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Yeah, it’s only 7 days after my daughter’s birthday, today is mine. 
What did I do so far?
Had a breakfast with my friend in Cora yesterday.
Not much though, I spent the morning with my mom and daughter for a special breakfast outside.
And then, we had a buffet lunch with my family including my uncle.
what next? ha, I was trying to put Erika to nap, but she refused, after an hour and a half of struggling, she finally went to nap, and I finally had my own private time.
What did I get for bday gift? honestly, not many of them, some hand cream and therapy from my friend in Hong Kong, some ‘red pocket’ money from my family….
most friends think that I am leaving soon, and they don’t want to add more ‘loads’ for my luggage, so, they just treated me some dinners/ lunches/ breakfasts as gifts.
what did I buy for my own birthday?
of course, it’s YARN!
hahhaha
I finally was able to buy a wollmeise in “poison No.5″, it’s a mixed of dark purples, very nice yarn!
Also, I’ve got a trade for another purple wollmeise with my green one.
I am glad that the fellows in Ravelry are all very nice and helpful when you put an ISO list up there, they really ‘look’ at it and try to help.
I love the little cake that shown in my avatar today. 
Here are some pictures of Erika’s birthday celebration.
We didn’t invite any kid to come over for the party, because we think that Erika doesn’t understand what birthday is. So, we just bought her a cake, and at the same time, her great aunt and uncle came over and shared the cakes with us too.
She recieved some gifts this year but not much, because most people thought that we will leave soon , so, they didn’t want to add too many things for us to bring to CHINA.
They mostly gave us ‘money’ gifts instead. (which is good though)
However, we still received some little gifts.
SUch as a hand knitted Clown by my aunt.
She did a really good job in it. Almost every member in our family got one of her stuff toy.
A big package of cute stuffs from my friend in Hong Kong. I really love that Japanese Sandwich maker. I tried it , it’s really fun and cute, that was really a good buy.
My another aunt gave Erika two books that she really loves: one Elmo and one Mickey Mouse book.
After her birthday on Sunday, we took her to see her doctor on Monday, which was her 24 months check up.
She wasn’t very ‘happy’ to go to see the doctor, but to us (my mom and me) , we love to see him , because he is the best doctor we have ever seen …
We miss him, … I hope we can find a doctor like him in CHINA. 
and we found that in his office, he has the same style clown too, but it’s much bigger…
I had difficulty to start this shawl in the beginning.
Because the original pattern wasn’t very easy to follow, but, after searching around Ravelry, and saw other people’s notes, I found that Dorene’s version is the best. She even rewrote the chart again for easier reading. I got it and did pretty well so far.
Instead of doing two YO’s in the middle line of the shawl, I only did one, but on the wrong side, I purl once, and then purl from the back of the loop so that the ‘holes’ are smaller …
I love it so far, and I am planning to make more, like what I did for the Ishbel.
This is actually not so hard to knit (the lace part) , and I think it is a fast project too, (but not as fast as the Ishbel).
I can’t wait to see it done.
I am using Linen by Drops yarn, I love this yarn because it’s quite soft to knit, and also love its sheen.
I also got the red ones too.
The pattern is from “Ishbel”, but using Japanese yarn, so, I called it Japanese Ishbel.
And I also added some Japanese seed beads for the edge section. (yo, bead, K1, yo)
It’s fun to work with Ishbel, as I said before, it’s fast to finish!
I like this very much, and it’s perfect for spring and summer weather, while we are inside the cool air conditioned indoor area.
And this shawl, I will give it to Sandy, my best friend in Taiwan.
I will still continue the seasilk scarf for her, but, probably will finish it off in China instead.
I don’t know why I love Ishbel that much.
In fact, it’s a fast project, and I can finish one in 3 days.
I made two recently, one was using the sock yarn by Estelle Arequipa. I think this yarn is soft and elastic to knit. I love it. THe color that I chose is something like pale pink and purple. I didn’t block it yet, but once I block it, I might give it out to my friend before I leave to China.
The second that I made was using Japanese yarn. It’s not wool, I think it is something like acrylic and polyester, but, it’s light, fine, and sparkling. It’s not so soft , and some people may think that it’s itchy too. However, I really love the outcome of the shawl with this yarn, it looks so elegant and gorgeous.
I wanted to add beads to this shawl, and bought some crystals beads from Michael (they were on sale) .. however, the hole inside the beads are way too small that my 0.6 mm crochet hook can’t pass through it.
SO, i gave up to use these beads, and will use the Japanese seed beads (usually the seed beads have larger holes). And I am quite satisfied with these beads.
Hopefully I can finish it today and post the picture of it tomorrow.
I started to love using beads for shawls/scarves. I will use ‘ore-strung beads” method next time. I wanted to make another simple shawl using the crystal beads. Hopefully it will work well.
I also started another shawl called “Fountain pen shawl”, it’s from the Interweave Knits 2009 Spring issue.
IT’s a very simple project that I think I can finish it off soon too.
The yarn that I used is also summer yarn, Hempathy , a mix of hemp and cotton. Since it’s DK weight, it’s easy and fast to knit too. but, because of the heavier weight, I will do 6 repeats of the pattern instead of the 10 repeats.
I already did 2 repeats, just 8 more plus the edge , then, I will finish this shawl.
The color I chose for this yarn is some thing like teal blue, I rarely choose this color for my stash, but, somehow, I found that this color is pretty , and should look good on me.
I also added some seed beads to this shawl, it’s not as gorgeous as the Japanese Ishbel, but, I love to use beads instead of doing the nupps.
To my all knitter friends, my plan to China was changed. We were originally planned to go to Shanghai in July 31st, but my husband’s boss finally decided to move his station to ShenZhen (which is also part of China, it’s more south of it, and very close to Hong Kong.) So, we changed the air ticket and will go to Hong Kong in July 22nd, stay there for few days and then will take the van / car to ShenZhen.
Since it’s so close to HK, I can shop the beautiful Japanese yarn easily.
but, I miss all my friends in Canada/States… really miss you guys, and hope we can keep in touch no matter where we are in the world.
