The One About Inori

Taaaa dahhh!!!

It’s taken me so long to reach my 200th post. This blog has been around since 3 May 2006. That’s more than 2 years! Wow. Can’t believe it’s been so long.

Anyway, I’ve decided to hold a contest, mainly for knitters/ crocheters or people who use yarn, somehow. Sorry for non-knitters.. I know there are many people who read my blog and aren’t knitters and have no use for yarn. I will try to cater for non-users-of-yarn for my next blog contest okie??

Anyway here are the rules and instructions:

- The theme of the contest is, “Knitted (or crocheted) items that have gone wrong.”

- Anyone can join. Even if you are not living in Australia.

- The prize will be a skein of Malabrigo Sock Yarn in the colourway “Stonechat”, kindly sponsored by Yarnandkisses. Here is a picture of it. Drooly drooly:

Here’s what it is : All you have to do is to write a story (doesn’t have to be too long, just precise would be good) about a project that you have started and realised it’s not going the direction you wanted it to go.

- You must include either a photo or a detailed description of the project, or both if you want to!

- You may write it in any style you like. Narrative, suspense, comedy etc etc…

- Injecting humour into your story would help too.

Ways to enter:

- Write a blog post on your blog and link it here by posting a comment ON THIS ENTRY. Not on any other entry, please. Even if this entry is no longer the current one, I still check past comments as they are highlighted everytime I log into WordPress. So don’t be worried that your comment or link will not be read.

- If you do not have a blog, that’s fine. You can email your story (title it “Blog contest”) to :

me [at] inoriz [dot] com

Replace the [at] with an @ and the [dot] with a .

- Otherwise, you are more than welcome to leave a comment with your story ON THIS ENTRY.

- Go around, spread the word about this contest among fellow knitters/crocheters/bloggers! The more the merrier!!!

- You do not have to submit your personal details. The winner will be notified and details will be collected only then.

- The contest will be open for 3 weeks. Ending Friday, 20 February 2009.

- Judges’ decisions are final! Yes there will be more than one judge so don’t throw rotten eggs in my direction if you don’t win!

Go forth and think of your stories! I shall start the ball rolling by posting mine!

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The Bootie Gone Wrong!

When Sunshine was a wee little newborn, I was worried about her feeling cold (it was cold in the hospital room) as she kept kicking herself free from her swaddle. The midwife then handed me a knitted cardigan for Sunshine to put on. The cardi was soooo teeny and adorable.

Most importantly, it made me want to knit for my darling daughter. And that desire only grew stronger and stronger each and everyday I held my precious bundle.

As a Chinese (No, I’ve never been to China though but my ancestors were from China), I believe in and follow post-maternity ‘guidelines’ that have been passed down from generation to generation. They call this the ‘confinement period’. And it is what it’s stated – being confined for a month indoors. Both baby and mummy.

This is to prevent diseases from getting into us since we are most vulnerable during this time. It also prevents us from catching a chill from the cold winds outdoors.

So during that month, I wanted badly to pick up knitting. But how? I cannot go out!

So I asked Nad to please, go to the library and borrow books on knitting. Especially knitting for beginners.

He went and borrowed this awesome book and I loved him so much for being spot-on choosing such a perfect book.

Then, I got my God-sis to come over to teach me the basic knit and purl. She also taught me how to cast on and bind off.

Then, I asked Nad to go to spotlight to get some wool and a pair of ‘Size 6′ needles.

And I got started! I knitted the simple bootie in that book. It was my very first project and I was so excited! It had yarn overs and decreases and all those funky stuff! Woo hoo!

And then I stitched it up!!! Woo HOO!!

And this was how it looked like:

Hey! Not bad for a beginner! Right!?

Except that when you compare it to how a normal bootie should look like:

It’s TOO BIG!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! GIGANTINORMOUS!!!!!!!!

Dear beginner knitters (and even seasoned ones alike), check your pattern if “Size 6″ needles refers to US6 or Metric 6mm. Because, Huge . Difference .

In Australia, the metric system is used for needle sizes while in USA (where the designer lives and where the book was published), they have their own sizing guides. It’s again, different in the UK. So check your sizes! US6 is equivalent to 4mm. Which is 2mm smaller than the 6mm needles I was using! You can check sizes on this chart.

Anyway, it was a very funny and good experience for me. The lone bootie (no way I’m knitting the other side for a giant baby!) was left hanging by the cot and used as a handkerchief dispenser.

It actually fits Sunshine somewhat now.

Hehhehehe.

Have fun and good luck to all participants! Come on! Flood the comments!

Something happened today (29 Jan – it will be past midnight by the time I finish writing this post) which I want to document before I forget.

Sunshine’s vocabulary is pretty impressive for a 16 month old, I would say. Her enunciation for most words are also perfect, except for words like Cat (tat), Car (tar), Star (also tar), Umbrella (bra-tah!). Otherwise, she has no problems pronouncing Bubble, Dog, Door, Bottle, Elmo (her favourite sesame street character!), Apple, Milk etc etc etc and of course, her favourite word (and possibly her favourite person) is “DADDY DADDYDADDYDADDY DADDY DADDY DADDY DADDY DADDY DADDY……. ”

For months we’ve been teaching her to call me “Mummy”. For months she’s been tight lipped. She would say “Mama” but refer to her granny instead. When I’m within earshot and when someone asks her, “Where’s mummy?”, she would often point to the ceiling and flash her cheeky smile. (However, when I’m far away, she would happily point to me, which means that she KNOWS who ‘Mummy’ is.)

Of all the things in the world, she refuses to call me. Which made me a little sad. And a little jealous of Nad. And a little jealous of my mum too.

UNTIL TODAY.

“Mummy!” (points to me)

*Shock*

She called me. Mummy. She called me! Mummy!

I love you too, Sunshine. I love you too.

Now they say that pregnant women have nesting instincts especially in their last trimester. I’m getting it in full force!

First, I’ve started sewing.

Secondly, I’ve been knitting like a mad woman on speed.

Thirdly, clutter makes me so uncomfortable that I want to kill people in this house.

So, today, I cleaned and organised my bookshelf.

Before:

It looks like WW3 doesn’t it? Arrrghhhhh.

4 hours later:

See the mess behind the red chair? That’s a very dirty and dusty cardboard box full of CDs and Nad’s cassette tapes.

The result:

The CDs and cassettes went into the clear box on the shelf, thus freeing the space behind and around the red chair.

The cardboard pieces wrapped in blue paper are placed there so that itchy fingers Sunshine will not pull stuff out. I’ve put books that we seldom use in there. I was getting rather pissed off with her dragging all the books from that level to scatter all over the floor. The only shelf she can access to on the ’2nd level’ are her books. Which she’d have to learn to put them back after she takes them out.

She can still reach the shelves on the 3rd level. But she will get a huge smack from now on if she does that.

Should the peoples in this household dare to mess things up, I will give new meaning to “Hell hath no fury of a woman scorn.”

Coz it’s PREGNANT WOMAN this time. *Shakes fist*

Will be decluttering around the house from today onwards. Hope I can get them all clean and tidy in 2 weeks!

Oh, I almost forgot to add… this marks my 198th post on this blog (WordPress messes with the posts’ ID numbers so the only way I can check which post I’m on is from my dashboard). On the 200th post, I will be holding a little competition. Well, it’s mostly for knitters, since the prize will be yarn. Haha. Stay tuned!!!!

In case you are thinking that I’ve dropped off from the Spotlight trip, I haven’t.

Sunshine was an angel. She didn’t make any noise and didn’t destroy anything. The sales assistants were smitten with her and wanted me to leave her behind. Lol….

I also spent a small sum (yeah right) of money on fabrics. Here’s my loot:

They gave me a free tote bag.

Ohh, messy picture. But gorgeous fabric!!!!!! Much sewing anticipated!!!!!!!!!

Sunshine was so tired at the end of the trip that when we came home, she fell fast asleep. Even the dogs’ barking didn’t wake her up! Look how she slept:

Yep! Kneeling down!!!!!!!!!!!

Amazing.

Spotlight has a sale today (Tuesday) and Nad got called back to work. So I’m going to do something I’ve not done since I got pregnant with Chubbs – take Sunshine for a shopping trip alone.

Can you sense the trepidation?

Haha. It’s not going to be easy to handle a feisty 16 month old alone, especially when I resemble a whale more than human. She is NOT going to be walking along the aisles of Spotlight because she will always be strapped in a trolley OR her stroller. She has mastered the silent disappearing act and has been doing it to me when we are at home. So no. I’m not risking it!

I’m hoping to get some nice fabric. Not pining any hopes on the yarn selection though. Spotlight is renowned for having crap yarn during summer. (What, don’t people knit in summer in preparation for winter?)

Shopping in Spotlight without Nad has its pros too. I don’t have to listen to “Are you done yet?” or “Everything looks the same to me…” or “Do you REALLY need that?”……… I shall use Nad’s hard-earned money and spend a fortune on building my fabric stash! Muahahahahah! I love you, Nad.

Will update you how the shopping trip goes. Please send lovely thoughts my way and “be-a-good-girl” vibes to Sunshine. Thank you!