Little Purl of the Orient

Another pair of booties

It's been quite a while since my last post. My folks were in town last week and we had a rather intensive but enjoyable tour of Hong Kong and I had little time and energy to do anything else.

This pair of booties has been crocheted before my family arrived but I just wove in the ends today. The pattern is from this Japanese book from which I also made JY's bolero and CY's hoodie vest.

If you peer inside the booties, you'll notice that one has a darker base then the other. That's because I had a feeling I'll run out of yarn so I used some leftover Rowanspun 4 ply (this yarn has incredible yardage, I've got quite a lot leftover from the Tumbling Blocks cushion). Now I like the one with the contrast base better. And the cream colour edgings are also crocheted in Rowanspun 4 ply since I ran out of the cream yarn after making the motif centres. The shocking pink yarn is wool from stash.

This pair of booties is quite large and fits CY's feet. She's coming to 4 years old soon, next week. But the booties are not for CY, they will join the Saartje Booties and hat set for the Kisiizi Appeal.

And I haven't forgotten the boys, here's the beginning of another pair of booties, once again using up resources in the leftover stash pool.

Red is for Good Luck

Heartfelt thanks for your warm words. Nephew's surgery has been postponed by the hospital because of some unforeseen circumstances, not because of his condition. We and my other sils (my husband has 3 sisters) remain on our toes, ready to help with the logistics, like taking care of their other, older child. With summer holidays coming (meaning no school), it'll be a very busy few months.

Good thing the apartment renovation is coming to an end soon. I should have some time to dabble here and there in some small projects to keep my sanity. I already have 2 pairs of socks on the needles (will talk about those soon) and am planning to knit some more. I took out some odd ball Lousia Harding yarns to play with for Project Spectrum. Experimenting with making simple shapes with the hook using charts extracted from various Japanese books. They will most likely become coasters.

New in my stash is this Wall of Reds, to become a Smoulder from Rowan 31 of my own. I won't be starting this any time soon though.

I have to thank the amazing enabler, Joy, who made her stunning Smoulder and gave me her remaining contrast colours. All I have to do is to add some of the main colours, most of which are discontinued Rowan 4 ply cotton and Cotton Glace. Joy even pointed me to an ebay auction for one of the colours earlier on. The last colour, Passion, took a bit of time to hunt. Emails were even sent to yarn store in the Netherlands, Norway but with no avail. Just when I was to give up hope, Monica posted her Field Trip Report wherein she mentioned that Velona has lots of discontinued Rowan. I remember Velona, it is one of the stores where I first bought online. I purchased the set of 4 Barbara Walker Knitting Treasuries there and was happy with the service. And Velona did not disappoint this time, they do have the colour to complete my search. Ah, the thrill of tracking down and collecting discontinued yarn.

One fine day, when this cardigan gets completed, I would be a sweater twin with Joy, on top of being a sock twin.

Warm shoulders

Making things for others is equally enjoyable to me as making things for myself and my family. But I would have to say that when the project details are so specific like the tea cosy for our friend, that gave me a lot of pressure.

I enjoy the process of recognizing the knitterly (or crafty) needs that my friends might have and matching that with a project. It would be an added bonus if there's the right yarn in my stash. And strangely, I do not suffer any pangs when I give my handknits/crochet/sewing away.

And sometimes, when there's nothing else I could do to improve the situation, I turn to the my craftiness for comfort and peace of mind, hoping that it will in turn give loads of good vibres to the recipients. Like the Moderne Baby Blanket that I'm making for nephew, now left with one more border and some finishing touches.

And also this capelet, for my dear friend and colleague, who would be needing surgery next month. I do hope that the capelet will give her comfort when she recuperates at home and remind her that there is still someone who thinks about her when we go about out daily chores at work.

On a lighter note, guess who took these photos? My 6-year-old, JY. She has quite an eye, hasn't she? There are a few other good shots too, just that her hands are still too small to steady the camera and the photos came out blurry. And JY pays attention to details like when my hair is not right or something. In contrast, some of the photos my husband took made me look like a giraffe, serious. Here's a better daddy shot.

Pattern: From this Japanese book (I'm so glad I added this to my collection, love this book)
Yarn: 4 balls (and a bit of the 5th) of Rowan Wool Cotton, colour #960 (Laurel)
A photo of the capelet from the book in this post.

But then of course there are lots of candid shots when you give the camera to a kid. Here's one  behind-the-scene shot if you can stand some mess.

Busy Days and Nights

We are having major renovation works at home which will likely last for several weeks more (I hope it will not run into months). Things are all over the place and some major purging and big time packing is going on. Crafting has been reduced to a pitiful trickle and given that the Clammy Hands season is upon me here in Hong Kong again, I haven't done much knitting either on the bus journeys.

I did finish up the tea cosy for our friend, which really has been due in ages. Photos to follow after it is given to him. The Uptown Boot Socks needs another one third of a foot. Other than that, the rest of the WIPs remain very much WIPs.

But I did start something new. A crochet capelet-to-be for a dear friend who would be needing much comfort. So far I have to keep looking at the chart as the increases are spaced differently every row.

The yarn is Rowan Wool Cotton in colour, Laurel, a lovely springy, leafy green. And I'm following the pattern from this book. More photos from the book in this post.

Other than this I'll share with you some new stash. Fleece Artist sock yarn in Rose. I'm not usually fond of pink and I don't know what made me ordered this in the first place but now I love it.

Trekking Sock yarn #147. Love this too. New stash makes me happy.

On the other hand, I'm destashing the 6 balls of Jo Sharp Silkroad DK used for Maggie Tweed at the Destash blog. Check it out and email me if you're interested. Sold, thanks!

On a non-knitting front, I've finally signed up for the weekly aerobics classes organized by our building management and the classes will be held after work at our gym. Just when I'm all serious about getting more exercise and building up my body (I'm tired of being sick all the time), I'm informed that we couldn't even get the minimum 5 participants to start the class, that is out of a total of 800+ households in our 4 buildings. The building management is giving another 2 weeks to see if more interested parties will come forward. Is anybody exercising anymore?

Joining Squares

The current granny squares tally for the afghan is 18 squares, that is excluding the 15 for JY's special project. I would like to resume making the squares but there is also a queue for several near finished WIPs which I would like to get done first. My husband wants the 15 squares to be assembled by this Saturday. So here goes.

There are several ways of joining squares and I usually prefer to crochet them together rather than sew. Crocheting seems less like finishing and quicker to do too. Even with the crocheting method, there are more than one way to do it and I don't have a preferred one as it all depends on the project and the look to be achieved.

For JY's squares, I joined them using the single crochet method with the squares held right side together so that the single crochet ridge is on the wrong side.

The right side looks like this. With the burst of colours for these granny squares, I felt that there are enough details and so opt for cleaner joints on the right side. For the Sampler Afghan that I knitted a couple of years back, I chose to have the single crochet ridge on the right side.

I haven't forgotten about the black granny squares. It is not obvious here at all but I joined them together using the Flat Braid method. My mind is still not made up what to do with these yet.

Here's a lone granny square which I had wanted to make into a pin cushion after seeing this. But then, I can't find my bag of polyfil and it has been sitting there for ages. There's now a tutorial here if you're interested to make one too.

And oh, if you would like to try making your own granny squares but don't know how to do it, check out Purl Bee's Granny Square Project for a step-by-step tutorial. Have fun.

Big Granny Squares - Week 2

The output of the second week into the granny squares frenzy - 15 squares.

There are now 27 squares in total and I'm liking how it is looking. Here goes the big but blurry picture.

Late last night, my husband asked me if I could spare him 15 squares as he got some ideas how to decorate JY's bedroom with them. Of course I obliged, I love crocheting them and making an additional 15 on top of all those that I'm planning to crochet for the Queen-size bed cover would not be a problem at all. Then I thought, granny squares in JY's room plus granny squares in our room, wouldn't it be too much? So I asked husband what he thinks of that, maybe I could just border JY's squares in another colour? Anyway, long story short, a Queen-size granny squares bed cover for us would be 'useless' (in his words). What a bummer.

So the reality is that I'm just not endowed with a sweet, knit- (or crochet-) friendly husband but no doubt he is still a nice guy and the best daddy a kid can ever have. Other good deeds he'll do is like, he'll go shop for clothes for me and usually get me the right things in the right size.

Nevertheless, I'm going to make some more granny squares, still aiming to reach 36. If not for a Queen-size bed spread then maybe an afghan. And I'm going to slow down a bit on this and work on something else now, like resuming work on Maggie Tweed.

And back to black again…

I couldn't do it. I didn't rip the black borders off the small grannies. After all, they have been with me for a long while, like since 3 years ago (gasp) and when I lay them out on the floor, they do have their own kind of appeal. So I started joining them together and I'll see what I'll get out of them. Maybe a mini-afghan, a mat, a cushion, a bag or I could even frame it up.

But there is something else that I have scarificed for the big, white granny squares. It is the stripey Picovoli that I started back in November 2005 which is looking so small my husband thought it is for JY and hence has been marinating in the wip pile.

So presenting some Picovoli squares. At least there will be something to remember the foregone sweater by.

The right tool really makes the work a lot more enjoyable. I'm using this crochet hook from Clover (size 6/0) which is like the Soft Touch hook but has a wooden/bamboo handle instead of plastic ones. They are so light and smooth making the crochet much easier. This set of hook is a wonderful gift from my friend who got it from Japan.

The play of colours and a good tool, now you see why I can't stop hooking. More square photos to come when I get to lay them out on the bed this weekend.

Check out this beautiful scarf, not exactly granny square but rather, motif crochet.

The wip.

The FO.

From black to white

I'm having a renewed fervour in my granny squares. How could I remain unstirred after seeing the photos of the beautiful Petra Boase bed spread posted at Posie Gets Cozy who's making a very beautiful one  herself too? And I can't wait to see how Lyn's is turning out too. I'm sure it's going to be very striking. 

I don't know why, bigger granny squares seem so much more doable and enjoyable than smaller ones. There seem to be less ends somehow, or rather now that the rounds are getting bigger, the frequency of the ends occurring is slower. Anyway, once you're in love, you don't see the shortcomings. I've been so terribly good that I wove in all the ends at each colour change. These following squares have NO ends sticking out.

The whole week was devoted to these granny squares. Not a lot done but I seem to be crocheting when I have a free minute. I don't want to stop, it is really addicting and I'm so afraid if I stop, it might take me another year or so to pick them up again.

With the bigger rounds, my leftover yarns are been eaten up at an amazing speed. I had wanted to wait until all the leftovers stash are used up before I buy more yarn. After about 3 squares or so, I couldn't wait anymore and bought a pack of off-white and a few balls of assorted colours to mix in. I decided on a safe off-white border as I want to make sure it is an easily replenishable colour knowing it may take me a long while to finish this.

Each square is about 6-7 inches. I have no idea how many to make. An initial idea is maybe 36 or 48. Let's see.

Remember the older, smaller granny squares with the black borders? I experimented with making some solid coloured ones to mix and match but aren't they just too dark and dreary for Spring? I'll rip off the black borders and resuse them to make the bigger, white ones. Bye-bye black granny squares.

My love affair with granny squares

A blue and grey one to kick of Project Spectrum 2.

I'm really not sure if the passion is still there... I was making granny squares using leftover DK yarn way back hoping to make an afghan and here's the pile. The tally, 24 squares with black borders, 23 squares without borders and 1 odd one in another stitch pattern because I'd wanted to try something else. Crocheting them is not really a problem, and assembling them is tolerable, I foresee, but then there the ENDS. Urgh. I don't know if I should go on.

Anyway, just some granny square projects for fellow granny lovers from Japanese craft books. From the earlier Knitting Items at Home.

A granny bag from this other book.

Or this granny bag from this book.

Or a granny scarf from this book.

Or a kerchief from here? Maybe not, a triangle shawl maybe.

Where has the week gone?

Life buzzes quickly by and another week has started before I even noticed it. Last week has been a busy one both at work and at home, I somehow can't find time and my voice even for a quick blog post.

So let's begin this week with an overdue FO, JY's new crochet top/dress/whatever. She wore it yesterday to attend a new classmate's birthday party. It was a pizza making party and all the children there got to make their own pizzas and they all had fun.

But look ma, no smile, great super-model potential.

Some closer looks but the colours are off here as they are taken indoors. A close-up of the back can be seen here.

For the top, I followed an old Richmore pattern using the yarn leftover from the rainbow cardigan. The skirt part is just half yard of Martha Negley fabric joined together and gathered.

5 years passed since the horrific events that unfolded before the worlds' eyes. Let's give a thought to all those who have lost their loved ones, and remember to treasure yours too.