Knitting gettogether

What a fabulous day I had today... starting with a pampering facial, manicure and pedicure all courtesy of my sister - Thank you!!!!

Just when I thought it could not get any better, I met up with fellow knitter Jennifer and her knitting friend Shinobu for some lunch and knitting. We walked little bit from Bourke St Mall to Lonsdale St, where Cafe Giraffe is located. All I can say is that this cafe is just so worth it - to relax and knit and for its GREAT food!

Based on Jennifer's recommendation, I ordered a Sesame Chicken Noodle Salad - ohh sooo yummy sorry no photos as I was starving and the food was just sooo good! I did however took a photo of this wonderful cafe. Definitely will come back here!

We proceeded to do some knitting- Jennifer was already more than half way away on her Stefanie Japel cardigan - looking at the beautiful colour, I'm just tempted to start one in Zara too :)

Shinobu on the other hand is a newbie and has already completed 20 squares for her baby blanket - what a feat!!! She's definitely a fast learner! Here, Jennifer is teaching how to put the squares together. I just love knitting and knitting together with friends is the next best thing!

I could not resist desserts so in the end, I caved in for my usual favourite - the sticky date pudding which did not disappoint.

As always all good things must come to an end, we topped of the day with a quick visit to Clegs to shop for some row counters (what a great idea from Jennifer) and some wool sewing needle for Shinobu! I did do a quick look around to see whats new in Clegs and one thing that caught my eye was the Amy Butlers fabrics and patterns. Wow if I could sew, these items would be snapped up immediately. Till the next update!

YARN GIVEAWAY!!!!!

This will be the first ever yarn giveaway for Yarnatheart, a result of cleaning out my stash. I hope when you read this, you will help let other yarn lovers know about this giveaway (FREE POSTAGE to anywhere in Australia and Malaysia). If you are not from Australia or Malaysia, just email me and we can work something out!
There will be more yarn giveaways in the near future, I promise, so stay tuned ok....

6 balls of Jo Sharp Soho DK Cotton in Eclipse (a beautiful blue a cross between navy and dark blue.)

2 balls of Cleckheaton Mohair in blackcurrant and 2 balls of Patons Creme De la Creme.

4 balls of Patons Merino Totem DK in Peacock Green.

4 balls of Peter Pan DK in a variegation of White and Blue - perfect for babies - sooo soft!

10 balls of Cleackheaton Country Silk DK in Light Green.

Back In Melbourne

Here we go again - We are already in Melbourne - We took the photos after take off from Kuala Lumpur International Airport. Here's Ashleigh saying Good night!


While Matt wants to finish reading his Tom & Jerry comic book.



We left Kuching last week and managed to spend a great time in Genting again - I have to show you the photos of the room that we had - it was just stupendously amazing. There was a fish tank on top of our bed which is a bit disturbing but on the other side, the fish tank is a bathroom with crazy shower heads.


Take a look at this 15 shower heads - this would have been banned in Melbourne for sure!

So we are now back in Melbourne and having a lovely holiday here. The weather is just heating up and its great swimming weather. It was Matt's birthday yesterday and we spent it at home , barbecuing, swimming, cake eating, opening presents - the usual stuff. Here is what we spent our time doing yesterday :

1. Woke up and was put straight to work by birthday boy to do a movie camera from boxes, paper plates , some glue and some black paint. Luckily Ash was also there to give me a hand - as usual!

And ta daaa the finished product.

2. Swimming - because its so hot and also the kids wanted to swim.

3. And of course the birthday cupcakes which was ordered from The Little Cupcake Shop in Melbourne. The stand was kindly lent by my sister and really gave that extra oomph for displaying cupcakes! My favourite was the chocolate cupcake with mint frosting.

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Of course, all these leave me very little time to do anything else - ie reading or knitting. I've recently increased my pile to read and surprisingly the books are all written by women authors - funny that, it was not my intention !

Till the next update - hopefully it will be of the knitting kind :)

What have I been up to...

If you've been wondering what have I been so busy with lately, let me show you the reason - and it has nothing to do with me -I'm just helping out!

My sister is getting married yay -cause I love wedding and so does Ashleigh. There's just so many things to do before I head over to Melbourne. I just hope I've got everything done. Mind you there will be 2 weddings in all (1 in Melbourne and 1 in Kuching). My sister and her fiance are doing their own vows and they have to memorise it - Very Romantic vows , makes me blush! She said I can hide behind the parasol if I do - yes you read correctly, there will be parasols involved!!!

The poem on the wedding invite for the romantically inclined :)

Granny Squares take 2...

Being distracted from what I should knit/ crochet is what I do best! Here is the latest distraction. I was somewhat inspired by the number of crocheted blankets that are out in the blogsphere , one in particular really caught my fancy. Just reading her blogs makes me smile and inspires me to include as many colours as possible into one project. And so I present 7 crochet granny squares which will later be a blanket.

I love pastel colours and that is why I've chosen soft pastel muted colours for the blanket. Although I must say I'm still experimenting at this stage .

I can just look at this all day - but I'm going to make more squares - see you later!

Other crafts

I am currently multi tasking with my projects. The photo on the left is the back of a bolero cardigan for Ash to wear to my sister's wedding in November this year. Its not the main outfit but its just in case if the air condition gets too cold. I bought this from Wondoflex in Malvern when I visited Melbourne in August this year. Knitted with the Sublime Baby DK , it is deliciously soft and addictive. The colour is off white to match her flower girl outfit. I hope this works out.

On the other hand, the star crochet blanket is still growing, I ran out of the blue and brown yarn that I started with and now have to experiment and use other colours. The latest colour that I've added is a medium brown , bought it on sale at Spotlight and is 100% acrylic. I must say its kind of nice to crochet with it!

Today while I was looking through my yarn bag, I came across this - this was way back when Matthew was still a baby. I used to cross stitch and had dreams of hanging this up one day. I looove cross stitch and like to look at other people's work all nicely framed! As you can see I have the bottom part to go and some black outline that needed to be done. Where's Ashleigh's I hear you say , well its still in a paper bag unopened and unstitched !!! I'm terrible :) I hope I get hers done before she turns 18!!!

In Malaysia recently we had another week long school holiday to celebrate Hari Raya Aidilfitri, we took this opportunity to go to Singapore for 4 days! We spent most of our time shopping, eating (YUM) and going to the zoo! In all we had a lovely break! We love Singapore and want to go there again! The hotel we stayed was also lovely and very central - just take the lift from our room and by the time we walk out of the hotel we are already at the shops !

This photo is taken when we were at the Singapore Zoo while on board the boat ride. I thought that I was going to be sick on it and nearly wanted to go out but the boat was already moving away from the dock!! I actually enjoyed the smooth ride - it was like riding on air!

Did I say I went shopping? Well, Ash saw this outfit at Isetan and I was a bit unsure with all the frilliness of the skirt. I liked the tshirt with pretty pink flowers though! Sigh I really must love girly stuff to allow my daughter to have this!

Newish and oldish projects

Wow I have left this blog waaayyy tooo long! There's always an excuse to everything and my excuse this time is I've been away.
What have I been up to in knitting land ? Well now, let's see.... went to Melbourne late August and managed to visit most of my favourite yarn shops including the newly opened Morris and Sons in Collins St. It was beautiful and I only wished I had more time to just sit back and indulge ( browsing and actually knitting.) I was with the kids and little Ash was happy to go around and shop but I couldn't let Matt just sit there. So , in the end I bought the Sissinghurst scarf kit which I think was beautiful on the mannequin. I chose a beautiful variegated blue Noro Kureyon Sock Yarn and after a few false starts I was on my way crocheting. It feels good and looks good.


Apart from that, I have also been busy with a loongg time project - Lizzie Cardigan which I bought from Wool Baa. Its double stranded with Jo Sharp Soho Summer Cotton and using a 6.5mm needles , I am done with the back and now working on the right front. I miss the days when I could knit more a few years ago.

I also managed to visit Sydney in the past few weeks and it was absolutely beautiful. Unfortunately I didn't get to visit the yarn shop recommended by Salihan as I ran out of time. We went to the zoo and it was stunning - no wonder some people actually marry there! After visiting Sydney, we headed back to Melbourne for the rest of our holidays. Ahhh bliss - I really indulged in the coffees and cakes there!
here are some of the photos from our trips...enjoy!