Hey, Folks! Right now, I’m in the Metro Atlanta area, and loving the weather here. When I was in Chicago during the past winter, it snowed every other day, and the temperature reached subzero degrees. So how can I express my joy in feeling warmth from the sun rays on me; feeling a gentle breeze touch the tendrils of my hair. Smile. Such contrast to the dreary winter in Chicago, and yet there are some good remembrances of my stay in the Windy City. Chicagoans are the nicest people on Earth. I think they’re smart and so conscientious about everything. No wonder, the city has been consistently ranked in the top ten places to live. The people, culture, and the mix of city/suburb feel has a lot to offer to many seeking a new place to live or visit. 

I am staying at a place located in the middle of suburbia which given my city upbringing, is like visiting a foreign country. First, a car is required to get anywhere. No MTA or EL here. A car is treasured in the suburbs as someone pointed out to me how some folks keep their cars/trucks well maintained in appearance. Shiny, spic and span with decorative decals. Having a car certainly is convenient. Don’t have to waste time to wait for public buses. Someone said to me it took an hour to go the nearest shopping mall by bus when it’s 10 mins by car. Second, the area is so unlike a city in landscape and in the people. I see greenery wherever I am driven in the area. The place is spotted among the greenery with office complexes, warehouses and new business and residential developments. We recently needed to visit a plumber and we drove to  a converted house, umm, office located, and I really mean, in the woods. I was lucky or cautious not to have gone into the office but my companions who were also apprehensive about entering the office, needed a flow valve. Afterwards, my brave companions said that the plumber and his assistant were true country folks. I am wondering what the plumber and his assistant said about my companions.

Along with true country folks, there’s quite a contingent of Koreans living in the North Side of Atlanta, and I understand other Asians are moving into the area as well. I remember visiting the area about 5 years ago, and there weren’t many Korean businesses as there are now, and now there are plenty of Korean food eateries as well. I’ve tried a few Korean restaurants and there are two that stands out for me. I like Tofu House located in the H-Mart shopping center where I had a bowl of cold arrowroot noodle soup with asian pear slices. Lovely and refreshing on a sunny day. Banchan or side dishes were pretty and plentiful. At another Korean restaurant, TTO TTO Wah Catering House, I had bim-bim bop with a side bowl of mung bean sprouts in clear broth. It was delioso! 

Buffet places were kinda new to me simply because buffet places were not common in New York City where I lived for many years. Oh, there were some in NYC but prices were at the high end, and the okay food quality and poor selection did not justify going. When I visited the area five years ago, we had a fun time sampling buffet places because of the unbeatable pay one price for all you can eat. There is even a KFC buffet here, something a city would never have because of two words –  No Profit.  Some buffet places from back then are still around, and one that is new and that I like is Sweet Tomatoes that offers a soup and salad buffet. Fantastically healthy and reasonably priced at 7 bucks for lunch and 9 bucks for dinner. 

It seems I write more about my ramblings than our knit-along. Afraid there is no update to the Paris Jacket knit-along. I will attempt to write the reason for this blog next time, fer sure!

I was fascinated by The Thorne Miniature Rooms at The Art Institute of Chicago. To imagine, a wealthy socialite’s hobby is “miniature objects of decorative art” as quoted in the exhibit’s pamphlet. As I exited, entranced by the exhibit, I thought of Mrs. James Ward Thorne as a person who was fortunate to have had the resources to indulge in a hobby as grand as creating miniature versions of period rooms. She worked with a selective group of artists/designers to reproduce period furniture and objects d’arts in miniature form, actually used same materials as the life-sized pieces. Otherwise, we would not have the delightful experience of viewing the elaborate details of the miniature rooms.

REGENCY PERIOD: ENGLISH ROTUNDA/LIBRARY

We’ve decided to knit the Paris Jacket for our second knit-along. The pattern is found in the the book, “KnitKnit: Profiles and Projects from Knitting’s New Wave” by Sabrina Gschwandtner and photography by Kiriko Shirobayashi. Here is the author’s website, http://www.knitknit.net/book. The designer of the jacket is Risto Bimbiloski who does freelance work for Louis Vuitton’s men knitwear line. I recommend to look at Risto Bimbiloski’s website for inspirational design in knitwear: http://www.ristobimbiloski.com

JJ and I discussed that the Paris Jacket is pretty simple in design and seems impossible how the 3 knitted rectangular pieces can be assembled into a wonderfully cute jacket. From the back view of the jacket, you can see that there are 3 pieces involved: collar, bodice, waistband. JJ has selected a bouclé yarn for this jacket and is in the midst of knitting the bodice. Hope she’ll upload pics to show us.

PARIS JACKET

Thanks for the previous post, my niece-y! The flan looks delicious. Alas, I can only imagine eating the sweet and smooth flan. Mmmm…Virtual Delicioso. Next time that Guurlfriend makes it, think about changing the flan recipe by adding green tea? The flan reminds me of Chinese egg custard tarts and I have seen them come in different flavors in some NYC’s Chinatown bakeries. The egg custard can be egg white only, green tea or almond flavor. I have tried them and they have the same taste as the original yellow egg-y ones. Not that I have good taste buds in the first place to differentiate. So think about changing the recipe for next time. Guurlfriend can also make panna cotta which is another milk dessert. I think it is really easy to make, but I have not found the time, then forgot about it. I was going to use soy milk and add green tea powder that I bought in Kyoto to flavor it. Ask Guuurlfriend to make!

For July 4th, I went to the Taste of Chicago Festival to sample food from participating local restaurants, and to see the fireworks display. The Taste is an annual summer event that takes place in Grant Park and is free for everyone to stroll along and browse the food stalls set up by Chicago-land eateries. The admission to the Taste is free but the food is not. Food ranged from 4 tickets to 10 tickets, where a strip of 12 tickets was 8 bucks. Pretty expensive. There were all types of cuisine such as African, Indian, Southeast Asian, and Italian. I wanted to try them all but allowed myself to purchase 24 tickets. So my plan was simple: Taste the sample portions that cost from 3 to 4 tickets each, and hopefully can sample 6. Well, that plan did not work. I like sweets and caved in to buy a slice of cheesecake with strawberries for 6 tickets. Yes, eating desserts is first for me. Then I was good, and purchased 4 tickets worth for a taste portion of vegetarian soul food. It is called BBQ Twist which is just gluten with yummy barbecue sauce. Next was another taste portion of toasted cheese ravioli with marinara sauce for 4 tickets. I passed Chinese food, then another Italian, and was tempted to try African fare but hesitated because of its goat meat menu. I’m new to Chicago and in exploring the city, I came across a specialty market for African food. In the market, I saw goat heads, and I mean WHOLE heads and other goat parts for sale. The image is burned in my head and so I shivered in remembrance when I passed the African food stall. Afraid goat meat is not for me. Onward as I forged through the crowd, until I saw lobster tail and garlic potato plate for 10 tickets.  I had exactly 10 tickets left and I was tired of fighting the crowd and sprang for it. Then I was free, free from the crowd to roam the rest of Grant Park and waited for the fireworks display.

Overall, the Taste is a good way to while away time but this year, the event was marred by gang-related shootings. I saw an emergency vehicle carrying away one of the shot victims, and at one point, I saw scores of youngsters running away from something, perhaps a shooting. The Mayor has stated that the shootings were isolated incidents and won’t hurt Chicago’s Olympic 2016 bid. Hmmm, I don’t know about that…Shouldn’t the Mayor be more concern about the high crime rate and not about the Olympic bid?

VEGGIE BBQ TWIST

CHEESECAKE

FIREWORKS!!

So girlfriend got bored and decided to make some flan (from scratch! *shock*)

Looks delicious… oishi sou…

Flaaaan

can’t wait for her to come back and make it for me! <3

haha!

What can I say? It’s been a long time or How time flies or Like it was only yesterday…Take whichever one sounds the cliche-est. I’ve been a teensy lax in knitting because of a few diversions. But I’m back after an extended ‘vacation’ and have completed the apron. Here’s the pic:

The finished apron did not turn out well. Sigh! There is this gigantic hole in the skirt that I had not noticed before. It’s located on the side and anyone with a sharp eye can see it. Or not – after all the mohair is quite fuzzy and is good in hiding mistakes. The choice of substituting mohair yarn was not good. The fuzziness added thickness to the apron which in turn, makes me look fat! Certainly some lessons learned here. Hmmmff. Yep, what are they? Hehe ^_-

I’ve completed the skirt of the apron. I know, I know. I didn’t expect to have completed this part so quickly. Here’s a snapshot of it.

I knitted fiercely this past week while watching some tv shows such as Samantha Who?, Eli Stone, Men In Trees, and Lost (exciting episode). That was a lot of tv for me since I’m more of a movie person. So my next step is to knit the bib. Hopefully, I can finish knitting it this coming week. I was looking over the design of the apron, and not liking the ties going around the neck. I may change the ties to loop around arms instead of neck. The reason is that the mohair yarn is itchy and kinda don’t want my lovely neck to feel the itch.

I bet you’re wondering, ‘an apron‘ ? Chill out! You might find it amusing that someone can think to knit an apron, and why knit an apron? Well, vases are knitted so why not aprons? It’s true. Last year, I came across a NY Times article about the Renegade crafts fair held in Brooklyn, and there were photos of knitted vases for sale at the fair. And later that year, I met the knitter of these vases at a knitting group held at The Etsy Lab. Practically anything can be knitted, when there is creativity. I read a book on how artists and designers use knitting in their work. One of the featured artist uses metal sheets to ‘knit’ sculptures. Another artist machine knits ‘green’ statements into her knitted pieces. Imagine the creativity in knitting.

I found the knitting pattern for the apron in the Interweave Knit ‘07 Spring/Summer magazine. The picture of the knitted apron is adorable in my eyes. I like to dress in layers- tissue tees under tops, fleece jacket on top of that…So the knit apron appeals to my fashion sense. I started knitting it last week, and think that it’ll take some time to complete. I substituted a mohair yarn for the cotton yarn used in the pattern. I like the texture that the mohair yarn will give to the apron. Here are pics of a test swatch using the mohair yarn and a back view of the apron. I don’t have a good image of the front but you can imagine how the front of an apron looks.

Until next time, keep on knitting!

Since I have finished the hat for our first knit-along ahead of my nieces, I decided to knit something while waiting to start our second knit-along. I looked through my binder of knitting patterns for a quick and easy knit, and came across the Barbie car coat. It took me a few nights to knit and to assemble. The finishing touches haven’t been done yet; Front pockets, buttons/loops, and crocheted trimmings need to be added. But I wanted to share in my post how well the car coat turned out. I took care to match the color stripes for the front and sleeves. If it wasn’t for this yarn, there would not have been a need to worry about matching stripes. But it was not by choice to select this colorful yarn. The yarn when knitted matched the gauge for the pattern perfectly, without having to purchase new yarn. I have yarn to last me for a lifetime of knitting, and do not need any more. Besides, I think the colorful stripes gives a zing to the car coat, right? 

The past week has gone by quickly. I usually post on Sundays to give myself the prior week to knit. Knit and knit, I have been. I was almost finished with knitting the rectangular piece measuring 21 cm x 68 cm last Sunday. So I held off posting last Sunday because I thought to have the hat finished by today. Afraid it was not to be. But I have finished knitting the rectangular piece, and would you believe, had a little trouble with the measurement. It should be easy to knit the 21 cm x 68 cm rectangular piece, but when I spot checked the length, it was 69 or 70 cm. I had to frog or undo rows to 68 cm. At one point I frogged too many rows, and had to re-knit rows. In the end, the rectangular piece measures 69 cm. I think this should work with the hat pattern. The first time I knitted this hat, the rect piece measured 68 cm, and IMHO, the hat would look better if it was just a little bigger. So I’ll work with 69 cm and hopefully, the hat will turn out okay.

And four days later, I have completed the hat! The result is not as good as the first hat knitted for my niece…but we should not compare in regards to any matter, right?

As this is a virtual knit-along, we should have a dialogue flowing while we knit, or rather while we read this blog! To start off, I’m a fan of French cinema and yesterday saw ‘La Vie En Rose’, a biopic about Edith Piaf. Marion Cotillard won the Oscar for Best Actress for her role as Edith Piaf. You know what? Edith Piaf was a knitter in her spare time. For her first stage performance, Ms. Piaf knitted a galvanized sweater which was missing a sleeve! She couldn’t finish the sleeve in time for her performance, and wore a scarf around her shoulders as a coverup. Later in her life, Edith Piaf developed arthritic hands which hindered her knitting.

Besides knitting in my spare time, I also like to read. I’m reading Carly Fiorina’s memoir, Tough Choices. I’m halfway through the book, and just amazed at her accomplishments. I had seen her when she was a guest on The Charlie Rose Show and was impressed with her. I like to observe how CEOs handle themselves in answering or evading questions. And she was good. In her book, she is candid about herself such as her fears when she first started in the business, and her experiences in overcoming sexism.

I’ll continue to look for our next knit-along project…My niece-ys, keep on knitting!