Greetings from the Coldest Capital in the World

I’m kidding you not. I arrived on monday afternoon and the past 2 days had been truly enjoyable. Its a really interesting city if you look beyond the superficial layer.

In any case, I’m wearing my Magic Owl today and I’m quite a happy girl because its keeping me warm. The weather here is much warmer than a few weeks ago but is still a little cold to someone who had spent her whole life (minus 2 summers) in endless summer… But I digress.. On my first day, I wore Java Drops, yesterday, I wore my phildar pullover. I have brought along quite a number of my knits, excited to finally have the chance to use them for what they are knitted for – cold weather!  Other knits I’ve brought along include my Turkish Delight Clapotis, PSH, Blush… and I forgot what else. Maybe thats all.

I do have 1 FO to blog about. I started and finished this project on saturday night. Its really a quick knit.

Zephyr Branching Out
Yarn: Jaggerspun Zephyr in Plum, unknown quantity
Pattern: Branching out from Knitty
Modifications: minimal – repeated until yarn is used up.
Afterthoughts: I don’t think this pattern is very suitable for beginners.

Sorry for not searching for the ravelry link or finding out the name of the designer.. My battery is running low so I have to blog as fast as I can. This lace is actually quite simple.. Maybe its just my incapability to deal with patterns where stitch count per row changes often, does not look like a chart or have very repetitive instructions (like, YO, K1, YO K1…) However, this is still not going to be a pattern I will recommend for a beginner. Even if the beginner knows how to read their knitting, I believe its still quite impossible to read this (stitch count changes) for beginners.

I have to say its really pretty. The pattern, I mean. The amount of yarn used is unknown because I found this little ball of Zephyr lace, possibly about 30g or so, while rummaging in my stash looking for inspiration for a gift on saturday. Possibly from the same cone of yarn as the yarn I’m using for my (kinda hibernating) Hanami shawl, which uses Zephyr in this colour as well.

This yarn blocks out really well worked in this pattern. I was kinda worried if it will be big enough or be a silly little piece of knitted thing, too short to be a useful scarf. Thankfully, when blocked it grew beautifully. This is a gift knit.

I took this picture when I was blocking out the scarf. Dad’s sweet potato plants flowered. Really pretty purple flowers, me thinks. There are many little flower buds so I believe they will all be blooming soon.

And now, a few photos from my trip. Not as much as I hope because I kept forgetting my camera and I kinda just want to enjoy the moment and not spend my trip snapping photos and ignoring my companion.

Transit at Beijing Airport.

Wasn’t expecting this. (:

I’m still trying to get used to the fact that even though it looks really warm, its still pretty cold. Its usually about 0 degrees C (32 degrees F) in the daytime, and in the negative degrees C at night. Its fascinating to see my own breathe so often and I still like to blow hot air just to see the wispy vapour.

Ok, thats all for now.