More Yarn

Well, I had to put in another order for sock yarn with The Loopy Ewe. I felt the need to get more and build up my stash here in Korea. So, since I also needed to get some size 2.0mm (US 0) DPNs, I thought I'd get yarn while I was at it. None of this yarn, well with the exception of one of them, I have used before. The one I have used is Trekking. Well, I should say that I started on a pair of socks with some Trekking before I left for Korea and didn't get them finished. The Trekking is in the upper right, and it is colour 159. I think it might look good with a small cable pattern, but I could be wrong.

The yarn to the left is Araucania ranco Multi, in the Peacock colourway (colour number 304). Not sure what kind of pattern I will use with this though. The third skein/hank of yarn in the middle is Lime & Violet Sasquatch Sock in the Buster Keaton colourway.

The needles are Crystal Palace bamboo, size 2.0mm (US 0). There were also some Hershey's kisses included in my order...mmmm, chocolate!

Like I said, I haven't used these yarns (except Trekking) before, and I haven't heard anyone's thoughts or experiences with them. I do hope they are good yarns to work with. I'm looking forward to knitting them up.

Here is my progress on the latest sock I'm working on. It's just a plain knitted sock in Fleece Artist. I like the colours in it, and it's knitting up nicely. I'm up to the heel at the moment (first sock). I had knit the heel, but realized the pattern I was following to do the heel had less stitches and it didn't turn out right; needless to say I ripped it out and am just waiting to do the heel and move on to the gusset. The colours are a little darker than the picture shows, and the blues are a little more dominant than the pinks and whites.

I have been sick, yet again, here in Korea. It seems ever since I got here I've had a cold every single month except January. The current cold has been dragging on for 2 weeks now and twice it felt like it was starting to go away only to come back a little worse. Well, last night it started to get a little worse again, and by this morning (into my second class) I was feeling a lot worse. I was stuffed up, my nose was running, I was sneezing, coughing, had a headache, and ended up with a fever and chills. My co-teacher had said that if I wanted, she'd take me to the doctor. Well, with the schedule I had today (and hers) that turned out to be impossible. I had 6 classes to teach, plus a meeting after school. About 20 minutes before lunch was over, my co-teacher comes over to me and says that we have a class to teach after lunch. Normally I don't have a class that period, but this was rescheduled from last week. Well, I wish I had some notice because I didn't have anything prepared for it. I already taught this class earlier in the week so I couldn't do this weeks lesson again with them.

Well, to make a long story short, after we got to the class and I had asked the kids how they were doing, she walked over to me and said if I wanted, she'd do the class by herself and I could go back to my desk because I didn't look very well. Duh! I'm barely functioning and you all know I'm really sick today...but I couldn't have gone home even if i wanted to. For some strange reason, the Koreans don't seem to like to miss work and are always there. They expect everyone else to be there too. But in all honesty, they should have told me to go home. If I had asked, no doubt they wouldn't have allowed it because they need someone to teach my classes. I don't think the coteachers would have wanted to unless they had to...like if I had lost my voice (like what happened last November or December). Oh well. I came home with a fever and went right to bed and slept until nearly 10pm tonight. I'm still feeling a little crappy, and my sinuses are really hurting...my head is starting to ache again, particularly when I cough. Thankfully though, I don't feel like I have the fever anymore.

I do hope I get over this soon. I'm really sick and tired of getting sick every month. It makes me want to go home now. I'm never sick this often back home in Canada. I'm convinced it's the different germs and viruses that I'm not used to.

Anyway, I'll stop ranting like a raving lunatic now. Happy knitting!

A New Pair of Socks

Yep, I have a new pair of socks. I finished them yesterday while watching a couple of movies. I had hoped they would have been done last weekend, but sadly they weren't. Oh well, the important thing is that they are finished now. The picture to the left is a little dark...obviously...since it was taken in front of the window. I got this cool thing at one of the stores here (the kind of store that sells things for the home like dishes, cleaning things, towels, etc.) and you hook it over a rod and it has little "arms" that hang off it (about 6 or 8) with plastic clothes pins on the end. You use it to hang your fine delicates up to dry. I thought it might come in hand to hang the socks up for a picture. I think I'll take it home with me when I go back to Canada in the fall and use it to hang my knitted socks up to dry in the winter. The lighter picture below is with natural light coming in the window with the socks laying on top of my washer. What I hate about doing laundry here is that there are no dryers (very few people have them and I think they are only small anyway). I have a pair of jeans I bought new before I came here and they are big on me now (I've lost about 10 lbs since coming to Korea) and I would love a dryer to dry them in so they'd shrink a little bit. Oh welll, I digress.

Ok, so back to the knitting and yarn. These are the plain knit socks I made with the Claudia Hand Painted. I liked using this yarn and found it to be soft. There was no splitting or knots in the yarn, and I always enjoy that. The only thing I found was one skein (the right sock in the picture of the socks on the washer) was a little darker than the other. It's not a big deal and won't stop me from wearing them. But, I would definitely use this kind of yarn again!

I've started another pair of socks with some Fleece Artist (don't know what colourway it is) that I brought with me from Canada. I got this last spring or summer I think...maybe the winter. I have only got the cuff and about 3 or 4 rows of knitting done so far, so not really picture worthy yet. I think these are going to be mindless knitting socks again - just a plain knitted sock. My problem (well one of many, lol) is that I don't have a printer here. There is one the five of us foreign teachers use in the building (we have to share it...and the one who currently has had it for a few months is never around), but it's just such a hassel and I don't know if it will work with my computer since it's from Canada, and the printer is from Korea...I'm not technologically inclined so I have no idea...it might though. Anyway, in order for me to get some sock patterns I'd have to print them out, and the only printer I use mostly is at school...don't think they'd enjoy me printing out the patterns there. Oh welll, I might try it sometime. But for now, with this new sock, it'll just be a mindless knit.

Here's one of my pictures from Egypt. This is Abu Simbel and was built by Ramses II...I think. I totally forget, lol. This temple was closer to Lake Nasser, but in the '60s (I think), it was moved back so that it wasn't so close to the edge of the lake. In the process, the statue 2nd front the left lost it's head - it fell off. That's me in front of the temple, but don't look too close...I'll probably scare you.

Anyway, we had to get up at 3:00 AM to go to this place. It was about a three to three and a half hour drive from where we were in Aswan. One of the reasons they do the tours so early is because it gets rather hot during the afternoon; that and tons of tourists visit it so the earlier in the day you go, the better. Unfortunately, you're not allowed to take pictures inside.

For those of you not on Facebook to see my current profile picture, here it is. This is me all bundled up (knee high tights, a pair of my hand knit wool socks, leggins, jeans, 2 tshirts, a sweater, my winter coat, a scarf around my neck (inside my coat), ear muffs, a pashmina/scarf around my head, and a winter scarf around my neck and head...oh, and gloves...and up on the mountain I was wrapped up in a blanket as well) to climb Mount Sinai at 2:30 AM. I went half way up on camel, then the last half you have to actually climb yourself. It is all steps. Uneven, different sized, stone steps. Hard. Unless you are in tip top physical shape (unlike myself), this is a difficult climb. I had to stop 4 or 5 times to catch my breath, but I made it to the top. It was FREEZING up there!

This is turning into a longer post than I had thought, but I will leave you with one last picture from atop Mount Sinai.

Swing Of Things

I guess I am getting back into the swing of things here in Korea. This past week, since I've been back from Egypt, I haven't been doing a whole lot, but I am gradually getting there.



You see, I've been suffering from jet lag quite a bit. It didn't bother me while I was in Egypt (I'm told that usually you are affected by it more so with your return flight), but this past week I have been hard hit. From what the others are saying, they too have been having a hard time dealing with it as well. I just can't sleep at my normal time - even if I feel tired. I usually end up falling asleep anywhere from 3:00 am til 7:00 am. Then, I might get only a few hours of sleep and then be wide awake and have to take a nap some time in the afternoon, and that usually turns into sleeping for a couple of hours at least.

Last night I went to bed around midnight. I felt tired. I managed to get to sleep before 12:30 but I woke up around 1:15 and was wide awake. So, I got up (after tossing and turning awhile) and had a snack of strawberries and crackers because I was feeling hungry. While I ate that, I watched an episode of Stargate SG-1 (man, that Richard Dean Anderson is HOT!) and went back to bed. I think I fell asleep around 3:30 and woke up at 10:30 when my alarm went off.



The thing is, I start back to work tomorrow. I'm worried that I won't be able to sleep tonight and then suffer at work tomorrow. I guess I'll have to make sure I have lots of coffee with me to help keep me awake...



On the knitting front, since I've been back I've been working on the sock I started before I left for my trip. I had to rip out part of the gusset because I wasn't thinking when I did it (I had this done before leaving) and started doing the toe decrease by mistake. I only noticed after I had knit about 10-15 rows. I didn't want to take out the needles and rip back because I figured I wouldn't get the stitches lined up properly and I'd probably end up dropping some stitches as well. So, I sat and tinked back the required number of rows and started knitting it correctly this time. I'm into the foot part already. Karen informed me that the yarn I'm using (Claudia Hand Painted) doesn't have a lot of yardage as other skeins do, so I shouldn't make the sock as long as I would normally do so. I made the leg 1-2 inches shorter than normal, so I hope I'll end up with enough yarn to finish. I think I have about 2 1/2 - 3 inches left before starting the toe decreases...I think.

I am slowly making my way back to reading the blogs I usually frequent. I've got a new laptop, so I will have to go on the one the school lent me, for use while I'm here, and copy down the list of links to the ones I had listed under my "favourites" section so I can add them on here (or rather add them to the list of links on my sidebar). It's great seeing what everyone is working on and the progress they are making. Lots of cute items and gorgeous yarns being used! So, if I haven't been to your blog yet, I'm slowly making my way there and trying to get caught up on the posts I've missed.

As for me, I still have tons of pictures to post up on Face Book and I still haven't added any posts/pictures to my other blog yet. Hopefully soon. I'll let you know when that happens so you can go see them if you want.

Well, off I go to surf the net some more (maybe catch up at Ravelry) and find something to watch and knit to. Happy knitting to you all!