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.

Big plans but ...

I had big plans for the 2 days off work that I took to accompany my little one on her first days at summer school. I would have to wait 3 hours for her; and 3 hours times 2 days, I would most probably have the Ribbed Wrap Top to wear by this week. If I'm lucky, I might even whip up an OSW, doesn't it take just a couple of hours? Anyway, I had better start swatching for new bus projects when I return to work on Wednesday. I can't decide if the pale pink ribbon yarn should be a Green Gable or Orangina. It's close to a DK weight, so for either top, I would have to re-calcuate. Orangina would be easier to figure out though.

So it is now Wednesday night and all the aforesaid plans have become fat hopes. Plagued by the Clammy Hands and now compounded with a splitting headache, I knitted but a few rows, well maybe about twenty in all of the past weekend plus 2 days on the back of the Ribbed Wrapped Top. And definitely no OSW is in sight, I didn't even have a chance to take those yarn out from the cupboard. My days off have the amazing ability to just sizzle away. However, I did have a wonderful night out with Mimi and her family who is visiting Hong Kong and Eva. Before dinner, I took Mimi yarn shopping at Cheerwool and now I can't stop thinking of the bamboo yarn that she bought and how good an addition it would be to stash. Speaking of which, I've completely blown stash control, a staggering 21 balls of yarn were added to stash in July.

I'm glad that one more of my WIPs has been cleared with the completion of the Rainbow Cardigan. Next up should be the crochet top plus dress for JY to be followed by the Short 'n Sweet Bolero. Just that I'm loosing a bit of steam here and can't seem to finish the few rounds for the neckband and armhole bands. Maybe I should go start something new and humour myself.

My Tuesday is random

According to the Chinese calendar, yesterday (3rd July) was an auspicious day for cutting of fabric for dressmaking. The calendar is my mil's and I seldom consult it but feeling the need for some good luck, I'd plan to start cutting for the keyhole top (#1 from previous post) yesterday evening, however, time (or rather, my children) was not permitting. The next auspicious day is 9th July, this Sunday. I would need to give my two kids as much exercise as possible during the day and hopefully they would be asleep by 8 pm.

A new pair of knitted socks done, totally enabled by Grumperina who sent me the Greenwood Fibreworks sock yarn plus the pair of Inox aluminum dpns to knit this pair with as Kathy warned that this yarn doesn't like the bamboos that I normally use. And soft is not a good enough word to describe this pair of socks. They literally hug my feet when I put them on this morning. Thanks, Kathy!

Remember the crochet I was working on earlier? I've joined it to half yard of Martha Negley fabric from stash hoping to turn it into a dress for JY. The idée is not mine, it is from Marie Claire (in the magazine, the bodice is knitted though)! And I remember Erin did something like that too last year.

Le problème: The crochet is too loose around the bust area (click here for the uncrinkled photo) but JY is already having a bit of trouble getting into it. I've thought of ripping off some rounds and adding a slit as opening for buttons but as it is worked in the rounds, the change of direction of the crochet when worked flat would be very noticeable. So the shortest cut solution I thought of is presented in the photo above: thread a ribbon through the crochet stitches (so convenient!) to act as a drawstring, then attach two narrow grosgrain ribbons as straps. I'm thinking, one end of the strap would be sewn in while the other end would have a button which will be buttoned into the natural 'buttonhole' created by the gap between the crochet stitches for ease of putting it on. From experience, I know that crochet straps are very stretchy and will sag in no time hence the idea of using ribbons as straps. The amount of yarn I have left is rather limited, maybe about 10g of each colour.

My solution seems to me to be workable but my husband thinks it's not good enough. Hence I'm all ears to any advices that you may give, I'm sure 10 heads are better than 1 (mine)! If you think the dress is a lousy idea, please do say so, it's easy to rip it off and I'll maybe turn the crochet into a … bag?

WIP Friday

Fiona is asking to show our WIPs and here's a look at other WIPers. I'm definitely one that would not be short of WIPs.

This is what the pile from the previous post working out to be. I'm tyring my hands at applique. The initial idea is to applique using the satin stitch function of my sewing machine. The base fabric is the faux suede that my machine doesn't like on previous ocassions. So thinking to save myself trouble of wrestling with the machine, I decided to applique by sewing tiny running stitches along the edges by hand. As such, I need to turn in the seam allowances and the pointy tips of the sails are giving lots of trouble, even some of the edges are crooked, so don't look too closely.

The inspiration comes from the June issue of Marie Claire Idees (pictured above) that Laurence sent to me. Plus the flashing of my blue stash also reminded me that I have lots of blue fabric to use. My intention is to sew a handy marine-theme bag to bring along with me to Macau tomorrow. As usual, things don't quite get done when they should be chez moi (Too tired tonight to burn the midnight oil, there's still packing to be done too).

We haven't been to Macau for quite a while and I do miss the food there but honestly, my first thought was whether I would be able to find chita fabrics like these there? You know, Macau being an ex-Portuguese enclave, etc. I'm not sure what chita really means but seeing Rosa mentioning it from time to time, I take it to be Portuguese fabric, please correct me if I'm wrong.

And the bag is not the only thing that I'd unrealistically wanted to finish for the trip. I'd wanted to wear Short 'n Sweet this weekend in Macau too. Maybe I could just drape whatever I have right now over my shoulder. At least it looks like it might fit this time (read here for my earlier blunders).

In the Pink

I know this month is the blue month and I have yet to start anything blue despite the mid-month creeping up on me. As much as I'd wanted to diversify from the pinks, I seldom succeed; I guess my mind just has its own rote.

Gorgeous Sweet Georgia yarn in the Kissed colourway, dyed by the lovely Felicia who went all the way to make sure these yarn, amongst others, were properly delivered. Can't decide yet whether they should become pink socks, pink gloves or a pink shawlette.

Hot pink ribbon yarn (132g), my elder daughter's choice from the old lady yarn stall (note: not store but stall) at Jardine Cresent market where Maryann brought us after last Saturday's Knit in Public. Any suggestions for cute girl's tops or tanks?

The palest pink ribbon cotton yarn (351g) for mummy me also from the old lady. Maybe a pink Green Gable. All seven balls for the price of 1 ball of Rowan, how can I not bring them home. They do have a strange industrial smell though which I hope will be washed off.

Pink with orange and a dash of yellow. Simple crochet for my daughter. While I used to scoff at plain projects, I notice that I'm more and more taken with them. The more mindless the better, bring on the stocking stitch, the trebles (or if you like, double crochet), they do an amazing job in soothing.

Before I forget, May stash report: 17 balls were decreased, mostly from destashing and giving some to friends. So you see, I have all the more reasons for the above additions.

Short n Sweet?

I should give you more details of my new crochet project. Last Wednesday after work, Marjorie, Maryann and I had a brief meetup to pass each other some stuff and Marjorie lent me her newly received Happy Hooker book. I immediately fell in love with this bolero called Short 'n Sweet and found that I actually have yarn in stash that's the same gauge as that called for.

Ignoring all the warning bells from my previous crochet experience, I zealously dug out the Rowan Denim frogged from the failed Delta of last year and started hooking. First, to determine if the denim yarn is of the right weight, I did a swatcch and the pattern conveniently included a gauge in single crochet, this is almost the equivalent in knitting whereby a gauge in stocking stitch is given instead of the stitch pattern. I got gauge spot on, a good sign. Next came the sizing issue. For this pattern, the small and medium have a respective finished size of 27" and 32.5" which is designed to fit approximate bust size 27" (?!) and 36" respectively. My bust size is neither 27" nor 36" but somewhere in between. I usually work the first size given in most patterns so I stuck with that rule of thumb. 

Not long, I reached about one-third of the back and is ready to start the front. Then the right front is soon done too. The size of the crochet is nagging me so I draped it on my body to check, kind of tricky as the piece I finished should fit round my top and back chest to form the armhole where the sleeve is to be picked up. So I took out a snug fitting cardigan of mine for comparison.

Top picture: see the inches at each side that fall short? Bottom picture: the depth of the armhole is just not enough for a comfortable fit. And the next major thing is, I'm supposed to join both back and front at this stage (i.e. after I finished the left front as well) and crochet the whole body in one piece but notice the different in length of the top and bottom pic? I took another look at the pattern in the book and realised that I overshot the back by 1 pattern repeat.

Then all other mistakes started to surface that I didn't previously notice. There are two places where I crochet the post stitches wrongly (see photos below). And worse thing, there was a big gap at the back right where I started which I'm just too embarassed to take a photo of. Actually, it is right there in the last photo of my previous post, just beneath the red skirt of Debbie.

So all this work has been abortive but my spirit is not dampened (yet)! I now have a sufficient grasp of the stitch and pattern and know what I should do to resize it to fit myself. But first, I need a breather from all these and go back to the comfort of my sock knitting for a while.

Revival of some oldies

New cabinets means cleaning, packing and digging up ghosts from the past. My husband sometimes grumbles about my numerous bags of yarn tucked in every foreseeable nook and corner of our bedroom. Wait till he knows that some of my stash is in the office. I pride myself that I can most of the time remember exactly what I have and where which yarn is put. My stash is very modest, you see. That's what I thought all the time until today. This morning, I arrived rather early at the office and decided to enter some data into the worksheet kindly shared by Jody. Tap, tap, tap, I typed away; yes, my stash is in my head. In no time, I found that the number of balls soared pass to 200! It may be a molehill to some of you but you have to know how tiny Hong Kong flats are to appreciate that that's a lot of yarn for me; some of your living rooms may be the size of my entire flat. There are a lot of scarf yarn, sock yarn that look so innocently small in quantity but it's unbelievable how fast yarn accumulates. Having said that, there're still yarns like Blackwater Abbey, Beaveslide and Peace Fleece calling to me. Presented with this data, I'll definitely try to work through my stash this year before placing orders.

So what do I plan to I revive? This green cardigan WIP from last spring. The yarn looks like the right gauge for the vintrage pink cardigan from Spring IK (by the way, check out the Summer preview, makes me look forward to receiving it). But then, the lacey cuff where I last stopped, stared back at me and asked me to carry on. The cuff took me ages to finish and the lace rib is much faster going, hopefully, I would have a cardigan for myself next spring. I couldn't help but make the crochet frills on the divide between the cuffs and the sleeve to see how it fits. Here's the close up.

I also picked up the grannies square. The tally now is 45 out of 144, another 99 to go. At this rate, I'll be lucky to have a granny square blanket in two springs' time. Anyway, I'm now left with the 'bleh' colours. I think I could use some orange to zest things up. One ball of orange yarn added to the stash isn't too much, is it?

Red is for ...

With the problem of the FBS put aside, I was able to finish the red scarf. It took one skein of Rowan DK Soft (Colour 172) which produced a nice, airy fabric, suitable for a light, dressy scarf. The pattern is from this Japanese book. If you love accessories, this book is for you. This is how the scarf looks like in the book.

Red is for Chinese New Year too. And we went out shopping today to get immerse in the CNY ambience. Around this time of the year, there are special markets set up to sell CNY goodies. We didn't go to one like that but a normal market in Wan Chai and the crowd and ware are just as festive.

Nestled among the stores is this one selling handknit sweaters. There are piles of them in all sorts of stitch patterns and styles. They are probably knitted in China. I quickly snapped a shot as Hong Kong hawkers are not the friendliest people on earth.

Then we went shopping at Knit Happens! No kidding, see. Special delivery by Erika who is visiting Hong Kong. The yarn are in the bag are actually for my colleague, Terry and Eva. The lovely sheep tape measure, a gift from Erika. Kids, husband and I met up with Erika and Marjorie at our favourite Cheer Wool and then a drink at the Pacific Coffee. We had a nice chat and in our excitement, I forgot to take a photo of us.

Random Thoughts

FBS

I've been exceptionally focused this week or should I say, my resolve to complete the FBS has been strong. I'm having the same focus with my work which is making me feel accomplished. Nothing can pull me away from the FBS and I'm enjoying and 'getting' the lace pattern. Having said that, it is still growing at a snail pace of 8-10 rows every night. And the ball of Cherry Tree Hill Lace Merino is surprisingly long lasting, it never seems to be getting any smaller. Maybe I should ask my mother-in-law whether she prefers a shoulder wrap size shawl or a big triangular one.

Red Scarf

It is going slowly on the bus rides as the flu is giving me sore eyes and most of the time, I just close them to rest. I'm using Rowan DK Soft (discontinued yarn, I guess?) and it is awful to rip. I made a mistake, pulled out the stitches and the yarn snapped. The fuzziness is also giving the scarf a worn-out look. I don't know if the finished product would be presentable enough.

What shall I knit next?

1) Ab Fab Stole, I'm supposed to be knitting along with Eva and Marjorie. I'm terribly behind as both of them have finished! Go see their beautiful stoles.

2) Finish Delta in Rowan Denim, I've got just one more triangle to go.

3) Start Husband sweater? By the time I complete the above two, the weather will probably get too warm for it and it won't be worn until next winter.

4) So should I start Madeleine designed by Marta using the Rowan Wool Cotton I bought from Singapore?

5) Or should I start to knit Loll from the Calmer in my stash so that I have a nice spring cardigan to wear?

Okay, no pictures for these random thoughts so a photo of some random granny squares.

28 out of the planned 144 (i.e. 19%). Still a loooong way to go.

Something Red

The bug is rather resilient this time round. Chung Yi is still coughing badly, especially during the night and hasn't been sleeping well. The poor dear is so good with her medicine that she can take it straight from the spoon with neither protest nor struggle. MIL took her to the doctor again this morning and she's prescribed a different antibiotic. Let's hope that it'll work this time. I'm not much better myself but being off for a day meant that I had to put back those hours in the rest of the week. Nobody is going to do the job for you. When I reached home this evening, both kids are already asleep so I got to work a bit on the FBS. So far, I've completed the 7 repeats of the lower basket as called for in the pattern but it looks kind of small so I'm going to knit a few more repeats, depending on how much yarn I have left.

And then I started something for the bus next week.

I first saw the Red Scarf Project from Kerstin's blog and was certain this is something I would definitely participate in. The plight of Chinese orphans may be remote to most of you but here in Hong Kong, we hear of reports every so often of hungry children, homeless AIDS orphans, abandoned baby girls. For instance, cases are abundant in Shenzhen which is the boomtown across the border from Hong Kong where locals and foreign visitors alike love to go shop for cheap goods and fake branded stuff. I haven't been there in close to 10 years but my colleagues told me the situation is not much better. There's too much of a hustle, pickpockets, etc and more importantly it's the sight of begging children that pains the heart. The children are forced to perform this 'job' and are made to work for syndicates to beg for money. God knows what they are made to do when they become older. Reportedly, some are orphans, some are abducted children, some well-bodied ones are deliberately made handicapped so that they can solicit more pity and money. The horrors. The help we can give by knitting a red scarf is so little but I guess every little bit counts.

Look who's talking

Before, I was a very hungry teddy.

My mummy fed me lots of plain white rice but I still didn't become a very fat teddy.

My mummy forgot to turn my body around when attaching my head. She didn't realise that the decrease line is showing on my chest. Oh, everyone is sick so I don't blame her. My littlest sister is running a temperature, so I'd better not talk so much now. See ya later!

Bring on the Brice

My first successful and wearable crochet garment! Here's the Brice Cardigan from Bouton D'or Hors Serie No. 12. I used 5 balls of Filatura Di Crosa Dolce Amore 100% cotton yarn and size 3mm crochet hook for the body and 2.5mm for the border. I'm happy with how it turns out. It fits Ji Yuan and I think it can still fit her next spring as I added two more rows to the sleeves at the last moment. The pieces are joined using the crochet method and surprisingly the seams are very flat, almost seamless.

So did she like it this time? Seems okay, she was excited this morning when I told her it's done. The first thing she asked was, "Where are the buttons? Mummy didn't make the button holes, darling. But I think if I use the Hello Kitty ones, they should just be able to be slipped into the border stitch. I tried to persuade her to wear it for a photo shoot but caught her at the wrong moment. See her tired and sleepy face? We just came back from a fun afternoon of bicycle riding. That's all for now. Nice weekend, everyone!

Eureka, sort of

Looks like I may not be receiving my Fall IK afterall, Bliss has the story. How appalling. I did get goodies on Saturday though: Lorna's Laces sock yarn! The pink and blue colourway is 'Baby Stripes' for my babies while the dark one is 'Ravenswood'.

I was 'good' and worked only on the Brice cardigan this weekend. I swatched the pink yarn on 3.25mm needles and the gauge turned out to be 30 sts to 10 cm. Undeterred by the fine gauge, I knitted away. But it was so boring that after a couple of inches of stocking stitch, I decided to give the crochet another try. Moreover, the reason I chose this design was because I like the stitch pattern. So I looked hard at the sleeve which in fact is better than a swatch, took out pen and paper, and counted backwards carefully trying to work out how to arrive at the right row for neck shaping. It didn't help that my gauge was off both stitch and row wise, and that the pattern is written for two sizes only, 2- and 6-year, while I'm trying to make it for a 4-year old. I'm determined to make it work and got a little 'Eureka' moment when the first front was completed. The fronts are now done, just that they are a tad narrow and I'm going to do some adjustments on the back to balance off.

Brice sleeves

Ji Yuan is into her third week in K2 and the Brice cardigan that I meant to make for her for this school year is still languishing. I'm determined to finish this and went a-hooking. At least I finished the sleeves.

And a close up of the stitch pattern and the scallop edgings.

The entire sleeve is charted so all I had to do was to crochet accordingly. Going back to the bit of front I crocheted a while back, I took a hard look at the pattern that is in words and found that I'd started it all wrong. No wonder the neck shaping didn't work. Boo-boo. So the front jumped into the frog pond. I'm thinking of a shortcut. Let me see if it works.

Just a little local tidbit: do you know that yesterday (14th) was the start of the auspicious eighth lunar month which ended the Hungry Ghost Festival? Maybe my knitting will get smoother this month.

Clean up time

I got distracted from Delta. I like Delta and all its naviness but I need some colours. To break the monotony, I did what I wanted to do for a long time, make tawashi, a.k.a. scrubbies! I got this Tawashi book and some Hamanaka 100% acrylic yarn in pink and cream from my LYS. Then I found out that I got the thinner version instead of the super thick ones called for. So I just doubled them up. They are so much fun to make that although my wrists were tired from wrenching the 8mm crochet hook, I bought two more colours, purple and lilac, to make some more. See, scrubbies in different shapes and sizes for cleaning different items. Aren't they kawaii?

Chie mentioned that these tawashi are super popular in Japan and are very good for removing grease. The important thing is to choose 100% acrylic. Essentially, the patterns are just motifs, either square or round. The cylindrical ones are so shaped for cleaning cups and glasses. Here is an interesting pattern to try out. I first saw it on Sugar Cubed. There's also an adorable duster pattern too. The new Knitty is out and I love this issue. Especially Cozy, Clapotis, Zigzag, and Boo, too. So much for now. I'll be seeing Marjorie and Eva tomorrow. There's also going to be a special guest. I'm so excited. Only that JY is feeling poorly this evening. She's well the whole day and in the evening she started throwing out and running a temperature. We brought her to the clinic; the doctor said she has probably caught the stomach flu.

Another attempt at crochet

Not daunted by my blunder on the sizing of the crochet motif top, I make yet another attempt to crochet a garment. This time it is the Brice cardigan from Bouton D'or Hors Serie #12 for Ji Yuan. The cardigan comes in two sizes only, 2 years and 6 years. Ji Yuan is going on 4 years and given my tendency to make things a little tighter, I'll make the larger size. It is so difficult for me to measure tension for crochet projects. There just aren't rows and columns to count. Here's my tiny piece of swatch, see what I mean?

For this pattern, the writer highlighted in the crochet chart where to measure the swatch so I could figure out this time. To play safe, I've started with the right front. Just in case there's a need to rip, there'll be fewer stitches. I'm using Filatura Di Crosa Dolce Amore 100% cotton yarn in pale pink and 3mm crochet hook. The yarn is ultra soft and light, it feels just like cotton wool and 50g of it gives 180m. The pattern is easy to follow and the yarn a pleasure to crochet except for the occasional snag.

Some progress has been made and I'm now about to shape the front neck but find myself at the wrong pattern row. It is a short bolero-styled cardigan, so I won't mind adding a bit of length. Hence I'm inclined to rip back to the armhole shaping to add some rows in order to arrive at the right pattern row for the neck shaping. But wait a minute, I always have gauge problem, so let me stop and check before I frog anything. I'm also going to crochet the sleeves first to ascertain the needed armhole length. Got to make it work this time. Or maybe, I'll go and knit a bit on my Delta.

Interested in some Japanese patterns? This site, found via Chie's blog, has loads of free ones. Chie gave a very good explanation on how to download the patterns. Enjoy!

FOs but...

Ji Yuan has resumed her 'normal' schedule this week. Her summer school started and will last for three weeks. This means that she won't be home in the mornings thereby giving a breather to my helper and also put my mind more at ease while at work knowing that she will need only to tend to Chung Yi. Parents of more than one small kid will understand what I mean. With both of them at home at the same time and only one adult around can be quite a nightmare. Saturdays are again busy days for Ji Yuan. She has piano lessons followed by ballet classes. These lessons allow me to do some knitting while waiting and I welcome them. Yesterday, we brought Ji Yuan to watch the show, 'Twinkle Twinkle Little Fish'by the Windmill Performing Arts of Australia. It was a delightful and entertaining show with lots of brilliant colours and dramatic puppetry. The story is based loosely on Eric Carle's 'The Very Hungry Caterpillar'. Ji Yuan knows this story from school so she was able to relate to the show and she enjoyed it as much as we did.

I've got some FOs! Here are the plaid mittens.

And I finally finished my crochet motif top.

But, alas! Pictures are deceiving and when taken like that, there's no perspective of size. I'm disappointed to say that the mittens turned out bigger than expected even though I've got gauge. I was very tempted to throw them in the washing machine to felt them smaller as I remember seeing felted mittens before. So I tried felting a small swatch by hand and it didn't felt well. So I didn't take the risk because my washing machine doesn't felt very well. I remember it took 4 or 5 times to felt my booga bag. I'll be meeting my friend, Rebecca, on Tuesday to pass on the mittens to her before she leaves for New York on Friday. I'll see if they fit her.

I don't even have to try on to know that the crochet motif top won't fit. It is way too small for me and there's no way to block it to size because it seems to fit Ji Yuan better! When I tried it on earlier, it was kind of tight but still fitted. However, the ribbings at the bottom and the neck and armhole bands just contracted the whole top by a lot. To cast off the bands, I've used the tubular method which will give more elasticity. Here's a close-up. The yarn could not be reused if I were to rip it as it was cut for each motif. So I've got to leave it as it is. I think it is a good size for a pre-teen and I'm going to offer it to my friend's daughter and I hope she'll like it.

Lesson learnt: always knit, stop, and check!

More squares and more yarn

With the load of the check-up off my shoulders, I'm feeling a burst of enthusiasm and new ideas for knitting.

Met up with friends Concon and Terry for lunch on Monday as Concon wanted to know how to crochet granny squares. These squares are really addictive and I've been fiddling with them again. The 3-round squares are too small for the blanket I have in mind so I've added a fourth round repeating with the first colour. Then I bought some black yarn, as suggested by Kerstin back in May, to make a round of single crochet to synchronize the otherwise random colour scheme as I'm using scrap DK weight yarn. There are now 8 colours in my scrap bag and making a rough calculation, I would already have 56 3-colour combinations to play with. Each square measures 7.5 cm and I would probably make at least 144 squares for a 12x12 layout. For the round of black, I've made the sc through back loop only in order to get a crisper look which brings the coloured portion more to the foreground. Here's a close-up. I learnt this technique from the book Simple Crochet.

While rummaging through the bags for more scraps, I found a couple of whole balls of Rowan Designer DK so I bought a ball of Bouton D'or Centurion in a light purple colour (all the rest are from stash) to knit a stripey vest for Ji Yuan this autumn. I have no pattern yet, maybe something with a frilly bottom edge plus a slightly bell-shaped body. Any suggestions for a girly vest?

Then my colleague who has been posted to New York came a-visiting. I had wanted to make her something to keep warm since 2 years back. She'll be here for 3 weeks and I hope to finish a pair of plaid mittens (pattern from the Blue Blog) for her to take back to New York. And this is the ball of Rowan Plaid in Moon Wave (colour #162) and the pair of 7.5mm dpns. I hope the thick yarn would make it easier for me to learn to work with dpns as I would like to learn to knit socks. Ooh, Plaid is super soft, I would love to make something for myself with that if it weren't so bulky.

Last but not least, some photos of my children taken on Sunday at a friend's house.

Butterfly lovers anyone?

The hospital stay was a pleasant and uneventful one. Only that I had to do the mammogram 3 times. I'd thought jokingly to myself that I must have too little boobs to be squeezed hence they can't take a proper image. Then the doctor ordered a ultrasound (sonogram) for my breasts too as the results showed that my breast tissues were dense and they want to rule out the c-thing. Luckily the sonogram results turned out okay. All the tests were completed in the morning but I had to wait until the evening for the test results and the doctor's consultation. It turned out that I'm slightly anaemic. I would have to take another blood test in a month's time and in the meantime, I would have to pump in those iron in my diet.

The more I wanted to finished the crochet motif top, the more it eluded me. I left the pattern at home, argh... I worked as much as my memory could take me and did make some progress. See here, all the ends so far are woven in, the bottom ribbing done but still no front neck shaping and armhole and neck bands.

Thanks to my tendency to over-estimate the amount of work I can do, I readily had other projects at hand. Out came the Jo Sharp wool for the Sampler Afghan and I cast on my 40th square in the Anemone pattern from book 2 of Barbara Walker's treasury. It turns out to be a tedious stitch pattern with all those K4tog and P4tog but the effect is quite pretty, somewhat like crochet.

After a while, my hands hurt and I switched to yet something else. I saw Chie's beautiful butterfly bookmark and had to make one myself. The pattern can be found here. Mine was crocheted from a thin cotton yarn from my stash. However, it is still not thin enough and it came out much bigger than the one in the picture. Although it may not be the right size for a paperback, it is a good size for marking the pages of a knitting book. I'm definitely going to make some more as gifts for my knitting pals.

More crochet motifs

While Amy has her two inches of her Summer Breeze Cardi (see her 9th July post), I have my couple of crochet motifs. This tank has been going slower than expected. In fact, my knitting in general has slowed down in these hot and humid summer days. The top part is not yet done but I've decided to pick up the stitches for the bottom ribbing. With a base, it is looking a bit more like a garment. The gauge is getting on my nerves. Remember it was too big earlier on? Now I'm suspecting it might turn out small, so I'm going to try it on to see if I need to add one more row of motifs before shaping the neck.

Tomorrow evening after work, I would have to check into the hospital as instructed by the doctor to investigate my unexplained weight loss. Well, my husband thinks that he knows the answer. He said that I've got the computer virus. This time, he's just trying to be funny and not being spiteful about my blogging. So, I'll take this project with me to work in between tests and let's hope to finish it up because I'm getting restless and am itching to start something new.