Kindred spirits

When I was doing my MA in Japan I was lucky enough to be surrounded by supportive friends and a professor who still continues to support and guide and help me in more ways than I can count. The only problem was that there was only one other student in museum studies, all the other students in the program were in clinical psychology (it is a VERY broad program!), sociology, or education. Then, not long after I entered the program, my sempai (student above me) graduated. She and I met other students at a conference and got an informal monthly study group started, but I never had a sense of community, other students I could share book recommendations with, or go to museums with, or just talk "shop" with over a few drinks. 

Until this year. I'm not in an MA program anymore, but I now have two kohai (students below me) under my professor and over the past half-year I've been introduced to or re-met about half a dozen other museum studies students or young professionals. A good number have studied abroad and two are even from abroad themselves!

One of those two, a woman from Taiwan who has just started her PhD here, became a good friend instantly. She had heard about me from my advisor and had apparently decided that we would be friends even before we met and it didn't take me long to realize she was a kindred spirit - from academic interests to general outlook to personal lives. Sadly she currently lives in Kansai, so we have only been able to meet up when she comes to Tokyo for conferences, but every time we have met up the time has sped by in a flurry of trading sources in Japanese and English (and one in Chinese, that freaked me out because I didn't realize it was Chinese and started hyperventilating over the kanji...!), debating the pros and cons of the Japanese educational system (followed by a heavy dose of complaining about Japanese academia), and good 'ole girl talk.

So turned to knitting to show my friendship in the best way I know how, even though the weather means that she won't be able to use it for months and months! 

Elephant Baby

The year I spent in India was full of wonderful memories, due in large part to the people I met. I was lucky enough to work with and meet some amazing and inspiring women. I am still meeting new Scouting friends through my connections to the Center in India, and they continue to impress me with their drive, dedication, and spirit. Another thing a number of these women have in common is the fact they have had sons in the past few years.

I have a hunch that spending a few months to a few years living in the almost entirely female-only surroundings of a Girl Scout center scares the baby-girl making ability right out of a woman as of all the babies I know to have been born to Sangam volunteers, and all the babies I have heard of from others who know Sangam, out of all those babies there has been only one girl. All the rest are boys.

One of those baby boys made his entrance into the world only a short while ago and so I scoured Ravelry for elephant baby knitting (prompting a relative to email me and ask me what was up...!) I eventually settled on two little projects - a bib and a small stuffed toy - and since I was able to make both with yarn already in my stash, they were very quick knits!

I'm still not quite sure about the trunk, but besides that he is rather cute.

"Hello!"
"Yikes! You don't have to yell into my ear, I can hear you, I can hear you!!"

I have an unhealthy love for this tail, for some reason... cute!!

Splash of Blue

More knitting, more pictures of knitting draped over colour-coordinating greenery in our garden. I'm really lucky with the colour-coordinating part as the hydrangea is juuust starting to bloom and it is the only thing that will be blue the entire year. Does this mean I have to spend the next few months knitting green before moving to brown and grey next winter?

This narrow decorative scarf/tie, turned out to be a super quick knit and I am hoping that the coworker for whom it is intended, who waited with anticipation for the red shawl to be finished and given to another coworker, will be surprised and pleased. She often wears silk scarves and pulls it off with a flair I've never been able to match.

She impresses me for far more than her ability to accessorize with silk, however, as she has successfully managed both family and career, something not so common among her generation in Japan. She had a home-based personal consulting type business on the side when her children were young, gradually working on more contracts as they got older and she could spare more time. Once they were in university (but not out of the house, of course!) she found herself a job outside of the home and has continued to acquire new skills and embrace new technologies as she goes.  Truly impressive and somebody I hope to be able to emulate!

Crazy Foreigner

Imagine if one lived in your neighbourhood, down the street or even, heaven forbid, next door! The strange things they do, the strange smells coming from their kitchens, the odd hours they keep, the fact that they hang their laundry out in the afternoon and... leave it out overnight!! (oh no! shock! horror!) 

Some are stranger than others. Some can be found in their driveway with a SLR over their shoulder, draping a small bright red shawl over the greenery and then taking numerous pictures of it... Very very odd! 

Harmless, but odd!

A mini-shawl knit for a coworker from one of the MANY balls of yarn she gave me after having cleaned out her mother's house. She apparently threw away most of the yarn, saving the "best" for me. I in turn passed most of what she gave me along to an NPO teaching women from areas hit by the 2011 earthquake and tsunami how to knit. One of the balls of yarn, however, was turned into this shawl (I'm calling it a "shawlette" because it is only just wide enough to tie around your neck). My coworker is a strong, opinionated, and brilliant older woman who spent much of her life working in a male dominated field. She dresses sharply in a style that has nothing of the feminine cute so common in Japanese attire. I was surprised just how hard it was to find a shawl pattern that was lace but not flowers/leaves/arabesques. I finally found this geometrical design and knit it with a straight border instead of the scallops in the pattern. Hopefully she thinks it is the perfect pattern for her too!

Knitting Bore

I realize I've been posting nothing but old photos and knitting, and I apologize, but I'm trying to use what writing abilities I have elsewhere currently and am finding myself tired and overwhelmed despite a lighter schedule at work. I know I'll get into the new groove soon, but until then it'll probably be just old photos and knitting...

Speaking of which...

I had two hanks of a beautiful dark green yarn that I decided to turn into a shawl for a coworker. I found a pattern I liked and got started. I hadn't gotten very far when the dreaded knitting self-doubt started up, however, and I decided it was too plain and ripped it out. I added a colourful boarder and started again - ripping out the border and redoing it a couple of times - before I realized I was not going to have enough yarn to finish the shawl as started. By this time I was so fed up with the yarn and the whole idea of the shawl that I quite violently ripped it all out again, muttering streams of unbloggable words...

So a new pattern was found, started, and deemed passible - just. But then I finished it and my overwhelming hatred of the yarn and the shawl was just too strong. I shoved it into my closet, with the intention of taking some pictures and then ripping it out to restart again once I had gained a bit of distance.

Nearly a year later I pulled it out and decided that while I still had issues with the shawl (piece of &#%*) and the yarn (*$%& $%#*!!), it was perfectly acceptable as a piece of knitting and I should just sew in the ends and wrap it up and give it away - quickly!

Thankfully I did just that and the recipient, more than a little surprised at the mini-shawl, declared it was the perfect thing to ward off the blast of cold air from the AC unit right above her desk.

I'm just glad it is gone!

Happy Birthday little Dragon

Last year a friend was pregnant, but when I asked about colour choices for a baby blanket or sweater, I was told that the baby, her fourth, was well-stocked with newborn knitting, and maybe I could make something for the little one to wear when (s)he got a little bigger. A beautiful and healthy little girl made her entrance last May and I looked through the patterns on Ravelry trying to find a cute little dragon sweater for the year of the dragon baby. I ended up falling in love with a different type of pattern and embarked on making my very first knitted stuffy.

The end result was nowhere near as cute as its recipient, but got to its new home just in time for the other little dragon's first birthday.

Happy Birthday little dragon! May you grown strong, healthy, and happy. May you love, be loved, and dream big!

Knitting at a Yarn Store

I've started attending a monthly Saturday evening SnB held at a yarn shop that, while I can hardly call my "local" yarn shop, has definitely become my favourite. Hitsujidama is a tiny little yarn shop tucked away in a corner of a building and a bit of a pain to get to by public transport, but it is full of lovely natural yarn, hand-knits, and wonderful people! The owner is an American woman (married to a Japanese man) and the B portion of the SnB runs from current events to Japanese in-laws to Japanese partners. Of course the alcohol helps, but it is the perfect way of ending the week!

I discovered last month just how a SnB at a yarn store can benefit the S portion too - I was nearly finished a scarf (and really wanting to be finished!), but I knew it needed... something. 

I mentioned this fact and immediately the store's owner handed me a ball of yarn (same weight, perfect complementary colour) and a book of edging patterns (and opened it to a page with the perfect edging). And then she handed me the perfect little doohickey that meant I could start the edging right away instead of waiting until I got home and could use needles with a longer cable. 

The scarf that had been dragging on and sapping me of my desire to knit?

 

Finished two days later, blocked, and given to its recipient - who is thrilled beyond belief. I'm thrilled to be done with it, and have moved on to a bright red lace shawl. I'm even more thrilled to have found a SnB that I love!

A Tale of two Tassels

Maybe it is the cold weather, but I've been knitting quite a bit lately - making scarves to warm the necks of friends and coworkers as fast as I can. I've also managed to start using up some of the yarn sitting in my cupboards that has been given to me by friends and coworkers. Choosing the yarn, however, is just the first step. Then I have to choose a pattern, and then, with scarves, whether or not to add tassels. 

But sometimes it isn't just a decision about whether to tassel or not, but what to call those tassels... Are they tassels? Or a fringe? (Or just a really good way to use up the very last bit of the yarn?) 

I give you two takes:

Triangles and tassels (to warm the neck of a certain nomadic South African)

and ｃabled tassels (to warm the neck of a male coworker)

Round-up

I knitted both of these back in early 2011, but they've been sitting in a box ever since as I didn't know who to give them to. But they have both finally found homes!

Both are cowls, and both were made with a single ball of yarn. The darker, a lightweight lacy cowl in a traditional feather and fan pattern, will be decorating the neck of a amazing woman I met my last visit to Vancouver - kind and gentle, beautiful, and amazingly awe-inspiringly strong.

The lighter cowl is smaller and simpler - a basic cable pattern. I gave it to the lady who runs the towel store near work. I was introduced to her a year or so ago by a coworker, and every day when I walk to or from work we exchange greetings and random comments on the weather / her friend's daughter who has moved to Canada / seasonal happenings / etc. This summer she gave me a bright pink towel as a midsummer gift, then last week she gave me a new year's towel with a snake design and ever since I had been trying to figure out how to repay her kindnesses...

Snow falling on Rainbow Scarves

With the weather getting colder I've turned to making things to keep people warm, and have been working on scarves. This one ended up turning out very differently than I had expected, and thus is going to U's middle sister instead of the coworker I had started it for. It is soft and cushy and bright and colourful - all good things in a winter scarf, especially when it goes and snows, which is rather uncommon in this part of the world!

Baby A

And stiiiiiil more knitting!

This is a late one, I made a baby blanket for the first baby of a good friend in Canada last year. "Baby" A took her first steps last week and is thus now a toddler not a baby, so I figured I should get on posting about her blanket!

Her mom is a crocheter and a sewer, and little A has plenty of knitters and other crafty people in her life, she had at least two other handmade baby blankets to be wrapped in when first born! But I am a firm believer in not ever having too much knitting wrapped around a little baby! Her mother is a dear friend and a very colourful character, so I went for a rainbow blanket, with the hope that little A would grow up to be just as warm and loving and colourful as her mom.

 

Baby Knitting

More knitting!

Early this year there seemed to be a baby boom around me, coworkers, friends, friends of friends... So I turned to my knitting needles made up a couple of sets of booties/mitts/hat. They were super fast since they were small - and amused me to no end as U endlessly said "those are tiny! Are you sure you shouldn't make a bigger one? Is the baby actually THAT small?"

Grin!

The blue set went to a coworker who's wife gave birth to a little boy, and who was going to be receiving a whole batch of hand-me-downs from a relative with a baby girl. My coworker joked about his son being dressed endlessly in pink, and I decided I to do what I could to offset that...

And the green set went to the friend of a friend, a fellow blogger who had her second child earlier this year and who, while I've never met, is somebody I've followed virtually for a while now and who I wanted to reach out to.

Sets like these may not be used by a parent nearly as much nor as long as a blanket, but they are fun to knit and oh so adorable...! I may just have to pull out the yarn and make another one just in case another friend announces she is pregnant...

Knitting!

I finally finished the mammoth afghan for our sofa, or at least the knitting component. But that left me with a dilemma - what to knit? I didn't have any baby knitting that needed doing and thus found myself digging through my yarn stash. I didn't get any inspiration as to a project, but I couldn't stop petting two skeins of handpainted yarn in a glorious soft silk/mohair mix. Soft and ever so pretty - a mix of blues and purples and pinks. Not really my colours, so I knew I'd be knitting and gifting, but absolutely gorgeous and after endless months of knitting with rough wool in dull dull colours, it was a delight to knit, sadly a short lived one as it knit up in no time!

I ended up with a cowl/scarf that is soft and light and pretty and about to be put into a box and mailed off to a wonderful friend who I have not seen in far too long. I hope she enjoys it half as much as I enjoyed knitting it!

 

Just in time for spring...

Last fall, as it was starting to get cool, as people were beginng to pull out warmer clothing, I got a message from a friend. She wondered if I could knit her a shawl, there wasn't much she liked in the stores and it was all hideously expensive  I agreed immediately but when my friend didn't give me any hints as to what she wanted I started to get nervous.

I have a complex when it comes to my knitting. I know I can l knit basic things well, but I always convince myself the item is all wrong once I get started.

This project was a perfect example - choosing the yarn seemed easy enough, I found some pretty dark green yarn with hints of dark turquoise, but the pattern was more difficult. I chose one and cast on only to rip it all out and start over, started again with the pattern I had first picked out, ripped it out and started over with a different border, unpicked the border, and then got so fed up with it that I tossed it into the closet for a few weeks and played with baby knitting, making a couple of itty bitty toque /mitten / bootie sets.

With the start of the new year I was going to make myself pull it out and pick it up again when I found myself fondling yarn in a yarn store...

And there it was: soft, fluffy, colourful but not showy, it was juuust right. Next thing I knew I had found the perfect pattern (at least a pattern with the perfect name).

A few months later (and many months late),  here is Jacaranda in Blue for Jacaranda Blue.





As the green beginning to appear in my garden shows, this shawl is just in time for warmer weather... or maybe early for next winter?!


Now, back to the afghan I'm making for our couch... unless there are any more orders that are more exciting than mind-numbingly endless amounts of stockingette in black/beige/brown?

Six months

I've been terribly lax at keeping up with my knitting posts. Mostly because I'm currently stuck on a large project that seems to be a knitting black hole, but I keep forgetting I have other finished projects that haven't yet been blogged...


Like this baby blanket - backed and edged with a soft cotton flannel so it will keep its shape even after being tossed into the washing machine. Sewn up as I experimented with the embroidery feature on the sewing machine I "borrowed" from U's mother...





Over the past few years I've knit a number of baby blankets and one baby sweater for friends but after finishing (and photographing) them I wrapped them up and sent them off, never getting a baby cuddle in return.

Six months ago, however, I finally got my baby cuddle! Umebossy's Little S was very very little when I visited them at the hospital. She slept peacefully in my arms as I held her, then wrinkled her little face into a mask of anger before breaking into an angelic half-smile that was nearly as adorable as the musical tooooooot that emanated from her opposite end.

It was the text message that Umebossy sent me to tell me little S was on her way that convinced me she'd be a very good mother. It was only weeks after the earthquake and there was widespread panic among foreign communities in and out of Japan about the possibility of nuclear disaster. Amid it all Umebossy's text was a voice of well-needed calm and reason. Then there was the added excitement of knowing little S would be on the outside soon, the joy of having good news amidst all the bad.

With one thing and another I haven't been able to see little S (and her mum too!) nearly as much as I'd like in the six months since she was born, but she's growing bigger and doing wonderfully - just as gorgeous as she was the very first day I met her. I love seeing her get bigger, grow more aware of her surroundings, and, of course, I love me my baby cuddles!

Happy Six Month Birthday little S! May you never ever have to experience the destruction, heartache, and fear that so many did only weeks before you were born. Instead may you be surrounded by love and happiness and grow big and strong and healthy.

Oh, and why don't you give your mum a break and sleep through the night?!