Twelve Days of Christmas - Day 5 - Stockings

I never met my maternal grandmother, the woman whom I'm named for. She died before I was born. In fact I don't know many people who did know her, which I think is a shame, for the little that I have heard about her makes me think we would have gotten along well. She was a craftswoman, her passion was weaving and she created some gorgeous things. She also made beautiful evening gowns and other clothing for my mother's dolls - dolls that I played with as a girl and I look forward to giving to my daughters some day. My family's Christmas stockings were also all made by my grandmother. My mother's older sister, husband and two daughters, my mum, dad, and me all have my grandmother's handiwork complete with their name on the top. Each one is slightly different - but the three granddaughters all have a reindeer on the toe. The third reindeered stocking was found, without a name, in my grandmother's things after she died. It may have simply been that she made an extra when making the two for my older cousins - it could have been expected that my mother would have at least one kid, after all. But I like to think that my grandmother made it especially for me, her namesake.

I love my stocking and have used it almost every year. This year in early December I suddenly realized I desperately wanted my stocking to hang in my room, even if Santa didn't come all the way to Japan to visit me. So I fired an email off to my dad to ask him to mail it to me. His reply? It was already in the mail to me!




Over the years when new members have joined our Christmas I've made them stockings. I haven't stuck with my grandmother's template, and each one has been unique. This year I decided to make one for U. I couldn't decide on the design - reindeer and snowmen just didn't seem right (in an aside - despite the fact that western snowmen are three snowballs, the snowman on my stocking is only two - like a Japanese snowman... I wonder why??). Then U told me how he used to put out a regular sock on the end of his bed for Christmas. So I decided to decorate his stocking with the same tartan-type pattern that decorates most of his socks. I'd like to think that my Scottish grandmother would have approved!



(and yes, U's stocking still has pins in it, it is not finished. A bad bout of something has flattened me for the past 10 days and my thesis is due in less than 3 weeks... I have promised U that it will be fully finished and pin-less by next Christmas! His stocking does have his name on it, but I decided to block it out, so you'll just have to trust me on the fact that it looks good!)

Noren

A few weeks ago a friend and I ventured out to the fabric district, Nippori. We chatted a bit over coffee and then headed out for the purpose of our trip - my friend had volunteered to make me a curtain/noren for the doorway into the main room of my apartment. My friend's offer to make me one was the perfect solution to the problem of never finding quite the right thing in stores. We found a few different fabrics that we thought might work, but in the end we were able to agree on a beautiful green fabric similar to traditional fabrics from the Aizu region.

Within a few days of having bought the fabric (and the equally carefully chosen bamboo buttons) my friend had whipped this up for me...





I'm very happy with my new curtains, and the fact that it was made for me by a friend makes it even better - I love having crafty friends!

Procrastination and Writer's Block

I remember in high school when a good friend and I joked that we could be Olympic medalists at procrastination - if we could get around to making the sport recognized. Little did I know that I had yet to perfect the art. Not that this is a skill I am proud to have, but the first step is recognition, right?!

So here I am. It is 4 am on a Saturday morning and I am trying to finish an essay. I've procrastinated well so the essay (and one other that hasn't even been started yet) is a week past due. Never mind the 80+ pages of translations that I am about 10 pages into a first draft of that are due in 3 weeks. Sigh... The only thing between me and my ever-so inviting bed right now is a conclusion. You see I promised myself I would finish the essay today. Actually I was supposed to meet with my tutor this afternoon for her to read over the final product (this was after originally agreeing to meet yesterday), but a head-splitting headache complete with light-induced nausea (which probably makes it a migraine now that I think about it) sidelined me for the entire afternoon/evening yesterday and so I got behind. Combine that with my exceptional procrastination skills and an essay that ballooned from about 3 pages into 8, and I'm left staring at one line under the heading "Conclusion" and wishing that the characters, if left alone, would multiply and the conclusion would write itself... Having had no luck with that line of wishing with my MA thesis I am doubtful but haven't given up hope quite yet! Since staring at the single sentence wasn't having much of an effect either, I figured I'd try writing something else and get my creative juices flowing... either that or I was just justifying some fun procrastination!

Speaking of which... Having heard about the Canadian Blog Awards I stumbled upon a funny and just generally really neat blog called the Yarn Harlot. Looking at the pictures of her creations has prompted me to take a few pictures of my own. Although in no ways anywhere near the same league, I am pretty proud of them. Living and studying in a foreign language I find I get brain overload on a fairly regular basis. One way I deal with it is to use my hands and make something while I watch a bit of mindless English language TV via the internet. As many of you know I can be quite independent and this manifests itself as an intense dislike for following patterns. When cooking I am much happier randomly putting things together and the same with other projects. While this quite often leads itself to things that... welll... just don't quite turn out right, it does also get me thinking in different ways. So here goes with a few of the things I've made recently...

My scarf:

The first is the first knitting project I have done in probably 15 years. My grandma would be proud to know, however, that I hadn't forgotten (I may be the only person to have ever actually forgotten how to ride a bike, but I haven't forgotten how to knit), and this scarf proves it! It wasn't until I cast off, however, that I realized I should have left some wool to make a fringe, however, so now I have to go and find myself some other wool to add on some fringe and, since it'll likely have to be a different colour, I'm probably going to have to figure out some way of working it into the scarf too... This latter project gives me the chance to make it up myself instead of following the pattern. Yes, this very straightforward scarf was made to a pattern. Yes, I know I could have made it 20 years ago WITHOUT the pattern, but as I said I haven't knit in nearly that long and besides the whole thing was a (wonderful) Christmas gift that reminded me just how much I enjoy knitting! (Thanks ever so much Cathy!!!) I will definitely have to do another knitting project soon. After reading a few too many Yarn Harlot posts I was contemplating socks, but then I regained my sanity and decided I had better stick with scarves for a bit - a couple of friends here were far too impressed and complimentary of my scarf, they may find themselves owners of scarves sometime in the spring when they no longer need them!

And my belts:



My next two projects were me taking the bracelet making skills I gained at summer camp and putting them to a use that I would actually wear. I wasn't sure how they would turn out but was pleasantly surprised. They were more work than I had initially imagined, however, and quite quickly realized I'd have to wear gloves while knotting them or face loosing the skin on my fingers! But at the end of it I have two very unique belts that make me happy!

Anyhow... It is now almost 5 am and I should check to see if my conclusion has written itself so I can go to bed!