Sleeping in, another FO, and another WIP

It's a holiday! It's great to have a day off with nothing planned. I slept in this morning and Toto was pretty happy about that.

Since I could sleep in this morning, I stayed up late to finish this my green cotton bag:

I'm not entirely please with how it turned out. Although my knitting skills are OK, my finishing skills are lacking. I'm going to look for a book on finishing methods when I visit home in September. It doesn't matter how beautiful you can knit, it can look like total crap if you don't know how to sew it up correctly. This is also why I'm hesitant to knit a nice sweater yet. Anyway, this is just a casual summer bag, so no biggy. Live and learn.

Here's the contrasting lining:

I also started crocheting yet another bag (gotta get rid of this gigantic spool of cotton somehow). I like the look of it. It's a pattern called "Quahog Beach Bag." I'm liking it so far, although it won't be a very big beach bag and I'm worried about the "floppiness" of it when I finally sew it up.

Here's the progress so far:

Well, time to make dinner and relax!

Red crochet clutch finished

It's my second finished crocheted project. It's small and cute. It only took a couple of nights. I'm super happy with it. It was really my first time lining a bag. I'm thinking of buying a sewing machine to make these things easier. Apparently, I can't compose a complex sentence tonight. Anyway, here it is. I have a feeling I'll be making more of these.

Shake It

I'm usually pretty stressed by the time I make it to my door after a 45 min commute on two subway lines. But I felt better today after watching this video:

New WIPs

Well, I went to my favorite place in Seoul on Saturday -- Dongdaemun Shopping Complex. It's a huge textiles complex where I get all my yarn and supplies. I've been trying not to go there so as not to add to my ultra huge and growing stash, but I had the perfect excuse -- my friend wanted me to show her where to get knitting supplies. I gladly accompanied her, telling myself over and over that I didn't need any more knitting stuff.

Of course, that didn't work. I bought a big spool of cotton, several crochet hooks, some zippers, two stitch holders, fabric to line some bags, some bag handles, and some other things I can't even remember now. It didn't add up to much.

To get over the guilt of buying more yarn, I decided I must start a project with the new stuff right away, not even letting it mingle with my stash. So, I started a cabled bag and I even crocheted a small clutch that I just have to line and add a button to.

Here is the progress. I hope to get more done tonight.

Why I love Turkey

I love Turkey because it has the cheapest yarn on the planet.

I knew before going to Turkey that it is a major wool producer. So, on our last day, on a whim, I decide that we should seek out where all this yarn is hiding. Before leaving the hotel for the day, I took along a ball of yarn, so I could explain what it was I was looking for. It worked! We went to the major market area (which happens to look EXACTLY like Namdaemun except with gun stores) and I whipped out the ball of yarn to show random shop owners. I managed to get the name of the district written down where I could buy yarn. So then it was just a matter of being pointed in the right direction by seven or eight people.

When we got really close I spotted the yarn about a half a mile away. My radar was on. I saw some yarn in a bin outside a store and once I got close, I realized that there were many yarn stores in the area. Then I saw the pricetags. There were "1 Lira" tags on everything in these big bins. And it was decent yarn. I nearly lost it. One Turkish New Lira is about US$0.77!! So, I was finished. In one of the first shops we entered, the owner spoke pretty good English, so it was easy for me to get prices. There were beautiful yarns, none over $2 a skein! They even had Lionbrand yarn there, with the label and everything (it's made there).....except for a fraction of the price!

But there was a problem. Being the last day of our month-long trip, our backpacks were full. So, I did what any sensible knitter would do. I went back into the market and bought a new bag!

Istanbul is an amazing place to begin with, but the fact that it also contains yarn heaven means I'll definitely be returning. At one store, I ended up buying 40 Lira worth of yarn (about US$30). For that, I got...

five 100g skeins of beautiful turquose yarn -- some kind of angora....it's 10% wool, 10% mohair, and 80% acrylic


five 100 gram skeins of 100% bamboo yarn


6 pairs of knit slippers (a few for me, a few for gifts!). He also threw in a few pair of needles and some patterns (which, unfortunately, since they're in Turkish, I can't read -- too bad because they're nice patterns).

This is where all that magic happened:

I also bought these hand knit slippers on the street near our hotel.

So that's why I love Turkey and why I WILL return to Istabul with several empty suitcases!

Men's navy ribbed socks finished!

They're finally done. I'll never knit another pair of plain socks again. It took everything in my being to knit the second one! Way too boring. My next socks will have to have some kind of pattern to keep me interested.

I was originially knitting them for Sejin, but I doubt they will fit him. Too small.

Now I must fight the urge to begin a new project and finish all the others that have been on the needles for months!