My secret sewing machine project arrived safe and sound with it's new owner, so I can finally reveal...

Molly's first zippered pouch!

It's perfection!  Well, almost.  The road trip fabric was particularly fitting for my old roommate and road trip accomplice.  Ah, the memories of Burger King crowns and laughing so hard that I literally re-broke my previously injured rib.  I could not resist this awesome fabric when I shopping with my mom.  Look Dad, I actually sewed something! 

I want to make more of these.  I want to make zippered pouch wristlets!  I want to make clothes!  I want to make it all!  Am I going to have to change the name of my blog?  I am getting sucked into the wild world of crafts. 

I really had fun with this, and with a little more planning, I could really get into sewing again.  Back in high school, I was quite the seamstress, but never actually refined my skills.  I have one pair of kick-ass Ultraman Pj's that I made with PIPING!  I thought that was my sewing swan song, but now I have visions of more pj's with piping that aren't floodwaters (the piping was awesome but the measurement on the length of the pants, not so much). 

I'm still knitting up my Lucky Clover.  Get excited, VERY excited! I sure am!  I'm overdoing it on the exclamation points and my hands are actually trembling because I have moved from thin to thick tea at tea ceremony lately.  The thicker the tea, the higher the concentration of caffeine.  AAAH! 

Luckily, tomorrow is Green Day, a national holiday in Japan.  To celebrate?  I decided that I'll get up early and spend about 6 hours of my day in the sweltering heat, playing tennis with my high schoolers and trying to learn how to hit the ball straight.  I could have said no, but it was worth it for the excited look on those girls' faces when I said I could go.  Two kids even jumped up and down!  If that doesn't make it all worthwhile, what does?

Posted by Molly at 11:40 PM | Permalink | Comments (11)

The Japan Post is the best!  Packages on Sundays!  Look what came to my door today:

A package from my Secret Pal, yahoo!!!!  There is some gorgeous French yarn (maybe I do want to move back to France for a while...) and some great snacks.  I LOOOOVE Milka chocolate, how did she know?

Here is the one other thing that came in this package.  I already had popped this in my computer, so it's not in the above picture.  My Secret Pal has me all figured out!!  L'auberge Espagnole is one of my favorite movies!  If you haven't seen it, go out and rent it today.  It came out in France when I was studying abroad there, and I just love everything about it.  I know what I'm doing tonight! 

This package from my Secret Pal was just what I needed today.  Thank you, thank you, thank you!!

Posted by Molly at 08:06 PM | Permalink | Comments (6)

Check out the latest and greatest of my work on the Lucky Clover wrap right here!

Yeah, that's right, the same as before.  There was a small misunderstanding when I was doing my decreases.  Who knew that by every row, it actually meant every row.  I mistakenly interpreted every row to mean every other row, and didn't realize it until I was almost done with the front piece.  I knew there was a problem, and let it sit in my knitting basket almost all week, telling myself that I was just too tired to knit when I just didn't want to deal with it.  Now it's ripped out and will be back on the needles as soon as I have the time to work on it again! 

In the meantime, I decided to start a sock with the Lucy Neatby yarn that my mom brought me a few weeks ago. 

The only problem is that my "train knitting" has a giant skein since it is a whole two socks' worth together.  It's a good thing I have a HUGE selection of bags and purses, and I should be able to find one that can comfortably fit my softball sized skein of sock yarn. 

Posted by Molly at 11:18 AM | Permalink | Comments (4)

Did you know?  Once you get through Wednesday, it's practically the weekend.  Today I have lots to share!  Last Friday I had a successful encounter with a sewing machine, the first in a looong time.  I can't share the fruits of my labor just yet, but when the time is right, there will be pictures.  Colorful pictures!  I forgot how much I like the power of the pedal.  Don't worry mum, I won't buy a sewing machine--no time for that!!

I am hopelessly behind in cleaning my apartment, doing the dishes, preparing for classes, and just about anything else I should be doing.  Oh yeah, hanging out wet laundry.  The priority during my Wednesday lunchtime at home wasn't doing any of the above, but rather taking daylight photos of my knitting, of course!  At least I fit in a quickie vacuuming and got a friend to make me dinner tonight so the dishes haven't multiplied.  Check out my progress on my Lucky Clover wrap.  I panicked about the size a bit, but I decided to go for the small, cast on again and get moving.  Here's what I have so far:

I know, it's not so big, but I'm working!  This is probably the most accurate color shot.  Next time I won't put blue on blue.  There have been a few tense decision-making moments, but I'm not sure I had the best judgment.

Decision #1: When I got to the second row of lace, I had some trouble working the lace pattern into the size I was working on.  I couldn't decide if I should have knitted one more clover or just knitted straight to the edge.  I decided that maybe I was reading the pattern wrong and it would be weird if I knitted the clovers too close to the edge.  As it turns out, that plain band does not need to be QUITE so big, but since this is a wrap, and the edge of the inside piece, I am not the least bit worried. 

Decision #2: To compensate for my bad judgment on the edge side, when I increased in the waist shaping, I decided to add in an extra clover too close to the seam.  I thought it would be perfect... but it turns out I could have safely waited until the next repeat.  Oh well, not the end of the world, right?  I'm not turning back--if you look back at the big piece, these minute details are hardly visible.  Just thought I'd point them out anyways. 

Finally, check out these Choco Balls that snuck their way into my lunchtime photo shoot!  OK, this is just a picture of the box, but they were SOOO tasty.  The candy aisle in Japan is really annoying because it is made specifically for kids and you really have to fight 'em to get to the front.  As if I don't look ridiculous enough as a huge foreigner in the grocery store with a backpack (and that time soaking wet because I wasn't prepared for the torrential rain), I also frequent the kids' aisle. There is a lot of cool stuff down there!  And it's all written in simple Japanese that I can read and understand!  These caramel ones actually taste like cake batter.  It's amazing.  I'm definitely going to be wading through the toddlers again sometime soon. 

Posted by Molly at 10:07 PM | Permalink | Comments (11)

Today was my big day back to work after spring vacation.  I got an email while my parents were here, making sure that I could make it to an important meeting this morning, so I had the idea in my head that it would be a busy day.  After the big meeting, it was not busy AT ALL.  Anyways, it was a slow day back. 

There is really no knitting news.  I cast on for my Lucky clover sweater on the way to Hiroshima, but then I had second thoughts about the size.  I always end up with a perfect sweater that is just a bit too small, so I initially decided to make a medium.  Since it is a wrap though, and meant to be fitted, I'm afraid I'll regret that, so I'm going to start over with a small.  Bottom line:  No progress to show. 

I do have THIS to show!

Yep, that would be the knitting part of all the good stuff that my parents hauled over here for me.  Yahoo!!  Check out those great metal knitting needles.  I don't know if I actually like knitting with them, but they sure look cool.  I am looking forward to knitting some socks, as well as my Lucky Clover, a yoga bag, and well, many other things. 

I also hit up some fabric shops with my mom while she was here. 

Dad:  What did you get?  I thought they only sold fabric here.
Me: Yeah, I got some fabric.
Dad:  What for?
Me:  I don't know, I just liked it. 
Dad: Do you even have a sewing machine?
Me: Well not now, but I might want to make something with it someday.
Dad (laughing): Or you could just get yourself some shelves and start to hoard it. 

I actually have made some plans on how to use some of it, and worked up the nerve to talk to the home ec teacher about using the sewing machines at school!  She was impressed that my mom makes quilts (I mentioned this to give myself a little credibility even though I might kind of forget how a sewing machine works) and said that I can use them anytime.  Since school is just starting now, I have nothing to do so I'm heading in tomorrow to work on my first secret project.  We'll see what happens!

Posted by Molly at 05:38 PM | Permalink | Comments (5)