A to Z of Me

Apple sorbert -- I made the last batch of apples into apple butter, and now it's frozen into sorbert. Perfect for the hot weather next week.
(Andrea) Bocelli -- loads of good clips on Youtube, ear candy.
Chinese -- that's who I am
Dogs -- most of my children belong in that catagory
Email -- the current inbox count is 4643 unread, and I thought I was hopeless when it went over 1,000
Facebook -- I can't believe how much I'm addicted to this website which I wasn't even using a year ago. I really should spend more time dealing with that inbox instead.
Godiva -- one of my favorite chocolates
Henry (or Husband) -- the men in my life. I was going to put in Hot fudge sundae, but Henry erased it.
Italy -- hope I can visit some day
June -- the month I was born
Knitter -- need I say more
Lemonade -- we've been making fresh lemonade this summer with the lemons I bring home from harvests, delicious stuff!
Merino wool -- preferably handpainted
Nuts -- walnuts, peanuts, pinenuts, cashew, almonds, melon seeds, pumpkin seeds, love them all
Oatmeal -- plain with walnuts and raisons. I can have it every day.
Pug -- we are one
Quail eggs -- get them from Chinese market for $0.99 a dozen, hard boiled, taste much more tender than chicken eggs.
Retreat -- our annual knitting retreat in the Santa Cruz mountains. Knitting, eating, talking to friends.
Stitches West -- my annual shopping spree, the only time I set myself loose, shop till I drop.
Trinket -- the little dog that came with a name, that's in the URL of my blog, that's more than happy to eat off of my hands.
Union Square -- shopping heaven in San Francisco
Vivian -- the name I call myself
Watermelon -- don't come between me and my watermelon
Xi Dan 西单 -- Western District in Beijing, an area I used to live in when I was a child
Yoga -- one of those things I always try to do more and will never be good enough
Zillow -- was very disappointing this week

GAAA Squares Twelve to Seventeen

Pattern: Great American Aran Afghan booklet
Yarn: Paton's Classic Wool (worsted weight)
Needles: US Size 8

Square Twelve center piece was posted here last time. I finished the braided borders, but didn't have enough yarn for the garter stitch edge. So I switched to black to finish it off.



Still a million ends on the back side.

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Square Thirteen: designed by Georgia Vincent. I don't have a picture of my square, but it's a rather pretty lace and bobble mixed square that worked from outside edge towards the center. The decrease is irregular and I had to keep track of the stitch pattern row by row.
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Square Fourteen: by Suzanne Atkinson. I had looked forward to knitting this square since the beginning. The little church house, tree and sun look so cute together. The sun rays are six individual icords sewn onto the block, more ends to weave in.

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Square Fifteen by Hanna Burns. I was very happy to be back to regular cables, familiar territory. No wonder this is rated one of the easiest squares.

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Square Sixteen by Ann Strong. Another easy square, but the seed stitch in the cable makes it rather interesting.

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Square Seventeen by Janet Martin. The placement of this square will be interesting. The fish was worked from tail to head, but if you place the square that way the fish would be standing on its tail. If you turn it the way in the picture the square would not match the direction of the other squares. The pattern book cut off this square in the completed pictures. I'll have to play with it when the time comes.

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I blocked all seventeen squares and this is what they look like in a rough arrangement. Since I'm using size 8 needles for all of them, some squares are much smaller than others. The smaller ones will get extra edging to match up the biggest size before I make a final color arrangement and sew them together.

Que Sera Sera

A few years ago when self striping sock yarn was all the rage I accumulated a decent size stash of it. The Tiger print, the top strip in the picture below, was very hard to find. I had to buy directly from a woman in Germany who sold them as part of a bundle with other sock yarns. Henry looked so cute in those colorful socks. Alas, the feet grew bigger and kiddie now stays away from all those "baby stuff". Doesn't help the last pair was worn out in less than a week, thanks to a few sessions of socks on concrete basketball games.

The sock yarns decided to become a miter square blanket. The squares are 32 stitches on each cast on side, decreased in the center. Subsequent squares are picked up on the edge and casted on. Each 50g ball makes about six squares. I haven't sewn any strips together, so they can be rearranged when all the strips are done.

A similar project, Sock Yarn Blanket, designed by Shelly Kang, is available free on Ravelry.

Will I be pretty
Will I be rich
Will I be a rainbow
Que sera sera

More Childhood Picture

Another oldie but goodie. Henry was about two, Bucky five, Trinket six. Henry called basketball B Ball for a very long time, his beloved sport at Gymboree. Bucky just started getting a gray chin. Trinket didn't get along with Henry very well, it was a precious sight to see all three of them sitting together on Henry's bed.