Double sided Two Tone Scarf [Knitting Tutorial]

Double Sided Two Tone Scarf

I've been wanting to do a tutorial on double sided knitting scarf for a long time. The picture above is a scarf that I made for my husband few years ago. I do not take any credit on the method I use because in fact I learned this technique through www.knittinghelp.com. They have a lot of great tutorials there. This pattern does not look as boring as the other ones if you are just a beginner and ready to advance so no one knows you are just doing purl and knit. And yes, this pattern only requires you to purl and knit. Isn't that awesome? The tricky part is to change colors frequently. This scarf is thick so it is very suitable for super cold weather.


The pattern I have here is as little different from above but I believe it will still look great. I am knitting it while doing this tutorial so I don't have a finished picture yet. Hopefully I'll get it finish it soon and put up a picture here soon.

Download Pattern Here

Keep in mind, each block equals to 2 stitches [Color A: Knit; Color B: Purl]

st = stitch
K = knit
P = purl
A = Color A
B = Color B

*When knitting or purling one color strand, you will always bring the other color strand together but just knit/purl with the color you want.

Cast On: 21 st with both color strands together. [This will create 42 stitches in total]
Make sure when you cast on with both strands, the color pattern remains the same throughout [i.e. Color A, Color B, Color A, Color B...etc]

Long Tail Cast On: Make sure the color strands pattern goes consistently

Row 1: Knit both colors together, *K1 (with A), P1 (with B), repeat from * for 18 times, Purl the last stitch with both colors together. [You will basically always knit/purl the first and last stitch together]

This is how I did my knitting.

Row 2: Slip St. Begin the first row of your pattern chart. *[K1 (with B), P1 (with A)], repeat from * for 8 more times, K1 (with A), P1 (with B), repeat from * again for the rest of the row until the last stitch. Purl the last stitch with both colors again.

Row 3: Repeat Row 2 except switch the colors from A to B, B to A.

Row 4: Slip St. Begin the 3rd row of your pattern chart. i.e. *[K1 (with B, P1 (with A)], repeat from * 7 more times, K1 (with A), P1 (with B), do * once, K1 (with A), P1 (with B), repeat * again for the rest of the row until the last stitch. Purl the last stitch with both colors together.

Row 5: Repeat Row 4 but switch the colors instead.


Please also visit THIS PAGE to see a tutorial that Knittinghelp.com did for double knitting.

The rest of it should make sense by following the chart. Please feel free to leave a comment if you have any questions. Hope you have fun knitting this two color scarf! :)

Petting Food: Marugame Monzo

Went to this Udon place in Little Tokyo this past Sunday and enjoyed some very nice udon. 

Date	August 3rd, Sunday night, quite crowded
Parking	♥ You know how it is for Little Tokyo’s parking. You either get lucky enough to park on the streets, or you pay for public parking. We had to park quite far for to get a street parking. And you know how it gets a little be creepy at night on the streets so I would actually prefer public parking that’s close to the restaurant. (I normally park next to pinkberry if I go to Little Tokyo)
Wait Time	♥♥ It was about 15-20 minutes wait for four of us. But compare to Daikokuya next door, I do consider the wait time to be short. The restaurant is not that big, so you will have to wait for sure. Please note that this restaurant might not be the best place for large groups.
Cleanliness	♥♥♥♥
Food	When you enter the restaurant, you can see a udon chef hand-rolling the udon dough inside the kitchen. All the udon in this restaurant is hand-rolled which makes the udon chewy but smooth. My husband tried this Sea Urchin Cream Udon. The taste of the cream and sea urchin matches perfectly well. Their creamy soup is not like the ones in Fu Fu Tei [which is more soup and salty]. This Sea Urchin Cream Udon is creamy and thick, but not as filling as it seems to be. It is a little pricier but it is definitely worth the try. You may think they might put so little sea urchin inside the soup, but that’s not the case. They actually have quite a bit of sea urchin for you to finish the udon without running out of sea urchin. Sea Urchin Cream Udon $15.95 ♥♥♥♥♥ I had this Curry Udon which comes in a thick curry paste/soup with udon and some beef inside. In my opinion, the curry sauce/soup was too thick and too salty. It would be great for rice but for udon, it was a little bit too much. I became so thirsty at the end that I couldn’t even finish the whole udon. The sauce to my taste is a little bit spicier and less sweetened than regular Japanese curry. Curry Udon $9.50 ♥ Miso Cabonara $12.50 Chicken Skin
Price	♥♥ Other than the sea urchin cream udon being pricier than the other dishes, I still consider this as a pretty good deal. I do think the sea urchin cream udon is worth that price.

Marugame Monzo
329 E 1st Street,
Los Angeles, CA 90012
(213) 346-9762
Visit their Yelp Page here

Making a Center Pull Yarn Ball [Tutorial]

I always have a hard time keeping the yarn ball steady while knitting. Turn out my cats plays with my yarn ball because it rolls around the room as I knit - which is NOT GOOD! Saw some tutorials on doing a center pull yarn ball and it is super easy! And here you go.

1. Take your needle, or a stick of any kind, tie a knot around it, leaving a 4-5 inch tail.

2. Leave a little space and start wrapping your needle with yarn.
(The reason to leave some room between the tied knot and where you start wrapping is so that you can easily find the tail after you're done)

3. Keep wrapping in different directions. You can turn the yarn ball around and wrap it in many angles to create a "rounded" ball. I stayed close to the edge of the needle/stick because it's easier to wrap.

4. Untie the knot and take the yarn ball out. [Or do the opposite]. And there you go. A nice rounded yarn ball with a tail from the center. 

Hope you liked this brief tutorial. I've also been thinking of what to do for my next project. Maybe some knitting. Below is one of the scarves that I've knitted a few years ago. It is a double sided two-tone scarf. Some of my friends have been asking me to do a tutorial on it so maybe I'll start a new one. :) Stay tuned!

Double sided two-tone scarf

Nexcare Acne Care - Pimple Bandage/ Pimple Patch

Do you have Acne problem? Do you always squeeze your pimple to try to get rid of it? And do you actually see scars on your face because of that?

I've always squeezed my pimples out since I was young because that's what my mom taught me to do. But as I grew older, I have heard many people saying that we shouldn't be doing that because it actually creates scars. Fortunately, I don't see much scars on my face even I did squeeze my pimples out. But squeezing them out is definitely not a pleasant feeling as it sometimes causes bleeding, it hurts, and it's gross.
Here's what I would recommend - Nexcare Acne Dressing (Pimple Patch)

I've been using these for more than a year and I am amazed by how well it cures acne. I've used these for big and small pimples on my face. [If you have pimple on your body, I think it should work the same way].
What it does is, it absorbs all the things inside the acne without you squeezing it with your hand.
I usually put one of these after I wash my face at night. Leave it there over night and it should already absorb most of the stuff. But usually I will use another one in the morning before I do my make up and just leave it there for the rest of the day. And yes, you will look a little bizarre with a patch on your face but honestly, it's not that obvious unless someone looks at you closely. I normally just tell people it's an acne patch and they wouldn't bother afterwards.
Of course, if you don't feel comfortable for people seeing you with a "thing" on your face, you can put some acne cream during the day and just use these at night. But trust me, they will speed up the healing process.

1. When the acne first started to hurt, you can see some white stuff in the middle (usually meaning it's ready to pop out)
2. Putting a patch on after that
3. After one night, you can see that some white stuff has already been absorbed
4. After using two of these patches, it is obviously much smaller and less obvious now.

Each pack of these comes in big and small patches (12 big ones and 24 small ones = 36 in Total) You can easily find these on eBay.com. Just search "Nexcare Acne Dressing" and it should come up with a lot of options. Get more of these if you're ordering from overseas (usually cheaper but shipping is slower). Or you can make sure you get these from the area where you're at so you can get it faster.

One tip from using these, MAKE SURE TO CLEAN YOUR FACE BEFORE APPLICATION. Do not put any lotion, toner, acne cream, ANYTHING on top of your acne before applying these because you're just going to end up wasting the patch. It will come off easily if you do so. However, you can feel free to use whatever you want on your face after you put on the patch.

Hope this helps! Thanks for reading!

Petting Food: Pho Filet

Went to this restaurant the past July 4th for lunch as I've been craving for Pho for a long time. Since I've moved to LA county, I never really had a nice pho. Westminster, Orange County always has the best pho!
A couple of friends recommended this restaurant since it's close by, and it is also very famous for it's Filet Mignon. Yes, it sounds delicious!

Visit their Yelp Page Here

Date	July 4th, Saturday, crowded.
Parking	♫♫ (out of 5) Not much space. We had to park on the streets
Wait Time	♫♫♫ (out of 5) It was about 15-20 minutes wait. Considering it was a federal holiday and there wasn't many choices left, it's actually not bad. We did have to share a table at the beginning, but after we've ordered our food, a booth was opened and we switched.
Cleaniness	♫♫ (out of 5) Honestly, it doesn't look very clean. I didn't pay much attention to the floor, but it just feels like one of those Asian restaurants... Not clean. But if you don't pay attention to it then you can still survive.
Food	♫♫♫♪ (out of 5) The Filet Mignon pho is pretty good. It came rare and the soup gradually warms it up and gets it cooked. Well, this is pretty much how all rare beef pho is, except this is filet mignon. The filet mignon is tender, but it is chopped off into small pieces. Some might like it, but I can’t really taste the beef. The soup base is nice though. I like how they put extra ginger into the soup, which is different from other pho places that I’ve been to. I don't think the MSG was too strong even though I've drank 1/3 of the soup.  On top of the pho, I’ve also ordered an Avocado Milk Shake. I’ve tried one in Westminster long time ago. This one is actually pretty good too. It is not as “heavy” and “filling” as the one I’ve had before. It tastes light. However, the soup from the pho was too strong that took me awhile to finally get the taste of the avocado.
Price	♫♫♫♫♫ (good deal!) $6 for a small bowl of pho. I consider it as a reasonable price. $2 for Avocado Milk Shake. Pretty good deal. You won’t be able to get a drink for only $2 now at a regular boba place.

* ♫ = how good it is.


** Update on 7/28/2014: We actually just found out there's actually another Pho Filet 2 in Rosemead which is cleaner and bigger. Visit their Yelp page here.

My New Awesome Dresser

After moving in here for a year, I have no place to do my make up so I always had to do it in the bathroom. This was fine until my husband and I start to fight for the bathroom. And on top of that I have no storage in the bathroom for other supplies because I have way too many stuff in the bathroom. So I finally persuaded my husband to get me a new dresser.

With limited space in our room, we cannot afford a whole piece of dressing table (which I would actually love too). So I found this piece of dresser/drawer with an attached mirror on the top at Ikea. For the whole week, I was trying to look for the same dresser at Craigslist but got no luck. So I dragged my husband to get this with me on Saturday morning. I was so excited and so happy that I got it because I finally have a spot to do my make up, and store all my little things. :)

For those who have limited space, I highly recommend this. It is just as wide as my bookshelf with 6 drawers.

I am in love with the mirror. You can even store jewelry there. A mat is included when you purchase this drawer. I still haven't got a chance to lay out my jewelries because I am too used to getting them stored.

The top two drawers are very shallow and can't put much stuff (I think they are intended for jewelries).
I got these jewelry trays at Marshall ($25/3 trays) and I was able to organize my little things very nicely.
As you can see, I put some make up brushes here too because they are too tall, it wouldn't fit the drawers below :( This is one of the down side of this drawer.

I basically moved most of daily make-up tools and stored them in the containers that I already have. I am not a very organized person but I'm loving how it looks to me so far. :P

I really love this little container which I got from Daiso. They have all these little cute containers. :)

Just want to share my joy of getting a new dresser here. :) Thanks for reading!

Reusing Wedding Bouquets

A lot of people had tried to persuade me in using real flowers at my wedding so it wouldn't look "cheap". But I insisted in using silk flowers, not just because it is way cheaper and easier to handle, but also because I can keep the flowers and put it around my home. I always feel sad to see real flowers die and go to waste.

 This is my bouquet. And it turns out to look very nice as a home decoration. :)

This is the bouquet for my bridesmaids. I got it from Afloral.com and wrap it around with ribbon (But obviously the ribbon is coming loose after it was thrown all around)

The little blackboard was used in the wedding also asking people to instagram tag us. I've reused it as a home decoration also. (P.S. No one actually used the tag... T.T)

Anyways, thanks for reading this! :)

DIY Centerpiece for Wedding

DIY Centerpiece for Wedding

This is actually my centerpiece for my wedding dinner. The advantage of making these: They are EASY to make. They are INEXPENSIVE [at least to me]. And they do NOT look cheap.

A lot of people have tried to convinced me that using real flowers are not expensive [if you know where to get it], and they are prettier. Yes I agree. But I don't have the time to arrange them, and I don't have the money to ask someone to. Silk flowers are the easiest to get prepared [saves time for decoration helpers to set it up], and very easy to carry. I actually finished preparing them about 3 weeks prior to my wedding and it reduced a lot of stress for me! So I'll stop talking, let's do this!

WHAT YOU NEED:

+ A Fish Bowl	Walmart, Dollar Tree, Joann, Michaels.. they all carry it. They are all the same price $1
+ 2 yards of Tulle	If you think you have to get it in Joann's... No. That's what I thought too, but the Walmart next to my home actually sells fabric, and they are much cheaper! So do check out some superstore Walmart around you and you can save some more.
+ Thin Ribbon	I just got 2 rolls from the $1 section at Walmart
+ Flower Petals	I got mine from those party shops in downtown LA but I found out Dollar Tree actually has flower petals too. $1 for 200 petals. 1 bag was enough for my 13 tables.]
+ Stones	Dollar Tree again, I used 3/4 bag per bowl. End up using about 10 bags for 13 bowls
+ 8" or 9" Mirror	I actually got them from eBay, which actually cost a lot! I found that Joann actually has 9" Mirror for only $2.99. They do carry it in store, I've bought them before. And remember if you apply your coupon you probably can get it for even cheaper
+ Silk Flowers	Afloral.com Their silk flowers are actually in pretty good quality

HOW TO:

1. Wrap the bowl with the Tulle and tie it with the ribbon. If you think the tulle is too thin, you can wrap two layers and even mix and match colors. This will give more color to the bowl.

2. Put the stones inside the bowl

3. Place the silk flowers in the bowl, making sure their stems spread out like a tripod so it will stand properly.

4. Place the bowl on the mirror and spread flower petals around.

 DIY Numbers for Centerpiece

 And on top of that, I actually printed numbers and place it on a pink card [which is a left over from my invitation cards], then wrap it around with the ribbons I got left. Then use a hot glue gun to glue a wooden stick to the back of the card. You can easily find wooden stick at Walmart's Art & Craft section.

Hope you enjoy making these. Thanks for reading!

DIY Bows

DIY Bows

To begin this, I would like to tell you why I decided to make these. Basically, I wanted something special for my wedding, a theme maybe. And that's why I came with the idea that everyone should wear a bow tie on the wedding. And since my wedding budget is limited, and I don't like real flowers (I mean I like them, but it's just sad to see them die and being used for just one day or few hours), so I decided to make bows for all the wedding helpers to substitute the idea of a corsage. 

And here is the tutorial for the bow. (Thanks to smarmyclothes who created this beautiful tutorial for fabric bows.)

So the idea is basically the same except I used different fabric.
I used Chiffon and Lace instead. And the center piece of ribbon, I bought it from Joann.
For 30 bows, you'll need:
- 1 yard of Chiffon
- 1 yard of Lace
- 1 roll of Glitter Ribbon (~3 yards)
- 30 safety pins or alligator clips [I used safety pins for helpers' corsage and alligator clips for bridesmaids' hairpiece] You can get these easily on Walmart, or eBay

Each piece of bows need about a letter size Chiffon [8.5" x 11"]
And approximately [7"x4"] of Lace if you put it behind the chiffon, or [6"x3"] of Lace if you put it in front.

I actually didn't do an exact measurement for the Lace because I just cut it after I've finished sewing my chiffon piece, so I will know exactly how big I need to make it look nice.

Hope you'll enjoy making these! Thanks for reading!