Time to Move On

It is kind of funny that most normal people start to make changes or resolutions at the start of the year, but I’m a bit slow. It takes me approximately three to six months to decide what kind of changes I want to make in my life. In May this year, I’ve decided to change job. It is not that I didn’t like the company I was working for, it is just that I needed a change in focus and a change of environment. Now, after some thought I have decided to move this blog to another site. The reason for the move is to streamline my blog and my shop, so the name of the new blog will be Intertwined Crafts. I know I have been a bit obsessed with my knitting lately, but this new blog will bring me back to the reason why I starting blogging in the first place which is to blog about knitting and sewing. I might also have a dab at other crafts too, such as quilting and patchwork or printing will be fun too. So watch this space. I hope you have enjoyed reading this blog, but I’m sure you will enjoy the new one too. Please pop over (and remember to change your blogfeed) when you have the time.

Time for some Organisation

Our car broke down this weekend. It has got to a point where I'm starting to see the funny side of things now....really. My husband took Friday off to take my daughter and my Inlaws to Chessington World of Adventures and the car broke down on the way back. I found out whilst having dinner with a friend at Carlucios after work. She asked me why I wasn't bothered about the whole thing and why I was still able to enjoy my tiramisu. Well, I know my daughter will be well looked after as my Inlaws are there, it is most probably the car battery that is causing the problem, my Inlaws live close to Chessington and we have road recovery so it's not much of problem. Anyway, we bought a new battery over the weekend and our car is fixed now.

I have got so much tidying up and organising to do. At the moment, you can find yarn and unwashed/unblocked knitted items everywhere. I still haven't finishing sewing up my garter stitch cardigan (only one side to do) and I still haven't blocked my blue cropped knitted jacket. I need to sort out my book keeping for Intertwined Knits (this is naughty considering I'm an Accountant) and I need to list more items. Arggg....so much to do. Kyoko and I are planning a trip to Ikea one evening. She needs to get some storage for her bread making ingredients and I need to get some storage for my yarn stash and a new clock (yes our old one is broken).

Here is some proof that I really need to start getting myself more organised:

Yarn scattered at the bottom of my wardrobe

Left over yarn on top of my drawers

Yarn still in the bag in need of some storage

Yarn on top of my craft books

Knitted good in need of some washing

I will let you know how I get on.

Relaxing weekend

I'm feeling more relaxed now. I took three days off work last week and the long weekend also helped. My fridge is still not working properly but we are going to get an engineer to fixed it this weekend (fingers crossed it can be fixed). Luckily it was working when I decided to make a birthday cake for my daughter (click here ) last week. I've also been doing some yoga and I managed to convince Jax to come with me. For those who do yoga or Pilates; do you find that it is like having a good massage? My stiff back is a lot better now. The view of the docks while doing an headstand (well attempting to do one) is strangely relaxing.

During this time we went to the Museum of London to see their new gallery.


Such beautiful shoes and dresses. I can only day dream of wearing the brown sequin dress and the golden shoes at my ballroom dance classes.....sigh.....

We said farewell to a neighbour who are moving to North London, if you look closely you can spot her off to do their last shopping in this area. We are going to miss them.


Then over the weekend we cheered Kyoko at the 10k Bupa race followed by dim sum and Hagaan Das.


The last 400 meters towards Buckingham Palace.


Well done Kyoko! Read more about her run here.

So it has been an enjoyable time off.

I can now reveal the secret project/thing that has been keeping me busy lately. Well, I've decided to change jobs. I didn't think it would be good idea to blog about it until I had secured my new job and resigned from my existing one. My new job will still be based in the City and it is still close to both I-Knit and Loop (I had to get my priorities right), it is also very close to the British Library which I'm hoping to visit after work one day.

I hope you all will have a relaxing week/weekend (and enjoy the sun if you live in London).

Fixing Things

Gosh, it has been a while since my last blog post. I've been busing dealing with a few issues over the last few weeks so I haven't had the time to sit down and blog. Well, first of all my fridge decided to break down on the very day we decided to stock up on food for the week (we normally buy as we eat). We had to give the food to my Mum who lives nearby. We then popped over to her place for dinner for the past week. We also fave some frozen food to our neighbours. I'm so glad we live so close to my parents and such good neighbours. We switched the fridge off for 48 hours (as suggested by a trouble shooting website) and gave it a good clean and now it is working now.

Then there was a fraudulent transaction on my credit card of approximately £5,000 ($8,000). It took several phone calls to the credit card company for them to resolve the issue and then clear the payment and fees on my account.

If that wasn't enough, my daughter's optician made an error making her first pair of glasses. Luckily she has been refusing to wear them and we have not forced her to until her next appointment with the eye doctor. I went to meet the store director this morning who has apologised and promised to sort out the problem.

So it has been a little stressful, but thanks to family and friends (and some knitting) it hasn't been too bad. I've also taken three days off this week to relax and hopefully do some baking and knitting.

As well as fixing these things, I have also been mending some clothes and I've started a new project. I'd thought I'd better add some photos to this blog post. :)

New project:

My small haberdashery basket, a present from Gracie.

Mending a hole in my jacket

Have a lovely week everyone.

Eating and Sleeping

I said I was planning on spending the long weekend eating and sleeping, well, that is exactly what we ended up doing. Yes, I said I was joking, but I couldn't resist a lie in and who would refuse good food?

Over the long weekend we went to Bumbles with friends who knew the owner there.

My friend's starter; frog legs.

I stuck to the classic salmon.

This weekend was Jax birthday, so we went on the London Eye.

Followed by a friend's Sashimi and Sushi party (don't worry, I didn't eat a lot of the seaweed, just one or two).

Now, I need to get back to my knitting. I've started knitting something for the shop today, so I better get going.

Have a lovely week everyone.

Busy Week

Oh gosh, I've been so busy this week. Well first of all, I had to make sure that the shop order was knitted up and dispatched. Coincidentally, I had one of the busiest week at work. I've also been busy with something which I can't reveal just yet. It's a secret, but hopefully I'll be able to reveal all soon.

All is done now, so I can relax and enjoy the long weekend (it is a UK public holiday this coming Monday). I'm just gonna eat and sleep. Hee Hee Hee!

Only joking. I'm planning on visiting friends and family and also do some knitting. I've just got the left front and collar of my beige cropped cardigan to knit up. I also need to block my turquoise cardigan so I can start wearing it. Then if I have time, make a start of my Ishbel (from Ysolda's first book). I went to Loop a couple of weeks ago to buy this lovely yarn:

Malabrigo Lace (100% baby merino).

Hopefully, mine will look as lovely as this.

Have a relaxing weekend everyone.

London Marathon 2010

We watched the London Marathon today and we had an amazing time. It was so inspirational to see all those people running for charities. Some were dressed as Rhinos, Mr Men characters and all kind of animals. We were all clapping and shouting the runners' names supporting these amazing people. It was a lovely atmosphere indeed.

There was a man juggling whilst running.....truly amazing!

On our way to the pub we bumped into some friends so decided to have some Sunday roast together. The food was lovely and it was nice to have a relaxed Sunday afternoon chatting with friends and eating some good food. We then went for a walk by the river and look what we saw:

Did someone leave their knitting behind? ;) I've heard of a group of people who knit things and leave them around London, so it could be them. Or maybe someone did leave their knitting behind. What do you think?

Anyway, I have some good news.......I've made my first sale on Etsy. Yay! I was so happy, that I've been telling everyone. :) This month has sure been a strange one, I will talk about this in another blog post.

Have a good week everyone!

Easter Break

I hope everyone had a lovely Easter break, or secretly looking forward to when the kids go back to school. Hee Hee Hee! I took some time off from work and we drove up to Leicester to the National Space centre:
Amazing spacecraft.

Where I read the weather, which was fun.

We also went to Cadbury's World in Birmingham, where we ate too much chocolate.

Chocolate family photos

Gigantic Easter egg.

Handmade chocolate shoes.

I've also decided that these long car journeys are good for catching up with your knitting. I've already finished the back of my other cropped jacket.

Have a lovely week everyone.

Spring and a Time for Change

Being British, we love our tea and talking about the weather and the weather has been lovely recently. 17 degree celsius! The birds are singing, people are outside enjoying the sun and I've been taking my daughter out cycling. Spring is also a time to reflect and make some changes. We've been spring cleaning and I've got some plans to sort out my craft area (i.e. my flat really as I don't have a dedicated craft area). So we have a trip to Ikea planned to get a few things.

I've recently heard from my doctors that I can stop taking my pills for my thyroid as they suspect that my condition may have been temporary, however, I still need to go to my regular appointments so they can monitor the level. So in a way that is good news, hopefully I'll be fully recovered soon. :)

I've also finished my Mimi cropped jacket just in time for spring. All I need to do is to block the jacket. Yay!

Do you remember I won the give away at Claire Montgomery's book signing at Loop last year? Well, I've started the summer cropped cardigan. It is very straight forward to knit so hopefully I'll have another cardigan to show everyone. I'm hoping knit something more advance next time, my daughter's Hawaii will involve some lace and shaping with lace, so that will be interesting. I'm also planning on knitting some garments from Ysolda's patterns which will involve knitting the garment in one piece top down. Kyoko has got some lovely children patterns which involves cables, frills and eyelets, so I'll be checking them out.

In the mean time, I'm still waiting for a few supplies to knit a few more items for my shop, so I'm keeping busy. :)

Have a lovely week everyone!

Knitting at the Ideal Home Exhibition

Another weekend and another visit to an exhibition. This weekend we went to the Ideal Home Exhibition at Earls Court. I met Jax at Earls Court through a friend of a friend in 1995. He was selling burgers there for his summer job and I was at a computer exhibition looking for a PC for my first year at Uni. We discovered that he was studying at the same Uni that I had enrolled on that summer. We then decided to meet up afterwards. We went on our first proper date with at the Ideal Home Exhibition in 1996......oh gosh it has been 14 years already! Such a long time ago. :)

Anyway, it was extremely busy there, especially on the second floor where they had the food demonstration. We saw a demonstation by Aldo Zilli. I'd love to try out his vegetarian restaurant in Soho.

For the first time (that I've been going to the show) they actually had a knitting stand. Yes, I was so pleased to see I-Knit there.

I'm looking forward to going to more exhibitions and shows this year such at the KnitNation Expo at Imperial College this summer, the I-Knit Weekender and the Knitting and Stitching show later on in the year. Hope to see more blog friends there.

Have a lovely week everyone.

Stitch and Creative Craft Show 2010

I've just come back from the Stitch and Creative Craft Show at Kensington Olympia where I met the lovely Ruth (Two Hippos) and Ling (Musing and Doing). Ruth was with her daughter and Ling was teaching people how to knit and crochet. It was good to meet up with fellow bloggers, I've met up with Ruth at I-Knit last summer, but it was the first time I met Ling in person. Here is the photo that Ruth's daughter took (she's gonna be a good photographer):

Ling is standing at the far right, Ruth in the middle and I'm standing far left.

It was very crowded on the train there and more crowed in at the exhibition hall. There was so many people and so many stands. My favourite stands have to be Doughty, Fabric Galore, Millamia and the Knit Box. Millamia is owned by a Swedish lady who designs lovely knitted garment for children. It's just a pity that all her patterns only go up to 5 years and my daughter is almost 6 now. The Knit Box is owned by a lovely Turkish lady who told me that knitters there knit from memory and do not use patterns (they haven't heard of the word gauge). She had some amazing knitted Turkish shoes displayed (sorry no photos, but you may find them on her website).

I bought some 100% merino yarn, some bamboo cotton yarn, one ball of 100% virgin wool yarn, half a metre of Amy Butler fabrics, one button (yes just one) and a fabric marker pen. So I'm really pleased.

Have a lovely weekend everyone.

Happy Mother's Day!!

It's Mother's Day here in the UK.

We spent today at Greenwich as the weather was lovely, look at the blue sky:

We then went to the pub to have a Sunday roast. Yum.

Instead of flowers I got some basil to have with some tomatoes, mozzarella, olive oil and some crusty bread. All I need now is a tomato plant. :)

We then had a photo shoot for the Audrey Summer Scarflette that I was making and it is now listed in the shop.

Happy Mother's day to all Mothers and I hope you all had a lovely day.

Spring Walks

It feels a lot like spring here in London. The sun has been shining and the birds are singing. :) Last year I started to walk part of the way home from work for some exercise and for relaxation purposes. Now that it is warmer and the days are getting longer, I've started to to do this again. The views around London are amazing near sun set, I must upload the photos from my phone and show you guys.

This week I walked from Barbican to London Bridge passing St Pauls, the Millennium Bridge, the Tate Modern and Borough Market. Last summer they placed several pianos around London for people to play some music (if you can play the piano). I love this city.

I've also been working on some items for the shop, here is a quick preview of one item in progress:

A nautical feel in Navy and White cotton yarn.

I'm also working on some thing for my daughter, although I haven't quite got my head around the design yet.

Have a lovely weekend everyone, and for those in London, enjoy the sunshine.

Intertwined Knits

Hello! We all have the cold at the moment, there seem to be a bug going around, although Jax is well enough to go to work. I just feel tired if I just move around the flat, so I'm lying on the sofa with my rascal watching Pingu. Hopefully, I'll be well enough to go to work tomorrow. Fingers crossed.

[I love the one with the knitting machine]

Over the last week, I've managed to upload some photos onto my Flickr account. I opened the account in 2008. I have to wait till next month to upload more photos, as my monthly limit has been exceeded. Hmmmm, I'm still working my way around Flickr. You can click on the link on this blog to have a browse if you have the time. :)

I've also taken the plunge and opened an Etsy shop, Intertwined Knits. It's taken me two years to decide to open the shop. Initially, I didn't know what to sell and finding the confidence and the time was another issue. I love knitting, so I've decided to sell small hand-knitted accessories. There is only one item at the moment, but I'll be adding more items over the next few days/weeks. I'm looking forward to my new hobby venture and I will be designing some new accessories over the next few weeks. :)

I'd better finish my Dad's fingerless mittens first:

Take care everyone, I'll go back to the sofa now. :)

Gifts from Japan - from Australia

I received a package from Australia last week and it was my giveaway prize from Lisa and Sarah (aka Spoon full of Sugar). I was so happy, look at all the goodies:

Cute paper bags, lovely origami paper, three fat quarters, two tapes, a plastic bubble to make a teddy bear head, tags, a note pad, a Japanese doll origami kit, fabric tape and a frame for purse making.

Thank you Lisa and Sarah for the lovely giveaway! They all look so pretty that I don't want to take them out of their packaging, but I've got some projects in mind which I will do with my daughter. I'll show you when they're done.

Mimi Update and Quick Udon Noodle Soup

I've been trying to get my act together and make some progress with Mimi (my cropped spring/summer jacket) which I started last September. I keep putting it down or procrastinate on the next knitting step. So far, I've knitting the two front sections and I'm currently knitting the back. It is knitted in one piece, so I'm knitting the sleeves as well as the back which is so time consuming (I'm a slow knitter), so I've set myself a target of knitting five rows of the back each evening, so by the end of this week I should have knitting the back sleeves and half the back. This will just leave me with the bottom section, pockets and collar. I'll hopefully have it ready by this spring or latest summer. :)

Front view
Back view

As it has been so cold lately, I've been eating a lot of hot soup noodles (inspired by Lisa's blog post). This is my favourite and it is really based on one of my Mum's recipe. I don't have a name for it, but I call it Quick Udon Noodle Soup . Here's the recipe:


Ingredients

• A pan of hot water for the stock (you can use the soup bowls to measure how many water you need depending on the number of bowls you need to make and an additional half a bow)
• Another pan of hot water to cook the udon noodles I have used diced pork but you could use chicken, ribs, beef, fish balls or mushrooms and carrots if you are vegetarian.
• Pak Choi
• Garlic
• A small amount of vegetable oil
• A pinch of soup
• Ready made Udon noodles (you can get packets of these in Chinese Super markets or you can use egg or rice noodles if you like)

Method

• Boil the pan of water for the stock and add the pork (chicken, beef, ribs, fish balls or mushrooms and carrots) and salt and leave to simmer.
  
• Mean while cook the udon in the other pan of hot water according to the packet, the one I buy says 3 minutes. Drain.
  
• Meanwhile heat the oil in a small frying pan or sauce pan and fry the garlic till it is golden brown. Then leave to cool.
  
• Add the pak choi to the stock and simmer for about 4-5 minutes, then add the udon noodles.
  
• Drain the garlic from the oil and add to the noodle soup.
  
• Serve

This noodle is not very salty, so you may want to add a bit of soy sauce/fish sauce, but I like it as it is, because if the meat is fresh, this should be enough for it to taste good. The vegetarian version will take about 5 minutes longer as we want to cook the carrot and mushrooms (you can use any mushrooms). I also like to add carrots to the non-vegetarian version, but from the photo, you can see that I didn't have any in the fridge.

Let me know if you have any questions, but happy cooking and knitting/Sewing. :)