Hello Everyone! It's Chinese New Year today and also Valentine's Day so everyone should have a reason to celebrate. This is the year of Tiger and in a way it's my year because I am indeed born in the year of Tiger. A person born under the sign of tiger are rather agressive and sturbborn. Hmmm.. I do agree I am sturbborn but not so agressive. But who cares.. It's the new year!

Today I am attending a chinese new year gathering at my friend house so I bring out my baking and cooking goddess in me and spend most of my morning baking and cooking.. I still have a long way to go but I figure sitting down and update my blog and share some pictures of my cooking is a way to relax.. so here is some pictures of my cooking. Enjoy!

As I was reading the pattern from the Creative Knitting March 2010 Issue. I realized that the decrease from from body ribbing to main body need a little bit more explanation. It is mainly my fault for not putting a clear instruction on the pattern. In the magazine, it mentioned to decreaes 4 sts evenly for the body back and 2 sts for the body front while working on the row 1 of cable pattern. If you are more experience knitter, this is easily accomplished to work the dec when working on the pattern; however, it might get a little tricky. Hence I have put 2 other way of doing the decrease in this post. 

There is 2 ways to work the decrease from body ribbing to main body:
1) When working on the last row of the ribbing (WS) descrease 4 sts evenly for the body back ribbing and 2 each for both front ribbing. 
2) On the next RS row after ribbing, instead of working in cabled fabric pattern, work in stocknette st instead for first 2 rows and work decrease on first RS row. Start working on Row 1 of Cable Fabric pattern on 3rd row.

If anyone has any question regarding this pattern, please feel free to contact me!

A lot of my friends asked me why I don't design and make purses anymore. The truth is that,  it's the matter of time and this year, I will and I am working on a new collection of purse. I recently put my 1st collection of purses into a eBook and it is available to purchase via Ravelry.com and my Etsy store.

My last collection is all felted purse and it was about 2 years ago and the new collection that I am working on is actually more knitting then felting. I wanted to concentrate on one single element to each purse; whether is ruffles, beading detail, giant cable or maddness of color. The swatch in picture  is one of my many designs. The inspiration of this purse is actually driven by one of my cardigan/pullover sketch, the cardi features ruffles in different length on both side of the body front and I wanted to use the same ruffle concept on my purse. The purse will features 2 set of 3 uneven length ruffles with a center belt buckle. I choices a merino and silk blend tweed yarn in DK weight. The merino provide the softness that I need for the ruffles and tweed tones provide a little depth and tones down the 'girly-ness' from the ruffles. The purse will work from side to side in stockinette stitch with short row for side shaping. I am still on the process of choosing the handles and buckle and all the finishing touches of the purse. As of right now by looking at the swatch, I am liking what I am seeing.

I will keep updating my progess of my purse collection.. so keep coming in and provide any comment suggestion you might have!