When I went to Okinawa with my friends, I didn't just lay on the beach!  Okinawa is known for it's bright, distinctively patterned fabric, and being my mother's daughther, I really couldn't leave the island without checking it out.  I dragged my friend Pamela to this textile museum/workshop and it turned out to be a great place!  (Mum, you would have LOVED it!!)

The workshop

Traditional Okinawan handpainted fabrics

These huge rolls of fabric must take forever to paint by hand

One of my favorite close-ups

A gorgeous kimono

My favorite one.  I wanted to take this home!  It really reminded me of my mom's molas.

Posted by Molly at 11:49 AM | Permalink | Comments (12)

I could show you the progress on my Lucky sleeves, but they look just about exactly the same as before.   Just imagine one having gotten a bit longer, and one a bit shorter.  I will finish that sweater one day...

Check out this bad boy instead:

Morehouse Merino lace triple skein.  Thanks, Mom!*  (I got this a while ago, but I haven't even had time to watch the last 5 hours of 24, let alone post about the yarn).  I am still working on that other Morehouse Merino shawl, but kind of irked with myself that I chose the most boring lace pattern of all time.  Plus, it has grown to the point where I can't really tote it around with me for train knitting.  I think it will probably be set aside for awhile (no one needs a brown merino shawl in Japan in June anyways) and use it as a mindless knitting project later in the summer.  Remind me to hop to it about a month before I will actually be able to wear it again...

So what to make with this beautiful yarn?  I am a bit torn about lace.  It's fun to knit and quite rewarding to watch the pattern grow, but all these triangular, leaf-y motifs are just not me.  I LOOOVE the beautiful pieces that other bloggers are making, but when I actually try to imagine myself wearing one, it is not right.  I'm more of a polka dots, stripes and graphic t-shirts kind of girl.  Any ideas about a good lace pattern for me?  Shoot it my way!

*My mom sends the BEST mail.  I am totally spoiled with videos of TV shows that she tapes for me regularly (meticulously taking out all the commercials), homemade cookies, herbal tea, various other sundries and basically anything that I request in the 24 hours or so before she sends a package.  Knitbloggers are great about mail, but my mom, she is the BEST!

Posted by Molly at 07:53 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

Hey, did you hear about this?  If you care at all about NPR and PBS, sign this petition telling Congress to save them!

On the knitting front, I have nothing to show.  The other night I separated my sleeves due to to a lace error on one sleeve, and now I'm trying desperately to at least get ONE of them finished sometime soon.  Good thing it's WAY too hot to wear a sweater these days anyways. 

Posted by Molly at 12:46 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Knitty Knitty Bang Bang is celebrating her first birthday!  To mark the new year, I banged out a new, streamlined look for the ol' blog at work this morning.  I wish I had something better to show in the way of knits, but I figure there's always next year. 

What better way to celebrate than just pretend that I am still lounging on the beach with my knitting?

My sock liked playing at the beach, but LOVED this guava juice.

Posted by Molly at 02:06 PM | Permalink | Comments (16)

Hello again, I guess that was a false alarm about the bandwidth.  I totally don't get all this technical stuff.  I have been holding out on all my readers and I really have TONS to say and show, but I will try to spread it out and not overwhelm.

When I was in Tokyo for a work conference, I had the good fortune to already be going to The Pink Cow for a friend's fundraiser on the same night as Stitch 'n Bitch.  What are the chances of that!?  My initial plan was to go early, hang out with the knitters for dinner and then party with my inaka pals later in the evening.  Of course, things never go as planned, and some friends that I almost never see went early for dinner too.  To hang out with the knitters or to hang out with my real friends?  Another dilemma (do you see a pattern here?).

I forgot to bring knitting and neglected to take photos.  I know, I'm lame.

Well, I ended up splitting my time between the fabulous knitters and my pals who still seemed a bit skeptical that I was hanging out with knitters that I had never met before.  ("But I KNOW them!").  I met a bunch of great people, most whose names I don't remember (sorry!) but I did meet Chris, the first blogger that I've ever met *in person* and Pinn (whose cool new online store I just came across at pinku) and saw one of her really rad felted rings.  It was really great to see a bunch of knitters and everything they were making.  I hope I can come up to Tokyo again soon!!

Even though my friends seemed skeptical, I convinced at least one of them that knitters are the best!  One friend left her jacket near the SnB table, and it was accidentally taken home by one of the knitters, thinking it was one of theirs.  She was quite disappointed, thinking that she'd never see it again, but i reassured her that knitters are the NICEST people and that she would definitely get it back.  I sent out an SOS to the knit ring, and what do you know, she got it back today!  Thanks, Rae!!

That's enough for now.  I'll leave you with this shot of my finished sock, the night before I headed to Tokyo.  It seems like FOs are popping up all over the web these days.  Maybe I can get in on that soon... 

Hello, my naked toes look scary.  Better finish that second sock ASAP!

Posted by Molly at 12:44 PM | Permalink | Comments (4)

Before going to Okinawa, I finished the first sock of this pair, but I can't find the photo on my computer right now.  I might have deleted it, but since I probably don't have enough bandwidth for anyone to read this until July, I'm not too worried.  Here is sock number two on its way to Okinawa. 

Trains...

Planes...

and automobiles!

There's no sock in this picture (it was in the trunk) because I am actually behind the wheel of the car.  Come on, that would just be dangerous. 

Vacation was absolutely amazing and I am actually feeling rested, refreshed and ready to go back to work.  There wasn't really as much knitting done was I was hoping, but that's all because of the beautiful sunny weather.  Can't complain about that!  I'm sure I will be back to knitting on the couch at home every night soon.  Will I ever finish my Lucky wrap?  All that and more... next time. 

Posted by Molly at 11:22 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

No more bandwidth this month.  I don't know what's going to happen when I get through the last .1% of it, but I have a feeling it's not going to be pretty.  I have so much to say!

Posted by Molly at 09:37 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)

But I'm not ready to go back to work.  Now some knitting on the beach!  Be back from Okinawa (with some progress?) next week. 

Posted by Molly at 12:23 AM | Permalink | Comments (4)

It takes a LONG time to knit sleeves on size 3 needles!  So far, this sweater on such small needles didn't seem much slower than anything else I've made, but now I am starting to feel the burn.  Here's what I have so far:

I wasn't going to bring these sleeves with me on my three day trip to Tokyo because my back still hurts and I have successfully gotten all clothes and necessities into one small backpack (sock knitting included).  But just tonight I realized that I am already going to be at The Pink Cow on Tokyo SnB night.  How could I miss it?!  Do I cram my sleeves-in-progress into the bag too, or do I just show up with my sock?  What a dilemma!

Posted by Molly at 10:01 PM | Permalink | Comments (6)

France officially adopts the German pronunciation of "blog"!!

This is just another informative and entertaining (sort of) blurb from my favorite website.  I read the updates every day for a super-geeky, linguistic update on grammar, news and pop culture and it really makes me want to go to graduate school for linguistics.  Until then, I'll just keep plugging along on my Lucky sleeves.  Progress update tomorrow. 

Posted by Molly at 01:09 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)