Yarn Cat

Yarncat Fiber Trip 2009 (10) Tallinn

2010-05-09T13:40:00.005+01:00

(sorry for dead air for so long, being self-employed took away a lot of your time and attention from hobbies, you are thinking about your business 20 hours a day...will talk about that in another post)

So I went back to Tallinn after having a great time with Helsinki knitters...

My friend Helen was going to show me the Old Town of Tallinn the first day I arrived but I got really sick, so I decided to do that again the first day I came back to Tallinn...

Then I walked into a lovely knitting shop...

The lady was peacefully knitting away in the shop. They also sell real estonian lace weight yarn for cheaper price than other souvenir shops, check it out if you visit the Old Town.

The Old Town is very beautiful...

Then, I walked into an antique shop...

A knitter would have spotted it from the last photo, but here you go again...

(to be continued...soon I hope)

Yarncat Fiber Trip 2009 (9) Helsinki part III

2010-01-05T17:27:00.005Z

Sorry, I haven't been blogging for a few weeks because...you know...Christmas and it is the peak time for my kind of business, so now I am back to talk about my trip to the Baltic.

My last day in Helsinki was very special coz I got the chance to join the Helsinki knitters for their 'knitting tram' event.

See? The tram is coming! The event is hosted on an old tram that all of us rent together.

Hello, knitters!

The tram goes around the city centre of Helsinki, it gives me a chance to see the city in the comfort of sitting in a cool tram with whole bunch of knitters, what more can I ask?

Yes, there is more one can ask...the lucky draw! I didn't win anything but I was happy enough to have the goodie bag, one free skein of yarn is included.

That's me knitting...

After the event, some of the knitters and I went for lunch together and one of the knitters mentioned the Moomin shop. I am a big fan of the story, so I decided to go there to have a look...

It is a lovely shop and I got a few things to send to my friends and family as souvenir since some of them are fans of the story too.

Here is another I LOVE about nordic countries, apart from all the woolly stuff, is their love of sauna. Anywhere you go, you have sauna. My booking in the hotel included the daily use of sauna, like in most places up there. It is so nice to go to the sauna after a day in the cold.

However, everything reaches an end. It is the end of my Helsinki trip...

On my way back to pick up my luggage from the hotel to leave, I passed by the old market...

More Moomin stuff in a souvenir shop...

The market is a lovely place to buy all the local products, just that it's a pity I can't buy any of them since there was still a long way to go before going back home to Dublin...

Outside the old market, you have to market place.

I wasn't even meaning to look, then I walked pass this...

The yarn is handdyed by natural from flowers and mushrooms, I told myself, I HAVE TO HAVE THEM!

Having an extra bag of yarn marked the end of my Helsinki trip, so I took the ferry and back to Tallinn I went...

Byebye Helsinki, and I tell you, 'I will be back!'

Yarncat Fiber Trip 2009 (8) Helsinki continued

2009-12-04T10:59:00.008Z

After running into the first yarn store by accident, I went on my way to the yarn store that I was supposed to go.

On the way, I popped into some other things that interests me, like antique stores...

Beautiful stuff in this one, but a bit pricy, a lot of old toys though if that's your thing.

Here I am, the second yarn store Menita.

Menita is supposed to be the LYS which got the biggest collection in Helsinki. They have yarn from different nordic countries, Norway, Finland, Estonia, etc. They also hold some more international brands, like Rowan, Debbie Bliss, etc. I got a few cheap balls of sock yarns. Sock yarns are always the best 'souvenir yarn'. You know exactly what kind of project you are going to use that (socks!), they are small and you will always remember the destination whenever you wear the socks.

This trip is not just ALL about yarn, I did visit some churches...

Then, I went on to the National Museum of Finland. There are a few interesting items I want to share with you.

These jewellery are made with wires. They kind of roll the wires into balls and put them in together like beads, very interesting concept.

Of course, as we know, spindle has been there for a long time, look at these from the Viking time.

Carder from the Viking time...

That's how the women supposed to look like. I wonder if she is a spinner too?

Very beautiful fashion back then if you ask me, here is the male outfit of the same period...

I realise the nordic people have a thing to metalworks. Look at these beautiful craftmanship...

Here you got an ancient calendar...

Finland has been part from Russian, Sweden and Germany during different period of time in their history. Even with these beautiful jewellery, you will be able to see the different influences from all these cultures.

Beautiful stainedglass of the National Museum building...

...and the impressive ceiling...

On the second floor, you have the history of people, a section about how they live, work, play before.

As you spinners already know, spinning wheel is a very important object in our lives back then...

But spinning is more than just functional, look at these amazing distaffs, then you see what I mean...

...because sometimes the tools themselves are arts in their own rights.

Look at these felting board...

These lazy kates made modern version look like a joke...

At the end of the visit comes the souvenir shop time, there is something really funny I found in the shop. I saw that and I didn't understand what it was for. So I went to ask the lady at the counter. She told me this is a wool angel.

Will anyone of you know what a wool angel does? Coz if it will bring me more yarn if I put on the window or something, I will definitely do it.

While I was about to leave, I spotted the broken glass on the door and I went like, 'Jesus, someone got to fix it...' until I realised it is part of the exhibit!

The piece of glass was broken by a bullet during Finnish civil war.

(to be continued...)

Yarncat Fiber Trip 2009 (7) Helsinki

2009-11-28T21:52:00.009Z

Right after the craft fair, I wasted no time, I had a date with the knitters in Helsinki, so here I come-the ferry to Helsinki...

I didn't expect it would be such a big ship with so many floors.

In the supermarket, there were so many Finnish products...

No, I still haven't got used to the idea of reindeer eating...

After a little more than two hours on the ferry with whole lots of stuff to see and chatted with friends on the internet (they have broadband on the ferry! That makes me really wonder why can't Eircom in Ireland can't even manage to make the broadband in my house works sometimes while people in that part of Europe have internet on ferry!), I arrived to Helsinki.

Wasting no time, I immediately went to the Stitch and Bitch Helsinki!

They are a wonderful crowd of knitters. I also love the fact that they are such a big group! You are going to see more about them in the coming days when we will go on a knitting tram event together.

After the Stitch and Bitch, I went back to the hotel.

Apparently this is a hotel with a huge awareness on environmental protection, I really enjoyed my stay there. One of the things I find it amazing is they even think about people who suffers from allergies like myself! All the fiber used in the room are natural, I have never been in a hotel where I feel so comfortable and free of allergies. I will definitely go back there if I go to Helsinki again.

Look, you can even sort your trash in the bin in your room, amazing...

Waking up in the morning, having a wonderful breakfast in the hotel with organic products and fair trade products, I headed to the city centre to poke around.

Here I stopped by the market square.

Have you noticed that there was a fur trader on the right? Here comes a conversation I had with the man.

Man: 'Hi!'
Yarncat: 'Hi! It's lovely...'
Man: 'Yep, this one is white fox, this one is red fox...etc'
Yarncat: 'What do you mean? Are they fake?'
Man: '???......Nope, there is no fake here, they are all real fur!'
Yarncat: '.............they are nice, but.......have a good day.' (ran away)

Yes, it totally freaked me out, I have never seen real fur before and I am a volunteer in an animal shelter, no judgemental, but fur is not my thing, sorry.

While I was poking around town sightseeing...

...I was really impressed how safe Helsinki seems to be, can you tell me what's wrong with this photo?

Yes, the bikes have only one lock! In Dublin, you will need 5!

While I was just walking around, I walked by this...

Come on! With your trained knitters' eyes, you should be able to see it now!

Sypressi is a beautiful shop. Half of the shop devoted to already knitted stuff while half of the shop devoted to yarn from all the nordic countries. I got a few ball of very special yarn from this shop, the lady is extremely nice and we talked about knitting...

I have also found one funny items from the already-made section...

Cat socks! I am seriously considering to make myself some of these...

The lady also showed me what she was working on...

I think it is probably a good idea for Helsinki weather...

Yarncat Fiber Trip 2009 (6) MardiLaat Craft Fair, Tallinn (continued 2)

2009-11-25T19:38:00.003Z

(continued from yesterday...)

Apart from knitting, weaving and spinning, there were also a lot of amazing Estonian embroidery works everywhere. in the show.

One of the artists is into using knitted pattern on plastic and paper products. A wonderful idea for knitters who didn't have time to knit...

More different crafts in the show, ceramics...

Weaved products, blanket, ribbons, etc...and knitter...

Woodworks...

Basketry and tied-dye...

Carding...

Isn't it amazing how knitting has become an international language? We all use the same ball winder! I have just the same one!

Lunch time, yoooo hoooo!!!!!!!

No, it is not an ordinary glass of orange juice. This is sea-buckthorn juice. Sea-buckthorn apparently is the little thing in that box on the right. It tastes 99& like orange juice and have even more vitamin than orange juice! I love the drink.

Sandwiches made with farm-made butter, bread, smoked ham, etc...yum!

Traditional Estonian home-made beer. The great thing is, the alcohol level is almost 0. It is good for lunch time.

Natural farm honey, I got some of them, I wish I could get more. As a matter of fact, I am drinking a mug of warm honey as I am typing this right now!

All in all, the fair was a wonderful experience to me, I don't know when could I participate again, but if you are planning on going to Tallinn, try to do that when the fair is on. It is definitely worth it.

Yarncat Fiber Trip 2009 (5) MardiLaat Craft Fair, Tallinn (continued)

2009-11-24T12:59:00.001Z

(continued from yesterday...)

Apart from looking at the yarn and all the woolly stuff, knitters themselves also worth mentioning too. I have never been to a craft fair where so many knitters are actually in action...

Of course, there are also weavers in action since this year's theme is weaving afterall...

During the whole time when everyone is browsing around looking at different crafts, there is Estonian live band playing on the stage...

Now, let's look at some interesting woolly stuff..

Beautiful felting works well done...

Felt dolls...

Beautiful Estonian knitting with nupps, lying around everywhere...

I know I said 'woolly' stuff, but apparently linen is a very common to use in the Baltic states, I see them everywhere. I didn't get any linen yarn at the end since I am not familiar with their nature and I don't know what to do. But I will keep in mind to try them in the future.

As I said yesterday, there are so many other crafts in the fair that are so interesting as well, like woodworks and ceramics...

Natural beewax candles...

Ceramic beadings...

Metalworks...

There is one thing I am not too used to though...the fur traders. Having animal skins lying around freaked me out a little...though the guy's outfit is really nice, I think.

(to be continued tomorrow...)

Yarncat Fiber Trip 2009 (4) MardiLaat Craft Fair, Tallinn

2009-11-23T20:12:00.009Z

I didn't even know about the Craft Fair until the German knitters told me they came to Tallinn explicitly for this.

I asked my Estonian friend Helen what it was all about, she said, "ah, it's just craft stuff, nobody cares..." Then I told myself, "that's what usually the native says about interesting things. I used to say the same thing about Eiffel Tower, I'll go and have a look".

The fair is a bit outside the city centre of Tallinn in the Saku Suurhall stadium. But Helen's driving class is in the area, so we go there together. She goes to her class and I go to my fair.

The moment I enter the fair, I am so glad that I came! Look at this!

Everything is traditional Estonian and with your trained knitters' eye, you should have spotted YARN already, haven't you?

Before going crazy on the yarn stuff, let's have a look at the other passion of mine, food! They are all local products from farms, I already know what I was going to eat for lunch, hehehe...

Here you have this nice gentleman selling traditional Estonian smoked meat and sausages...

Ok, we can't wait any longer, we have to look at YARN! This year's theme apparently is about weaving, they decorated the venue of a lot of weaving stuff...

Look! KNITTING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Notice that she is actually starting an Estonian shawl?

Of course, there is yarn everywhere!

This lady made really nice Estonian gloves with traditional embroidery. I don't normally buy gloves made by other people because of knitter's pride, but I know I can't do embroidery like that, so I decided to support the knitter and bought a pair. The blue flower on this pair of gloves that she is holding is the Estonian national flower.

Here you have spinning, notice the people are wearing traditional Estonian clothes?

No, I didn't buy the whole fleece, no...

Felting...

Weaving...

Here you have some finished products, Estonian traditional weaving used in a modern context...

Apart from different kinds of fiber arts, there are other crafts in the fair too. Like traditional Estonian music, I don't know how to call this instrument, I wish someone can tell me.

There are quite a few of metalwork counters too...

(more photos to come tomorrow...)

Yarncat Fiber Trip 2009 (3) The other half?

2009-11-22T19:40:00.003Z

After the Stitch and Bitch, I decided to walk back to my hotel. While I was poking my nose into different shop windows on the way, I saw this...

I guess someone really got a sense of humour in Tallinn, two lost gloves make one pair...

Yarncat Fiber Trip 2009 (2) Stitch and Bitch Tallinn

2009-11-21T18:16:00.003Z

There is no official Stitch and Bitch in Tallinn, but through Ravelry, we managed to meet up with some Estonian knitters. There were also some German knitters (Susann and Petra, hello!) who happened to be in town as well. So we all got together in Pronksi yarn shop in De la Gardie shopping centre.

We had so much fun together and Anu (the owner of the shop, the one who has blond hair in the photo) is really really nice. There are so many variety of yarn in the shop and many of them are in the cones. The price is also very reasonable. Next time when you are in Tallinn, make sure to check it out.

Yarncat Fiber Trip 2009(1) LYS in Tallinn, Estonia

2009-11-20T20:03:00.004Z

So I arrived in Tallinn, Estonia.

Growing up in the 80s, I spent my childhood watching Estonian rally to fight for their independance on the TV. Little Yarncat thought, 'this place seems to be so cold and so much chaos, I will NEVER go to places like that...' But you can never know in life. It turns out I met an Estonian girl the first day I arrived in Paris to start my European life. We have been good friends ever since. She has been asking me to go there to visit for years but I have yet done so. Now that I have decided to go on the self-employed path, I have more flexibility on my schedule. I can decide whenever I want to be on holiday. So there I go, to Tallinn to see my friend (and yarn...).

My fiber trip started from Tallinn, Estonia.
The first day I arrived to Tallinn, my friend (non-knitter) was already very well aware of the purpose of my trip===> YARN!

So my friend brought me here...

The lady who runs the shop is amazing knitter (she was knitting when I got in) and they have a huge selection of yarn from different nordic countries, Estonia, Norway, Finland, etc. The atmosphere in the shop is very nice and modern. Half of the shop is devoted to sell knitted items, Estonian shawl, sweater, hats, etc.

The shop is very crochet-friendly and felting-friendly as well. There are a lot of felting fiber and felting finished products on display.

To be honest with you, I don't remember EXACTLY the address of Joller Craft and Wool since it is in the Old Town and all the little streets are very confusing. But I can tell you it is around Väike-Karja. Go and ask people around that area, it really worths the while because the surprise is...there are two shops across the street of each other!

Across Joller, there is another yarn shop which is more old-fashioned, there are a lot of novelty yarn and stuff. But if you are into stocking up on needles, they have a huge selection upstairs. You have to ask the people downstairs to show you up in their warehouse. Addi Turbo is like 4 Euros a pair.

Knitting and Stitching Show Dublin 2009

2009-11-19T11:04:00.000Z

Since I started my own cat care business, I am very well aware of the fact that holiday seasons will be the peak time of my business. I probably won't be able to spend as much time celebrating holidays anymore and even less travelling. So I decided to take a break in November and do stuff I like, which at the end, leads me to take part in whole series of yarn-related events.

I started my yarn holiday by attending a workshop at the Knitting and Stitching Show Dublin 2009.

I have attended the Lucet workshop by the Lucet master Ziggy Rytka.

The class was fun and opened my eyes to a new craft. I am looking forward to use some cords in my knitting and sewing projects in the future.

The surprising news is, I didn't even get much yarn from the show this year. First of all, there are still yarn from last year's show in my stash. More importantly, I was going to Estonia to see my friends and will visit Latvia and Finland. I knew I would have more than enough yarn to buy during this trip! (It turned out I got more than I thought I would of course...) I will tell you all about the trip in the coming days, there will be knitting tram event and knitting supermarkets I visited and so much more!

Cork City continued

2009-11-18T22:57:00.006Z

The second day during our stay in Cork City, we have visited the university...

And we ran into more cats...

This is probably the biggest can of Beamish I will ever see in my life...

After passing by the Beamish factory, it reminds us to have our one drink too! The big one for the Man and the small one for Yarncat...

Cork City

2009-11-17T05:44:00.003Z

So that's where we stayed in Cork.

We got a really nice view from our window. Very calm and peaceful. To me, it is very European.

The next day, as usual, we just like to relax and walk around the city. We went to the English Market.

There is even a joke store, it is so Irish.

We also walked around the market place...

there we've found them...

Can't see what I mean? There they are...

Next time, if you pass by this shop in Cork, say hi to them...

Hi after so long!

2009-11-16T22:31:00.005Z

Hi everyone! (if there is still anyone out there)

Sorry for not blogging for soooooooo long. It's been really busy for the past few months as I started my cat care business since last post.

Nothing is really stable yet and I am still worried about how money is going to come in and more importantly go out.

Also, I got married a few weeks back, so it has all been crazy over at Yarncat's home!

Since I am a professional cat sitter now which means I will not be able to travel on holiday seasons, so I decided to take a break after the past few months of hard work.

I haven't done much knitting neither, but I am catching up big time. If you keep an eye on this space, tons of finished knitting projects will come up.

I started my holiday by going to Cork with my new husband.

On the way to Heuston Station, we realised there was no Luas, we didn't know what it was, we decided to walk, then we were stopped by something...

...Dublin Marathon.

It was impossible to cross the this crowd, so we waited...

I got really excited by the festive atmosphere and started taking photos for everyone...

...but the Man was annoyed...

Finally we did get to Cork...

By the time we got there, it was kind of dark already, but I know what is important, I went to Vibes and Scribes.

I got some corn fiber yarn and some alpaca yarn, my knitting inspiration started to come back to me and it turned out to be a series of incidents when whole bunch of knitting started to rush back into my life...(to be continued)

Catercise

2009-06-15T14:22:00.000+01:00

Happy life

2009-06-13T21:34:00.000+01:00

How can life be better than that?

Homemade salad...with homemade cheese, homegrown green and homegrown herbs.

Kitties playing...

It's quite a touching scene, isn't it? Two cats finally played and enjoyed a game together. Looks fun.

Moving in my office

2009-06-12T14:01:00.000+01:00

Those of you who are following this blog should know I am figuring out a way to get out of the 9-5. Since I am a crazy cat lady, I have decided to be in a 'cat business'. Today, I finally feel I am one step ahead getting there...setting up my office.

The office corner is just in the guest room but it is very significant to me. It means I am finally doing it!

I am not just doing it, I am also assembling it too. (read: I have to put up the office myself with bear hands...thanks to modern consumerism with no customer service whatsoever) To celebrate this moment of self-empowering, I have taken some photos.

In one hour, I have turned this...

...into this.

It doesn't look much like an office for the 'cat business'? How about now?

The process of putting up my office got me thinking about two things.

1. Geez, how much I enjoy doing actual things with hands for myself! It feels so great to be doing something for my own benefit and stop worrying about other people's benefit!

2. No matter how much I try not to think about it. I am my father's daughter. I have never got any training whatsoever on DIY, but there seems to be a build-in part of my brain that tell me exactly what I should do whenever DIY occasions arise. Assembling an office is no big deal, but there have been other occasions to install a lock, fix the cupboard in the kitchen, etc. Maybe what people said is true. 'No matter how much you try not to be, you still got a bit of your parents in you'.

Anyway, now that I have my office, I have to get going to act bring in business. And that's the tough part.

More kitten picture

2009-06-11T13:54:00.000+01:00

Who can have enough of kitten pictures?

There you have some more...

Larmlarm: Geez, this kiddy is so annoying, why does he always need to come to sleep next to me whenever I need some chilled out time?

(Kitten slowly falling asleep)

Larmlarm: Ok, whatever, I sleep...

Kitties dialogue

2009-06-02T21:20:00.000+01:00

Kitten: Meow, Larmlarm, give me a lick, give me a lick, give me a lick...

Kitten: Meow, are you listening to me, give me a lick, give me a lick, give me a lick...

Kitten: Oh! Someone is looking!

Look at this face, how can anyone in sane mind leave him in a puddle in the rain to die?

Kitty touching moment

2009-06-01T21:14:00.000+01:00

I have always thought that Larmlarm the king is a self-centred cat who won't accept other cats in his life.
However, I realise that you can never underestimate how much cats can be understanding, considering and loving to the little ones.
Look at them...

I didn't know how much I was going to enjoy this fostering business and I was also curious to know how Larmlarm was going to react to another cat. Turns out, no matter what people said about cats being selfish. They are not so selfish afterall. They are willing to take care of the young and be tolerant, even being a male! Well, you can't even say that much for some human being...

Homemade Pizza

2009-05-31T12:49:00.006+01:00

Yesterday we talked about how knitting got me into the whole new way of living, which I have never imagined before when I first picked up the needles. What have knitting done to you? Please leave a comment.

Today, new way to think about pizza night.

Back then before the birth of crafty me, I would order take away pizza. In Dublin, the price would be around 16 Euros. Now I would make my own for about 4 Euros.

Here is how it goes:

1. Make a dough (I cheated, I used bread machine by I am not a purist homesteader.) and kneed into a circle. = less than 1 Euro

2. Shamrock Tomato Puree - support local product. = less than 1 Euro

3. Go around and put on the dough.

4. Put mushrooms that happened to be in my fridge. = less than 1 Euro

5. Cheese from the fridge. = less than 1 Euro

6. Put basils from my veggie garden. = can't put a price on it, I mean I did pay for the dirt and stuff, never mind.

7. Ta-da!

I know some of the crafty reader among you will say, 'hey, it is really no big deal, homemade pizza.' Guess what? I totally agree with you and that's the whole point of it. It is no big deal! But why didn't we do that before? And why most people out there don't do that? People would rather, spend that 16 Euros ordering pizza from the chain started with an 'A' if they are in Dublin (and honestly doesn't taste very good and we all know that), than making it themselves.

With the whole financial crisis caused by the questionable economic model, we should really all sit down and think, do we really need to keep on spending money? What have these delusional believes that we are free because we have a job, we have a salary, we can spend money the way we want, got us into? A house full of stuff that we might not need; 8 to 10 hours a day of servitude; to some of us - a debt. Instead, we could live our life in true freedom with stuff that we only need in the house; spend less money by thrift shopping, make do and mend; work less to fit in your own schedule so that you can spend more time outside with the wonderful sunshine and sea breeze, your family or your pets. Look at all these, the fact that I have to worry how my business is going constantly, might just be worthy...

Apartment Homestead

2009-05-30T13:21:00.021+01:00

If you are reading this blog, the chance is you know I knit. (duh)

For those of you who knit will understand how enpowering it is to realise what you can do with your hands after all these years living in a society where we are trained to be consumers. Many of us got addicted to this 'high' of satisfaction. Among some of us, the creativity take a life of itself. After knitting, some of us got hooked on spinning, crocheting, sewing, beading, etc. It was no exception for me but I guess my addiction has totally changed my life....literarily.

So after knitting, I started on crocheting, I made a few simple projects. This addiction never got really big. Then I started on spinning since everyone said being able to make your own yarn will allow you to have more choice on fiber content, the quality of yarn and you also said it is very relaxing. I like relax, so I got this. Then, I got into sewing. I got a few projects done and then I started to be really busy that I didn't blog very much, I will post those in due course.

After realising that my hands can be more useful than typing on the computer in an office all day, it got me thinking. I am sure many of you guys been through that stage too! 'Can I do something with my hands and earn a living? I enjoy doing what I do so much more than staring at the screen all day in a cubicle farm!' My answer to this is, I know I cannot be a professional crafter. I enjoy what I do but more in a lifestyle way than in a commercial way. If I have to knit for a living, I know I wouldn't enjoy it as much. Maybe I am a selfish person, I just simply can't give my handknit away! No, not even for money.

But it does get me thinking each time when I was about to buy something, 'can I make this?' This way of thinking has literarily totally changed my life. Instead of thinking of buying immediately, I start by thinking of I can make something first. Sometimes, I would try to think of ways to get around with it. Instead of throwing away a pair of broken jeans, maybe I can cut it and turn it into a shopping bag? This wonderful T shirt which got lovely pattern, maybe I can turn it into dishcloth? cushion? carpet if I got many of these and weave them together?

Then it got me to realise how much I hate working in an office like a working bee, soon after we got the global financial crisis confirmed that we are indeed disposable working bees. Then I said, 'feck that and I have to have control of my life instead of someone dispose of me one day like a garage because they have lost certain billions by bad decision'. (The truth that I understand by working in a corporate is that, you are not a human but a figure, if they need to cut cost and layoff 300 people, then they close their eyes and pick 300 people. They won't care if you have a dying mother, a baby to feed or whatever life situation you are in, coz you don't have a life in the corporate world, you are a number.) So it got me into an escape path to self-employed. I am sure being self-employed have a lot of tough side, but at least I got my own schedule, I work when I need to, not to stare at the screen to pretend I am busy when there is nothing to do and at the end of it, I got the last bit of dignity to know when I will be starving instead of someone dispose of me.

Then I came across this blog. And finally I got into this...

The man and I have been havesting the ever growing butterhead salad. As you can see in the photos, there are herbs, beans and peas growing strong. Here you got the tomatoes, pepper, rockets, more herbs. Larmlarm the King seems to be enjoying the veggie garden very much, maybe it is in their instinct to love the big nature.

Our first ever homegrown dinner.

No, not the potato, we didn't grow them, we will one day though...

Here it is, butterhead salad with baby leaves, potato salad with parsley and omelette with chives.

And you knew what I was going to say, homegrown veggie taste so much better.

Yarn Hunt in Paris

2009-05-29T13:09:00.009+01:00

I was in Paris the whole last week to get some medical things done. The almost non-existence of health care in this country makes me realise how close I feel to my adopted country - France, where people are helpful, non-judgemental and smiley in health care sectors. Most importantly, you don't have to pay very much. My adventurous years in France deserves another blog by itself, but today we are going to talk about yarn!

If you were going to Paris, La Droguerie is a must to visit. Since photo-taking is not allowed, I can only tell you, you have to go, just go! They only sell their own brand of yarn and there are piles and piles of quilt fabric if you are into that. There are also huge selection of beads, buttons, ribbons. It is a crafter heaven. What I got this time is 100g (yes, they sell yarn by weight) of Laine de Terroir from France. The wool is a bit of the rough side but I love the character of it. Plus, comparing to the wool from Ireland, it is so much softer, so I knitted up a hat quickly in a few days, I call it Terroir.

I swear the following two photos are not posed, it just happened.

(Attention to cat lovers in Dublin: This little kitten is being fostered at my home for 4 more weeks, after that he will be ready to be rehomed by DSPCA. If you are falling in love with him, please be in touch, he is a lovely guy who loves loads of attention and love, he wouldn't leave me alone, so if you are looking for a lap cat, he is the one.)

Of course, there is always Larmlarm the King...

Foster Parents

2009-05-17T23:14:00.005+01:00

We got a call Saturday morning from DSPCA looking for foster family for a 4 weeks old cat. I was a bit hesitated as I was due to fly to Paris to get some medical thing done, but the man said YES immediately so I thought it could be fun. So we went to the shelter that afternoon and found him.

Look at how small he is, a better photo.

Since he doesn't have a name yet and I am just fostering him for 6 weeks, I just call him 'kitten'.

We are going to have a lot of fun. I feel like I am renting a cat as I know he is not going to stay and the shelter provides all the food and supplies. I immediately realise it is brillant and will bring such a great satisfaction providing a nice home for a kitten in need. A nice way to prepare them to find a new home.

Animal CSI Workshop

2009-04-28T09:55:00.008+01:00

I have attended the Animal CSI Workshop organized by DSPCA last Friday.

I actually almost couldn't make it because all the admin people in the office are either on holiday or sick. But as I said, my boss is the nicest boss ever, he let me go and do receptionist himself. See? I am not happy with my work not because of the people nor the stuff I do. I am ok with that. It is the whole corporate way that makes everyone the same that pisses me off. My boss is a kind man and he offered to do that because there was not many people in the office that Friday and he was the boss in the office. I am sure if he was travelling and I would ask the second-in-charge, he would have said no. (It has actually happened before) Because in the corporate world, everyone is trying to cover their arses. I am not blaming them because they are victims themselves - bi-product of the corporate way of management, making everyone generic. Anyway, I hate you Corporate World!

Back to about the workshop...

It was such a great feeling again to be with a room full of people who all cares about animal cruelty. There were vets, vet nurses, cops, social workers, SPCA inspectors, etc. I felt so at ease to be with these people. And for once, I am not the 'weird one' who cares about the animal.

I was listening to the lecture from 9-5, I didn't feel one second sleepy or bored or anything that like (unlike the time in the Corporate). I was so excited that I almost couldn't even eat my lunch. I was also knitting while listening to the lecture, no one stared at me nor asked silly questions. Then I started day dreaming about if IT is my life, a life as self-employed an animal behaviourist, going to conferences, lectures, cat-sitting that fit into my schedule, knitting while doing all that. That's not too bad at all! I need to have a life like that!

Then come Monday, back to the Corporate, feeling worse than ever, it's like people giving prisoner a taste of freedom and lock them back in. That's how I feel, I feel worse than before. The urge to get out of here is bigger than ever.

My first animal conference

2009-04-23T12:45:00.010+01:00

I have attended my first Association of Dogs and Cats Homes Conference yesterday.

Actually I have only half attended because I couldn't get out of work (all administrative staff is either on holiday or ill, I was alone), but I am happy enough to be there for at least part of it.

The conference was held in O'Reilly hall in University College Dublin. Look! It's a nice place, isn't it?

I couldn't make most of the lecture, I could only make the evening event for the exhibition, networking and dinner.

So I arrived at the registration and found my pass there. It felt so good that my name is actually on a conference pass for an animal conference. It gave such a I-am-in-this-new-business feeling. I browsed around other people's names, they are all from different existing animal companies or organisation, I was the only one without a company name. I felt a bit uncomfortable at the beginning knowing that I would probably be the one who know the least about this business, but I didn't feel too nervous, I mean I might not know about animal business but I do know how to go to conferences, I have been some because of my work, so I figured it would be too different.

I started browsing around, talking to exhibitors, played animal care professional. It was fun and great to know it is one step closer to my self-employed road to this new and exciting industry. Though I had difficulty to remember that I AM in this business now and presented myself differently from my day-job. Instead of sayingm, 'Hi, I work for xxx bank', I have to say, 'Hi, I am starting a pet-sitting business, how are you doing?' Some practice is definitely needed.

I met quite a few people from DSPCA, it was great to see them again and hanged out with them during the dinner. I have never ever seen the vegetarian option during a hot-folk dinner to be the first one that needed refilled! Hey, it is an animal care conference!

It was so great to be with whole bunch of people in this business in the same room, talked to different people who care about animal, passionate about their welfare, bringing new products to the market for the animals and their human companion, etc. Everything is new to me and exciting. I am so glad to be there.

Plus, there is always the goodie bag...

( Proof of co-existance of day-job and 'road to self-employed' : business suitcase thing behind the conference bag)

Question: Is it weird to be so happy to have a bottle of 'URINE OFF' and a box of cat treats in my bag?

I am officially in this business.

Corporate so-called care to the community

2009-04-21T13:32:00.006+01:00

I have told you, the 'What-the-f...' corporate moments just keep coming up. Maybe it is me. Well, it is me who got really pissed off by the system and seeing more pissed off things everywhere.

Today we have been told that we are encouraged and entitled to two days off per year, to volunteer in organisation that is working on aspects in the community that the corporate committed to. (The last sentence is a bit long and difficult to understand, right? See what we have to put up with sometimes with these corporate people). Or you can claim the hours of other causes that you are passionate about. The reason is of course they care about the community, also they can claim the hours we work in those organisations as expenditure.

I have been volunteering in the animal rescue shelter for a few months now, so I spoke up and said, well, you guys can claim my hours and I got the days off.

Guess what they said? (I swear, I have all respect to the person who said that coz he is one of the best boss I have ever had) They are not sure if animal rescue is along the line of 'caring about the community'.

I am not fresh out from college, of course I understand the whole thing behind all these committment to the community blah blah is about corporate images and stuff. But 'animal rescue is not along the line of caring about the community' is just too much for me to take in under my current 'anti-corporate' mood.

I am back!

2009-04-20T10:19:00.005+01:00

Guys, I know I have been disappeared for a while. There have been a lot of things going on for the past few months since my last entry, starting by crazy Christmas knitting...

I don't know if I shall do this Christmas knitting thing again. I thought it would be fun, but it turns out (like many of you have already known) to be very stressful to make sure everyone is happy. I am a PA by trade, it is stressful enough as it is to make sure everyone in the office is happy with the Christmas party! (turns out, like every year, they are NOT happy, there is always someone...)

Then January, I was still struggling with my Christmas knitting, depressing January, I don't have to go in details, you know what I mean.

February, the coursework from my Cat Behaviour course starts to roll on (I will tell you the details in the coming days, coz it is so funny that it deserves separate entries).

March, the big trip back to Hong Kong. I was so freaked out that my man won't like my hometown, won't like my folks (vice versa of course), my friends will think I am an alien because I don't dress the same, etc.

I have been feeling a bit depressed after all these months, it is a long story, will you get a cup of coffee or tea and listen?

Here is how it goes...my grandmother was seriously ill in the hospital in December, well, she was dying, we all knew that. You know when you got to the point that all of your family couldn't do anything but wait? On top of that, as you can imagine, there will always be legal stuff regarding to inheritance for time like that. People are crying, fighting, etc. I am sure I am not alone, it happens to a lot of family.

However, I realise one thing is not right. I went to work every day, I have to put on a smiley face.

Some people in the office knows about the story, but I work in a bank. Those of you who work in a corporate environment will see what I mean. In the corporate world, there is just a lack of human touch that you are SUPPOSED to have a smiley face. You are SUPPOSED to be professional, banker looking, etc. I don't know if it has ever happened to you that you sit down and think, 'hey, that's not right, I am a human being!' Then the ball starts rolling. I realise working in a corporate environment is not right. I am sure many of you feel very comfortable about it, but I realise I don't. I hope I can explain myself clearly. Imagine if I were to work in a shop in a village or I am a farmer, the whole village of people won't expect me to smile and chat away while they know my grandma is dying, right? That's what I am saying if you see where I am getting to.

I just can't stop thinking about this subject. I talked to Stephanie from a LYS the YarnRoom. One of the thing she said keep haunting me. She said, 'I have tried all these, being corporate people and all, but I am so happy now to be running my little yarn store.' I looked at this woman standing in front of me, in the cold and rain of Ireland, minding her little booth in the Sunday farmer market, she is contented. She went on to say, 'because you know all your efforts goes to your own benefit, not of the other, that's a good feeling.'

As if it is a sign from some superior power, I fell into the story of Jenna Woginrich, then I just come to an awareness that, 'hey, I am not alone to feel that; spending most of your waking hours in a cubicle farm, staring at the screen, dressing the way you are supposed to and pretending you love the company, etc; is not humaine!' Especially all the financial crisis that happened since then makes us realise, we are just a number on a piece of paper to those corporate executives. Hey, crap, I do have a number, that's the number I use to communicate with some far away IT help desk people when my computer has a problem. To the company, I am not my name, I am the number. There are people around me who worked for certain companies for 10 years, they have a laugh and share 8 hours every day with their colleagues and bosses, one day, they could come to you and said, we are going bankrupt, sorry, don't come back tomorrow, we won't be able to pay. A company with 20 staff won't go bankrupt in one day, it is just bad behaviour not to tell people until the last minute if you ask me.

However, this enlightment is not totally a pleasant thing, because now, I am just thinking of GETTING OUT OF HERE every day! It is driving me insane!

It is all too depressing. I couldn't bring myself together to write about all these until today because there was just too many things happened in my head in one go that I wasn't sure I could put them down without sounding negative. Thanks to some of you who left comments to cheer me up on my writing, I am back here today and will be around from now on.
I am not just sitting here and whining about my life though, I do have an action plan! Once I finish my first year of Cat Behaviour study, I will start up a cat sitting company to serve the Dublin area. I would rather to be working with cats and their owner who care about the same thing as I do than figures, targets and balance sheet. So if anyone of you are looking for a cat sitter with professional training, I am here!

I am so going to read these books and rest assured that the topic of my road to self-employment will keep coming back from now on.

My thought on babies

2008-11-05T11:45:00.010Z

I don't have a baby yet and I am not sure I will ever have one.

Having observed how kids are like nowadays, it freaks me out. I used to babysit for a family when I first arrived in Paris as a student. The 14-year-old girl had more boyfriends in one go than I had ALL MY LIFE together. The 10-year-old boy played porno games on computer and the parents said it's fine.

I thought it was because I have a very conservative upbringing but as I have found out, it isn't me. It is just that parenthood is very different from what it was like before.

I know you are going to say, 'hey, you have never been a mother, you can't judge others'. I can't of course not. But even I am not a mother, I wouldn't understand how can a girl close the front door of the house on her mother's face because her mother said no to buying yet another toy. I wouldn't have allowed that. Our parents didn't allow us, did they?

Glad that I am not alone in thinking parents are too permissive nowadays, other bloggers apparently agree. (I thought I am a witch or something to think that girl who closed the door on her mother's face was a devil!)

I can also understand that both parents are working nowadays and they want to give them as much as they can to compensate for the fact that they are not there for the children more time than they could. I also know that a lot of women have children very late in their lives and it is some sort of achievement they feel, etc. I understand all these.

But darlings, letting your kids do whatever they want and you being obsessed about them is not helping. You don't need to be a mother to know that. You just need to be a sane adult to know.

Just to be clear, I am NOT against all parents, I am just talking about 'baby-people'. Do you have those 'baby-people' around you who can talk only about their babies? They don't have hobbies or anything else to talk about. They don't talk about their jobs or their own lives in general, they just talk about their babies. 'Oh, you can't believe it, she sat up yesterday!' 'Man, he slept the whole night through last night, it's big progress, isn't it?' Do you have one or many of those people around you? Honestly, I don't know about you, but I wonder if anyone out there apart from themselves the parents, close family member and close friends will care about if the above-quoted baby have slept through the whole night.

I remember my dad told me a story when I was little. (My dad is a good story-teller, he likes to tell stories).

Once upon a time, there was this evil boy who was a bully in the village. His parents were rich and he was the only son. They let him does whatever he wanted. But they were rich and they got him a job as the officer of court (it is a Chinese story, we got officer of court to represent the king in different regions). He messed around and stole money from the government, etc. He finally got into jail and on the death roll. It broke his mother heart. She went to see him and asked him, 'darling, what do you need?' She tried to touch his face across the bar in the jail. He came forward and bit part of the flesh from her arm off. She cried and wondered, 'why do you do that darling?' He said, 'it is ALL your fault, why didn't you teach me what is right and what is wrong? Now, I am on the death roll, you kill me, you are the murderer!!!'

The story is a bit bloody, to the contrary of what European thinks about us being zen and all, many of Chinese traditional stories are bloody. Apologies if the story freaked you out a little. However, I hope the freak-out effect will make you think a little, just as it did to me when I was little.

Here is another thing, try to be obsessed over other things that matter in your life, eg. knitting, cars, stamps, model trains whatever and talk about these stuff around the clock with people. What will people do? People won't take it. But if you talk about babiessssss, then people will think you are a witch if you don't listen to them. What has the world become? But then again, the 'baby-people' is just one of the fuck up things we have in the world nowadays. If you keep an eye on this blog, I will eventually talk about them. Or, rather, those things will eventually pissed me off enough to deserve a blog entry.

In the meantime, hey, why can't I talk about my baby the whole freaking day long? Look at him, isn't he cute? What? You have a baby and he is my baby. If I choose not to have children and have cats, you should respect me as much as I respect you and let me talk about my cat the whole freaking day long, alright? Try again, look at him, he might be a bit more hairy than yours but he is real nice. He won't grow up and call you from a police station to ask for a bail. No matter how much you spoil him, tell him he is a king or a god or he doesn't have to give a crap about other passengers on the bus.

Knitting and Stitching Show 2008

2008-11-04T11:01:00.021Z

At this corner of Europe, the little emerald of an island has everything you need. Beautiful landscape that provides nutritious food, abundant amount of fresh water from the rain, strong wind to provide power to make electricity, lovely people who can see hope in the most hopeless situation; of course, there are drinks, whisky, guinness, etc.

But the little emerald has only one fiber and craft show a year! Isn't it unbelievable? Think about the amount of Aran sweater this island have produced.

Needless to say, all the hopes of every knitter in this island is on this one show...the Knitting and Stitching Show.

Last year, it has been a big disappointment as there seemed to be more non-craft trader than craft trader on the floor. But this year...this year is something else...

Believe me, there were more than you can see from these photos, just that I was too busy looking at everything that I didn't always remember to take photos. Hey, I walked around the exhibition floor from 11:00 to 16:00 non-stop without lunch, I couldn't have done better, no.

The morning started by attending a seminar with Debbie Bliss in a Georgian style library room in the venue. She talked about the job of being a handknit designer, the creative process and tons of jokes. It is so nice to meet designers in person and realised they are just a fellow knitter, not some unattainable saint figure. She is very funny, very nice and very down to earth and she remembers my sister whom she met in Paris for book signing! Can you see them? On the table, there are finished object from her books for us to try on!

Is there a better way to start a knitting show?

After the seminar, did I decide to have lunch? No. I completely forgot about it and headed straight to the market.

First up, discontinued yarn half price sale from the Black Sheep Company

:

The owner of the stall didn't even mind to be on the photo, see how happy he is?

Then you have stall for yarn storage for those who already have way too much yarn.

You also have many other interesting crafts in the show, like hat making.

There were workshops in many different craft. Here, they are doing needle felting with machines. I have also seen wet felting, silk felting, papercraft, hat making, etc. I will probably join some of those workshops next year, I just didn't even know they have some.

From now on, if there is anymore people arguing about knitting and crocheting being craft or art, they should come look at these exhibition. There is really not much difference between craft and art nor there is any point of arguing about it. Why don't we argue how wrong it is for those people who spend their time watching reality show?

I don't know what it is, if the crocheted coral is not art...

Did I finally remember to have lunch yet? Yes, I did, at 16:00!

So in the canteen area, there is a Knit and Relax corner for people to knit tiny scarf for Simon Communities of Ireland.

Yes, there was a Sister in the show, yes.

After lunch, I went upstair to see the demonstration of different craft associations and guilds.

Isn't it a lovely way to spend an afternoon?

Yes again, there is a huge scarf and a huge ball of yarn hanging down from the ceiling.

Is it just me?

2008-10-30T12:53:00.013Z

When I first started up this blog, I had an intention to talk strictly only about two things: My knitting and cats. The reason is I don't want to get too opinionated and then get angry messages from strangers and all that (you know how it is like on internet nowadays, don't you?)

However, I think I am over it. I am over the fact that there are always people who have nothing better to do than to send you a 'YOU SUCK' message on your blog, no constructive purpose whatsoever.

My sister's blog was number 2 on yahoo.com.hk top 10 blogger two days ago. She got, of course, a lot of heart warming readers, including finding her kindergarten friend back through that. However, as you can already imagine, she got 'you suck and why don't you spend time doing something to save the miserable lives on earth' messages. (I swear I quote the above message!)

I wonder why this person sit his/her ass in front of the computer, sending message to stranger, asking them to 'save the miserable lives on earth', instead of moving his/her ass out of the house and REALLY save those lives him/herself?! Buddy, it is only a blog about knitting and living in Paris as a foreigner. You have a blog, I have a blog, many of us have a blog nowadays, chill the crap out, ok? If you don't like what you see, just click on the top right corner on your screen for PC-user and top left corner on your screen for Mac-user, close the window. It's easy, try that...ciao!

It then brings down to the knitting-related topic. Let's see, how many of you (I assume most of you if not all of you are knitters reading my blog, why else you will read about me?!) got the following conversation at some point in your knitting life?

Stranger/Colleague/someone else: What are you doing there?

Me/You/Knitters: I am knitting. (Thought, I am not swimming, ain't I?)

Stranger/Colleague/someone else: Geez, I thought nobody does that anymore, it's beautiful, my grandma used to....(blah blah blah, omitable)...but I won't have time for this.

I don't know about you, I can't help but wonder (Yes, I sound like SATC now, didn't do that on propose I swear), how do I have time then? Honestly, I have a full-time job, a part-time course, a cat to take care of, am thinking of start up a cat sitter business, I finish a pair of socks in a week JUST using bus-riding time (only 30 minutes from home to office one way)!

Are people that busy nowadays? Or is it just me to notice that these people are actually watching crap TV 3 hours a day and complain about not having time to care about others, spend more time with kids, knit, call their parents, and other nice and important things? Is it just me to notice how much time they spend on the bus reading gossip magazine and staring at the free newspaper full of crap?

I must be honest with you now that I don't owe a TV and I haven't bought newspaper or get free ones for 8 years now. I am not saying it to show that I am holier than someone, I am saying that to show that I might be FREE-R than someone.

I don't owe a TV because I have spent 23 years living in a city where there are TVs everywhere! I mean, seriously, everywhere! Bus, taxi, mini-van, some lifts, on the street, not kidding. So I figure I can do with some peace at home. I love movies and documentaries, I did Film Studies for two terms in college, I watch DVDs, that's all I need.

I don't buy newspapers because 8 years ago I had a conversation with my oil-painting teacher. He said, 'I don't buy newspaper, I prefer to read books, I prefer to be able to choose what I like to read,' everyone in the class was amazed and asked 'how do you know what is happening in the world,' he said (and I remember all my life), 'believe me, you will know. If it is really important, you will know even without buying newspaper, if you don't know them, they are probably not important'.

I tried for 8 years and believe me, he was right. Every day, I know what is happening in the world by hearing from people. If it is something important, then it will be on the top of the page on google if you want to look into it and search for the information.

Believe me, with the free time coming out from gossip, ad, unnecessary information from TV and newspaper, you will have so much more time to care about others, knit or send 'you suck' messages to people's blog if that's what you want or 'spend time doing something to save the miserable lives on earth' or whatever.

NB: No judgement on those of you who love TV, gossip magazine, newspaper and stuff, I am just saying I don't and how do I manage to have time, so if you want to send me angry message on this subject, maybe you REALLY can save time by not doing it, see?

(Larm said: Be nice to each other, I am watching you, maow!)

Irish Knitter Retreat Report

2008-10-29T11:30:00.017Z

The retreat is finished.

Are you expecting a photo journal to report the whole trip?

Have I made one?

The answer is no because I was having WAY TOO MUCH FUN to remember to take photos! But the great thing about being with bunch of knitters is, there is always some careful knitters who will do so!

Please check out the link here if you want to see some photos from the retreat. Thanks to Diane who has generously put up on flickr. She has also put in an entry in here if you are interested to read about what crazy stuff we have done.

Here are a few shots of Yarncat in case some of you are interested what I have done in the retreat:

Yarn Quiz (the one in blue top on the left is me): we are supposed to guess which yarn it is from the samples. Did I win anything? Nope. The good news is I don't owe THAT much yarn to know all the yarn on the sample board. Hehe.

Learning to spin on a spinning wheel: One of the fellow knitter is kind enough to have bought a spinning wheel to the retreat so that we can all try out. How do I feel? I feel like I am learning to ride a bicycle again => panic!

Knit: Yes, that's me knitting socks.

Here it is, we are sewing up the blanket.

the finished blanket with one last shot before handing in to Mairead, the owner of Craig Country House.

See? I am touching the blanket once more before letting it go... it was difficult...

All in all, I have a wonderful wonderful weekend with bunch of likeminded people from all walks of lives. We got a mathmatician, a town planner, a IT professor, a civil engineer, an architect, two nurses, and many other Raveler that I haven't even got enough time to know what they do in their lives. Have I mentioned we were all women? So next time, if anyone gives me the knitters-must-be-grandmas-sitting-on-a-rocking-chair shit, I am going to so give out to them. (Not that there is anything wrong to be a grandma sitting and knitting on a rocking chair to start with!)

Now the difficult part is to wait until next year retreat arrives...

PS. The country house is a very nice place to stay and the host family is very friendly and caring. So if anyone of you want to experience Irish countryside and want to be away from touristic things, you should definite consider it.

Irish Knitters Retreat - ready to go!

2008-10-12T12:36:00.012+01:00

I am so excited! After waiting for so many months, it is finally here! Irish Knitters Retreat!

Stress has been kicking in to make sure I have got enough knitting, yarn, tools, drinks, etc for the trip to come.

We are all supposed to make up a square especially for this trip so that all the sqaures will be sewed up together to make a blanket for this trip as a memory.

I have been trying very hard to think of what to make! Something that represent me and some new technique that I have never tried before...

Here is the result...

No, I am joking! It was the back of my square using intrasia technique. It is my first intrasia project ever. Here is the front:

Look, it is even better after blocking...

Actually, I have kind of cheated since it is not me who have done the design, it is you-know-who (note to those who don't know: the man who is the graphic designer behind YarnCat).

So what does this square said about me? Here is the official entry to the booklet of the retreat I have handed in:

My square has a white background with intarsia cats in purple and green on it. The reason I chose this pattern is very simple: I love cats, I am working on getting a qualification to be Cat Behaviourist. The choice of colour: Purple is the colour of Bauhinia, which is the emblem of Hong Kong and green is for the Shamrock; the symbol of Ireland. It is my first intarsia project so far.

I wonder what will it look like after all of the square got sew up together and how will the trip turns out. Check this space for updates after this weekend.

First handspun FO

2008-09-23T00:05:00.012+01:00

I am blogging a bit less frequently than before recently. Here is the reason why...

Can you see why yet? Yes, my cat is sitting on my computer all the time!

'Hey, are you talking about me? Don't blame me! It is not the real reason!'

Well, ok! It is not the real reason. The real reason is, I have been quite busy recently. Working, studying the Cat Behaviourist course, planning on Christmas knitting, charity knitting, learning to sew, etc. Have been really busy indeed. But you can see one of the FO here today.

Do you remember these?

Yes, my first successfully spun yarn. I have winded them up to become this.

And now, it has become this!

Pattern from the book Spin to Knit, very flexible pattern to show off the energized single that beginner tend to make. Very happy with the project and very happy with the fact that I can successfully spin yarn that can be made into useable item. The experience is unbelievable.

What's next? Tons of project lining up to be done for Christmas. I am not making this up, photo here to prove...

(No, the cat is not helping...)

Yarn Cat at Wicklow Mountains

2008-09-16T11:39:00.026+01:00

Last Saturday, Yarncat went on a Wicklow Tour with the man and the sister.

It was such an amazing experience that I can't even put my feeling in words. To try to do so, I can only tell you - the images of the landscape is still haunting me and today is Tuesday.

Have a look:

I really can't tell you how beautiful the place is. The truth is, even the photos I have uploaded here are not doing the justice how beautiful the landscape truly is. All I can say is, GO just GO, you will be stunned.

If you are going to go on the tour, my piece of advice is, go on this one.

The thing is, there are so many different companies in the market for Wicklow Tour that you get to see all the competitors lining up along O'Connell Street (note to non-Irish readers: the main street of Dublin) at 9 am. You might wonder what is so different about the one I joined?

The difference is I can almost swear it is the best of a tour you can ask for! I am never a tour person, I have joined ONE tour in my life when I was 17 and then I am done! I hate tours, I like to have freedom to wonder around, to have my own adventure, to look for places to see, restaurant to try out, etc. But the Unplugged is so good that I don't feel I am stressed, I am not treated like chickens, and I actually get MORE by joining this tour then going there by myself. The reason is their organisation is excellent. They give you enough free time without too much free time leaving you hanging around bored, the guide is smart, funny and not one time saying something that I found bullshit. He also DJ at the same time on the bus! Playing Ronnie Drew and all sort of Irish songs that go with the landscape at the right time! I swear, at a few point, all these Irishness surrounding me by the music, the green, the idea of me being in this incredible combination of all wet my eyes. I am not exaggrating. Our guide was Damien who was an engineer who have traveled all over the world, he talked about Ireland, environmental issue, Irish people, sometimes actually life in general. It is one of the few talkative people I encounter in my life that I actually want to hear more what he needs to say, that say it all.

Of course, to an obsessive knitter, a tour without yarn is something missed out. There was yarn alright.

The shot of the yarn shelf is actually inside a local woolen mill. Apart from yarn (which is actually a very minor marketing item for them I guess), most of the space instead the shop is selling tourist souvenirs. There is also a coffee shop inside...

Yep, you don't have to rub your eyes, it is not an illusion, it was a spinning wheel...close up...

To anyone of you concerned, I didn't buy anything coz their yarn are in packages and I still got enough Irish wool from Aran Islands for a while.

Apart from final product, you can even get to be close with the producers!

You can get even closer...

Or even closer...

Finally, I think it is one of the biggest jokes I have ever experienced in my life...a lake that looks like a pint of guinness!!! I am not making this up, look at that!!!

I have no religion belief whatsoever, but I guess there must be some 'power' somewhere to bring Irish people such a joke. I mean, it wouldn't be as funny if the lake is somewhere else, right? I wonder who has this idea...

Cat Behaviourist

2008-09-10T19:23:00.005+01:00

Back to school season is on.

Yarncat has joined in the flock to go back to school as well! Yes, I finally did it. I am enrolled to a long distance course on Cat Behaviour with an UK institute. I am officially a part-time student again!

Though I am excited about the future of studying my beloved animals, I am also hit by the amount of bill await for me to pay for the course. Course fee, books, potential travels to animal shelters, conference, etc. Still, I think it worth to try out to do something that I really care and hopefully can get a career out of it.

I am very well aware of the fact that I might have to hang on to a more conventional office job to put food on table all of my life and my animal caring career will never come to a full-time capacity.

BUT, BUT, believe me, it will make your office day goes so much faster if you know there is something else waiting for you in the evening; where you are the boss and you are doing something that you really care.

I will keep you guys update on my pursuing of a career as a Cat Lady.

In the meantime, I wish somebody can tell me how did it happen…

What was he thinking or doing that causes this?

Let’s have a brainstorming here, should we?

1. He was playing and suddenly wanted to go to the bathroom…
2. He was playing while going to the bathroom…
3. He thinks the bathroom wants to play…
4. All of the above

A more artistic photo might help your brainstorming.

Please feel free to leave a comment.

Yarncat in Spain

2008-09-03T21:14:00.026+01:00

I love Spain, I have been there many times, have been more cities in Spain than I realised.

Places Yarncat have been visited in Spain

Click to enlarge

Yet, I keep going back. Food is tasty, meal times are weird, people are special and the weather is lovely. If you have been Spain, you should know what I mean. If you have never been Spain, what are you waiting for? You should go there as soon as possible!

Of course, for many knitters nowadays, a trip to a foreign country is not complete without a local Stitch N Bitch and yarn shopping. Yarncat won’t disappoint you, I have done that both.

Helen is the first friend I made when I moved to Paris. I met her on the second day of my Parisian life and since then, we have been good friends. She moved to Marbella on 2006 and it is my second time to go visit her. (When is she going to come visit? Helen! Are you reading this now?)

So here are some photos I took from Marbella:

Streets of Marbella

(I start to type in orange here to get a Spanish mood, hohohoho)

Orange Square: You got quite a few nice restaurant here where you can eat staring at the orange from the oranges trees around you.

Then you have this beautiful church...

...which is obviously multilingual!

Helen is living up on hill of Marbella, overlooking the sea. If you really pay attention, you can see the triangle of sea from this photo that I took on the balcony of her sitting room. Of course the socks were there too!

Here is where I had tapas, drinks and a bit of knitting before going to the beach. Man you can't go to the beach right then, look the sun! I don't want to die from skin cancer at the age of 30! (I am 28.)

La siesta! See? The street is dead, no kidding...

Before going on my trip, I have been in touch with a fellow Raveler Rachel who lives in the surrounding of Marbella area. I asked her if there is any local Stitch N Bitch and if she knows any LYS around. Turns out there is no regular local Stitch N Bitch so we decided to meet up and do our own for once!

It was a lovely lovely afternoon I have spent with Rachel. She has shown me her LYS and the limited yarn resource she could get from other places -- Chinese hardware stores...

As many of us have already talked about how knitting has linked people from different culture, different background together regardless of lifestyle, nationality, gender, etc. Meeting a complete stranger from Ravelry and turned out to be a lovely experience is yet again a proof of just that. (Rachel, if you are reading this, thank you very much again for the wonderful afternoon, gracias!)

I know I know, you have been waiting for the yarn purchase, here you have it:

The items on the right, are laceweight viscose yarn in gold, green and self-striping purple (at least I believe, I won't know how the colour change turns out right now, will I?) There is even little picture tell you how to pull the yarn out! Duh!

Surprisely, both of them are Italian. I didn't get any Spanish yarn. Too much novelty and I wasn't in the mood for merino. (Reminder: 35 degrees out there)

The 3 balls on the left are self-striping COTTON yarn. You might not understand why I am so excited about this yarn. Then go out and try to buy 100% cotton sock yarn and get back to me. Even better, you can try to find 100% cotton self-striping sock yarn, then you will understand how difficult to find them. You might ask, 'why do you need to buy 100% cotton then?' I'll go, 'ask my man!' He said his feet don't feel very good in any artificial material, so there...

Since I am desperate to know if there is a way I can get more of this yarn, better a stable source of supply of it if it turns out great, so I went to the website of this company and found out their major business seems to be spinning yarn for industrial use. If anyone of you know the contrary or know any source to buy this yarn, please leave a comment.

LYS in Marbella:
There are two places to buy yarn in Marbella-
1. Merceria Mari Carmen
Huerta Chica, 5
29601 MARBELLA (MALAGA)

It is where I got the yarn in the photo above. The gentleman in the shop is very nice. However, he is kind of old-school. Like he told me, the laceweight yarn will be too thin to make anything but crochet. When I asked him, how about lace? Then he was like, 'er...' then shrugged. He is also into selling me novelty yarn, just kept piling them on. But he is nice though.

2. Merceria Mis Labores
Av. Nabeul, 6
29601 MARBELLA (MALAGA)

I didn't successfully get into this shop since it's opening hour is from 08:30 to 14:00. But I saw from their window that they stocked Katia and some Spanish merino.

To end this entry, I have a few tips about yarn purchase in Spain.
1. Please be prepared that a lot of yarn stores are still using the "behind the counter" system, so you won't be able to touch the yarn freely.
2. They have odd opening hours, because of Siesta and stuff.
3. When you ask people direction to the yarn store in limited Spanish and showing them your knitting from your bag, they will look at you bizarrely. Don't ask me how do I know that.

Where is Yarncat?

2008-09-03T20:11:00.020+01:00

You might have asked yourself during the course of my absence, ‘is this blog over now?’ or ‘where is yarncat?’. (Not that I assume there is anyone of you watching this space.)

Anyway, I am still here, just that, people, it is summer!!! Should we all just try to get out a little instead of sitting in front of the computer???

There are many things one (read: me) can do than writing one’s (read: my) blog that nobody reads...

Namely:

1. Knit a bikini to prepare your trip to see your friend in Spain

2. Go to Spain

3. Sitting on the beach in Spain in your own handknit bikini to knit sock

4. Knit sock on the beach in Spain

5. Knit sock while listening to the band on the beach in Spain

6. Knit sock while eating yummy BBQ Squid on the beach in Spain

7. Knit sock on another beach in Spain (It really is another one, look at that umbella, they are different from the one before!)

8. Knit sock in a spa

9. Knit sock sitting next to the pool (Yes, I was reading Your Cat Magazine at the same time too! hohohohoho)

If you are jealous of me and would want to know where exactly in Spain I was, I was in Marbella to see my friend Helen.

View Larger Map

(to be continued tomorrow...photos of Marbella, LYS info + yarn purchase photo, local SNB, etc!)

Spinning Class

2008-08-13T19:23:00.008+01:00

I have attended a spinning class some weeks ago at This Is Knit. Yes, it’s been some weeks ago and I haven’t been motivated enough to put all the photos on my blog.

Actually, they are not really my photos after all, I got all these photos from a fellow French knitter Lauréole.

I swear, I was very well prepared to charge my camera the night before so that I could take photos for me and fellow knitters / spinners in class. So what happened? I forgot the camera in the charger of course! Anyway, thank you very much Lauréole.

In fact, I have read some information on the internet about spinning already before I went to the class. I have even tried once after getting some tips from Lindy. But without somebody who actually tell you how all your fingers should move (in this case, fellow Dublin knitter Diane is the 'somebody'), it was somehow different.

Look at us, patiently listen to the instruction. From left to right, we have Laura, Yarncat and Lisa.

Soon after, I was spinning like wind!

We had tea and chat and so much fun. All in all, it was such a nice way to spend an afternoon.

Fellow Dublin knitters, if you are not sure if you should be joining this class, see what I got after the class?

Close up to see it more clearly how fine the yarn spun up? I am surprised I am able to make such fine yarn!!!

You might wonder what am I going to do with all these handspun? I think I am going to pile them and will try to see if it is enough to make a pair of gloves or something...Will definitely keep you guys posted.

Interested to get some handspun? Check that out with Lisa.

Fitted Knit: Book Review + FOs Show Off

2008-08-10T20:34:00.016+01:00

Haven’t been updating my blog very often, bad blogger I am. But with my Spanish trip coming up in two weeks, my sister coming to visit, Larm larm the cat / king continues to destroy my apartment, sometimes, it is really difficult to find time to write though I love writing and I have actually seriously thought of being a writer one day…well, that's completely another story that I will tell some day.

Anyway, today, I am going to do a long entry, FO show-offs + book review all in one go! Are you ready?

Fitted Knit by Stefanie Japel

Stefanie Japel is my favourite designer so far since I picked up knitting again almost a year ago. (You might refer to the side-bar to see I have put her link as my favourite designer since the beginning). Her design is just so my style that I can almost wear any of her designs. They are elegant but sassy, modern but vintage, I just love every bit of it.

Fitted Knit is one of the few books I got that I have decided to make tons of things from the book the moment I flipped through the book.

Here is what I have made so far.

Organic Tee

I made this tee with Sublime Organic Cotton and some left over Rowan Handknit Cotton for the edging.

You will notice I have changed the pattern a little bit. The original pattern has an opening as a split neck. I have closed it up instead to avoid the possibility of showing bra strap...

The hand of the Organic Cotton is very very soft that I have ALMOST decided that I will stick with Organic Cotton yarn from now on. I said almost because it turns out this yarn tangle together just by the touch of your finger! When I said tangle, I meant really really impossible to untangle it. I spent half an hour one day with my knit friend Carrie to un-do one ball. Then the other day, I ran into this ball that I have successfully saved half of it and the second half is still sitting here and I have given it up.

Though tragedy like this happened, I still have a strong belief that organic and consume locally is the way to go, I will hence continue my search for my perfect organic yarn.

Another thing to talk about for this project is the clasp. Can you believe how difficult it is to buy a cloak clasp nowadays? I have been searching all over Dublin (read consume locally above!) for clasps or clasp-ish button or fasteners. I gave up and ended up buying things on ebay again. It is sad to know many of these crafty stuffs will take so long to find and end up unavoidably on ebay or other online shops. Think about how much carbon footprint there is for buying this clasp? How much local economy we could have supported if people used to do enough craft to have their own trimming shop with abundant selection, etc etc. Don't want to dig into the 'consume locally' lecture too much, back to the tee...

The tee knit up wonderful and got a lot of compliments. Few days ago, my mum actually ordered one from me (first time ever being interested in handknit stuff in her life). This is a wonderful pattern, very easy to knit up, top-down pattern you can try on the go. 100% perfect.

The second item I have made from this book is Drop Stitches Top

(Sorry for the light washing out the colour on the close-up photo). The pattern is easy but not boring. I used Patons 4ply Cotton and it was such a joy knitting it up. This yarn has very clear definition which helps the sewing up process as well. It is also the first time ever I do eyelet button holes and it was fun though I don’t plan on actually using the buttons but it looks professional.

I find myself wearing this top very often to go to work. It brightens up my work day by being reminded by the top that I have a wonderful second life (craft life I meant) outside the cubicle-farm.

After showing my FOs from Fitted Knit, I have also a few quick points to make about why this book is excellent if you are wondering if this book is for you.

1. There are projects for all seasons in the book. From tee to cardi, suit to coat, you will be able to find something to knit in anytime of a year.
2. The projects are categorized into different skill level which helps you to choose projects that fit your knit-mood (wants something challenging, some TV projects, etc)
3. Since this book is called Fitted Knit, it is all about form-fitting. There is a little lecture about form fitting at the beginning of the book that uses the projects in the book as examples. You will be surprised that sometimes, form fitting doesn’t even involve calculations, you can simple use different stitch pattern to create a visual illusion and stuff. There are so much more information in the book that you will have to read it by yourself!

All in all, I love this book. I love the designer, the projects are great, what else can you ask more?

Now the hard part is waiting for her second book to release…

Larmlarm the King turns into Irish

2008-08-03T12:47:00.005+01:00

Our fellow Irish knitter Carrie has officially naturalized to be an Irish citizen, I am so happy for her.
I wonder what does it take to be Irish, here comes the stereotype: red-headed, Irish dancing, potato-eater, ah, the most important one, heavy-drinker.
Will being in Ireland turn one into Irish? Or you can never be real Irish?
Anyway, I think my cat Larmlarm the King understands one rule of thumb -- when in rome...
So he decided to learn to be a bar-standing, beer-drinking Irish cat...

I swear there is no Photoshop involved whatsoever, it is a real picture!!!

If you don't believe me, look at the second one while he is ACTUALLY drinking, I don't think you can Photoshop that!!!

So in your opinion, what does it take to be Irish? Can Larmlarm the King pass to be Irish?

New Charger

2008-07-21T20:35:00.013+01:00

Hi everyoneeeee...I am back after two weeks away from blogging. (Reason refers to the last entry.)

What have I done during these two weeks? Loads of things! I am going to go through all these with you in the coming days. (If not, it will become a half an hour reading entry)

First up, Larm's kick pillow.

Since Larmlarm the cat/king/owner of the house likes to kick our feet, I have decided to make him a kick pillow if kickboxing is his hidden dream job.

I have used cable patterns in the middle for the following reasons:
1. I can practice how to make cables.
2. It will tough up the fabric for the rough kicking of Larmlarm the king.
3. It is nice to look at anyway, no? Let's look at the close-up.

I know, some of you might be suspicious about if LL the king will actually kick this pillow? I have prepared photo report for you...

Step 1. Observe the enemy...(imagine some kung fu music starts, dang dang dang dang dang, cha cha cha, dang dang, cha...)

Step 2. Calculate the risk of an attack...(notice there is a broken panda at the top left corner of the photo? It is one of the millions toy LL the king has lying around in the house. If you say, 'oh man, poor panda's spine is broken, then imagine my feet got the same treatment of LL the king and you might start to understand why I make this kick pillow, etc)

Step 3. Um...let's try another angle to attack, we could lick and understand the smell of the enemy...

Step 4. Corner the enemy...

Step 5. Getting ready...

Step 6. FULL ON ATTACK WITH FOUR PAWS!!!

Step 7. KICK THE HELL OUT OF THE PILLOW!!! (Look at his face, it is scary, isn't it? Eyeing me right into the camera like 'what are you doing? stop freaking taking me picture, I am going to sue!)

Step 8. Something unbelievable happened!!! CIRCLE KICK!!!

(Look at the sad sad broke panda still lying there...)

On a less violent and more loving tone, I am glad that the national newspaper Irish Times has interviewed some of the StitchNBitcher in Dublin City Centre Group and done a full page feature. The article was honest enough to give Irish people a real picture of knitting and knitters in Dublin nowadays. Please click here to refer to the article.

Preview: More FO done during these 2 weeks, some heavy-duty crafty stuff purchased, spinning class participated by Yarn Cat.

Book Review (without laptop)

2008-07-03T11:19:00.017+01:00

Ladies and Gentlemen of the jury,

Please look at this picture.

You are all going to go, 'oh look at this little cat, hugging people's foot, so cute...'

But if I tell you, he is the cat from hell and try to destory everything on this planet (he can't go out since he lives in an appartment building so he decided to destory everything inside this appartment instead), will you believe me? Ok, let's try again...Look at the suspect again...

Well, I don't care if you believe me, but he did this!!!

That explains my absence = I CANNOT USE MY LAPTOP ANYMORE! THE CHARGER IS BITTEN BY A CAT!

So how can I access to my blog now? Using the old slow desktop and take 10 years to upload all these photos!

Now back to the business, book review:

Mason Dixon Knitting

First of all, I love this book. It is one of the most inspirational knitting book out there to send the message to 'knit out of the box'. Knitting doesn't necessarily mean garment, knitting for others, knitting complicated piece of art. Knitters can knit because they like to knit and they enjoy doing it. Simple knitting is fun too! I am totally in love with this concept.

The result is, there is no technical how-to section, there is no sweater project in the book. But you have tons of funny projects + tons of inspiration + tons of sense of humour.

So if you are looking into getting a normal pattern book, it is not, I warn you.

Projects include: dishcloth, baby kimono, hand towel, knitting on a demin jacket, piano chair cushion, curtain, nightie, bathrobe, washcloth, container boxes, blanket, rugs, more blankets, more rugs, scarf, shawl, bib, baby basket cozy.

The reason why they have decided to knit for the house and use a lot of square as the basis of their design is:
1. the house never complain it is not fashionable; not the right size, colour; yarn is scratcy.
2. House has to wear its blanket every day instead of once a year after forced by mother.
3. Can't stop knitting, squares are good, just keep on knitting...

I personally love this book and have inspired me a lot. Though I can understand some people are disappointed if there were looking for a more conventional pattern book. So I guess only you can decide if it is what you are looking for.

What have I made from the book? The nightie, the dishcloth, the blanket, and recently the bib. I enjoyed very much during the process of making all of these. They are all very easy knit but interesting enough to keep you going.

I am so excited to know that they are putting out a second book soon! Have seen the preview somewhere that there will be a knitted mop, a knitted plastic gloves cozy and stuff. I laughed just by looking at it. Can't wait...

Cold

2008-06-30T21:29:00.007+01:00

I have given the Shamrock Bibs to the new mum. There is the usual, 'thank you very much'. I always wonder if people really appreciate handknit or they are just trying to be polite. I mean, just go on any knitters forum, you will hear so many people actually secretly think that is 'cheap' to give people handknit instead of 'real gift' from expensive stores (read: Brown Thomas in Ireland; Le Bon Marche in France, the Lane Crowford in Hong Kong). I don't know what the new mum really thinks, but I am happy to have done that anyway.

Another happy news is, since the new mum is back, I am going to be a bit less busy and can concentrate more on my own job since I was sharing her workload during her maternity leave. While I was happy for this change, the bad news is, I have probably got a cold from the man. So we made some Irish Coffee. Or was it supposed to be Hot Whisky? I have no idea. Fellow Irish knitters, please confirm which is the one that cure cold, or both?

I know I said I was going to do Mason Dixon Knitting review, but I am at the edge of knocking my head to the wall because of the headache (no, I am not drunk from the Irish Coffee), alright, I will do that tomorrow.

To end with a funny note, here is an incredible solution to make sure the CDs, DVDs and books stand straight on a shelf.

The Big Boss Man said, 'back off!'

Shamrock Bibs

2008-06-29T11:05:00.012+01:00

Today is a beautiful Sunday, the sun is shining. When the sun is up, it just makes people feel more motivated in doing things. So I decide to be a better blogger from now on.

The thing is, it is not that I didn't try to be a good blogger before, it is just that the whole blogging thing is rather new to me. I know, it is not really new, it's been around for a few years now, but I never really read other people's blog much, I am more of a book person, I like to feel the paper and all.

But knitting brought me to Ravelry and to the rest of the internet knitting community. I kinda know what a blog is like but knitblog is then another thing. I had no idea what people usually expect to see on a knitblog. These few days, I read a bit of other people's blog and kinda have an idea. I realise picture is very important. Correction: FUNNY picture. And maybe a bit about one's life as well to put environmental picture of the speaker. Leave a comment if you have any other suggestion or advices.

Back to business, FO is up!!

Tomorrow is the coming-back day of a colleague after her maternity leave. She has been away for as long as I joined the company, which is almost a year ago. I have met her a few things in company functions during her leave. Since I am going to be working closely with her, so I figured I might as well make her baby something as a friendly gesture. (it is not just all about being nice, to be honest. It is also for the fact that I am curious about making baby thing since I have never made any before.) So that's what I made:

Yes, it is a bib. The pattern is inspired by Baby Bib O'Love from Mason-Dixon Knitting.

Since I am in Ireland, of course I am going to put a shamrock on it for a blessing to the baby girl.

Ok, I heard what you said just now! You said I should have shown you the process of the making-of the bib, like what we have discussed before. Yes, but guess what? It is impossible! Why? I finished it in NO TIME! Really!

I casted on this while waiting for the bus to go to the town yesterday Saturday morning. I knitted all the way on the bus to the town, then on the way back, then the afternoon, I finished it before I went to bed last night! It is such an easy pattern and it turns out lovely for a baby gift. Very practical as well and I love practical.

THOUGHT warning is here: Button holes are bitch (I am sure you know it already, just that it is my first time to make button holes) I don't know how did it happen but maybe it was my choice of button (it is a little pink flower, look carefully), the 'flower petal' on the little flower buttons just kept tangling with the yarn around the original simple eyelet button holes I made!

I could have just leave it, but imagine a baby struggling to be rid of the bib, food, her mum, no less. How can the mum put the bib on if the darn flower petal keep getting into the yarn? I am a considerate person, so I decided to do something to save the mum from this problem or my bib being disgarded to the bottom of the drawer.

Yes, I ran yarn all the way around the holes to make them into more of a REAL button hole. I am sure it is some sort of embroidery stitch or something, but I have no idea, I just did it with my instinct.

I know I know, details details details make better blog, here you go:

Dear knitters, if you know of any other way to make button holes that look more like button holes, especially on baby stuff where the mum has like only 3 seconds to put the darn thing on before the baby starts screaming, please leave a comment, so far, you have seen my current solution.

So will the mum colleague like it? Will see tomorrow.

You might ask how did I get the shamrock pattern? Nowhere, I just made it up as I went and it turned out ok. It is just one of those time when you have the free-knitting power. But if there is anybody interest, I could write it down somewhere, leave me a message.

Preview: Booking review - Mason Dixon Knitting, you heard me enough talking about stuff I made from this book, I figure why don't I just talk about this book so that you know what it is all about? I will do that tomorrow (or the next day, whenever I can make myself sit in front of the computer for one hour doing all the links and stuff...)

Not happy with Lucky

2008-06-24T20:30:00.005+01:00

Continue with the last post, what the hell is the sleeve doing there?

Yes, I haven't been talking about this project at all, I have been hiding from you guys about this project.

The story is when I first decided that I need a cardigan, I went through the limited knitting books I had at that stage (don't dare to look at how many books I have now on my Ravelry account, yes don't) It was few months ago after I have successfully finished my first sweater for the man. It was also the time when I first got my Ravelry account. So to try out the wonderful world of Ravelry, I have searched for this pattern and see what other fellow knitters talk about it. It turned out a lot of knitters said similar things like, 'don't do it, you will like the finished project, but it will drag on for so long that you wish you didn't start the project' Some others also warn that the pattern is not super clear. This project is called Lucky and many of us are not very lucky with it ironically.

I wasn't sure, I was a rather new knitter, so I decided to try...

Turns out, it's been 4 months, that's what I got:

And these...(don't ask me about the cat, I don't know why he seems to have some sort of detector to know 'there is a knitting picture taken, I gotta go and step on the knitting RIGHT NOW MAOW' then there he is again...)

See? Think I am almost there? No, I don't think so. Accordingly to the comments on Ravelry, it is going to take a long time for the strap and all and got tons of finishing to do as well. One more thing, if you will ever knit this pattern, please check out Stephanie's solution to the confusion of the decreases on the front. It is very handy solution indeed.

Back to the beginning, why did I hide this project? Because I was freaked out. I wasn't even sure that I was going to be able to progress, less finish it.
Then why am I talking about it now? Because my sister recently complained that I don't talk about my WIPs on my blog enough and it is boring to see only the FOs. She also said that it is interesting to hear about different knitting stories no matter with good FOs or not, since people can learn from mistakes. Well, that's why I am trying to write about this tricky WIPs. So tell me about it, do you enjoy reading about that?

Happy Sunday

2008-06-22T14:41:00.003+01:00

Today is a happy Sunday...

LarmLarm the king is watching the window, looking at the sea. How many cats in the world will have his exclusive view of Dublin Bay on his catpost?

The man cooked a wonderful breakfast for Yarncat. Look! Even the sleeve wanted to be on the beautiful breakfast photo!

You may ask what is this sleeve doing here? It is a very very long story. Will need a separate entry for the story of Clover Cardigan...

A Cat Story

2008-06-21T20:34:00.003+01:00

Larmlarm the king is looking out from his window to observe his cat-dom...

He said, 'how dare you spying on the king?'

'Your king is in anger! I am going to...I am going to...''

'...walk on your computer to pay revenge, maow!'

WWKIP Day Dublin

2008-06-15T12:52:00.011+01:00

Yesterday was the long-waited WWKIP Day Dublin.

Knitters from all corners of Ireland and some even from outside Ireland gather together at St Stephen's Green for a lovely afternoon knitting, eating, spinning, or just hanging out.

There was Satu from Finland who came to Dublin for a weekend holiday and joined us for the WWKIP Day since she missed the one in Helsinki!

Lindy is the knitter, spinner extraordinaire, she was working on a cat scarf using cat hair from a persian cat, handspun on her wheel with cat paw pattern. Plus, guess what? She bought a potato spindle!

See? It proves Irish people use potato in everything!!!

All in all, it was so much fun to see all the knitters gather together in the usual causal environment. It is so weird that we just sit together and talk to each other like we are old friends though we met each other just now.

After yesterday, I got 4 new friends on my ravelry list, tips from Lindy on spinning, and fun time that I will remember for a long time...

Look at that! The handspun yarn I tried at home myself before yesterday...

See? It was all uneven and overtwisted. Basically, a lump of twist lying together...

After yesterday having the tips from Lindy...

(sorry for the cat leg again, he seems to like to be on a photo with yarn for some reason...)

It is now all even and nice and yarn-looking...This much of yarn is spun only since last night when I got home from WWKIP Day! Can you believe I spent 3 days to spin the lump of twist before?

Apart from the demostration, one of the main point Lindy told me about spinning is = relax! She kept saying, 'you are probably too nervous, you have to relax...' It is ironically hard for me. I grew up believing in 'working at something' to achieve my goal, so I tended to all tense up and work at things that sit ahead of me. Not with spinning. You have to relax and let the feeling of your fingers guide you, it is such a big lesson for me. Maybe it is

a sign for me somehow that I need to do that in other things in life too?

'Technical issue' + WWKIP Day countdown

2008-06-06T14:03:00.004+01:00

You might notice (if you are reading this blog frequently which I doubt since almost nobody ever leave a comment!) that I haven't been updating my blog much last week. This is because my workplace has a new policy regarding to internet access. Any address that links to a blog will be filtered, so I couldn't update my blog as frequently as I hope for. But I will try my best to update as frequently as possible in the evening.

A few highlights:

1. My sister has finally casted on her first 'coming back' item - Swiss Cheese Scarf, please check here to see her story of struggling to get her hands back on the craft.

2. EXCITING EXCITING! WWKIP Knitting Picture Scavenger Hunt 2008 will officially start tonight midnight! There will be a week to finish the tasks. I am still a bit 'knitting shy' at this stage (I am not a shy person but I am shy to knit in public and people ask me knitting questions), so I guess this is a great opportunity for me to really get my knitting self out and face the public. So the coming week, I will try to upload the photos daily, that I will be taking in public with all sort of folks with my WIPs. This is going to be so much fun and keep an eye on this space.

World Wide Knit in Public Day 2008

2008-05-30T10:38:00.003+01:00

This year, the World Wide Knit in Public Day is on the 14 of June.

In Dublin, the knitters have finally confirmed all the arrangement of the day. So if you are in knitter who happens to be in Dublin that day or you are a Dubliner who has always wanted to learn, please drop by and have a nice afternoon together.

For details, please click here, see you there!

Another knitter KIP!

2008-05-26T10:47:00.004+01:00

Yesterday, we went down along the coast for a walk as it is our usual Sunday ritual and it turned out there was a Toy and Model Train exhibition in the Clontarf Castle Hotel! So there we went!

I personally am not a big fan of models or train, but guess what? I felt so comfortable to be there, among bunch of nerdy people who have their passion in something crafty. And yes, there was a knitter behind of the counter! It was officially my first time seeing another knitter KIP in public in Dublin, I was so excited that I asked about her project and I showed her my WIP sock. It is always so nice to meet another knitter!

By the way, Clontarf Castle Hotel is a lovely place. Supposedly it was owned by the Templar at some point. If you are interested to know more about the history, please click here.

Wild Fibers Magazine

2008-05-21T15:43:00.006+01:00

I just discovered Wild Fibers Magazine recently.

Some background story, I have never been a big fan of all the high street fashion/beauty/women magazine. But from time to time, when I feel like buying a magazine for looking at the photos and stuff, I will buy one or two fashion/beauty/women magazine.

But last time, there was a sudden enlightening moment! I was looking through a Glamour or Cosmo or whatever. (I don't even remember, they are more or less the same, how on earth we can remember which is which anyway.) I suddenly realised there is actually NOTHING I am interested to read about from that thing! I won't buy those clothes coz they are not my style...next...sex section talking about hunting the right guy in a pub, doesn't concern me...next...being a sugar-baby...what the...?

So I decided not to buy these crap again! But what am I supposed to do if I want to read a magazine? It was before my knitting life reborn, so I didn't know what to do! But then again, since I felt bored at night being alone in Dublin at that time that I picked up knitting again! So afterall, maybe I should thank those magazines which pushed me back to do something more meaningful than reading '10 tricks to please your man' and stuff.

Now that I am knitting and obsessed with everything fiber, I have discovered the world of crafting magazine. Wild Fibers, of course, is one of them.

I have actually heard of this magazine for a while from the knitters, but thought it was basically for breeders who are interested to get trade information about breeding. Until I read a review somewhere saying that it is actually a national-geographic-of-fiber-magazine that I was attracted to look into it, so I decided to contact the magazine and order one issue to have a look. It turns out the review is totally true! There are beautiful photos, stories of fiber people from different countries and a few knitting patterns. It is a perfect choice for people who are interested in armchair travel and fiber arts.

First Customer!!

2008-05-20T11:53:00.008+01:00

YOHO! We have the first customer on our Yarn Cat Online Store!!!

It is my dear friend Roy C who is a total sweetheart to have ordered an organic Yarn Cat tee!

He is also a total sweetheart to have sent us the photos of first moment upon arrival, let's take a look!

This one with Mr Stuffed Animal

And this one with a gun...

This one is a close-up on the Yarn Cat logo...

Ok, enough photos, let's listen to his preview on the first trial on the T-shirt...

' Hey

The texture is nice. I never feel that comfortable....

Cheers

Roy'

So if you like the logo, please click on the Yarn Cat Online Store; if you don't like the logo, please do leave a comment, we will be interested to know. We are working on adding on different Yarn Cat theme logo, e.g. Yarn Cat spinning, Yarn Cat running with Larmlarm the cat/king, Yarn Cat chased by Larmlarm the cat/king, etc...So please leave a comment.

By the way, if there is anyone of you interested in getting your own knitblog logo, please contact me, we will see if we will be able to help.

About my dear friend Roy, he is very interested in picking up knitting again as well! He has learnt knitting many years ago. Again, like most of the stories we heard around, since he is a boy so he didn't really knit anything because afraid of the teasing he would get from people around. But I have been encouraging him to pick up again and told him there are a lot of men around knitting nowadays. Hopefully he will join us soon and will have a knitblog that I can link to! Roy, thank you for your support to Yarn Cat and start knitting!!!

FO - Garden Socks + Mason Dixon Nightie

2008-05-13T14:42:00.013+01:00

Last weekend, I have finally got myself together to finish two items!

Garden Socks: Yarn used - Lorna Lace Shepherd Sock, pattern from Cat Bordhi's Spiraling Master Coriolis

I have made a pair of basic socks to my man some months ago. This is my first sock projects that have patterns, it has been a good learning experience for me. The outcome is so beautiful that I would want to wear it as soon as possible. However, the second sock is a bit looser knitted than the first one, so I will probably re-do the cuff in the coming days. But I can confirm you yet again, handknitted socks are way better and way more comfortable than commercial socks in the market. I can understand why some knitters are totally addicted to make them. They are warm and nice and very portable to work on in public. Plus, one more cool thing is, you can count how many shocking faces you can encounter on the bus per day when you pull the sock out of your bag and start knitting it!

Mason Dixon Nightie: Yarn used - Jaeger Siena, pattern from Mason Dixon Knitting

I have started knitting the main pieces during my flight back to Paris last Christmas. The pattern is not as difficult as it looks like, it was my first lace project and I got to finish the first bottom lace pattern while just waiting for boarding in Dublin Airport. I finished the whole thing up pretty quickly EXCEPT the straps...

I have been dragging to do the straps for months! My first attempt was to find real bra straps as suggested in the book. Then I realise you might get a better chance to buy whatever antique underwear you like than looking for that. It looks like Trimmings and Haberdashery is again another dying business in the modern world.

I was not alone. By checking on Ravelry, there are other knitters who have decided to get a hold of the project by them hands and use substitutes. Then I tried to make I Cord. I got myself a French Knitting Nancy and started to make I Cord but the yarn just kept jumping out from the darn thing! (If there is anybody who can explain me why, please leave a comment! I need help on that for next time! Was it the yarn that is too slippery or I have done something wrong with the Nancy?)

Finally, I got inspiration from the book that I talked about earlier on '200 Braids to Twist, Knot, Loop, or Weave', so I decided to make braids. This book is amazing, there are so much information about different ways to make braids and there are 200 samples of end products as well! Total eye-opening experience. So here is the final product...(please clap your hands!)

I finally realise the power of form fitting! The whole nightie is sitting so close to my skin that it feels like a second skin. Believe you, it does make you sleep better! The piece is not yet blocked, since I was too excited to wear it. The stitches will probably look even better after blocking.

Funny photo of Yarn Cat!

2008-05-12T11:32:00.003+01:00

I was taking a shower another day and when I came out, I saw Yarn Cat appeared in my bathroom!

I didn't do it! Guess who did it?

This weekend, I have got items done -- the Garden Sock (now I call it the Garden Sock because of the previous photo I took with the sock in the garden) and the Mason Dixon Nightie!

Yes, you heard it right, the Nightie is finally finished! I couldn't believe I have been putting it aside since Christmas! I have finally got around to it with the straps and done all the finishing last night! Will put all the photos here tomorrow.

Bull Island + Sock in Greystones

2008-05-08T15:53:00.012+01:00

It was a long weekend in Ireland last weekend with the bank holiday Monday, plus, it was sunny! It is very rare here! So we decided to walk around a bit in Dublin area.

Bull Island is a 15 minutes walk place from our apartment. It is difficult for you to imagine, but with 15 minutes walk, you can't feel you are in Dublin anymore. This is one charm of Dublin -- nature is not very far from the city.

And then Monday, we have decided to continue to take advantage of the good weather to go to Greystones, a beach area south of Dublin, 45 minutes to one hour on Dart (regional railway).

Isn't it lovely? Though, if you pay attention to the photo, bad sign is coming. Fog started to pull in and the gray area on the top right corner of the photo is not a technical problem, it is because we are in Ireland!

Anyway, since we were there, we took advantage of it and found out a lovely lovely restaurant -- the Summerville.

They serve home country cooking which I love very much, very reasonable price and they have this nice back garden where you could eat with flowers and colourful tables.

With such a nice environment, I couldn't help myself to take a photo of my colourful sock with the colourful garden background!

The pattern of the sock is from Cat Bordhi's New Pathways for Sock Knitters Book One and I am using Lorna's Lace Shepherd Sock colour uptown girl. It is the first sock I knitted for myself. Hopefully it is going to work out alright. This book is really really a must have for all sock knitters, you have everything you need to know about sock knitting there, toe up, top down, different gauge, thin foot, fat foot, re-enforced heels, etc etc. This book is amazing. However, the most amazing thing is, there are supposed to be 3 books from this series. I asked HOW? There are already tons of information from Book One that most knitters have never thought of! HOW ON EARTH CAN THERE BE TWO MORE? Let's wait and see!

When we were all happy and well fed, then the weather turned bad --> typical Irish...

Though the weather turned a bit bad at the end and then there was an accident on the Dart that we had to take the bus and transfer to another bus to be able to get home. It was a lovely trip. I would definitely go there again!

My sister has her knitblog!

2008-05-06T09:44:00.004+01:00

I can't believe it! My sister has started a knitblog!

See? Told you? It is like some kind of disease, knitting will lead you to knitblog, then lead you to take photos of your yarn, then lead you to spending hours on Ravelry, then lead you to spinning your own yarn, then lead you to take photos of your own yarn, etc etc etc...It definitely takes on its own life...

Here is her knitblog, it is in Chinese, so for the non Chinese speaking folks, you can still see the photos I guess. I mean, isn't knitting kinda an international language?

Knitting Cat

2008-04-30T16:25:00.003+01:00

This blog is called Yarn Cat and we have been talking about the 'yarn' part of the blog a lot lately while haven't been talking much about the 'cat'.

Today, I get to have an idea to talk about knitting and cats.

Cats and knitting seems to have a very close-knitted (hoho, great choice of word) relationship since the beginning. Remember when you were little, there were always cats playing around a ball of yarn and got stuck in it after a while in different cartoons?

And how about the 'granny' knitting away in a comfortable chair in front of the fireplace and the cat dozing away on her lap?

Have you noticed how often the cats come to sit on your knitting or just sit next to you watching your clicking away your needles?

I guess there is some strong tie between the act of knitting and the character of cats. Cats are comfort animal who constantly look for the most comfortable place to sit in the room. What will be more comforting than sitting your a knitted piece (with great yarn!), watching the repetition of the needles, and most importantly feeling the calm and the serene atmosphere created by the act of knitting and from the knitter?

I can imagine, if cats have fingers that enable them to knit, they would!

Shortsighted Cat Knitting A Sweater 2003 by Lisa Milroy

FO - Irish Clogs

2008-04-28T11:55:00.007+01:00

One more FO - the Irish Clogs!

These clogs are made up using pattern from Fiber Trends. The pattern is so easy to follow, so fast to knit up. The end product is so practical and comfy that I can understand why there are KAL for this pattern everywhere.

I definitely will put this item into my gift list, you know, the kind where you really don't know what to knit for some people and you have to find something urgently, you know what I mean. These clogs are wonderful for that. I finished the pair in two weekends, but I could probably make it quicker now that I am familiar with the pattern.

Plus, you can get to personalize the item by adding decoration on the top of the clogs by needle felting, beading, etc. There are just so many possibilities.

I used Kilcarre Aran Tweed from my stash and added some black yarn from the LYS. The yarn is fine to knit with and it is symbolic to be Irish yarn with Irish colour. However, it is not totally ideal for felting. I don't know if it is me or the yarn, it took quite a while to felt, my man and I were quite confused, it is my first felt project afterall.

I am going to make myself a pair with green as main colour and pink for the sole. You know, have to use as much green as possible in our clothing now that we are in Ireland.

Apologies for the cat again, I just can't get rid of him.

Yarn Cat Online Store!

2008-04-24T11:38:00.005+01:00

It is finally here!

Yarn Cat Online Store on Cafepress is finally here!

Currently there will be T shirts of different style, coffee/tea mugs and tote bag for sale with YarnCat logo, please check that out!

The income from the sale will be donated to the Irish Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ISPCA).

FOs - Part 11 - Current

2008-04-22T09:21:00.010+01:00

Finally, we are almost update to what is happening now on my needles. I have finished the Seafoam Shawl from One Skein Wonder last week.

I thought it would be an easy project with only one skein of Rowan Kidsilk Haze. Plus, the Kidsilk Haze is so beautiful to look at and so soft to play with to start with. However, 1/3 on the way, I had put that aside for weeks, for some reasons, I just don't like to work with too tiny yarn. But I picked it up two weeks ago and finished the 2/3 left over a weekend. I liked very much the beading part though, so much fun to do and have learnt so much about beads.

A bit of book review: One Skein Wonders is a very inspirational book. Though I might not make many projects out of the book at the moment, but I can foresee it is going to be a life-saver when the holiday season approaches or when there are too many odd balls lying around. If it is your situation right now, should totally get this book.

FOs - Part Ten

2008-04-14T11:44:00.005+01:00

I asked myself, what does it take to make me a REAL knitter? A real knitter like all the happy knitters out there in the knitting planet? A knitting blog? Able to make a sweater? Socks? I have done all of these...what does it really take to make me to be recognised as real knitter.....?

I realise having a Clapotis could probably be one of the item on the list! I am not saying that all the other knitters are not real knitters if they don't have a Clapotis, but for the 'new to the club' ones like me, it is a very quick way to make us feel like we belong...

And more importantly, afterall, it is a beautiful beautiful object to wear!

Guess what? It does make me to be recognized as knitter! I mean physically recognized by other knitters! Other knitters can actually recognized that and come to have a chat. It is so lovely to be able to meet other knitters this way!

I am using this to go to work every day now and twice I got people ask me, 'hey, where did you get that?' (I was waiting for people to ask me!) then I said, 'I made it myself...' 'oh my god, it is unbelievable!' (hehehehe)

Fellow StitchNBitcher Diane even wrote about my Clapotis! YEAH YEAH YEAH YEAH!

Preview: FO 11

FO - Part Nine

2008-04-11T10:51:00.008+01:00

FO 9 is another pattern from Mason Dixon Knitting. I follow their Moderne Log Cabin Blanket without following their size nor yarn requirement. It turned out to be EXACTLY what I wanted. I called it a TV blanket coz it is what we use in front of the TV, me, my man and my cat all cover up under this blanket. We are using it every day. That's one thing about Mason Dixon Knitting book, they are making things that you can probably use daily, making knitting more than just these nice fancy stuff that feel untouchable.

The pattern calls for garter stitches so it is a rather easy project and you can get to learn picking up stitches if you have never done that before. Believe me, it will take on a life of its own, sooner than you realise, you will start making other blankets. I am planning on a Maple Leaves blanket that works with picking up stitches to form a maple leaf pattern. I am still working out how it works...

It is amazing, I didn't even like art classes that much when I was little if I remember correctly. Once the whole knitting thing has brought out my unknown creativity. I mean, I have done some oil painting and it was fine but I have never had so much urge and ideas to create ever before. This is fascinating.

The reason that I am talking about this is, I got a book today (again!) and it is about another form of craft.

I have done so braiding at some point in my life when I was little and have never imagined that I will ever done that again. I got this book not because I am moving on to do braiding, but have realize braiding and knitting are probably cousins in some ways. I learn that Estonian integrate braiding into their knitting as a mean to decorate their handknits. This book provides a very good reference on making braids (as I don't have much knowledge myself), I mean there are 200 braids to choose from on this book to decorate your knitting, who wouldn't jump on the occasion?

And if you have read my earlier entry, this braid book might have provided a solution for my almost FO Afterdark Nightie! YES! I am going to find a braid from this book and make the strap! Hope it will work. If it does, will put photo of the final real FO here.

Now that I get to think about it, I didn't enjoy art class when I was little, it was probably because the class itself was really boring. The form of teaching didn't really encourage creativity. It was all rules and requirement written down on the blackboard before starting up the class and we were supposed to do something according to these 'specs'. How would a kid feel like creating by filling up all these 'specs'? It turns out, thanks to the rigid education system in Hong Kong, we have a town full of hardworkers who are good in time management; who are the best people ever in service industry; who have no creativity to a point that people look at me confused why I have ever considered moving to another country to live and travel around. Again, fascinating.

Preview: FO 10 - Clapotis!!!

FOs - 7, 8

2008-04-10T09:47:00.009+01:00

Last Christmas is my first Christmas as a real knitter, so you can imagine how excellent I was and wanted to knit all the gifts! Plus, I was back then alone in Dublin, it gave me something to do in the evening than to watch the American reality TV crap.

I have made Grace the shawl and the two scarves that I have talked about earlier plus the followings:

Mason Dixon Dishclothes -- to my man's godmother, so quick to make up one, I love the project, I have used Rowan Handknit Cotton, very lovely colour.

Then I have decided to try my luck on crochet, I heard so many things about crochet and there are more and more knitters who crochet too! So I have made these.

Cat Face Potholder -- FO to MIL, she is a crazy cat lover. The pattern is inspired by skull potholder in Happy Hooker.

Cat Paw Coaster -- After making the potholder, I was inspired to make a small version - a coaster!

Preview: Knitting took on its live, can't stop knitting! FO 9, 10!

FOs - Part 4, 5, 6

2008-04-09T10:30:00.014+01:00

After finishing the simple ribbing prayer shawl, I was determined to make something that is not rectangular to become a real knitter. I have decided to make a sweater, something for myself (didn't know what it was yet), and a pair of socks, coz I believe if I can make a sweater and a pair of socks, then I can call myself a real knitter.

Being the when-there-is-a-problem-there-must-be-a-book-to-read kind of girl, I got a few books.

See? I got a book for socks, a book for making sweater and other things and a book that talked about it during that period of time. The New Pathways for Sock Knitters is truly a must have if you are into making socks. There is all the how-to regarding to make different kinds of socks with increases to be put into different places on a sock. It is very complex yet not difficult to understand. I made my first pair of socks out of the book while there are so much more from the book that I haven't used and I probably won't be able to knit them all in the many years coming! Very inspirational.

Knitter's Handy Book of Pattern, again, a must have if you are into making simple cut things. I think the idea of this book is excellent, you can get to make simple pattern for different sizes with different yarn, I love this book and have already ordered her Knitter's Handy Book of Sweater to make tons of sweaters out of it.

Mason Dixon Knitting is sooooo much fun, it is a reference kind of book, but it is a very inspirational book that almost make it into must have category. Their idea of knitting things for the house, knitting things that you actually use it and wear it and enjoy it makes me realise knitting is not just for garments, I can do so many other things!

So during the Christmas holiday in the French countryside, I have made these. (Whatelse was I going to do in the countryside if not knitting?)

FO 4 - First Socks

This pair of socks is made with Patron 4 Ply Cotton. Very practical yarn for daily wear socks, especially for men since they seem to have such a speedy ability to make wear their socks out! The pattern is from Cat Bordhi's book, it is the toe-up master sock pattern with re-forced heels. It is pretty quick to finish, one could probably finish that in a weekend even without the Christmas holiday in French countryside factor.

FO 5 - My First Sweater

My first sweater is not technical my sweater, it is a sweater for my man. He said he has only one sweater in his closet, and would like to have one more. Since I was looking for an opportunity to make a simple sweater to learn, I jumped to this opportunity. I called it Real Irish Sweater coz it is made with real Irish yarn fro Donegal in Irish green and made in Ireland. The final product is lovely and comfortable. However, it taught me a lesson. It is difficult to make things for men coz they never give you very clear instruction and think that you could adjust the final products later by telling you to change this and that. So if you can avoid to make things for men, AVOID.

FO 6 - I shouldn't have called it an FO actually, coz it is still 5% away from finishing...After Dark Nightie

Once I have decided to make something for myself and I got this pattern from Mason Dixon Knitting, I realised I have found the right project! It is an easy enough project with lace, so I can get to learn how to make lace and have something that I can wear every day...night in fact. But months pass by, I still can't figure out what to do with the straps! I tried to order bra straps as instructed in the book and realized it is sooooo difficult to find anywhere that sells that at all nowadays! So I decided to make I-cords, and I didn't like making them, so I have made half of the I-cord and waiting to make the one and a half...these days, I wonder if it will be easier to make braids instead? Please drop a comment if you have any idea. Thanks.

Preview: FO 7, 8 = Other holiday knittings

FOs - Part Three

2008-04-08T13:09:00.009+01:00

FO number 3 is the one that I have made after I have decided that I have to make something else than a scarf, but I had no confidence at all to make anything else. Plus, I have no idea who can I make something to. Of course now I know we have total right to make something for ourselves, but it was before I got my hand on the first copy of Interweave Knit and all these glossy.

Being very careful of me, I made a shawl...

I found a pattern on Lion Brand website and made this simple ribbing prayer shawl to Grace = my man's aunt.

Warn you, it is not super fancy neither, but it was a good start for me.

The yarn I used was Sublime Extra Fine Merino and skein of cobweb weight silk I got from LYS. I knitted two yarn together.

This project taught me a few things.

1. What Merino is. I am serious, I was very ignorant about different kind of yarn and all that, didn't have a clue at all.
2. A cobweb weight yarn is super difficult to knit. Because I was stupid enough to think that I could make the shawl JUST out of that before I realise I better buy some Merino to use them together.
3. Knitting is not cheap as people thought.

After finishing this project, I was totally hooked! I got my first stash storage = a basket. I got my first knitting magazine, I started 3 projects on needles! Christmas holiday was on the way, I have packed up all my stash and my 3 projects to go to France with me! I will talk about these 3 projects tomorrow.

Today, I got these from Amazon though.

Though I haven't finished reading them (not possible in one day anyway), I can totally understand why a lot of knitters said they are must have. I am telling you, THEY ARE! It is not at all like a glossy pattern book or anything. When I first open the Amazon box, I thought I got two academic books coming out! Knitting in Plain English has 282 pages and Sweater Design in Plain English has 408 pages! They are indeed academic books that talk about knitting as an art and science. They are all in black and white and fill every page with words. Just think economic textbook you got back then in school / college, that's how these books look like. I am so glad for this purchase, I am going to spend days and nights trying to get as much wisdom I can get from Maggie Righetti...

Preview: FO4+FO5+FO6! Three in a row!

FOs - Part Two

2008-04-04T12:26:00.012+01:00

So after I finished my scarf for my man, my fingers are so itchy for more knitting, being not very ambitious of me, I knitted another boring scarf = Irish scarf!

It is a scarf for my father for Christmas. Really nothing special, it is just exactly the same like the one before but with different yarn. I guess I was not confident in making anything else than a scarf which I know very well how to make.

But this scarf is very important to my knitting history in the way that I told myself, 'if I knit one

more scarf, I will knock my head to the wall!' It started to be boring to make the same project over and over again. I told my man about it, he said, 'oh, knitting has been very popular for a few years now in North America.' The thing is, in Europe, it hasn't yet the case. Feeling amazed, I Wikipedia-ed 'knitting' and learnt about Debbie Stoller and 'Stitch n Bitch'. I was so happy to discover there is such a planet of knitting community out there, so I rushed to the bookstore and got myself this...

It opened up my eyes to the new world of knitting and realize that knitting can be cool, can be whatever I want to make, can be whatever I want to design! I then started my journey in Craftland and enjoying it more and more day after day.

Preview: Stop making scarves, but still not confident to make anything that are not rectangular...

FOs - Part One

2008-04-03T11:53:00.004+01:00

I know I haven't been very good. This is a knitting blog and I have yet been uploading any of my projects on here. The same reason as I have mentioned earlier, I hate uploading photos, it takes forever!

But I am trying to be good now, I am going to go through all of my FOs and WIPs one by one in the coming days (I will try to do that every day I promise). But mind you, the first few FO won't be super fascinating nor fancy. Please bare with me, funnier projects will come in a few days.

Let's talk about the first FO after 10 years without knitting.

Last year around October, it was 4 months after I moved to Dublin. During that period of time, I was commuting between Dublin and Paris as my man and my cat were still in Paris. I was bored, I was alone, I didn't have too much money neither starting up a new life in a new country. I found a bag of yarn at the back of my closet (please refer to earlier entry where this bag of yarn came from). I figured it will save me money on Christmas gift if I make something out of these balls of yarn. I went for what I knew best....scarf. So I knitted up this scarf for my man.

It is just a very simple seed stitches scarf that I knitted up out of the blue using 4 balls of Wendy Mandarin Aran. I believe the yarn is discontinued and there is really nothing special about the yarn nor the pattern. The yarn is pretty rough as well (think 90s before SnB, that's when I got them). But this project brought back my feeling about my knitting and realized how much I liked it, so I called it 'Coming Back Scarf'. You could click here to check out all the details of this project if you are on Ravelry. (And don't forget to add me as a friend there too!)

Preview: Another Christmas scarf before I realise I can't keep knitting scarf and moved on to learn how to knit properly.

Aran Islands - Part Two: Yarn shopping ! (yoho!)

2008-04-02T10:57:00.011+01:00

It might come to a surprise for a lot of foreigner who admire and are willing to pay a few hundred bucks on an Aran Sweater that Aran Island has no sheep. Yes, you heard me, I repeat, there is NO SHEEP on Aran Island, right.

So your dream of getting yarn spun by the sheep living peaceful on this paradise of an island won't come true.

However, I have done two remarkable purchases on the island itself though.

There are quite a few craft stores on the island that indeed sell Aran Sweaters. The big one that is right off the ferry port: Aran Sweater Market

But you gotta watch out this one though. After investigation, not all the sweaters are handmade in this store. Only one corner of sweaters that marked 'Handknit' are indeed handknit. BUT they are not knitted by the Aran natives, they are products from Dublin, Calamara, etc. FYI, there is no such a thing as Clan sweater, it is a total marketing thing confirmed by the natives. If you are happy with the pattern, go for it, but don't buy it because it is supposed to be your 'clan sweater'.

I was disappointed, but I told myself, 'never mind, I might as well get yarn since they are cheaper than in Dublin anyway'. So I got some yarn from Kerry Woollen Mills. (sorry for the cat, just can't get rid of him during the photo shoot, but then again, this blog is called Yarn Cat, so...)

Though the yarn is not from Aran Island itself, it is from one of the few working woollen mills in Ireland, I told myself I might as well get them. 200g for 8,95 Euros, not bad. I got four balls to try to make a warm comfy sweater one day, I wanted to start right after the trip but then the weather started to get warm, it might not be very wise to work on a worsted weight project. So it goes to my stash right now and waits quietly for fall to come again. I got a ball of each other colours as well, to make hats, socks, etc, coz the yarn just seems so comfy that I am sure it will make some cozy items for winter.

So I told myself, that's it for yarn shopping. Then to my surprise, there are a few little craft shops in stone houses just before the entrance to the Dun Aonghusa cliff fort. I didn't hope for much but then I found a gem! An Tuirne is the one of the most authentic aran sweater stores in the island. There is not fancy lighting deco, no plasma TV, just a lady -- Rosemary O'flaherty, sitting behind the cash register, knitted away peaceful and occasional looked up to say hi to the tourists. Yoho! 'There are real handknit sweaters?' I asked, 'yes, they are knitted by me, my mum, my aunt and 10 to 15 other knitters on the island'. Guys, seriously, please check her store out if you ever go to the island or if you really want to get a real handknit sweater (then again, I believe if you are reading my blog, you are knitting yourself and can probably make one by yourself), please order it from her. She is a very nice lady and there aren't much publicity about her store. I believe the truth is it is a very small humble business and they can't spend too much money to make a cool looking website with cool models posing and stuff, that's why. Think about it, if you have to knit the whole store full of sweaters, how can you have time for all that?! The sweaters are sold for 110 American bucks, how can you hire those cool looking models? Check out her website, the lady that is posing for the sweater is Rosemary.

Since I won't buy anything that can possibly be made by myself - my new policy of 2008. I got yarn! She is very honest to tell me that the yarn is not from the island since there is no sheep, but it is from a farm in Calamara and spun there. Fair enough, so I got these...

No kidding, 250g for 8.5 Euros only! You can see on the sticker! Shall make a sweater or two out of it. Oh geez, I got this from Rosemary too!

The bag from her store with all the Aran Stitches, it becomes the new home of my WIPs. People on the train just stare at me and my bag every morning on my way to work...

The next day, early in the morning, we took the ferry back to Galway. This trip have confirmed me again how little one might need to live a happy life. Sure there aren't much job opportunities on the island, but if you are lucky enough to be able to work from home, you could very possibly be living on an island like that and live a happier life than in the city. There aren't much on the island, only one convenient store, one bank, one police station, two post office, one doctor, a handful of restaurants and pubs, shitty weather half of the time. But you got the whole island of nice and friendly villagers with whom you all know each other, fresh vegetables from the land, and every day when you wake up in the morning, you get to see the open Atlantic sea, where there is nothing between the sky and the sea but you and the island...

Aran Islands - Part One

2008-03-28T16:00:00.009Z

So after we had a very nice power breakfast sitting next to the seaview windows, we started our excursion on Aran Islands. We rented two bikes and intended to explore the island by ourselves instead of joining the bus tour.

It was tough, well, at least to me, for a few reasons. There are actually quite a few slopes on the island and the wind can be very strong sometimes.

But I have never seen comparable scenery in my life before, along the coast, I got a few photos...

One cannot visit Inis Mor without stopping by Dún Aonghasa, on the way, there were some very well-kept Celtic crosses...

Then finally we arrived to the cliffs after hours (maybe it wasn't really for hours, but I felt like so) of efforts...

One of the amazing thing I have encountered on the cliffs apart from the cliff itself is that people are so fearless to the height. I personally have tried a few times to approach to the edge to look down or even tried to do like some people crawling on the belly. Still, I couldn't approach closer than 30 cm away from the edge. I can't understand how can people standing right on the edge and looked down! I truly admire those people out of my heart.

Then I saw some couple bringing young children and even babies to the cliff. Honestly, I don't buy the whole 'now-that-I-am-a-parent-but-I-will-do-as-if
-nothing-has-to-change' thing. I am totally for staying hip even after having children, but there is still certain limits though. It is really dangerous as you can see on the photo. I, myself as an adult, am freaking out. It is 300 metres down and no protection or anything at all. How can people bring children and babies up there, I find it unbelievable; and in my opinion, very inappropriate. I believe there are certain sightseeing spots for adults exclusively in the world; and being a good parent, no less, should consider all these.

(to be continued...yarn shopping and chat with native knitters on Inis Mor!!!)

Practical Knitting Illustrated - circa. 1940s

2008-03-25T11:16:00.005Z

Since we arrived Galway early and planned to spend some time in the city, we walked around everywhere. It was Good Friday, nothing much was open.

While we were about to give up, we have found a second-hand bookstore. We both love books, especially second-hand books. To us, it is like to go on a treasure hunt.

Did we find any 'treasure'? We did!

My man got a book about Art Nouveau, circa 1970. You might wonder how special it is? Try, try to find books that talk about Art Nouveau posters, then you will understand.
Me, I got this...

When I first found this book, I was like 'what is that? This gray piece of thing?' Embarrassingly, I didn't know the authors. I turned on the first page, it said, 'Jane R Davis, Christmas 1942' then I realise I have found a book during Second World War! So I turned the page more, there are newspaper clippings about the civil war in China, classified ads, and knitting patterns from the newspaper and of course the book itself! It is full of classic vintage pattern from the 40s. I was so going to get this book, then I started to worry, 'is it going to cost a tortune?' Guess what? It marked '4 Euros'.

Since I arrived home on Sunday, I have been searching for information about this book on the internet and I have started to read the book itself too and I realise there are such so much to take in. I have decided I will write about my finding here bit by bit here later. Now, we shall go back to talk about the trip.

So we left Galway with our new found treasure, took the shuttle, then the ferry and finally arrived to Inis Mor. It was getting dark and we were hungry. So we figured we should just call it a day, we asked about where we could get food, they said there are only 3 restaurants in the island in cold seasons, so we went to one of those, we had a very nice dinner with very fresh fish and we went to bed.

I always wonder, why do these people live here, in this little piece of rock of an island? Then the next day, the first moment I wake up, I opened the curtain, I finally understood...

Honestly, I have done a fair share of traveling, I have never seen this in my life...I finally understand what the word breathtaking means...

Galway

2008-03-24T11:04:00.004Z

I guess not many people are actually reading my blog coz objectively my blog is still quite boring so far. I haven't yet got around to upload any photos since for some reasons, I just HATE uploading and downloading. Everything that deals with loading and waiting for that matter, I just hate it. I don't even download musics and I dont't have an iPod. But this time, I will kinda have to upload some amazing photos I have taken during my trip to Galway and Aran Islands.

We have finally done our first trip in Ireland. Friday the 21, we have arrived in Galway by train. It is amazing to see how different the train system it is in Ireland and in France.

In Ireland, the train ticket didn't give you a fixed seat nor a particular train that you have to take. The ticket we got entitled us to go to Galway and return from the 21 to the 20 next month, that's all. It is actually quite flexible.

The second difference is, the train in Ireland not crowded. It was the Easter weekend that we took the train and returned, but the train was not crowded at all, everybody got to have window seats and their bags sitting with them and relaxed.

Even the train stations are more relaxed. In Ireland, they don't have the freaking announcement telling you to get on the train, 'the last call to Toulouse, it stops at xxx, yyy, zzz'. I guess Irish people are general a bit less relying on other people to help them and take the responsibility of going on the train on time by themselves more. (But then again, I am not going to go into talking about the national nature of these countries, coz I can go on and on for hours.)

Galway is a wonderful city. It is more Irish than Dublin, in my opinion. With all the old stone buildings and all that. It is beautiful.

My plan to get yarn in Galway was unsuccessful due to the fact that Yarn was closed afterall on Good Friday. But that's ok, I will be back to Galway in October for the Irish Knitters Retreat anyway, so that's fine.

(to be continued...'A Knitting Book from 1942'...sorry, I just can't take in the uploading things too much in one shot...)

Aran Islands

2008-03-20T23:24:00.007Z

YEAH! Tomorrow is going to be our first excursion since we moved to Ireland -- Aran Islands.

There are 4 days holidays ahead of us and we can't just stay in Dublin doing nothing. However, getting around in Ireland is quite different from getting around in France. One of the few things I do appreciate about France is -- good train system. In France, no matter how small the village is, there must be a train station that provides service to Paris = the rest of the world (at least that's what matters to them).

But in Ireland...a country where farmers had to hitchhike to go to the town 15 years ago...it seems to be that the transport development hasn't yet quite caught up with the whole Celtic Tiger thing and I am not going to go into the topic of the horrible traffic in Dublin now.

The result is: apart from staying in the cities, wherever you go, you need a car. (There is actually still some reserve about the statement I have just made above, since sometimes it is quite difficult to get around by public transport even inside the city, again, I won't go there now).

So we figure the only way to explore the beautiful legendary countryside of Ireland WITHOUT the involvement of a car will probably be going to Aran Islands. The reason is simple. You don't need a car coz the island is on the sea!!!

Here it is...

Agrandir le plan

Apart from the fact that the island won't involve the use of car, you can't deny it is such a wonderful place to be though, look at that!

One more great thing about this trip is, I can probably get to visit two LYSs!!! The Yarn in Galway and the really really local YS on the island. I heard they sell local spun yarn.

Will report back after the trip, Happy Easter!

Knit Klips

2008-03-18T09:51:00.003Z

I got it I got it! I got my KnitKlips today first thing in the morning after St Patrick's holiday.

I was trying to sew up my man's sweater, aka. my first sweater ever. Ok, I am not super fond of sewing the thing up, but I don't hate that as much as what I heard from other knitters. But surely, it would have been nicer if the darn sleeve didn't move here and there...

I am going to try to theseKnitKlips to see if it will work better, the size of these klips are bigger and more solid than I thought, should probably work well.

The bad news is, I can't really try that tonight and report back, since I did sew up one sleeve last night and realized the sleeve didn't fit quite well on the sweater. There was just too much fiber and looked totally like a bubble princess sleeve! So I re-read the pattern again and realized I totally misread the pattern for the decreases.

That's ok, live it, learn it...

Irish Knitters Group Retreat is finally here!!!

2008-03-12T16:42:00.007Z

I can't believe it!!! Finally, we have our first Irish knitting retreat -- Irish Knitters Group Retreat for Ravelry Irish Knitters Group.

I am glad that I have joined Ravelry on time to get the chance to sign up for the retreat. Over the past few months since I pick up knitting again, I have been browsing through pages after pages of photos of knitting retreat of all sort, longing for the opportunity to be able to actually join one of those.

The Irish Knitters Group Retreat will be in County Galway in a B&B called Craig Country House, yes, this lovely yellow house is the place! www.craigcountryhouse.com

The first moment the announcement was up on Ravelry, I have immediately signed up. Now, the hard part is to wait for the day. There are like 7 months to go though...

Converts...

2008-03-07T10:58:00.004Z

Hang on there! Don't worry, I am not talking about anything religious here. I know I know, it is getting really really sensitive to use this word under the present atmosphere.

I am talking about the Knitting Converts.

It is amazing how Knitting takes on its own life and spread like a disease...oups, is there another nicer word to express how quick it spreads?

I have successfully converted a colleague without even trying. I was knitted a shawl for a gift last Christmas. She kept asking me about the stitches and stuff every day and one day she came to me and said, ‘it is a bit embarrassing but I have been knitting secretly for two weeks now, trying to make a scarf…’ I was shocked and asked, ‘why don’t you tell me?!’ she said, ‘well, I worried it won’t turn out ok, didn’t want to tell people until I am quite sure it will turn into a proper scarf, you know….’

So I finished the scarf and gave that to my fiance's aunt. She was amazed and told me that she had crocheted the lamp cover over there (pointing her finger on the wonderful cover with swan all around) many years ago, then sigh and said maybe she should start again…

Then my mother in law said she is considering to pick up knitting again after knowing that I am knitting.

Another time, I think I have almost converted a lady on the train station. She wanted to learn and I have given her details where you could get information to start.

Then finally, my sister told me last night she is going to start knitting after her exam. She said she didn’t know knitting is not about making a boxy sweater made from Acrylic anymore and got jealous after seeing all the FO done by the people here on Ravelry. She made a glove 10 years old, didn’t make the second glove though coz she messed up the size for the first one and didn’t bother to finish the second one…

And the spreading continues...

Ravelry

2008-03-05T16:36:00.006Z

I am sure you heard and heard and heard people talking about Ravelry. I have finally got the invitation 5 days ago and logged in 3 days ago.

There is such a complete visual knitting planet on it!

I am completely overwhelmed by all these knitters from every corner of the world. I have joined 21 groups in 3 days and have got tons of information about Ireland from fellow Irish knitters. I hope the website will be fully up and running asap and those people who work very hard behind to get this going will get the merits that they deserved.

If you don't know about Ravelry yet, say, you have been too busy knitting to talk to other knitters or too busy trying to get your cat(s) off your knitting, please click on the little button on the side bar, it will bring you to their site / planet.

Now, I have to spare some knitting and cat touching time to enter all my yarn, needles, WIP and FO information in my profile. My man teased me saying that I should hire a Data-entry Clerk...