McQueen Knits

Which Tarot card are you?

2008-01-30T18:29:00.000+08:00

I'm the Empress. What are you?

You are The Empress
Beauty, happiness, pleasure, success, luxury, dissipation.
The Empress is associated with Venus, the feminine planet, so it represents, beauty, charm, pleasure, luxury, and delight. You may be good at home decorating, art or anything to do with making things beautiful.
The Empress is a creator, be it creation of life, of romance, of art or business. While the Magician is the primal spark, the idea made real, and the High Priestess is the one who gives the idea a form, the Empress is the womb where it gestates and grows till it is ready to be born. This is why her symbol is Venus, goddess of beautiful things as well as love. Even so, the Empress is more Demeter, goddess of abundance, then sensual Venus. She is the giver of Earthly gifts, yet at the same time, she can, in anger withhold, as Demeter did when her daughter, Persephone, was kidnapped. In fury and grief, she kept the Earth barren till her child was returned to her.

What Tarot Card are You?
Take the Test to Find Out.

Xmas 2007

2007-12-24T21:24:00.000+08:00

We spent 11 days in Taiwan but we didn't just stay in Taipei. We visited the Taroko Gorge in 花莲 and we used 台中 as a jumping board to visit 日月潭 and 阿里山. The trip to Alishan was horrible, we spent 8 hrs on the bus going to and forth but we only get to spend 2 hrs in the mountain. The guide told us spending a nite in the mountain would be the best as we can catch the sunrise the next morning. Sun Moon Lake was pretty and you can actually rent those little huts along the shore to stay. Hualian is more kampung than Taichung, less tall buildings, cleaner air. Totally different from Taipei and Taichung.

When we came backz to Taipei, we visited 九份 and 野柳. Jiu Fen has a gorgeous view overlooking the sea cos it's suitated on a hill and Ye liu is well know for its rock formations, something like the Pinacles in Perth. We also visited 故宫博物院, that place is huge. I think you need an entire day to finish all the exhibits, in the end my legs were too tired to press on but I managed to see the 3 most important exhibits there.

We visited Taipei 101 for a short while after the museum, all the branded shops there. I would describe it as Takashimiya + Paragon all roll into one. Then the guide dumped us at 西门町 at night. It was pretty crowded probably cos it was a Saturday. I tried the famous 阿忠面线，very nice!~ But I didn't like shopping there at all, I feel that the things in the shops were overpriced compare to 仕林夜市 and 五分埔.

The tour didn't include 淡水 as part of the itinery so we visited there during our extension. That place is just so pretty and taking a walk down the river feels so refreshing and there was lotsa snacks stall as well. I also went for the ferris wheel ride at Miramar. Those of you out there who have been watching Taiwan idol drama would know what I'm taking about.

And the 猫空缆车， it's a relatively new attraction. Hordes of people go to MaoKong during summer for tea drinking and the temples, this jams up the roads going up the hill. So they build this Gondola to ease the problem. One way ride takes about 25 mins, much longer than the Genting ride. I went there at the wrong time as it was windy and cold up there but it was a nice experience drinking tea and looking at the scenery at the hilltop.

I spent the rest of my time eating and shopping in Taipei. How I wish I could doggy bag all the food back to Singapore. All the binging have made me fat, I'm trying so hard to lose weight now. But bring me backz to Taiwan anytime!~~

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Sakae Teppanyaki @ Orchard Cineleisure

2007-08-30T19:53:00.000+08:00

Decided to try this resturant after gym one day after walking around orchard cineleisure aimlessly wondering what to eat. They have set lunches and set dinner for the whole day and you just need to top up $2.50 for the fried garlic rice. I ordered the Turkey set which comes with a Salad, Turkey, Salmon, Tofu Steak, Veggies, Miso Soup and rice @ $12.90.

Appetitzer which is their salad.

Chef at work.

Garlic Rice with delicious dried shrimp topping.

Dinner at Marmalade Pantry @ HV

2007-08-30T18:50:00.000+08:00

We love to pose! Say cheese!~~

There's cheese in the bread. Nice!

It would be nicer if they had use less batter.

Sharon ordered Crabmeat Linguine with Pinenuts.

And I ordered Sphagetti Pescatore in Parchment Parcel which is basically Seafood Sphagetti in Tomato Sauce.

Marmalade Pantry was having a promotion, free Dates and Toffee Pudding with Vanilla Bean Ice-cream with every main couse ordered. But neither me nor Sharon fancy dates so we change it to a slice of Chocolate Truffle cake. The sweetness was just nice but we could hardly finish it anywayz. The total bill came up to $74+.

Thanks for the dinner, Shazz!~

Goodie bag from Japan

2007-05-05T23:41:00.000+08:00

Look what I've got from my visiting BIL from Canada.

Doughnuts Galore!!

2007-04-29T16:32:00.000+08:00

I finally tried the doughnuts from Doughtnut Factory. In case there are still people who don't know where is Doughnut Factory, let me tell you where is it. It's this little shop tuck away in the MarketPlace at the Basement 1 of Raffles City. If you can't locate the shop, just look out for the queue. Actually the shop has been there since last year and I've been wanting to buy some and try. But the queue deters me from doing so. Thanks to Lois
for queueing 1 hr plus for the doughnuts. It's a pleasure to meet Louise
for the 1st time too. Overseas visitors always thrills me, I hope there are more to come.

P.S : The Doughnut Factory opens abt 12:30 pm but the queue starts to form around 11am

Lace and Bobble Cardigan

2007-04-25T23:07:00.000+08:00

I finally took a pic of my long completed lace and bobble cardigan, courtesy of Cindy. It was completed last month but I shall take it as Mother's Day present. The lace is a simple 12 row repeat and the entire cardigan is work in a single piece meaning no set in sleeves. Great for people who hates seaming sleeves. The sleeves turn out to be a bit baggy even though I followed the instructions. I also omitted the bobbles from the bodice because I think bobbles on the entire cardigan is too OTT (over the top) but the bobbles does give a nice finishing to the ribbing. This is a free pattern from the Debbie Bliss website but I don't think the pattern is there anymore cos everytime she comes out with new books, a new pattern will be uploaded.

Pattern : Debbie Bliss Lace and Bobble Cardigan
Yarn : Less than 3.5 balls of sirdar breeze
Needle : 4mm and 3.75mm for ribbing

Another interesting thing I've learnt when knittng this cardigan is ribbing around the corners. I don't know how to put it in plain english, maybe a picture would say a thousand words

Jolly green me

2007-04-04T13:45:00.000+08:00

I just came back from the Spotlight sale. It really makes a world of difference when you go in the morning, there's plenty of colours to choose from you can avoid the horrendous queue in the late afternoon and evening. Spotted at Spotlight was Cleckheaton's new yarn Merino Spun, Cocoon, Country Silk, Studio Mohair and Panda StarShine. And there's many colour for their house brand wool. They've got some tweed as well although not say great. I've got myself some lovely mint green and pale green yarns, and the lovely muddy lilac chunky yarn. Think I'm in a green mood today.

And since I'm posting here. I deicided to be more hardworking and upload my Japan trip pics as well.

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Rainbow

2007-01-01T23:56:00.000+08:00

I saw a rainbow (in fact 2 if u look at the pic carfully, the 2nd one is a bit faint) on the 1st day of 2007. Am I lucky or what? I do hope I can find the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. Lolzzz!

Pics of my Japan trip will be uploaded as soon as I finished uploading them onto my photo album.

Mini Argosy

2006-12-19T23:52:00.000+08:00

Ta Da!! I'm back after a disappearing act. Here's a quick update, I'm still on the sleeves of my cambridge jacket. I dunno why this is like taking forever, kinda getting bored with it, so I decided to start on a mini project. So I decided to turn this ball of varigated wool which I had into a mini Argosy. I will be bringing it to Japan with me tomorrow and I hope I dun lose any of my knitted stuff again.

The ball of wool I had was only 150m/100g so I had to make the scarf skinnier than the original pattern in order for it to be long enough to wrap my neck twice and I used 4.5mm needles.

Greetings from Shanghai!~

2006-11-13T19:47:00.000+08:00

I lost my Fiery Bolero on the flight to Shanghai. Too much sleep on the plane makes me muddle heaaded and I kinda left it on the plane when I got off. Even though I realise it when I was collecting my baggage, but when I went to the lost and found counter of that carrier, they told me the cleaning crew didn't find any cardigan on my seat. What's lost in China can never be found again. *Sobs*

After that was 2 weeks of tour to Sichuan and Beijing. I wouldn't call it a tour cos all I remember was hours of endless bus rides and waking up at 6am in the morning. The 2 days we spent at Jiu Zai Gou was cold and some old folks in my tour group got altitude sickness, they were like puking and feeling giddy after we came down from the moutain. The scenery was great and no wonder it's a heaven for photographers.

Next stop was Beijing. The weather was still fine on the day we arrived, around 18 degrees celcius but two days later the blardy weather drop to ard 10 degrees plus the stoopid wind chill. I couldn't even feel my hands after 10 mins out in the open. Everyone in the tour group all can't stand the weather, all of them wanted to go back on the bus after a while of walking. Being my 2nd time in Beijing, I find it absolutely boring. Everything it's just damn big in Beijing, walking is just impossible. I just hate Beijing, the weather, the place.

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Finally I'm back in Shanghai. A place where I can walk from point A to point B without dropping dead from boredom. If you've been to Beijing, you will know what I mean. I didn't buy much yarns this trip, too much wool this time of the year. And I got someone to bring me my Elann yarns from Canada, so the local wool pales in comparision. I will be going home this Saturday, see you guys back home in Singapore! Ciao!~

Pandan Leaf Cardigan

2006-10-21T23:58:00.000+08:00

Actually this so-called Pandan Leaf Cardigan is Sirdar Pattern 8523. I decided to name it Pandan Leaf cos the colour so remind me of pandan cake everytime when I am knitting it and the leaf pattern on the sleeve also contribute to the dumb name I coined up for this cardigan.

I finished this cardigan ages ago but I only sew on the buttons like 1 hour ago cos I gotta hand it over to the future owner tomorrow. I don't even have enough time to try the buttonhole stitch to reinforce the buttonhole. What a waste! I promise not to procrastinate the next time round *cross my fingers*. Here she is .....

Pattern: Sirdar Pattern 8523
Yarn : Sirdar Breeze ( 4 balls for 38" bust )
Needle Size : 4mm and 3.3mm for ribbing

My cambridge jacket is only up to the left front and I'm gonna bring it along on my trip. It's pretty dumb to bring along a garment to knit but I don't know how to knit a sock yet. And it's a pretty long trip......4 weeks. I jus hope I don't balloon into a fatso after I come back. Dun miss me too much and I will try to post pics of the beautiful Jiu Zai Gou, cute pandas, majestic Great Wall and Forbidden Palace for all of you.

Lazy ole me

2006-10-11T15:13:00.000+08:00

Geez. Didn't realise I didn't blog for so long. My Fiery Bolero is completed dunno how many weeks ago but I still haven't weave in the ends. I should kill myself for my laziness. On my needles now is the Lace and Bobble Jacket for my mum. I omitted the bobbles from the body cos the sight of bobbles on any adult garments makes me nauseous and giddy.

But I couldn't resist swatching the Cascade 220 for the Cambridge Jacket. I can't say I like this yarn but they do have a lot of nice colours. I like this colour, its gray with specks of blue and red on it.

As I was reading the pattern for the Cambridge Jacket, I thought my eyes was playing tricks on me. The gauge required by the pattern was 19.5 st per 10cm on 5.5mm needles but the ball band's gauge was 18 st per 10cm on 5mm needles. I quickly did a search whether this pattern comes with an errata or not. But after reading several blogs, I realise most people have to downsize to 4.5mm to get the gauge. *Heave a sigh of relief*

I guess the designer of this pattern must be a really tight knitter.

Katia at Spotlight! Omigosh!

2006-09-23T22:58:00.000+08:00

Even though only 5 of us turn up at the meetup today at Suntec Starbucks, it was still enjoyable. I've always like to see other people working on their WIPs. Jolin and Karyn were busy winding away when I arrived. Belinda and Lois was there too.

We stayed till about 5 before everybody started leaving. Since there was still sometime before my dinner time, I decided to stop at Spotlight and GD for some browsing. Look at all these pattern leaflets I got from Spotlight.

And you know what?? They carry Katia yarns too!!! I saw Arc En Ciel, Irina, Madison and Mississippi too. The yarns the pattern leaflet call for. And there was new stock of their 8 ply acrylic yarn, very nice colours!

After that I proceed to GD to browse the Rowan 39 and 40. I'm so tempted to get them but I only got limited budget, so in the end I walk out of the shop empty handed. This is the downside of not working, not able to buy what u want. On the other hand, would you rather be slogging to buy all the books and yarns, yet you have no time to use them at all? I rather choose the 1st option. Time is priceless, to be able to do what you want and when you want is really a luxury.

Glimpse of the Fiery

2006-09-22T12:23:00.000+08:00

I've been getting lazier, don't knit as much and Blog as much. Gosh what happen to me?? I've been procrastinating on my Fiery Bolero cos of the short row ribbing on the neck. A kind soul gave me directions to this Short Row Experiment . Didn't know there was so many different methods of short rowing, the only one I know of is the one used in Ruffle Scarf in Scarf Style. I used the Japanese Short rows for my Fiery. Here's a peek,

I'm so happy that I finally got back on the tracks with my Fiery. Now I need to put in more time on my Drunken Arygle Vest. Alrighty! Back to the ribbing!!

PS: Am so excited about the meetup tomolo

Knitting hats for preemie babies

2006-09-05T23:35:00.000+08:00

Just came back from a knitting and crochet class for preemie babies hats at a church in Bukit Timah. I met up with Karyn before we walked to Church of the Latter-Day Saint which is next to Alliance Francaise.

There was only a handful of people when we reached because we were early. But more people started coming as 7pm approached. We were shown samples of the knitted/crocheted hats from this huge paperbag full of hats. After that we can choose to knit or crochet the hats. I, of course chose to knit the hats. I think it will take me forever to crochet one. The yarns and patterns were provided by the kind ladies there. It's okie even with if you do not have the correct needle/hook size, they do provide that too. It's funny that only me and another lady were doing the knitting only, the rest of them were all crocheting away. Oh ya! there was 2 guys learning how to crochet too!!

This is what I did for the night with the yarn they provided. Maybe next time I will try to crochet one instead *chuckles* . If anyone out there is interested in this activity, please refer to KC

Swallowtail spotted at Desaru

2006-08-27T01:20:00.000+08:00

Blocking in progress.

I decided to bring my Swallowtail Shawl along to Desaru to take some pics of her. After one and half hours drive, we finally arrived at The Pulai at Desaru Beach on this very lazy Sunday afternoon. Our room came with a seaview, and we decided to head for the beach after settling down. I think Desaru beach is so much nicer than Port Dickson.

After soaking in the sea on and off for 2 hours, I was getting a bit hungry. Fortunately, we had already book the DIY BBQ Package for dinner. It was kinda cool cos the food was marinated, sauce was prepared and the BBQ pit was even set up for u. All we had to do was just throw the food on the grill and wait for it to cook. The down side was the constant battle between humans and mosquitoes and sandflies.

The next day, after I woke up I brought Swallowtail to the beach to take some pics of her with the sea as the background. It wasn't easy cos I only had 1 pair of hands and I was like trying to hold the shawl still ( it was windy at the beach ) and fiddle with the camera at the same time.

After we checked out , we drove to JB for some shopping and dinner. Then it was home sweet home.

Happy Birthday to me!~~

2006-08-23T23:58:00.000+08:00

Today is my birthday and also the lst day of the 7th lunar month. We burnt some offerings for the dead after my lunch so that they can return happily to the nether world.

I had dinner with some friends at Yuki n Yaki at Marina Square. The food ain't say fabulous, but with the right company , even hawker food can taste like 5-star resturants.
My buddies

I would like to thank everybody for their pressies. And look what else I've got

Another update on the Swallowtail Shawl. I can finally cast off and maybe block the shawl tomorrow. I like the nubs (it's so cute) and I can't imagine the shawl without the nubs ! Although the p5tog might sound quite scary but with the help of a good needle , it should be a breeze. More pics coming right up after the blocking .

The Swallow has taken flight

2006-08-18T17:45:00.000+08:00

After spending the whole of yesterday doing seaming and weaving in ends, I can say the 'Pandan Leaf' Cardi is completed. I shall go to Chinatown this weekend to get some buttons for it.

I cast on for the Swallowtail shawl after I woke up (I'm more productive in the morning). And now it's in it's 6th repeat, the pattern repeat is quite simple and monotonous. I hope it gets more interesting as it comes to the edging. Here's a sneak of my little butterfly.

Opening Ceremony of my Blog Drum roll plssssss

2006-08-15T22:01:00.000+08:00

Hi everybody!

Welcome to my humble blog! Today is the 1st day my blog started and actually I started this blog just for the main purpose of joining the Swallowtail KAL. I just came back from a meetup at Jurong East Library with Lois, Kessa and Karyn. I saw lois FFL and is was gorgeous even without blocking. Kessa is working on the sleeves of her AV KALone and Corrine was getting started on her trellis scarf. Meanwhile I'm still working on my fiery bolero. Hope to finish my 'Pandan Leaf' Cardigan by this week

Well , that's all folks! Time to continue with my CSI NY.