Spotlight @ Megabox

Took a day trip over to Hong Kong on Thursday, after getting all the business part of the trip over, I had the rest of the day free to roam about all over the place.

On my agenda for the day was 1. the Nougat thingys at Queen's Cake, and 2. Spotlight @ MegaBox. I went in that order because I was already at the Central Stop, so it made more sense to take the subway over to Causeway Bay first since i was already in the neighborhood.

After purchasing copious amount of different flavors of Nougat, I took the train over to Kowloon Bay... which is pretty far away from the hussle and bussle, but it was worth it because I also stumbled upon Ikea!!!!!

After hearing about how great Spotlight was, I was seriously looking forward to this haven of craft supplies, fabrics, loads of yarn, and craft supplies. Instead I think the hype was just too much... I should not have listened to the hype. I blame the hype for letting me down. It felt like a cross between bed bath and beyond and Joanns.

I walked in, and it was exactly BBB feel, the whole bed sheets, curtains and towel section...the same sort of layout. the wall to wall sheets, and the large isles stacked with knicknacks, and the registers to the right.

Then the fabric section... felt like walmart when they had the fabric section, and then the yarn. I guess I was expecting LYS yarn, or some sort... but it's just michael's or Joanns feel, they even had some lionbrand, homespun, chenille, and a few magic stripes. At first glance, it was the same wall to wall feel of yarn. WOW, that's a lot of yarn. But upon closure inspection, the yarn quality isn't LYS great... it's just everyday ok. It was a good selection of different yarn, nothing too fancy, but mostly do able... I had thought of not buying any yarn... but of course I couldn't go all the way there and not come home with something! I bought some clear handles for a future FBB & 2 pairs of acrylic straight needles that I don't need, but liked how they looked. Maybe i'll take a picture of it later.

So... there it goes... it's pretty far away for one to travel to get there, so maybe i won't be going all the time... since HK island already has a few travel worthy stores...

maybe if i feel like heading over to Ikea, I'll stop by. It is a pretty big mall type... plus Megabox had a skating rink, it's small, but useful...

ok so Megabox is a pretty useful place... it's worth your time to go, if you can make the trip over.

green for luck!!

Am taking a break from knitting the Clapotis to knit a piece of clothing for me... remember the knitted swatch from way back when?? Yep.. I frogged it, and knit up the start of the back... am going with the small size... i think it should be ok.

I've never attempted clothes before...wish me luck!!

I also dug thru my sock stash, and i think there are plenty of socks for my 3 friends. I'll just decide on a color all on my own, so you guys don't get to decide... you all get girly pinky colors...

christmas preview!!

dear friends who read this blog...

i was reminded yesterday that there's only 6 more months til christmas... so i should start planning and knit away those gifts. thus far I have decided on socks...looking thru my stash I have plenty of sock yarn... i shall go thru my list of people and match up sock options...

so there... u are all getting knitted items again this christmas!!

researching Japan

Progress on the Clapotis. I have dropped four stitches... It's starting to look like it does on the computer screen. I have been able to knit it while waiting for back episodes of why why love load on youtube. Man it's such a hassel watching drama's on youtube... one has to wait, and then it's like in 10 mins increments. OK so in real life tv, it's also 10 min increments, but with all the commericial inbetween it does not seem as bad as sitting there waiting for it to load.



the rows don't drop as easy as just forcing the stitches apart, sometimes it gets caught... so to help it along, I use the knitting needle, or a tapestry needle to help drop it. It's not too much of a pain, since it's a nice break from the knitting and the purling...

am planning on my tokyo trip... there are a few places I want to hit up... hehe. i know big nerd...

Gee you knit a Clapotis?

While waiting for songs and podcasts and such to download, I thought... why not use this time to knit or crochet? I was going to start the sudoku, but then... thought... maybe I should work on the clapotis again with the new appliance yarn i got from geeyouknit.etsy.com. so... I casted on and then knit til I'm finished with the first repeat of the section 2 at around 11:45pm. and it's now 2:47am.

I should really be sleeping, but i think it was the two cokes i had before work was let out... I am totally going to be paying for it tomorrow... sigh. I fear I won't wake up in time tomorrow for work... it's a good thing, i already sent out the emails that i needed...

I read up some threads on craftster about starting an LYS... sounds inspiring and a lot of hard work. It's like my dream of owning a cool hip clothing store... that has turned into a cool hip LYS. But I think there's no real need in the boondocks town that i live in for an LYS. it's too boondock...well there's that annual Mazu festival time where a lot of people come down to my boondock town... but still. I don't think there's a market for it... it would be purely for my own benefit... it would in no time break my bank, and thus not make any money. The only upside to the whole thing is that I could start the business lease free because my parents just bought a house that can be converted into a storefront on the first floor. And I suppose if i advertised, i can create a need for it... u know.

yes, no one thinks of working with wool in the summer times, BUT since sometimes projects takes awhile to finish up, one can start one during the summer months and have it be finished in time for the winter months, no?

Cynthia actually finished a full size blanket... ok so it took her like 6 months or so... it was suppose to be a christmas present, but at least she finished it. She showed me a picture of it. I won't post a picture because she might want to gloat about it herself. I know I keep mentioning the sudoku afghan, and etc... but have you yet seem me working on it.

Yes that's what I thought!!

just keep swimming...

Haven't done much lately in the past couple of days... am just relaxing and doing nothing really... waiting for packages to arrive I suppose. I heard from my mother that my pickupsticks sock club for the may month arrived. i think i also ordered other items with it...

i was told by my mother to not buy anymore yarn. i think she doesn't know what i should do with all that yarn. Little does she know, I only buy yarn with projects in mind... most of the time...

Maybe I'll start on the Sudoku afghan...i have more yarn for it... at least enough for a half of the afghan...

how much is too much??

my dad arrived today with my brother in tow. My brother brought along with him his DS lite BLACK. His items are black, my items are white. anyway.

we talked about animal crossing the whole time, sharing the information that we both knew. my dad was lost in the whole ordeal.

then when we got back to the office, i thought if eric was home we could plug the wii up to his tv, and play, but since he wasn't home, Sunny & I just played on our Animal Crossing. He ended up getting all the possible fruit, peach, coconut,cherry & apple. He already had pear & his original orange fruit.

My brother bought me more yarn to which i didn't realised what i bought them for... then as i was putting them away, i remembered. The Sudoku Afghan. hehe.



and the fingerweight yarn from geeyouknit.etsy.com. I'm thinking maybe I'm going to use the appliance yarn for a clapotis...

scrap DC afghan

that's all i wanted to say

you want me to do what with what??

i am a bad teacher... i tried to teach Lulu how to knit, and well i don't know how to teach. all i could do was show her, but not teach her. i only know how to do it my way, not how the book teaches it, or a correct way of teaching... this is bad.

i learned on my own really, just using the book, and when i couldn't get purling, i asked cyn to show me... then i was off. from there, i relied on mostly the Internet... but i couldn't even help lulu how to knit.

so i just left her with two skeins and two sets of needles, and hopefully one of her hair washer guys can show her how to knit better.

it's odd seeing guys knit... they learned somewhere in their past i guess. It's odd seeing them knit, but then at the same time, it sorta fits their feminine stature to knit... since i find Asian men to be more metrosexual.

I did a couple more rows on my scrap blanket... it's coming along. It's hard to try to find real scrap yarn like that... sure i have left over yarn that i don't know what to do with, perhaps it should go into that afghan... like the yarn that i purchased extra of to make sure i didn't run out of yarn for the scarves. although i think i'm going to not put full 100% wool in the blanket, since maybe i'd like to be able to throw it in the washer to wash it.


Here's my progress picture thus far... looks pretty good no? & warm!!!

A close up of the colors & the stitch, which is just rows and rows of double crochet.

I think i'm going to do more rows of the solid colors, later to mix up the double strand with two different colors...

i finished watching stranger than fiction today, and noticed emma thompson wearing a clapotis at the end of the movie... i thought that was cool. ok, well it might not have been a clappy, but it had the same dropped stitch pattern, and it was shawl like... so i'm calling it a clapotis. It was gray.

i think i might go to bed early today... i am a bit tired from doing nothing all day.

quick make another one!!!

I have started the k-drama Que Sera Sera. there's a lot more kissing than the normal k-dramas that i've watched. Most other k-dramas are more timid in those kissing scenes, but this one... it starts out with a car make out! Racey i say! But you're not here for that...

Here's the sock i've been working on...
more progress pics!!


by this time i have pretty much figured out that using a stitch marker is good for you. and all i have left is the toe area... i sorta winged the foot length after the heel part.. it's a good thing i have my own feet to measure or else i've be stuck at the exact size of it...



Tada!!
Yarn: sock yarn from the personal swap Javede and I did.
Hook: #6 of the Clover, which measures about F hook.
Pattern: Crochet Socks- crochetandknitting.com ( i have made something else from her website, the flip top mittens for fill that were way too big.)

all done!!! one sock down, and one more to go. i hate making seconds. really i do. But this sock was a quick hook... as most crochet projects are... i wonder why?? maybe i should start the other sock while the feeling of socks is still hot.

i uploaded more progress shots on my flickr, but lately flickr hasn't been working right for me... so if you're unable to see the pictures let me know.

I labeled this entry slytherin as well because i personal swapped the yarn because it was slytherin colored... and i was going to try jaywalkers for the sock yarn, but knitting socks takes sooo long. So i didn't make up making it for my swap partner for HHR2... maybe if i finish this shortly and the swap isn't over yet, I'll send it anyway to her. i think she'd like that.

i broke my yarn diet again. i forgot that i wasn't suppose to buy yarn, but pickupsticks just called out to me. she makes buying yarn too easy for me. paypal sucks me in, plus it's Canadian dollars so it's a little bit bless... oh! I am bad. OK no more yarn until i make all my projects that the yarn was suppose to be for.

Crochet this instead!!

Instead of the Sudoku Afghan from knit.1, I picked up the hook and started hooking the crochet sock. I am thus far finished on around the heel and am on the rest of the foot part. It's a bit snug, and i'm not really keeping a good track of how many rows and how many stitches, and just sorta winging it... which is not a good idea for a thing where you have to make two of... as I have learned from the crochet mittens situation.

I had to frog and remake the same mitten like 3 times to get it correct, but i kept at it cuz it was mittens for the then fill... this time the socks are half for me... maybe i'll make it and send it to my latest Slytherin friend Dancer4ever, since we have the same size feet. we'll see how quickly i get it done, she said she wanted socks, but i'm sure she meant knitted socks, not crochet socks, but socks is still cool no??

i just need a little of your time

I packed up the Hogwarts House round two to send off to Sarah in TX, USA. it's just sitting there waiting for the courier to pick it up. I am having it sent from china with the expedite shipping because I don't want to do the slow way with the regular china post.

secondly, i think i got my MYB from Canada. my mother said it rattled when she picked it up, and the post office made sure to let her know that it was like that when they got it... hehe. adorable post office people.

thirdly, i think i'm going to start on the sudoku afghan today while i watch the rest of witch yoo hee.

i should take another inventory of my yarn stash...it's getting large...

hi, my name is mary and i am a knitter.

talked to a new friend about knitting today. Lulu, my china hair stylist. one of the salon helper asked me what i do in my down time, i said knitting. Lulu then asked me to bring some spare needles and yarn to teach her, the next time i visit.

i said that i would.

she mentioned that she wants to knit sweaters. i guess i will teach her basics stitches and then set her free to make a sweater.

Lulu is the first person that has asked me to teach her how to knit... yay!!

speaking of knitting, i need to get off my butt and send off the hogwarts package.... i think i'll send out the ones i've already finished tomorrow, and then mail out the scarf when i'm done with it.

sounds like a plan no?