Ripples reach Seoul!

Hello, everyone! I'm another newbie--to crocheting, and to joining Internet communities. This whole ripple-along thing is so powerful, it has got me to pick up a crochet hook and learn for the first time, and it has also brought me out of my long-standing lurker status to actually pipe up and add my two cents' worth! Heady stuff, I tell ya!

Anyway, I am from Canada originally, but I now call Korea home. I have been teaching English here for 8 years, and am loving it. I've been knitting a blanket in fits and spurts for almost that whole time, and it's about 80% done, but once I saw this ripple-along blog, I knew I had to do something about it...I'll finish the knitting later!

So, last Friday, I was passing by a little yarn shop in the subway station near work, and I decided all of a sudden to just pick up some yarn and start. Not the most thought-out plan, because the yarn is actually kind of cheap, and sold in really small amounts, so it's not the most economical way--but I consider this my "practice" blanket. I plan on going to the yarn wholesale market here in Seoul and making a nicer one with softer, natural yarns later. So for now, I'm having tons of fun with this one, even though it's not nearly as nice as all the other fantastic, beautiful blankets on this blog. I'm in awe of you all!

So here are a couple of pictures to show you what I've done. I started this blanket on Monday, and have been working at it obsessively since then. This is what it looked like on Wednesday morning (I got my 11 am Reading/Writing class to model it with me):



and this is what it looks like now, (Friday am, Korean time):



There is more on my blog, and I will post here occasionally to let you all know how I'm doing. Keep the ripples coming, because I am enjoying everyone else's projects as much as my own!

Anyway, nice to meet you all!

Nikki

Moved!

This blog is no longer in service!

Please go to my new blog: nikkislipp.wordpress.com! Thanks!

#38

The way my house smells tonight. Cozy and homey. A combination of sweet, musky incense and fresh zucchini fritters, mixed with a bit of a citrusy, baked smell from the honey cake i made earlier today. Plus a whiff or two of fresh laundry and earl grey tea. Snuggly smells, all.

#37

My favourite artist/illustrator/decorator, Mary Engelbreit
This is her official website, and there are lots more images here

#36

Brambly Hedge
The Official Site, and more images here

#34

Texturally significant bread
Forget the blah, bland, nothing-bread that is plain old white sandwich bread.....give me a good sourdough or multi-grain, or what i ate this morning, which was a nice, dense, chewy whole wheat, walnut and fig bread from Paris Baguette (look for 무화과브레드, and check out some of the other new "natural breads" they offer). Yum! Lovely......

#35

복분자 술, Korean raspberry liquor
The first time i had it (well, the only time), i asked what the name means, and i was told that it means something like "flip the pot"....according to the folklore, there was once a man who went up into the mountains and ate a lot of raspberries, and then later, when he had to make use of the chamberpot, his stream of urine came out with so much force that the pot flipped over. Or something like that. So eating raspberries--or, even better, drinking them in distilled form--will make you strong and healthy. Logical conclusion, I say. ;) But the stuff is really fantastic, and would make a really lovely summer cocktail or punch :)

#33

Marukawa Grape Bubble Gum The yummiest gum ever!

#32

요플레의 닥터 캡슐, 나무딸기맛
Yoplait's "Doctor Capsule" drinking yogurt, raspberry flavour
It has tiny, crunchy little "vitamin capsules" suspended in it, supposed to be good for digestion, if left intact to travel down to the intestines.....i, however, tend to have too much fun crunching them....

#31

Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf's Moroccan Mint Latte
Prowstar's or Starbucks' Green Tea Latte

......it's the middle of summer, why am i thinking about warm drinks? Well, actually, ICED green tea lattes are fabulous too...I wonder if The Coffee Bean makes iced moroccan mint lattes??

#30

The name of this blog...

#29

Area rugs

#28

Being well rested enough to wake up at 6 am without an alarm clock......on a regular basis. (Fingers crossed)

#27

An all-night rain.....listening to the fall of a steady rain on the plants outside your window at 9 pm, 1 am, 6 am......

#26

There's just something about...rooftops

#25

Kimchi pots One of my favourite images in the world--clusters of dark brown kimchi jugs beside a wall or in someone's yard

#24

Emotion Chocolate--bite-sized chocolate squares with popping candy inside! so much fun to eat!! :) (of course, there's a technique: bite off half of the chocolate square, and don't chew, but try to melt it in your mouth as fast as you can.....that way, you get more popping. it helps if the chocolate isn't cold, too)

#23

Song: Come to Me by Clazziquai

#22

Fresh pineapple!! Yum!

#20

A hot mug of something nice to drink, steaming away on the table beside me

#21

Cyrano de Bergerac

#19

Expression:
to give someone/something "the hairy eyeball"

#18

The long shhhhhhhhhhhglurp that a can of mushroom soup makes coming out of the can when upended...can you tell what i had for dinner last night?

#17

Two more expressions:
"For the love of baked beans"
and
"For crying in the sink!" (courtesy of my friend Wendy)

#16

New expression: If it ain't broke, why get out the glue gun?

#15

Phood
PHarmaceutical fOOD

#14

Baileys Irish Cream...with milk, or in coffee...my Christmas treat!

#13

this bookshelf...gotta have it

#12

My two new favourite shops, better and cheaper than The Body Shop!!
MISSHA
and
THE FACE SHOP (whose spokesmodel--Kwon Sang-woo--is another thing to be happy about...yowzah....)

#11

RED SHOES!!

#10

The sound of my refrigerator coming on in the middle of the night. (I live alone...that's the only sound there is in the middle of the night, except the ticking of my clocks in each room....) Then, i guess, #10a is the ticking of my clocks in each room of my lovely little home...

#9

Coming home on a fall evening to my cozy little apartment, where i have left one or two small lamps lit to greet me on my return...

#8

Kind taxi drivers who listen to your whole sad break-up story and then give you hope by telling you that you will meet one day soon a kind, cool, handsome, rich guy, get married, have kids, and have lovely conversations at the kitchen table while sharing a big steaming pot of kimchi jjigae together....

#7

Making spaghetti-o's entirely by accident, and having a total food flashback--well, more like spahgetti-i's...i used orzo pasta...

#6

Making a random call to my mom to ask for a recipe--this time, it was beef stroganoff, last time i think it was lemon bars?

#5

"One swell foop" :)

#4

This Song:

Shin Hae-chul's "Invitation to an Ordinary Day"
(신해철의 "일상으로의 초대")

#3

Shel Silverstein!!
For example: The Meehoo with an Exactlywatt

More of Shel's poetry and illustrations HERE

#2

Joke: Energizer Bunny arrested, charged with battery

#1

These shoes:

pink shoes from chinese laundry