gift!

Dishclothes, ahem, I mean Spa Facecloths make a great gift. Like this one, wrapped around some soap. Just thought I would share. This is just a little gift for a friend here. I wish I had gotten on the ball to give all my friends one. I am such a dork sometimes.
Well, gotta run and organize for the packers.

Market Day

Hello everyone, thanks again for all the happy thoughts! And don't worry about the N. Korean missles, for I bought yarn today - so it is a good day.

Here are some pictures on the way to the yarn store. Every few days in the summer they have huge-er than normal markets outside of 2nd Market, and today was one of thsoe days... so I thought while I was at it I should take some pictures. I usually don't post Korea pictures on this blog (I keep them over at blog of the morning calm) but since this was semi yarn related I thought I would add it.




It is hard to find normal worsted weight yarn. Koreans seem to crochet more than knit and they also seem to always use really thin yarn. But I took Amanda along with me and she spotted some cool yarn. This is what I ended up buying... it has purple and green entwined around it. It was 6 bucks a skein and it 60% acrylic... but I loved the color. You know me and that spring green color. It is almost as bad as my orange obsession.




(by the way I bought the coolest backback this weekend that is totally orange and has my name embroidered on it. It also has a pocket for a camelback where you can put the tube through the top, but since I don't have one, I am thinking it would be a cool yarn pocket you can thread the yarn through instead!!)

Thanks for the birthday wishes!

Thanks to all of you who wished me a happy birthday! June 30th was stellar as usual. Harland took me to Seoul Friday, then we stayed in Osan from Saturday until this morning. Friday night we ate a really good buffet at the hotel we stayed in and it was excellent. I will have to post pictures once I upload them.

I also started a new dishcloth on the way home, but I am afraid Pink Dandelion was right when she said most of my cloths won't make it to my own drawer! They make such great gifts.

Anyway, thanks for posting onto my blog! I will have some pictures up here tomorrow!
Jessica

Dishcloths are underrated

WEll hello, I have been knitting dishcloths. "Why?" you may ask. Well because I read an article this weekend in the news paper that said that kitchen sponges can be "mean little transporters of bacteria". In the article (which was printed in the Stars and Stripes but was originally from The Seattle Times) they suggested using a clean dishcloth for every day. So I decided that my cotton yarn must finally be utilized. And so on I go knitting dishcloths. I have a feeling this is all my brain can handle by knitting anyway these days. I have a zillion worries about this move, and all future travels. My life will surely be unsettled for the next two months. So I put away the sock for now and out come some squares. I may get more creative as I go... but this is what I have so far. I am using Lion Cotton (by lionbrand) in grape. And size 7 Denise needles. I love my Denises and they are the best knititng present I ever got. If you only buy one set of needles, make them Denises. They are fairly inexpensive and they rock.





What I like about these is I can finish them in a day or two. And they look so pretty. Already I am thinking of giving away the basketweave one to a friend with some nice soap to use as a washcloth. So again it begins that it will probably take me the next two months to make 7 dishcloths that I don't give away. :)

well that is all for now, friends.

knitting time has been limited!

Sorry to the folks that read this blog often. I have not been posting very often and the reason? I have not been knitting a whole lot. I have only gotten as far as the gussett in that sock. (and I think I will run out of yarn so this may end up being a child's sock!!)

So the reasons I haven't been knitting? 1. busy at Red Cross 2. busy searching/applying for jobs 3. busy trying to find an apartment that we can afford in the DC area 4. being upset because numbers 2 and 3 are not happening as fast as I would like 5. being plain tired.

It's not much of a list but it has really worn me out. For those of you who like a current and frequently updated blog, please only check back every week or so. I promise once I get settled in August I will post more often. But in the next three weeks we have to pack, clean, sell furniture etc. and Harland has to run around to all kinds of Army offices to clear. Then we take our trip to Hawaii, LA, Dayton, Birdsboro, Manchester and finally to DC. I don't know how often I will get to post, although I hope to have some cool pictures at least once a week on here.

So there is that.
Cheers y'all.

starting a new sock

I am sooo over lace for now.
I'm sure I will soon return to Agi, but I think my true love is socks. So I have been pretty eager to make a sock from my new sock book - which finally came.

I am working on "oak ribbed sock" on page 30 of Nacy Bush's "Knitting Vintage Socks". I am using size 1 needles and Knit Pick's Parade in Forest. I have some concerns I may run out of yarn since the pattern calls for more than I have - but I am shortening the cuff by 2.5 inches in hopes I will be okay.

I am being a bit of a daredevil, so we shall see what happens.

Anyway, here is a picture of the cuff - You can see how the pattern changes after the first inch or so. I really like it.


Here is a shot looking in, I actually really like the way the inside looks... maybe I'll start a new "wear your socks inside out" trend?

The Susan Bag

Well, I decided to make my dearest friend Susan a bag for her birthday. I wanted it to be pretty special - so I decided I wanted a felted bag. So I bought some nice Paton's classic merino and started knitting. Now I admit when I started this in January I had no idea what I was doing. I had met my KB but he wasn't my knitting boyfriend yet... and I wasn't as savy at finding information on the web.

So I decided to make up my own thing, and I thought I would share the pattern so y'all could either make something like it - or improve on the design.

Here is the beginning. I used size 11 needles, and cast on 42 stitches.
I knitted (in stockingette) 20 red Rows, 8 green rows and 34 orange rows. No there is no scientific reasoning behind these numbers. They just looked good.


Then I continued by making 10 garter rows (continuing in orange) then switched back to stockingette and knitted the same as before but in reverse- 34 more orange, 8 green and 20 red. Then I bound it off.

The next part was tricky... I neede to pickup stitches and I had no idea how to do that... so I enlisted the help of knittinghelp.com which has a great video. I picked up 8 stiches from the garter stitch section and knitted (in stockingette) until it reached the top of the bag. I really should have counted the rows, but I didn't. Probably 62 rows would work out well. Then I did the same for the other side.



For the handle I took 8 stitches (so it would match the sides in width) and knitted for an hour until the strap was sufficient length (I personally hate short straps and like to cross my strap over my chest if possible).



And then the part i did badly... you need to sew the sides up so that everything is attached well (but not too well or it will felt wonky). Unfortunatly one side was not sewn as well as it should be and this is the bad part of the Susan's bag. I have learned my lesson and so hopefully the next bag she gets from me will not have any major flaws. (sorry Susan!). It was made with much love, though and so I hope it passes just for that. There is something really nice about making something for someone, you get to think about them the whole time.

Felting had to happen. So I tucked the strap into the bag and ran it through two hot water agitating sessions in the washer. I washed in in a pillowcase with the top of the case folded over and pinned so the fuzzies didn't escape. The felting came out nice. Here it is drying. I must say that I am amazed at how long it took to dry. I figured a day would do it - but it took three... and I had really squeezed it between two dry towels like they say... so that is why I was so amazed!



And so there it is! I am not sure if she likes it or if she is being polite, but it made it's way to Alabama (only a little late). Hip Hip Hooray for the Susan Bag!