Fuwafuwa

I'm slowly realizing (it takes me a while to learn things like this) that I should have more confidence about my knitting. I often start a project with a certain person in mind and, halfway through, decide that it isn't quite right for them. Once I was right, and I ended up giving the project in question to somebody else (who I wasn't sure it was right for but ended up LOVING it), but normally I manage to screw up my courage to give it to them and it turns out to be right (or perhaps they just do a convincing job of pretending to like it).

I recently finished a scarf that I had decided was NOT right for the intended recipient. She came over for dinner tonight however, and in the course of the evening asked me what I was currently working on. When I brought out the newly finished scarf she seemed to really like it - particularly the huge fluffy pompoms on the end. When I asked her if she wanted it she sounded really excited, and so she went home with a full stomach and a warm neck (and perhaps a rather unsteady step as she polished off a number of bottles of beer I had brought her back from various travels).

Given the rather suddenness of the departure of this scarf I didn't have time (or good lighting) to take any good pictures, but here it is nonetheless (made with some novelty fake fur-ish type yarn that a friend picked up in England and sent to me):

I've known the scarf's recipient for almost a decade now. When I first met her she was to house sit for my father and be a visiting Japanese professor at his university. She took this teaching duty very seriously and was preparing feverishly. Unfortunately, however, she never did teach a single class as a few weeks before term started she blacked out while walking down the staircase at our house and woke up with complete amnesia. She knew what yogurt was, but didn't know what flavour she liked or if she had even ever eaten it herself. She could speak English but couldn't remember why she was in Canada - nor why I was speaking to her in Japanese! Luckily she had no other injuries and after a few months in Japan her memory started coming back. She now has remembered everything save for a short amount of time just before she blacked out. Throughout it all she never once lost her sense of humour and her spirit. She's good fun and has been a big help to me in Tokyo - helping me find my apartment, finding me a cheap used fridge, supplying me with ume-shu...

(did I mention she REALLY liked the pompoms?!)