Lilly Pad Snood Project Log Day 1 and 2

Day One. Started working on this snood. I picked the yarn on a wim, and choose my Rosewood hook because it has a smaller sized head even though it’s supposed to be the same size as my metal hook. (They’re both listed as size I or 5.50) Finished the first few rows and started on the sixth. I have plenty of time to dedicate to this project this week because I’m working the shop by myself. Phylliss is sick and the men are at Brother Technical School.

The thread I'm using for this project.

Part way through Day 1

Day Two. Started the day by finishing row Six. Then I stopped and counted the loops. Only 23! After counting twice more, I recounted the loops on row below. Row 5 was also missing a loop, but row 4 was correct. So I tore out all of Row 6, and the last loop of Row 5. Found my mistake pretty quickly. I for got to do the last loop that you slip stitch into place at the base of loop 1. It’s another long day at the shop by myself, so I have lots of time to work on this today.



Notes: Notes
I picked up the yarn(it’s more like thread) at a grocery store in Ukraine. I originally bought it to make bracelets with, but I thought I would try it with this pattern.
I’m copying the pattern there so because the original site closed down and I don’t want to loose it in case the archive gets deleted somehow.
Snood:
Yarns and hooks: Almost any kind of yarn or crochet thread will work for this pattern. For a finer texture, use crochet cotton, knit-cro-sheen, or pearl cotton, with a “3” or “B” size crochet hook. Heavier yarns (wool, acrylic, and blends) yield a lovely, rough texture. Use a “G” sized hook with
heavier yarns.
Finished size: Approximately 17” in diameter. Comes to about the nape of the neck when worn; for a longer snood, repeat Row 15 until desired diameter is achieved.
Round 1: Ch 6, slip-stitch to first ch to form a ring.
Round 2: Ch 4, [DC into center of ring, Ch 1] 11 times, slip-stitch into third
ch of Ch 4 strand to join.
Round 3: Ch 5, DC into first Ch 1 space, Ch 2, DC into next Ch 1 space, Ch 2,
DC into same Ch 1 space, repeat from * around circle, Ch 1, slip-stitch into
third ch of beginning Ch 5 strand to join (24 posts around circle).
Round 4: Slip-stitch into center of first Ch 2 space, Ch 5, SC into center of
next Ch 2 space, repeat from * around circle, Ch 5, slip-stitch into base of
first Ch 5 strand to join.
Round 5: Slip-stitch in first 3 ch of Ch 5 strand (to the center chain of the
strand), Ch 6, SC into center of next Ch 5 space, repeat from * around circle, Ch 6,
slip-stitch into base of first Ch 6 space to join, making 24 loops around circle.
Round 6: Slip-stitch to center of first Ch 6 loop, Ch 7, SC into center of
next loop, repeat from * around circle, Ch 7, slip-stitch into base of first
loop to join (24 loops around).
Round 7-9: Repeat as for round 6, increasing loops by one ch each round (Round
7 will have Ch 8 loops; Round 8 will have Ch 9 loops; Round 9 will have Ch 10
loops).
Round 10: Slip-stitch into first 3 ch of Ch 10 loop, Ch 5, SC into same Ch 10
loop, Ch 5, SC into next Ch 10 loop, Ch 5, SC into same Ch 10 loop, Repeat from * around
circle, Ch 5, slip-stitch into base of first Ch 5 loop (48 loops around).
Round 11: Slip-stitch to center of first Ch 5 loop, Ch 6, SC into center of
next Ch 5 loop, Repeat from * around circle, Ch 6, slip-stitch into base of
first Ch 6 loop.
Round 12: Repeat as for Round 6.
Round 13-15: Repeat as for Rounds 7-9 (Round 13 will have Ch 8 loops, Round 14
will have Ch 9 loops, Round 15 will have Ch 10 loops).
Round 16: Slip-stitch to center of first Ch 10 loop, Ch 5, SC into center of
next Ch 10 loop, Repeat from * around circle, slip-stitch into base of first
Ch 5 strand.
Round 17: To make bars for drawstring: Ch 4, DC into Ch 5
strand, Ch 1 3 times, repeat from * in each Ch 5 space around circle, Ch 1,
slip-stitch into third ch of starting strand to finish. Cut yarn and pull loop
through. Weave end in.
Drawstring: Use a braided length of the same yarn, or ribbon, or elastic, long enough
to fit around head plus 12”. Weave drawstring through posts of final round of
crocheting. Fit to head size. Sew ends of elastic together or if using drawstring,
tie in a bow.

I'm Not Sure Where This is Going

So this post is sort of a catch up.
Shortly after my last post, my eldest sister Deanna passed away. So I made a quick dash back to the states to attend the funeral and visit with family. I stayed at Deva's house for a month. It was in all a pretty good time. I played with the babies, and even went on a date to the movies. And I also replaced my glasses with contacts! My team sent me the loveliest bouquet of flowers too. But they also went to Lvov without me while I was gone.

What a pair of perfect poses, hey? Almost as great as the flowers themselves.

But following that, I returned to Ukraine. Certainly not the easiest choice I've ever made. At that point, it was my plan to stay till December or January. However after a short time I discovered that most of the ministries I was a part of dried up. And given that I was working in Ukraine, the couple of months I had left weren't sufficient for restarting.  It also became clear to me that there were some other family issues that I needed to be home to help with. So I decided to officially end my time in Ukraine. It was a difficult decision, but once I decided what I needed to do, it was clear to me that it was the right choice. So, I spent the next month wrapping up the remainder of my ministries and took a final trip down to Donetsk. 

During that final month the whole mission team attended a Seminar down in the Crimea. We spent a couple days prior in a little hotel right on the coast. During the conference I got to visit with many Christians that I had met all over Ukraine during my mission time. I also got to meet this awesome Greek gentleman who had been my brother's teacher when he did the HUG program with Harding. I wish I could spend more time on this, but there's just no time now.

The Church in Kharkov gave me this lovely, traditional blouse.

Rob and Denyce brought gave me the most lovely bouquet at my goodbye party.

I left Ukraine at the end of October. My last night in Kharkov we had a little goodbye party, and early the next morning I left on a train for Kiev.

I flew from Kiev to New York through London. London was the most exciting part of the trip. I only had two hours between my flights(so different than my original flight to Ukraine.) But for some reason we got delayed landing in London for over 45 minutes. Between that and my gate not being in the same terminal as I was told it would be, I totally missed my flight out. They booked me on the next flight after that, but I didn't have a way to tell anyone in America that I was on another flight because the terminal didn't have any internet! At this point I was really overwhelmed. I had just left Ukraine, I was tired from traveling, I had just run through an airport mostly aimlessly trying to reach my original flight, and now I couldn't tell my family that I was missing the next flight as well. Oh, and there was also hurricane about to pound into the coast I was trying to get to, however that was the least of my worries at the time. I went strait to my gate, where I asked an attendant if there was a phone I could use to call home with. She advised me to talk to customer service, but to look for a lady with a specific colour of bolo tie that signified her as a manager. When I asked her to make sure I had a window seat(I get horribly sick if I don't sit next to a window), she immediately pulled out a new ticket for me that had me upgraded to plus class! Woot. (By the way, her name was Dawn, which I took as a sign from God that she was sent specifically to help me.)

The manager I found was pretty rude and chewed me out about how I was already being treated well enough by the company with my upgrade and and all and how they shouldn't have to provide me with a phone, ect. But she did connect me with a higher up who brought me a phone and allowed me to call my dad, so he could contact Minna who was picking me up. (The second manager was nicer, but still wanted me to keep things short so that it wouldn't cost the company much. At this point I was like "sure, no problem" but I was thinking about how ridiculous that reaction was since British Airways makes billions a year and one phone call to America wasn't even going to be noticed in the long run...)  Also to note, I had a handful of Ukrainian Chocolate bars in my carry on and I offered one to each of the ladies who assisted me. However the only one who would accept the gift was the lady who was really rude. She looked a little surprised even.

The next flight was a lot of fun. I got to chill in this lazyboy-like recliner with a touch screen movie with all the movies I could possible want. The meals even came with real silverware. It was amazing.
Landing in New York(which is strangely easier to do than landing in Memphis) I went through customs, purposely chose the customs officer with a mustache which worked because he had a good humor. Then with my luggage on a cart(I was surprised at having to pay for that in America; those are free in Europe) I finally got to meet Minna who was waiting for me on the other side of the gate.

Minna and I spent the night in New York City, and on the next day took a whirlwind tour of the city. We walked through battery park and found this cool group that has fishing lines set up for students to learn about the fish in the Hudson. We found a little deli store nearby to grab breakfast from. After seeing everything, we hightailed it back to Vermont because we needed to get Minna's house ready for Hurricane Sandy. The next couple days were spent watching the storm roll by and hoping a tree didn't fall on the house. During that time I watched the news stories and saw pictures of Battery park completely submerged. It was surreal to me because I had just been standing there a couple days prior and the water was around 11 feet down. A couple days later it was 3 feet under water!

I spent a couple weeks in Vermont just visiting Minna. That was a lot of fun. We went on walks with the dogs, ditched trunk-or-treat, attended a turnip festival. We even made this pillow for a little boy who asked for homemade stuff for his birthday.

Following that, I took a train to Chicago where I spent the day touring the city. I had meant to meet up the a friend, but we got our scheduled backwards and never managed to meet up. But I did meet some European guys on a walking tour and ate lunch with them at Panda Express(one of my favourite places). After our late lunch I decided to wander about a little bit. There was a free zoo nearby, and an aquarium that was slightly closer but I didn't know how much it cost. Since they were basically opposite directions down the same road I was going to walk to that road and then decide which way to go after that. However, halfway down the road I passed a theatre that the tour guide had pointed out and had mentioned Garrison Keillor would be preforming at that evening. I naturally assumed that it would be too late a show for me to catch since my train left that evening. However as I walked passed I realised that the show would be starting in half an hour and if it wasn't too long I would be able to watch the whole thing. I asked at the box office how long the show was, and it turned out it was the perfect length for me to watch the whole show and then walk to the train. But when I asked about tickets, the cheapest way out of my budget. So I turned away, a little dejected, to leave the theatre when suddenly this lady stopped me and gave me a free ticket! And it was a really good seat too! So the whole day was practically perfect.

That evening I took a second train to Memphis where I lived for the next couple months with my Aunt and Uncle.

In March, I flew out to Lubbock to attend the Re-entry seminar and to graduate. It was a great time. I got to see all my classmates and meet most of the new AIM class that is just starting out on their journey. Deva and Uncle Gary drove out to witness the ceremony and we were surprised by cousin Malia who decided to attend Camp Adventure to check out AIM and see if that was something she wanted to do. It was pretty cool.

I arranged to drive to Arizona with one of the assistants and a Phoenix AIMer, but Matt had to leave early, so the AIMer(Heather) and I decided to stay an extra day in Lubbock. This allowed us to stay for most of Camp Adventure. On one exciting day I got to take George(one of the AIMer's) bike to South Plains and hang out for several hours with Keith the repairman as he helped me fix George's bike that had been in an accident. Afterwards, I rode back to Sunset on the bike and everyone was pretty amazed that we had managed to fix it so quickly. That evening, while waiting in line for dinner, I got a call from a lady I had met in Searcy who wanted me to work at her new sewing shop! So after visiting Phoenix for a week I moved to Searcy to start work at my first job!

So that's where I'm at right now. I've been working here at Pins, Needles, and Sew Much More for about a month now and it's working out well for me. Since it's just a part time job, I've also take applied and been accepted to work at Hunan's Express. But I won't start there for another month.

Now all that's left is to talk about the future of this blog. I stopped posting mostly because I was feeling rather depressed about everything. But now life is looking up again and I want to start writing again. And although my AIM time is over, that doesn't mean that my journey is over. I'm still striving daily to become a stronger person through God and to serve him Daily. So I invite you all to join me as my adventure still continue, although they're bound to be slightly more mundane than they were when I lived in Ukraine. For instance, today I plan to add two posts about a crochet project I'm currently working on. These posts will be shared on a site I discovered called Ravelry.com. I'll probably also post about work a bunch and maybe I'll type up some mores stories about my time in Ukraine. I don't really know yet. It's sort of a work in progress. I'm hoping that it will someday evolve into something more consistent.