This is what's going on in my knitting world lately. The knitting basket has spewed out most of its contents onto my coffee table. Luckily, I don't drink caffeine anymore so there's more room for projects. I started a sweater in my Noro Cash Laine and it is the nicest wool EVAH! The stripes are stripey but subtle and I am very excited about this. It was my laying on the couch, i-think-i-have-mono knit this week. I later discovered that humidity was in the 80 and sometimes 90 percent range this week, hence the exhaustion. More reason to hole up in my apartment with my knitting. hehe.. (Before you get worried, I did get out this weekend and was actually quite busy. Non-knitting social life, check).

This is my green for today. There is a LOT of greenery outside my apartment, due in part to the nonstop rain lately. While it is a nice color that brightens up my bedroom, I'm not a fan of these weeds that would come up to my shoulders if I had the nerve to wade out there. I don't, though, because this lovely "garden" is home to insects of every variety, including but not limited to poisonous centipedes and mammoth mosquitos, as well as lizards and a snake! The one good thing about this is that I have become much less wimpy and can handle all of the above much better than I could a year and a half ago. Yay, green!

Finally, at the risk of this turning into Molly's Hairstyle Blog, do you want to take a look at my new short hair? I think it's the shortest it's ever been. I looked a bit like Liza Minelli when I left the hair salon, but now that I'm at home, I'm very happy with it and having fun doing things like blowdrying it straight up in the air, which is why I look the teensiest bit mad scientist in this shot. Don't worry, I won't go out in public with it quite like this, Mum. And tomorrow, I am getting up early and starting my new running routine, yippee!* I'm going to finish this 9-week plan if it's the last thing I do!

*I need to get myself really excited about it and tell a lot of people just so that I have that added pressure to stick with it. We'll see how this works out.

Posted by Molly at 07:02 PM | Permalink | Comments (6)

I felt VERY smart when I read this today. That's one word down, 364 to learn this year.

The big dance is tomorrow and I've got to run to practice, so no knitting post today. I did, however, start a stash sweater, so I have more than one thing to be excited about! And I promise, I will start fair isle glove #2 soon. Thanks for all the encouragement!

Posted by Molly at 06:11 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Look! I finished my first fair isle glove which I almost can't believe. The colors are not THAT bad and I think I might actually wear these if I can power through number two. I think I'll stick to mittens after this though, as those fingers are a little too tedious for my taste.

I've decided to blame the rainy and very humid weather my total exhaustion lately. I definitely don't have the energy to focus on another fair isle glove tonight. But I WILL try to eat as many fruits and vegetables as possible in hopes of getting my knitting mojo back (and work mojo too, for that matter)!

Posted by Molly at 06:00 PM | Permalink | Comments (14)

This (mostly) green object is my super early finished gift #2! I have a friend who loved a multidirectional scarf that I made for myself in the same colorway last year, so I decided to make another one for her. It won't be gifted until I leave next summer, so it is very, very early. When I sorted through my stash last week I found this yarn and remembered what I'd meant to do. So voila! size 10.5 needles + three skeins of Kureyon = quick FO.

I'm planning a big talent show that's coming up next Saturday so with planning meetings, making veggieburgers and dance practice (plus thinking about how much more I NEED to practice) I have been busy enough to justify the recent knit slump. I think I might be getting tired just thinking about all the things that are coming up. I'm going to be really busy for the next few months so I won't have as many weekends crafting at home. What's a girl to do!? Must come up with some good on-the-go projects!

Posted by Molly at 06:39 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

As it's test period once again, I was free enough at work yesterday to spend my afternoon whipping up this lovely bag in the sewing room. I had been waiting to use this red riding hood canvas for a while and was a little nervous about actually making the cuts and taking it to the machine, but it turned out even better than I imagined!

I sewed grosgrain ribbon along the inside to hold the lining down nicely, and that was the only problematic part. It was a little tough to work with and very slippery, but even so I think it came out nicely. Here is a shot of the whole bag and one of me that shows off how it is absolutely the perfect size, straps and all. As with most of my sewing ventures, I didn't use a pattern (even a straightedge for that matter) or any pins. It's mostly just because of laziness, but as you can see it all turned out ok! (Edited to fix those pesky popup shots)

I was so pleased with myself and so enamored with this print that I even made a zippered pouch to go inside. I have a work party tonight and I am already planning my outfit around the new bag. Yippee!!

Posted by Molly at 10:21 AM | Permalink | Comments (12)

Pattern: Wendy's Dream Swatch Headwrap
Yarn: Koigu Kersti, K621, one skein
Needles: #5 bamboo circs

I love the stitch pattern on this scarf. On the wrap rows I wrapped 4 times instead of three to make it a little stretchier--plus I think my gauge was off. It was indeed a dream to knit, and I actually wish I hadn't finished it SO fast. I think it took me less than two days! It's a nice break from fabric headwraps, too, because it has a lot more stretch and holds my hair back just like I need it to. I wore this to school on Monday and it was met with squeals of delight from some of my high school girls, and a teacher even told me I looked stylish. Success!!

I have been can't-keep-my-eyes-open tired this week, maybe because it has rained about 12 days of the last two weeks (and it's not rainy season yet!) so even though I am just one finger away from a finished fair isle glove, it's been set aside. Instead, I dipped into my stash closet and am knitting up a multidirectional scarf with some greenish-brownish Kureyon. I made the exact same scarf in the exact same yarn last fall, so it's a little bit boring, but it's a gift for someone who loves the one I have. It's perfect for my 7pm, waiting til it's late enough to go to bed knitting project.

OH, and thank you to everyone who suggested One Skein to work through my stash. I did some research and it seems like that is a really popular book! And I DO have the perfect yarn for a cupcake top... Last night in a moment of weakness I almost ordered that and another tempting read from Amazon, but I put it on hold at the last minute. Would you believe that I haven't bought any yarn or knitting books/mags since my mom visited in January? I might just cave for these two.

Posted by Molly at 08:08 PM | Permalink | Comments (5)

To my favorite blogger,

Thank you for starting a blog so that I can keep up with everything that you're doing. It's much easier to feel out of the loop when you're "away" from the blog than to miss you all the time. Have fun without me at the graduation!

Love, the cat Molly

Best wishes to all the Mums out there who stop by my blog. Enjoy your day!

*Nothing personal, Pops!

Posted by Molly at 12:12 PM | Permalink | Comments (6)

I've been in a bit of a knitting slump lately, did you notice? I don't have any big projects to focus on or anything that I am particularly passionate about knitting. I could knit stockinette socks til the cows come home, but where's the fun in that?

When I was growing up, my mom always had a lot of fabric. Shelves of it. I never understood it, but didn't question the madness as long as I was on the receiving end of lots of flannel nightgowns, quilts and doll clothing like you wouldn't believe. But now I get it. I've turned into my mom (I've got fabric, too).

I avoided flash-your-stash day for a few reasons, primarily because all this stuff was wedged into my one closet with so much other junk that I just didn't want to deal with my closet actually exploding. There's also the part where I didn't really want to admit to myself how much there is. But today is about the 10th consecutive rainy day here so I decided it would be a good time to take a look at the inside of my closet and get things organized before summer.

Now, I'm sure that a lot of you think this stash is amateur business. I know, compared with a lot of knitbloggers out there this is peanuts. But since coming to Japan I have been consciously trying not to buy yarn that I couldn't use right away, since I'm going to have to SHIP THIS STUFF HOME when I leave next summer. Not to mention that I'm trying to save for grad school. And this is self-control? I have a lot of really nice yarn in here, and I don't want to knit just anything with it. I need some inspiration! Can I really make that Noro Cash Laine pullover when summer is on the way? I might just have to crank up the ac and begin. I am also desperately in need of some 1-2 skein projects for all these lovely randoms that I've been accumulating. I have so many balls that don't seem to be quite enough for anything... what to do!?

Posted by Molly at 03:41 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

It's amazing how fast an easy-peasy sock knits itself up. Look at that! I am just rows from casting this off, but I really wanted to post this today. I love this colorway, and knitting with koigu is always fun. Carole, this isn't even the easy-peasy sock that you pressured me into casting on for 24. Two pairs being knit at the same time! The sock progress over here is unprecendented! It's thanks in part to some recent fair isle frustration, and of course a bunch of train errands that I've been doing lately.

When I found a pattern that I liked in the book my mom gave me about fair isle gloves a few weeks ago, I should have read all the fine print. Last night, I noticed that "It's a difficult pattern to knit because of all the color changes, which requires very detailed stitching." But there's no giving up now!

The one on the left, my third try, was knit on #2s. Row gauge didn't work out. Note to self, when you have a very precise chart, adding in a few stiches to make up for a small gauge swatch doesn't work. It was for the best, though, because I accidentally lined up the pattern with a super lumpy cuff section. My fourth try turned out to be much smoother than the previous three. But when I got to the top of the pattern and tried it on, turns out it was obscenely large due to a miscalculation of palm stitches. Harumph.

I'm pretty much back at take three now, except that the size is actually right. I just have to make sure not to lose interest in the fingers and I will be right on track to finish before summer! Even though it is mildly irritating that I could have 4 finished gloves at this rate, I am still really enjoying stranded knitting. The colors are a bit too harsh for my taste, but I really like the yarn that I'm using. Maybe they'll come out with some more subtle tones soon. Fingers crossed!

I just got back from a bar nearby to work out the details of a big goodbye party that we're planning for everyone in my prefecture in July. As stressful as it is for me to coordinate a huge party for a ton of people (in broken Japanese no less), I felt very accomplished when I walked out of that place with a plan that I think will work. It's the new me! I am still planning on wrapping up the evening with some knits on the couch though, so I haven't totally changed that much.

Posted by Molly at 10:49 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

I finished my Jaywalkers! These used almost EXACTLY one skein of Koigu KPPM each, on size 2 needles. They were really fun to knit, but I definitely need to do some work to block them before I can really wear them. I had them on while I was knitting on the couch yesterday and realized that my toes fall asleep more easily in them probably because they're so tight. I might try to make some frames to block them with wire hangers.

I love this colorway! Even though they were my March Project Spectrum socks, I think there's enough orange in there to count for April, too. I started thinking about what to make for my May socks, and decided that I'd use some more Koigu that had been sitting around half knitted up into a glove for the past year and a half. Even if I ever finished that glove, chances were slim that I would a) ever knit a second glove or b) ever wear them. So socks it is! But the yarn was really REALLY crimped from being in that glove all this time so I had to break out some high-tech yarn smoothing equipment.

Luckily, I have all sorts of tools for hanging laundry out to dry so it was very easy to rig this contraption. Plus, it was a very warm and breezy day yesterday so it dried quickly. I almost can't believe how well it worked! The yarn is a little more multicolored than only green, but I think it looks a little bit more green in real life than in these photos (maybe because I shot these photos in a blue bowl--oops).

Before and after!!

This weekend has been great for getting all this finishing and starting taken care of, especially when there's a lot og ripping going on. (And it's raining today, yay!, so no guilt about being inside on a nice day). I started to knit a cable rib sock with this last night but the color changes are very stripy and the cables just didn't look so good. Instead, I'm going to knit a plain old stockinette sock that will be very wearable and look just fab with my new purple sneakers. hehe.

And about the fair-isle glove, you ask? No comment. That is for another day.

Posted by Molly at 04:51 PM | Permalink | Comments (5)

The only thing as good as cleaning and rearranging my apartment in a more efficient layout (I did that on Tuesday) is similarly updating and rearranging my computer files. Today I went to the local electronics stores, got my new external hard drive and new digital camera, installed everything and moved files around so that my computer is moving faster, and finally got to take some decent pictures for the blog!

Project Specs:
Pattern: Yoga Mat Bag from Stitch n Bitch Nation
Yarn: Noro Kureyon, color 165, about 2 skeins
Needles: 100 yen shop finds, approximately 8.2 on the American numbering scale
Time: Less than a week!

I finished my yoga bag more than a week ago but couldn't bear to post about it without a picture that actually does justice to the beautiful colors. This was the first picture I took with my new camera! Yay! This bag is really functional and I've already used it a few times. The only "problem" is that the strap did not need to be nearly as long as the pattern called for. I ended up knotting the strap to avoid major sagging. If you're wondering about how I got the strap to magically display itself like that, its because my bedroom walls are like velcro. This is possibly the only time that I have actually been happy about that.

Here's a closeup of the pattern. It was really easy to memorize although I did add about 4 stiches somewhere in the middle when I was watching 24 (when will I learn!?). I managed to even it out, though, and you'd never know those stitches slipped in there. The only change that I made was to knit the bag bottom up rather than side-to-side as the pattern is written, because I wanted my stripes to be horizontal.

I'm really excited about project spectrum this month because I LOVE green!! I only came to this realization a few weeks ago when I was moving my necessities from one bag to another and noticed something curious. It's ALL green: business card case, ipod, cell phone, wallet, important notebook, bag organizer... even my Kitty Chan souvenir pen is green. So I'm going to embrace it this month! If I could have gotten a green camera today I probably would have.* And although I am 99% happy as a clam these lazy days of Golden week, I am just a little envious (green with envy, if you will) of all the crazy knitbloggers who are going to MDSW this weekend. I won't get into the big trip home I was going to take this month for family, friends and fiber because, well, I just won't. I've spent less than 5 minutes this week wishing I was at home, so I think that is pretty good.

Oh, and Christmas in May came about because a friend of mine owed me a dinner party after I bid on her at a charity service auction. I wanted her to teach me how to make Christmas pudding, so we ended up making that together on the weekend and then she came over and made some delicious lasagna and bunch of my friends feasted. Apparently the weather was quite like that of Christmas in Australia, and I happened to be with all Australian friends, so it seemed quite fitting. We even got to listen to Christmas tunes! It was a fun time, even though it was really only Constitution Day.

Now I'm going to take the advice of a wise knitter and cast on for a mindless sock that I can keep on hand the next time I get a tape of 24 from my mom. I won't let any more of my knits fall prey to that program. Hope everyone has a great weekend!!

*I ended up getting a Canon IXY Digital 70. I think it's the same as the Elph line of cameras at home. It's small, easy to handle and has some kind of shaky-hand-protection so I was sold. So far, so good! Now I just need to read the manual.

Posted by Molly at 06:42 PM | Permalink | Comments (4)

(That's the message written on the top of my telephone table notepad. I love Japan).

It's Golden week in Japan which means a big old lineup of public holidays and a 5-day weekend. I don't have any major plans but managed to stay busy with a big Christmas dinner and concert yesterday and today with a 40k bike ride to a REAL MALL with Starbucks and The Body Shop and everything. I'm a little sore and very tired, but overall it was a fun time. Don't know if I'll actually be able to knit before passing out later tonight though. Vacation is so nice.

Oh, and am I the only person who can't access Typepad blogs? It's been almost 24 hours now, and I haven't seen anyone else mention this. It would be a VERY sad day if I suddenly couldn't connect to Typepad. Anyone?

I might go get a new camera tomorrow (I can do anything! I have no plans! This is great!), so I promise pictures soon. Thanks everyone for the input and advice! I just hope they have some good ones in stock!

Posted by Molly at 06:25 PM | Permalink | Comments (6)

I did not do as much knitting this weekend as I usually like to. Is it wrong to wish that I had more time to lay on the couch at home when I still had a sufficient amount of loafing time? Meh. I think that part of my disappointment is that I did not make much progress on Friday night (while I watched 3 hours of 24 and an episode of Survivor).

Consider yourself warned. If you're going to try to start a multi-colored fair isle glove when you have little experience (none particularly successful) with stranded knitting, don't tune into 24 at the same time. If you do try this, you risk getting into the project and realizing that your "cuff" is more like a glorified hairband. It did work out for the best because I got the hang of the technique and smoothed out my tense knitting so that when I started the real thing I could really focus.

This project is SO.MUCH.FUN. It's the kind of knitting that literally keeps me up at night with that one-more-row mentality. It's great to have a project like this. I've been kind of floundering lately because although I have heaps of yarn, there's nothing that I've been really dying to make. What's a girl to do?

The answer is definitely not buy more yarn, so don't even think about it. Today I went comparison shopping for a new digital camera and an external hard drive to back up my precious files so it looks like May is going to be the month of new gadgets. I'm trying to decide what kind of camera to get. Any advice? As soon as I spotted the digital camera counter I got all distracted by super cute, small cameras. I started thinking that there's no sense settling for 5 megapixels when I can have 6--but then I realized that I'm upgrading from 3.1, so really anything will seem pretty extravagant. I started to read some online reviews of cameras but it seems like people only want to complain. Apparently no cameras have good battery life and big LCD screens are just made to break. I don't know if I can handle such a big decision. I might go with an Olympus. They have a RAD new model that's so thin it's practically invisible (and comes in great colors), but I'd probably go with an older, cheaper, granny style version in classic silver. There is always the allure of the smaller, fashionable camera too...

I'm so bad at making these insignificant decisions. I can move to the other side of the world, no problem, but a camera? Serious debate.

This rivoting post brought to you by the letters A and U and the color green (because it's May, of course!)

Posted by Molly at 10:26 PM | Permalink | Comments (8)