A beanie for Waka

Last year, I made beanies with ear flaps for Waka's youngest son  and our nephew John in Ireland.  Waks wanted one too, and autumn has arrived, so here it is:

A Waka-beanie

I used Kismet Spice, a lovely DK acrylic, and hooked with a double thread.  The pattern is a basic beanie, starting with a 12 dc ring and increasing from there.  The earflaps...I winged.

Ears gonna be warm

Think I might hook new ones for my boys as well.

Here's a great blog post on designing and sizing beanies.  Yeeeees, it is in Afrikaans, but between Google Translate and the following, it should be easy enough to figure it out.

kb (kortbeen) = Single Crochet

hlb (halwe langbeen) = Half Double Crochet

lb (langbeen) = Double Crochet

There you go, hook a beanie!

My Mzansi 14/4 - 20 years

Today is Freedom Day.   Our democracy is 20 yrs old and we're celebrating it, but it's a hollow celebration.

Many things have changed - many for the better.

In 1994, I was a student. I had full post-grad scholarships. I got a job (and worked damn hard), built a house, bought others, moved overseas - came back, travel for leisure, my kids are in great schools.

For millions, nothing has improved.  

Those are the millions who had promises made to them - who still live in shacks, who still carry water in buckets, who still have no toilet, who still matriculate with a worthless education, who still can't get a job.

Our Waka had his promised RDP-house stolen from under his nose while patiently waiting for government - we helped him build his own and get access to agricultural land.

They were promised better schooling - between Waka and Liesbet 8 kids are attending schools where the union has an iron grip, and teachers are the ones loafing. At least we can help with stationary and books.  One is graduating from uni this year, one finished a diploma.

Our Nr 1 is building a R247 million mansion and claims not to be wasting money

These are the promise makers, and next week we'll have to vote for one of them:

Election Day - 7 May 2014

But don't fall in a pile of hopelessness!
(We're not :-)

Here's the great story of how we got our beautiful new flag.

Ps. Where were we pre-1994?

See these movies:

Cry, the beloved country

Sarafina!

The Bang-Bang Club