A Bluestocking Knits

August Knitogether

Marjorie invited me to her home and the August get-together with Siow Chin, Joy, and Eva, with Vivian and her sister.  I got to pore over a huge stash of new magazines and books (this one, too) as well as knit and admire everyone else's projects.  (Got to get me some of that Knitpicks Alpaca Cloud ....)  Thank you all -- mm-goi saai!

It had stopped raining when I got home, and was a surprisingly quiet afternoon, grey and still.  Julia had actually gone to bed for a nap on her own, and Laura was watching cartoons with the babysitter, so I made myself a cup of tea and read for a while.

Well -- I've recently joined two knit-alongs, one with a finite completetion date, so I'd better get cracking,

and the other, blissfully open-ended,

I have at least one, possibly two, baby projects in the planning stages -- am thinking of a certain wrap-style jacket from an old Knitter's magazine.  I have some Rowan cotton in a pretty girly purple from a completely stalled Debbie Bliss project (which would be better in a yarn that actually worked up to the right gauge, eh?), so I'll start swatching when we get home.

July Knitogether

The girls and I went to Central yesterday to meet with Siow Chin and Marjorie at the Pacific Coffee Company branch in the IFC mall (look at the views from the top).  We were a few minutes late, as I wanted to stop off for a little prezzie -- picked up something from the See's shop that recently opened nearby, always a treat in my family for holidays or something special, and here "flown fresh from California".

To be honest, I didn't get to knit much, as Julia was extremely energetic and couldn't sit still, not even to eat her lunch.  Laura, however --

focussed marvellously.  Some six months ago, she said out of the blue, "I want to learn to knit!"  I tried not to show how excited and pleased I was, and later we went to Michael's and bought some yellow yarn and "trainer" knitting needles.  I cast on and worked a row for her, and she would knit two or three stitches and get bored, and not pick it up for weeks.  But the other day, she suddenly mentioned it again for the first time since January, I think, and stuck with it for a whole row, 20 stitches.  She seems to have gotten the hang of it, although of course still has a five-year-old's attention span.  She was also secretly pleased at the idea of knitting with my friends, so asked for her knitting soon after lunch yesterday.

Marjorie brought her pale yellow Phildar pattern project, learning the jogless jog -- Siow Chin had her Angel sleeve in that lovely rose-colored Rowan Cotton Wool -- I managed to do one whole row on my Forbes Forest scarf, while trying to keep Julia from climbing on the other tables.  We chatted about Hong Kong yarn shops, small children, work (Siow Chin's husband and mine might actually know of each other already).  It turns out that Marjorie lived in Alhambra for a while -- my grandparents lived there for almost fifty years, and I did myself for a while.  Small world, eh?

But the girls reached their limit after about an hour, so we said goodbye.  We took the opportunity of our being in a mall to go to Dymocks for a birthday-present-to-be and the new Harry Potter book for David, then caught the bus for home and an afternoon in the swimming pool.

Mm goi, Siow Chin and Marjorie!

Yarn Shop Dash

I had an afternoon off -- all hail the new babysitter! -- so I decided to visit some yarn shops in Kowloon kid-free.

   

Took the MTR from Admiralty to Kowloon Bay, changing at Mong Kok -- visited the Telford Shopping Plaza and found these --

Emma Woollen and GB Woollen (sister to the one in Taikoo Shing) -- both bright and rather sleek, with a couple of knitters on stools and a saleslady who looked rather pleasantly surprised to see me -- at GB, I bought some "Maurice" from Puppy Yarns, a silly name but a lovely single-ply wool in deep jewel tones.

Took the MTR back to Prince Edward Station and walked a few blocks to Fa Yuen Street and Double Knit, now open -- quite a big place, to my surprise, with shoppers and salesladies chattering a mile a minute, representative balls of yarn in glass display cases along one side and the rest of the stock in bags and bins along the other side, swathes of samples knitted into scarves hanging from the ceiling, and I found some Jaeger Matchmaker DK on sale for $28 (US$3.60).  A ridiculous price, so I bought rather a lot....

Not far away, I found Nathan Woollen, on Siow Chin's recommendation --

(I wish I could say that I got these policemen to stand in the doorway as a reference point, but it was a fluke, and they were too busy writing tickets to notice me.)

Obviously a family-run shop, as there seemed to be a set of parents, a daughter, and a granddaughter, a charming little miss of about three, who said "Hello!" politely, and smiled when I replied "Ni hao!"  I bought some scrumptious Noro Silk Garden #82 for HK$49 (US$6.30, retail at home about $10.50). 

I got back home in just under my allotted four hours, not too tired or hot, and very happy!

The Peak, and the History Museum

One of the Hong Kongers that David works with arranged a bit of sightseeing for some of the folks here for only a short visit, and we tagged along.

We were to meet at the tram for Victoria Peak at one o'clock, so I took the opportunity to dash over to Mongkok in the morning to look for this --

Filo Kilo in Sai Yee Street, just around the corner from the markets we visited last week (!), and from the Double Knit shop.  I may have to ration my HK dollars a little more carefully and come back here again, as there are some very lovely things and priced accordingly....

We had lunch at the Peak Lookout, then walked along Lugard Road to see the views.

The Peak Tower, landmark, tram terminal, home of Madame Tussaud's Hong Kong.

A view of Central and the hills beyond --

and of the eastern side of Victoria Harbour.  It was a beautiful day, and not so hot up here, either!

Then we took a pair of taxis across the harbour to Tsim Sha Tsui (pronounced "chim sha choi"), and went to the Hong Kong Museum of History.

It's a good thing that it was open until seven o'clock and not six as we thought, as we'd gotten there around five, and there was no way that we could have seen much of it in an hour -- jampacked with walk-through exhibits on prehistory, folk culture, the British colonial era, the Japanese occupation in the 1940s, and the handover in 1997.

Even a bit of knitting --

a pair of gloves made by a prisoner of war in the 1940s, out of remnants of old sweaters.  It's a very poignant piece of work, beautiful muted colors on the gauntlet cuffs, seed stitch on the back of the hands, all very tidy and meticulous.  What a ghastly time that must have been, and yet someone took the time and effort to scrounge bits of wool and make something beautiful.

We were so exhausted from the heat of the day and the walking, and so full from our late lunch, that we decided against dinner after all, and said goodnight to our friends.  David and the girls and I walked along the waterfront promenade and watched the city lights -- took the Star Ferry back to Central, and then home.

Mongkok Markets

The other day we went to some of the markets in Mongkok, on the Kowloon side of Hong Kong.  We started off at the Goldfish Market in Sai Yeung Choi Street -- a fascinating array of shops and stalls with all kinds of aquarium fish, some in tanks and some ready for the asking, hundreds and hundreds of them.

Further along was Fa Yuen Street, an outdoor market with this --

tucked behind.  Didn't get to go in as it was closed for the day, but I took a moment to appreciate those surreal mannekins from the shop next door.

Not far away was the Flower Market, a number of blocks packed with cut flowers and small potted plants.

Around in Yuen Po Street is the "Bird Garden," a market and gathering place for bird-lovers.  Tiny open-air shops line the path, selling birds, beautiful wooden cages and little porcelain water bowls, and all sorts of accessories -- including grasshoppers to feed to the birds with long chopsticks.

Songbirds are very popular pets in China, especially with men -- perhaps connected with the belief that the birds bring good luck.  The cages have a small handle on the bottom, so that they can be carried in one hand -- men gather here to socialize and give their birds an airing, hanging the cages from tree branches and various poles hung along the path for that very purpose.  It's kind of weird and sweet at the same time.

A very hot day, in the low 30s C and humid with it, so we moved slowly and drank lots of water, but enjoyed the afternoon immensely anyway.

Jumbo Shopping

Some more sightseeing -- we went to the Jumbo Kingdom in Aberdeen for dim sum lunch again the other day.  A small ferry takes visitors over to the grand floating restaurant, a Hong Kong landmark.  Words fail me, really -- gaudy isn't in it.  (Here is some info from the Footprint guidebook.)  As you might expect from someone as nearsighted as I am, the photos I took were mostly close-up details of the little ferry and the restaurant itself.

We also did some shopping at the outlet stores at Horizon Plaza nearby in Ap Lei Chau -- got that cool fabric wall calendar there, as well as more wooden track for the girls' train set, and lots of art supplies for the school-free weeks to come.

Hello, Sunshine!

After a week of these --

("rain expected exceeding 30 millimetres per hour") and even one of these

("exceeding 50 millimetres per hour") -- we finally saw the sun.  We ran down to the playground in the morning and had an hour or so before a new shower chased us back indoors.

Today, though --

was gorgeous, sunny and pleasantly warm.  I took the girls down to the pool --

 

I wish I could say that I did lots of leisurely poolside knitting, but to be honest, I was too lazy, and the excuse of sunscreen on my hands was too easy to invoke.

I Visit the City Hall Library

Having gotten word yesterday that our departure from Hong Kong has been scheduled for August 21, I promptly fell into a bit of a stash-enhancement frenzy, seeing that time really is limited now.  When David found out that some of the prices here are almost half of those at home, he said, "Why don't you stock up?"  His only request is that I have a project in mind for whatever I buy...

I took the shuttle bus into town this morning, timing my arrival at the Star Ferry terminal to coincide with the opening of the City Hall branch of the Hong Kong Public Library at ten.  It was raining cats and dogs, so hard that I was quite glad to leave the driving to someone else, and to stare both appalled and marvelling at the rain sheeting down the bus windows.  As the wiper blade passed, a good four or five inches of water came down across the just-cleared section, to be flung away by the return pass of the wiper, so fast that it shot out from the windshield at least six inches away.  Well, a little video is worth a thousand words --

Download 179-7992_MVI.AVI

It was too wet as I dashed across the plaza to take a picture of the library for those who (like me) are into that sort of thing, but here is a view from the staircase window on the second floor -- the eastern edge of the Star Ferry terminal with Kowloon in the distance across the harbor, the carpark at left front, another part of the City Hall complex at right front, all very wet --

This branch of the library occupies quite a number of floors in the building, although each floor is not large in area.  The knitting section at this branch is rather dated, I'm afraid, but this is in no way limited to Hong Kong.  I didn't have much time to browse and ponder this morning, as I had to collect the girls from school at 11:30, but I did find a few interesting titles, ran back downstairs to the check-out, and outside to the bus stop.

The rain was just coming on again when the 10:45 shuttle came around the corner, about five minutes late.  As it tore out of the terminal, eager to make up time, I guess, we suddenly veered off the usual route, and since I'd been daydreaming, I had to glance surruptitiously around me to make sure that I was indeed on the right bus.  It dawned on me that this driver was an old friend, so to speak -- I'd taken a downhill trip with Speedy Gonzalez once before, and it was almost an hour then before the hairs on the back of my neck calmed down.  This time he took a hillier but less-traveled road around the racetrack, but got stuck behind a public bus, which of course made stops every ten feet.  When the bus made a stop in a passing lane, Speedy zipped around him triumphantly, and I swear I saw a corner of his mouth turn up in a smile. 

So at least I got my library books home safe and dry, and have been poring over them much of the afternoon.

The Bohus one is really fabulous -- such wonderful colors, such intricate designs.  "Poems of color" indeed.  The "Blue Shimmer" pullover is beautiful -- in any colorway, I imagine -- and the "Green Meadow" mittens, the "Large Collar" in any form.  Jaeger has a lovely alpaca that I could get at Paris Cotton Singlets -- I wonder if this would be a good substitute for the wool/angora blends.  And I confess that I have never knitted a sock, not even one -- but, no time like the present, eh?  I'm especially intrigued by the Welsh Country Stockings, the Highland Schottische Kilt Hose, the Norwegian Stockings, and the Estonian Socks. Lots of lovely merino at Paris Cotton Singlets and at Cheer Wool and Elegant....

Father's Day

Yesterday was Father's Day, so after the girls woke David up rather earlier than he was hoping, we went here --

the Hong Kong Museum of Coastal Defence.  He'd been here on a previous trip, and thought the girls would enjoy the tunnels in the old fort and the views of the harbor. 

Julia discovered the echo capabilities of the tunnels early on -- the exhibits were a bit much for the under-fives, but upstairs was a drawing area with tables and crayons and chops for stamping on their finished artwork, and the girls did have a good time running around outside, even though it was pretty hot. 

On the way back, I got a little bonus when we stopped off here --

GB Woollens at the Cityplaza mall in Taikoo Shing (!).  They were having a sale (!!), so I picked these up for HK$59 apiece (about US$7.59, retailing at home for $8.95) --

RYC Cashcotton 4-Ply in shade 903 Seafoam, a subtle tweedy tealy-greeny shade.  Maybe it will be enough for the Interlocking Balloons scarf....

Fifth Day of the Fifth Lunar Month

Today being the fifth day of the fifth lunar month, it is the Dragon Boat Festival.  Tuen Ng commemorates an ancient national hero, Qu Yuan, who threw himself into the Mi Lo river to protest against the corrupt rulers of the time.  Legend has it that as the townspeople tried to rescue him, they beat drums to scare away the fish and threw dumplings into the water to keep the fish from eating Qu Yuan's body.  This grew into the drumbeating coxes of today's dragon boats, and the traditional dumplings of the festival.

More here and here.  I'd heard that it was hot, crowded, and very spring-break-like (there was even an article in the South China Morning Post yesterday about how to get drunk barge-hopping), so as I was on my own with the girls and we'd gotten up at 5:30 to see Grandma off, we decided to simply watch it on television.  Not very authentic, I'm afraid, but we did have dumplings from the restauraunt downstairs, at least!

Today is also, of course,

Worldwide Knit in Public Day.  I took the Forbes Forest scarf to the playground with us -- far too hot for the mohair of Misty Garden, but the stiff breeze blowing around the corner of the building kept the temperature from being unbearable.