Mandy Cowl

The Mandy Cowl up close

Modeled by my friend Sarah

This weekend I cast on "The Mandy Cowl" found here:, it is a free download on Ravelry.  I love the stitch and the yarn. The yarn is from Knitpicks.com, the colour is lollipop. They are so vibrant and bold.  It's 70 percent wool and 30 percent nylon. The pattern was easy and fun to knit and I love the results!

I will definitely be making more of these and want more of this yarn.  If only knitpicks would ship to China.  I did bring a suitcase full of yarn when I returned and am now enjoying using it here in Hangzhou.

I also made oatmeal cookies today.  The recipe turned out amazing.  I was looking for a recipe that didn't need butter.  Try them I think you will like them!  Baking here is expensive. I pay the equivalent of $5 US for 1 pound of sugar.  I have to bring my shortening from the USA so I am very particular about what I bake.  These cookies were worth it and I think Dave will think so too.

We also had a beauty parlour in the apartment today.  Sarah came and spent the day, what a wonderful way to spend the day, talking to a great friend while she gets pampered by Elizabeth.  Her hair came out amazing but then, Sarah is so beautiful it's to be expected.  I flew Lizzy in from the states to do my hair in November and decided to keep her here.  She now teaches English during the week and on her days off she does hair, with many compromises.

Sunday Drive HangZhou

Went for a Sunday drive today around the city and stumbled upon some beautiful sights.  It appears to be a tourist part of Hangzhou of course it's hard to tell for sure as it is currently spring festival.  Fireworks are once again going off outside our balcony.  It was a beautiful clear day today, something that hasn't occurred much since moving here. 

I made some amazing peanut bars this week that we enjoyed.  They remind me of Reese's Peanut Butter Cups.  More peanut butter though.  I found the recipe here:  We fortunately had all of the ingredients available.  The first recipe I found required graham crackers. I haven't found those in China.  I am sure they are available I just haven't found them. Also, as chocolate chips are very expensive, you can just melt a chocolate bar on top of the peanut butter filling.

It was branch conference today at church Dave was called as first counselor in the Elders Quorum.  Hopefully he will help to strengthen the Hangzhou Branch. The Lord still has no need of me.  Sure does feel strange not to have a calling and yet it is probably a good thing.  I am not comfortable traveling about by myself so it's better this way.

Very Versatile Striped Beanie by Deja Jetmir

I finished another hat for my son Mike.  Tim is modeling it for the pictures as Mike was still in the USA when I took the pictures.  The pattern, Very Versatile Striped Beanie, was very easy to follow.  It was my first time trying the magic adjustable loop.  She has nice graphics with the pattern that were easy to follow and helped me to have nice even rows when changing colors (something that isn't easy crochet).

I used Knitpicks chroma fingering weight in Rainbow and gray.  The yarn is a wool and nylon combination.  It is so soft and has a silky feel to it.  There was enough yarn left that I could make another hat with it.  I did attempt to make a pair of crocodile booties with it, but this pattern wasn't as easy for me to follow.  I could do the v stitches that turned into the cool scales just fine the problem was the row that begins the scales has you chain 7 for a strap and then it doesn't fit into the pattern any more.  I emailed the designer asking for help, hopefully I will hear back from her because I think it's a cute pattern and would love to make them.  Meantime I am once again working on my sock blanket.  I knit 6 more blocks yesterday.  It's nice to have a mindless pattern waiting in the wings.

I am not sure what project to take on next.  I have a lot of yarn that I brought from the United States as well as some beautiful fingering weight silk that I purchased here in China.  I'll have to spend some time hunting up a new project.  Or maybe I will try my hand at the crocodile booties again. (4 attempts seems like a reasonable try).  I am blessed to have such wonderful hobbies.  They make me feel at home no matter where I am.

Jack

I also have my sewing machine with me and I purchased some wonderful scottie dog material to make a baby quilt for my new grand child that is expected Aug 2013.  The baby's watch dog is a Scotty/Dachshund mix named Jack. Jack was rescued from the pound when our dog Pokey died.  We took Pokey there to be cremated and KC wondered back to look at what dogs they had and fell in love with Jack.  I must admit he is a wonderful addition to our family.

Return to Hangzhou

My sons hiding the bride.

 I returned to Hangzhou this month after spending time in the United States for my daughter Tricia's wedding to Daniel Gaillard, on Dec 28, 2012.  It was a wonderful week spent with family and friends.  My brother and sister, 2 of my nephews and one of my nieces came.  We were also blessed to have my Aunt Maxine as well as my cousin Phetney and her husband, Joe join us.

My beautiful daughers.

My favorite pictures is of Tricia dancing with her father to a Frank Sinatra song.  They had the fedoras handed to them as they danced.  They looked wonderful dancing together.  The song was "Fly Me to The Moon."

Mom and Dad with the happy couple.

On Regret

“The more we devote ourselves to the pursuit of holiness and happiness, the less likely we will be on a path to regrets.”

~

·      Resolve to spend more time with those we love

·      Resolve to strive more earnestly to become the person God wants us to be

·      Resolve to find happiness, regardless of our circumstances.

Today in my scripture study I read a conference talk by President  Dieter F Uchtdorf.  What an inspirational talk.  The entire talk can be found here

How simple it is!  Want to avoid regret? Yes! Pursue holiness.  So simple. In fact why didn't I think of that before??  

Resolve to strive more earnestly to become the person God wants us to be!  I can do that!  And it doesn't have to be overwhelming, just one day at a time try harder to be who the Lord wants me to be.

When you have amazing friends that encourage you to be the best you can be it makes it so much easier and I have always been blessed with the very best of friends.  They help me to remember that I am a daughter of God and he loves me.  One of my friends, mentioned today that we have to remember the incredible blessings we have received, "exceptional things happen to me!".  Isn't that the truth, when we remember that incredible things that happen to us, we realize more wonderful blessings that have been in our lives but we missed because we were to busy to recognize them in our life! 

I have been so blessed these past couple of weeks by a visit from my daughter Elizabeth.  She arrived in China on November 19th and has been spreading joy ever since!  She did a service day for our branch here in Hangzhou where she gave scalp treatments to the ladies of the Relief Society. 

 She has really been excited about everything Chinese which spreads the excitement to those around her, helping me to realize how blessed I am to be in China. Yesterday we traveled to West Lake and just enjoyed the beautiful scenery.  By the lake there was a clothes line with 10 ducks skinned, drying in the sun in preparation for the Chinese New Year!  Amazing.  Not something you would typically see in the USA!

We went with this incredible family to help them take their family picture for their Christmas card.  As we were taking the pictures, groups were taking pictures of their adorable children. So fun! The Chinese people love to see American children.

Liz made some great cookies today, she modified the Crisco Ultimate Chocolate Chip Cookie Recipe found here: instead of ¾ cups butter flavored Crisco, she used ½ cup regular Crisco and ¼ cup butter, dark brown sugar instead of light brown sugar, 1 ½ cups of all purpose unbleached flour, ¼ cup of coco powder.  They taste amazing.  It was necessary to substitute with butter, as we didn’t have butter flavored Crisco.  The results are a chewy chocolate cookie. I wish I had some Crasins to put in them, maybe next time.  It’s even more amazing how wonderful this taste when you consider we don’t have a mixer so they were mixed by hand.

My new address! Hangzhou, China

 The view from my office window is the this track from the middle school across the street.  All this past week it has been a hive of activity as the students prepared for a big presentation that began on Wednesday and ended on Friday.  I have so enjoyed the quiet since they completed their activities, it was daily blaring of a loud speaker, drums and music.  Every day, they play different music depending on the time of day.  It's a nice way to keep track of the time and they play wonderful selections of classical music, just wish they would change the tunes occasionally.

We live on the 26th floor and have a wonderful view of the river, the apartment is about 1400 sq feet.  We have 3 bedrooms and two baths.  The living room is a nice size although we hardly ever use it.  When Dave is home he tends to be in the office working on the computer, he has enjoyed reading the news about the upcoming election in the USA.  I, on the other hand, am often taken aback at how rude and cruel his cousin and sister are.  It's ok to have different views (that's one of the great things about America, is we can agree to disagree) but to post lies, to belittle someone for their beliefs is just wrong.  My daughter tells me to just let it go, but I think the words were never truer, you can't unring a bell, I will always look at them differently for how cruel they were to their brother and cousin. I will be very glad to have this election behind us!

This the view from one of our balconies, to the park at the complex, it's a wonderful park with walking paths, a place for the nightly dancing that the women here participate in, and a great play ground for the children.  Even if it is an apartment it's a very nice nice environment to live in. At the entrance to our complex are various stores and a brand new Subway!

Yes, sad but true, it was a great day for our family when the subway opened!  It's definitely a taste of home and very convenient  when you just don't feel like cooking! We are now eagerly anticipating the opening of an Italian restaurant next door to the subway! We also like LA Cafe when we are hungry for a nice salad and Splash when we want Mexican! (Can you tell that Hangzhou has a little bit of everything?)

Not to be negative, but I don't like the hot water heater, each morning you get about 1 min of hot water, so you get to soap up quickly and then freeze while you rinse off. Really makes you consider whether you really want to take a shower or not! The benefit of the hot water heater here though is, I can wash my dishes in hot water unlike India where I had to boil my water to wash the dishes.

On the washing front, our washing machine is on one of our balconies.  Every morning begins with a load of laundry.  As you can see from the picture the clothesline is also there.  Very convenient to be able to hang up the clothes right out of the washer.  The weather is getting colder though and the clothes aren't drying so I fear we will have to break down and purchase a dryer.  But, good news!  They have dryers here! So very many things to be grateful here!  Of Course the most important of which is David really enjoys his job.  He likes making a difference and sharing his knowledge with those who work for him.

We attend a wonderful branch of our church here in Hangzhou, the people are so warm and welcoming.  We are so blessed to be able to have the opportunity to meet such fine people.  To attend our branch you must have a visa to visit China. So our members are from all over the world.  Such a blessing from Tim to be able to interact with so many wonderful people.

Tim attends the Hangzhou International School.  He has really enjoyed the transition.  Tomorrow he will travel to Shanghi where he will have the opportunity to hear Jane Goodall speak.  How amazing is that?  When I told my children my children in the states they had a serious case of envy!

I finished a baby blanket that I started before the move.  The pattern was cast on 121 stitches, knit the first 5 rows, knit first and last 6 stitches of every row.  Then the pattern stitch for the blanket was:
row 1: Knit
row 2: P
row 3: K1, yo, p1, p3 tog, p1, yo, k1; repeat across
row 4: P
Rep 1-4 until desired length.

I used Lion Brand Babysoft Solid, it's soft and lays nicely.  I am considering taking apart and making it bigger.  It is rather small but it would be great for covering a baby or maybe adding a crocheted edging to the blanket to make it wider.

I am casting on today, http://digitalnabi.com/blog/2010/10/the-prettiest-hot-pad-ever/
I will be using prima cotton by knitpicks, sure wished they shipped overseas.  I purchased a great pattern for a jacket that I will have to wait until I return to the states to purchase yarn for...

Pumpkin Muffins

Fall is in the air here in Idaho.  I made these muffins for the family on a whim Saturday and then needed to make another batch on Sunday.  So yummy!

2 c Pumpkin
1 c packed brown sugar
1/2 c oil
1/2 c water
4 eggs
2 c flour
1 c oatmeal
4 t baking powder
2 t pumpkin spice
1 c mini chocolate chips.

Finished Tim's Sock's

Well, I purchased another camera hopefully this one will work better than the Cannon I had. I purchased a Nikon CoolPix in a great red color.

We have had some major changes in our family this year.  My husband works in China now and is always gone.  Not the best way to keep a marriage strong.  My daughter Kristine married this year on the 6th of April. And we moved into a wonderful home outside of town, the dogs and the kids are much happier.

I have started a quilt for my daughter Kristine from the Nickel Quilts book but the move interrupted the sewing it always takes me awhile to set up my sewing area after a move.

Mostly I have been knitting in my spare time to keep me sane! I finished Shur'tugal Dragon by Alice Yu. I really liked the doubled-tail cast on it made for a very sturdy cast on that I will be using again in the further.  The directions for the doubled-tail cast on can be found here.  


http://www.socktopus.co.uk/2009/04/doubled-long-tail-cast-on/


The socks very easy to knit after awhile I had a rhythm going that made them quite fun to knit with very little concentration needed. Always a good thing as I tend to knit while doing other things like watching movies, or listening to books on tape.