which should be a total surprise with completely different colorway).

Don’t think I am gonna love all 10 skeins of them.  I think I only love red, pink, purple and light green. I can accept some blue which will be used for my boyfriend or friends. But I will probably sell any other earthy colours like brown, yellow, orange, grey on Ravelry immediately.

New Plans

About new plans, there are a few new plans on my mind now.

First, I think I will quit my job soon. Or at least before the end of my current contract which is supposed to end in early March. My boss is driving me crazy. Yes the job does pay me alright (I won’t say WELL though). But I simply cannot stand him anymore. Currently I am balancing my stress and tension by spending money on yarns, trips and dinning out. But it doesnt sound right to me. I think I may quit my job first and try to look for another. Ideally I will try sending out CV this weekend and only quit after I find a new one. But in this crappy economy, who knows? And I don’t know when my boss is gonna bug at me again and make me insane.

Second, I seriously want to get a spinning wheel. Am now looking at Ashford Kiwi and Traveller. At first I thought I’d be happy with my spindle and thought I could spin as fast as others after practice. But then recently I read some blogs and watch some videos. I realize it can make so much difference if I can draft the roving with both hands while treadling by my feet. I can’t say it’s easier as I haven’t tried it out yet but it seems a lot better if I can concentrate drafting a bit. But again, I haven’t made up my mind. As I am gonna quite my job soon, I may better save up some money. The wheel isn’t very expensive but not cheap neither. It costs around £170-200. I am thinking to treat it as a reward if I can hang on in my curent job until December. If I can refrain myself from resigning before early December, then I’ll reward myself a wheel. Isn’t it good?

Third,  my current plan is to hand in my resignation letter in early December and have my leave day in early January.  Well my birthday is in mid January. I don’t wanna ruin this one. U know, I had my 30th birthday earlier this year and could only celebrate it with tonnes of homework, assignments and readings. I want to have a nice one for my 31st. So I want to take a break, stay at home, without facing my boss. Anyway, my plan is… I hope to finish my current job in early or mid Jan. Then my parents will come over on around February 8. They will have around 10 days of holidays during Chinese New Year. I’ll show them around and may do some European trips. Then I am planning to get married in next summer. We don’t want anything high profile but want to make it a private occasion for us. Probably we will fly to Vegas and try to get a ceremony and registration on a gondola.

But my bloke hasn’t officially proposed to me yet!!!! He said he’s waiting for a special occasion. Maybe this Xmas? I don’t know. We’ll see.

Knitting Check List

Bold for stuff you’ve done, italics for stuff you plan to do one day, and normal for stuff you’re not planning on doing.

Afghan 
I-cord 
Garter stitch 
Knitting with metal wire 
Shawl 
Stockinette stitch 
Socks: top-down 
Socks: toe-up 
Knitting with camel yarn 
Mittens: Cuff-up 
Mittens: Tip-down 
Hat 
Knitting with silk 
Moebius band knitting 
Participating in a KAL 
Sweater 
Drop stitch patterns 
Knitting with recycled/secondhand yarn 
Slip stitch patterns 
Knitting with bananafiber yarn 
Domino knitting (=modular knitting) 
Twisted stitch patterns 
Knitting with bamboo yarn 
Two end knitting 
Charity knitting 
Knitting with soy yarn 
Cardigan 
Toy/doll clothing (well… not really done yet but WIP)
Knitting with circular needles 
Baby items 
Knitting with your own handspun yarn 
Slippers 
Graffitti knitting: knitting items on, or to be left on the street 
Continental knitting 
Designing knitted garments 
Cable stitch patterns 
Lace patterns 
Publishing a knitting book 
Scarf 
Teaching a child to knit 
Knitting to make money 
Button holes 
Knitting with alpaca 
Fair Isle knitting 
Norwegian knitting 
Household items: dishcloths, washcloths, tea cosies… 
knitting socks- or other small tubular items- on two circulars 
Dying with plant colours 
Knitting items for a wedding 
Olympic knitting 
Knitting with someone else’s handspun yarn 
Knitting with dpns 
Holiday related knitting 
Teaching a male how to knit 
Bobbles 
Knitting for a living 
Knitting with cotton 
Knitting smocking 
Dying yarn 
Steeks 
Knitting art 
Fulling/felting 
Knitting with wool 
Textured knitting 
Kitchener BO 
Purses/bags 
Knitting with beads 
Swatching 
Long Tail CO 
Entrelac Knitting and purling backwards 
Machine knitting 
Knitting with selfpatterning/selfstriping/variegating yarn 
Stuffed toys  (WIP)
Knitting with cashmere 
Darning 
JewelryKnitting with synthetic yarn 
Writing a pattern 
Gloves 
Intarsia 
Knitting with linen 
Knitting for preemies 
Tubular CO 
Freeform knitting 
Short rows 
Cuffs/fingerless mitts/armwarmers 
Pillows 
Knitting a pattern from an online knitting magazine 
Rug 
Knitting on a loom 
Thrummed knitting 
Knitting a gift 
Knitting for pets 
Shrug/bolero/poncho 
Knitting with dog/cat hair (my kitties hair slips in ) 
Hair accessories 
Knitting in public

Trips and more trips

Talking about trips… we actually have done two terrific trips.

We went to Paris during the late August’s Bank Holiday. Staying in a very poor 2-start hotel near Gare du Nord, we still had lots of fun. Eurodisney was real fun. Day trips to Versailles and Claude Monet’s garden in Giverny were highlights. Vietnamese food in Belleville was the real gem. It’s not my first time to Paris, but it’s indeed the first time I enjoyed Paris. I will definitely go back! See when I can get the good Eurostar deal of £59 return again.

Then in late September, we did a mini island-hopping in Greece. We flew from Gatwick to Mykonos on the first day. Took some photos of windmills and walked around in Mykonos Town Centre before going back to an excellent hotel by the Platis Gialos beach. The following morning we went to swim in Platis Gialos after a pool-side buffet dinner. The water was a bit cold but it’s still alright to swim. The sea water was so much clearer than I could imagine and we saw lots of fish including flounders. Then we went to Santorini by ferry. The first hotel we stayed was in Fira Town Centre. It’s a family-run hotel and the quality was a bit disappointing. We moved to another hotel in Kamari Beach and everything just changed! The hotel wasn’t as good as the one in Santorini but still good and of very good value of money. We could see the sea and sunrise in our balcony. Also, we did a half-day snorkelling trip there too. It’s my first time ever to snorkel and I simply love it!!! Greek islands I just enjoyed myself so much and brought back tonnes of lovely memories home.

More trips to come. We are going to Dublin with my boyfriend’s parents in late October. Well. Dublin. Doesn’t sound fun. And it’s EXPENSIVE. A lot more expensive than London. But my bf’s cousin is studying there, so it’s a bit like a family reunion trip. What can I say? Just hope we won’t spend too much for this trip.

The next trip will be a road trip to German Christmas Market. Isn’t it crazy to drive all the way from London to Cologne via Brugge and Brussels and then return in simply one weekend?? Crazy isn’t it? I know it’s crazy. But I am the only one who got paid annual leaves. The others are all contractors. They simply are not willing to give up their good day rates of few hundred pounds for a more pleasant trip. Anyway. It’s still good to have chance to see the famous German Christmas Market.

The last one in this year is probably…. Ta da…. Iceland! We are planning to fly out on Dec 24 and fly back on 29 to have 5 nights there. Hope we can see the Northern Light and have a comfortable bath in Blue Lagoon.

Oh. Last but not the least… there’s one more trip. A local one: I am moving! I am moving from London West to Docklands. The new place is a two-bedroom flat on the second floor in Island Gardens, the weekly rent is only £10 more than our one-bedroom basement flat in Shepherd’s Bush. We are sharing it with another friend. Unfortunately she’s a student and can’t afford much so she’ll be paying a bit below the market price and we’ll need to pay for her bills. However she’s a good friend of ours and she’s very clean and quiet. We’d rather sacrifice maybe 30 quid than risk taking in a party animal or someone who doesn’t care about hygiene. Anyway, after factoring in all numbers, we should still be paying £50 less every week. Isn’t it nice? It means we can save up an additional £2600 an year or this sum can pay us a nice trip… say two-month backpacking in South East Asia or one-month budget trip in Japan?

Another Ishbel & other knitting things

I haven’t written anything here for a while. Life has been really busy and I have been working hard for my chinese blog and other stuff.

First of all, I have finished my first real lace piece in lace weight yarn. It’s an Ishbel using Rowan Kidsilk Haze. The yarn and colour are lovely. This photo does not do the justice in showing the real colour. I still like Ishbel but the boring stockinette part really makes me sick. Don’t think I can make another in the next few months although it’s a very easy and quick project.

Secondly, I am making a secret knit for my friend Kylie as a Xmas swap gift. I started yesterday and it’s going alright so far. However I am still a bit afraid I can’t get it done on time. The thing here is, my boyfriend’s parents are coming to UK at the end of this month for around a week, after attending a wedding banquet in Hong Kong. Then they’ll go back to Sydney. I am seriously considering to finish my Xmas knit before they arrive so they can bring the packet back to Au and post it there. I know it’s not as interesting as posting it here but it should save a lot in postage. Isn’t it more meaningful to spend the extra £10 on a skein of delicious Malabrigo Lace or Araucania Ranco (Spoiler spoiler spoiler!) than to spend it on Royal Mail? Anyway, the current project I have started last night could be a bit challenging to me. I think it’ll take me a total of 40 hours to finish it even without any major mishap. As I just have two weeks to go, it means I’ll need to consistently knit around 3 hours a day which may not be feasible as I have to tidy up the place before my bf’s parents come! I am now thinking to start another easier but equally gorgeous project… But now I need to unskein and wind up another skein of yarn…

Talking about Royal Mail, last week I ordered some yarns for the BBC Pudsey project immediately after I got the latest Simply Knitting. It’s totally adorable! However I am not sure when the parcel will arrive given the reduced Royal Mail services. I hope it won’t be too late because I really want to make that cute little bear as soon as I can.

Home Made Yarn Swift

After reading some painful experience about winding up lace into centered cake without a swift, I decide to get a swift.

The cheapest swift I found online so far cost around £30. Not cheap. The money can be used to get 2-4 skeins of lace weight yarn depending on the brand and length.

Then I found this:

http://www.instructables.com/id/Duct-Tape-Yarn-Swift/

I also read some people sharing their successful experience following this instruction. Guess I will try to make one maybe after I come back from Greece.

Oh, I am going to Greece. Not this weekend but the next. However this weekend I should be really busy. I have to knit up a pair of socks for my dad. I haven’t even cast on yet. I plan to stay at home for the whole weekend and bring the project along to Greece and have taken a day off after my holiday mainly for the socks. Hope I can finish this little pressie in two weeks and send out by 1st of Oct.

P.S. This pair of socks will be made from another skein of Cascade 220 superwash. Worsted weight is my only chance. If I really used 4-ply, it may take 2 years to finish…

My first hand spinning

I never imagined I would spin. Although I saw quite some fellow Ravelers proudly sharing their joy and showing beautiful handspun, I always think it’s too far away from me. I can’t afford a spinning wheel, nor do I have the patience to turn roving tops or fiber into yarn. But last week I by chance saw a starter spinning kit on eBay when looking for some undyed yarn. I was so attracted by the pink/purple fiber shown in the picture… and it’s only £9… so… why don’t I just spend £9 and give it a go? I ordered a set without second thought.