Anniversary Weekend.

It was our fourth anniversary on the weekend. Four happy years of being married to my sweetheart Chi Wai. We decided to go Dubai for the weekend and kick up our heels a bit.

There was wineing....


and dining....


and Cinnabon!



It was a great weekend.

Lastly here's a photo of us four years ago on our wedding day. Aren't we gorgeous!


P.S. I started writing this weeks ago. I just seemed to turn my head and away they flew. So here's the post at long last!

I think I have a problem!

Look what arrived in the mail last Thursday.


As you can see, it's all from Knit Picks, and as you may have noticed, nearly all my other projects that I have blogged about so far (which have all been knitted since arriving in Abu Dhabi) have been knitted in Knit Picks yarn. This has led me to wonder, do I have some sort of Knit Picks addiction? Do I need to attend Knit Pickaholics Anonymous?

I will say, Knit Picks yarns are not my favourite yarns, I like them a lot but I wouldn't say that they were my favourite. So why the predilection to Knit Picks yarns? This is what I have come up with:-

1. You can't buy Knit Picks yarns in Australia, so there is definitely a novelty factor. You can't technically buy them here either but I have set up a mailing address in the U.S. to circumnavigate that issue.
2. The Knit Picks website is a bit of a one stop shop. I have yet to find a yarn shop in the U.A.E, I can't even find a shop that sells buttons, so I have to buy all my supplies online. For this reason, Knit Picks is convenient. They have a wide range to cover a lot of projects.
3. They are cheap! Even with the postage, it works out to be very reasonable, and I'm a tight @rse at heart!

So, do I have plans for all this yarn, all 2kg of it? Ah, of course not, it's because they had a sale on, I'm a sucker for a sale!

I do however have plans to make this.


It's from Stefanie Japel's "Fitted Knits". Actually I'm already 2 balls (out of a total of six) into it and enjoying every minute of it. It's knitted top down which is a first for me. I will post some progress photos soon.

Can I just say.......

How gorgeous are these two boys!!!


And, ooh what a nice blanket in the background!!!

I wish I was there to give them a cuddle.

Jingle bells, jingle bells.....

I am currently making some Christmas presents for two lovely ladies and their little ones. As it is quite possible that they might read this, I cannot post any pictures of my progress. Here's a hint instead.......


On a completely different topic, this morning when we left the house the whole city was covered in a heavy fog. We were quite amazed as nearly every day we have been here it has been a big blue sky day. Here's a picture taken from the car on the way out to our construction site. Can you see the date palms on the medium strip?


It gives you an idea of how consistent the weather is here, the fact that I am getting excited about a little fog! I dream of rainy days.....

Hello Josephine!

Okay, here is another finished object. It is called The "Josephine Top" from Interweave Knits Summer 2007. I started this some time ago, practically finished but ran out of yarn with about half a ball to go. By the time reinforcements had arrived I was fully ensconced in the baby blanket and other baby related projects. Now finally it is finished, blocked and everything and I'm pretty happy with it.

It is knitted in Knit Picks Shine Sport in Coral. The colour was brighter than I was expecting but it has grown on me. What do you think?

This next photo is an attempt to show off the texture of the knit (not my boobs) that I really enjoyed knitting.


The only modification that I made to the pattern was to use a mitre in the centre of the "V" and to knit the neck trim in the round rather than joining it at the front after knitting. I'm happy with how it turned out. I thought that the short row sleeves worked well too.

Now back to creating some Christmas presents.....

Abu Dhabi Knits (Part Two)

Here is part two in my knitting backlog saga.....

Next we have the knitting frenzy in preparation of the arrival of the twins, Sam and Archie. The first picture is of the button-less cardigan. It is an old vintage pattern knit in Knit Picks Merino yarn (the name escapes me). The reason is is called the button-less cardigan is that I could not find any buttons here in Abu Dhabi, so it was sent off button-less! I'm not saying that I could not find any buttons that I was happy with, I'm saying I could not find a single shop that sells buttons, full stop!!! Can you believe that? The cardi is shown with a pair of booties from Debbie Bliss's "Simply Baby" knitted in Cleckheaton Bambino Merino. These turned out a little strange. Chi Wai's comment was that they looked like they were made for a baby with stumps. Needless to say I didn't knit another pair.


The cabled baby blanket is next. Its another pattern from Debbie Bliss's "Simply Baby" and knit in Knit Picks Swish DK in "Skybourne". Its a machine wash merino and it quite nice and soft. When I was knitting this, the cable pattern was all pulled in together so I had my fingers crossed that the blocking step would perform for me and it did. Yay! ZB described it as a triumph, so I was happy with that.


The final effort for the boys was the two vests shown below. The pattern, again, from Debbie Bliss's "Simply Baby" were knit in Knit Picks Ambrosia (80% Baby Alpaca, 20% Cashmere). So soft and luxurious for two little baby boys! The pattern had a round neck but as a variation I put a v-neck on the green one. I think they would look cute with a little white t-shirt underneath.

There, now I'm up to date, and I can start to talk about some current knitting projects. Until then, ciao!

Thursday Night - Movie Night!

Going to the movies has become a bit of a regular feature on a Thursday night for Chi Wai, Brian and I. Thursday is equivalent to Friday night for us here. We head to Marina Mall to get a quick bite to eat before going to see whatever is on, usually an action flick, not usually a chick flick. I'm out numbered you know!

Last Thursday night we saw a movie called "Shoot 'em Up" starring Clive Owen (hot guy from "Sin City") and Monica Belucci (hot girl in a rubber frock in 2nd Matrix movie). Here's a synopsis of the movie.

There's this guy, Clive, eating a carrot, sitting at a bus stop in a really dingy part of town. This guy, just happens to witness a pregnant woman, apparently in labour, being chased by a mob of bad guys with guns trying to kill her. The pregnant lady takes refuge in a dark abandoned warehouse type location where she is followed by the mob of bad guys. Clive, who just happens to be a former special services crack shot, can't help himself and goes in to help the pregnant woman. He proceeds to kill most of the bad guys while delivering the womans baby. One of the bad guys is killed by Clive shoving his carrot into said bad guy's eye and out the back of his head!

During the scuffles, the woman, no longer pregnant is shot dead, so Clive has to take the baby with him, much to his disgust, he's a tough macho man after all. This is the point when we discover that the bad guys were actually trying to kill the baby, and of course the chase continues. So what is our guy Clive, going to do? Enlist the help of a lactating prostitute (Monica Belucci) of course! Now why didn't I think of that?

This pretty much sets the tone for the rest of the movie which is basically full of bad jokes, lots (and I mean lots) of shooting people, a few boob shots while the sexy Monica feeds the baby and a few more guys getting stabbed with carrots.

I really just wanted to write all that down, to see if it looked as ridiculous in print as it did on screen. Still, I'm not sure if it was the best movie I've ever seen, or the worst.

I wonder what we'll be going to see this Thursday night.......