Little Purl of the Orient: February 2010

The Year of the Tiger is now into its 2nd day. Hope everyone would have a great year filled with good health and lots of happiness!

This Chinese New Year has thrust itself upon me kind of abruptly. Work has been so busy prior to this that all the preparation zoomed by me. Thanks to my in-laws who took care of almost everything. This year, I didn't have time to Spring Clean our place (it remains littered with stuff all over the place, luckily we are not having many visitors) nor time to go to the hairdresser to get a hair cut which I badly need (you are not supposed to cut your hair during the first 15 days of Chinese New Year lest you cut your wealth away). Luckily my girls did had their hair trimmed and my husband got some new garments for them.

No matter what, I did squeeze in some knitting from my last post till now. Well, it's been almost a month! I've been missing cables and seeing Joujouka's lovely Short Vest (ravelry link), I need to make one too. And there is the bag of Bartlett yarn waiting in stash so I cast on. Not sure how to describe this colour, I asked my daughter and she said it's hmm, pinkish, purplish, hmm, let's call it grey. Bartlett Yarn calls it Light Heather.

This was actually my swatch. With no sleeves, I chose a front to swatch-knit. And my gauge was spot on, even the row gauge. Hmm, cables. They are so fun to make and went quite fast. I had some trouble with the armhole band. The number to be picked up as written is too many and had to reduced by about 10%.

In no time (well, it is a rather short vest), it is done and blocked. I saw this light grey wool shirt dress at the shop opposite my office and thought I would get it and mimic the styling in the pattern book. My husband and elder daughter, JY, don't quite like it. Well, it's not my usual style either but why don't. It's the New Year!