Happy New Year!

Happy New Year everyone!

I am not sure anyone has some kind of new year resoluations. As for me, I don't usually have any... ok the statement is not exactly true because I always told myself to lose 10 pounds and be more active for the last few years; however, I broke it every single year. So for myself this year, I figured that it might be nice to set some goals and should try to measure them at the end of the year to see whether I actually succeed my goals at the end of the year. Hopefully by setting goals for myself the year will help me organize my priorities better.

So Here is my lists:

1. Lose 10 pounds and be more active and eat better. For the fact that I have a gym membership and not utilizing it. It is just not making whole lot of sense and waste money, so I will start hitting the gym.
2. Spend time with family. I don't think I need any explanation with this goal.
3. Keep up with my knitting blog! I admit that I am not very good at keeping up with my blog. I always can find excuse to be lazy. But this year, I wanted to be more involve to show more of my designs and ideas on my knitting blog.
4. Keep up with my Allergy blog. I wanted to share more finding about allergy and Celiac Disease and yummy recipes to the blog.
5. Try to sit down and write my previous design patterns. I have so many designs that I have actually created the final product but without the actual patterns. I wanted to write down the patterns and post it online.
6. To learn more on garment construction. I realized that I often have issue with written pattern for sizes that are not my sizes. I think it will be helpful for me to learn more about garment construction so that I can design garment that will be situable for different body type.
7. Start designing for man. I have always avoided design male garment. Partly because my husband and man surrounding me don't like knitted garment; however, I always wanted to design for man. So this year I would serously try to do it.
8. Keep track of deadline better. In the past year, I am not good at keeping track of submission deadline; hence, I caught myself missing quite a few deadlines last year.
9. Adopt a better way of design. I am a very visual person so often time, I would like to actually knit what I design before moving on to next design. Therefore, I was not able to produce more design. This year, my friend annette is will to be my sample knitter; so hopefully, I can do more designing.
10. Create a collection of babies and kids design. I wanted to try to publish a collection of kids pattern.
11. Try to clean out some of my yarn stash.
12. To keep better track of my spending.
13. To be happy all the time!

I think it's a pretty big list. I am sure I can think of more items to be added to the list later on. Finally, I would love to share latest pictures of my lovely kids!

Kimimae	Isaac
Channah

Again, wish everyone a wonderful year ahead.

Happy Knitting!!!

Silkie B!

My Inner Baking Goddess?

Happy New Year Everyone!!!


In a new year, I caught myself pick up a new habit - Baking!! I started baking because my husband has been dignosed with Celiac Disease and he has been a little depressed about it. The reason why he is not too happy because he loves bread and BEER! It's been hard for him because there is gluten free products in the store; unfortunately, some of the them are good, some are OK but quite a lot of them are simply not too good. Because of this reason, I decided to start explore Gluten Free cooking, mainly baking. I started looking online resources on gluten free recipes and ordered a few cookbook for gluten free cooking. I experimenting some of the recipes and started modifying them. In addition, due to the dietary restriction of my daughter, she has dairy allergy, I started baking with dairy and egg free as well.


I have stared a new blog : http://silkiecook.blogspot.com/ to record my baking journey and provide recipes that I invented or modify for gluten free, dairy free cooking.

Where did the time goes?

Can someone tell me why times goes by so fast? I often started knitting all the holiday gifts since september but this year... i have just started about a week ago.. so I am way behind... I did only manage to finish 2 pair of mittens and working on my 1st pair of socks... I need to work on a couple more socks and a couple beanies... and I am afraid that I am not going to finish it all. Nevermind that the new round of submission at the beginning of Jan. I would need some HELP!!!!! Can someone out there help me knit???? I guessed I am wishful thinking at this point.

HELP! HELP! HELP!

Where did the time go?

Today is my baby Channah's 1st Birthday... is it really? How time flies! I just want to share some new pics of my baby girl! She is a tiny compare to other kids at her age but she is one active girl.. has been walking for 2 months already!!!!

Here is a picture of Channah in tutu... She enjoys going to Kimi's Dance class... and she loves walking into the dance studio and look at herself in the mirror... something tells me she will also be a dancer!

Here is a pic of Channah as a Lady bug in Halloween.. it was cold other so she does has quite a few layer.. make her looks kind of chubby.. and yes, I am on the process of written down the pattern for her Beret... it's cable and lace panel.. very easy knit in worsted weight.. so stay tune....

All I really wanted to say to Channah is 'Happy 1st Birthday sweetie... you are definitely my sunshine and I love you more than you can imagine even thought you keep me up all night!'

What's going on with me lately?!?!?

Where did all the time goes..?? Between work, take care of the 3 kids, knitting, designing and getting sick... it's been a long while since my last post.

So what have I been doing for the last 2 or 3 months...
1. my baby Girl is 4 months old now.. she is a joy to have.. very easy.. very content... very cute! She enjoys being held; so I learnt to hold the baby and knit at the same time.... not too easy to do.. but I managed to squeeze in some knitting time....

2. Just put my design project in the mail to Creative Knitting. My Lacy Baby Cardigan will be featured in the Nov. 09 issue which will come out in September this year. Very happy about that. This is a cardigan that I designed for my little baby before she was born. It will be nice to share my design to people that enjoy knitting for little baby. The pattern will be available in size S (6 mo), M(12 mo) and L (24 mo).

3. Just finished a round of winter design submission to CK and IK. Not sure whether my designs will be picked; will just have to wait and see.

4. Finally got around to felt my mosaic tote and my felted mitten 2 weeks ago... both project turned out beautifully.. I am very happy about the result especially the mosaic tote.

5. I have started working on the 'Forestry' cardigan for my friend, Peggy. the 'Forestry' cardigan is from Vogue Knitting fall issue. I have to say that there are quite a few mistakes on the pattern, so it's taking me a little bit longer than I should.. but it is looking very good. Hopefully, I will post some pictures when it's over. The yarn that I chose for the project is from Knitpicks. I am very happy with the yarn.

6. I have started working on the Chop Cardigan that I designed. I must say that the design is still in progress. I tend to change the original design quite a bit as I get further into it. So far, it is looking what I am expecting. I am using the yarn, Jasmine from Louise Harding. I bought the yarn last year because of the color and feel of the yarn. The yarn is dreamt to work with; however, the only problem I have with the yarn is the weight. It is a little heavy. I designed my Chop Cardigan around the yarn, I decided to make the cardigan a chop one because of the weight of the yarn. I have finished both front and half way through the back, it's looking good... will definitely post some pic when I complete it.

7. Always finished a felted wristlet for my friend, Brenda. Brenda wanted a basic black felted wristlet for her mother for Christmas last year... and yes, last year... I am way behind... but because I was pregnant last year and took away most of my knitting time, I did not finish it. So I am hoping to finish it ASAP.

8. I have about 4 designs sketch.... I just need to put them on my computer so I don't lose my thoughts.

So a lot going on with me..... and I promise to keep up this blog and post more pictures of my finished project!

Too many yarn?!?

Yet again I dropped by my favorite yarn store to check out some yarns; but most importantly to check out what kind of yarns I wanted to buy and where they are located so that I can go back there tomorrow during the big sales. Yes, my favorite yarn store is having a big sales and it only happens once a year. I remembered last year I went there with a couple of friends; standing in the cold for 20 mins to wait for the door to open. I stood in the cashier line for 2 hrs trying to pay. Was it worth it? My answer is a definitely yes. I got the most beautiful silk yarn for half of the price that now made into a lace shawl. It's all worth it.

Of course when I left the store this morning, I could not help myself but left with 2 big bags of beautiful yarns that are already marked down. As I was driving home, I asked myself, 'Do I need any more yarn? What am I going to do with it?' As I walked in the door, my husband saw me with those 2 bigs bag of yarns. He looked and laughed and walked away. As I took the bags down to the basement, I realized that I ran out of plastic tub yet again to store my yarns. So that's when I asked myself, 'do I have too many yarns? Do I go back there again?' It's really a silly question to ask myself. I am sure any knitter out there has a stash of yarns somewhere in the house. One of the lady in my knitting group once said, 'there is no such thing as too many yarns.' I have to agree with her.

As I closed the basement door, I knew that I will wake up bright and early tomorrow, bundle myself up and stand in line like hundreds of the other people. And I am sure, at the end of it all, i will be happy with my new stash of yarns.

Some good news....

I have been trying to submit my design to magazine and website and hoping one day.. my design will be published. I submited a few projects and got rejected. I was disppointed everytime I got rejected. I was naived and I was not awared of competition is so big out there.

Before the holiday, I tried submit a couple projects again. I went on a vacation to Hong Kong and China and forgot all about it. I figured it would probably be the same situation again. As I started to regroup myself and get ready for new round of submission. I got an email that one of my pattern I submitted before the holiday would get published in the fall this year! I was excited! Now I need to get the sample and pattern ready to send to the magazine before the deadline in March.

I could not wait to see my pattern on the magazine... too bad I have to wait for quite a long time. With this a little bit of good news, it really get me going on my knitting and my design. I know it's a long road for me if I wanted to pursue my dream, but it definitely a good start!

Regrets on unfinished project....

A lot of knitters usually have a few projects going on at the same time... and sometimes there is always a project laying around that the knitter knows would never get finished. I wonder whether anyone out there ever regret never finished a project?

I am like many of the knitters out there... have 4 projects going on at the moment in which a couples of them I know I would eventually finished or never finished.. the other two projects I am currently working on. I have regrets never finished one important project and I would not forgive myself not finished it....

I enjoyed making felted purses. All my purses are inspired by people around me. I tried to encompass their personality and daily activities to design a purse just for them. One of my mother-in-law's good pal, Dee Dee, has seen my purses and wanted me to make her one. I did a little interview with her sometimes in October last year, I asked her prefer color, size and strap option. She told me that she wanted a purse with black and lime green, medium size with shoulder strap. I took her suggestion and designed a purse just for her. I started knitting the Dee Dee purse and change a couple details along the way. I was hoping to finish the project before the holiday however due to the time constraint, I have to put it aside. Since winter is not the best time for felting project so I decided that I would pick it up again in spring.

After the maddness of the holiday, I went on a month long vacation oversea with my family. By the time I returned, I got an horrible news from my mother-in-law that Dee Dee has fell and broken her hip during her vacation in Vegas. Before her operation, the doctor found out she had heart failure. Dee Dee underwent triple bypass surgery and had complication. Dee Dee passed away a couple days ago, a week shy of her 69 birthday.
I was devastated. I regret never finished the Dee Dee purse. Now I looked at the unfinished purse, I asked myself whether or not I should finished it. I hate not to finish it but at the same time I could not bring myself to finish it. It remained me so much of Dee Dee - A joyful lady.

As of today, I don't think I will finish the project. But when the time pass, I might eventually have the courage to finish it. Now, I looked at those unfinished project, I told myself, one day I shall finish them so that I won't have another regret like the Dee Dee purse.