Surprise, Swatches, Junkies, and China

Good Morning:

I had a busy day of knitting yesterday, the first official day of summer.  I started the morning at the Sunday meet up of Eastside Stitchers at Panera's in Redmond.

VanesaPolo brought the most beautiful EZ Baby Surprise Jacket.

She is using Malabrigo Rios.  The colors just glow.  She is adding a hood, which is one of the modifications offered on the new publication of this timeless pattern.

She has finished the edges with applied icord, and it just looks so couture.

Puzan and JitteryKnitter were also there, but they were knitting swatches.  Jittery Knitter brought her swatch for the steeking class that VanesaPolo is teaching tonight at the Eastside Knitters Guild June meeting.

She also brought a swatch for a sweater she is knitting in a sweater class at Tolt Yarn and Wool.

The sweater she is planning has colorwork, but the instructions have her knitting it flat.  We will see if the steeking class encourages her to knit in the round and Cut Her Knitting!

Puzan was a so working on a swatch.  She is taking the same class (such lucky knitters, having to spend time at Tolt every Saturday), and is planning a Featherweight Cardigan in a beautiful chocolate. 

I brought my Stage 3 Socks for Tour-de-Sock, Roll The Bones.

I had finished my "swatch" for the steek class on Friday. I am making a colorwork baby pullover using the pattern, Classic Baby Sweater by Jean Flores.  I plan to steek the sleeve openings. But, after discussing the process with VanesaPolo, I decided to frog it back to where the I started the steek guides, and redo it.  The instructions, free on Ravelry, have you increase just one stitch on each side for the steek.  VanesaPolo recommended that I increase that to 5 or 7 stitches on each side.  I decided to add 7 stitches on each side where the sleeves will go. 

Last night, I ripped out half the sweater, and started over.  I am not quite finished, as I need to bind off the neckline, but I should be able to finish this up before noon, easily.

After the Sunday morning meet up, I drove to downtown Bellevue, and joined my Tour de Sock Team, Team Junkie, at Paddy Coyne's.   This was our end of World Wide Knit in Public Week.

I joined kateclysm, Raintownknitter, Wireknitter, and GwenS for some serious drinking sock knitting.

The beautiful Addie joined us for the food and drink.

What an amazing day of knitting.  When I got back home, there was an email from Pookie who has arrived in China.  He is having some trouble connecting to the internet at Beijing Normal University where he is studying Chinese for the next 8 weeks, because he didn't bring an ethernet cable, and as he puts it, "the wifi sucks."  I hope to post regular updates/guest blogs from him.  Right now I have no photos, but I do have permission to post his last email.

妈，

我们今天签了誓约，不能说英语。我签了以后有我笰一个问题：我想知道怎么说“湿漉漉，”但是我不知道怎么说“空气，”所以我试试说“到处都是水，”但是我的老师以为我说的是下雨的时候，太泄气了。

我有点儿紧张因为我不知道很多词，所担心不能跟朋友服务员说话。

北京很漂亮，今天的天气很舒服，连天都白色的！我很高兴。

在普北班我们是每2.4个学生都有一位老师。

我忘了怎么结束一个邮件，所以我就会说，

我很爱你

浦立杰

Hey mom!

Today we took the language pledge, so we can no longer speak English under pain of expulsion. We had a tour of campus by the teachers after, and I had my first major problem: I was trying to ask how to say humid, but in the process realized I didn't know how to say air, so I just said "you know, everything is water" and the teacher thought I meant rain, and it was super frustrating. 

I'm a little nervous because there are so many words I don't know, and I'm afraid it will be super hard to talk with my friends and order at restaurants and stuff. 

Beijing is really nice though, the temperature has been relatively temperate, and the sky is even blue today!

In the program, the ratio is one teacher for every 2.4 students which is insane, so I think my Chinese will get super good.

I forget how the Chinese end their letters, so I'll just say I love you. 

Pookie

Ps can you put a little money in my account?

Peace,
f1bercat
shaping the planet with a Chinese speaking/writing son