Ten Thousand Dancing Stars

Guess what? There was a grand total of 6 kids at the party! And one of them was a wee 2-month old sweetness who was just too adorable. I didn’t have my camera with me so no picture of the pink chubbiness, sorry.

At the end of the evening, they gave each guest a token. It’s this magic 8 ball! Cute isn’t it? I’m using it as a paperweight.

On to the knitting, and my tenth pair of hand-knitted socks is done! I started the year with plans to knit one pair of socks a month. I am ahead of that objective and so pleased about it. I think if I put my mind and energy into it I can finish two pairs a month. But that probably means I may not be able to knit any other projects!

Back to the socks in question. I do love this pattern, so easy to do esp as you are slipping so many stitches that it just glides on through. I mentioned in my Ravelry project page how much I (sort of) despised this particular skein of Sundara’s yarn so I won’t go over it again. I do still love Sundara’s yarns though!
The socks are dry and packed but I still need to pick out goodies to send along to Emily. It’s just too hot in Dubai right now to think about shopping. Okay yeah, I know you go inside the malls anyway to do the shopping but it’s the in-between car and mall bit that I hate. The humidity levels get you sweating like a pig!
Short row heels and toes. I still need practice because I can’t make them as neat as I would like.
It is a great colourway. With plain vanilla socks I am sure the striping would come out really well. I think this is part of the old Seasons Collection, Autumn perhaps?

This is how much yarn I have left despite knitting for a size 9.5inches. I bet there’s close to 400 yards of this skein as opposed to the 350 shown on the label.

This is the first time I worked with Patons Kroy Socks and I walked away with a neutral feeling. I’m not very happy because it sheds worse than our Japanese Spitz puppy! I’m okay with it because it’s quite nice to knit with. The colourway I chose is a bit hard on the eyes though so had to be careful and not make mistakes because counting rows and stitches were god-awfully painful.

One of these days I would be able to knit a pair of socks without making any blunders. When I started the second sock, I left the first sock that I finished tucked inside the closet. So when I pulled it out to compare length of the foot, I was shocked to find that the second cuff is twice as high as the first one! As a result I almost ran out of yarn for the toe. So I frogged back a few rows of the cuff to finish the toe. *sigh*

Project: Tea Time Socks
Pattern: Earl Grey by Stephanie Pearl-McPhee
Yarn: Patons Kroy Socks 4 ply, colourway Grey
Needle: 2.25mm
Cast on: 22 June 2009
Cast off: 24 July 2009
Mods: Only 2 cable repeats on the legs

I might have posted about the WIP but then forgot to finish the FO post. Here is a funny project. They started out as Thujas for my daughter Eileen, yes she of the Japanese fascination. Frankly, I grew sick and tired of the ribbing so when I was doing the instep for the second sock I asked her is she didn’t mind that I do plain stockinette on it. Lo and behold, she said it might be funky so go ahead with it!

And I did.

And that is how Ube Cake turned out to be a mismatched pair of very comfy socks.

Ube is purple yam. We use it lots in traditional Filipino sweets like cake, candy, sticky rice puddings, etc. It is gloriously yummy!

Project: Ube Cake
Pattern: Thuja by Bobby Ziegler, Knitty Winter 2005
Yarn: Artyarns Supermerino, colourway 239
Needle: 4mm
Mods: Stockinette instep and short row heel on second sock

When the guavas are all gone, we’d move on the the next fruit-bearing tree, which is sometimes the ‘kamias’ tree. We’d bring a jar of rock salt and sit on the top of the fence and make faces as the we slowly bite into the unbelievably tart fruit which we dip into the salt. We have seasonal fruits around the house but my favourite has to be the jackfruit. It would give us no less than 10 large fruits every year and my mom would give each child a big chunk of the fruit and we’d be left to remove the fruity pulp on our own. What fun times!

Fast forward to a few decades later (not dating myself!) and I am here in Dubai which is a glass and concrete jungle surrounded by patches of sand and asphalt roads. Three of my four children were born here, all four grew up here and I feel that their childhood is not complete because they missed out on having trees to climb in the backyard. They didn’t get to experience all of that so whenever we go home to Manila I try to take them to places where they will see and feel and touch and sometimes even climb trees!

It is so soothing to be able to see so much green everywhere. In Dubai you see a bit of green but without the ripe fruits that make the branches sag down or the flowers that bloom all year round. Yeah you get marigolds here and others but they didn’t grow naturally, I mean they were fed lots of fertilizers and compost and desalinated water and sun. That’s not how you grow trees and plants and flowers. At least that’s what I think.

Anyway, enough waffle from me. Here are a few photos with all the green I loved and a few flowers from my mother’s garden (Sundara, I hope you don’t mind me borrowing that much-loved phrase!).

Yes, I am fascinated by droplets of water on leaves. Unfortunately I forgot to bring along my tripod so I must have taken a hundred blurry photos. These are not the sharpest but they are at least not that blurry.

My sister’s house, and come to think of it mine too, is right next to a big plot of land where trees and what-not grow. That’s my father on a mission. He needed a couple of banana leaves for something my mom was cooking up.
This is a section of the stretch of road that we drive in and out of to get to our place. It was raining that day. After the end of that bright spot in the background, the road dips to a crazy angle. feels like a rollercoaster ride every time.
This stretch of road has no street lights by the way, so we drive only by our headlights. So if you’re not a careful driver you could end up here.
Mom has a pot of what she calls butterfly plants. A few days before we left, these tiny flowers bloomed out of them. I tried to get macros shots of the inside of the flower but it was windy and I had no tripod.
And her roses started blooming too. Must have been all that rain!
I don’t know what this is but I thought the bright electric pink was nice.
We call this flower St. Joseph’s Staff. Suposed to bring in good luck when it blooms.
One of her prized orchids bloomed after 10 years she says so I had to take photos naturally. Pretty, huh?
This arev not flowers but these are from her garden. Vine leaves which is used as a vegetable in cooking. It was actually quite delicious too.
Again, don’t know what these are but they were growing in bunches around the pots.
Mom has a small patch of earth where she just sticks cut stems and throws seeds in. It’s like her little herb garden. let’s see what she has there. Oooh, tomato!
Pandan leaves….I can already smell it!
Mint! There’s always got to be mint in my mom’s garden.
Thanks for taking a trip back home with me. Coming up soon are photos of the family. I hope you’re not sick and tired of this yet!

I may have an idea.

Sock patterns are all over the place and I mean everywhere! There are fellow knitters who blog offering free downloadable patterns (God bless you all!). There are books and magazines with detailed instructions on how to construct a sock from the toe up or from the cuff down, but I bet there is an obscure book or manual out there where you start the sock from the heel and then work your way outward!

If you’re a sock knitter, or even if you’re not, you will have no trouble finding yarn for your craft. There are so many out there, you will be spoiled for choice. Personally, I have not ventured farther than superwash merino, pure merino and merino/nylon mix so far, but recently seeing all these cashmere/merino/nylon blends around has caught my eye.

DPNs or circulars? Whatever rocks your sock, baby! I have tried all three methods of knitting socks: double-pointed needles, magic loop and two circulars and have to admit that I have no favourite. I am comfortable using either of these methods. It’s just that sometimes I find one method would be best suited for a particular pattern, or if I know I will be moving in and out of the car and the house/office/mall so much then I will use a method that will be less likely to cost me a needle! One method I am interested in but have not the courage to try is two-at-a-time and I read just yesterday that Melissa Morgan-Oakes is coming up with a toe-up version of her best-selling book! Yay for toe-uppers!

And then of course there’s Ravelry. That’s where they all converge. It’s like a store filled to the rafters with shiny jars bursting with colourful, sugary candy. It’s heaven!

Speaking of socks, I have 2 sock projects on the go at the moment. My husband’s Tea Time Socks languished in back-burner a bit but I am now working on the gusset decreases of the second sock so I hope to finish that pair soon.

The second project is for the Sundara Shawl/Sock Swap. The first sock was a breeze although I had to fudge with the numbers to make sure they fit Emily’s feet perfectly! I’m still doubtful actually but prepared to knit a second pair for her if I fail on the first one. She sent me the yarn, Sundara Sock (der!) in Brambleberry but let me tell you this skein is just terrible to knit with. Sorry, Emily. It’s too rough. There are thick and thin bits. There was at least one knot which I hope won’t bother Emily much as it landed on the cuff. It may be how the dye reacted to the fibre but then again this is only the second time I knitted with Sundara Sock Yarn.

Skein problems aside, the pattern is divine and I’m a bit biased because this is the third time I am knitting Mintyfresh’s Leyburn Socks. I have a better handle on how to adjust the stitch count to accomodate the heel increases and at the same time making sure the quilted lace pattern fits right in. Plus I managed to follow the short row instructions for both the toe and the heel!

Here is the first sock done. Her sister will be joining her real soon.

I’m really getting into this sock-knitting groove. In fact, 5 out of my next 12 projects in queue are socks! I hope I find enough time to knit them all. And I think I am still a pair or two ahead on my sock-a-month goal for 2009. Go me!

These next two projects are wee ones, not socks but funky baby booties. Sock family nonetheless. Louise from our UAE Knitters Group shared this free recipe for Funky Baby Booties and I just had to try them. They are dead easy and so quick to knit. I ended up knitting two pairs last week as presents for baby boys soon to enter our world.

Project: Baby Booties
Pattern: Funky Booties by Louiseluvsyarn
Yarn: Artyarns Supermerino (colourway SM132) on the left and Crystal Palace Bunny Hop (colourway Seascape) on the right, used less than half a skein from leftovers
Needle: 4mm
Notes: I omitted the ribbon embellishment as these are going to boys

Okay, that should be enough buffer before I show you my July kit from the Rockin’ Sock Club. It’s beautiful!

I have a confession to make. This is the first time that I read the Dyer’s Notes from cover to cover. *hides in shame* I usually just dive in and pet the yarn and browse through the pattern but Tina’s notes this time around was compelling for me to ignore.

Here is my skein of Socks That Rock Lighweight in colourway Garden Daze. It’s a lovely blend of deep red, deep pink, yellow and green. The pattern is called In Season, designed by Melissa Morgan-Oakes.

The sock shown on the pattern has a lovely striping effect but Cristi reckons this is the small size because her sock is showing some other kind of striping and pooling. I guess I need to cast on to find out for myself!

Look at this lovely skein! When I first saw the skein in other blogs I was a bit blah about it as it reminded me of the wild colourways which I vowed never to purchase again unless I had an air-tight excuse. But then I saw the pattern and thought, hey this could work.
And the sticker that came with it is just perfect! I wonder if I could stick it on my desk at work?
The emergency skein is just too adorable too.

Bernie and I went to Dubai Festival City one Thursday evening, I met up with fellow knitter Debbie for a spot of light supper at IKEA and he went to peruse the shops. Great to catch up with Debbie and see her second Liesl knitted out of the exact colourway I wanted in Malabrigo Worsted. I showed off my then in-progress Liesl and got tips on how to spray-block the thing when finished.

After what seems like only 10 minutes with Debbie, but in reality about an hour and a half, Bernie and had a walkabout. We found this display of really gorgeous dolls around one of the foyers. Some dolls were freaky looking, you know like those ceramic dolls from a century or so ago with beady eyes and frizzy hair. But these ones caught my eye and good thing they were allowing photography. I just knew Eileen would love these!

So here you go, anak!

Yes, purple kimono. Now don’t you start nagging me to get you one!

I took this last photo just because I thought the baby llama was so cute!

The kids adopted him from my cousins in Tarlac when we visited. They have a house full of cats and there was a new litter of 5 kittens. Penguin was the only one who came right up to us so we snatched him without hesitation.

He fell right at home when it came to it. Roaming the yard, playing with dry leaves on the ground and basically purring all over the place to get his ears scratched and looking so cute so we would give him crumbs from our plates.

And then he goes and tries to run inside the house before the screen door closes, so he would end up like this a few times a day!

Sometimes he just likes to stare out the front gate, watching the kids playing around and the cars driving past.

One fine Sunday, we had a visitor outside the house. he caused quite a racket as all the other dogs felt threatened. Who wouldn’t be with this thing?!His owner was taking him out for a walk and the guy had the chain warped around his body, and he is quite bulky mind you, so that the dog won’t drag him. he is a fighting pitbull and has a few scars to prove it. Really scary dog.

When we went up to the Manaoag Shrine, we came across this cutie pie just outside the back of the main altar. he was so cute that I had to take a photo. He smelled a bit though, must be the heat.

Seriously, don’t they look alive to you? Bernie had the bright idea of taking one with a stick and using it to scare the kids. It worked on Eileen who squealed like a little girl when the bug was thurst in front of her.

A while ago, Jackie invited us to her twins’ 2nd birthday and Sierra Leone Day celebrations at their villa at the Springs. Bernie, Eileen, Patrick and I got to see Nathan and Nyah in traditional clothes as well as their friends most of whom came from the same orphanage where they grew up until Richard and Jackie brought them home.

They are such lovely children. The food was great too! There were some African dishes and drinks of course. And cake! but before I show you the cake, here are some photos of the gorgeous twins and their equally gorgeous Mum!