I had to ...

I had to start a new project. I had nothing to knit. My green crochet bag is stalled because I ran out of yarn. I won't have time to go the the yarn shop till next week at the earliest. And, I can't knit my peach sweater either because I brought it to the office, thinking that I could knit a few rows during lunch. Guess what? I never seem to have time to knit on the days when I lunch in my office, because that's when I am busy trying to catch up on some work. It has been sitting on the floor under my desk for weeks and I keep forgetting to bring it home. So, you see, I had to start a new project to knit at home.

This new knit is a lacy cardigan from a Japanese RichMore magazine pattern. I am knitting with Noro silk garden that I bought years ago in Hong Kong. Gauge is spot on and I think I will have just about enough yarn. Knitting with Noro silk garden is a bit like knitting with string. Reminds me of knitting with Jaeger trinity yarn, excpet that silk garden is thicker than trinity. And, I'm not sure if it's my imagination, but I feel like I'm breathing in fluff or something and my throat gets kind of dry.

Does knitting make you hungry? Well, I got hungry and I had to fix myself a snack between meals! Liver pate topped with an egg. Yum! I added black grapes to make it look more healthy.

Since I am showing you food pics, here's last week's dinner. Spaghetti with capsicum and button mushrooms in leftover bulgogi sauce and teriyaki chicken on the side.

We make a sauce with whatever is on hand, from rummaging in the fridge while the spaghetti is cooking. The trick for us is to add lots of chopped garlic. Have I mentioned before that we love garlic? Yum!

Hope you are having a good week, I am looking forward to catching the next episode of my current favourite Korean drama! an yeong haseyo!

Edited to add: Fall Knitty 2010 is out! The Brambles hat and Ringwood gloves are my faves. What's yours?

Saturday lunch

Our typical Saturday is filled with activities even though there is no school or work. We also tend to have a hearty Saturday breakfast. So lunch is usually light. If we were at the Fairprice supermarket in the morning, we might buy some takeaway handrolls, sushi and sashimi.

Sometimes I will cook some kon-low mee with omelette strips and heat up some Campbell's mushroom soup. My kids love to add black pepper and furikake to their noodles and soup. By the way, the kon-low mee is just instant ramen, tossed in dark soya sauce, light soya sauce and sesame oil.

By the way, you may have heard that Bloglines is closing as of 1 Oct. Do you know where I can continue to be notified of your new blog posts via feed updates? I am totally clueless about such things, so your help will be very much appreciated :)

green and easy

I started something easy and repetitive, no need to count rows. A simple shell stitch.


I'm using Butterfly Super 10 cotton. My favourite cotton yarn for crocheting a bag. It makes a nice firm fabric. Wondering if I should line it. I like green, even though I don't wear much of it.


I've been nursing a nasty sore throat and cough, but I'm on the mend. Looking forward to my long weekend as tomorrow is a public holiday. Have a good weekend!

Altered

Some of my clothes don't fit very well. It took me a long time to realise that I could fix the fit (sometimes).

This tshirt had a neckline that was a tad too wide. Whenever I wore it, I was always tugging and checking if my bra strap showed. I needed to make that neckline a bit smaller. When I saw these ruffled tshirts that are all the rage now, I thought of adding a ruffle to the neckline. But I am too lazy to make a long strip of ruffles. So I settled for an easier alternative: this white cotton edging. It is not that wide, just enough to prevent bra strap exposure. I hand-stitched it on with tiny stitches. I love to stitch by hand. It is neater than machine sewing because it can be invisible. Now I don't have to tug anymore and it cost me nothing because the edging was some leftover sitting in my basket of odds and ends. Don't you just like it when things can be fixed so simply?

Next is this tunic (below) that was too big for me but I bought it anyway because I loved the colour, the lace at the neckline and the floaty light fabric with crinkly pleats. Each time I wore it though, I felt frumpy because it was too loose, too long and the armhole was too big. It was essentially a shapeless sack albeit a floaty lacey sack ... see the "before" pic below. But I couldn't bear to give it away. Last month, I found a hole in the net lace at the shoulder. I had to think of how to fix that hole before it grew bigger.

I sewed the shoulder seam up, just below the tear. That way the net wouldn't unravel anymore. It also gave a smaller armhole. While I was at it, I sewed one row of shirring elastic under the bust, which drew in the gathers.

It fits better now, no more frumpy me. I have too many ideas brimming in my head for altering my clothes to fit better or look better. If only I had as much time to get myself organised enough to get them done.

roadside fruit stall

Sometimes, after dinner, we drive 15 minutes out to the roadside durian stall to have durian. These roadside durian stalls are open way into the night.


The sign on the wall with the 3 Chinese characters gives the name of the king of durians, the "mau san wang".

The durian is a thorny fruit. You can see how sharp the thorns are in the pic below. To open it, one uses a knife to pry open one of the sections at the bottom. Then you have to use your hands to pull apart the shell and then press the sides open completely.



Inside is the durian fruit. It is creamy and rich, very filling. Where durian is concerned there are two camps. Those who love it (my son) and those who don't (my daughter). I took only one photo because my husband and son were waiting to eat the durians. Of course, once we started eating I couldn't take any more photos. You hold the durian fruit in your hand to eat and it gets messy, the finger licking type of messy. By the way, this durian stall has tables and stools for customers to sit and eat the fruit there, with a sink for you to wash your hands after. There are advantages to eating the fruit there rather than bringing it home. The durian is very fragrant to some and pungent, to put it mildly, to others. So if we drive it home in the car, the car will need to be aired to get rid of the smell. No to mention that when we dispose of the shells and seeds in our dustbin, the smell lingers for days in the bin. Haha, we can always tell when our neighbours had durian, probably the whole neighbourhood knows!


This durian stall also sells local fruits. The fruit above is the duku langsat. Very nice and sweet. They are quite small in size and rather addictive, so when you start eating them, it's quite difficult to stop.


This is the dragon fruit. It looks very exotic but it is actually quite tasteless (bland).



These are starfruit. If you cut them crosswise, you will see the star shape. My family is not particularly fond of starfruits.

The red hairy fruits on the left are rambutans. They are very sweet. The lumpy green fruit on the right is the chempedak. Also very sweet and nice.


The green fruit at the top row left, that is wrapped in clingfoil is the pomelo. Sort of like a sweet version of grapefruit. On the right of the second row are the custard apples, a favorite of mine. I used to have a custard apple tree outside my house but it was uprooted when they upgraded my drainage system last year. At the bottom row are 2 different types of mangoes. The reddish green ones on the left are more fragrant but for taste, I prefer the yellow ones on the right. We love it when mangoes are in season. The easiest way to eat a mango is to slice it in half and scoop out the flesh with a spoon.


Hope you enjoyed the visit with me to this roadside fruit stall.