Yarncat Fiber Trip 2009 (3) The other half?

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...

Moving in my office

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.

Kitties dialogue

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?

Corporate so-called care to the community

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.

My thought on babies

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.

Is it just me?

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!)

Yarncat in Spain

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.

Larmlarm the King turns into Irish

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

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.

Cold

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

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...)

Happy Sunday

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...

'Technical issue' + WWKIP Day countdown

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.

Another knitter KIP!

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.

First Customer!!

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!!!