Back and better than ever

Wow! It's been weeks since I've even thought about posting. The summer intensive session turned into a five week marathon even more than usual. Or maybe I just repress the memory of them each semester.

Anyway, the new teacher has settled in nicely. My initial reservations have proven to be unfounded so far. She's pretty cool, actually, she just expects a more orderly system than Korean schools tend to have in place. You know, planning, advance notice of changes, that kind of thing.

The new couple is here. They are really young (22-ish), but seem like a good pair. They've traveled a lot and have a very open attitude, which is about 75% of living and working in Korea- the ability to roll with the punches and be open to cultural differences. It's not the stuff you expect that gets you, it's the little every day mundane crap that drives people nuts here. The old ladies that elbow you in the gut as they move your things out of the way on the checkout counter so they can go first. The people who spit on the subway floor and leave their trash on the seat. That kind of thing.

I've been knitting as much as possible, but I don't have much to show. I don't like gauge swatches, so I frequently knit as much as half a garment before I realize I don't like it. You might think I would learn. Perhaps eventually I will. I've sold a pattern to Magknits, but I hate to even mention it, because I still have to send in the finished photos and pattern. So I assume it can still be rejected. I don't want to jinx myself.

I have knit my first self-striping stock in stockinette. I knit the whole thing yesterday. I'd show you a photo, but I can't be bothered for something so boring. Maybe it's because I use variegated yarn so frequently, but I didn't find it that interesting. And I've got about three more 100g skeins of the stuff, which I'll use because a. I paid for it, including a king's ransom in postage, b. it feels nice, c. sock yarn is hard to get here, and my LYS proprietor is kind of a bitch. Well, not so much kind of.

You would think she would be happy for any customers, it's a tiny shop, literally 2m x 4m in a kind of flea market set up. I pay $7-8 per 50g of crap sock yarn and she has something to say to me every time I go there. The knit gang who are always there know I can speak enough Korean to understand what they are saying about me. Last week I was pleasantly surprised to find a silk/ wool blend sock yarn. When one of them asked me why I always buy only one or two balls of each color I told her they were for socks. Apparently, that was the funniest thing they had heard all day. This is one of the aforementioned little things that will get you here: rude shopkeepers.