I'm all squares!
A great charity/community project is on-going at Mason-Dixon Knitting. Kay and Ann are organizing an Afghanalong, collecting 8-inch handknit squares from all over the world to assemble into blankets for Afghanistanis. I'm sure every knitter/crocheter has some stash or remnants somewhere, why not make good use of them for people who really need them?

Back in November last year, I was busily knitting the leftovers from Jiyuan's Sweetness sweater into 3x3 garter stitch squares to make a pair of squares slippers but never got around to assembling them. The sweetness sweater turned out too big despite my re-sizing it to a child's size that it'll fit her in another few years time.

Anyway, the other night while I was knitting away on a square, the thought struck me that I could actually assemble 4 such smaller squares and whip a garter stitch border around them to make 8x8. I began sewing the squares but found that the cast off edge created a stiff and unsightly seam. So I unpicked the cast-off rows and grafted them together. Now, I'm a novice grafter and had to repeat "Ridge, valley, ridge, valley" in my head in order to get the garter stitch right. For the sides, I used a sort of mattress stitch. The final product is a bit wonky but at least there are no seams except for the picking up for the border which I've yet to do. Let's see how the squares'll turn out.

Of roses and scallops
The crochet scarf is finally finished. Looks like I can only get to wear it next winter though, as spring has arrived in full force and the temperature broke above 20 degrees Celsius this afernoon. The colour is actually duskier than it appears here.



The sun is also shining on our family today as Chung Yi has gotten much better from her bronchiolitis and is willing to drink her milk again. That really gave me a break from my worries and some mood to fiddle around with the digital camera.

What else did I crochet recently? This. It's a coin purse from a Japanese pattern, work in close scallop stitch. The yarn and snap used are Hamanaka from Japan as called for by the pattern. It's a sturdy yarn well-suited for the purpose. I've made a longer one to hold my lipsticks and stuff more than 3 years ago and am still using it.

Cookies
How can I tell people that I knit when Ji Yuan has not a single handknit wool sweater to wear to school this really cold winter? I forced my fickle self to focus, put down all the other 'just started' and 'half dones' to work single-mindedly (well, almost, except for the crochet scarf) to work on the Cookie Sweater from Miss Bea's Rainy Day. Whew! Finished just in time for last weekend's cold weather but Ji Yuan still caught a cold. The sweater took 6 skeins of Steinbach Wolle Thick Merino.

A better tomorrow
Both my children are sick. I hardly slept a wink last night as my baby, Chung Yi, kept dozing off but woken by her own coughing. The 3 year-old Ji Yuan fell twice in school, probably felt drowsy from the medication. She bruised the right side of her face and cut her lower lip with her own teeth during the fall. My poor children. As the Chinese saying goes: being a parent for a 100 years entails 99 years of worrying.

Needless to say, I work not a stitch after coming back from the office yesterday. I did manage to work a few rounds on the rose motif of the crochet scarf on the bus journey home. I'm using Anny Blatt Merinos in a dusky magenta colour. The pattern, from a Japanese pattern book, starts with 2 rose motifs, then worked all the way in treble/fillet stitch followed by 20 cm fringe. For symmetry's sake, I'm going to work 2 more rose motifs at the end.

Thanks to Chie who left a comment that I could post photos on this blog. I still haven't figured out how to do it though. Let's hope I can sort it out and post a picture of the scarf when done.

I can't believe i'm blogging
At last. My first blog entry. Got to go figure out whether I can post photos on this blog.

The crochet scarf is nearing the finishing line. It's starting to look long enough and I'm itching to attach the fringe now but I'd better wait for tomorrow when I'm not as laden with sleep.