Orangina Completed

I cannot believe this either, but Orangina is actually finished.


After hours of knitting in the car during traffic jams, it is finished. The fussing and fretting about how it might not turn out due to my tweaking unfounded, I'm very happy with how mine turned out. It looks a bit holey in the pic but actually doesn't show that much in the actual wear. I'm really liking this one. Here's the celebratory twirl around. :)





Sewing
Ah! The clear winner from everyone's vote is a DVF Wrap Dress! Thanks for the input
girls! I'm leaning towards the wrap dress too..:D

Next in line is my Lelah fixup. I'm ripping the top part. I made it too long and nice as it is, the hips look way out. So I'm shortening the lace part. After that, it would be some 'express satisfaction' knits and of course sewing! I've a few things lined up already.

More Fabric Shopping!

Mucha Gracious!
I seemed to be at some crossroads of sorts. I want to thank everyone who have been so supportive. Reading your comments helped. You wouldn't know how much it meant to me..:) Thank you.

Sewing

I haven't had time to sew, I was out most of the weekend. I've been pouring through some designs and clothes, figuring how and why things are cut the way they are. I think I'm about ready to start cutting out cheap fabric to test out a few things. I did manage to shop for fabrics. SW was figeting by my side all that time. Couldn't wait to usher me out of there because he was nervous about the amount of fabrics I might buy the longer I stayed. Being amused, I let him after a short while. It was kinda of distracting anyway.

There was this lovely fabric I found 2 weekends ago that I couldn't get out of my mind, so I got that. I wasn't able to capture the exact colors of the material. The background is a dark rick chocolate color and the flower motifs are a creamy cafe latte color.



It is a stretch polyester mix. I was thinking of a wrap dress. But my other half thinks it is better as a wrap blouse. Sorta like this : -



What do you think girls? What should this fabric end up as? A wrap dress, a blouse or it's calling out as something else? Give me your opinions.

Orangina
Orangina is chugging along. I'm at the ribbing now. Won't be showing photos until it's done. Have patience..:)

Spammers

Spammers have been very irritating lately. For those who are unaware, bloggers now have a new function. Go to your settings/comments and enable the "Word Verification for comments". I've just enable word verification so let's see how well it does it's job. The other thing you could do is select that only registered users are allowed to comment. Don't allow annoymous comments. That, as least, filters away some spammers.

Sewing and Orangina

Sewing Knick Knacks

I have been browsing fabrics and patterns for quite some time now. Not too long ago, I was enamoured by Machiko's Simple Chic and Skirt ala Carte. I remembered the cover vividly but misplaced the author's name and ISBN. I couldn't remember where I saw it and couldn't find it again. Then, Joy posted about the books. Yipee! You can't imagine how happy I was. Thanks to her, I finally managed to track it down. And then I couldn't believe my eyes when I found Simple Chic in my local Kinokuoniya! Double joy! Yep, I got the book in my hands now. Now, like Joy, I have to figure out the pattern map.

I also started clearing out my wardrobe. I have a stash of scrapes and a huge pile of clothes I got modification ideas on. I also got myself more fabrics.



The 2 pile of sturdy black and dark blue fabric I got at a steal! It's hard to see, but the dark bluish black one is matte and hangs very well. The other dark black fabric also hangs well and is shiny. They are tagged for some pants and perhaps a skirt. The green fabric....I'm not too sure yet. They are a little thick and it has a shine to it. It was an impulse buy. Any ideas?



See that book on bags with the fabrics? It is my latest addition to my craft books. I was browsing through a Japanese book section when I came across this. How to resist? It's got great embellishment tips and great step by step pictorial guide for each bag.





I especially like these 2 pages. More excuses to go fabric shopping..:)

Orangina

I seem to be losing steam. I no longer have the exuberance I had when I first revived my interest in knitting. It is possibly a phrase I am going through since I can't seem to finish any WIP to my satisfaction. Only time will tell. For a brief period, I contemplated closing down my blog. It also saddens me that Opportunity Knits have decided to close down her blog. She will be missed.

I take my own pace nowadays instead of rushing into finishing line. I have not much time to really sit down and enjoy my knitting and haven't finish anything for a while. Orangina is progressing slowly but steadily as you can see.

I am about 2/3 completed.

Tagged - 5 Things I miss from childhood meme

I got tagged by Siow Chin from Little Purl of the Orient.

So : - 5 things I miss from my childhood.

1.) My great grand parents' house. They had a big old house, a huge compound filled with all sorts of interesting adventures. Yes, I was lucky enough to know them while they were alive. Their house was always filled with family and relatives. Typical traditional chinese family..:) We kids really had fun there.

2.) My books. Enid Blyton, Nancy Drew, Roald Dale, William Price and many others. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory does bring back those memories. I was, still am a book worm.

3.) The games that we played with friends - Zero Point. The fun in trying to collect enough rubberbands to string a rope. And then playing the game in groups, jumping over the line as it gets higher and higher. 5 Stones - We buy or have fun making them with raw rice and scraps of cloth. This was a test of eye and hand co-ordination. One Leg - Catching hopping with one leg.

4.) How every festival was something to look forward to, especially Chinese New Year as it means I get to see my cousins and eat lots of candies and drink lots of coke. LOL

5.) The munchies - Hawkers with parked motorbikes laden with snacks at the side of the road after school. Icecream made of shaved ice and syrup in a stick. The ice cream motorman with a ringing bell that serves ice cream wrapped in bread. Haianese Sweet Bread. Mini deep fried curry chicken drumstick and wings that my Primary School canteen use to serve.

This is the first time I actually realized I got tagged. LOL So an apology to fellow knitters out there who tagged me before if any. Blur me.

Smoggy Days of Our Lives

Sounds dramatic doesn't it? But it describes weather at our end lately. Dreary and smoggy. Dear old mucky Malaysia.



I took this picture on Sunday afternoon lunch time on a 15th floor condo on a hill. When normally you'll be faced with a scorching afternoon sun, you get this and a stinky bunrt smell in the air. So you can imagine. It has been like this for a week and doesn't show any signs of improving.

Not much on knitting end. Still trying to finish Orangina. It's a surprisingly fast knit even though I can only manage one or two row once a while. Mean time, I seem to be distracted by sewing nowadays. Guess it is inevitable that crafts blend together at one time or another. :)

My Wonderful SP5 partner

On the last day of the week, my SP sent to me!
1 pretty pink card
4 green Andean treasures
6 bright orange Vacation!
Knitpicks allll for me!
Tra lalalalala
*hmmming away to the tune still....




Did I mention my SP is wonderful? I'll say it again. I've got a wonderful secret pal! Last Friday, I was harried and tired. Rushing off to yet another appointment with a client when for some unexplained reason, I veered towards the postbox area. It was my first time there and my brains said : - 'Look for my office post box.' My eyes zoomed in on this brown package sticking out from one of the post box below. It was jammed unsuccessfully 1/3 way into the post box. I took a while to register that my name was on that brown package. Could you believe it took me 3 mins to wiggle my package out of it? LOL

With my loot, I ran to my car to savor it in private. It wouldn't do to be seen yelping in glee in my office with an maniacal expression on my face. So instead, I was in my car with a silly grin on my face singing away after opening my package and rushing to my appointment. And that little ditty above, got stuck in my head. The colors are just gorgeous! How could anyone not feel cheerful looking at the bright sunshine orange and cheerful greens. Thank you Secret Pal, you made my day. Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!