It's All About The Socks

Finally, I finished the Wollmeise Socks I'd been working on. I really enjoyed the pattern and the results. I would definitely make this pattern again! It's a very simple pattern, and very easy to memorize. Please ignore the laundry basket in the picture with the sweater hanging over the side. This was the first time I'd used the timer on my camera and had no idea it was in the shot. But, I suppose it was bound to be since I'm in the little laundry area of my apartment. It's not very wide, and not very big. But, since I wanted some natural light for my picture, this was the only place to go since this is where the only windows in the apartment are. To the right of the picture is the set of doors going into my apartment.

About ten days ago, the first graders (and their teachers) at the middle school I teach at had a field trip to one of the theme parks in Seoul. It's the same one we went to last semester with the second graders at the school. At this time, however, the second graders were on a three day field trip down towards the southern part of the country. As well, the third graders were at another theme park. Anyway, the park we went to is called Seoulland. It's ok, but nothing to brag about in my opinion.

On the bus ride to and from Seoulland, I started (and worked on) another sock. I didn't take the Wollmeise socks because I didn't want to mess up the pattern - and trust me, with thirty odd number of boys on the bus, that would be highly possible. Anyway, here's the new sock I've begun:

It's just a simple, plain knitted sock because I wanted some mindless knitting to do on the bus. The yarn I'm using is Lorna's Laces in the Flamingo Stripe colourway. So far I'm enjoying this yarn, and find it nice and soft to work with. I wasn't sure what to expect with the stripes, and must admit that I thought they'd be wider. I'm totally fine with it being single row stripes though.

I haven't been doing much knitting for awhile because my left shoulder/neck has been bothering me. It had felt like I got a kink in it that wouldn't go away. I think it was the muscle though, and it was bothering me for about nine days when I decided that maybe I should try the accupuncture again. Some of the other teachers were mentioning that it might help. Now, I had accupuncture on my lower back when I first got here and didn't have any problems with it (aside from discovering through it somehow that I was allergic to the "heat" patches I'd been using...you know, the kind with adhesive on the back that you put on like a bandaid and it has stuff in it that "heats" up the location where you place it), so I thought I'd give it another go. I went twice and it did seem to help - the entire procedure though, not just the accupuncture.

First I had the accupuncture done, and they stuck about 15 pins/needles (not sure what you call them) in my back/shoulder area, as well as 4 in my right hand in various places, and one in my right foot. Then they attached some kind of electrical impulse thing to some of them and put the heat lamp (or ultraviolet lamp) on the area. After about 20 minutes they took them out and then I had a very hot pad type thing wrapped on the area. That helped to soothe and relax the muscles. After that they hooked up little suction things for about 5 minutes. There were tubes and they would suck the air out of them with this little contraption. I' don't remember the name of the procedure, but apparently is sucks the "bad blood" out....umm, ok. After they took them off, I was left with about 4 or 5 hickey-like marks on my shoulder blade and up towards my shoulder. My favourite part came last. They attached little suction cup things to the area and turned it on - it was a massage! I don't know what is in it - it if is some sort of little prongs, or water, or what...but it was soooooooooooo relaxing!

Anyway, my shoulder/neck area is feeling a lot better, though since I did some knitting and computer work today, I'm starting to feel the area tighten up. I'll have to apply some heat or something to it to loosen up the muscles again. It's not bad, but if I'm not careful, it might end up that way. I don't want to take any chances.

So, I'm off now to do some writing and work on lesson plans for this week. There are only about 5 weeks of school left now, and the last two are after exams. I really don't know why, but they make the kids go to school for 2 weeks AFTER they finish writing their final exams. Makes no sense to me. Oh well.

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!

New Sock

I have begun my latest sock. Ok, actually I have begun two of them. One I forgot to take a picture of, but with my left over Fleece Artist yarn from the pair in my previous post, I thought I might have enough for a pair of baby socks, so I am working on my Ainsley Sock pattern with that.


For me, however, I have started in on Monica's Wollmeise Sock pattern. I am using the Trekking yarn I got not long ago from the Loopy Ewe, as I thought that might look good with this pattern. So far, I must say, I do like the yarn and the pattern. The pattern is real simple and easy to knit.


So far, I have the cuff and about 4 repeats of the pattern. In the picture I don't have quite that much done though. The cuff was knit yesterday on the train to Seoul, and the first two repeats were done on the way back from Seoul today. It didn't take the entire trip to do the two repeats, but I was a little tired so I put the knitting away and dozed off some.


Seoul was great this weekend. My friend Tamara and I went with our other friend Sarah because she was going to the James Blunt concert at the Olympic Park stadium. Sarah didn't want to navigate the subways alone, and since Tamara knows them fairly well, we went along. Tamara and I were going to head back to Yesan after Sarah went to the concert, but when Sarah was getting her ticket, we checked and there were still seats left. So, impulsively, Tamara and I bought tickets too. The funny thing is, Sarah had ordered hers a week or two ago online and got in one section and ours was, naturally, in another section. Well, turns out the put Sarah in our section as well (for some reason they said it's the same section, but it isn't...oh well). The funny part, is that Tamara's and my seats were about 3 rows in front of Sarah. Poor Sarah is a huge James Blunt fan and we got closer than her. Tamara likes his music too, and I've actually only heard one song (Beautiful). They convinced me to go saying his music is great. I took their word for it and went.


Well, I really enjoyed the concert. I really enjoy his music. I bought both his CDs after the concert. I. Am. A. Fan. And, oohhh those eyes! And, oohhh that accent! I'm really glad I was impulsive and bought a ticket. We ended up not coming back to Yesan until this afternoon, but that wasn't a problem. We got a half decently priced and clean hotel in Seoul and took the 12:40 train back. Unfortunately we lost out on the tickets we had purchased yesterday for our return last night, but oh well.


Anyway, better head off. Still have to do up a lesson plan for tomorrow. Happy knitting!