My FIRST Knitted Cardigan!

This post about my February Lady Sweater has moved to:
http://salihan.com/2008/11/my-first-knitted-cardigan/

Bargain!

For $40, I got myself a large glass outdoor table and an umbrella with stand. $40! Thanks to a colleague who is doing a little spring cleaning. He even delivered them for me. You're a champ, Dave!

Repairing Cat Scratched Sofa

When we bought our sofa, we were newly married and had no pets. We didn't think that we were going to have cats soon and that they would just loooveee our new textured fabric sofa. We tried training our darling cats to stop using it as their oversized scratching posts. We bought them several scratching posts, made scratching pads out of old carpets, yelling, clapping loudly, squirted them with lemony water, sprayed the lounge with vinegar, covered the edges with aluminium foil etc. You get the picture. Nothing really worked if we weren't on guard.



After a while it got very tiring. As I lay in bed falling asleep at night, I could hear them waking up and digging their claws into my once beautiful sofa. It got so embarassing I had to trim the loose threads on it before company came over!


When I had my colleagues over for Eid, Rosemary shared with me how she fixed up her own cat scratched sofa. She told me about covering the edges with vinyl and tacking them into the timber frame. So simple! I went to Spotlight and bought half a metre of black vinyl. Then to Bunnings and bought 2 packets of black upholstery tacks. Total cost is less than $20. I took about an hour to cut the pieces and to tack them into place.


And I am absolutely over the moon with the results! The vinyl pieces don't look that out of place and the sofa looks almost new. The cats don't like the vinyl and have left the sofa alone. They are using their scatching post again. SUCCESS!




Now I just have to figure out how to stop Ifa from scatching the bedroom door and meowing her heart out when she demands breakfast at 5.30am!

Neverending Scarf

The lace ribbon scarf took forever but it's finally finished after FIVE months!

It started innocently enough. How hard can it be? 3ply wool and 2.75mm needles should be ok, right?


Nope, not hard at all. Just monotonous and repititive and seemed to go on forever. I put it down for another project, and then another, and another, picked it up for five minutes and got tired of the slow progress, and started another project, and another. You get the idea.

Two metres of stitches later...

Details on Ravelry

You know what the saddest thing is? I don't love the scarf. I like it. But I'm not in love. The yarn isn't soft and squishy enough and it just drapes limply. I've spent too much time on it to want to give it away so easily. But I think I would eventually when I knit another scarf I actually love. Otherwise, it would just taunt me every time I open the scarf drawer. *shudders

Tip: Save yourself the frustration and use lifelines when knitting this.

Cooking again

My mum sent me the biggest box of goodies for Hari Raya but it came just a day late of my lunch party. There is enough food there to last us many months. Thanks so much for the food, Umi!


She included these pre-packed ketupat or rice cubes. You just drop the individual packets of rice in boiling water and cook it for an hour or so. It tastes just as good as those made traditionally - wrapped in woven palm leaves. I was really impressed! So delicious with sayur lodeh and soto ayam.


So that spurred me to bake kueh tart or pineapple tarts, which is a must when celebrating Hari Raya. I've never made them before on my own. I've helped my aunt in the past when I was little but that was limited to putting the tiny pastry embellishments on them!

I found this recipe on the internet but be warned. Once you have visited My Kitchen Snippets, you would want to make all her recipes! Anyway, my kueh tart turned out beautiful! I even made the pineapple jam from scratch. First pineapples of the season and it was so sweet and juicy! Richard said it was the best kueh tart he's ever had. (*ahem... please note he's only had about two types in Singapore.)


I didn't need the pineapple juice for the recipe and I had a whole glassful from just one small pineapple. We weren't pineapple juice fans but we are now pineapple cordial fans! I love this recipe and I know I've shared the link before but if you haven't tried making homemade cordial yet, you should! That one glass of fresh pineapple juice gave us a week's worth of pineapple cordial.


Today I took the day off. Richard found out yesterday that he has burst one of his disc in the middle of his back. I spent the day cooking and cleaning so he can rest. As a treat, I baked Applesauce Muffins and oh my god! I'm drooling just thinking about them. Soooo moist, light and not sickly sweet. The cream cheese frosting makes them decadent. Really, really good.

I think I'll go have another right now. Have a good week everyone!

Gabu Brothers

I couldn't send a package to Singapore with gifts for my mum and only one of my brothers. The other two brothers will feel left out!


Can you see the resemblance?


Pattern and Details on Ravelry

Handmade Bookmarks

I think bookmarks are undervalued. I normally use any small piece of paper within arms reach of me. More often than not, it'll be a store receipt or an old train ticket. It works fine, but it sure does not have the same feel as a handcrafted bookmark.

So remember my last blog post and I mentioned that the bags contained something really cute?

Here they are- Gecko Bookmarks!


I adore the little curly tails and I've made one eye bigger than the other to increase the cute factor. I secretly wanted to keep them for myself but I did the right thing and gave them to the two girls. Surprisingly, they loved them and I think one of the mothers wanted to keep it for herself too! I won't say who. Hehe...

Details on Ravelry

Well, it won't be fair for the kids to have all the fun. I made bookmarks for my two friends and my mother too. This fan bookmark by Crochetroo is absolutely gorgeous. There is a small confusion in the pattern but with another Ravelers help, I sorted it out and I was off! I made three of them on a tiny 1.5mm crochet hook. It was a challenge at first but just look at it. It was definitely worth the time.

Details on Ravelry

And I wanted to make even more bookmarks after that. My brother's birthday was coming up and I thought a bookmark would be perfect for him as he's an avid reader. It was rather hard to find gender neutral bookmark patterns. But I think I found a winner with the book thong.


It looks a little strange - a rope like thing with beads on the ends. But I think it works very effectively. I ended up making three and gave the blue one to my brother and the other two to the other mothers. Be warned though if you decide to crochet this, it's an absolute pain to crochet into the back ridge if you're using a really tiny thread and hook! Go large.

Details on Ravelry

You must think that by now I was over making bookmarks. Nope. I found a pattern with a single fan that looks rather nice. Reminds me of a Chinese fan. So I made one in a peach crochet thread with a 1.5mm hook.


But the pattern said that I could use a worsted weight yarn. Curiosity led me to crochet a rather large and thick bookmark from leftover 8ply cotton yarn. It was as big as a coaster! Err, not very practical but still lovely.

Details on Ravelry

"Coaster! That's it! I could crochet it all the way around and make coasters!" I thought to myself. So I experimented a bit more and a couple of hours later, I came up with these.



Richard likes the first one better, whereas I prefer the openness of the second one. Works out good. One each! :)

Details on Ravelry

Create something today and share it with someone. I'm addicted to the little fuzzy feeling in my belly when someone says "Thank you! I love it!". I'm sure you will too.

Bags for The Young and Old(er)

Since I haven't been eating in school during my breaks, I have managed to churn out quite a number of gifts for Hari Raya and birthdays. My hands and mind kept busy whilst distracting me from food. I've knitted and crocheted bags for little people and taller ones too.

One of my old school friends found me on Facebook and we picked up quickly as if the decade hasn't passed. She saw the things I made from my blog and 'ordered' a little handbag for her 17month old daughter. I didn't accept any payment for the bag but requested that she made a donation on Richard's and my behalf to any charitable organisation, which she gladly did.

Details of Little Ditty Bag on Ravelry

I crocheted this pretty little bag and knitted up a bunny buddy to go with it. It's such a quick crochet and absolutely adorable I think. I've been told the girl carries it everywhere, even to bed!


Details of Bunny Buddy on Ravelry

I haven't made anything for my two best friends before, Radiana and Dee. I was always too busy with other things and I thought it was high time they both got something special from me. I knitted them a Square Cake bag each, just in time for Hari Raya. I think the bags look very festive with the silver thread through the yarn.


The only modification I would make to it when knitting it again is that I will definitely make the handles longer. Maybe an extra two inches to one of the handles. I found it a little too short to fit my hand through it comfortably.

Details of Square Cake Bags on Ravelry

I also knitted two little Amulet Pouches for two special girls, Rachel and Georgia. Their my friends' daughters who celebrated their birthdays in September.

They hold something really cute in them. But you'll have to wait for my next blog post to see what they are. :)
Details of Amulet Pouches on Ravelry