I have been such a poor blogger lately. I still skim everyone else's blogs, but I rarely have a chance to comment as I'm usually scarfing my breakfast or just cooling down from a vigorous bike ride. And now I'm trying to distract from my lack of knitting content with this lovely Ise katagami that I got from a teacher's wife when I visited his house last week. It's all one piece of blue paper, with the white parts painstakingly cut out by hand. Amazing! The lame picture doesn't really do it justice, of course.

Even though I haven't been commenting, I'm still out here and I'm really impressed with how well everyone is using their summers, especially in places with extreme heat. Hi friends, stay cool!

I'm going to Tokyo again for work (fun!) for 5 days and as it will be pretty nonstop working day and night, don't get your hopes up for more knitting progress when I come back. To say that things have stalled around here lately would be an understatement. When I come back, all my friends will be gone and there will be a whole new crop of friends to be made (and probably less of a packed schedule, too, hee hee!). I am still seaming Trellis #1 and might get to start #2 on the train if I'm still alert.

*Have you noticed that I only posted on Wednesdays in July? Weird. Not actually THAT weird, though, as it's my only free weeknight and weekends have been packed to the gills.

Posted by Molly at 08:06 PM | Permalink | Comments (5)

It has been a regular fun overload lately. Despite the fact that I really prefer to have a very laid back lifestyle without too much nonstop craziness, this has been great. The plus about being busy all the time, is that there really is the opportunity to have a lot more EXTREME fun. I can sleep when I'm dead, or rather, when all my friends go home and no one is pressuring me to go out on the weekends anymore. Ha!

When I remembered that Monday was a national holiday, I breathed a huge sigh of relief and made sure to keep myself free to catch up on everything that I have been falling behind with lately. And, of course, to do some knitting. I finally had enough time and was rested enough to handle the seaming and finishing of my little pink Trellis. I started with the shoulder seams.

I thought the Kitchener stitch looked a little funny as it makes a row of all knits in the middle of the cable pattern, but convinced myself that it doesn't matter. I even did the unthinkable and wove in the ends, RIGHT away instead of leaving them all hanging until the end. I was on a roll!

NOT. I attached the left side to the right shoulder. URGH. I was starting to feel tired and frustrated with it, so I just set it aside to deal with another day. When? Um... I think I'll have a few hours of free time in mid-August. When I get enough sleep to let my eyes uncross just a little bit more, I should be casting on for Trellis #2, the smaller, boy version. Until then, I'm still plugging along with my blanket squares, much more appropriate tired summer knitting.

Posted by Molly at 09:41 PM | Permalink | Comments (7)

Things have been rather unremarkable on the knitting front around here lately. It's hard to be antisocial and stay home to knit when all my friends will be leaving in just a couple short weeks (sniff!). Camping last weekend was great! It was much more my style camping than I had realized, as we were in semi-luxury cabins that were fully airconditioned with top of the line plumbing and showers. It made my apartment look like camping! It was nice to be in the mountains, and we had toasted marshmallows, so that was about all I needed to feel like I was roughing it. We did a lot of swimming in the river though, and for some reason, it made my hands extremely sore. I think it was all the groping around on wet rocks or something.. that or I'm just a wimp. So there was a mini-knitting break.

I am back to normal now and almost finished with the sleeves for my pink Trellis! But no pictures... I just wanted to tell everyone that I am still alive, and having as much fun as possible before my #1 knitting buddy goes home to Canada. What's next on the agenda? We're going to Disneyworld!! Well, Tokyo Disney. I might even knit on the train!

Posted by Molly at 09:41 PM | Permalink | Comments (6)

Slowly but surely, my knitting is coming along. I finished one more blanket block, so now I'm using the needles to make some Trellis sleeves until I feel the need to put them back on holders and start block 5. This blanket is still so fun! My squares are a bit wonky though, as I am knitting on slightly bigger needles than the yarn calls for. I'll probably start blocking them a few at a time once I can be sure that they will ever dry. The summer weather is starting to get to me and I know that it's not even "hot" yet. Last night around 7, just when I was getting back into the cable rhythm of my baby sweater sleeves, I fell asleep on the couch, really cutting into my evening knitting time! I'm not particularly overextended these days, so I blame the humidity.*

Anyhow, one thing I have still made time for is sewing. I'm free to use the sewing machines at school when the students aren't in class, so my long days with nothing to do can be spent down there. I made another Little Red Riding Hood bag for a friend on Monday, and I am determined to make a nightgown/summer dress out of this great fabric soon, maybe even tomorrow. I'm going to try to make it cute and flared so that I'll have something comfy and fun to lounge around at home in, but it will definitely take a little bit of fiddling around with some muslin before I cut into the good stuff. This fabric is actually the Japanese kind that comes on a roll and is used more for kids yukata or little Japanese-style pj's. But I love fireworks so I couldn't resist.

Things are really busy around here for the next few weeks as I say goodbye to all my friends, so the knitting (and the posting) will almost certainly be sporadic. It looks like our camping trip this weekend will coincide with Japan's first typhoon of the season so keep your fingers crossed for me. Not the ideal situation for knitting. (But I'll still try!)

[Note: Anything can be attributed to humidity. My eyes hurt today! Must be the humidity. Why can't I go running in the mornings anymore? Must be the humidity. My apartment is a mess--it's because the humidity is slowing me down. Etc].

Posted by Molly at 03:51 PM | Permalink | Comments (9)