'Five moon five day' is actually the silly way my husband likes to refer to the Tuen Ng Festival or commonly known as the Dragon Boat Festival, celebrated on the 5th day of the 5th lunar month, which was yesterday. Ji Yuan, our elder one, went with my sister-in-law to watch the dragon boat race at the nearby Shing Mun River. And I went out for a 'business' meeting of my own.
Sometimes one thing leads to another. My friend, who works for a yarn distributor in Hong Kong, has the same wish as I, that is, to own or work in a yarn store one of these days, more for the passion than for the dough. We both have full time jobs but the notion came to us that we could contemplate starting something online. So we met up yesterday to look at some yarn samples for the coming fall/winter season and tried to work out the possibilities. Ideas raced through my mind yesterday and I felt thrilled and energized. Then I saw Margene's invigorating post which made me less afraid of Being Dumb. Maybe it's time to seriously think of putting our thoughts into action.
So what did I work on after the cosmetic purse? I knitted on with Chung Yi's little pink dress and I crochet some more motifs to make the crochet top. Each motif should be an 8cm square. I usually work tight, be it knitting or crocheting, so I deliberately loosened my tension and the first two squares measured 8.5 cm. Each round is made up of 10 squares and my width should come up 2.5 cm wider than that specified which is tolerable given that the finished width is only 40 cm. So I carried on in that gauge and finished up 10 squares and joined them together in a round. Flat, the round measured exactly as I'd expected but there's a bit of a stretch that's just disturbing so I tried in on. Look, humongous. 
I just wonder where the stretch came from? All to be ripped. I changed the hook from 4mm to 3mm and made some more squares. Top row are the new ones. I hope it works this time or else I'd be left with short strips of yarn, difficult to be recycled.
I hope you're able to get your gauge correct, because those colors are *so* beautiful and I want to see you finish this lovely sweater! Good luck :-)
My home city of Portland, Oregon has a Dragon Boat Festival every year on the main river that runs through the center of the city. It's quite lovely to watch.
Posted by: Amy | Thursday, June 24, 2004 at 06:11 AM
Well so much for crochet being free-form! I guess it can still get you into trouble. Believe me, I know the pain of gauge problems. I'm working on the Mission Falls Bay Tank and it seems so WIDE. Good luck with your business venture - I think you are very brave and I am so curious about Hong Kong yarn distributers.
Posted by: Mary Beth | Thursday, June 24, 2004 at 09:14 AM
The online yarn venture sounds promising. I remember coming across quite a few really interesting yarn stores in HK, but stock tended to be just piled high as in a warehouse and left for customers to find what they wanted. It might be an idea to try to supply some patterns as well.
Posted by: Anne | Thursday, June 24, 2004 at 10:51 PM
Go for it. That post brought so many comments. YPCA should follow your hearts. Good luck!
Posted by: Margene | Thursday, June 24, 2004 at 11:33 PM