Archive | February, 2009

Checkpoint

19 Feb
Traffic’s being a bitch again lately. We spend so much time on the road, it’s not even funny. I wish I could knit every time we get stuck in the car but either I’m too tired and sleepy or it’s already too dark to knit. Today was different though. I started the toe decreases in the morning and stopped 4 rows in when we got to the office. I picked it up again on the drive back. By 6.45pm, in the dying light of the sun, I drew the last 8 stitches closed and announced the first sock for my father finished.

The tail lights from the cars provided great lighting for this glamour shot.

Sock number 2 wil be cast on tonight.

The giant asparagus in the office garden has sprouted flowers. Interesting yellow ones. I still don’t know what it is called but I like it.

We made a stop at my sister’s place to look at their laptop which has been acting strange. I was glad to have caught up with the kids because it’s been two weeks since I last saw Ronan and Isabelle. The little lady has been having high fever lately which I suspect is due to some infection. She was in high spirits as usual though.

My sister bought a Mancala game set, which my mother does not agree with because of the ‘house burning’ aspect of the game. The kids love it though esp Ronan who was trying to figure out the trick to winning the game. Isabelle, on the other, hand, loved the shiny colourful stones. Look, she’s wearing the Pink Toasties!
As a result, we got home late and Patrick was already asleep when I came in. I’m sure he’ll hop on to my side of the bed some time during the night. He always does that during the weekend.

Catch you all later.

Gratuitous yarn post

19 Feb

Sundara sock yarn in Evergreen Over Lime.

350 yards of 100% superwash merino purchased from the lovely SarahGrace on Ravelry.

I see a pair of my first Hedera socks in the near future.

Have a super weekend everyone. I am off to recuperate from this cough and cold. And maybe go down to the Festival City on Saturday for a bit of the dog and cat show.

PSing delights

18 Feb
I love movies! I like nothing more than going to the cinema to watch the latest blockbuster. Or if it’s an older film I haven’t seen yet, I set aside movie night at home with my feet up the stool and snacks within arm’s reach.

So when Lee and Jen suggested we did a round robin challenge over at KISSed Muses which involves made-up movie posters, I nearly went loco with excitement. To be honest I cannot remember now who did the first round but here are the ‘posters’ I made for my movies.

I was in a serious Joss Stone phase a while ago esp after learning that we share the same first name. Plus I also managed to get some very nice high-res photos of her. The earring on this photo was the main inspiration for my movie. I could see Joss in one of those flowing gypsy skirts with a colourful head scarf and beautiful handmade jewellery. I didn’t have any leading man in mind when I made this. Who do you think would be perfect for Joss?
I wanted to do something fun for my next round and when I found a series of fantasy photo shoot with Drew Barrymore I knew I had my stock pic. I thought this film would be like a fairytale on Ecstacy. Doesn’t Drew look cute here though?

Being a scifi geek, I had to do something in the genre. The stock pics were perfect as they are so I just blended the two images and added the shapes as textures and conjured up the text to go with it. Although looking at it now, I have no idea what I was thinking! I mean, Viggo and Christina? I can’t even see the chemistry!
Lee, fancy giving this old thing another go?

Finally, an FO

14 Feb
A group of knitters in Abu Dhabi meet once a month, every second Friday of the month, at the Caribou Cafe at the Marina Mall. They so kindly invited us (meaning me and other knitters in Dubai) a few times but we have not had the chance to accept said invitation. Until recently that is, when Hala was approached by a lady who works in Abu Dhabi TV who wanted to do a segment on the little group. So, enticed by 15 minutes of fame and all that, Jackie and I agreed to drive up and join them.

I thought about what project to bring along for the drive, which was about 2 hours give or take. I decided to bring 4: Just Enough Ruffles, February Lady Sweater, Father Socks and my Noro Striped Scarf. Slumped on the front seat, I took a look at the FLS and put it away immediately. Lace pattern, easy and simple as it was was better done when there were no other distractions. The scarf was fun enough but I was saving it for mindless TV knitting and the sock’s small gauge required much better attention so I settled on the ruffles.

The night before, I completed the first stockinette row (WS) so I had only 1800 stitches and 3 rows to finish, which was doable on the drive over. Not to mention the 600 stitches to be bound off. Fun! And it was, don’t get me wrong. It flew off the needles in no time. Unfortunately I didn’t finish the bind off before we reached the Marina Mall. I met the ladies while the TV crew was still there and finished my bind off. I think the camera guy even took shots of me binding off a few stitches.

And here is the finished scarf.

Silk Ruffles
Pattern: Just Enough Ruffles by Laura Chau
Yarn: Blue Moon Fiber Arts Luscious Single Silk
Colourway: Blue Moonstone
Needles: 5.5mm circulars
Notes: No mods whatsoever – the pattern is perfect!



Aibi took a blurry photo of the scarf on me before it was blocked. As you can see above, I have plenty of yarn leftover which I think is enough to knit me a Robin’s Egg Blue Hat. One of the stars of the afternoon was undoubtedly Charmaine’s Mally FLS. She was concerned about the markedly darker shade of the second ball of yarn she joined. Some people would continue knitting and just ignore the sharp shift in colour. But we UAE Knitters thought it was better to undo the knitting and attach a different ball which is the same colour, sort of , of the same yarn. What do you think?
After casting off on my ruffly scarf, I worked on the socks and got a bit of progress going after the heel gusset. I’ve knitted a couple mor einches since then and think I will be on target to finish my second pair of socks for the second month of the year.
Yarn porn time. I received the third mailing of the Sundara Seasons Club last Thursday and brought it with me to show to Jackie, who is positively in love with Sundara’s colours too. This is the Summer mailing in sock yarn called Aurora Borealis. Isn’t it pretty? I love the deep blues and purples and think I might just knit it up as a Reclamation Scarf by the fabulous Stephanie Japel.

It had been over a year since we last visited Abu Dhabi and the drive over was an eye-opener. It has developments all ver the place. Like this structure which caught our eyes from far away. We thought it was a sphere building but teh closer we got to it we realized it was a disc-shaped building. The odd buildings department is not ring-fenced by Dubai after all.

Plurk anyone?

11 Feb

Turtlegirl76 got me into this. I’m just starting out and thought it’s a nice kind of virtual post-it.

Plurk me!

Patrick was sleepy and clinging to me when I came upon this view as we walked to the car at 5.45 this morning. Keeping my son steady with my hips and both hands on the camera, I took this shot. Turned out better than I thought it would.


Eerie fog was rolling in this morning as we drove towards the Nad Al Sheba exit on Emirates Road. I was taking a nap in the car as usual and Bernie nudged me. I opened my eyes to see the clouds had descended upon Dubai. The camera was whipped out of my bag in record time but the fog was rolling by so quickly that it either obscured my view or the perfect shot blew past me.

And before you ask, I had the camera with me because yesterday when I didn’t have it with me there was this most beautiful scene of the moon low on the west as it got ready for bed. It was full too. But today it had a sliver missing, still as beautiful though.

The behemoth that is Burj Dubai rising high above the fog.

And of course I had to take a photograph of the moon too!

How was your hump day?

Sniffles and head cold

10 Feb
This post has been in draft for a few days now. Just can’t get to it because this sore throat and head cold is getting to me real bad. I know, Lee, I know, it’s all my fault for not looking after myself better. :)

Not much has been happening in these parts apart from the usual. The house needs one massive spring cleaning which I will get started just as soon as this nasty cold leaves. The kids are A-okay. Exams results are trickling in and they are good. They need a bit more focus on Maths but everything else is good. Viel is on her mid-terms soon and will be sorting out her passport renewal and travel documents so she can come home in March and celebrate her birthday here.

Last Friday, we went out to Safa Park to hopefully try and catch the monthly flea market. However the aroma of the barbecue distracted us all and all thoughts of fleas flew out the window. I had a nice visit from two knitter friends, Hala and Jackie (and her adorable twins and hubby).

And of course I had fun with the camera.

There has got to be a whole new universe of life in here

Even the tiniest spray of flowers look beautiful up close

An orange this time, the only apple in the place got snatched up quickly!

And pine cones! Yes, we have pine trees in Dubai, just not the fancy ones

This was as close as the bird would let me go

Not a very good photo but I love the light peeking through the clouds
This next set of photographs were taken by my daughter Aibi.

Oh yes, she did! She made me pose with her Japanese apple a la Twilight.
I’m such a sucker too!

She was working on some math problems before lunch

A pretty yellow bougainvillae

I don’t know what this is but I love this shot

It warms my heart that she found these things and photographed them well

Not the healthiest bunch of leaves but I like the angles

She makes her Mama proud!

Friday Bunch

6 Feb
Last night I picked up my Just Enough Ruffles knitting with the intention of doing a few short rows before I tackle another project. Because this is mostly mindless knitting, apart from being careful to watch out for the wrapped ends, I knit when we are in the car on the way to work at 6am before the sun is even up.

Seeing purl bumps on a stockinette side made me want to rip my hair out, scream and throw something at the wall at the same time.

Mostly I wanted to kick myself for not giving the project the attention it deserves.

That’s around 350 stitches to unravel to get to the purls

I thought about going to the point of the purls and just redoing the stitches as you would dropped stitches. It was not good. I went on to unknit to the point of the purls and then pick up the knitting again. I’ve put the project aside for now and will pick it up again after the weekend.

Okay, yarn p0rn time. I decided that I will knit with my precious Sundara yarns this year so I decided to wind the skeins into balls. This is the first mailing of the Seasons Collection, Cerulean Seas sock yarn which I want so much to knit into a Lace Ribbon Scarf after seeing them in Ravelry.

Lovely blues


Someone in Ravelry said that this colourway looks like raw meat. This is Candied Chrome in sock. I kinda like it now, it’s grown on me already. I’m thinking about a lacy shawl with this one, not sure which pattern yet.

The photo is a bit too dark


Friday means we were out and about today. The family wanted to catch some of the lovely breakfast at Ikea but when we got there they stopped serving breakfast, so we had lunch instead.

This was my lunch : oriental rice with grilled chicken and cucumber yoghurt

Someone left the newspaper, perhaps for someone else to read?

We caught up with my sister and the kids but we’ll be spending a day at the park tomorrow anyway so we went our separate ways. And then we went on to the Dubai Mall, mainly because Aibi really wants to see Kinokuniya. The parking level we found was right on the food court side. This sign made me giggle. They provide ‘wrapid’ service too!

This time around at Kinokuniya I managed to find the knitting books. I almost screamed when I found the Yarn Harlot’s The Secret Life of a Knitter. There were only two copies. I also picked up Mason-Dixon Knitting, The Curious Knitter’s Guide. There were a few more than I wanted but I have almost reached my knitting budget for the month so I had to hide the books I wanted at the very back of the shelves to make sure no one else can get to them. :)

For tomorrow’s day at the park, I wanted pork barbecue along with the fish. Outside Choitram’s this is what we found.Watching us from afar


Because I had the 70mm with me, nothing escaped the macro settings. Not even this poor sprig of parsley from Aibi’s sushi box.Help! The mad one-eyed woman won’t let go of me!

Up Close and Personal

4 Feb
This stalk of white lily we bought last Friday was starting to wilt so I had little time left to do my macros on it. I grabbed the desk lamp I brought home from the office and set up on the coffee table in front of the TV.


Man, I’d forgotten how much work was involved in setting up your camera and lining up your shots. My back was hurting even before I took the first photo!

I didn’t get much because the water droplets won’t stay put and the yellow pollen-lading thing on the lilies kept swirling around. Plus I was dying to finish and enjoy the cup of coffee my dear husband made for me! Here are a few fruits of my labours.

I’ve ‘pollen’ for you…


Nice butt … for a flower

Now this photo is interesting. I have the camera set on my favourite Av mode with the flash on because it was indoors. So why is my foreground image still dark while the background absorbed the flash?

Can you guess what this is?


So I have a thing for butts. Flower butts. Fruit butts. I grabbed one of Aibi’s Japanese apples from the fridge and posed it in front of the camera. She loved the limelight!

Does this light make my butt look big?

Oh butts and stalks! I think this is set at f20 and I still couldn’t get a sharp image. Still blew me away though as this thing was quite small and the photo turned out like this.

I’m ready for my close-up!
Not as productive as I would have liked, but then again this was past 10pm on a school night and I was cranky without the coffee. I will have to do better maybe during the day, out in the park or something. I might have a chance to do that as we are going to the Safa Park Flea Market on Saturday.

Okay, I have to get off the internet now and start knitting on my February Lady Sweater. I’ve just gone past the second buttonhole and still have miles to go. And there are only 24 days left in the month!

Photoblog

4 Feb
I recently joined a photoblog along with two other photography enthusiasts. So this is a shameless plug.

Click on the banner to visit the site.

This is a fairly new site so not much posts yet but we plan to make it pretty and busy and happy and fun! Do stop by when you can and let us know what you think and what you would like to see on the blog.

Kim and Ange, I’m excited about this and can’t wait to really get cracking on the photo assignments.

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