Two in a row

This girl always manage to surprise me. 2 new words in a row.

This was yesterday - PURPLE

and here's one from today - THERE (taught by Adam)

I'm proud of you, my little genius.

Meet Sarah...

the latest addition to our family!

no, not my baby, silly ;)

my niece! hehe....

i'm a proud Maklong indeed..i wish i can go there and give her a cuddle..i've been hassling my brother with constant calls to check on her..

congrats Aie and good job Liana!

Little knits

While waiting for my yarn to arrive (photo in the previous entry) I knitted up a few other little woolies. My hands can't keep idle anymore. They yearn for some yarn twiddling on a daily basis. small little knits can be very quick to knit up and brings (almost) instant gratification.

I made this warm cowl for myself actually. As soon as I casted it off, with the ends still waiting to be weaved in, Adam claimed it as his ('My blue one, Mommy!' and ran off with it). Blue's his favourite colour but I didn't expect this because he detest anything knitted. Absolutely refuse to wear them. Which is why I hardly ever knit for him. A tragedy for a knit-loving mama. In the picture above he is styling up his hair to be photographed.

ok dah hensem. It's his new thing. The first time I saw him fluff his hair like this, he climbed up to the mirror, looked at himself and said 'wow, hensem! like Dad!' hahaha....oh yeah he calls us MOM and DAD now...don't know who taught him that. I thought he would be 21 before Mommy starts to sound too childish for him. Oh dear (which btw is also his favourite phrase to say. in an English accent)

The yarn is soft and gorgeous. rowan's organic pure wool DK, bought on sale from JL so it was quite cheap for quality wool.

This is the Aviatrix hat i made for Mia. She hates hats and only tolerates them when it's really cold. The moment we step indoors she'll be pulling them off. So this hat is rather perfect for her because the hat is safely attached to her like a helmet, thus rendering it harder for little fingers to remove.

the construction of this hat is very unique and quite surprising, as it is knitted on straight needles only. Very quick knit too. the pattern is free in ravelry and i would very much recommend it. The pattern is well written for 3 different yarn weights so you could pretty much use whatever yarn you have in your stash.

The yarn I'm using here is rowan's silky tweed, a mix of wool and silk. it's purple with little sprinkles of blue and orange and a few other colours. just beautiful. I have a couple skeins left...just looking at them fantasizing what else to knit is a pleasure...you know i have a soft spot for purple..

Nothing warms the heart of a knitterly mama more than seeing her little angels all wrapped up in her wollies. Aaaah bliss.

My cardigan

This is the first garment I made for myself...i was rather nervous to start..here's the result:

(ernie, here's the blouse from previous entry. how come you always notice my fav clothes?)

the pattern is the February Lady, a free pattern found on Ravelry. The pattern was inspired by another pattern from Elizabeth Zimmerman's famous book - Knitter's Almanac. I got the book (very cheaply) off Amazon recently and was totally smitten with EZ's words and liberating opinionated way of knitting. The lacy gull pattern on the bottom bit of the cardigan looks lovely but it is actually pretty easy to execute and memorise. A note for knitters - I did the yarn overs the opposite way, thus twisting the yarn and closing up the holes slightly. I ended up with a denser, warmer fabric. It took me almost a month to finish it.

The yarn was also inspired by EZ. In her book she mentioned about Shetland wools, famous the world over and traditionally used for Fair Isle garments, and the sheep is grown only in the Shetland Islands in the UK. I looked it up online and got this yarn. When I received the yarn, I was slightly sceptical. The yarn felt a little prickly on my fingers while knitting. I went online to learn more about it and found a wealth of information about Shetland wool. The more I leaned the more I fell in love with this wool. This is real sheep's wool. It looks like wool, feels like wool, and smells like wool. I kept sniffing the yarn as I knit. It smells gorgeously sheepy. The yarn has great stitch definition, is very warm and hardwearing. It has had minimal treating. This is wool as the sheep knows it, almost.

These beautiful buttons are from Liberty, covered with lovely Liberty fabric.

This cardigan has hardly left my shoulders since it finished blocking. I love it! I almost wish winter won't pass so quickly..so I can knit more! I'm full of knitterly thoughts these days.I try to find knitting time as much as I can and if I'm not knitting, I'll be online learning about knitting or reading about knitting, or thinking about knitting. I've had quite a few knitterly dreams too!

I have a few more quick knits I've yet blogged about...will need photos of those..but here's a sneak peek at my current project:

oooh tasty!

Andalucia, Day 3

On the third day we decided to have a relaxing day at the resort. After a yummy breakfast at our now favourite restaurant, the kids explored the beach.

Adam and his sand castle

Mia tried making a sandcastle too. I can't tell you enough how liberating it feels to be able to just let my baby explore the sand instead of gritting my teeth, making her cry and constantly cleaning sand off of her..as a result everybody had such a fun relaxing time playing in the sand..

She played until she got tired and fell asleep...

time for me and Adam to have a splash in the water. The season is actually winter there, but swimming is all year round. Although the air temperature is cool, the water temperature in the ocean is rather warm, around 18C, comparable to a UK beach in summer.

Daddy's big sandcastle

After the beach we went for a drive to Malaga. My husband went to the football stadium..afterwards more swimming in the swimming pool...

and then dinner at the restaurant. The photo above is our seafood paella, a local favourite as suggested by the restaurant owners. I was quite suspicious when they suggested paella because I once had paella in spain before (while studying in sheffield) and it was eww tak sedap..but this paella, wow, really changed my impression of paellas...it was delicioso! (as the spanish would say. and by spanish i meant Dora the Explorer). Mia ate a lot of it too!

the restaurant owners - Lilian and Richard. Their restaurant turned out to be one of the highlights of our trip. Delicious local food and excellent service. Wonderful people too. In case you're going here, their restaurant is called Caribe, overlooking the beach...

Snippets

Scene 1

Adam and Mia is playing pretend.

Adam: Skasuma!Skasuma! Wait please!

Mia: *run away grinning*

Adam: Skasuma! Here's your package. Your post. There. Take it please. *caught up to her*

Mia: *smile, takes the 'package' (a drawing of Thomas ripped up from one of his books)

Adam: Ok thank you very much.

Mia: *ran away again with the package*

Adam: Wait Skasuma come back. *took the package back*

Repeat above a few times.

p/s: Skasuma = customer (after a LOT of guessing about)

Scene 2

Adam has been using the word 'lawer' recently. I spent days trying to think of what it might mean. Last week while he's having his lunch...

Mommy: Adam, what does lawer mean? lawa?later?

Adam: Erm...*thinking* aaah ok. AAAAAAAAgh!!AAAGGGHHHHH!!!! *scream*

Mommy: ohoooo! Lawer means LOUDER?

Adam: YES! good job Mommy.

Scene3

Adam was playing with his trolley and accidentally ram into my the side of my head. I was sitting on the floor feeding Mia.

Mommy: Aww...sakit Mommy Adam...*starting to get upset*

Adam: I'm so sorry Mommy...where sakit? Where? Here?

Mommy: My head Adam....

Adam: Oh no...let me see...fuh fuh *blow on my head* kesian Mommy....*kiss my head*

Mommy: * tak sakit dah*

Mia's birthday celebration

Whatever happened to my resolve to update this blog on a daily basis? (erm, daily -ish, at least). I still owe you photos from Andalucia but here are some photos from Mia's birthday.

simple homemade chocolate cake for her

she's reading one of her birthday gifts. I caught her reading Adam's books lately, so I got her some books of her own (most of Adam's books are already worn and torn)

her birthday bunting hang nicely on the walls

her birthday crown.

my princess and prince

Some of her presents. Adam received some presents as well (of course!) and somehow Mia's more interested in his presents than hers!

here she is running after Adam's new fire engine :)

Happy birthday my lovely. We love you so much!