OOTD #2

This was the day the barrista gave me a cup that said "Book Power" on it.  (My name is Shuli and as a joke, he wrote it in very similar-sounding Chinese characters that mean something completely different.)

As if I weren't already nerdy enough.

OOTD #1

Rebecca has been teasing me so much about my "OOTD" poses that I started wondering if I could post them again without actually having to appear in front of the camera.  I got to some silly scribbling and...

Voila! 

Darren and Jess, Part I

On Monday, Rebecca and I got a chance to practice shooting with a couple of Amanda's friends for their pre-wedding pictures.  We agreed to meet Darren and Jess at Bishan Park at seven in the morning and thankfully, for once, the sun rose in a cloudless sky.  The result?  The most beautiful golden tint.

I learned a whole new set of lessons in the strong sunlight; my beloved 35mm proceeded to give me trouble by producing massive purple fringing and flare at certain angles.  There were some problems with sharpness and I now realise I have to pay even more attention to where I shoot from in the hazy morning (my lens gets completely confounded by backlight and focus goes haywire).  

On the whole, I thought I could've done a better job with many of the shots, but there are also some that I'm absolutely thrilled with.  

Anyroad, I thought I'd share the first batch of pictures because I can't get over how beautiful the photogenic couple and the golden morning look. 

Plus, Darren and Jess do yoga together and they were happy to do some pretty cool poses for us. 

I can't wait to edit and upload the rest!

Monday night

It's been ages since I did any colouring.  It felt good to flex the fingers and take the Derwents out for a walk.

A couple things

Last week was lots of fun.  Because the 'rents were out of town, I got to do whatever I wanted, swanning round the house like a Duchess.  (Full disclosure: when they're away, I pretend I'm the Queen and sleep in a different bedroom every night.  The best nights are in the giant king-sized bed in the master bedroom.  I toss and turn with abandon and wake up feeling delighted.)

I also got to spend lots of time with my friends, including a long overdue book-binding tutorial with colleagues where I made this.

Now, I like to journal and I like to draw, but I can't do crafts to save my life.  I'm one of those irritating people who can't cut paper in a straight line, even with a guide.  I briefly entertained origami one long-ago Christmas morning and ended up shredding neon paper and flinging it violently at my mother.  (She's crafty.  And smug.)

So for me, at least, the bookbinding session promised to be a disaster.  And you know?  It wasn't half bad.

It started off a little shaky, but I think once I got the hang of the strokes and how tightly I should be pulling the thread, I managed to make a somewhat decent piece of stationery that I would probably use.

We used the coptic stitch, which means that the book will lie flat. 

It's too complicated for me explain via text and we had Rebecca actually giving us directions, but there are plenty of videos on YouTube and it's how most people learn.  The clearest video I can find is this one which has a great view of the steps and some good instructions.  All you need is a needle with a large eye, thick thread, paper to fold into signatures, and covers.  We used some plain 100gsm stock and for covers, I cut up a cereal box.

Speaking of boxes, the first round of Project Box also ended last week.

As I said here, Rebecca, Amanda and I decided to start sending some good old-fashioned mail to each other in the form of a themed package every month.  Instead of writing letters, we planned to design a package of presents, artwork, photos and other bits and pieces.  This month's theme was "Greed" and I sent my package to Rebecca.  In turn, Rebecca was supposed to give hers to Amanda and Amanda, hers to me.

When I opened my mailbox to find one package from Rebecca and one from Amanda, I was first confused, then worried that we had gotten our wires crossed and that Amanda was receiving nothing.

To my surprise, Rebecca's package came with two pictures in a frame, a red pen for Teachers' Day, and a note that said:

This is my interpretation of greed.  Putting two photos in one frame.  

Sending two packages when you're only supposed to send one.

I thought it was a very unexpected twist on the theme.

Her brother, an animator, drew the second picture.  She didn't say it, but I know that's me being greedy over a massive pile of sweets.  Rebecca knows I'm a chocolate fiend and we spend ages at work lolling around the pantry and teasing each other with, "How many calories do you think this cookie is?"  (Amanda said hers was a girl surrounded by piles of clothes and handbags!)

Amanda's, as I suspected it would, employed washi tape to generous effect.

She made me this awesome piece of washi art that I've displayed on the porch with my mother's favourite cat statue.  I was especially touched that she'd used loads of her favourite red and white washi tape - ostensibly the one she's most greedy over.

This month's Project Box theme is Blue.  I'm meant to send something Amanda's way and I've already started planning it.  Hopefully it works as well!

Hazy

I'm really hating how stupid and dazed this smog makes me feel.  I just want to stay indoors all day and do sedentary things so that the lightheadedness doesn't bother me.  While I'm at it, I thought I'd put up some pictures of a scarf I knitted recently.

Amanda picked the seafoam green colour for her scarf in a nubbly wool by Panda called Vervale.  I got four balls of it at Spotlight and stupidly failed to check the meterage on each ball.  Before this scarf, I didn't even know such a thing existed.  I would measure the yarn in my palm attempting to guess how many skeins I would need, without realising that the springiness of the yarn added bulk.

Where most of the balls I've purchased would cover up to a hundred metres when unfurled, the silly Vervale yarn only went up to 38 metres because of its nubbles.  I remember feeling horrified when the first skein ran out and I couldn't even wrap the material round my neck. 

When I went back to Spotlight for extras, I decided to surprise Amanda with one ball of cream coloured yarn and a contrast at the tip (thankfully, she liked it!).   I learnt my biggest new lesson here - how to join two colours together!  Look at the ridiculously small mileage one ball gives.

I cast on 28 and knitted a slightly larger rib with a 3 x 2 pattern.  Despite all the yarn misadventures, I'm really pleased with the way it looks!

Lessons learnt from Amanda's scarf:

1) Check the damn meterage!  I don't know how this didn't occur to me before.  At 38m, for a barely 60 inch scarf, you're going to need at least six balls. 

2)  When a wool is nubbly, it's more difficult to see whether you're knitting or purling because everything looks like purl bumps.  Sometimes it's better to knit a little more tightly so that you can see what you're doing.

3)  On the plus side, the wavy yarn hides all manner of sins and the edges of the scarf tighten up very nicely.

4)  Stockinette stitch curls like crazy.  If you want to make an entire scarf in stockinette, it will become a tube.  I didn't make Amanda's scarf in stockinette but I stumbled upon this information this month.

5)  Learning to join two colours was my biggest triumph yet.  I tried to learn from youtube when I first started out but I was far too new to knitting to understand what the woman in the video was saying.  I joined solid colours with an invisible knot. 

After a while though, the steps finally started to make sense to me.  It's important to find a video that you can understand and if you're a beginner, I think it really helps when the person in the video knits with the same hand movements that you do.  I spent far too long staring at people who tensioned with their left hand and wondering what the hell they were doing.  

I've started on the next one and it involves my next mini challenge: yarn overs.  Pictures soon.  For now, I'm going to bed now to try to avoid feeling any worse.  Good evening!

A scarf for Shirin

I mentioned a couple of posts ago that I would put up some pictures of the first scarf that I ever finished, so here they are.  They're not the best pictures because I snapped them in a hurry before giving them away, but I hope they give a rough idea of what the scarf looks like.

I'm halfway through a couple of slightly more finicky personal projects but I really wanted to start making things for my friends and Shirin was first on the list.

The yarn is a soft, basic, grey yarn called Shiver from Moda Vera, which is Spotlight's resident yarn maker and I only needed two balls to make a 60 inch long scarf.

Each time I make a new scarf, I go for something slightly different to make it a little more challenging.  I'm not particularly daring, so I figure if I alter one variable each time, I'll slowly but surely get to making extremely complex things.

Prior to this yarn, I had only knitted with very neat five mm stock so it took a little while to get used to the 10mm needles (pictured with a pen for scale).  Twice as big, they can feel clumsy in the hands and the entire product becomes heavier.  The yarn itself is distractingly furry and splits easily if you're not paying attention.

Once I acclimatised though, the whole thing was a breeze.  I blazed through most of it while finishing the first season of Bunheads (Bailey Buntain ftw!).  Shirin likes things simple, so I kept them basic and chunky with your everyday two-by-two rib stitch.

Believe it or not, I weaved in the tails with a paperclip that I bent to my purpose.  Don't try this at home (SEE below). 

Because things like this amuse me, I thought I would put in a short list of the lessons that I learn with each scarf.  If anyone out there is a beginner knitter too (Amanda, my minion!), who knows, these tips might be some help!

Things Shirin's scarf taught me:

1)  With bigger needles and yarn, it's important to knit a bit more loosely so that the yarn transfers easily over the needles.

2)  Happily, it's also much easier to knit close to the needle tip because there's less danger of the wool just shooting off the slope and unravelling.

3)  Bamboo needles offer more traction, but for a very wispy yarn, can catch annoyingly.

4)  The looser and fluffier the yarn, the more important it is to pay attention so that it does not split.

5)  It is possible to perform a ribbed cast off.  (The very fact that I was unaware of this one is testament to what a n00b I am.)

6)  Do not, I repeat, do NOT weave in the ends with a bent paperclip.  Any yarn that has even a little hair coming off it will catch disgracefully as you pull the paperclip through and you risk tearing out chunks or even breaking the strand altogether.  I ran out and bought a yarn needle right after I finished.  

I've really grown to love knitting - the repetition is incredibly therapeutic and yet when I'm counting and troubleshooting, it keeps my mind working furiously.  I may never need to make anything more complex than long rectangles, but it's immensely satistfying.

I'm already halfway through the next scarf!  I can't wait to finish it.

Wool

I finally finished my first ever knitting project (pictures to come) three weeks ago.  I made a scarf for my friend, Shirin, using a dead simple two-by-two rib stitch.  That gave me all the confidence I needed to start on a never-ending series of scarves for random people in my life until I realised that I was lacking the other essential component.  Yarn.

Technically, the best place that I know of is Golden Dragon Store in People's Park Centre, but it is so inaccessible that I decided to rush down to Spotlight on a lunch break instead.  Because Amanda came with me from work, she got caught up in the yarn buying frenzy and decided she wanted to learn to knit as well.

Now, I'm not the best of teachers and especially not for handicraft.  I've dropped more stitches and frogged things more times than I care to admit.  And I'm ashamed to say that I cried with frustration after my first knitting class because I couldn't even remember how to cast on.  But, despite all that, I'm quite pleased with how far I've come.

I only had the time to take one basic class and after making nothing but squares, I decided to man up and learn everything else from YouTube.  And I'm of the opinion that if someone like me can learn something like this by watching out-of-focus videos, anybody can.  So I said yes, and Amanda bought cheap needles and two balls of yarn.

I, on the other hand, totally went nuts.  As you can see above, there are five scarves in the offing.  I got a nubbly 7mm yarn with a seafoam green sparkle, some extremely odd 4mm black and white ringlets that I'm beginning to regret, two variations on pink for 10mm needles and the one I'm most excited to try out, variegated blue-green mesh.

I also got some hot pink 4mm needles, a set of fat wooden needles in 7, 9, 10 and 12mm and a wicker basket on sale for $13.  I think the basket looks quite sweet tucked next to the DVD collection in our living room.  (Any questionable DVDs don't belong to me.  Except Guys and Dolls.  Man, I own that shit.)    

We had our very first lesson in the middle of a quiet Burger King.  I practised making my instructions super clear and Amanda learned fast, so she was knitting in no time.  I went through how to cast on, knit and tink (Tinking is un-knitting.  Knitters are cute like that).  Along the way, we practised tension and subsequently, we had a purling lesson and a discussion about ribbing and stockinette.

For a beginner like a me, teaching a newer beginner can be a great way to gain information.  I've learned so many new things that I can't wait to try out.

Last week, we had our first "Stitch and Bitch" over breakfast in a cute cafe near work.

I can't believe I literally created a knitting buddy in two hours!  I feel like Dr Frankenstein with a loyal minion!  (Amanda is going to smack me at work when she reads this.)

She's working with some super pretty cotton candy yarn that has blue and yellow running through it.

La Ristrettos is a quaint nook made all the more cool by the fact that it's hidden on the eighth floor of Novena Medical Centre.  I love this idea... hospitals are such horrible places to be, so imagine you've just had your physiotherapy (or lipo) and you're stomping miserably down the corridor, and suddenly, coffee!  And wooden tables and brick walls and trees, oh my!

I first saw this cafe when I was in the sports medicine centre on assignment years ago.  The garden, replete with willows, ponds and wicker chairs, rose out in the middle of the building like a miracle.  Through the plate glass, I could see people enjoying coffee.  I wanted so badly to find it again, and now I have.

The food is all right and the coffee quite tasty, but I would keep coming back just because it feels so much like a magic garden.  For the two hours that we were there, I was completely at peace.

How could you not be zen?  I'm looking forward to many mornings of stitching and bitching to come.  Here's to being grandmas!

PS  As I sat down to write this earlier, I got a frantic call from the above-mentioned telling me that she had knit when she was supposed to purl and couldn't remember how to undo it.  After several instructions, whatsapp photos and a dropped stitch, she made an emergency drive to my house with Ben.  I unravelled and re-knit two rows while they chatted with my mom and it ended up being a very pleasant mishap.

Except when my mom saw me standing behind Amanda giving instructions, laughed uproariously and said, "I can't imagine you teaching anyone how to knit.  You're such a klutz."  Hmph.  I'll have you know she's quite a klutz too.

Dashers, Part Two

On Mayday, we had the second part of our Balderdash gathering at my house.  This time, Amanda and Ben were able to make it as well.  I have no idea how we're going to carry it off, but the plan is, perhaps, to go round to everybody's house until we've come full circle.  

When I told my parents I was having friends over, I thought it was going to be a low key, chilled out affair.  What I hadn't anticipated was that because my mother had plans to hold a gathering of her own friends that Saturday, she decided that this was going to be the most dramatic full dress rehearsal ever.

Suddenly, there was Noritake china flying out of drawers (we are never allowed to use the Noritake) and she came home toting a wooden block and proclaiming that she was going to make a cheeseboard because Edie had had one.  She even put out both red and white wine glasses out and started decanting things left, right and centre.  After the initial shock, I got into it although I drew the line at decorating with buckets of fresh flowers.

Regardless, it was a blast.

Retno made her special chicken shami kebabs and other Pakistani dishes.  My mom made a thai green curry and we picked a couple of tze char dishes up from the coffeeshop down the road.  The food we eat at home is usually a deeply odd amalgam of East and West at the same table - curries and stir-fries or spicy dishes with clear Chinese soups.  It has driven me nuts since I was a child, but no one seemed to mind.

Here is the famous cheeseboard with Shirin's hand over it:

And here it is without.

It's dead easy to make one of these and if your friends like cheese, it will be a huge hit.  Just get a big wooden chopping board from any fancy grocery store and arrange blocks of cheese, random crackers and some fig pate on it.  I got the fig pate at my local Fairprice Finest, in the gourmet cheese section, and Arnott's does a really good selection of Cheeseboard Crackers.  Because the figs are sweet, I like the cheeses to be slightly more salty or piquant.  For this board, we went with an aged cheddar and a slightly creamier jalapeno.

And of course, we settled down to play.  Many amazeballs options, but I think the star of the show this time round was Edie's definition of the word Twaddel (actually a unit of measurement) which read "The vibration made by a bat flying into a church bell".  I laughed until I literally cried.

(I think it is clear from these pictures who enjoys being in front of the camera.  AhemAsia'sNextTopModelAhem.)

We finished off with a beautiful, light strawberry shortcake from Rive Gauche, courtesy of the runway queen (I will be sitting on the couch at work and she will bound up and say, "Come on!  Let's catwalk!" and then we stand up and strut round the room pretending to be in a Prada show, a Victoria's Secret show, and a Betsy Johnson show respectively till someone comes in through the main door, stares at us agape and we collapse onto the couch again, as if it was just her imagination.).

The only person who wasn't there was Crystal, but I don't suppose she missed much.  While we were debating the various possibilities of chiroptera clanging about in belfries, she was touring South America in style.  She took many beautiful pictures, and brought me a new best friend.  Look!

His name is Number One Llama, because, well, he is.