Little Purl of the Orient

Husband's scarf

My husband saw this photo in one of his magazines in Spring this year and asked me to make him the scarf that the gentleman is wearing.

He wants it not too thick and in the same colours. Rather than trying to find yarns in the same colours and carrying three balls all the time with me on the bus knitting it and then dealing with all the ends afterwards, I went to my knit pal, Joy, for help. Genius Joy, dye the cake of fingering weight (not too thick) silk that Maryann gave me into self-striping yarn in very similar colours and all I had to do is knit. I completely under estimated the drapiness of silk though and it came out so limpy with the sides curling it so much that I decided to back it with a silky fabric I have in stash.

And it turns out much better. And he wears it on his business trips to Beijing all the time despite it not being warm and woolly enough for the sub-zero temperature. I'm happy that my effort on knitting on 3.4mm needles for all the 78 inches is not wasted.

She feels like dancing

You've seen the collar earlier on. Now you'll see the whole thing. Finally got the right size buttons and sewed them on yesterday.

Pattern: Brambling (size 8 years) from Rowan Little Knits. As prompted by Joy, I used 8 balls of Jaeger Extrafine Merino Aran (colour Cedar) instead of the Rowan All Seasons Cotton called for. Needles: bamboo Clover size 8 (4.5mm). Trouble: the sleeve cap won't fit into the armhole, there was not enough sleeve cap, so to speak. Well, Joy warned me but I still knitted on and you know what, I did not stop to find out what the problem was but just 'reverse squashed' the sleeve cap into the armhole, if you have any idea what I mean.

Enjoyment, lots. The yarn is lovely to work with (how sad it is going to be discontinued) and the knitting went quite fast on 4.5mm and the pattern is fun enough without being too difficult. There are nice little details like the cuffs (take care when you sew, remember to reverse the right sides at the cuff turns), the arm pocket, the back tie, the peplum, which JY absolutely loves.

I was initially worried when I chose such a 'grown up' colour for JY but surprisingly, she loves it! It's hard to take a stand-still photo of her in it.

JY's so thrilled with the sweater that she couldn't help dancing.

You might have guessed that I'm as thrilled with this project as JY by the number of photos I'm posting here. We couldn't help planning for the next one and it must have frills, says JY. Lily Chin asked me last week when we met if my kids like to wear my handknits. Honestly, the knits are usually meet with lukewarm reception, or in better situations, the three-minute warmth like we Chinese say it. JY's excitement only makes me want to knit faster. I met with Lily Chin? Yes, THE Lily Chin! More on that later, it's late now.

Sending out a little sunshine

JY's current favourite colour is yellow because it reminds her of the sunshine. This post didn't make it for Socktoberfest for me, hectic, hectic work schedule and I know I still owe lots of people emails, sorry. Anyway, here are a pair of Conwy Socks are for Olga, hoping to bring some sunshine into her world and keep her warm this cold season. See them on her feet here.

The pattern is from Nancy Bush's Knitting on the Road. And I love to knit the little cables. It is not obvious here but I messed up the toes. The yarn is Rio de la Plata, washable merino. I highly suspect the washable property as the yarn end from the cast on was already felting when I finish knitting the sock. But I do love the subtle colour changes in the yarn.

With some leftover sock yarn, I doubled it with an odd ball of lime yellow sports weight yarn to make little hats for charity. I love the mottled effect of doubling two different yarns. A knitted one and a crocheted one. I might still have some yarn to make a small pom pom for one of the hats. Hope they'll bring some sunshine to some little kiddos too.

There's another pair of socks on the needles now, the Mad Color Weave Sock in Sundara sock yarn. Both pattern and yarn are beyond delectable and I'm having such a hard time concentrating on the Minimalist Cardigan. But I shall.

I got some sunshine myself too. A lovely piece of yellow elephant fabric from Joy from her recent trip to Tokyo.

And the biggest sunshine of all is the wonderful news that nephew has his port for chemo removed from his body! The latest CT scan after the surgery showed very positive progress and there's no more need for chemotherapy. A million cheers!! Thanks very, very much for your all warm thoughts and kind words these past months. We'll continue to wish a good road to full recovery for the little fighter.