Eating Lembu

My first days here consisted of lots of walking around, shopping and food.  I needed to look for additional things to buy to bring to Indonesia for the in-laws and nieces/nephews. I also had a major goal of looking for some of my favorite fruits, which are only available in Asia.

One such fruit is lembu (what we call it in Taiwanese) or wax apple. It is so juicy and delectable that you can’t just eat one. It’s really hard for me to describe the taste and texture.  It tastes nothing like an apple, nor does the variety look like one in color. The shape is more like a bell-shaped pear. The juicy insides more resembles the water content found in a watermelon while the crunch and texture resemble nothing like any fruit commonly found in or imported into North America.

The one we found near the Shuanglian Farmer’s Market are more end-season fruits and are smaller than usual. Each tray (of about 10) was being sold for $100NT (approximately $3 USD).

Top L: The inside of the fruit has a light green tint. Top R: Comparing the fruit to a tangerine. This one is smaller. The larger ones are about the same height as an orange. Bottom: Trays of the fruit at the farmer’s market.

But Dad, all the Toilets are Broken!

The first time I recall having lembu was when I was about 14 years old. I may have had some before I was 5, but I don’t recall.  Anyway, when I was 14, my dad took my sister and I to Taiwan for the first time since moving overseas at age 5. He rented a car and drove us on a tour from Taipei to the southern parts of the country. My dad spotted some of these delectable fruits at a local farmstand on a country road and bought us 1.5 kg (almost 3.5 lbs) of the fruit to eat on the trip.

They were so good that my sister and I devoured them quickly and each ate several immediately, choosing to eat the fruit instead of lunch.  Of course, with such a high water content and especially at the volume in which we ate, it wasn’t long before our bladders filled up.  My dad stopped at a roadside rest stop.  My sister and I ran to the restroom as he waited in the car. Within a minute, we ran back, reporting that it was a non-functioning restroom.

My dad drove further and pulled over at another place that had restrooms.  Again, my sister and I reported back that it was non-functioning and that there were no toilets. My dad sort of chalked that up to us being in the countryside where things are slower-paced and less modern.

He drove some more, but by this time, our bladders were about to burst.  Luckily, he saw a hotel. “Ah, they must have toilets in a hotel! It would not be like those other run-down broken countryside restrooms.” My sister and I were very hopeful too. We went in, but to our dismay, the hotel didn’t have a toilet either.  Again, we told our dad while doing the “pee dance.” I was about to wet myself. My dad got out of the car and was going to ask the hotel if we could use the restroom in one of the rooms or somewhere else in the hotel. Before we got to the hotel doors, he paused. “Wait a minute…What do you mean there’s no toilet?”  We explained that it looked like someone removed the toilet and left a porcelain bottom half of a toilet, only it was weird-shaped.  “Were all the other restrooms like that too?”  Yes Dad, isn’t that weird that they’re all broken in the same way? Why would people remove the toilets?

“Ah, my stupid American daughters! Those are toilets! They are just not the kind that you are used to. They are the squatting kind.” Er?

My sister and I had never seen a squatting toilet and it didn’t really dawn on my dad to tell us about it. We didn’t really want to use it either, but it was a better option than peeing in our pants or on the side of the road. He had to explain how a squatting toilet works and gave us instruction on how to squat-pee.  *sigh*  Squatting toilets are so not a good choice for the uncoordinated.

Above: Photos of the restroom from a Taiwanese hospital. Top photo shows door signs indicating the type of toilet. Bottom left: A squatting toilet. Botom Right: A fancy Japanese-style bidet toilet.

The “broken” country toilets that my sister and I saw were not all that clean, but the style is the same as the one shown in the photo above.

Welcome To Taipei

Hello Interwebs Friends,

I arrived 3 nights ago without much incidence.  I was really worried about getting stuck with a bunch of annoying people on a very crowded plane. However, I totally lucked out, as not only did i get an aisle seat, but I had the whole row to myself!! I totally took advantage and sprawled out.  There weren’t too many annoying people either. Amusing, but not quite annoying: a guy who yawned very loudly and smacked his lips after a loud yawn, which occurred about every 30 minutes and the snoring guy in the row behind me.

I spent most of the time knitting. I designed and knitted a pair of glittens on the fly (pun intended!) for my sister whose hands are freezing in New Haven. Because she’s very active, has sweaty palms and bikes a lot, I decided to double strand some sock yarn and add some pencil roving (which I hand-painted) for additional warm and insulation.I also planned on knitting on smaller needles to make the fabric more dense.

Row 1: Left: I made good use of my extra space. As you can see, I littered the adjacent seat with all my knitting stuff. Right: Swatching for the glittens. I didn’t block though, since I was on a plane and the fit is more forgiving on a glove. Row 3: Left: Merino superwash sock yarn and some handpainted baby alpaca pencil roving used for the glittens. right: was almost finished with the first glove after the flight.

I made a very crucial mistake though.  I intended to knit the cuffs using at US 4/ 3.5mm needle and then switching to a US 6/ 4mm needle.  However, I am so smare* that I forgot to switch needles. Thus, the glittens are a little hard to get on. Once past the palm, it fits my medium hand. I’m not sure that they’d fit my sister’s though. She has bigger bonier hands (aka man hands).  I considered just abandoning this one, but I did spend a while knitting it. So, I think I’ll knit it’s twin and donate it to one of my favorite charties. Then, I’ll make my sister another pair using the correct needles!

In between the glittens, I took breaks and knitted a lace shawl that I’m testing out. As it turned out, the hole of the tray table, designed for cups is perfect for my yarn!  It totally solved the problem of my yarn rolling off my lap or seat down the aisle.

* inside joke about how “smart” I really am. I don’t think I’ve ever blogged about how that term came about. It’s kind of a funny story. Come to think of it, I should tell y’all about it, so at least you can get a good laugh at my expense.

Well, it’s late now here, and I have a very long day tomorrow. In my next post, I will share some market finds and some Engrish-spotting.

Bad Things/ Good Knitters – Part 2

After an attempt to squish and reblock that elephant hat, I realized it was useless.There were too many oops in it to fudge: the gauge was really off AND it was over-stretched in the blocking process. I had to undo and rip everything out.  Just look at the difference between the visor section and the template. The knitted part of the visor should not be about 25%-30% bigger than the template. The gauge in the Oops Hat was about 6 sts x  9 rows. The pattern gauge should be 7.5 sts x 11 rows.

After I ripped out all the pieces, I measured the hat body. OMG it was huge, at about 9.5-9.75″ for one piece. The hat is constructed of 4 pieces: 2 wider hat body pieces and 2 skinnier panel pieces.  The shirred panel measured at about 8-8.5″ each, which means that the Oops version had a head circumference of about 35-36.5″ (89-93cm) around!! Seriously, elephant!!

After I ripped out the hat, I wound the yarn only my swift and blocked the skein to get all the kinks out. To restore some of it’s springy qualities, I beat the wet hank of yarn a few times on the counter (got some good agression workout), then hung them to dry in one of our guest bathrooms.

To make things easier when I reknit, I kept each section in its own hank and marked them using different-colored ties.

When I looked at the pattern for reknitting, I realized that while there definitely were some knitter error with the gauge, there was also some designer-error. The designer-error probably would have been caught had my test knitters finished on time. Due to unforeseen reasons 1 dropped out and 2 were really late on their deadlines. They were supposed to finish right when the sample knitter was about to start, but apparently that did not happen. Maybe this hat had a hex on it.

Anyway, the designer-error occured in the miscalculation of the CO sts. My error would have made the hat bigger – probably make the medium-sized sample fit an Large or X-Large head rather than a medium head (unless the medium head has big hair).

After I fixed and recalculated my errors, I reknit the hat and even remembered to take some photos of the finishing work so that I could put up a tutorial for Amelia Earhart and I have photos to do the tutorial for this hat when it’s ready for release. BTW, this hat is called Eleanor Roosevelt.

A sneak preview of Eleanor Roosevelt, which I wore when I went to the American Film Market trade show on Nov. 8 (I’ll write about that in a later post).

Liberation: Amelia Earhart

After several months of knitting, writing and hard work, I am pleased to announce the release the first of 6 hat knitting patterns from my Liberation Collection.

Here is Amelia Earhart:

Above: Shown in Shibui Knits Sock in Periwinkle with a flower accessory. Modeled by one of my new sample knitters, Jean.

Above: Shown with a buckle accessory. The red one is also Shibui Knits sock in Chinese Red. I’m eating a sock-shaped donut at Knit/Purl in Portland. I visited the shop when Iwent to Sock Summit. The proprietor of the LYS, Darcy, is also the same woman behind Shibui Knits! If you’re ever in Portland, I recommend visiting the shop and all the lovely ladies that work there, like the Sandy.

Right now, I am offering the Amelia Pattern for an early bird price of $5.25.  After the early bird period is over (about 1 month from now), the price will be $6. So, hurry and don’t miss out!  If you are on my mailing list, I will be sending out a newsletter within the next week or two and there will be a special code in addition to the early bird price.  Also, I have already started putting up the tutorial for this pattern.

Buy the Amelia Earhart Pattern Now at the early bird price: $5.25

The whole Liberation Collection is also available as an ebook.  Presale for this is currently available.  With the presale, you will receive the most updated file todate. Then as I release each pattern (at about a 2-4 week span), you will receive updated versions of the file via email.  And finally, when all the patterns are released, you will receive a final file with all the pages and patterns.

The Liberation ebook is also available for sale at an early bird price of $16. Regular price, after all the individual patterns in the collection are released, will be $18.

Buy the Liberation ebook Now at the early bird presale price of $16

And last but certainly not least, I really could not have finished this pattern or the collection without the help of my test knitters, sample knitter, friends who listened to me drone on about the patterns, tech editor and of course, Shibui Knits!

Also, don’t forget to queue and favorite Amelia on Ravelry. Thanks! I can’t wait to see everyone’s projects.

Asian Vacation

It’s been a little over 4 years since I’ve been anywhere near Asia.  The last time I went was 3 years ago. I went to Taiwan for my grandmother’s funeral. She unexpectedly passed about 9 months after my grandfather passed. And in-between that, my mother passed. Boy, that was a really crappy year.

A butterfly that "hatched" in my godparents' house in Beitou, north of Taipei. The cocoon was attached to one of their plants. I was lucky enough to see it (and hold it!) within 1 hour of it's metamorphosis and before they had to release it.

Anyway, thankfully, I am not going to Taiwan for something as dismal as a funeral. I’m going to attend the belated wedding reception for my godbrother (who lives in L.A.) since the majority of all his family live there. I will be meeting up with my dad and stepmom. In addition to the wedding reception and going to the mountains, I also plan to get really fat eating all my favorite Taiwanese foods, but to make up for all the excess calories, I intend to do some extra walking around the city of Taipei.  Taipei and New York are very similar in many ways: lots of walking, traffic, lots of people, good food, fun, shopping, big buildings, more traffic and more good food.

The actual cocoon of the butterfly, taken about 2 days before it's transformation into that large beauty.

The main thing I hope to avoid in Taiwan is getting stung by poisonous caterpillars. The last time I went back, I went on an excursion to Yangminshan mountain during butterfly season.  I sat down on some stone benches to eat a hot bowl of noodle soup that they sell on the mountain. Of course, being accident-prone, my knee touched a stinging and poisonous caterpiller under the table, AND I spilled the hot soup on myself. The hot soup burn was nowhere near the instantaneous and horrific pain from the sting. It hurt for over a week. The swelling lasted for about 2-3 weeks and even left a small scar for a while. (Taiwan has been called the “Kingdom of Butterflies” by entymologist and butterfly enthusiasts.)

From Taipei, the 3 of us will fly to Indonesia to meet up with my hubby and visit my in-laws.  This will be the first time my dad will visit them. I imagine that there’ll be lots of family stuff to do and not so much sight-seeing and traveling. However, I am trying to convince Mr. CD to arrange a trip for us to go to Bali for at least a day.  I have never been to Bali and do resent Mr. CD a little for it.  You see, I studied anthropology and Asian studies in college – we focused a lot on Indonesia and SE Asia, so I’ve always wanted to go. I told Mr. CD that the only reason I married him was because he’s ethnically Chinese-Indonesian, and I wanted my own personal tour guide and translator to the Indonesian Islands.  I’m still waiting for my tour.  I really want to see Bali, Borneo and Sumatra, though the latter is not that safe because they are anti-Chinese and occassional riots do break out.

We call these "lembu," also known as a wax apple though it tastes nothing like an apple. It is 50x better! If these are in season, I plan to eat a whole lotta them! They are the BEST fruit in the world and you can't buy them here at all. Like peaches and strawberries, they are hard to import/export.

I will be gone for a few weeks.  I’m just busted my butt to get lots of charting done on a project so that I can work on it on my trip.  I’ll need to bring something easy too. Perhaps I’ll get lots of charity knitting done this year. I think I will knit and donate to the same charity that I did last year.

As far as blog posting, I have already scheduled for at least 1 post while I’m gone.  If I can get decent internet access, I will try to post about my trip while I’m there.  In the meantime, I wish all my American readers a very Happy Thanksgiving.

Ad Help

Recently, I was lucky and quick enough to snag one of the very coveted and rare featured pattern spots on Ravelry.  I have an ad spot that will run during the last 2 weeks of November.  The irony? I won’t even really be able to enjoy and click to see my ad that much since I will be traveling overseas and will have very intermittent internet access during that period.

Anyways, unlike other Ravelry ads, I can only select ONE image to run during that 2-week period. I have until Nov. 11 to submit the final ad, but I am having a very hard time deciding which pattern and ad to feature. Friends, I need your help to narrow down my options.

Which of the following ads do you like better? Which pattern or ad design do you think is more appealing and would cause you & other knitters to ooh and ahh over if you saw it? Please help and answer in the poll below.

ETA: I changed the ads and poll a little (only #9 and #10) because apparently we cannot advertise e-book – only individual patterns.

Thanks so much for your help!

Fashion Police & Fiber Fest (part 2)

Call the Fashion Police!

In Southern California, the weather is kind of odd. We can have really warm 80-90 degree Farenheit weather during the day, but at night it can dip into the chilly 60s.  I’d like to use the excuse that I’m still not used to this weirdness because I’m originally from Houston, Texas.  However, I can’t and only have my own idiocy to blame.  I lived in the San Francisco Bay area for about 4 years and have been in SoCal for about 8 years now. That “not used to” excuse is totally unbelieveable.

Anyway, my knitting group met and sat outside on a patio this week. Knowing that it was a very likely possibility, do you think I prepared for a rapid evening cool-down? Of course not!  I only had a thin courduroy jacket on so I got really cold by about 8pm and so I dug through my car and came up with 1 glove, my orange Pfeiffer Falls and a large beach towel (a free promo my hubs got a while back). Isn’t that lovely .com embroidery fancy?

My friends thought I looked funny. So I took some self-portraits of this horrible knitting fashion faux-pas so y’all can have some laughs at my expense.

Torrance Fiber Festival, Part 2

 

I didn’t really purchase much and really wasn’t planning on purchasing. However, a lovely cone of 8/2 Tencel yarn in a lovely icy blue just kept calling my name.  And when I saw that Rebecca got Maria Erlbacher’s book, I knew that I had to go find and get one for myself.

My friend Cindi also posted some of her photos from the festival on Facebook, so I am posting those for your viewing pleasure. Thanks Cindi!!

Torrance Fiber Festival

Yesterday, Cindi, Barbara, Neesie and I carpooled to the Torrance Fiber Festival where we met up with Amanda and Lydia, and our friends from San Deigo: Michelle, Rebecca, Kelie and several of their friends who all drove up for the event.

The fiber festival is rather small, but nonetheless it’s still a fiber fest and one of the few ones locally, and it’s still fun. Lots of yarns, fleeces, roving and gadgets were appropriately fondled and petted.

(click on images to enlarge)

Photos: Top row: Denise and Cindi shopping at one of the boothes; Row 2: Barbara with her effervescent smile; Village spinnery’s booth; Row 3: I got goofy and made them pose for a self-portrait; Rebecca, Michelle, Cindi, Denise and me; Row 5: Cindi; the sock on the left had tiny tiny stitches (I’m guessing it was knit on US 00 needles or smaller.)

We didn’t stay at the festival very long, but we all walked away with some small purchases.  I got a cone of 8/2 Tencel yarn in a lovely icy blue and Maria Erlbacher’s Twisted-Stitch Knitting book. I also ran into several other fiberistas that I know from a former knit/crochet/spin group (which I  haven’t attended in about 6 months) and a couple of other people with whom I’ve crossed paths.

With our stomachs growling, we all (13 of us) went to a yummy Japanese noodle shop and had giant bowls of piping hot ramen. We all nommed and slurped our way through a large portion of our respective bowls.  There were some burnt tongues too, but it was worth it.

Photos: We got silly at our end of the table and decided to take a picture with everyone wearing one of my Liberation hats, which I brought with me because I couldn’t decide which one to wear; Rebecca and Michelle looking so cute and adorable.

Barbara and Cindi took some other pictures, which I’m hoping they’ll upload and share soon, so I can steal some of them to post. 

When Bad Things Happen to Good Knitters

We’ve all been there, right?  I know I have. Um, many times in fact. I recently did something really terrible and had a near panic attack at 2 a.m.  (I’d love to tell you about it, but I can’t because it’s related to a secret project.)

In preparation in getting Liberation out in a timely manner, I employed a few sample knitters to help me make some of the hats. So far, nearly every single one of them have turned out great, been on time and had great finishing work. (And finishing really make these hats.)

being a little goofy with the oversized Eleanor Roosevelt hat.

However, Eleanor Roosevelt has hit a snafoo.  A really good knitter had a bad day with the hat. It appears that she may have been overly agressive in the blocking and ended up over-blocking all the pieces horizontally.  The result? Gauge that is really really off and a hat that can probably fit an elephant. Okay, so I’m exaggerating about the elephant.

So, what was supposed to be a finished size of 19.5″/ 49cm ended up being a little over 24″/ 61cm! My poor sample knitter is so stressed about this and didn’t know how to fix it. (If you are reading this – don’t stress! I have confidence it’ll all work out in the end.) I’m not sure how I’m going to fix it yet either – I still need to examine everything a little closer.  I think though, I will disassemble everything, attempt to reblock to the right size and see if it’ll work that way. If not, I will have to try a new plan of attack, or ripppppppit and reknit.

Winners Roll Call & Previews

Klutzy Giveaway

Remember this contest?  I’ve already posted the winners here and also on Ravelry in this thread in the Crafty Diversions Group.  I still have not heard back from 2-3 Ravelers.  I will assume they haven’t been on Ravlery for a while (shocking, I know) and will give them 1 more week to respond. After that, I will move all the winners up to their slots and begin sending stuff out.

For those who have responded, thank you for your patience.

Preview: Liberation

I’ve talked a little about my hat collection Liberation in some previous posts and I’ve already posted some sneak previews of a couple of them… Well, the collection is almost ready!  I’m going to be doing a photo shoot this afternoon and probably at least another one later in the week.  Then shortly after I get the photos in order, I will be listing the ebook for presale very soon.  All the patterns in the ebook collection will also be available for individual purchase. And if you are on the mailing list, look out for a special offer code (hint, hint). If you are not, sign up here.

The patterns in Liberation all have a unifying theme with a shirred panel. The hats are named after women who lived in the 1920s – 1940s and made an impact in society. All of them use fingering yarn (other yarn weights would be too bulky for the shirring) and half of them are written for superwash yarn.

Left: Alice Paul; Right: Barbara G. Walker