FinchumSung BlogSpot

Thursday, December 24, 2009

Winter Solstice

Shots of a frozen pond and winter night sky in Yongsan Family Park, Seoul

Monday, December 21, 2009

The hat above has a 15-year history in the making. In 1995, my first winter in Indiana, my friend Zoe devised a way to keep us busy during the blizzardy weather. She is a master knitter (as you can see on her blog http://seasideknitting.blogspot.com/) and had a whole bunch of Norwegian patterns. The beginner knitter in me took on an overly ambitious project (the norm for me) and something way beyond my skill level. But, she's obviously a good teacher because I had made half the hat before abandoning knitting once classes became too demanding. I have carried this hat around in moves from Indiana to California and California to Seoul in hopes of finishing the dang thing. Well, I decided to actually try and figure out the two-color pattern and found that, despite the fact I could not read the exact directions since they are in Norwegian, I could at least look at the graph of the pattern and follow it. And, I did it. Biggest problem is that it is kind of small and the kids say it squeezes their head. The reason it is small is that I started reducing the stitches way too early and did too many bit by bit reducing rows after the other. I'll wear it one snowy day. At least I finished! And, can't wait to try some of those patterns on a hat for Dahin who has request the snowflake pattern.

The hat for Ronan, above, was made according to his color and design preferences. He specifically requested the little ball on top, and it looks really cute with it. It's just a simple pattern--caste on 80, do a rib knit on the bottom (actually, the original just calls for a stockinette stitch, but I did not like the idea of the bottom curling up, which it will with just stockinette stitch) for about 8 rows and then do stockinette stitch until the hat reaches the right size (kept having Ronan put it on while still on the needles). Once it reaches the right length, you just cut a long tail and pull the string through all the stitches and pull it tight like a drawstring, then weave the ends in a few times. The pulling like a draw-string thing was a bit more of a challenge than they made it sound, but eventually it worked. I used 3 mm needles on this hat since the yarn was a bit chunky. I knit rather loosely, so this hat is slightly big, but Ronan likes it.

The hat I'm wearing above is based on a pattern called "Autumn Hat." It is meant to sit back on the head and be a little floppy. I like it a lot, so decided to make a variation of it in red for Dahin's teacher with a matching scarf (below on super model Ronan--the only one of my kids calm enough to sit through various fittings and final product photos). The hat only took a few hours to make, but the scarf took forever. Note to self no. 1: do not wait until the week of Christmas to begin making presents so you don't have to stay up all night and still not make the length of scarf you wanted to (took me three days and one all-night session to make). Note to self no. 2: If making a last minute scarf, stick with garter stitch and BIG needles; do not--I repeat--do not do a rib pattern on 5 mm needles. Yes I did. Oh well. The end result was ok, but, like I said, the scarf was no where near as long as I had wanted to make it. It was like hacking away at a stone that never appeared chipped. Also, the hat did not have the floppy look it was supposed to have and, I think, I accidentally left out some rows as these rows would have added some height to the hat. That's what I get for watching tv while knitting. But, it's still cute. Sent the set off to Dahin's teacher this morning after a sleepless night (yes, mommy was grumpy this morning).

The Boys Get a Tree

We were winter sock, boot shopping with the boys one Saturday morning in Namdaemun market and, lo and behold, the sound of "Jingle Bells" caused the boys to stampede in the direction of the music. There, two big temp structures were set up selling plastic trees--tiny, small, medium, and big--lights, decorations, wrapping paper. You name it, they had it. After having heard, before coming to Korea, that it was very difficult to find Christmas decorations in Korea, I really hesitated when it came time to give our tree away. But, we did. Man, we found an even better tree. Our $70 3-feet tall tree from Target--you know, the one the kids claimed had 'shrunk' from the previous year--is nothing to this fake lovely at about $40 US equiv. The lights cost an extra 6,000 won (about $5). The boys insisted on 'rainbow lights.' Now, at least, we have a tree that's taller than the kids and equal to my height. This was the mid-range tree. I had thought about getting the great big one, but it seemed better to get one that wasn't too big so the kids could decorate it themselves. The boys were so excited, they kept jumping up and down and laughing. I was glad we got it. When Dahin got home from school, she was pretty excited about it, as well, although too cool (being 9 and all) to really show it.

We didn't decorate immediately when I got it set up at home. I just put the lights on and told the kids we'd wait to put the decorations on. That did not stop Oliver--aka Andre Kim--from going at it with string and crafts he had made at school. Below is the prissy little monster we all know and love, putting his own special touches on the tree.

Friday, December 4, 2009

Fall, fall, falling away

Wow--it's been a long time since I last posted. My schedule's been cram-packed, so have neglected the blog. I decided to post some photos of our fall journey's in Chollado in October/November. Now that the weather is below freezing, I miss those balmy days and cool nights!

Our home away from home on our travels--love the ondol floors and the cozy blankets. The kids are glad they can get Pokeman ANYWHERE!

While I presented at a symposium in Gurye, Jack and the kids explored the local market place.

The kids chilll at the Gurye market. Gurye is a little town in the middle of the country in Cholla-namdo, the southwestern province of Korea.

This is where we keep Ronan when he is being BAAAAD...; - )' (seriously, just kidding....)

Above, Ronan surveys the view of the creepy 'mall' from our room--abandoned buildings and empty parking garages were the nearby structures. Below, Oliver and I go on a ghost hunt in the creepy hotel with the too-high ceilings in the middle of nowhere--'The Shining,' anyone?

Outside, the hotel was not so creepy, as we found some pretty foliage, etc. on the way to fill our tummies. Breakfast, the kids have learned, is simple Korean fare when on the road. No pancakes, bacon, and eggs here. Initially, on road trips, this was hard for the kids to get over since road trips in the States meant great, junky breakfasts. Here, pancake breakfasts can only be found either at our house or in specialty eateries that charge big won for 'exotic' food in Seoul. Below, the kids take their shows off to enter the restaurant we chose simply because it had a sign that said, 'we serve breakfast' outside the restaurant. We discovered that, like most places we tried in Chollanamdo, the food was delicious and the service very friendly. Chollanamdo is famous for its food, and now we know why.

Rice is dried just out on the street. Often, we had to swerve into the oncoming lane to avoid the rice. Oncoming drivers would just head at us. We also learned that roads, and road rules, mean nothing in Cholla-namdo. We had more than one close-call with people who ran right though stop signs and red lights. Way scarier than driving in Seoul.