Mei Mei

I bought Doris Chan's Everyday Crochet a while ago. The first time I went through it I didn't think there was much in there that I would make, but I read it and reread it and rereread it. As I did things grew on me and I could see how I could change things to suit me.

I couldn't wait to try something, but what.

Well eventually I jumped in. A Mei-Mei (I believe you need the book to get all the details for this, but the book is worth the investment). However I added bits I liked from Mocha Roca like the border.

It took me a while to get the hang of how the instructions were written and how to do the yoke. I did join the Doris Chan group on Ravelry and found instructions Doris had written there - she seems such a lovely and approachable lady, always round to help.

I made this Mei-Mei with some Patons Soft Haze I had. I wanted to dye it a nice bright green, but soft haze is made up 70% Acrylic, 20% Wool, 10% Bamboo so doesn't take a strong colour.
This is a nice green though. (I used food colouring, Kool Aid and Landscape dyes.)

It didn't take too long to make up, although I didn't work at it every single day.
I have discovered that my tension relaxes, from what I did in my tension swatch, once I start on the actually garment, especially as I am whizzing along. This ended up making this little jacket too big for me. Mum was very happy to step in and acquire it. :o)
I used a little over 300grms of the Soft Haze to make this in a 40" size on a 5.5mm hook.

I think it suits her.
I'm going to make something from the book (probably a mishmash of a couple of other patterns) for me - not a Mei-Mei I think we're a bit old for dressing "Mother-Daughter" style.