Second Secret Pal 8 Questionnaire

Here is my second Secret Pal 8 Questionnaire. A special thanks goes out to our SP8 hostess Patty for sending it our way.

(I have knitting pics to post soon and more Thailand pics. Promise!)

1. What is your favorite season?

Spring, definitely spring. I love the promise that spring holds, how it's cold and unbearable one day and then warm and lovely the next. I love the first blooms, the tiny bursts of bright colors, the coat that doesn't know just yet whether to stay put or not.

2. Where is or would be your favorite place in the world to take a vacation?

I feel like a cultural heathen because I've never been to Europe, never even been to England. I think I would love to go anywhere on that side of the world. Countries that appeal to me are Italy, France, Spain and for some reason the city of Copenhagen--I think it's because of the mermaids.

3. If you could have any job in the world and not worry about finances (everything would be taken care of), which means you'd be doing something you actually like, what would it be?

I've always dreamed of having my own bed and breakfast in a lovely little corner of some lovely mountains, but then I don't think I would really enjoy cleaning up after anyone. Then I dreamed of raising sheep, but then I remembered that sheep poo and get sick and die and all that. I think I would like to sit at my desk and write. I think that's exactly what I would like to be able to do.

4. What is your favorite project to knit or crochet?

Oh, socks, definitely socks. I don't want to knit anything else! I used to look at patterns and think, oh, I have the right needles and yarn for that. And then I would make the project. But now, all I do is look at and dream about all that lovely, lovely sock yarn out there.

5. What is your favorite food - whether it be a main dish, dessert, snack, whatever?

Oh my god. This is a difficult question. I love many, many different foods. But if I had to say just one thing, I would have to say my mother's Thai beef salad. Other things I love: Cape Cod brand sea salt and vinegar chips, custard, rare steak, oxtail, bolonaise and pasta, mussels in white-wine sauce, Thai noodle soup, carbonara and pasta, lamb chops with rosemary, and I could go on and on really.

6. What is your favorite way to relax and unwind?

Well, I hate to say it, but knitting is the answer to this one. And I also like cleaning. I know it seems weird, but cleaning makes me feel less anxious and this is probably why I was a nervous wreck when I was studying for my orals--I had no time to clean.

Jaywalker & Mountains

Soon, quite soon, Jaywalker 2's toe will be done and grafted; so before that, I wanted to share a little photo that I took for you while I was in Thailand. Here is Jaywalker 2 amid the mountains of my mother's hometown and the pasture where her cows graze. (Cows not pictured.)

This photo certainly doesn't do anything justice: it can't convey the teak trees, the bamboo and banana plants, how they themselves graze up towards clouds that gather and glide against the mountains, at times seeming so close that you think you can touch them.

Orchids and socks

I'm so anxious to tell you so much about my month in Thailand that I hardly know where to begin. Perhaps I should talk about the flowers, the fruits, the mountains, the people, the Buddhist ceremonies, my aunt's mushrooms, the rain, the huge spider, the markets that I love. But since this is, after all, a knitting blog, perhaps I should tell you about my knitting.

Here is a pair of socks that I made for my aunt who is always so good to us when we are in Thailand. She looks after our every want and need and I always feel that what I give her in return is never enough. So I wanted to make her a pair of socks. The orchids are in the front yard of my mother's vacation house, and there always seems to be orchids blooming.

These socks were made with KnitPicks Dancing in the Tap colorway. This yarn makes very comfortable and stretchy socks (I had a hard time giving them away!), and I highly recommend it if you're knitting socks for someone who, say, lives in a tropical rain forest and isn't accustomed to washing or even owning socks and who may not know the dangers of felting. (The yarn is cotton and wool and nylon and elastic.) It's easy to knit with, but I must say that the color repeats did get a bit boring after a while--it doesn't quite surprise in the same way that a handpainted variegated yarn will.

I made a 1.5 inch cuff over 2x2 ribbing with a traditional heel-flap on size 1 Addis using the magic-loop method. I made some errors on one sock that I won't tell you about, but let's just say that it was very frustrating and I had to frog a few rows and messed up one of my wrap and turns which led to a huge gusset hole despite my picking up two extra stitches near the join. (Well, maybe I said more than I should have, but I should also say that sewing up that hole went extremely well and I hardly noticed it was there when it was all sewed up and done with.)

I also made her a little dishcloth with Peaches 'n Creme yarn. My older sister, who I taught to knit a while ago, made the other one. Here's the little package we made up for our aunt.


I have many more pictures and stories to tell and I'm anxious to get back to my DSL connection in Brooklyn so that I can upload pictures without getting frustrated. (Slow uploads coupled with jet-lag is not a good combination.)

Jaywalking in Bangkok

After a month in the mountains of Thailand, away from internet access and all things tech, I'm in a nice little hotel in Bangkok. There's internet access, but it isn't free, and the computers don't seem to have a slot for my little camera card. I'll post lots and lots of pictures when I'm back in the states. That will be in a few days! Woo hoo!

I've had an amazing trip and can't wait to tell you all about it. I went to many Buddhist ceremonies and parties and got a bit tanner than I was when I left the states.

I knitted a pair of socks for my aunt and am now knitting my second Jaywalker in Bangkok. I had high aspirations with my baggage full of sock yarn and Proust but it all came to naught. Lewis Carroll wrote that he believed in periods of extreme intensity followed by periods of extreme idleness, so I suppose that I have done the right thing by doing nothing at all after all that intense testing and studying and grading and what not.

Thanks so much for all your well wishes for my trip.

Pictures and postings to come soon.

One last post before I go

I have a strange and slow internet connection here in Texas, so I'm not posting any pictures in this post. Speaking of strange and slow, my suitcases just made it here. Mind you, I made it here Friday night. My suitcases just made it here. The suitcases arrived without any kind of apology notice or travel coupon or free frequent flyer miles. I'm hesitant to state which airline this is.

Speaking of airlines, I'll be leaving in two days for a journey overseas. I'm hesitant to state the country that I'm going to in case my Secret Pal spoilee reads this by chance and finds out who I am! Maybe I should make up a country? I guess I can say the continent? I'm going to a country in Asia for one month. How's that?

What I'm packing: enough sock yarn for six pairs (I know...very very ambitious!), Addi turbos size 1 and 2, bamboo dpns size 1 and 2, my knitting sock book, darning needles, tape measure, some dishcloth yarn to make my aunt some dishcloths, and my second Jaywalker-in-progress.

Jaywalker number 2 is all but 2 inches in length, and I'm hoping that it will be somewhere in the instep by the time I land in my destination country. I believe the total travel time is 26 hours! Great day! That's a long time, and if I don't make significant sock progress and Proust progress, well then, I don't deserve to be a knitter or a reader.

I doubt I'll be able to post again before I go. Tomorrow will be spent madly packing and wondering whether I've enough toothpaste or dental floss or shampoo.

I hope that you will stop by my blog again in late July, when I return. I promise to have lots of pictures of socks and flowers and mountains and fruits.

Maybe I will teach a child to knit.

I'm going to a very poor area of a poor country. It's where I was born, and I feel an intense need to help the people here.

While there, I plan to also set up a scholarship fund at the village school, a scholarship that is specifically for girls. Girls often have to drop out because parents, if they can only afford to send one child, will more often than not send the boy child.

Perhaps I will also teach young mothers how to knit baby blankets.

Happy knitting, and I'll see you in about a month!

ABT (All But Toe)

If I can refer to my stage in my Ph.D. program as "All But Dissertation," then I should be able to refer to my stage in my Jaywalkers as "All But Toe." I'm officially ABT on Jaywalker one. I hope to cast on for Jaywalker two before I get on a plane on Friday. I have a four-hour flight to Texas, and as much as I'd love to pick up my Proust again, I'd really love to come out with a few inches of Jaywalker before landing. I have to say, if any sock has been Proustian in duration for me, this sock is it.

The gusset and the foot of this sock felt as if they went on forever and forever. Never before did one sock seem to go on and on. I really did pick this sock up every chance I got, even knitted a few rows before bed each night and each time I would pick this sock up, my boyfriend would ask me, "Are you still working on the same sock?" And very humbly, I would have to answer, "Yes."

I can't believe that I realistically thought I could turn out a pair of socks in two weeks. I know many knitters can do it, but I just can't. I don't know why I can't, but I know I can't. (Socks as my Knitting Olympics project?!?! What was I thinking???) So, I figure if I can turn out a pair a month, I should be happy.

I have another pair of socks that are ABT, and I hope to finish them before Friday as well. These are the first pair of socks I ever started. The pattern called for size three needles and worsted weight yarn. Advice to new sock knitters: do not begin with worsted weight yarn because you think it will be easier. I'm dreading finishing these socks. I don't enjoy the worsted weight yarn. I don't know why. I guess I'm just used to sock weight yarn now and don't like the feel of big yarn on my hands.



Here is another piece of embroidery that my boyfriend's mother made in the 70s. I think the colors complement my Jaywalker perfectly.

Nature Knitting

This weekend, my boyfriend and I stayed with some of our friends upstate. They have a little bungalow on the river. The whole house seems to have not been touched in thirty years. The furniture is dated, quaint and slightly eerie, but nonetheless nostalgic and charming. The musk and mold and peeling paint of the house made it so that we stayed outdoors most of the time. The grass was full of phlox and buttercups. My jaywalkers felt at home amid the yellows and greens.

The whitenoise of the the river made me feel slightly dreamy all weekend. When it came time to make my heel flap, I had to stop working on my sock. I simply didn't have the focus or concentration anymore. All I wanted was to stare and sleep.

For dinner, we bar-be-qued corn and sweet potatoes and onions and peppers and salmon and Italian sausage and chicken. We gathered buttercups and phlox and wild irises for bouquets.

And don't ask me how I did it, but somehow, in the middle of it all, even amid the country desertion and the country roads, I managed to find yarn.

This was a nice trip, but part of me was really happy to be back in Brooklyn, even though I do love nature and water so much.

Jaywalker-in-progress

I must officially be in the dog days of summer. Except it isn't the heat of summer that's making me lazy. On the contrary, the days in New York City have been cold and rainy. I'm fixing to get very very busy here. Tonight I have a Yankees game (and although I can knit through a Mets game, I could never ever knit through a Yankees game) and tomorrow I'm leaving town for three days and then I'll have a houseguest. So, in case I got too busy, I thought I would post a photo of what I've been doing as I'm being lazy and lounging around watching DVDs. Well, I haven't been entirely lazy. I've been cleaning and yesterday my dear boyfriend and I made a savory veal stew with red wine and beef broth. We even made little bread-pudding custards. We live entirely outside of our means.

The jaywalkers are very simple to make. Despite the way the pattern on the socks looks, it's very easy. I'm afraid, however, that I didn't pick the best yarn for this project. It's KnitPicks Sock Garden in the Daffodil colorway. I think this yarn would have been fine if I was doing 64 stitches over size 1 needles or 60 stitches over size 2 needles, but it seems as if anything else will make the colors pool a bit. I'm not willing to give these up, however. As you can see, I'm back to using dpns. I don't think I really have a preference between dpns and the magic loop. I think I was just in the mood for the dpns.

Look Ma! A Finished Object!

Well, these socks certainly have a lot knitted in them. These socks contain all my worries over orals and my language exam and other things. These socks contain about three months of sentiments. I finished them a few nights ago but didn't get to graft the toe of the second sock until a few minutes ago. Finishing these socks was very cathartic for me: in a sense, finishing them signifies that I'm really free from those worries that went into the sock. The sock is the physical manifestation of my letting go of those worries. I know this may sound crazy, but what I love so much about knitting is that all of your emotions, your joys and fears and worries, become physical objects that not only mark time but seem to give something back to you.

These socks were made using Lorna's Laces Shepherd Sock in the Watercolor colorway on size 1 40" Addi turbos. I worked over 64 stitches, making a 2X2 rib for the cuff and switching to stockinette stitch. I wanted to post close ups of the gusset because I'm really proud of them. No hole! I wrapped and turned before and after the first heel flap row and picked up two extra stitches when working the gusset.

These pictures cannot show the depth of the beauty of this yarn. This yarn has so many pleasant surprises in it and it really does seem to shine and shimmer in a way that wool shouldn't. It's lovely, lovely.


I tried to take a picture of myself wearing these socks, but I go through a huge metaphysical struggle when I have to think about photographing myself modeling socks: should I shave my legs? should I wear nice pants? a skirt? funky pajamas? Well, I guess it's best to use my floor as a backdrop.

Cross my heart & hope to die; stick a needle in my eye: a superstitious thread

I know this might sound terribly superstitious, but I've always thought that I could be completely happy if only I could finish this cross-stitch. I started this cross-stitch when I was fifteen. And as it so happens when you're fifteen and in love and spending a Friday night with your parents, your boyfriend will have spent some time with another girl. I told myself then that I would never ever be completely happy in love or have a healed heart unless I finished this cross-stitch. I know, it's terribly superstitious. It's like the white elephant in my life. This thing has been toted around from state to state and it even accompanied me once overseas, and I have never ever wanted to finish it. That huge cabbage, as lovely as it seems, quickly became very tedious.

The image itself, however, lends much sentimentality to me as I grew up among rabbits and veggies and flowers. My parents are avid gardeners, and as a child, I had pet rabbits, among other things. My parents live out in the country and they have all sorts of animals including chickens and ducks and geese and turkeys and quail and occasionally, kittens and mice and wild bunnies are born in our henhouse hay. I suppose, even though I'm living in New York City, that I have a bit of the rustic in me and dream about living in a farmhouse or at least among a beautiful secluded mountain scenery.

And so, when I begin to ask myself questions such as these--will I ever be married? will I ever have children? will I even ever be engaged?--this cross-stitch begins to loom large in my mind and I blame it all on that cabbage.