Awaiting Baby Arrival

I found this wonderful, easy pattern on Annie's Attic, I also order the yarn Dream Baby Pink and White but then I ended up using Dream Baby Shine in pink and white and I love how it turned out.  I can't wait to see it on my grand daughter.  She is due on August 17th so not many more days to go.

Hot Weather

Not really envying two of my daughters right now.  They are pregnant.  The heat has to be hard on them and on the babies.  It's been so hot.  And it's staying that way.  It's hard for me to imagine that the temperatures in Idaho are hoovering around 100 degrees.  I expect that type of weather here in Asia but must admit I was usually cold when I lived in Idaho.  I did purchase an air conditioning unit for the month of August but it didn't get this hot.  It's been 100 degrees+ here in Hangzhou.  Fortunately we live on the river and have a nice breeze most of the time.  Today, we were blessed with clear skies.  I could see to the mountains in both directions.  Hangzhou is a beautiful place.  I am told that Macro Polo stated that "Hangzhou was heaven on earth."

One of the great paths in our garden

The gates to our apartment

Playground 

exercise area

 I love the flowers, the streets here are lined with rose bushes.  Every day, Chloe and I, walk in the gardens here at our complex.  It has lovely brick lined paths.  They don't mow here, they use a weed whip to keep the grass short.  There are all types of flowers that line the walk ways.  It's a beautiful place to walk.  The flowers on the left remind me of KC's wedding.  Almost the same color.  I have been chatting with a nice woman from India, she has two wonderful children, a girl and a boy.  The little girl seems quite taken with Chloe.

 We were also greeted today by two golden retrievers.  They were beautiful dogs, very clean and well groomed.  Typical golden retrievers, very curious and full of energy.  I thought one of them was going to pull it's owner right off the ground. Fortunately, they were on leashes not a usual occurrence here. I am constantly afraid that Chloe will get free and run off.  With the traffic here I doubt

she could avoid being hit by a car.  There are a lot of dogs here that roam free so I also worry about her being attacked by them, something that happens when she is with me, when it does occur, I reach down and pick her up!  She loves to smell all the different areas of our daily walk, I like to imagine her thinking "Hmm, Harry must have been by here earlier today" I am not sure why I wonder what my dog is thinking but she sure is amusing.  She makes life so fun!  And she waits patiently every day for her two walks with me.  I am very grateful to have such a good dog!

The skies here are sunny and bright.  I can even see blue in the sky today.  The smog here is usually so great that I usually can't see that far out of my windows.  Although it is still hazy you can see the bridge not far from our apartment building.

And this wonderful picture of our apartment building shows the beautiful blue sky. Our building flows across the sky.  We have 3 balconies and since we are on the 26th floor we have quite the view on beautiful days like today.

We found a Papa John's pizza recently.  finally pizza that tastes like home!  We have already eaten there twice this week.  There is a Pizza Hut here in Hangzhou but it tastes like China.  Papa John's really tastes like American pizza.  McDonald's is just like home expect for their shakes, very thin, watery and artificial tasting. The ice cream is go though.  Kentucky Fried Chicken is better here in China then it was in Rexburg and they recently have begun to serve mashed potatoes!  Such a treat.  Buying groceries is expensive here.  We spend about $500 U.S. on meat, flour, sugar.  Vegetables can be cheap depends on what it is.  We have fruit and vegetable markets right outside the gates of our apartment so it makes it very convenient to purchase fresh fruit and vegetables every day. (A little bit of a pain, to have to do it so often but very fresh) If you go in the morning right after they get their deliveries you have a great selection.

I knit another pair of booties, this time green with peach flower centers and white daises. I have downloaded Saartje's bootees as well as Christine's baby booties to try next.  I am currently working on the Divine Ms M for Elizabeth. I plan to watch some more Call the Midwife and knit for the rest of the day.

Audrey's Fan Hat and Booties

It's an exciting time for our family. We found out this week that our second grandchild will also be a little girl!  So, we are expecting Audrey in August and Cecila in November. It's so wonderful that the cousins will be close in age.  I hope that they will be the best of friends.

I have been working on several projects in anticipation of the newest members of our family.  The first is the Baby Jane's a free pattern on Ravelry by Valerie Johnson.  It's an excellent pattern and took me 1 hour to make a bootie and probably a half hour to add the buttons and the flowers.  I love the way they turned out.

I purchased the buttons at the Textile Mart here in Hangzhou.  I purchased 14 pearlized buttons buttons for about $1.03 USD.    I was able to use the wonderful peach coloured ones for one pair of booties and the centre of the flower on the hat.  While at the textile market I was also able to purchase 3 meters of suit fabric so that I can have a suit made for my son Tim.  It cost $20 USD and will make a great suit for his upcoming mission. I also purchased a canopy to go over a crib.  It's so cute with embroidered flowers and cost me $10 USD.  Lots of fun finds at the Textile Mart this trip.  It was worth enduring the horrible heat and humidity to find them.  I also felt great physically, living here in China has really helped my endurance.

The fan lace baby hat is a newborn size and also was an easy knit.  I love the pattern of the lace on the hat.  The flower also came from Ravelry. The blog for the flowers has a tutorial as well as the pattern.

I love the free patterns on Ravelry. I purchase a lot of patterns so I always appreciate the ones that are free. Especially ones that are as well written as these three were. I would like to thank the designers for making them available to me! I wanted to add flowers to the booties and was searching for some small flowers to add.  The ones that I found were in a book called 60 Quick Baby Knits, I was so excited to see that I already had the book on my shelf.  I am always disappointed when I can't download the pattern.  It's one of the difficulties of living over seas.  If I find a book I want I have to wait until I return to the USA to purchase it.  So much easier if I can just add it to my computer and begin reading right away.

The yarn for this project came from Knitpicks.com, CotLin, in Island Coral and also Swam.  For the french knots at the centres of the flowers I used some left over sock yarn, in a variegated green.  One skein of the Island Coral made the 2 sets of booties, one in size 0-3 months and one in size 3-6 months, as well as the newborn size Fan hat.  I had about 9 yards of yarn left when I was finished and I think it will make a great flower on some future hat.

Spring Time in China

   

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.