September, October & November

It's been almost 3 months since my last post. Nothing much is going on in my life. It's pretty boring. I'm beginning to question the meaning of life. I'm hoping something shiny catches my eyes soon...

I've kept up the stellar performance of injuring another body part. My left arm/shoulder. One day I bought a sleeveless dress and I told hubs it made my arms look flabby. He suggested I do my exercises using weights. I may have been too enthusiastic because at the end of the day I realised I had seriously hurt something. For a while I had trouble putting on my clothes and reaching for the toilet paper which happens to be on the left. But over time it slowly healed. Right now, my left arm still has some limitation in movement but it's not as bad as before. I saw a gp who said I have tendinitis and it will heal on its own but it'll take a few months. I have an appointment to see a physiotherapist soon. Hopefully I get assigned someone who knows how to fix my problem. Weirdly, my arms grew less flabby the last few months.

So, you know the thing on my face below my eye? The skin imperfection thingy. I managed to make it worse. I maaay have tried another skincare product and now the thing has become 3 things. One day I went out to look for more products to try and in one skincare shop, after seeing my 3 thingy, the sales person literally shoved me out of the shop saying, we have nothing here that can fix that. You should see a doctor. I tried again in another shop and the same thing happened. Finally I had a gp take a look at the 3 thingies and she too was perplexed. She said I had better go see a skin specialist. So now I'm on the waiting list. It'll probably be a few more months before I get to see one. Meanwhile, I think I'm not going to worry about it anymore. And I promise to leave it alone.

One day I told hubs I'd been experiencing pain in my right ribs below my right boob. Hubs googled and said maybe it's my liver. The pain was persistent and I started to imagine maybe I have a tumour and I wasn't ready to lose a liver yet. So I went to the polyclinic. After a 3 hour wait, I saw a nice doctor who listened to my craziness. Well, after poking me here and there, he said he believed I was suffering from gastric. He was very sure of himself. He said gastric is an issue with people who do not have gall bladder - like moi. So I trusted him and took the medication he prescribed for 2 weeks. The pain disappeared. I became careless and ate evil food again - beef tacos. It was ONE beef taco. I don't even like beef tacos. It's $3. That's why hubs bought them. And just like that the pain came back. I'm so sick of my lousy stomach and incapable digestive system. It's been decades of issues after issues. Meanwhile, it's back to oatmeal, bread, boiled eggs and veges.

In Singapore, wearing masks is still mandatory outside our home. It looks like it will continue to be mandatory for many more months or even a year more. It's bad news for me because I have developed mask-itch. My skin becomes super itchy whenever I have a mask on. Once the itch gets triggered, I itch even when I don't have my mask on.

This soothing cream is literally keeping me sane. If I don't have this cream, I'll never be able to go out.

I've stopped knitting because of my left arm and then the itch. I'm dying to knit again but I think it's better to wait till next year when my skin gets better. I don't know if other people feel the same way. I keep thinking 2021 will be better. But chances are it's going to be same-same in the first few months of 2021. 

Recently, it was announced that 2021's Chinese New Year bazaar at Chinatown is cancelled. I'm thinking Chinese New Year should be cancelled as well. I can't imagine what's going to happen if we get another wave. On Thursday, it was made public that a man who tested positive for covid-19 had dinner with 12 family members 2 days earlier in a restaurant! His case broke our 16 day zero locally transmitted case streak. Since we have a 5 persons rule per table for dining out and no mingling between tables, the man's family broke the no mingling rule. This is a typical selfish behaviour by humans who don't give a shit about others. The guy who tested positive works in a high risk environment yet his attitude is reckless. I'll bet the whole of Singapore is scolding him. Last night, there was another community case. It seems the person was previously infected but did not know about it. She was picked up due to the govt's surveillance of stallholders at selected markets. Now this is scary. The virus has been circulating in the community but no one got sick enough to see a doctor. Which means that our previous 16 day zero locally transmitted case streak was a false indicator. The committee in charge of covid-19 in Singapore's going to have nightmares in February during the Chinese New Year period.  

I sewed a dress and a pair of Mary Janes for Carlos. I like the idea of sewing little things for dolls but the actual sewing can be frustrating. I wish I could do more for my growing doll family. But I lack patience.

I wrote a new pattern - Easy Hand Sanitizer Holder. I don't know if it's something people would need but I wrote it anyway. It's for beginners!

There's a 30% discount off all bag patterns in my Etsy shop. Ends 3rd December. 

See you next month. 

July & August

I'm so happy it's September because the past two months haven't been good. 

Firstly, my right heel suddenly stopped working. Like one day I couldn't even step on my right foot. Due to COVID-19, I've not gone running at all because you can't wear masks when running and I don't want to take any chances as the running area I go to is packed with humans. One day I got sick of my ever growing tummy and I decided to go for a long walk at the canal. Since I'm only walking, it's fine to wear masks. At first I walked a short distance of around 3 to 4km. Then I got fitter and the distance increased to 8km. My son got interested and joined me on the walks. We walked every day. I guess I walked too much because my right heel hurt so bad I couldn't walk anymore. Hubs said he had a similar injury before and he recovered from it so I felt less anxious. I checked out some youtube videos and religiously followed some heel exercises and massages. After a couple of weeks, my heel did get better. Now I'm all good but I'm cautiously taking it slow and have not gone back to long walks. 

Secondly, I had a fermentation incident. I used to do quite a bit of fermentation to make bread a few years ago - water kefir, milk kefir, raisins, grapes, oranges. Then I gave it up because it was tiring. Anyway, recently I wanted to bake bread using raisins fermented water but for some reason, after a week of fermenting, there was no activity. So I tried again this time using grapes. The thing about fermenting with fruits is you need to degas the bottle at least twice a day. I do it 4 times a day to be safe. So it was the 3rd day of fermentation and I was supposed to degas in the morning. There was hardly any activity in the water the day before so I wasn't concerned. Unfortunately I missed the window to go to the kitchen. My son was sitting for an online exam and during the exam, he couldn't have anyone walk behind him. So I stayed in my room until noon when my son came to tell me his exam was over. I immediately went to the kitchen to degas the bottle. Hubs followed me, I think to go to the kitchen toilet and I was talking to him while taking the bottle to the kitchen sink to degas. As I touched the bottle cap, there was a loud explosion and the cap flew out, hit my hand and disappeared into thin air. It was so scary. My son ran into the kitchen to ask what had happened. I was so stunned. Then I realised my hand hurt like shit. There were 2 bruises where the bottle cap had hit. Hubs said if I had pointed the bottle at him, it could have hit him instead. Honestly, I would never point a fermenting bottle at anyone. Anyway, the explosion scared the shit out of me and I guess I'll never ferment any more fruits. By the way, the bottle did not even crack. And we never found the bottle cap. Luckily the bruise was minor and my hand still works!

Thirdly, as you know, it's been mandatory to wear masks in Singapore since April. I've noticed that the area where the mask touches the face can get quite irritable. Anyway, I noticed that I have something on my face below my eye bags that could be a clogged pore or let's just call it a skin imperfection. Because the masks touches it, I get a bit bothered by it and I wanted to get rid of it.

Last Saturday, I used my daughter's pimple cream. I had used it once or twice before but I only used a tiny bit each time. Unfortunately I squeezed too much out, like maybe a 5 cent coin's worth and instead of wiping the excess off, I casually smeared it on my face just below the imperfection. Then I went about my day. For some reason I decided to tidy my fabric stash. I was also babying my sourdough as I was baking two loaves of bread. Anyway, when I touch fabric, it's normal for me to feel itchy. So I ignored the itchy sensation on my face all day as I was touching fabric and flour throughout. Finally in the late evening, I had finished with my dough and I went to wash my face to get rid of the itch. To my horror, I realised that something terrible had gone wrong. Below my left eye, on my face, there was a big triangle of deep angry red. OMG, my skin had become burned. Burned! Hubs and my daughter had just come home and he said it'll go away but I didn't believe him. Also, my skin felt raw, itchy and burned. Burned! Another worrying thing was I could feel my left eye was weird because the redness was quite close to my eye. I felt so upset and anxious I honestly don't know how I managed to sleep. Anyway, I set my alarm clock because the first thing in the morning I was running to my GP. It being Sunday, the GP was only open in the morning. Thank goodness the doctor I like was on duty. He listened to my sad story without laughing and prescribed me 6 different medication and 1 cream. He said the red mark won't be permanent so I felt relieved. After staring at my face a million times, finally on Thursday, the red mark faded. There's still a teeny tiny shadow but I'm sure it'll fade over time. Anyway, my face is already naturally reddish so I think no one will notice. I guess I'm never applying pimple cream on my face ever again. 

What else could go wrong huh? Well, all the medication I took gave me a bad tummy so that's a whole other problem.

I hope September will be good to me. I think I need to make better decisions. Seriously.

So what have I made in between my sufferings? 

I knitted Kate to keep Kate's kitten company.

I finished my Arne and Carlos doll. It's a boy doll. I'm still unsure about the hair so I'll work on it some more. I love the technique used to knit this doll but I don't love the giant feet and wobbly head. It's hard to dress the doll! The pattern is from Arne & Carlos Greatest Knits.

Last year I spent quite a bit of time on projects to use up my fabric scraps. It didn't decrease my fabric scraps by much but I did end up with a few art quilts which I was rather pleased with. This year I wanted to continue with this project but somehow I wasn't inspired. I'm blaming COVID-19. It sucks all my energy there's none left for creative projects. Recently I remembered I had foolishly painted some calico which had yellowed. So I was staring at the blue calico and all I could think of was sky. What's in the sky? Sun. What else? Birds. Birds fly in the sky towards sun. Then I felt the quilt was too bare and I wanted to channel my applique hero Janet Bolton using her giant leaves in the sky. But at the last minute, I flipped the leaf and it became a balloon. Yup, my ideas for my quilts are usually very simple. I'm naming this quilt: Sky, Sun, Bird, Balloon. For the backing I used my mother's never ending batik. The binding is also a fabric I want to get rid of. 

Lastly, the Twin Clutch is new in my shop. And there's a 30% discount off all bag patterns until 8th Sep. 

Sweet Sourdough

Lately I've been happier than normal. The reason? My bread baking has improved. Since I started baking bread, I've had one dream. To be able to bake a Pullman loaf of non-sour sourdough consistently. I do believe I've finally nailed it.

Last year I pretty much stopped baking bread because my bakes were sometimes ok, sometimes inedible. Yup, inedible. After all these years, I should have improved, right? I totally neglected my sourdough starter which had been gifted to me (sorry CL) and one day I threw it away because something scary was living in it. I know people say it's possible to resurrect but no thanks. Not going to touch anything that has black spores. I thought I had a backup in the freezer but someone (could be me) must have thrown it away. So I had to start from scratch. Except my new starter would not double. It would increase just a tiny bit and that was it. I googled here and there and finally I threw in some wholegrain flour. Believe it or not, that was all it took to make the starter double. I've since maintained this starter religiously. It's considered a young starter as it's under 1 year old. Her name is Susan. 

Anyway, with the help from a good friend of mine, I started baking sourdough bread again. I managed a few successful bakes and that gave me confidence to bake more and explore techniques and try new recipes. Currently I have a few go-to recipes and techniques which I know will give me a successful sweet sourdough Pullman loaf. I've listed the factors which I believe, (correct me if I'm wrong) are critical to my success. And remember, I live in Singapore which is mostly hot and humid.

1. The starter. It needs to be active. As in, after feeding, it should at least double in 4-5 hours in Singapore climate. I've never achieved triple before. At most, 2.75. Anyway, I'm good with double or 2.5. Also, the starter lives in the fridge when not in use, not on the table top. Another thing I've observed about my Susan is that if I use her after one feeding, I might not get a great bake. She works best after 2 feeding. One feeding the night before and one more in the morning. One day I hope to be able to get a fantastic bake after one feeding. 

2. Temperature. In the past, I would bake without thinking about the temperature. Like if the day is super hot, over 33 deg C, and I let my dough proof on the table, after baking, the bread will have this weird texture and taste. So now I either bake on a cooler day or proof in the fridge. This year, there were a number of weeks when the temperature was cooler like 26, 27, 28 deg C and I made sure to bake on those days. My bread turned out great despite proofing on the table all day long.

3. Sufficient bulk fermentation. Under fermenting was the biggest issue with my past failures. How long do you bulk ferment your dough? For me, I've learnt to rely on one method which is idiot proof. I know from experience how much dough goes into my Pullman tin. So I get the dough weight right. And I bake only when the dough reaches the top of the tin. That's my way of knowing the bulk fermentation is done. Usually it takes about 5 to 6 hours. If whole grains are in the mix, it'll definitely take a lot longer. As I haven't worked with whole grains much, it's still an area I'm exploring and learning. If I were baking buns, I use the poke test. I poke the side of the dough and if the dough bounces back quickly, it's too soon. This method is very subjective. But so far my buns have turned out well although a bit on the small side.  

4. Reliable recipes. Some recipes suck. Fact.

5. Sugar. This is the magic ingredient. Feeding sugar to your sourdough starter will take away the sour in your bread. Try Autumn Baking Diary's non sour sourdough bread recipe (15th June 2020). She uses this ratio - starter:flour:water:sugar 1:1:1:0.5 which work for me. (For some starter which continue to taste sour, she has an alternative ratio - 1:3:3:1 This ratio I've not tried.)

The result of adding sugar to starter is a loaf of soft and tasty bread without any sourness. The dough is a bit wet so in the beginning it's quite horrifying but let your mixer keep kneading until you hit windowpane stage and you'll get a shiny elastic dough. 

6. Milk and sugar. Yup, feed your starter milk and sugar. I stumbled upon a private fb group (you need to request to join) which uses "Herman starter" and it turned out to be a sweet sourdough starter. The flour fed to Herman is plain/all purpose flour. Herman is a surprisingly strong starter. It is more liquid than a regular 100% hydration sourdough starter. After feeding, it rises and falls, rises and falls, rises and falls. You can use it anytime after its show of power. The result is a loaf of soft and tasty bread without any sourness. There are lots of Herman starter recipe in the internet. If you're keen to try the ones I've used which are suitable for Singapore/Malaysia climate, join the fb group and you will be able to access the recipes. Or you could use Autumn Baking Diary's recipe and substitute the starter with Herman. It'll work. I've tried it. 

After so many years of chasing sweet sourdough, I've come to discover I enjoy the sour in sourdough. Yup, ironic. My next quest? Sour sourdough? Or the right amount of sour in sourdough?

May & June

So, we're no longer in semi-lockdown. We were "released" sometime in June. Dining in, retail, school, library, museum, etc were allowed in phases. Safe distancing and wearing of masks are still mandatory. There are also many restrictions pertaining to this and that and honestly, it's quite hard to keep track. Anyway, Covid-19 continues to be present in Singapore. The number of infections is in 3 digits, mostly from migrant workers living in dormitories. You would think that the number should be zero by now after all the effort by the government. But we're not there yet. Outside the dorms, the number of infections are low but again, not zero.

Singapore held a general election in July. No need to guess which party won. Yup, the People's Action Party which has ruled Singapore since forever. My son voted for the first time. My daughter couldn't because she's too young (by a few months). Voting went smoothly for us. At the polling station, we had to sanitize our hands and wear disposable gloves. Later we learnt that at some polling stations, the queues were long and the gloves became optional. Also polling hours were extended by 2 hours. 

What else happened? Oh yes, I was bitten by an Aedes mosquito and contracted dengue fever. It happened around early June, just as Singapore was leaving semi-lockdown. I was sick for 10 days. I had fever, rashes, pain and had to get my blood tested 5 times to check if I needed to be hospitalised. The doctor said there's no medicine for dengue fever. Only time and I suppose my own body's defense could heal it. I think I was lucky I never needed to be hospitalised. This year alone, 16 people have died from dengue fever. 2020 is also set to record the highest number of dengue infections in Singapore history. The infection took quite a bit of energy out of me. It took about a week before I completely bounced back. Sadly, I did not lose any weight during the 10 days of illness. In fact, I may have gained some. A short while after my recovery, a team of people from the Ministry of Aedes Mosquitoes (MAM) came to my home and asked if I wanted to have their team put oil drops to kill the mosquitoes. I saw that my neighbour had it done so I said ok. All four of us had to leave our flat and sit outside on the stairs, with masks on. Hubs and my son were both asleep and we had to drag them out. The sound made by the machine applying the oil drops was very noisy. The men using the machines were dressed in black and their masks were also black. So all in all, quite frightening. After that, we had to stay outside for a few minutes because I dunno, maybe the fumes could kill us. Later the men in black reappeared because they were fogging the whole block and so we had to run back into our flat to avoid being poisoned by the fogging. Anyway, we are all still alive so I guess the fumes only kill mosquitoes.

The dengue fever kinda put a stop to my knitting. The group photo shows what I knitted from April to May. The one legged doll above which I never managed to finish may also have contributed to my lack of interest in knitting. I discovered I really, really, really hate seaming in knitting. 

I sewed one blouse for my daughter to wear to work. Except she works from home so maybe she'll wear it when she needs to zoom. The pattern I used is Fancy Tiger Crafts Sailor Top. I made one for myself here and sadly my shoulders are wider now (not fatter) so I don't wear it anymore.

I'm afraid I haven't been vigilant about my weight the past few months. I used being stuck at home as an excuse to snack like crazy. Honestly, food was the best part of the day. It shouldn't be but it was/is. So I've gained a few kilos. Remember the Cleo skirt with side zipper I made that was too loose? It fits me like a glove now.

Here's a pair of pants I made in June using pre-Covid-19 measurements. It's super tight around the tummy area. I've kindly included a photo where you can see my BAH-BAH (meaty flesh). Hubs asked me if I made the pants for Halloween. I didn't. I wanted to make a muslin and Spotlight was selling this fabric very cheaply and that's why I bought it. When I cut into the fabric, it left lots of black dusk all over my table. Very disgusting. Maybe that's the reason for the cheap price.

Finally, for my birthday in June, hubs bought me a ping pong table. I was honestly quite irritated by the gift because it's clearly a gift for himself. Fortunately the 2 tables are foldable. Still, they take up room and currently when unused, they are placed leaning against the cabinets where I keep my beads. So every time I need my beads, I have to move the tables. We play ping pong at least once a week. The kids also became interested and started learning to play. 

Well, that about sums up my May and June. How's it going where you live? Mask, no mask? Weight gain? Anyone?

April

Since April 7, we've been in a semi lock-down. Since April 17, it's compulsory to wear masks in public. Since the last time I blogged, April 7th, the number of infections have shot from 1,375 and 6 deaths to 29,364 infections and 22 deaths as of 20th May. Most of the infections occurred among migrant workers who live in dormitories. Despite everything the government did, the number of infections from the workers who live in dorms keep on coming. Outside the dorms in the community, the number of infections has gone down to one digit. This means we're on track to exit our semi lock-down on June 1st.

However, the easing of measures will be done in 3 phases which really means life won't be back to normal on June 2nd. In fact retail and dine-in won't be allowed in phase 1 so to me, it's as good as stay home for another month. Students will be allowed to go back to school, some every day, some on alternate days. The parents must be so relieved. Two things that won't change for a long time - safe distancing and wearing of masks. I'm tired of it but I understand why it's necessary so I will cooperate and do the right thing not just for myself but for everyone.

Hubs will continue to work from home for maybe forever. I don't know. Once retail is open, I'm going to get a new table because I really need my cutting table for sewing. My son signed up for summer school which is conducted online. One of the modules require lab work so... My daughter has started her internship and of course it's work from home. In order words, life will be status quo for this family. #stayhomesg

Since April, I've been diligently improving my skills in knitting. (you can see what I knit in my Instagram) It's been my dream to knit toys and finally I did it. I'm quite surprised I'm able to do it because I tried for many years over the past few decades and always gave up.

I started with the blue cat and then I couldn't stop. The pattern for the tiny cat is from here.

This is Grace with all her possessions. The pattern for Grace is from here. The hat - I winged it. The clothes are cut by placing the fabric against the body and eyeballing it. The dress I made using a pattern I made for my Lammily doll.

The patterns for the bags are from My Knitted Doll book. If I were 10 years younger I would knit human size versions of these bags.

I love the hairband I made for Grace. The pattern is by Laura Nelkin. I will make another one for myself.

And I knitted a few tiny ones. Most patterns are from mochimochiland or from the books Adventures in Mochimochi land and Teeny Tiny Mochi Mochi. I think the yellow chick is from Spud And Chloe at the farm.

I have so many patterns in my desktop waiting to be knitted. But I have to pace myself because I'm not young anymore and I don't want to hurt my hands and wrists. I know I've got a lot more to learn. For one, my tension is horrible. I'm not consistent at all. And I can't seem to handle more than one yarn at a time.

Look what the cat dragged in. Here I was attempting a Christmas ball. The pattern is from here. I would love to do more complex fair isle knitting but oh boy, I can't hold the yarn. I've tried the different methods in youtube but nothing stuck.

And I made one blouse for my daughter. Originally it was meant for her to wear to work but since she's working from home, all she needs is t shirt and shorts! Would you believe this pattern is Shirt No 1 which I've made before for myself?

So, overall, we've managed to survive our semi lock-down quite well. We played mahjong once and the rest of the time, we do our own stuff. The major thing each day is meals. What a headache. For exercise, I've totally stopped running because it's dangerous to do it with the mask on and dangerous to not wear masks as you never know how the public may react. You know who's the scariest people on earth? Vigilante. Sometimes I exercise at home with youtube but I've managed to hurt parts of myself so I've been mostly sitting on my butt a lot. A lot. I've put on massive amount of fat mostly around my tummy. And probably my butt. Anyone else? I think I snack way too much but I can't stop. It's like, I want to stop but then I think, it's a pandemic. So why not?

March

Hi friends,

Wherever you are, your country must be facing some sort of shutdown in one form or another. Over in Singapore, we kinda had it easy from January to March. Our government did not order a shutdown and we pretty much carried on with our normal lives. Instead, our govt took many, many measures - in fact too many which kept changing that it was too hard to keep track. Well, sad to say it became clear to our leaders that a semi shutdown was needed as the number of infections kept going up. As of yesterday, we've had 1,375 infections and 6 deaths. A few clusters recently emerged in foreign workers dormitories and pres-schools. So I expect the numbers to explode in the next few weeks.

From today to 4th May, only essential services are open. Schools will go fully online from tomorrow. As for food, we can buy takeaway but no more dining in. We are asked to stay home but allowed to exercise in the park but not in groups and we have to adhere to safe distancing rules. We have a keep 1 metre apart rule in public. Take a look at this instagram account to see how it's applied - with tape and creativity.

The semi shutdown aka circuit breaker measures were announced last Friday at 4pm. So that gave everyone 3.75 days heads-up and of course locals ran to the supermarkets (even though supermarkets will remain open), bookstores and Ikea. In fact things got so bad, Ikea had to make a plea to people to stop going to their stores. Because of safe distancing rules, there is a limit to the number of people allowed in so there was a long queue outside the store. The public libraries also got flooded with people who were there to stock up before the month long closure. I too stocked up on my books but I went before the panic started and there was hardly anyone at the library.

For us, hubs has been working from home since March. My kids' universities too have already been functioning semi online. My cutting table became hub's office table. He also took one of my monitors. (I have 2) He sits 3 steps away from me and my pc. Next to him is my son's working area. My daughter's work area is the sofa where she has a small table. We spend most of our time in the living room. It can get quite noisy. The biggest challenge is hubs working from home because his working hours are from around 4pm to 1 or 2am. That's downtime for most people but for him that's when the day begins. Hubs the working person is quite different from hubs the person I'm married to. For one, hubs the office guy is quite inconsiderate. He turns on music rather loudly, watches all sorts of stuff (e.g. shoe reviews) loudly and farts up a storm. I had assumed that since he's "at work", he would adhere to office etiquette. I guess that's the privilege of working from home. Fart without restraint. Unfortunately, due to the position of his butt and where I sit, I get direct hit... And he eats non-stop. After his dinner, his mouth gets itchy and he eats some snacks. And then some more and more until his work ends. In fact, he never stops eating! I've always wondered why he smells of food when he returns home from work.

As for my kids, I've discovered that my son's idea of listening to his lecture is to log on and go back to sleep. I'm a bit concerned. My daughter makes the effort to wake up to listen to lectures. But listening to lectures make her go into a coma for the rest of the day. I think we're quite similar. If I watch a sewing video, I go into a deep sleep. I've discovered from listening to my daughter when she's on conference calls with her course mates that she has a scary serious voice. She also says stuff I've never heard come out of her mouth before like "It seems we have two trains of thoughts." It seems I have 2 daughters.

I hope we'll survive the next four weeks without anyone losing her mind (me). I've asked my family to exercise together once a day. I feel having some kind of routine especially one that burns energy will help us. My daughter says once a day is too much so maybe every other day. We'll see how it goes.

In March as expected, I couldn't sew much - too noisy and I've lost my cutting table to hubs. But I did complete 2 skirts for my daughter and I finally finished a lace scarf I started a couple of years ago.

This is the first skirt I made mostly to test the fit of the pattern on my daughter. She is a lot curvier around the hips so harder to fit. For the zipper, I used a centered zipper installation even though I dislike this method. I managed to do it without basting the seam because I find it horrible to remove the basting stitches. The skirt comes with two in seam pockets, a straight waistband and I used leftover fabric from my Cleo skirt. It is 21" long and sits on the waist.

And I completed the A line flare skirt with 2 pockets which my daughter likes.

I used a lapped zipper installation which I honestly find a lot easier than a centered zipper installation and the result is better. The zipper gets hidden.

When I was making the pattern, I forgot I was cutting on the fold and added seam allowances so I ended up having to add a little pleat to take care of the excess fabric. Actually I rather like the pleat and the next time I make a similar skirt I will add more allowances to make the pleat more visible.

The skirt is 25" long, has a straight waistband and 2 side pockets.

My daughter says she likes the skirt so I'm happy she's happy.

I finally finished this lace scarf (pattern by Eunny Jang) I started in September 2018. It took me so long to finish because it got so boring. When I started it, I was pretty new to lace knitting. Since then, I've completed a few lace shawls more complicated in design so it felt pointless. I was going to rip it out but then I couldn't because I had already completed so many rows. Finally I pushed myself to finish the edging on both ends but I couldn't understand what went wrong.

I have 47 stitches. To do the edging, I cast on 12 stitches. The edging pattern has 8 rows. For every odd no row, I "eat up" 1 body stitch which means I "eat up" a total of 4 stitches for every repeat. Here's the thing. After I've completed the edging, I end up with 3 stitches because 47 - 44 = 3. So what do I do with the 3 stitches? Remember I have the 12 cast on stitches? So I did nothing with the 3 stitches and did a bind off for 3 + 12 = 15 stitches. Wrong move. See the pic above. I get a weird pointy thing.

When I did the edging for the remaining end of the scarf, I thought why not add one more stitch to the 3 stitches so I could do one more repeat of the pattern. 3 + 1 = 4 and these 4 gets eaten up so I will end up with 12 stitches for binding off. Bad move. See pic above. I don't know what I got. Very disappointed indeed. I kept thinking I must have understood the pattern wrongly. But now I don't care anymore. I have moved on to other lace projects.