I think I can hear all my faithful readers holding your breaths about the skinny scarf.  It was a big hit!  Of course, I was finishing it up until the very last minute.  I managed to run around like an absolute maniac after work to get ready for the dinner, then I hopped on the train and fringed my scarf:

Then I made a kind of bad decision to shorten the fringe... but it still worked out anyways.  In the rush of it all, I ended up getting on the wrong train, and it didn't stop at the middle of nowhere stop where the big party was being held.  I ended up sitting on a train at the next station for about 30 minutes waiting to go back JUST ONE STOP.  I was quite irritated, because I hadn't brought any knitting, and I had nothing to do.  I ended up taking a bunch of pictures. 

Stared at this for way too long.

This is the best one I got of the skinny scarf.  Like my new haircut?

There were definitely some borderline ballgowns at the "ball" but hey, I had a whole lot of fun in my sneakers and Beetlejuice legwarmers (store-bought, sorry).  I rocked out the skinny scarf as a backup singer in the band, and no one else there can say that for themselves!  I wasn't even gung-ho about the party, but it ended up being a really great night, so I can't complain!

Thanks to everyone for all the advice.  With this concludes "The Dilemma of the Skinny Scarf."  Stay tuned for more real-life knitting adventures!!

Posted by Molly at 04:43 PM | Permalink | Comments (8)

Thanks to all my concerned knitting friends who all helped me out in my hour of need!  I did decide that a skinny scarf was indeed in order, and started knitting one up in some purple R2 paper tape last night.  I am more than halfway there!

Everyone had really great suggestions and it has actually inspired me to make a cool skinny scarf or two at a more leisurely pace when all of this is Valentine's nonsense is said and done. 

The one thing the whole experience has taught me, however, is that having a big stash is REALLY IMPORTANT.  Hear that?  All you knitters out there with big stashes, you will be rewarded when you need a skinny scarf in less than 24 hours and have lots of stuff to choose from.  My supplies were severely limited, but thanks to my secret pal 3, I had some good stuff that I had kind of forgotten about.

I wish I could take pinku's advice from the big city and make a super glam, glittery gold scarf, but since I live in the boonies AND have a day job, that just wasn't meant to happen.  But a gold glittery scarf sure would nicely compliment my black and white polka dot wristwarmers with gold trim...

Now, back to that day job thing...

Posted by Molly at 10:21 AM | Permalink | Comments (6)

I need to preface my post with this:  I am my mother's daughter.  She is either going to laugh or cringe when she reads this.  I am also on a serious caffeine high.

Tomorrow is the big event.  It's the Balentine's Boru, or Valentine's Ball, for a bunch of foreigners in my area.  It's just a good excuse to go out and have fun, but the stipulation is that you have to "dress to impress."  This means don't wear jeans and just try to look cool. 

Easier said than done.  I didn't bring many cool clothes with me to Japan because the suitcases were small, and honestly, I just couldn't be bothered.*  I am a jeans and t-shirt kind of girl, and if I'm going out?  I might sport a v-neck. 

I thought wearing my capelet would be the perfect solution!  I have yet to ACTUALLY wear this, but it is totally me and if it doesn't impress people, well, I don't want to be friends with them anyways.  "What a grand idea!," I thought. 

Just now, my neighbor came over and mentioned that this IS being held in a BAR and suggested that an alpaca turtleneck capelet just MIGHT not be a good idea.  It was said with much love and respect for said capelet, and even coming from a non-knitting, rock star, it was not remotely insulting.  Don't worry.

That's when it came to me.  I can make a skinny scarf with the skein of kersti that I got from my secret pal last December!!  What a great accessory!  This will be so fantastic!  As quickly as this brilliant idea came to me, the doubts started rushing in.  Are skinny scarfs even cool?  Do I care if they're cool?  Can I finish one before the party? 

If I don't make a skinny scarf, it is going to be the capelet for the first 15 minutes, and then a night in my black boat neck t-shirt (after all, it IS a ball), black skirt and converse sneakers.  What do you think?  Are skinny scarves so last year?  Were they ever popular?  What, oh what will I do?

I KNOW THAT SOMEONE OUT THERE IS READING THIS.  DON'T HESITATE, COMMENT NOW!  I NEED YOUR HELP!

*Translation: I don't have any cool clothes. 

Posted by Molly at 12:05 AM | Permalink | Comments (11)

I've been knitting this (I am actually much further along at this point, but I have to use this old photo).  It's the Morehouse Merino shawl I have been talking about for a while, and I really like knitting it.  It is a relatively easy pattern, and fun to knit when I am absolutely exhausted but have *just* enough energy to pick up the needles.  This kind of looks like oddball ribbing (after all, most things chez knitty knitty are a bit oddball) but up close and blocked out, the lace should look like this:

This was the best I could do, stretching it out with my feet.  This is not the nicest yarn-floor color combination, so I will try to fancy it up a bit with a rad background next time I take pictures.  Oh, I'll try to include something for scale too, because I realize this could be any size at all. 

What else have I been doing, you ask?  Well, I've been watching American DVDs!  I borrowed The Best of Triumph DVD from my next door neighbor, and am quite enjoying it.  Later tonight I will probably move on to the first season of the Real World (thanks, Arz!). 

I've also been eating a lot of "Crispy Pizza" flavored Pretz sticks, and drinking lots of drinkable bulgarian yogurt.  Do that have that stuff in the US?  It's great. 

In addition, I've been doing yoga!  Yep, I did it two times in less than one week!  If I can get past the very mock-worthiness of most yoga instruction, I actually quite like it.  I feel so stretched out afterwards... much better than my normal, tense, bike-riding self!

Did you think I had really been doing lots of exciting stuff since my last post?  I hope I didn't get your hopes up for nothing.  These things are all pretty exciting to me, or I wouldn't be doing them.  Gotta go find me another nomu yogurt before I settle in for some DVD action and knit myself unconscious. 

Posted by Molly at 10:40 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

I got a package from my Secret Pal today!!

Look at this great stuff!  "It's nothing big," she writes, but I think this package is the cat's pajamas!  Everything is so thoughtful, from the candy with only fruit-based coloring, to the cute sheep pen (I've been meaning to get back to writing letters lately, REALLY) and the new Phildar mag!

Little did my secret pal know, I had caught wind of this new Phildar mag and I liked what I saw, so I arranged a bit of a swap with Annabel who kindly dropped the very same magazine in the mail which arrived yesterday!

She even included some fabulous stitch markers--thank you! 

So as it turns out, my Secret Pal has my tastes totally figured out.*  That, or she figured out that I am easy to please (which is more likely the case) and I am totally thrilled to get anything!  Big thanks to both my knitting pals!

Is Tendances a widely available publication?  I don't really know, I just know that it's certainly not available in my neck of the woods!  Even so, I certainly don't need two, so if someone is interested and wants to send me something equally cool in return, I'd be happy to send one their way.  The post office here is really screwy (NEVER open at convenient times), and I can only go next Wednesday--so speak now or forever hold your peace!   Update: My duplicate Phildar is going to be finding it's way over to it's new home with Anne, my old secret pal!, this week.  Sorry I don't have more to share!!

Added later: Hey, how did I forget to show images from the inside of the magazine!?

I love all these sweaters, but I have a feeling that the two on the bottom won't work for my "bumpy figure," as Japanese women have told me.  I have pretty much decided that I will make the purple one on the top, and I am on the fence about the pink cardigan.  It seems like everything in this magazine is really wearable!  I just have to knit it first. 

*En plus, elle est francophone, et je suis ravie d'avoir l'opportunité d'utiliser tout ce que j'ai appris (et tout de suite oublié) à l'université!

Posted by Molly at 10:30 PM | Permalink | Comments (7)

When I finished my Clapotis, I straightaway went to work on my next project, the Stellina Shawl in Morehouse Merino.  I really like this yarn, and the whole thing just seems to knit itself.  I have been pretty busy at work and generally tired lately, so it is really nice to have an easy-peasy project to knit in front of the TV at night.  I'll take a shot of it someday soon.  Until then, just check out the pattern website.  Mine looks JUST like that (  ...right...).

One thing I like about knitting is that I spend my time in front of the TV knitting, and not snacking!  During my elbow pain-induced knitting hiatus, I realized just how much unnecessary snacking I do when I don't have something else to do with my hands.  It's a good thing that my bike-dependent lifestyle allows me to have Oreos for dinner now and then, and still stay in pretty good shape.  Even so, now that I am knitting again, I was just thinking about how good it is to be back to eating a REAL dinner and calling it a night! 

That is, of course, until today.  I stopped at the high-end grocery store on my way home from school today and unfortunately wandered down the snacks aisle.  I really wish I didn't have a sweet tooth with a mind of its own...

...but I do!  So much for not snacking while i do my knitting!  I have never seen any of these things before, ANYWHERE in the world.  The wine-flavored Haribo gummies are the best.  As for the other delights, we shall see.  It's a good thing there is still a big hill sitting between me and that grocery store.  I figure I probably worked all this stuff off on the way home. 

Posted by Molly at 07:42 PM | Permalink | Comments (6)

That's right!  Long weekend + 3 tapes of TV shows from home=Finished Object!

I am feeling great about the Clapotis.  I am so glad I made it in plain red, and it's a 50/50 cotton/wool blend, so it is perfect for this end of winter/beginning of spring season that seems to have come just a bit too soon this year.  Since I finished it, I can't take it off.  As I write this, I am sitting at my computer like this:

This is just a blurry shot from my webcam.  I had a lot of trouble getting any action shots of myself, so I'll have to wait and have someone else take a shot.  I really want to make a HUGE one in thicker yarn that is more or less a blanket that can double as a shawl.  Maybe next year...

Now I am really excited about starting new spring knitting!  I got a Morehouse Merino Lace kit for Christmas that I FINALLY started to wind into pull skeins so I can start that this afternoon.  The yarn is really soft and nice, but it was kind of snarly and a pain to wind.  One skein down, three to go.

I'm also going to make a really plain pullover sweater with the same yarn I used for my cable sweater but in gray.  I like my cable sweater, but it is pretty limited as to what I can wear it with and when.  I'm just going to make a generally square, comfortable, versatile sweater.  Maybe I'll swatch for that today too. 

A lot of my progress is thanks to the Kill Bill soundtrack that I got in a package from my friend this week.  It is SO GOOD!  The Santa Esmeralda version of "Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood" is to die for.  It took a lot of self control to keep winding my yarn and not just get up and dance when this came on.  The whole CD is pretty great except for a few dialogue parts, and I think it is really great to get motivated, either to clean, do laundry or even knit. 

Now I have way too many tapes of TV shows from home, in addition to the first season of Real World and the first season of Newlyweds on DVD (thanks to my awesome college roommate).  I plan on spending the rest of the day, and hopefully every night this week, watching stupid shows and knitting!  Life doesn't get any better than that.  I'll be wearing my new red Clapotis the whole time!

Oh, just to clarify:  I didn't get tons of Curry Cup Noodle from the English teachers (I wish), but rather a copy of Japanese Photoshop installed on my computer so I could finish up some work at home this weekend.  Woohoo!  It's the best thing ever, aside from the minor complication that everything is in Japanese. 

Posted by Molly at 04:35 PM | Permalink | Comments (11)

Posted by Molly at 11:01 PM | Permalink | Comments (6)

The unthinkable happened.  I've been tagged for the dreaded music survey that has been floating around blogland lately.  I was just thinking I had escaped when I was tagged by a pretty cool knitter.  She seems to think I listen to crazy Japanese stuff while I'm eating Pocky in Japan.  I just have to do this to show her the REAL story.*  I do eat a lot of Pocky, but I have yet to stumble upon any really crazy Japanese music (it's mostly really bad pop) and sometimes I eat very non-Japanese meals like this:

The cheese is from Hokkaido!  and quite good. 

1.Total amount of music files on your computer?
1418 songs, or 3.5 days of music.  I put a lot of my CDs on my computer before I moved here, so that is primarily why.  Still, there are CDs that I left at home and didn't put on my computer that I really want to listen to sometimes, like Fresh Prince and Jazzy Jeff's Greatest Hits (*sigh* another good reason to visit home). 

2. The last CD you bought was:
I bought Young Forever by Aberfeldy and R.E.M.'s new one, Around the Sun (in preparation for their big concert!) on itunes a few weeks ago.  They're both really good.  Aberfeldy is my new favorite band (this month, that is). 

3. What is the song you last listened to before reading this message?
"Landed," Ben Folds' new single.  It's the best--that man sure can play the piano.  I love him.
 

4. Write down 5 songs you often listen to or that mean a lot to you:
Just 5?  This is impossible!!!!  Here are the songs that I love and haven been listening to all the time lately, in no particular order. 

"I Just Wish it Would Rain," by the Temptations.  No explanation needed, it's the Temptations!

"Papito," by Manu Chao.  This is just a really cool band and a super catchy song.  I listen to it at least a few times a week. 

"There's Always Someone Cooler Than You," by Ben Folds.  This song is really catchy and has funny lyrics with a great message. 

"Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots," by the Flaming Lips.  This is just about as close to crazy Japanese music as my collection gets.  Even though it's not Japanese, there is a part where someone speaks Japanese at the beginning that I was just talking about with my friend.  We feel really cool because we can understand it!

"It's the Same Old Song," by the Four Tops.  I love oldies!  This song reminds me of my old roommate.

"Wander Lust," by R.E.M.  I think this song was written for me. 

"掌," by Mr. Children.  This is a pretty catchy song that I have been listening to a lot by a reasonable cool Japanese pop band.  I don't know how to read the title though... a little help here?

Finally, "Que Viva la Noche," by Sonia & Selena.  This is a song from the L'Auberge Espagnole soundtrack that I absolutely LOVE.  It is a pretty rad song to begin with, but then it is played in a really great scene in the movie that just reminds me of studying abroad.  If you haven't seen the movie, or heard the song, then you should check it out. 

That was more than 5.  If you're actually still reading this, sorry!

5. What 3 people are you going to pass this baton to and why?
Whoops, I think I dropped the baton.  I never was very athletic...

*and also because, shamefully, I have no knitting to share with the world.  Last night I dreamt that Sarah finished her Clapotis.  In the dream, I was quite devestated.  Sad, isn't it?

OH!  How could I forget?  I called the Noro factory today!  As it turns out, there is no one there who speaks English, so the following may or may not be true.  As far as I understood, they don't do factory tours, and definitely don't have a factory store.  So disappointing.  I hope my mom will still be willing to come visit... I did, however, get the name and number of a relatively close yarn store that carries Noro so I am off to school tomorrow to have a Japanese friend call for me and see if I get get directions.  I'll find Noro if it's the last thing I do!

Posted by Molly at 06:55 PM | Permalink | Comments (4)

Not much knitting going on around here... it's kimono Monday!  I spent most of the night at my kimono lesson learning to tie my obi like this!  Actually, now I am learning something more difficult and using this obi that weighs about 20 pounds.   It's no good for my sore elbow, but I'm sure Sarah is happy to know that she is probably whizzing ahead of me on her Clapotis.  I'm making progress SLOWLY, but surely. 

It's 11:45 and I have been trying to go to bed for two hours now.  After making my lunch for tomorrow, getting everything ready, and getting ready for bed, I had to check up on the knitting blogs before bed.  Isn't this sad?  I am so tired but it is just something I have to do.  If I don't read them now, there will be more piled up keeping me awake tomorrow night!!  Of course, I enjoy reading everyone's blogs, but there are just SO MANY with so many clever ideas and interesting commentaries that I can't seem to keep up!

Then, of course, I realized that it had been a while since I updated my own good old blog, so here I am doing "one last thing" before bed.  I'm so tired!  Hopefully there will be more time for knitting tomorrow.  Goodnight!

Posted by Molly at 11:49 PM | Permalink | Comments (7)

First, knitting!  Look what happens when I come home from work at 4 on a freezing day, get in my pj's and don't leave until the next morning:

That's all you ask?  Well I am still nursing a sore elbow.  I think it is the crazy stitch pattern of Clapotis that has my arm bobbing all over the place, but oh, it's so fun to knit!  Some maniac must have written that pattern! 

I almost forgot my cry for help, because it is late and I am ridiculously tired.  I have a bandwidth problem, and I am not web-savvy enough to figure it out.  I don't think we're talking bandwidth theft here because I have seen my bandwidth sloooooooooowly creeping up, up, UP over the past few months.  Now my projected bandwidth for this month is over 100% and I don't know what to do. 

Typepad users, I am totally confused about what happens if and when I go over my bandwidth limit.  Any experiences?

And everyone else, is there anything I can do to be more frugal about my bandwidth?  I have a bad feeling that it is just the fact that I have two blogs with pretty frequent posts that is dragging me down. 

So I'm asking for suggestions, comments or even bandwidth horror stories... PLEASE!!

PS.  Sarah, I haven't worked on Clapotis for a few days PER SE, but I've been psyching myself up for this battle and you are definitely going down.  Whatever happens, just remember that I live 6 hours ahead of you.  HA!

Late-night addendum: Like my earthquake paranoia, my web skills really intensify in the midnight hour.  I already figured out that by reducing the number of posts showing on my blog at one time (10 was just EXCESSIVE) I in turn eliminate a lot of unnecessary bandwidth usage.  Don't worry, I still want to hear what anyone else has to say about this.  Don't be shy! 

Name that tune:  "I will sleep tonight..."  No cheating!!

Posted by Molly at 12:06 AM | Permalink | Comments (7)