Tag: 22-23: Teresa

Hello everyone! This week, I’m here to give you all a little peek into the inner workings of my mind; I will say that I’m in a constant state of change, and what I’m preoccupied with one week might be vastly different from what I’m preoccupied with the next, but I tried to capture my most common state of being below. Excuse the clumsy doodles — I’m no artist — but let me briefly describe why I decided to include what I did.

At the top, there are two things that I feel are fairly obvious; classes and friends. I don’t think these two need much explanation: I’m a student and that takes up much of my time and is basically the main focus of my life right now (in lieu of a career path). I have to spend at least some time thinking about going to class, doing homework, studying and the likes in order to remain at this university. I feel a little strange explaining why friends is on here, so I won’t go into too much detail; obviously, I love my friends a lot, and they’re always at the top of my mind: even when we’re not in direct proximity, I’m hoping that they’re happy.

This is going to sound odd, but I put music near the front of my face because that’s where I most frequently get headaches (usually from lack of sleep). I love listening to music and letting it resonate within me, and I enjoy listening to it a lot; but, I always seem to have a song stuck in my head, even if I don’t particularly enjoy the song and especially when I have other things to focus on. So, in that way, music is always at the forefront of my mind, either by my own choice or by my brain’s choice.

Like I said in the introduction, my interests can change rapidly, but I usually have whatever I’m obsessing over at the moment enshrined in the middle of my mind. This can vary based on time; a lot of the time it’s a K-pop group, but recently, I’ve been spending time going through an Eleventy tutorial in an attempt to build a personal website, so that’s been lingering around that area lately too.

I put language near the back of my mind because I feel like that’s something I’m always thinking about, even if it’s just a small or fleeting thought; I like to turn sentences around in my brain, think about words and how they’re used, and try to put at least a little thought into everything I say and what its effect could be.

I carved out a space for thinking about plans for the day because that’s something I’ve been trying to do lately; as a first-year, it’s somewhat strange how much free time college affords, as I’m used to being herded along by a high school bell schedule. So, I’ve been spending a lot of time this year thinking about what I want to do each day and when I want to do it, or at least trying to figure out the general shape I want my days to take.

Finally, I always have some space for thinking about whatever book I’m reading and crafts. I try to have at least one project relating to reading and crafts at all times (I’m currently reading Donna Tartt’s The Secret History and crocheting a bucket hat), so I always have that in my mind somewhere.

Finishing writing this, I feel like I’ve been laid open in a way, as if my brain has been cut open by surgeons and they looked at what was within and said, “Wow, is that really all that’s going on?” The answer is yes: there’s obviously things that I missed (specifically whatever emotions are preoccupying me and a few other interests), but this is the bare bones of my mind. Thank you all for reading and perceiving, I’ll check-in again soon.

Hello everyone and welcome to a brief introduction to one of my most beloved hobbies: crocheting!  I picked this up during the bleaker days of a high school winter break, when my hands were getting really cold and stiff and dry, so I ordered some yarn and anti-arthritis crocheting hooks off of Amazon in the hopes that the movement would help.  I didn’t actually use it for a while because I tried to learn the absolute basics (specifically a chain) and, well, it looked a bit ugly and winter break was ending anyways, so I just gave up for a bit.

At some point, I grew bored enough at home to decide to try again, this time with grander ambitions: I was going to make a flower.  Though it took a lot of trial-and-error and meticulous YouTube tutorial-watching, I was able to pick up a few basic stitches and evolve into the crocheter I am today.

In hopes that your journey will be less tumultuous than mine, I’ve decided to make a little primer about crocheting!  I think crocheting is a really fun hobby to pick up for anyone interested in crafts; it’s relaxing in its repetition and doesn’t require too much thinking once you get started, so I’ve enjoyed doing it while watching video essays or listening to audiobooks.  Anyways, this post won’t be too long; it’ll just cover where I would recommend starting and a few types of crocheting that might be of interest to you.  

The Basics of Crocheting

Materials

The very two first things that you’ll need to crochet are yarn and a hook.  You can pretty easily acquire these through Amazon or your local crafts store, but I’d recommend having some idea of what you want to make before you buy (I’m assuming the target audience of this post is university students who are not looking to buy a bunch of hooks or multiple colors of yarn right off the get-go).

One easy place to start is with yarn; yarn comes in all different shapes, but they’re generally categorized through numbers, as seen on the image of a yarn label on the right. For people at the very beginning, I’d recommending getting yarn marked with either size 3 or size 4, as those tend to be the most common among popular patterns. I’d look for one that has a color (or texture!) that you’d like to use.

From there, look at the label and check the recommended hook size; on the label on the right, you can see that next to the box that says “4,” there’s a picture of two needles crossed in an X like swords; this is for knitting, so you can ignore this number. The next box, showing a hook, is for crocheting; checking how many mms it recommends (in this case, it’s 5mm) and buy a hook of that size.

Actually Crocheting

This section is probably not going to mean anything right now, but I’m going to lay out a few of the most basic stitches and terminology that you might encounter for you to reference later.

First of all, the phrase “yarn over” refers to exactly that: twisting your yarn from back to front around your crochet hook (if you’re holding your hook vertically, it should be twisting from the left over to the right– this is probably a good time to mention that I am right-handed, and this may differ if you are left-handed). This is essential for pretty much any stitch.

• Chain (abbreviation: ch): Yarn over and pull through the loop on your hook
• Slip stitch (abbreviation: ss): Yarn over and pull through all of the loops on your hook (when chaining, there’s usually just one loop; a slip stitch is usually used to join things, so there will be multiple — usually two — loops on your hook)
• Single crochet (abbreviation: sc): Insert your hook into the next stitch; yarn over and pull through, creating two loops on the hook; yarn over and pull through both loops at once
• Half-double crochet (abbreviation: hdc): Yarn over your hook once; insert your hook into the next stitch; yarn over and pull through that stitch. At this point, you should have three loops on your hook (the original loop, the yarn over you did before going through the stitch, and the loop going through the stitch); yarn over and pull through all three loops at once
• Double crochet (abbreviation: dc): A half-double crochet is called a half-double crochet because you do half of the steps in a double crochet– so, for a double crochet, yarn over your hook once, insert your hook into the next stitch, and yarn over and pull through that stitch. You should have three loops once again; yarn over and pull through the first two loops, then yarn over once more and pull it through the remaining two loops.
• Triple crochet (abbreviation: tc): Yarn over your hook twice; insert your hook into the next stitch; yarn over and pull through. Yarn over and pull through the first two loops on your hook (you should have three loops after this step); yarn over again and pull through the first two loops once again (you should have two loops after this step); yarn over once more and pull through the final two loops.
• Increase (abbreviation: inc): Make two crochets into the next stitch

Applying that Knowledge

As I mentioned earlier, I only really learned to crochet once I started actually making things; my initial plan was to figure out how to do all of the stitches, but that was a lot easier said than done.  Here are a few small charm-like things that might help you start your crocheting journey:

• Flower (this was my first project)
• Octopus
• Heart
• Star

And if you’d rather master the stitches first, you can try a video like this that basically has you practice all of the stitches on top of each other, creating a little rectangle.

Other Things You Can Make

Amigurumi: This refers to crocheting small, stuffed yarn creatures! You can find tutorials for basically any animal on YouTube; these projects often build off of magic rings and crocheting in the round, and will require you to do a bit of stitching (it’s not that hard– you just have to get an embroidery needle and make sure things are neat and secure). Some tutorials to get you started: Axolotl (this one is no-stitch), frog

Granny Squares: Granny squares are exactly what they sound like: squares. They’re made in different patterns and colors, then attached together to make something bigger, like a bucket hat, a quilt, or even a cardigan. Some tutorials to get you started: Basic granny square, starburst granny square

Clothing: Crocheting clothing is a bit like cooking; it requires you to engage in a process of trial-and-error until you figure out what’s right. There are rarely exact patterns that you can follow, as you have to count out the number of stitches that fit your body yourself, rather than copying the example of someone else. For this reason, I don’t have any tutorials that I can recommend as the only limit to crocheting clothing is your imagination; some ideas for things to make (that are usually easy to find tutorials for) are sweaters, arm/leg warmers, sleeves, and skirts.

Conclusion

Well, that’s all from me. I hope this tutorial has been at least somewhat helpful, but the Internet is a wonderful place to learn how to crochet and if something I say doesn’t make sense, you can easily find someone who can explain it better elsewhere. The last thing I want to leave you with is that the limit to crocheting is really just your imagination, so have fun, experiment, and make things you like! I’ll see you soon for another post.

Hi all! As I was scrolling through my camera roll and collecting images for this little photo diary, I realized just how long this January felt; it feels like five years have passed, and we’re only in the second month of February. With that being said, here are some photos I took this January; they’re not particularly interesting because I usually don’t take that many pictures of my day-to-day life, but I think it’s nice to be able to scroll through my camera roll and have a visual representation of where I was — either literally or mentally — throughout 2023.

First of all, here’s a screenshot I took on January 11, a little after the quarter started. In terms of music, I spent most of this month going through year-end lists and getting caught up on some of 2022’s best releases, which resulted in this fascinating (and very energetic) start to my January playlist.

Here’s the only picture in the post that I’ll actually appear in; I took this at the optometrist, when I was waiting around after picking out a new pair of glasses. I’m still waiting to actually pick them up, but my new glasses are a different shape from the rectangular, boxy shape that I’ve been wearing since sixth grade, so I’m excited to see how I’ll feel about the change.

As a Vietnamese person, I do celebrate Lunar New Year or Tết, so here are some photos relating to that. I coincidentally went to the mall during the same weekend as Lunar New Year, and I took some pictures of pretty displays I saw relating to it as well as my humble red envelope haul.

(Side Note: Although Chinese tradition says that it’s the year of the rabbit, Vietnamese tradition says that it’s the year of the cat!)

One of my New Year’s resolutions was to enjoy nature — which isn’t exactly the easiest thing to do when you live in suburban California — but as a result, if I have a brief reprieve between classes, I’ve been spending it sitting around in Aldrich Park. That’s where I took this picture, and though the content of the photo is nothing remarkable, I thought the effect of the sunlight was quite pretty.

And, finally, I read Ursula K. LeGuin’s The Left Hand of Darkness this month, and I wanted to share that with you all, but I wasn’t sure how to because I didn’t take any pictures while I was actually reading it. So, I decided to show a screenshot of my Storygraph reading journal instead to capture just how many thoughts I had about this book; so, I downloaded a screenshot stitcher, only to find it wouldn’t let me download the full version of the stitched image for free. But, it did let me look at a preview, and I realized that it’s probably a good thing that I couldn’t get the stitched image, as you’d all probably get carpal tunnel trying to scroll past it. Here is that preview.

And with that, I bid you adieu; I hope 2023 is treating you all kindly.

I know it’s only been a month, but I’m feeling a little out of practice with this and not entirely sure where to start.  So, I suppose I’ll begin at the beginning: hello ZotBlog– it’s good to be back!

I’ve always had the somewhat misguided belief that the new year is a clean slate, a chance to start entirely anew, but as I set resolutions and decided what I want my 2023 to be, I thought a lot about how I want my life to change from where it is right now, rather than the vague goal of where I want to be by the end of 2023.  I think I discussed a lot of this in my last post of the Fall quarter, but the thing I’m looking for this quarter is routine; to try to establish some semblance of stability in my life with regards to the times I work, the times I study, and the times I use for relaxation.  I’m saddened to say that as of the time I’m writing this post (nearing the end of Week 2), I went to bed incredibly late last night and woke up closer to noon than sunrise, so I haven’t found much success there.  Fortunately, having to write this out and admit it to ZotBlog is some motivation to change my ways, and I hope I’ll be able to give a better update in my next post.

I thought a lot over Winter break about the person who I am right now and the person that I want to be, and those goals are a bit too personal and abstract for me to fully elaborate upon, but a major theme running through them is that I want to dedicate more time to figuring out who I am and engaging with things that interest me (if only to find out that they weren’t that interesting in the first place); I tend to be a passive person, resistant to change, and that makes for an unfortunate combination when it comes to exiting my comfort zone.  So, I hope to push myself a bit more during this quarter.  One part of this involves wanting to go to more events – as a commuter, a lot of the time, I feel like I’m just I’m clocking in for class and then leaving as soon as it’s over (which is mostly my own fault – I’ve been overindulging in the comforts of home).  So, that’s one way I intend to exit my comfort zone.

My first two weeks of Winter quarter have been nice, as my schedule actually allows me to be on campus at the same time as the sun (during Fall, all my classes were after 5 p.m., with the exception of one 8 a.m.), so I like that I can get my day done earlier.  I also found out that I have days that can be entirely taken on Zoom, which is not doing wonders for my motivation, but is a flexibility that I enjoy.  I’m still in the phase of getting acclimated to the new quarter, but I’m excited for what’s to come and I’m glad that I have established the foundation for systems to guide me through it.

(Title of this post is taken from this excellent Rina Sawayama song)

Hello me of the past,

It’s me – well, you from the future – to tell you that you’ll survive.  A lot will happen in these ten weeks, including things that you wouldn’t expect, but you’ll survive.  You’ll do a lot of things right this quarter: you got involved in things that interested you, no matter how much they may have daunted you and you’ve managed to keep your grades afloat ahead of finals.  You’ll do some things wrong too, though, and that’s okay because you’ll learn from them and become all the better for it.  The quarter system moves faster than you’d expect– plan ahead whenever you can and don’t let yourself fall behind.  I’ll tell you that we’ve slid back into routine by the end of the quarter, but it would be nice if you could get some semblance of order in your life before you start.  Oh, also, it would be really helpful if you started fixing your sleeping schedule; I’m still suffering the consequences now.

You’ll make it through the quarter, though, and that’s all that matters.  It’s time for a break now, and I think you deserve the rest you’ll receive– I’m going to use this time to mend routines, practice hobbies, and try to establish habits that will be helpful next quarter.  One problem we had this quarter is that we had no established routine – we did whatever we wanted whenever we wanted, and that resulted in a lot of things being pushed back later than they should have been.  When we tried to establish order through time blocking and scheduling, we either ended up falling behind on schedule or ignoring it due to an overload of work.  I think it would be good to try to have established hours for work, play, and sleep– that way, you know what you’re supposed to be doing and when you’re supposed to be doing it, even if what you do during those hours varies.

We did fine this quarter, but we’ll do even better in the next; I think that change is always hard, and this change was even harder than normal due to unique, unexpected circumstances (spoiler alert: you get a surgery).  So, during this first quarter, just do your best– spend time doing things you enjoy, don’t waste too much time on (said while shaking fist at the sky) that darn phone, and figure out some sort of system so that you know what things to get them done and when to do them.  Try to create a life that’s comfortable for you– you’ll feel so much better if you don’t avoid that big assignment until the day it’s due, and if you spend your time engaging in hobbies rather than watching another mindless YouTube video.  And most importantly, try to have some fun!

Sincerely,

The me of the present