What happened?

It's been six weeks since my last post and people have started to wonder what's going on! I even had a concerned comment from the lovely Yasmin worried that something might have happened to me. I thought that was really sweet, so thank you Yasmin, you have given me the motivation to write this post.

I don't really know what was going on, but I was having a bit of a "downer" about my blog. It started with the blocking of Ravelry. For those who are not living in the Arab world, our internet service here passes through a Government run proxy which can block access to particular websites if they feel they are "inconsistent with the religious, cultural, political and moral values of the United Arab Emirates". I've been using Ravelry for less than a year and when they blocked it it was like a close friend has passed away! I was devastated. Chi Wai, my darling husband was on to it straight away, and filed a request to have the site unblocked. Here was the response we got just yesterday....

Dear Etisalat Customer,

Thank you for contacting us, we are extremely sorry for the fact that the site you have requested ( www.ravelry.com ) can not be unblocked.

Reason: Dating and Relationships.

Can you believe it? It's a knitting site people! What really irks me is that Facebook, the most perverted "Dating and Relationships" site there is, has not been subjected to the same fate. Grrr! Facebook was previously blocked but has for some time been accessable. I will have to live in hope that they will see reason for Ravelry also.

So you would think that the loss of Ravely would have spurred me on to madly write more blog posts, being the only outlet to share my knitting stories, but it didn't. It probably had something to do with the other major component of my life over here, work!

I have never talked about work on my blog before, and don't worry, I'm not about to start now, but let's just say, things have been really hotting up! For those of you who don't know, I'm here managing a project to build a factory. I'm not going to say any more than that because I know it's soooo boring for anyone who is not involved. We are now just a few months away (hopefully, fingers crossed, things keep coming up to delay us!) from commissioning the factory and it is consuming all of my brain power! When I come home from work, it's like I'm in some kind of vegetative state. The three of us, Chi Wai (hubby) and Brian (housemate) are working on the project too, just sit there and stare at the TV barely moving until it's time for bed. So sad really.

But fear not readers! This does not mean that I have not been knitting! Of course I have been knitting, I just haven't been writing about it. Phew! I can hear the collective sigh of relief from here! I even have a few FO's to discuss, but I will leave that for another post. I promise I won't leave it so long this time.

Thanks again to Yasmin and Zena (bf) for giving me the nudge that I needed.

EZ Delight!

I finished my first ever Elizabeth Zimmerman project!

Here it is in progress....


Actually I finished it a few weeks ago. It's taken me until now to post about it. Here it is, my first February Cardigan.


The yarn is a hand dyed mystery yarn given to me for Christmas by Zena. It feels to me like merino because of it's bounciness. I think it works really well with this pattern. The lace pattern softens any colour pooling that might be going on. The cardigan is is shown here with a pair of "Magic Slippers". These were really fun and quick to knit, great for leftover yarn. Don't ask me who these are for. Surely someone will have a girl one of these days!

Before buying this book I had never read an EZ pattern before and boy was I missing out! She's a hoot, mad in a perfectly good way. I was sitting on the lounge reading the book like it was a novel, occasionally having a chuckle to myself. Chi Wai and Brian were having a hard time understanding how I could find a knitting book so amusing. I tried reading bits out to them, but they didn't get it. Non-knitters, humph!

I loved knitting the cardigan and love the finished result. I'm going to try a second one but modify it to make it more boyish, maybe with some cabling or something. A big thanks to the February Cardigans of Knitabulous and RandomKnits for inspiring this knit.

In other knitting news, I am nearing completion on a Phiaro Scarf. My main motivation for knitting this scarf was to try out the yarn. It's called Oasis by the Southwest Trading Company and it is 100% Soysilk. In ball form it didn't live up to my expectations, but now that it has been knitted up, I can see why people gush over it. The drape is just gorgeous. This is knitted in a big tube before you cast off and drop the stitches. Really, really mindless knitting, so much that I manage to get up quite a bit of speed whilst knitting it. I think I have delevolped a RSI in my left hand and it has been sore even when I'm not knitting. Everyday I say to myself "I won't knit tonight to give my hand a break" and every night, there I am knitting. Pretty sad really.

Here's the culprit!


Last night I finished the tube of pain and now I can start casting off and dropping stitches. All of those stitches that have caused me such pain! I'll get my revenge yet. Heh heh heh!

And it goes a little somthing like this....

Last weekend we went to the beach. Let me paint the scene for you, paint by numbers style.

There was....

• 980 men, frolicking on the sand or in the water, in all their hairy backed glory
• 10 men playing the most serious game of beach soccer you have ever seen
• 6 women dressed in full Abaya and head scarf not swimming
  
• 3 women in bikinis brave enough to endure the stares to make it to the water
  
• 1 man swimming in white underpants!

Guess which one I was was.

Needless to say, once I had retreated to the safety of my beach towel with my dress back on, the people watching was quite interesting indeed!

Finally!

Here's some photos of me in my Puff Sleeved Cardigan, finally!

These were taken today, while it was about 35 degrees Celsius outside! It might be a while before I actually get to wear it, at least until the next trip to the movies. The air-con is always arctic in the cinema!

Collar up!


Collar down!


A bit of a closer look.


This cardigan has taught me a few things. I think the high neck makes me look a bit more busty than I like. I think, for me anyway, cardigans with a v-neck or scoop neck are more versatile. Secondly I really should have realised, anything with a raglan sleeve, really isn't going to have much of a puff even if the name of the pattern says so! Lastly, the yarn (Knit Picks Swish DK in Maple) for a Merino yarn, has quite a bit of drape, so much so that the Mandarin collar doesn't really want to stand up by itself. That bit is bugging me about this cardigan. Apart from that, I'm pretty happy with it. I'm especially happy with the fit.

Speaking of people wearing their handknits, check out Sam and Archie sporting my handy work.


Such smiley babies!

Knit-Knack Paddy Whack!

Since we got back from Australia (four weeks ago) I have been a bit of a knitting zombie, blindly plugging away at the familiar and boring. I just haven't been able to make a decision on what to knit next. Well, what to knit next that is interesting anyway. I think part of the problem is that I can't choose something and then just pop down to the shops and buy some yarn for it. Instead I need to choose yarn online and sometimes the results of this can be interesting to say the least. Then I have to wait for it to arrive. The whole process has been sapping my motivation!

Strangely enough, the result of all this has meant that I have been somewhat productive, even if the items are a bit boring.

I've had my eye on the Brea Bag by Norah Gaughan for a while now. I think it's really cute. I had a bit of a space out when I bought the yarn for this and then didn't realise my mistake until after I had finished knitting it. The pattern specifies to hold the yarn double to give a denser fabric which is good for a bag. Instead I just bought yarn which matched the guage and knitted it single (der!). No matter, I just need to find a dark sturdy fabric to line it with that will give the bag some structure and won't show through the knitting.



The yarn is Knit Picks Andean Silk in Chocolate and I have to say, that for a alpaca and silk blend, this yarn is not as luxurious as you would expect, but I guess at $4.29 a ball I shouldn't complain. I have bought a handle for this, but it just arrived this week, so I have not yet sewn it on. I think I will wait until I have sewn in the lining anyway.

So while this project wasn't exactly boring, I've now cast on for another one in my desperation to not stop knitting! Here's the first side completed, knitted in one session!


After I completed knitting the first Brea Bag I was at a complete loss as to what to knit. I searched through my stash and this is what I came up with. The twin baby shrugs!


The pattern is by Debbie Bliss and is from "Simply Baby". It's very similar in construction to the Ribbed Baby Jacket (also by Debbie Bliss) which I recently completed for baby Thomas, so by the time I was on the second one I was knitting with my eyes closed, well almost. The second one took me less than a week of night time knitting to complete. Yay! The yarn is Knit Picks (surprise surprise!) Shine Worsted, in Snapdragon and Wave. It really is a great pattern and I think I would make it again, just not for a while. These are for the girl baby twins in my life, Carlie and Sophie. The flower was knitted from memory from the "Head Huggers" pattern that I made years ago. I have just tied these on so that they can be removed for washing and/or if Mum and Dad decided that such frippery is not suitable for babies!

So as I said, I am now plugging away blindly on the second Brea Bag with plans for a third, but there is light at the end of the tunnel of zombie-ness. Yesterday I finally sat down and bought some project specific yarn. I spent a lot of money and it's not from Knit Picks! Now I just have to wait for it to arrive......

Speaking of stash enhancement, here are some pics of the fixings for the Brea bags which arrived this week from M&J Trimmings. How I love the Internet!


Yes, I know I went a bit overboard with the buttons, but you just don't know for sure if they will look any good in real life. So it's better to get a few different ones, don't you think? Needless to say, my button stash is getting quite large. Heh heh heh!

One Disaster After Another

One week exactly after we got back to Abu Dhabi from Australia, Zena, Mark, Archie and Sam arrived to visit us. We were so excited to have them coming to stay with us, so that we could show them what life is like over here, show them all the new things that we have seen.

From the moment their plane landed however, things started to go wrong. I'm not going to go into too many details, but we had everything from sick babies, missing baby seats, food poisoning, hot water burns, nappy explosions and all of us had at least one day where we felt like absolute cr@p. I just know in years to come we are going to look back on this holiday and laugh! Right?

Despite the mishaps we still managed to have a reasonably good time. Needless to say though, any plans we made went straight out the window. Heres some pictures.

Sam and I at Mall of the Emirates.


Out side Madinat Jameira with the Burj Al Arab in the background.


Zena and I at the top of Jebel Hafeet in Al Ain.


Chi Wai and Archie.


After all that, there were tears at the airport (from me) as we waved them off to the UK. I hope they are having a great time and are not too cold!

Phew!

I'm out of breath from everything that has been happening lately and I haven't had time to blog. Consequently, I have plenty to update you all on. A warning, this is a photo heavy post. So here goes.......

Three weeks ago we had our flying visit back to Australia to go to our friends' wedding. We left Abu Dhabi on the Thursday, arrived in Sydney on Friday morning (7am!), were back at the airport on Monday and back at work bleary eyed on Tuesday. That amounted to about 3 and a half days in Sydney, and boy did we do a lot!

We were met at the airport by my BF's Alison and Zena with the twins in tow. I got to have my first cuddle and I have to say they are just the cutest little things! Sam has a bright red Mohawk and Archie has the most gorgeous big blue eyes.

After a quick shower back at Zena's we headed off to the city to meet my mum (who flew down from Queensland for one night to see me, thanks Mum!), my aunt Didi and my grandmother, Nanny for lunch in the Queen Victoria Building. There was lot's of cuddles, presents and girly giggles. Here's some photos.....

Here's Nanny having a cuddle with Archie.


Now it's Mum's turn.


The girls.


And Chi Wai and I having a cuddle and a cuppa!


That night we went to a Spanish restaurant in Darlinghurst for Tapas, Paella and Sangria. We got to catch up with more special friends, Norman and Stephen, Linh, Martin, MJ and Kayne, and Al's partner in crime AJ brought up Ruby and Dalton too. There are no photos sorry. We were too busy with the sangria and the two bottles of Moet that we bought duty free. So good to catch up with good friends.

On Saturday it was the wedding of our friends Sylvia and Darren. They have been together for 16 years so the slogan for the day was "Hitched at Last!". The ceremony was in a park up high overlooking one of the Northern Beaches of Sydney (Queenscliff area) and the weather was stunning.

Some snaps from the ceremony.....

Location, location, location.


Good friends (Jason and Shino (newly expecting), me (der!), Mel and Mike (about to pop!) and Richard (happy being fat, well so he tells me!).


Getting hitched!


Chi Wai and I with the happy couple.


The reception was at a Chinese restaurant at the Esplanade in Manly which was also fabulous. This was the view from the restaurant. No bad eh? Tee hee!


Lastly, here are some snaps from the reception.


We had such a great time. I'm glad we made the trip over for it.

The next day we hit the Marigold in Chinatown for Yum Cha. At this point I think I was running completely on adrenalin! We had such a big group, about 30 of us, it was great, although I have to apologize for not getting to spend enough time with everyone.

My aunt Didi and uncle Peter came with my cousin Christopher and his girlfriend Kat.


Some of the knitting girls were there too! Donna and Ailsa made the trip up from Wollongong and Cambletown just to see me! Aren't I lucky. Here they are (left to right) Donna and Ailsa, with Zena, Alison and Sam.


Here's the rest of the gang.


On a knitting aside, in the bottom centre panel of the collage above is my friend Julie with her new baby, Thomas. I knitted him ribbed baby jacket by Debbie Bliss which I discussed previously here. Here are some finished pics.


That evening a few of us headed back to Chi Wai's brother's place for a relaxing BBQ. Well it was relaxing for me, but I think hard work for Simon and Jenny who put on such an amazing spread. It was nice to be able to spend some quiet time with Chi Wai's family and some close friends. Thank you Simon and Jenny, you guys are amazing.


One thing that I loved about that night was how well the kids played together. Ruby and Dalton had never met MJ and Kayne until two days before and they got along like a house on fire. Apparently Ruby developed a bit of a crush on MJ! Tee hee, so cute!

The following day (Monday) there was just time for one last cuddle before heading off to the airport.


Aw, aren't those boys cute!

It was such an amazing weekend! Special thanks to Zena & Mark and Simon & Jenny for letting us stay with them and to Norman and Stephen for being our event organisers for the weekend. A big thanks to everyone else that came to see us. It was so good to see you, I think it has made me miss everyone more! We love yous all!

Like I said, phew! And I haven't even talked about Zena and Mark's visit last weekend. I think I might break here for a rest and tell that story another day. Be back soon.....