I have so much to share with you!

Right after my last post, I hurt my back practising the piano. It was ridiculous, I know, and I would spare you the details. The fact is I've been hurt and spent every ounce of energy figuring out whether I should sit on the sofa, on the swivel chair or stand to make myself more comfortable. For the first 2 days, bending forward was an impossible posture. I did see a physician in the urgent care center; but as we all know, there is not much a doctor can do to most back pains other than telling you that it would get better with time and be careful with your postures; or prescribing some heavy painkillers. I was happy to know that the physician I saw was not one easy on doing the latter. I really don't like that.

I am doing much much better now. The pain is almost completely gone. With the help of a back brace belt, I could even vaccuum with relative ease (never felt so happy doing housework before ... hahaha ...)

During this painful week, I only worked solely on the afghan. Since one square didn't work out for me, I think it would be a good idea to have a signature square. I got the inspiration from one knitter who did a similar square for her Great American Aran Afghan (but I couldn't remember who). And I want to make the signature with my Chinese name. So, I found this very cool Chinese calligraphy editor and chose an ancient style:
The next step would be to transfer the above into a chart. For this, Chart Smarter from knitty Spring 05 is a wonderful help. In order to go ahead with the charting, I needed to know how many stitches and rows would make up a square of the desired size. Luckily, the previous square I worked on was this:
It is basically a plain square with 3 tree appliques. After much calculations, I got my charts:
After printing them out, I had to clean up the year chart a little. Then the knitting was the easiest part:

Now I am doing the unpleasant task of cleaning up the loose ends. I swear I would take care of the loose ends after finishing each square from now on. I swear!