Not Much...

...going on here in South Korea at the moment. I've been slowly working on the second of the Wollmeise socks and have just finished the gusset and about to start the foot. Other than that, I've not done any knitting.

Since Saturday, I've managed to come down with a cold - par for the course for me. I also managed to lose my voice and woke up yesterday morning with none at all. I got to school and went to tell one of my coteachers (who I'd been teaching with that morning) and she went and got permission for me to go back home to rest. I also stayed home today to rest my voice (and myself). I have a bit more of my voice back, but it's cutting in and out.

I keep looking at my recent yarn purchases. I want so much to pull out all the new yarn and start new socks...but I'm limited with my needles here so I can't really do that...unless I make just one sock from each skein from different patterns and then go back later and do the second sock...but I don't want to do that. I also want to start in on the shawl pattern I ordered from the Loopy Ewe in one of my last orders...but I'm holding off because I don't have the right size needles the pattern calls for...I think my knitting has suffered because I don't have my trusty rocking chair to sit in and knit. That is where I do all my knitting when I'm at home in Canada - my rocking chair. I've really missed that since I've been here. I really don't know how I've managed this long without one. I'm soooo looking forward to being able to sit and rock when I get back!

Well, I have just a little over three months til I head back home to Canada. I think some of my yarn will pad my suitcase nicely so that if I have any breakables it should help to cushion them, lol. I will be going home with a lot more yarn than I arrived with...but isn't that the life of a knitter/yarnaholic? My friend Sarah and I are planning a little excursion to Japan (our friend Lorie might go with us too) some time before we leave for Canada, maybe in July or August. I'm really hoping to find a yarn shop when there and get some yarn to pad my suitcase with as well.

So, like I said, there isn't much going on here at the moment. The boys at school are driving me insane and I swear under all this dye, my hair must be totally grey from the stress they give me. I'm convinced they take a class in how to annoy and not respect your foreign English teacher...they are little hellions (well, not all of them, but the majority of them) quite often. But, I will not worry about that; I will focus on the fact that school is nearly done and then I'll have a week or so of summer camps to teach and then some time off and then head home!

Not much else to say, other than I'm looking forward to starting my B.Ed. courses in the fall when I get back home. It will be a lot of work though, but I'm sure I'm being prepared for that with this current job in Korea.

Happy Knitting!

One Plus One...

...does not always equal two!

This past Thursday I finished the first of my Wollmeise socks, and I must say I am quite pleased with it. Even though it is loose on the sock blocker and looked like it might be rather loose on my foot/leg, it seemed to fit fine...though maybe when I wear them it will be different. But, I'm not worried; I just might have to pull them up a little more often. I have enjoyed working on this sock, and really can't wait til I finish the second one - but that requires to at least start the second one. No, lest you think I am suffering (or about to suffer) from the dreaded SSS - or second sock syndrome - no, that is not the case. I will be casting on for the other sock tomorrow, hopefully.

I had also started (about the same time as I started the Wollmeise socks) a pair of Ainsley Socks (my pattern). They are baby socks. Well, I finished the first one this afternoon and part of it looks great. I discovered a mistake in the pattern which seemed to work fine the first time around, but this time there was one extra stitch in the pattern for the top of the foot. Half of the foot pattern looks fine, the rest doesn't quite match up. So, for the second sock I will not put that one stitch in and see how it looks. I don't think it's too bad though...at any rate, I'll have to go back to my pattern on here after I finish the second one (just to make sure I hadn't made a mistake on this particular sock) and correct the pattern.

One thing I noticed, is that with the size of the sock and the pattern, the colours tended to "pool" (for lack of a better word...though it's not really pooling). Part of the colours (mostly the blue and pink) are on the back of the leg, while the other ones (the greenish/yellowish and blue) tended to be on the front. Doesn't look overly bad though, but it would have been nicer to have had more of a mix throughout.

Anyway, I've been working on my writing some today after finishing the first of the Ainsely socks. I had started working on a novel before I left Canada but haven't done much since arriving in Korea. It's not that I haven't had the time because, believe me, I have. I've just been lazy with it. Well, that and being tired a lot doesn't help either. So, today I decided to pull it out and work on it some more. I found 3 sheets of handwritten pages I had done last semester and typed them onto my new lap top. The rest of my novel is on the old lap top and I need to charge it up and copy it onto my USB key (or whatever those things are called).

Going to head off for now. Hope you all have a great weekend, and happy knitting!

Yarny Goodness

Yup...today is one of those yarny goodness days. I got yarn in the mail - mind you, it's all yarn I ordered from the Loopy Ewe, but that's besides the point.

The two orders I mentioned in my last post came in the mail last week. I get my orders sent to the school I work at because it's much easier to do that. I'm not home during the day when the mailman comes and since the packages are bigger than the little mailboxes we have, I'd have to make an extra trip to the post office. While normally I wouldn't mind going to the post office, the thing about over here in Korea is that the post office (among other places such as the bank) are closed by 4:30...though from what I understand the post office might close by 5:30, but that only leaves me half an hour to get home and get to the post office before it closes, and...well, to make a long story short, the overall best solution is to simply have the packages sent to the school address.

So, the picture to the right shows my loot. This is a combination of both orders. In the back you can see the lovely Loopy Ewe tote I received for becoming a Loopy Groupie. I also got a keychain, some yummy peppermint candies (one in each order), yarn and patterns. The patterns I got are as follows: Pretty As A Peacock by Some Knitting Required (a beautiful shawl), Snapdragon Toe-up Socks by Wendy D. Johnson, Chestnut Hill Socks by Lisa Parker (Wildhorse Farm Designs), Grid Lock Socks by Lisa Parker (Wildhorse Farm Designs), and Lacy Pillars Socks A Loopy Groupie Sock Pattern designed by Debbie O'Neill (which I guess I got for becoming a Loopy Groupie - sorry can't find a link for it).

The yarn is as follows: Chameleon Color Works Evolution in black cherry (somehow I messed up my order and only ordered 1 skein instead of 2 so I will make something small with it - or some baby/toddler socks - 2nd from right), Baby Boo by Numma Numma in the apricots with mixed fruit colourway (3rd from left), Superwash Me - Sock by J. Knits in the colourway ac#124 (2nd from left), my second skein of Alpaca with a Twist Fino in the same colourway and lot number as the skein in the previous post (this is the second one I needed so I could make the Pretty As A Peacock shawl) (1st on the left), Fannie's Fingering Weight in the Rhapsody colourway (1st on the right), and finally I love whomever it was who cancelled her order the day they were packing mine up. I had ordered Chameleon color Works Bambino in the Purple Rain colourway (3rd from right). I was originally told (via email) that they were sold out but put the colourway on my wishlist. I was fine with that. Then a day or so later I received another email saying that someone had cancelled her order and so they adjusted mine to include the Purple Rain! Woot!

Forgive the horrible picture above, but that's me holding the Purple Rain. It looks like I have no makeup on and I'm as pale as a ghost...however, I do have makeup on, though it's probably worn off since this picture was taken after I got home from work. As far as paleness goes - well, that's just natural, lol. Again, sorry for the horrible pic!

So, in other news, I'm still working on the Wollmeise socks. They are knitting up fast when I can find the time to work on them. I'm also doing them on size 2.7 (odd size but they are needles I got in Seoul and they didn't have the standard sizes on them...I think it's the closest to a 2.75 size though). The sock is turning out a little loose I think, but that's ok. I really like this pattern and it's knitting up nicely. I really like the way it looks in this colourway too. Currently, I'm on the foot of the first sock, nearly half way to the toe. I'll also include a closeup of how the pattern is looking.

I gotta hand it to Monica, she's got some pretty awesome patterns created! I don't know how she does it, but way to go, Monica!