Finally, I have some time to blog about knitting.

I've been very busy traveling to Taiwan and Korea to visit relatives (both mine and Marty's). Our grandparents are very old and ill, and weren't able to come to our wedding back in August. On top of that, my grandpa just got diagnosed with stage 4 lung cancer. I don't remember much from my science classes back in college, but I do remember that lung cancer is very difficult to detect by x-rays in its early stages, and once it's discovered on the x-ray, it's very terminal.

My grandpa and I have a strange relationship. If you're thinking of an old Asian man with big belly and laughters, you're not thinking about my grandpa. My grandpa used to work for American military base during the cold war-era, he was a very successful businessman, who likes to boss people around. He also speaks in a dialect, common in Kyeongsang province of S. Korea, which makes him sound like he's angry like 24/7.

So needless to say, I was never close to him when I was growing up. Actually, I was deathly scared of him and didn't like to go visit him on holidays while I was growing up in Korea. Then when we moved to California when I was 10, my mom half forced me to write to him often so that I don't forget to use Korean.

Then years went by, and I kept writing to him, he wrote me back. All the way until I finished law school, I used to write to him regularly, as often as once a month at one point. I mostly talked about school and job, and family matters, but still I think that was the most intimate moments of our relationship, between my grandpa and me.

He's had a couple of other cancers before--stomach and throat. Both times we were worried but he survived them all. But when I heard about his lung cancer this time, I knew I didn't have much time to show Marty to him. Even though I wasn't sure whether my travel permit would come out on time, Marty and I booked a flight to Taiwan and Korea. I have a full-time job but I didn't want to regret anything.

For many knitters, packing for a long-term (even short-term, maybe?) trip is tough. What to pack? What not to bring on the plane? Do I have enough yarns and books to keep myself occupied? Do I still have rooms for the NEW yarns and books on the returning flight?

I ended up packing the night before we had to leave, so I didn't have much time to really plan things out. But I grabbed one huge skein of Lion Brand Fisherman's Wool in Oatmeal and uploaded a one-page pattern of Textured Shawl on my Kindle and off I went.

 

Yarn: Lion Brand Fisherman's Wool in Oatmeal

Needle: US 7 (4.5mm)

Pattern: Textured Shawl Recipe

As you can see right away, I made some mods. The pattern is easy to follow, with just 2 stitch patterns (textured part and St st part). I cast on when I got on the plane. My seat was between Marty and some dude, but both of them kept sleeping the whole time and I didn't really feel like sleeping so I kept knitting. I didn't even need to look at the pattern that much.

Mods:

I read other people's project pages before I left. So I knew how to make the textured part mirror each other. And I didn't really count/care about how long each section is so I just knitted until I was bored with the section and switched.

Garter section: The shawl ends with a big block of garter stitch section. As you can see on the project page on Ravelry and other project pages, this section is a simple garter section. But I had all this time in Taiwan on their subway and wanted to use up all the yarns to make rooms for some yarns I bought in Shilin.

So I made the ruffle section. To make ruffle:

1. (WS) [k1, k1b] repeat to end

2. (RS) k across

3. (WS) k across

The instruction does not include the two garter border stitches on both ends and the increases. Keep increasing as you did for the St st and Textured parts.