I'm back!

It's been a while since I blogged last but I'm feeling in the mood to start it up again! How are you? It's been busy around here. It's the summer holidays and my mum came to visit me for 2 weeks. We had a fantastic time in Jakarta, doing some touristy things such as going to the Jakarta National Museum and Taman Safari Park. We had a wonderful time in Bali also and visited an Elephant Safari Park. My mum's favourite animals are elephants so this really made her trip. We rode an elephant and got to feed them too. All the elephants have been rescued and according to our mahout (who was from Sumatra and witnessed how elephants are used for logging etc) the elephants are much happier here and far better cared for than in their previous homes.

After she had gone I had a week at home to do nothing but knit, spin and a little crochet (more on that later though...). This was followed by a relaxing and revitalising week in Bali with my husband. After I got back from Bali I completed a 2 day chocolatier course! I can't tell you how fantastic this was. It was extremely tiring as I learnt so many new things and worked hard to make the chocolates but it was an experience I'm unlikely to forget! Hopefully you don't mind me not going into too much detail...we'd be here for a while if I did!

WIPS:
My main project is my second Custom Fit cardigan. The yarn is from Life in the Long Grass in the colour way Splash in their gorgeous silk/merino blend.  You should absolutely check out their colour ways! So far I've completed the back and the sleeves. I'm about 1/3 - 1/2 way through the cardigan fronts and knitting these 2 at a time.

My next WIP is a sock yarn scrap blanket! Never before have I felt the urge to knit one of these things. My view was that they'd take waaay too long and be a great deal of hassle. However I've been seeing a few on the podcasts I watch and felt inspired. Blankets made of squares just weren't doing it for me though so I cast on the Beryl Blanket. These little hexagons are a bunch of fun to knit although somewhat fiddly. I'm not going to list all of the yarns I've used unless you're really interested.

FOs:

Since the Never Ending Cardigan I'm not sure I've actually finished any knitting...I took a break from it for a while as I wasn't feeling the love but the holidays have given me the boost I needed to pick my needles up again. Spinning took a hit for a while too but during the TdF I was determined to get a longstanding WIP finished.

This project was started in February of last year...it wasn't the easiest of spins which is probably why it hibernated for a while. With some determination (that lead to sore hands) I finished spinning and plied it up before my husband and I went to Bali. I got about 499 metres of a 2 ply. It's stunning and I'm very much looking forward to knitting it up! The fibre was from Ixchel Bunny and is the Magic Bunny Top. It's a blend of 60% merino, 25% firestar, 10% cashmere and 5% angora. It's not the softest yarn ever, which I attribute to the firestar, but it's fine for next to skin wear.

As I mentioned above I've been teaching myself to crochet. My efforts have not culminated in a great deal yet so I won't post pictures yet. My brother and his partner are expecting a baby this month and I've started crocheting them the Classic Baby Blanket. I'm using some King Cole Merino Blend in the Kingfisher colourway. So far it seems to be coming out OK but I'm not holding my breath!

I hope you've had a good few months and will check in here. I love to read any comments you have to share so if you have anything to say, please do!

 

Goodbye 2014

Well December has been a very busy month indeed! I apologise sincerely for my lack of content. I haven't really been up to much knitting or spinning this month due to work, a quick trip to Bali to see some friends and then family staying with us for a few weeks.

Bali was delightful and I'm really looking forward to going back at Easter to meet another friend. I took no pictures as the trip was really about relaxing, pampering and spending time with good people. I stayed in Kuta and didn't do much else but shop, eat good food and relax. My lovely friend also treated me to a spa! What we didn't realise at the time was that we had chosen a couples massage! It involved a relaxing massage and scrub with oils and other lovely stuff, an outdoor shower in the glorious weather (which was amazing!) and then a rose petal bath! Being terribly British we were both a little awkward about it at first but after a while we accepted, and then embraced, the humour in the situation!

Christmas has been great and I've enjoyed having my MIL and step daughter staying with us. The weather has been quite good and has rained less than we expected. Much time has been spent in, and by, the swimming pool or at a nearby water park! Christmas Day itself was quiet, we had a roast chicken dinner, chatted with family on Skype and played some card games. What have you been doing this festive season? If you celebrated Christmas, how did you do it?

I did also receive some wonderful news that my older brother and his partner are having their first baby! I'm so excited for them and need to cast on some knitting!

Here is a very disappointing update on my December resolutions: 

1. Complete the right front of my cardigan - I have not picked this up at all this month!
2. Continue spinning on 3 main spinning WIPs - I have spun on one of my WIPs but have done very little.
3. Complete the Seafoam Shawlette to Shrug - I have done a few more rows but really not enjoying it.
4. Complete the Rivoli shawl - I am nearly finished with it!
5. Turn the heel of my sock - I have not picked this up at all this month either! 

Happy new year everybody! I hope 2015 is wonderful and that you get out of it what you want.

 

Gluttons for Punishment!

At the moment we're in a bit of a jumble. We've moved....! Yes...again! Within four months of getting into our apartment! Call us crazy if you like, but we just weren't happy with the apartment we were in so we're now in a house on the same estate. A detached bungalow to be precise - but with the addition of our own garden! 

For the last goodness knows how many years we've wanted to be have a garden but it's not been possible for one reason or another. This move though, we said from the start that we'd spend a bit more on our home to make it right for us. And that's what we've done. We're slowly getting all our furniture in place and having the opportunity to buy beautiful, handmade, unique furniture is great! 

 The garden is beautiful and once we've got chairs out there I think it will be the perfect place to sit and have breakfast of a morning and a barbeques in the evening. Along with the garden we have a lovely room at the back of the bungalow that is the length of the house and about 7 feet wide. I suppose you  might call it a conservatory but the three outer walls do not have glass covering the windows, but mesh. This room will be the last to get sorted though as we still need to buy a plethora of furniture to store all our belongings in. Our plans change frequently but I think we're going to divide it into two distinct areas separated by a beautiful wooden partition - one with a dining table and chairs; the other with some floor cushions and a coffee table. 
Being smaller it's feeling an awful lot more like home as we don't have vast expanses of empty space with nothing to fill it. Needless to say I'm looking forward to it being finished!

In other news our shipping has arrived (mostly unscathed) and has been unpacked. Sort of. We don't yet have enough furniture to put it all away but it will get sorted eventually. My yarn and fiber has of course been released from it's vacuum pack bag and is now sitting getting a bit of air! I need to go through it and make some plans to use it now I have it! 

I have been knitting and spinning and will be back shortly with an update for you now I have somewhere lovely to take photos. However, I need to get my stuff together before that happens! 

 
I'm going to have a go at posting (almost) every day of November for NaBloPoMo and I'd love some suggestions as to what you all want to hear about!

A Little Adventure

Right now I am feeling very accomplished indeed. My husband and I have had our car for a while now, got our driving license a few weeks ago and have talked about taking the car out ourselves. It's half term at the moment so what better time was there to have a go?!

Having watched my driver a little bit I felt OK about braving the roads where we live. First though, we (my husband and I) took the car around the estate a few times just so I could get the feel for the car and remind myself how to drive again. It's been nearly two years since I drove so I was a little nervous, but soon all the muscle memory came flooding back and I felt confident about driving the car....the roads were another matter though and I felt quite anxious about those!

The one thing that really helped was knowing that you sit in traffic for a great deal of time, meaning things happen quite slowly. Having never driven in Asia I wasn't as aggressive as perhaps I needed to be, but I'm sure as I drive more here I'll learn what's necessary to do. 

My biggest concern was the motorbikes. They come round you from all angles and if you leave a big enough gap between you and the car in front then they grab that chance to overtake you. It's incredibly important to have quick instincts here and close gaps when you can so you don't get stuck! Not only do you have to contend with motorbikes and other cars, there are the pedestrians and food carts to be aware of also. There are no crossing points around here on the smaller roads so to cross the road you have to get to the middle of the road when you get a chance and then the rest of the way. Normally raising your hand will stop cars but the locals often just start to cross, expecting you to stop. As you can imagine it makes for a tiring drive! 

However, after contending with all of the above we made it to our destination, a local shopping mall. Admittedly we missed 3 entrances to the mall carpark (this didn't matter as it's enormous and spread out on both sides of the road) and also ended up with me having a mild panic as I'd missed the U-turn lane and had to just do it anyway...luckily the oncoming traffic was stopped at this point but it was not one of my finer driving moments!

After a wonder around the mall and some lovely Indonesian food in the food court (Gado-Gado lontong; vegetables, prawn crackers and tofu in peanut sauce (totally amazing, aside from the tofu!!!), goat sate, goat nasi goreng and sweetcorn fritters) we decided it was time to head back home.

The way back was far more challenging! We didn't go the same way back and this wasn't a problem...until we got around the back streets of our estate. Most of the drivers here prefer to go out the back and not the front of the estate, as it avoids traffic and going over the nearby train tracks. The back street, however, is full of twists, turns and littered with dozens of speed bumps! Now, I have no problem with speed bumps but these are high and short, rather than low and long. Going over these smoothly was for some reason exceptionally difficult, even very slowly. My poor husband did really not enjoy this experience and nor, I expect, did the car behind me. It was by far the worst, and most stressful, part of the journey and I'd probably rather sit in the traffic! 

Anyway, I'm really glad that I did it and will definitely drive here again, perhaps not too far just yet though!  

 

Life in Jakarta so far...

The main road into Country Woods estate

My goodness, a month has just flown by! We are continuing to settle in well here and life in Jakarta is good. I'm especially excited about having Bahasa lessons and am making much more of an effort to learn some local language than I ever did in 3 years of living in China. Having an Indonesian driver should help too but I'm not promising anything!

I'm getting very used to having a swimming pool in our compound and trying to use it a few times a week in a bid to improve my dwindling fitness. However this didn't go according to plan last week as my legs were attacked by many (or possibly one very hungry) mosquitoes and I didn't want the chlorine to irritate them further. 

The view from our balcony

Last weekend I was very lucky to be able to meet up and knit with a fellow knitter and her husband while they visited from Bali. Being away from other knitters is one downside to life abroad but it makes meeting up with knitters all the more special. It was lovely to compare yarn, patterns and experiences and I hope to stay in touch with them. 

Talking of knitting I couldn't let the gorgeous yarn for my cardigan sit in it's skein any longer. I've wound about half of it but it's enough to keep me knitting on my cardigan for a little while. The second sleeve is finished and I can now start the fronts. Also in a bid to motivate me to get back into knitting I've ordered some yarn from Juno Fiber Arts in the Alice base. There is no guarantee that it will reach me but I have my fingers crossed!

Trees line the roads

 
















Our flat is looking more homely with the addition of a new sofa of our choosing. Our shipment is due to arrive at the end of October and we're really looking forward to being able to personalise the apartment even more so.

The playing field

That's it for now but do stay tuned for more posts about life in Indonesia. 

Settling In

I think it's fair to say that I'd completely forgotten how hard it is to start a new job. It's all going well but at the moment I'm still learning my daily routine, finding my way around the enormous school campus and trying to set up my classroom to my liking. I'm also bringing work home most evenings and the thought of knitting or spinning hasn't really crossed my mind until this weekend when I finally had a day to myself! I only knitted a few rows but it's knitting so I'm happy with that!!

Once I settle fully I'm sure I'll be up to a bit more! It doesn't help that to continue knitting my cardigan I have a 150g skein of fingering weight to wind....by hand! Yuck! Looking back I'm puzzled as to why I didn't wind the ball before I shipped my ball winder!?!? Why did I ever think I would get round to doing it by hand!? Crazy talk!!

From the moment we landed up until Friday 15th it was pretty manic. Lots of people to meet, meetings to go to, planning to do and so on. That weekend itself was a little quieter with a trip into central Jakarta to have a look at the biggest shopping centre in Indonesia. We came back with a bargain TV but started to see how bad the traffic is! This weekend I had to wait in for a sofa, hence some knitting time, but the rest was spent marking or planning. Not very exciting!

Jakarta has been great so far and just the change my husband and I needed from China. The compound we live in is fantastic and I'm trying to get into regular swimming in one of the two lovely pools we are so lucky to have access to. Some of the facilities I won't use but having the option and space to is great. The greenery that surrounds is fantastic too. Seeing butterflies, dragonflies and birds flitting around is still so novel to me and brings me such contentment.  

I'm not sure when I'll be able to blog next and I hope that you will be patient and keep coming back to hear about my adventures here in Indonesia!

New Beginnings

So I'm currently sat in the hotel room having already packed (well...my husband has packed for us both!) for our 4am departure. Our flight leaves in about 12 hours and I'm feeling a little reflective.

China was a great way to start our adventure 3 years ago and I'm thrilled that it will be continuing in Indonesia. Leaving the UK 3 years ago was very difficult. The run up to it was very strange, hectic and somewhat surreal. I hadn't given the job or the move a great deal of thought right up until we left - this may sound strange as it was a monumental move but I was so busy with finishing off the teaching term that I didn't have the time or the energy to really process what I was about to embark on.

As I said goodbye to colleagues and various friends I didn't cry as I thought I would do because it still hadn't hit me that our life was going to be completely different. Saying goodbye to my parents at the airport made it much more real though; walking away from them (my mum and I both crying) was when it finally sunk in. I was moving a long way away from everything I had ever known; I had a one way ticket to a country and a continent that I'd never set foot in; I had no idea when I'd see my friends and family again. It was one of the scariest and hardest things I've ever done. It was hands down the best decision I've ever made.

Now I'm on the edge of another move. Leaving China was sad and soon I'll have to figure out my new workplace, begin to learn the language (I have the numbers 0-5 down!), work out where is good to eat/shop/get my hair done and start making friends again. Has it hit me yet? Sort of...but it's not a complete unknown anymore so perhaps it's going to be easier this time? One thing I can tell you is that right now I'm really excited about it and ready for a new adventure! 

No doubt I'll keep you posted!
 

Singapore Botanical Gardens

As I said it would be last week knitting and spinning is rather thin on the ground this week. I've done a few sets of increases on my cardigan sleeves but that's about it. 

Today though I wanted to show you pictures of the Botanical Gardens. Yesterday my husband and I went for a walk but due to him having hay fever and no antihistamines with us we cut the trip short. Needless to say he wasn't feeling like going back today so I went by myself this afternoon. 

If you're ever in Singapore and you like looking round gardens and seeing lots of amazing flora and fauna then you absolutely must go! The grounds are huge though, so be prepared to either spend a whole day there or to go back over a few days. It's free aside from the Orchid Garden which was only 5S$ - a bargain if you ask me!

There are several different routes you can take and some of them are themed, e.g the rainforest or evolution walks. Areas such as Swan Lake and the Sundial Garden are interspersed throughout the paths and provide something different in each one.

Monitor lizards, birds, butterflies, moths, dragonflies and many other animals can be seen on the various walks although you will need to pay attention as some of them stay hidden amongst the trees and bushes. 

Flower fanatics will be swept away by the grounds as well as the Orchid Garden where there are over 1000 species of orchids to be seen! Inside the Orchid Garden is the Cool House which mimics a tropical highland cloud forest and is home to pitcher plants and other cool climate plants. It provides a welcome break from the heat too so is worth exploring. 

There isn't much more to say about it, but I hope you enjoy the pictures that I took and that they give you some idea of how wonderful a place it is.  

FO Friday #5

For the Tour de Fleece one of my goals was to finish spinning and plying my Fondant Fibre punis. On Monday I finished plying the last of them so that's this week's FO! 

I love the colour of the yarn and have been hankering after some green for a while. The punis were quite easy to spin although I found the tighter ones quite difficult to draft smoothly. However, while I love the finished yarn I am disappointed with the yardage as there's only about 295y for the 100g of light fingering weight yarn. Before I counted the yardage I was hoping to knit a shawl with it but I don't think that's realistic anymore unless I were to pair it with another colour, which means buying more yarn. If you have any suggestions for what I could knit please leave a comment below!

In other news we are in Singapore now! Our plans are quite loose at the moment although we will definitely be going to the zoo at some point which I'm really looking forward to. I'm also hoping to get to the botanical gardens too! Hopefully I'll be back here with some lovely photos however spinning and knitting might be a bit thin on the ground!

On Our Way

So we've left China. The last week involved the shipping company packing all our belongings up...including the vast majority of my stash, packing our suitcases for 6 weeks away - not an easy feat I can assure you, and saying goodbye to the great friends we made. It was strange leaving our home of 3 years but exciting all the same. 

Now though, we're in Thailand. Having spent about 10 days in Bangkok we decided it was time to head somewhere a little quieter and preferably near a beach. We got a train from Bangkok to Surat Thani and then a boat to Koh Samui. The train journey itself was fine as we went first class so had our own little cabin, that was followed by lots of waiting around for a mini bus to take us to the ferry port and then a little more waiting before we could board the ferry. 

On arrival at our bungalow, aptly named Blissful Tropical Beach House, after many hours of travel we were delighted by the view and the house itself. Lying in bed we have a sea and mountain view which is wonderful after being in the city! We're staying at Bang Po, which is a quiet area of Koh Samui and perhaps not to everyone's liking. For us though it's perfect. This is the view from our bungalow:

We've rented a motorbike for the week to give us the opportunity to do some exploring of the island. It's wonderfully green and, of course, the sea is a brilliant blue, lined with golden, powder soft sand in most places. 

My days have been quite blissful and I feel very lucky right now. I sit on the porch to eat breakfast and read my book (The Night Circus, which I highly recommend), then we go for a ride and explore and perhaps eat out. One particular restaurant made me rather happy simply because of its name: Octopus Willys. The food there was delicious though. Look at these mussels with garlic butter and breadcrumbs:

Of course there is knitting and spinning but I think I've rambled on enough for now and will save that for another day! What are you doing for your holiday? I'd love for you to share!

Two Weeks Left!

It's been far too long since I've posted - things have been hectic the last few weeks. The amount of socialising we have done is crazy! We leave China in two weeks and I have one week left at work. It's come around so incredibly quickly and I expect the next week to fly by even quicker than the previous weeks have! 

We have no definite plans for the holiday but we will head to Thailand and be there for four weeks. Then hopefully we'll have a week in Singapore before heading back to Bangkok to head to Jakarta on the 9th August. I'm really excited about our new adventure and hope that the blog will have more travel posts than I've been able to write this year. Our aim in Indonesia is to travel there as much as we can - we'll have a car so this will help greatly. 

I have enjoyed my time in China and it's been an incredibly valuable experience for us both. Leaving will be difficult as we've made some very good friends here and met some wonderful people. It is time to move on though and to begin a new adventure! 

As for knitting - I have an FO! It took a while but I have finished the Trillian I have knitted for a friend. I didn't massively enjoy the pattern as I found it quite boring but I like the FO and hope that my friend does too. The yarn (Juno Fibre Arts Milly Standard) was lovely to knit with however, I much prefer non superwash wools. The colour is gorgeous and the different tones make for a very interesting knitted object. 

Trillian in Juno Fibre Arts Milly Standard - Grape colourway

That's it from me for now. I hope to be back soon with more knitting and spinning. 

Realisation

Mango Dumpling

As I write this I am sat in Starbucks, drinking hot chocolate - it's grey outside so thankfully I'm not missing a great deal. It's report writing season and this time I've decided that instead of sitting at home, surrounded by things I'd rather be doing, I'd try and get my reports written here. So far it's going well, although considering I'm blogging that may seem ironic to you. After a couple of hours I've decided I need a break from them. Also I've had too much sugar - in the form of a hot chocolate, bread and butter pudding and a mango dumpling - for it to be worth continuing for the time being. 

It's finally dawned on me that, in two months, we will be leaving the home we have made here in Suzhou. Seeing as I've had the job since December you may think I'm a little slow on the uptake, but there is simply so much going on at work that most of my focus has been there. I'm also realising now that this move will probably be harder than leaving the UK was. We've made some great friends here, seen some of them leave already, and now will be leaving some behind ourselves. Lots of little 'lasts' have already come and gone, last parent consultation, last class assembly, last winter for a while etc....and each 'last' from hereon in will be that little bit harder. Don't get me wrong though, I'm really excited to explore somewhere new and to start my new job, but the next couple of months are going to be a little emotional to say the least. 

On a more happy note I did finish spinning and plying a third of my Fondant Fibres custom dyed punis. I've done a two ply and really like the way it's come out. The colours have blended to create this gorgeous green but still have pops of blue and yellow running through it. I think this will knit up beautifully. The last two thirds of the punis have been divided equally and will be spun and plied soon.  

That's it from me this week. I hope you all enjoy the weekend!