on-the-way home and more

Singapore is a small island. I work on the west end of the island and live in the east coast so, technically anywhere in the middle counts as being on the way home. It has been so, so warm the last few days that I have been having visions of floaty, lightweight, sleeveless tops. Forget about snakeskin and cowhide for the time being, I get all sweaty just sewing cotton. So, on the way home I went to Chinatown. Here's what I got.

I originally set my heart on a beautiful muted watercolour Italian floral fabric but quickly changed my mind when I was told it was S$80 a metre! I settled for the S$8 a metre knock-off instead. And a trip to Chinatown is never complete without dropping into the yarn shop, where I found an entire rack of old knitting magazines on sale. I had to get this old copy of crochet patterns because that cardi on the cover is so unusual. It is made out of 110 (no, I'm not kidding) pear-shaped motifs joined together.

A preview of my Kint Simple top on the bottom left corner of the photo. Yes, it is indeed the boring beige you see. Something funny happenned yesterday morning. I was knitting the body in the round until I got to the raglan sleeve decreases. I finished knitting the front half in the car and had to try it on immediately because the cicurlar needles were finally free of one side and it was possible for me to pull it on. My daughter is very lucky that she had got off the car by that time and that I didn't attempt this spectacle just as we were dropping her off at the school porch or something like that. We were at the traffic lights. My 5 year old son (he has inherited the joker genes from some ancestor) merely grinned and said, "knitting yourself huh?" but I saw my poor husband's eyes dart to the left and right to see if anyone else in the other cars was looking at his deranged wife struggling to pull that thing over her head, yarn ends trailing, while being obstructed by the seat belt (we Singaporeans are extremely law abiding), tugging, pulling and patting and peering at herself in the tiny passenger mirror - the one that I think is for you to put on your make-up or check if you've got veggie stuck to your teeth. But I have to give the gallant husband due credit - he didn't say a word about the impropriety of it all, and even tried his best to carry on a conversation with me about I-forget-what. So tell me, where is the oddest place you have tried on your half done knitting?

Siow Chin, the noisy little people in the house have gone to bed and I am relaxing with my knitting, a cup of jasmine tea (inspired by Maryann) and my favourite roasted chestnuts that I picked up at Chinatown. Over here, chestnuts are roasted with coffee beans and sugar (I think) and they are just yummy. And since no one else in the family likes them, I get to eat them all by myself. That cute tray, by the way, is a souvenir from our trip to Paris a few years ago.

Pattern: FiberTrends' Raindrop Lace

Yarn: Blue Moon's Socks that Rock in Lovers Leap

The husband came home after I had finished writing the post above and told me that I had a parcel - my sockapaloozas have arrived all the way from San Francisco! The parcel had been sitting in the mailbox the whole day. I do not usually check the mailbox as I hardly receive anything interesting. I spent the rest of the evening posing in my socks. The colour is a gorgeous, luscious deep pink that cannot be captured accurately in any of my photos, even after heavy doctoring, so you will have to be content with these. They fit like a dream on my very broad feet and are simply so comfortable. The pretty raindrop lace goes all the way from the leg down to the front of the toes. There's something about this yarn - it has more stretch and bouncy springiness (my feeble attempt at description) than the other merino yarns I have seen. Thank you Sonya, you have knit me my very first pair of handknit socks!

And since this has grown into such a long post, I might as well add these photos of my midnight snack, that the husband brought home after his late night at work. This fruit is the durian, also known as the king of fruits around these parts. You either love it (my son) or hate it (my daughter). My daughter can't stand the smell. The poor thing suffers quite badly when we have it because one can't escape from its err ... fragrance and it lingers for a long while after. It's smell is so bad that it is banned on our MRT trains, buses, taxis, airplanes and even hotel rooms. But if you love it, somehow you forgive its less endearing qualities.