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. :)