Yes, wasting no time with their New Year's resolution, the fair city of Bundang finished razing the trees outside my window a few days ago. So, in about two weeks I've gone from having a completely tree-filled view to all highway all the time. Thanks, y'all. So I guess now the only question is: are they going to be widening one of the highways that it lies between or are they going to build a new apartment block? The way construction goes here, I should know well before the end of the month.
I have not been pursuing my resolutions with such vigor. I haven't done any shopping, but I haven't done so well on the less TV/ more activity front. On the other hand, I've been eating more fruits and veg and almost completely cut out fast food. McD's suddenly started serving breakfast, so I had to get an Egg McMuffin to compare it to an American one, you know how it is, but other than that and the chocolate for dinner incident chronicled in a recent post, I've been eating healthily and not drinking diet Coke or coffee. So, overall not too bad, but I haven't stripped an entire median of life or, you know, whatever the equivalent of that would be.
I haven't made ANY progress on the MCY socks for two reasons. One, it is on 2mm needles- 72 stitches. The other is the odd pooling. It's beautiful, but I can't bear pooling. I've posted two pics. One shows the true color, but my cat is covering the pooling. The other shows the pooling which is pretty much mirrored on the other side. I haven't decided whether or not to press on and use a rib pattern on the leg or to rip it and make something that could either have a smaller stitch count or use larger needles. Anybody have a good scarf pattern using 100g of fingering weight yarn?
I've been busy putting together a package for a sock bag swap. I've gathered some little things like chocolates, a book, a project notebook, a mechanical pencil with a knit jacket hanging decoration, etc etc. I also made her half a dozen bead stitch markers. I have to go to Insa Dong tomorrow to get a sock-project-sized bag. That is the street with the yarn store with Koigu (yes THE ONE in the country), but I plan to be strong. I may not even go in and look around, just to avoid temptation.
I decided to dye some yarn for my buddy- blue and green. Did not work. The blue did wonderfully, but the green a) came out 1000 shades too dark (it's almost black) and b) the dye did not set. I washed it in vinegar SIX times. The color did not get lighter, but more and more kept washing out and the blue portion that I did not put in the green pot got soaked (and dyed) when I rinsed it. So now it is a blackish-green with very subtle hints of blue here and there. I would totally wear that color and her preferences seem very similar to mine, so here's hoping...
I *think* I got the skein pretty well washed, but the socks she makes will definitely need to be hand washed at least a few times. To make the dyeing session even more of a resounding failure, I didn't tie the skein properly, so I spent three hours rewinding it getting the snarls out.
I've written a pattern for her based on her preferences, so I just need to type it up, get the bag, and mail it all off.
3 comments:
I love those stitch markers, and I love your socks too, even the pooling! I think you should keep on, but if you don't like the pooling, maybe a different pattern might help - like a lace pattern that might help "hide" the pooling somewhat...
Make sure to let your pal know to wash her socks by hand a few times (I think you probably have already thought to let her know)...wouldn't want any disasters happening. Was the dying with "real" dye, or Kool Aid?
It's a shame they didn't leave you some trees...at least then it could distract from the ugly highway.
I know! I used to (last month) only see road if I walked up to the window and looked straight down. I coudn't see the other roads (the two seen in the photo) at all. I sould just see the tops of buses or whatever.
On the other hand, I now have a bird's eye view of the frequent wrecks. (The light at the end of my apartment property is the first in a fair distance.)
As for the socks, I may switch to a lace pattern for the leg. I've somewhat resigned myself to carry on. :-) NOT that I'm too lazy to frog...
I dyed the yarn with Dylon, which I think is the UK equivalent to Rit. You simmer the yarn in a salt/ dye bath for 20+ minutes. If the dye is exhausted, nothing washes out, but for some reason-- I'm guessing user failure-- it doesn't always exhaust even if I leave it in there for a really long time.
So true what you said about Korean construction...buildings go up in the blink of an eye.
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