Stitches

One more post, then I'll stop.

I have been knitting so many projects these days, so it took me longer to finish something to show to you.  Here are some recent wins!

Project: Pogona by Westknits (Stephen West)

Yarn: Colormart Extra Fine Merino (DK), about 480 yards

Needles: US size 6 or 7 (sorry I forgot)

Raveled Here

The pattern is just ingenious.  When caped around your shoulders, the shawl looks just triangular, but it's actually pentagonal.  I finally learned how to use my blocking wire...!

I love it, I am going to knit the pattern again.
The yarn is from Colourmart, a yarn shop in UK.  They sell industrial yarns/threads very inexpensively.  Some of the materials are leftovers from Lolo Piana or other luxury fashion brands... which make me SO HAPPY TO BE ABLE TO KNIT MYSELF!

Pattern: Emmaline by Jennifer Wood

Yarn: Pierrot Yarns Ami Cotton (Bulky) in Kahki (about 380 yards)

Needles: US 9

Raveled Here

OK, SORRY, it's my very cluttered bathroom.  But I love this pull, and I wear it all the time.

Great free pattern!

Pattern: Dawn by Kim Hargreaves

Yarn: Rowan Calmer in beige, about 780 yards (4.4 balls)

Needles: US 5 & 6

Glad I finished this before the summer ends.  I bought perfect and pretty gold buttons to go with this cardigan, so as to mitigate the dullness of this color.

I know many Japanese people tend to knit with beige and whitish colors, and I wonder why... Beige is a very tricky color for Asian skin.  It has to be a perfect shade and tone of beige to make you look presentable, and every one of us has slightly different skin tone, which makes it even harder for us to choose.  

Many people wear trench coats in beige or brownish colors in Japan, only to make their face look muddy and bad complexion.

I think, in this case, I barely picked the right shade of beige, and I am going to wear it.

I bought these buttons in the neighborhood shop which I mentioned before... the tiny papa-mama shop.  Like I said, nobody goes there so the whole selection of semi-antique buttons are saved for me!!! Yes!

Have a great week, everyone :)

Cultural Exchange

More on my friend's visit.

Surprising but true.  French girls these days love Japanese dress-making books!  Can you believe it?

My friend showed me several very popular French crafty blogs (blogs by crafty people who sew, knit, etc.).  They buy Japanese dress-making books all the way from Japan, and although they can't read Japanese, they still love them.  (All this time, Japanese people try to imitate what French people are wearing... hmmm, it's interesting.)

To me, most of the Japanese sewing patterns (洋裁の本) contains mostly baggy and dull (filled with beige and grey colors) designs.  But those French people adopt the original design to themselves, pick more beautiful and colorful fabrics, and create really beautiful clothes.
It's really interesting that in France, because of the feminism in the 70s~90s (not sure about the exact time period), women stopped sewing (sewing was regarded too womanly?).  As a result, young people these days have to teach themselves how to sew, because their mothers didn't know how.  Also, most of the sewing patterns are from very old days, very unfashionable.  That's why they love Japanese books.

I think the other reason is that French women are generally thin and petite, so are Japanese, so they can wear what we wear in Japan.   Again, it really surprised me that French people love Japanese yarn and fabrics too...!

Anyway, I would like to post the websites that she showed me, so I won't forget.

Petite Pimprenelle : I love this blog so much!

Z comme Zoe

Une poule a petits pas

Petites Choses : she has her own sewing and knitting patterns as well.  Actually, I translated one of her knitting patterns into English, and posted on Ravelry.

The Sewer Cat : my another favorite

There were a few more, but not sewing/knitting related, so that's it for now!  Thank you so much, my friend :)

Adventure

As I wrote before, I had a friend coming over from France.  She stayed with me for a few nights, and we had so much fun together.  Because I met her through a knitting community, we had lots of common interests, and it's fun to talk with her.

Here is the only shot I got from our little adventure to the famous fish market.  I heard it's a popular tourist spot, so I wanted to show the place to her, but gosh, it was hot even in the very early morning, smelled fishy (of course), and so busy...  I was wearing to go to work afterwards, so I felt completely out of place.
But the sushi we had there was fantastic (thank you, L, for treating me).

Movies

Well, tonight both Ade and Melissa got kicked out (please see the previous post) right before the season finale, and I am literally disappointed.  But I will be strong, be ready for a new week to start.

I've watched some films recently so here they are:


A-Team:
I know, it's just another stupid Hollywood film, but I really wanted to watch it because 3 of the starring actors were my favorites.  I am really glad I did!  It's shallow, yes, but so much fun!


The Blind Side:
Heard that Sandra Bullock won an Oscar with this film.  Based on a true story, a rich southern woman adopted a homeless kid off the street, and he became a pro football player.  People's hearts were so warm and caring, characters great, and I absolutely loved it!


Invictus:
The film is also based on a true story, about South African rugby team winning the World Cup right after Nelson Mandela was elected as their president.  I had no idea how great a man he is.  The word "Great" cannot even describe the man.  Loved it.


Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus:
I really wanted to watch this when it was still in theaters, but I missed it.  The last film with Heath Ledger, and he was brilliant.  Because he passed away while filming this project, Johnny Depp and 2 other actors replaced the un-filmed parts.  We lost a great actor at so young an age... I didn't care when River Phoenix passed away, but I still miss Heath Ledger.
The film was very interesting and beautiful.  Wonderful execution.

Beautiful Dance

This is a routine from last week's So You Think You Can Dance (they are running Season 5 in Japan right now), by top 8 dancers Ade and Melissa.  It's my favorite summer time show, when American Idol is over.

It is hard to imagine a dance with a theme "a woman fighting breast cancer".  You've got to watch it with your own eyes to understand.

I cried, not because all the judges are crying, but because I thought about my aunt, how she has been struggling, and how she may be feeling so alone and without someone who supports her, like Ade did in this dance.

Ade and Melissa are my all-time favorite couple this season.

Glass study

This green glass bottle is from my mom's old home up on a mountain in Western Japan.  Until over 40 years ago, her family had tons of these and used it for housekeeping stuffs (perhaps for making their own saki?).  But it was so common that nobody paid any heed and the bottles were abandoned in the back yards, from where my mom picked up one.  Wish they still have these, but unfortunately no.

I cut out the hen in the green glass some years ago.  Mom kept it and put it in a glass.

This gold/amber glass pot is from Okinawa (I am not so sure) which my grandpa bought as a souvenir before I was born.

Birds

A beauty salon in my parent's neighborhood is full of birdy stuffs which I absolutely love.  The last photo is the neighborhood -  so green and pretty.

Summer

I went back to my parent' place for my 3 days weekend / summer vacation, and spent a very crafty weekend! I picked the easiest pattern out of my favorite dress-making book - ソーイング・トーク.

The fabric is from Kamakura Swany: http://swany.jp/  They have great selection of fine quality fabric, and most of them are pretty inexpensive.

It's cut biased, so even the fabric is cotton/linen, the dress is pretty stretchy.   

I lined neck and arm holes with biased tape (or whatever called in English...).  I did it for the first time in almost 20 years, so it was quite a work.  I used to make my own clothes when I was in high school, but haven't done it ever since.

 Not sure if people do this in other countries, but my mom taught me how to mark the lines with threads and stitches, like this. The dress fits me perfectly!  Although the dress is very simple, it took me a full day.... phew.

With a small piece of soft gauze (double sided, one side stripes, the other side plaid), I made a simple  scarf for summer.  I cut up 100cm x 50cm fabric into 4 pieces, sew them back together in 25 x 200cm scarf.  My mom gave me a ribbon to hide where I joined the pieces, and when I looked closer, the ribbon says "Wedgewood"!  But I used it anyway.

Clarke

「幼年期の終わり」― と、小説のタイトルを小見出しに使うことも考えたのですが、Clarkeの綴り方が大好きで、タイトルに付けたかった。

人生で一番密度の高い読書をしていたのは、稲城（東京都）に住んでいた小5~中1の3年間。しかも特に小5~6（11~12歳）の2年間に読んだのはすごい量だった気がします。わたしが「図書館が好きだから」という理由で父親が図書館の近所に一家の引っ越し先を見つけてくれて、事実、足繁く通っていました。
今でも(小説コーナーの）書棚のレイアウトと、どこにどの本があったかを記憶しているほど。行く度にすべての書棚をくまなく眺めて「なにか新しい本は加わっていないか」「今までピンと来なかったけど自分が成長したことによって興味が湧いてきた本はないか」、探索していました。

SFでもディック、ハインライン、その他タイトルも著者も思い出せない多数のシリーズを読みましたが、一度も開いたことのなかったのがアーサー・C・クラークです。冒険小説的要素も恋愛もない、純粋なSF、宇宙人、といったものが全く琴線に触れず、何十冊もある彼の著作はすべて素通りしていました。何故突然読み出したかというと、この特集。

Esquireが廃刊になった際、まだ書店にあったバックナンバーを大人買いしてキープしてあったSF特集。2008年のもので、クラークが亡くなった直ぐ後に作られたもののようです。 雑誌は手元に暫くあってディックや若手SF作家の記事は既に読んであったのですが、ここでもクラークの偉業を語る特集は飛ばしていました。興味のなさが伺える。。。（笑）　先週、なんとなく読み返してみたらすごく面白かったのです。
子供の頃から、クラークの科学的知見の緻密さについては何となく知っていましたが、宇宙開発の一端を担う技術革新にクラークの発見・発明がいくつもあることには驚きました。それよりも興味を惹かれたのは、50年前、70年前の世の中が未来の技術をどう見ていたか、ということ。それを読んでみたくてクラークの作品を図書館で入手しました。
特集記事で必読の5作品、とされていたのは以下のもの。

「渇きの海」
「都市と星」
「楽園の泉」
「宇宙のランデヴー」
「2001年宇宙の旅」
そして、「幼年期の終り」は“別格”だそう。

いま、別格から読んでいます。まだ3分の1程度しか読了していませんが、面白い。もう、とても。
1953年に「20年後の世界とその後」として書かれた本作品、社会の状況や物事・技術の描写がまったく古くなく、ちょっと空恐ろしい感じさえ受けます。
読み終わったらまたレビューするかもしれません。

おっと、さっきニュースで「宇宙エレベータ」の技術を競う世界大会が千葉で行われたという様子が紹介されていました（！）。ロケットの代わりにエレベータで宇宙に行くというこの構想、なんと発案者はクラーク。でもニュースではその話はしていませんでしたが。

ちょうど彼の作品を読み始めたときにこのニュース。真剣に取り組んでいる人がいることに驚きひとしお。

Dreaming of..

I feel ashamed but confess that, I dreamed about me dating Syler (from TV series Heroes), knowing that he was a psycho killer. Crazy, gosh, I know.
But in any case, I like the actor, Zach. He played Spock in Star Treck, and he was so much like Spock. I guess I shouldn't have watched Star Treck so many times over the weekend.
I wish I dream of something more sensible and romantic.. *sigh*



恩田陸さんの『ライオンハート』を読みました。最近苦労してWeb Analyticsなどの本を英語で読んでいるせいか、日本語でしかも小説だとすいすい読めてしまって、あっという間でした。エリザベスとエドワードが何度も生まれ変わりながらその度に出会う、不思議な物語。５枚の絵画から着想を得てストーリーを組み立ててあって、絵の中に世界観が広がる様は「真珠の耳飾りの少女」を着想にトレイシー・シュヴァリエが書いた小説のよう。ふんわりとしているのにディテールにも凝っていて、不思議な読了感でした。エリザベスとエドワードの二人も、別な人生で出会ったシーンを繰り返し夢に見ます。
結構好き。

An Observation

These days I cannot help but notice the lack of understanding in nuclear radiation among the general American people (by "general" I don't mean to include those educated and interested people).  My assumption is based on the fact that what appears on TV indicates the average level of understanding in certain subject.  At least, it is true in Japan.

When Jack Bauer (in 24, of course) narrowly escaped nuclear explosion in Los Angeles, my mouth fell open.  It is not a joke.   How can someone think about a nuclear explosion in such a populated city?!  (And if you see an explosion in such a close distance, you would probably die...)
Thousands of people would perish within seconds, and tens or hundreds of thousand people, even if they survive, would suffer from immunity system failure or cell regeneration failure, cancer, leukemia, as long as they live.  High percentage of survivors would die within several years.  That was what the nuclear bombs were capable of, over 70 years ago. (And I don't know how much progress scientists made in the past 70 years...)
It is too bad luck to even think about a story of nuclear explosion over a major city, in my opinion.

And then, there was a TV series Heroes (which I watched recently and loved so much).  One of the guys  had a power to cause nuclear explosion when he gets upset.  I was so surprised when no one tried to run when he was about to explode.

It seems that those Hollywood film makers think nuclear bomb is an upgraded version of fire bombs!  I sincerely hope that the ignorance is only among those rating-seeking TV series makers in LA, not the general public.

As we speak, UNESCO decided to add Bikini Islands to their World Heritage list.  The US conducted nuclear bomb testing 67 times there, and people who live in surrounding islands still suffer from the exposure.

Excitement

Last post/photo for tonight before going to bed.

Last Sunday a friend of mine invited me to a small local festival at a shrine in Tokyo.  It was an event with Japanese drums, saxophone, and dance.  Unfortunately the event was cut short when it started raining, but we really enjoyed it.  Hot, humid, but such a beautiful evening.

The event is annual at Omiya Hachimangu 大宮八幡宮 in Koenji.

View

Tomorrow is the last day in our current office, and we will be moving to the other building.  We have been in our current building only for 2 months, but I liked it is sad that we have to move.  The great view of the work-in-progress new Tokyo tower, called Sky Tree.  It's now about 400m and it's only 2/3 done.

Antiquity

My grandpa was a navy officer during the WWII, and he used to say that the navy was all about elegance.  After the war, he brought back several things from the ship, such as silverware, and the other was this wristwatch.

When he gave it to me several years ago, I often wore it around, but the winding parts got broken.  A few weeks ago I finally got around to bring it to a local watch repair.  They told me the parts do not exist anymore so they might have to replace it with a new one.  But, voila!  They actually replicated the old rod and from outside, it's the same old watch.

This pre-war period watch is the most antique item that I own.  It surprised me that the navy at that time distributed this expensive-looking watch to officers, and that the watch is American.  

The glass is pretty thick.  As you can imagine, it's heavy and loud and all, but I still love it.

Discovery

Last night I met a new friend over dinner.  She is from France and we met over a knitting community called Ravelry, which I am so addicted to.  I have Facebook and Mixi (Japanese SNS) accounts, but I rarely log-on to them, and I am always on Ravelry.  The only setback of Ravelry is that it is a predominantly female community, so there is little romantic discovery (at least for me)  ;-). But as you can imagine, I am making tons of new friends.

The French guest and I met over a message board of Japanese knitters, for she was looking for a house exchange during her visit to Tokyo.  I really wanted to go to south of France, so I instantly contacted her.  But what with recent turn of my life and all, eventually I gave up on going over to France all by myself.  Nevertheless, I still wanted to make new friends and also I studied French so I thought it was perfect.

Anyway, so last night we had dinner together at my favorite Japanese Isakaya place in my neighborhood.  Unlike some non-Japanese people I know, she was curious to try everything I ordered.  I discovered that in France they have a very similar thing to our Wasabi (a spicy garnish for Sushi or Sashimi), and learned about some different way of cooking things that we eat every day. 
At the same time, it always surprises me how Japanese products are popular in overseas market, when we Japanese always try to buy things from Europe, especially France.

I will be seeing her again in 3 weeks and we will go to the Fish Market together (first time for me, actually).  I am so excited to make a new discovery in my own hometown.

Bookish

久しぶりの更新です。最近何をしているかといえば、色々なものにどっぷりと突き進んでいます。
例えば、
HEROES　数年前、妹に面白いと教えてもらったドラマなのですが、なんかいかにもマンガチックなので観ていなかったもの。とはいえ、わたしSupermanもStarwarsもStartreckもBatmanも大好きで、まあアメコミだからといって観なかったのは不思議。
数週間前のある週末、ケーブルテレビでシーズン1~3のイッキ見をやっていて、見始めてしまいました。う～ん、面白い。沢山沢山キャラが出てくるのにどれもが魅力的で、そして結構深い家族や友情ドラマで、飽きさせません。それに、シーズン3まで見て分かったのですが、最初から最後まで一続きに構成されて複線が張り巡らされたつくり。これから完結編のシーズン4を観るところです。
コバルト文庫　懐かしい！なんだか突然読みたくなってしまって、藤本ひとみさんのティーン向け文庫を古本で20冊以上大人買いしてしまいました。すごく大人になったな、と思った瞬間。子供の頃、はまっていた期間は短いのですが（小５~中1くらい？）、今考えてみると結構影響を受けたな～としみじみ思います。もちろんティーン向けなので、いかにも少女らしい（そして大人になると不必要に思える）感情描写がかなりRedundantに感じるけれど、話の筋や背景がやはり良くできているのです。今ではすっかり歴史小説・ミステリー作家になってしまわれた藤本ひとみさんですが、なるほど、片鱗が最初からあったのだな、と関心。わたしが歴史モノが好きになったのも、ここが原点なのかな。
でもって、ティーン向けなのでキスシーンくらいから先に進まず、なかなかモドカシイ展開で20冊くらい続いています。なんだかとても懐かしくて嬉しかったです。

でもって、この時期は恐らく人生の中で一番本を読んだ時期でもありました。
今日なんとなく本の検索をしていたら、「信兵衛の読書手帳」というウェブサイトを見つけました。この方、膨大な量の小説を読んでいて、すごいのです。ジャンルもものすごく幅広い！
わたしは実は海外文学しか余り読んだことがないので、でも海外のページだけみると自分の読書暦や好みとものすごく近くて、見つけて嬉しかったサイトでした。なので無断で紹介してしまいました。
特にこの方の「好きな既読リスト」の一番下にある「児童文学」「タイムスリップ」などはどれも好きな本ばかりで驚きました。

ではでは、今日はこの辺で。

Tribute

Pattern: Tribute by Brenda Patipa (Raveled Here)

Yarn: Madelinetosh Sock in Ink color, 0.8 skein

Needles: size 0 (2.0mm)

My sister modeled for me, because there is no way I can photograph my foot at a proper angle.  It's a lovely pattern and it's free! Please follow this link.

Although the design is pretty intricate and looks complicated, the lace pattern is easy to remember.  I finished a pair in almost one breath!  I had been sick in bed so it kept on knitting when I was well enough to sit up.

The original design is made with white yarn, but I don't think I can wear white lace socks.  This dark ink color is just as perfect for this design as cream white.  Love it.

I went to my sister's place this afternoon.  Her husband played with my new camera and took many fantastic photos of everything.  Start with his BD cake :)  The color should look brighter than this.

Wooo, cute.

And ....

Yey!

Crooked Path

Pattern: Crooked Path by Melissa LaBarre (Ravelry Link)

Yarn: Madelinetosh Vintage in Glazed Pecan

Needles: US 5 (3.75mm) US 8 (5mm)

I made this in just a few hours.  Such a beautiful and clever pattern!  I am making it again, I think.  No modification required.  Quick and satisfactory project.

The actual is brighter.  The setting in this blog or blogger transforms/fades the real color.

Jen

Jen by Kim Harvreaves

Yarn: Madelinetosh Pashmina in Mineral, 1.5 skein

Needles: US5 (3.75mm) US2 1/2(3mm)

Size: M

Please excuse me for a vacant expression on my face.  I finished this sweater a while ago and it's so far has been my absolute favorite.  The color is very beautiful.  

Pashmina from Madelinetosh became my #1 favorite yarn.  It's soft and elastic, very easy to knit with. I had 3 skeins so I am searching for a good 1.5 skein project with sport weight yarn.

I usually choose XS or S for myself, but this time I went up a size or two and picked size M.  Because the yarn is so elastic, the button bands would not stay put and closed if I pull them too much.  Glad about my choice.

The gold buttons are from a local craft shop.  It's an old mama-papa type of tiny shop, and what I love about it is that they've got all those semi-antique buttons.  You can imagine, not many people go in and buy buttons from them, so the boxes are there forever.  They've got some of the intricate plastic buttons that we don't see any more in big chain craft stores.

Anyway, that's it!

SAW, I am Going!!!!!!!

Again, it has been a while, so how have you been?
The only reason I haven't been updating my blog for half a month is that I had been knitting. Really hard. It almost felt like a physical training at times, when I still kept going while my arms got exhausted. I am hoping to photograph some of the works properly this weekend, to finally post them here. Please be patient!

The big news I have is SAW - Squam Art Workshop. I found out about them through Ysolda's blog (my knitting goddess!), when she attended a yearly Knitting/Textile workshop. I decided not to wait until next year, and to go to their Fall visual art session. I am soooo excited!

The workshops are held at a camp site / mountain lodge in New Hampshire, right beside a national park area. I have never been to that part of the States, only up to Boston, so this is my very first time. I heard that it's beautiful there in September.

If anyone intend to attend the Fall workshop, I wonder if we can share a ride from Boston area... that is, give me a ride. I can't drive, but I will pay for my share of costs. Please let me know!