I knit my obligatory one row on Donegal last night and would have knit some more if not for this:These are the ends from one repeat of Donegal. So, I took the time and wove them all in. Now it looks neat again and I can continue knitting on it. I also knit two more squares:That finished the leftovers from the Kiri Shawl I made for our friend's wedding.
I also want to add that I am Lorna's Laces' bitch. Enough said:8 skeins of Lorna's Laces Shepherd Worsted in the Devon colorway. I bought this from the lovely Lovelock79 on Ravelry. She has some other good stuff for sale too as she's trying to destash, so go check it out, she's super nice.
And last, but certainly not least, I have met another english-speaking knitter here. We're going to the yarn store today after work. I'll try not to buy too much...
As you know from my last post, I am finished with the Devon Monkeys for Sheptember. I'm actually wearing them today and I think they are my favorite pair of socks to date. Here they are:And the obligatory on-foot shot:Yep, I'm quite pleased. I also knit an actual square shaped mitered square:Only 500 gajillion more of these to make and I'll have a blanket :oP
I also worked on Donegal this weekend. It finally turned cooler here and I could stand to have a stack of wool on me. I still doubt that I'll get it done in time to wear it this winter, but the one row a day thing seems to be working well. I managed to finally make it through one full repeat:Look, progress! It finally looks a little less like a blob of color and now a little more like a pattern is emerging. Here's a close-up:The only thing I don't like about this is that red in there. When I was picking out colors, I didn't realize that it would be so different from everything else that you would lose some of the pattern in there. I'll be perfectly frank though, I'm not going to change it. It would mean ripping out what I have so far and starting over. It would mean buying two new colors in Pallette, and seeing how I'm overseas, it's a little difficult to get it. So, I'm just going to deal with it. I think it could be worse. If it turns out horrible after I get two full repeats done, I may consider my options, but for now, I'm just going to wait and see.
Hopefully there will be more squares tomorrow and maybe more Donegal progress.
First and foremost, here is the blocking Kiri shawl:I'll try to get some better pictures on Sunday when I give the shawl to its recipient. I hope that she likes it OK.
I also just now finished the monkey socks, but due to my shyness of randomly taking a picture at school of a sock I just knit, there won't be pictures of them until Monday. They are probably my favorite socks to date. I'm very pleased with both of these projects. I think they made for a very nice Sheptember full or Lorna's goodness.
Last night I also did this:Winding yarn by hand takes a while....This is for the Donegal sweater. I've been yarn organizing for it so that I have no excuse to skip working on it. I've decided that I have to knit one row every day on it. Given that rate, I should be done in the next year sometime.
And I have a little interview that I am blatantly stealing from Errs (who stole it from others) in which I ask DF some questions about knitting:
What is your favourite thing about my knitting? You don't bug me when you're busy knitting :oP
What is your least favourite thing about my knitting? The little yarn bits and roving tumbleweeds that inhabit the floors
What is something I have knitted, that you recall as good? The Poker Scarf, my favoritest scarf :oP
Do you think knitters have an expensive hobby? Yeah, from what you tell me about it
Any hobbies? Yes.
Uh, what are they?
Magic: the gathering, video games, computer stuff
Do you have a stash of any kind? Yeah. You've seen the Magic cards. DVD's, video games, etc.
Have I ever embarrassed you, knitting in public? No, why would that embarrass me?
Do you know my favourite kind of yarn?
That soft stuff. Alpaca I think
Can you name another blog? Is Ravelry a blog?
Do you mind my wanting to stop at knit shops wherever we go? Hasn't been an issue so far. We stopped at those two in Japan that we saw. I took pictures of yarn.
Do you understand the importance of a swatch? Nope. (considering I rarely knit swatches much to my own peril, I wouldn't think he would know.)
Do you read my blog? Yep
Have you ever left a comment? Yep
Do you think the house would be cleaner if I didn’t knit? It'd be less cluttered, but not any cleaner. You keep things pretty clean.
I finished the Kiri shawl for our friend's wedding last night. I forgot how long it takes to cast off that thing, but it was finally done around 10:15 last night. I'll be spending some time tonight blocking the shawl to turn it from a nice lacy blob into something much prettier. Here's the nice, lacy blob:Not really showing you much there. It's about 3 feet wide and 2 feet tall at the moment. I'm expecting it to almost double after blocking based on how stretchy the fabric is. Here is the close-up glamor shot:Yeah, it's not really all that glamorous I suppose. It's bumpy though.
Tomorrow there will be post-blocking pictures of this Sheptember project (don't know what that is? Check out the Lorna's Laceaholics group on Ravelry) plus the other Sheptember project: the Devon Monkeys.
Before I do anything else, here is a picture of the monkey in progress:Look, a sock! Blogger let me post a picture of the sock! I'm dividing for the heel now and I'll probably get that turned and gusseted today, assuming I can keep Final Fantasy out of my hands today.
I am also almost done with the shawl. I should be done with the knitting of the shawl tonight and then tomorrow I'll block it. I've just got one more pattern row, then 11 rows of edging to do.There's the unblocked lacey blob/ Blocking always amazes me with how it transforms lace.
Two days of actual knitting content in a row on my blog. I've been so hit or miss here recently because of the low knitting mojo and the dragon that consumed my life. But lo and behold, an almost half-finished monkey sock:
Insert random moan...
Yep, blogger won't let me post a picture. I'll have one tomorrow then. I've got 4 repeats done on it and will probably have at least 5 by the end of the day. I worked more on the wedding shawl for our friend and I really hope to have it finished tonight and then blocked tomorrow after work. I'd really like to give it plenty of time to stretch out and block before the wedding.
First and foremost, the dragon that consumed my life is finally finished:I'm very pleased, moreso with how it turned out than with the fact that it's done. But it's finished and I don't have to force myself to work on it anymore!
So to celebrate, I spun some Alpaca:While I was spinning this, DF said that it looked like I was spinning cotton candy. I looked at it again and realized he was right. The alpaca is so soft and fluffy that it looks like cotton candy. I'm almost half way done with this batt of roving. I'm really hoping to have enough to make a nice, smooshy scarf.
Then my knitting groove came back, and it came back with a vengeance! A friend of ours is getting married this weekend, so I needed to make something. I decided on a Kiri shawl made out of Lorna's Laces in the Aslan colorway. I almost finished the blasted shawl this weekend and probably would have had it done if my hand didn't revolt and cramp up on me after every repeat:Here is the lovely blob of lace. It always looks ugly until it's stretched and blocked to death. I finished 10 repeats this weekend and only used one skein of sock yarn so far. I'll dive into the second skein tonight and will hopefully get another 2 repeats done tonight, maybe even finish the thing if my hand doesn't lock up again!
I also have 3 repeats done on the second monkey sock, but forgot to take a picture of it. I'll have pictures of that tomorrow.
OK, the knitting groove has come back, only I haven't knit anything the past two days. Instead, I just figured out where the mojo had gone. It was sucked into the dragon cross stitch, which will be finished tonight:I realized that every time I looked over to the knitting pile to do anything, I saw the poor unfinished dragon. It really was only a few hours away from being done. So last night, I sat down and for 3 hours straight, I worked on the blasted border. I have one more color to go and I'm done. Totally done. Finished dammit.
Don't get me wrong, I love this cross stitch. Hell, it's been on that same hoop for almost 5 years now. And it's finally almost done. Finally almost off the hoop and ready to be bathed and framed. Even DF has said that it looks cool.
Of course then he asked what exactly do you do with it? I sat there and realized that it either gets framed or it becomes a pillow. At least with knitting, I usually get something wearable.
I think I'll sew this onto my next sweater so I can wear it after 5 years of working (mind you, not steady working. I've gone months, almost a year at a time without picking it up!)...
Your result for The Perception Personality Image Test...
NFPS - The Guru
Nature, Foreground, Big Picture, and Shape
You perceive the world with particular attention to nature. You focus on what's in front of you (the foreground) and how that fits into the larger picture. You are also particularly drawn towards the shapes around you. Because of the value you place on nature, you tend to find comfort in more subdued settings and find energy in solitude. You like to deal directly with whatever comes your way without dealing with speculating possibilities or outcomes you can't control. You are in tune with all that is around you and understand your life as part of a larger whole. You prefer a structured environment within which to live and you like things to be predictable.
The knitting muse in me isn't too happy right now. I seem to be in a bit of a slump. I've got Donegal, which is so time consuming and detailed, so I don't want to knit on that. I've got a pair of Monkeys which I need to finish, but I've been more interested in reading. I cast on for a Clapotis out of leftover laceweight from Knit Picks, but I only have knit 14 rows. So, I decided to knit squares out of leftover sock yarn for a never-ending blanket that I'll assemble someday. However, I forgot to do one thing in my math, and that was account for garter stitch to be shorter than stockinette stitch...Whoops, I created an arrowhead instead of a square. I'll try again sometime, maybe tonight, and see if I can get something decent out of a garter square :oP
I did also do some spinning this weekend and finished the first single of a two ply yarn:This is some rustic roving that I picked up from the Greencastle fiber event that Jane and I went to. It's a blend of wool, mohair, and angora and it spins up like a dream on the spindle. I sure miss the wheel though. I'd probably be done with half this roving by now.
After I got this first ball of singles off the spindle, I started spinning some baby alpaca roving that I also picked up at the fiber event. This stuff is like butter. I have decided that I want a nice alpaca scarf, so I'm spinning this into a sport weight and we'll see how the finished yarn turns out.
My knitting groove may be struggling, but at least there's spinning!
Sorry, no knitting pictures today. I did manage to knit two rounds on Donegal last night and I hope to work some more on it tonight. I didn't finish the dragon cross stitch since I just got too blasted hot in the teacher's room yesterday.
It's kinda a somber day for me here. I woke up this morning and realized it was September 11. I began to wonder if anyone at the school even thinks about what this day might mean to an American who happens to be teaching at the school. It just made me remember once again what I was doing on that day seven years ago (has it really been that long? wow)
I was attending college at The University of Central Florida. I had just finished the most boring physics class I ever had (I normally like physics, don't get me wrong there), and I had to hop on the expressway to work like I did every weekday. I hopped in the car, was amazed at the lack of traffic on the road, and didn't even notice that there were no airplanes flying in or out of OIA.
I parked my car and went inside the retail store where I worked and my boss had what I thought was talk radio blasting and he looked like he had seen a ghost. I asked him what was up and he told me that the trade center twin towers had both just collapsed because they were attacked, the Pentagon had been attacked, and airplanes were missing. I just stared in disbelief. We closed the store an hour later and we both went home to watch the events on TV.
I finished the first monkey sock yesterday. I would have started working on the second, but it was so hot in here yesterday that wool and bare hands just really didn't want to work together. But I was determined to at least finish the first one:Sorry the picture is dark. I'll try to get better pictures of these socks when they are all done.
I also crocheted a random thing last night. DF and I might go hiking this weekend, and instead of carrying around a bottle of water in a backpack and having to get it in and out of there, I decided to crochet a quick water bottle holder:It's crocheted out of the leftover wool from the Irish Hiking Scarf. I made the strap a little shorter than what I wanted because I knew that the wool will stretch when it's on.
Other than that, I'm just working today on the dragon cross-stitch to see if I can finish it up finally. It would be really nice if it was finished soon.
Ok, since I had an almost picture-less blog last week, I thought I would start out this week with a nice knitting picture:Look, a half-way done monkey sock! It might be done today, depending on if I have an after school class or not. I can't get a straight answer about that, and I really don't want to keep asking people, so we'll see when the classes start up again. I'm personally hoping they don't start until next week.
We went and saw the movie adaptation of Mama Mia this weekend too. I didn't think the casting was all that great for it, but it wasn't terrible or anything. Not my favorite movie, but it was in English at least, so that always makes things easier for us. Maybe this next weekend we'll go see that new Star Wars animation thing that's out.
Hopefully I'll have either a finished monkey or an almost finished monkey to show you tomorrow!
There are good days and bad days here in the school. Good days usually mean that I don't have to deal with my co-teacher and I can have a good class, get the kids talking, and actually teach them something about English. Then there are the bad days. They usually entail having to deal with my Co-teacher saying something about the way I teach, something totally off the wall, bat-shit insane, or kids who won't shut up and make me have to actually punish them by making them sit in the back of the class or going to the principal.
Today was one of those bad days, all because of the co-teacher. After my first class, she comes up and says that I should just drop the lesson I have been teaching because it is boring. I should use the cooperative teaching method (OK, native speakers, cooperative teaching means that I teach some and the Korean teacher teaches some so that the kids get the benefit of a native speaker and also the Korean speaker so that they have an easier time learning...like I come up with a game, explain it in English, then the co-teacher tells the kids in Korean so they can actually participate in the game easily.).
So I say to Josephine (yes, we call her that, it's a very long story) that if she wants me to use the cooperative teaching method, then we need to get together and work on some lesson plans...the conversation is as follows:
me: what I just said J: I have no time. I very busy. me: OK, then how can I use the cooperative teaching method? J: No, you must use the cooperative teaching method. me: Right, but how can I use it if you can't help me. It takes two people. J: No, just you. me: That's not cooperative. J: You must use the cooperative teaching method. Your method is boring and I have learned the cooperative teaching method. me: OK, then you should show me how to use the cooperative teaching method? J: You must use the cooperative teaching method. Only you. me: ............ J: You must use claps. me: Claps? J: Yes, praise claps. me: OK, but how do I use the cooperative teaching method you want me to use. J: I very busy now. You must learn new method. me: ........ J: You must learn cooperative teaching method yourself. You must change your teaching method. me: OK, I have class now, so I need to go teach....(under my breath: with my old, boring non-cooperative teaching method...)
Today after school, I think I'll have a beer....and somehow magically learn the cooperative teaching method! Maybe beer will make it clearer...
But there was stitching. I did get half done with the border on the dragon cross-stitch, but I'm lazy and didn't feel like carrying it home for a picture of it. So imagine the border just a little more complete and you get the general idea.
We're all going out for a teacher's dinner after school to welcome our new Vice Principal. I was looking forward to going out to eat (mostly because I knew that since we ate at the sashimi place last time, we wouldn't be going back more than likely), until one of my co-teachers mentioned that we were going to a duck place...
Uh, yeah, poultry allergy sucks...
Anyways, DF gave me a Twix to hold me over, so hopefully that'll at least get me home tonight. I hope they have side dishes that don't contain any poultry in them, but I'm not holding my breath too much.
So earlier this week, I cast on for a pair of Pomatomus from Knitty.com. I love the way the socks look on the model leg, but as I started knitting them, I was just not happy with how this yarn looked in that pattern. The yarn is Lorna's Laces Shepherd Sock in the Devon colorway and this is for the Sheptember KAL from Ravelry. So, since I wasn't happy with how it was looking, the sock morphed and decided it wanted to be another pair of Monkeys:I'm liking the way this yarn is working up in this pattern. I also worked on the border some more on the cross-stitch last night:I brought the dragon with me today to work since I have no classes and will just be sitting here all day. I figured I should work on it so that maybe I'll at least be done with half of the border by the end of the day. It'd be great if I was able to get even more done by the end of the day!
That's it for the day. Hope everyone else is having a good time knitting, crocheting, spinning, or doing anything else fiber-related.
Yeah, I've been listening to Lime 'N Violet's podcast way too much for my own good when I saw that I forgot to take any pictures of the current sock in progress, and that was the first thing that popped into my head. I'll try to have a decent picture of something on here tomorrow, I really will.
I didn't knit or stitch anything last night. I was nursing a headache most of the evening, so that always puts a cramp on things for me. Hopefully tonight will be more productive.
These are the ends from one repeat of Donegal. So, I took the time and wove them all in. Now it looks neat again and I can continue knitting on it. I also knit two more squares:
That finished the leftovers from the Kiri Shawl I made for our friend's wedding.
8 skeins of Lorna's Laces Shepherd Worsted in the Devon colorway. I bought this from the lovely Lovelock79 on Ravelry. She has some other good stuff for sale too as she's trying to destash, so go check it out, she's super nice.
