I promised myself that I would finish Ms. Marigold in time to wear this season, and as it is still seasonably cool, in some ways I succeeded. Unfortunately it is way too big. When I started making this, people thought it was for a baby because the upper shoulder area was so tiny. I have small shoulders, I told myself, and I kept on plugging along. As the deep V started to form I thought, "No way will this be too small, it will be just right!" and then I cruised to a finish without thinking about the V-neck ribbing and ruffles, and the fact that the armholes were saggy and huge.

This pattern and the resulting vest is charming enough for me to not jam it into a drawer and forget it about it but instead to rip it all out and start again. But not for another few weeks. I have visitors coming tomorrow (my brother and his fiancee!!) so the careful ripping and starting again (two sizes smaller, for sure) will have to wait. Looks like this will be a fall FO after all.

*Optimistic and helpful advice from my boyfriend.

This morning I finally had the free time in the right light of day to spread out my crochet squares for an update. I really get enthusiasm for this project in waves. I make a huge pile of squares and then I start to lose steam when I think about weaving in all the ends. So I save the squares, weave in all the ends in a marathon talk with my parents on Skype, and then don't want to look at granny squares again for a while. It's been a while since weaving in all those ends, so I might start another crochet spurt soon. My supplies are showing signs of dwindling so I think this should be the perfect project to finish off that gigantic Palette* sampler that my mom gave me for my birthday ages ago.

In other news, Ms. Marigold is a fast one! I just have to cast off at the bottom edge and then do some finishing touches before it is done! Who knows how long that will take though, now that I am going to be pulling out the crochet bag again. Tomorrow is the first holiday of golden week and then next weekend is a glorious four-day weekend with no plans, woo! I'm looking forward to enjoying the nice spring weather, even if it means stretched out on my couch with all the windows open.

*Wow, it looks like all the harsh brights are on clearance and they are really introducing lots of more muted, wearable colors. This is a great yarn, yay!

Last week, I finally finished the basketweave section of my Hanami. I say finally, but I am in no rush to finish this as it is a goodbye gift for my tea ceremony teacher and now I know that I'll be around for more than another year. But it is a fun knit, and good to knit lace again instead of just zoning out on the stockinette and crochet projects that I had been working on previously.

I really love this sachiko section. The lace pattern is interesting but easy to remember so I really didn't have to do any ripping or stressing about mistakes (if you see any, just don't tell me!). Now I'm on the falling petals sections. It involves a lot more stockinette but the "random" petals are getting more and more frequent so the knitting is getting fun again.

I wish I could balance my projects more evenly, but I always find myself hooked on one thing for a few days and then hooked on something else after that. I want to get back to Ms. Marigold soon so that I can actually wear it before it gets too hot!

I didn't pick it up for a while because I didn't want to be fumbling with fit measurements and counting decreases when I was tired and too busy to get a lot of good knitting time in. But this Friday I sat down with Ms. Marigold to finish up the neckline so that I could enjoy the straight stockinette and catch up with friends at Saturday's local SnB. It sure is quick going now! I can see why most normal knitters finish this project up in no time. It is perfect Ms. Marigold weather here at the moment, and I can't imagine it would be the best for Japanese summer, so I am trying to finish it up as soon as I can! The color is a bit funny in the above photo... I have found that the yarn is tough to photograph well.

I even tried it on because I am determined not to let this be another knitter garment that fits, but is not quite right. So far, so good! I'm about to start some waist increases around the sides and hopefully it will be finished with soon enough for me to move into the next stage of Project Spectrum. This should be the perfect project to breeze through as I catch up on all the past few weeks episodes of Biggest Loser. I am addicted to that show!

Our camping vacation wasn't quite as relaxing as the above photo suggests, but we did a lot of sightseeing and soaking in onsens (Japanese hot springs) and it was overall a good time. I did some sock knitting but after about an inch my mind was spinning just trying to twist all my cables in the right places and my stomach was spinning from knitting on the windy roads, too. But it was a fun trip, even if I do need a week or two to recouperate.

We got home on Sunday night and then on Monday I headed out for a 5 mile run at my local gym (after a day at work AND a traumatic incident at the dentist). I am still patting myself on the back for actually running! I signed up for the Run-a-go-go 100 mile challenge on Ravelry this year, and I wasn't about to miss my mark by just 5 miles. Yesterday's run was hard after the loooong break, but I got the miles in and can say that I did finish my 100 miles before April 1st. I almost can't believe that I ran that far, especially because I only did 25 miles in both January and February. Now I am going to try not to spend the rest of the week zoned out on the couch, but no promises.

I'm moving tomorrow (well, starting tomorrow--it is a three day process) and when it's finished I am going to be driving through the night to go to the Southernmost tip of Kyushu and start a 9-day road trip (we're camping). I am already exhausted and none of this has even started yet. UGH.

I started this sock last week in the hopes of having something simple and fun to work on in the car. But at this rate I will probably just be conked out in the backseat whenever I am not driving. Even with everything else that has been going on, it is nice to get back into the sock knitting again. Thanks for the encouragement, Carole!

Thanks to "This Week in Ravelry" I learned that March is National Crochet Month--what better time to get serious about my granny square project! So when I talked to my parents on the phone this Monday (for more than three hours) I wove in all the ends on my crochet squares to-date. I was worried that all the white-bordered squares would be too matchy for the kind of blanket I have in mind now (inspiration from Loobylu's post here) but the more random squares I make and mix in, the better it looks. Now I have the very technical reach-into-a-bag-and-pull-the-next-color-out-without-looking technique going on and it is easy and fun to see what color combos come out. I decided that for the rest of March, I am going to be knitting at least a square a day, hopefully more if time allows, and I'll be weaving in the ends each Sunday so that I am not faced with a huge task at the end of my 150+ square journey.

I am still working on Hanami and Ms. Marigold, but March is a crazily busy month for me and picking up a mindless granny square is really a lot less stressful than dealing with the fit of my sweater or finding my place in a lace pattern. I'm moving two weeks from today, and I am pretty much overwhelmed with the amount of organizing, cleaning and packing that I have to do before then, plus the fact that my weekends are packed full until the big day. I am trying to split it up into smaller tasks that can be completed one by one each night after work, which unfortunately that ends up cutting into my knitting and relaxing time. Last night I started by packing up and organizing my knitting and yarn. Once I pulled out all the bags and stashes from different spots around my apartment and put it all in one place I was pretty surprised at how much yarn I have! But it felt good to get one (fun) thing taken care of and now I can move on to something slightly more unpleasant after work today. It was also great to finally get all my knitting needles organized and together to enter into Ravelry. I know that moving is a blessing in disguise because I am forced to get rid of a lot of stuff and reorganize to make things easier in the long run (it will hopefully make my next move, this July, easier as well). Once I actually get everything into the new place, it is going to be great!

More granny squares. After making all these project spectrum-y squares I decided I want to go for much more of a random color distribution than a matchy-matchy square deal. I'm going to be making a LOT of squares to make these 12 and the previous 12 (that also are of a matching colorway) blend into the overall scheme of things.

Ms. Marigold! This yarn photographs really shiny with whatever camera I use, although I love the new one on my phone at the moment (used for all the photos in this entry).

I finally learned how to crochet from a pattern thanks to my friend Megan, and I started by making this fish sock-shaped dish scrubbie. It is adorable, and so useful too! Ignore the messy sink.

Pattern: Nabbed from the Easy Ripple Afghan
Yarn: Lots of leftovers that I wanted to use up, plus a few colors (teal, yellow, purple) to brighten it up a bit
Hook size: H/5.0mm
Time to finish: Just under two months, amazing!

This pattern lives up to its name! I cruised to a quick and easy finish on my stripey ripple blanket last week during a cold spell. There has been snow, snow and more snow around here and just when I thought things were warning up, it DUMPED again on Saturday night.* It has been a great winter, and while I know I want things to warm up and get ready for spring, I would be happy spending a few more weekends wrapped up in my cozy blanket on the couch.

I have caught the crochet bug, and I'm even learning how to read patterns now. Knitting will always be number one for me, but crochet is pretty addictive as well. Things are only going up from here!

*Although it is possible that my idea of a dumping has changed just a bit.

I've been thinking about this month's (and next) theme, FIRE, for a while now. I'm afraid of fire in a big way (thanks mom, for that story about your best friend burning the house down with the easy bake oven), so imagine my joy when I came to Japan and found a ceramic gas heater (read: open flame) in my apartment. It always made me nervous, but I continued to use it, cautiously, for three years. After setting fire to my pajamas one fateful morning last February, I decided enough was enough, and this year I hardly use it at all. This means lots of hot water bottles, blankets, layered clothing and hot tea, but living without a heater is not so bad. I am helping the environment, I remind myself, when it gets teeth-chatteringly cold. Sometimes I turn it on when guests come over, because most of my friends think I am crazy for living at such freezing temperatures. Plus, it is not as scary when someone else is around.

I'm not a candle person or a campfire-type and I can't even use a lighter, but I LOVE the colors for these two months. And despite my lack of posting lately, I have been doing a lot of knitting on projects both old and new. It's just that sometimes I can't bear to give up a cozy spot on the couch for the ice-cold spot on the floor near my computer. The good news is, this place is starting to warm up!

I had this great idea that I would be able to finish a pair of fingerless gloves on my 10-day trip to Australia. It is particularly cold in my apartment these days and my hands often get so cold that I can't knit. Something had to be done, so I used the leftovers from some endpaper mitts to start a pair in a "simpler" herringbone pattern for myself. But turns out my gauge was slightly off. So I fiddled with some stitches and was all set. I did a little bit of knitting on the trip, but I kept feeling carsick or I wanted to enjoy the scenery. Then I forgot to increase for the thumb soon enough and, oh hey, something looks funky with the pattern in a few places. Maybe I did some bad math? This is not very uncommon in my knitting. Things always seem to be just slightly off! I'm not really sure worth it to do all the fiddling necessary to save these when I just need to keep my hands warm. I have to address the issue this weekend... to rip or not to rip? I'd better go fill my hot water bottle while I think about it.

It made my week when this picture arrived from my good friend and recipient of my first endpaper mitts (in the same colorway as above). They fit well and she loved them, yay! And even enough to get her coworker to take a picture of them for my blog (she's not even a knitter or a blogger of any kind). Talk about friendship!

Speaking of friends, here is some birthday yarn from my pal on this side of the world. It's Nature Spun worsted that I want to use for Bird in the Hand Mittens, one of these days. Thanks, Lauren!!

That's my random update for tonight. It's been a long time coming and not much to it. But I'm at the start of a long weekend with nothing but time to relax and recoup from my busy start to the year. So maybe things will start picking up around here again.

Somewhere in there I found time to sleep until noon and knit while watching Oprah (thanks, Mum!) so it wasn't really strenous at all. I finally got to spend some time working on Hanami, which I had finally cast on for in the hopes of bringing something light with me to work on in Hokkaido. The lighting in our bed and breakfast was poor at the best of times though, so I had to write off knitting on that trip and give in to other vacation fun. Ever played Puyupoyo? Anyway, working on this end of lace pattern this weekend was FUN. It has been a long time since I worked on a lace project like this and I love the mental groove I get into when I am working through all the YOs and decreases. I decided not to do a beaded cast on because the yarn is not so delicate looking... actually, I just didn't have any beads and I wanted to get started. I think it looks nice this way though, and as it is being made as a gift for my tea ceremony teacher, I don't think it needs the extra bling. It's still nice and light so it'll be coming to Australia, too!

I realized that even in the light of midday, my apartment gets no good light for taking photos (something to cross my fingers for when I move). Ripple is coming along nicely and it is fast as ever. I just can't believe the amount of yarn it is eating up. I am pretty hooked on crochet (haha) and I just want to make it longer and longer. A main reason for making this was to use up yarn that I had, so buying more yarn to make it bigger does kind of defeat the purpose.

That's all I've got for now. I don't know who slipped the caffeine in my drink today, but I am going to use this energy to be productive tonight!

So here's what happened. I wanted to make hat stranded with two yarns that I recently picked up at the new Yuzawaya in Osaka, to bring with me on our snowboarding trip to Hokkaido. But Christmas knitting took longer than expected, and sure enough, I didn't have a chance to cast on until just a few nights before we left. Then I miscalculated and cast on too many stitches and the hat was way too big. Instead of taking the time I needed to recalculate and start over, I just started decreasing for some makeshift earflaps and it turned out great!

For added warmth, I knitted a lining but let the front roll up naturally before picking up those stitches. The result is a cloche-type hat with small earflaps. It's thick and cozy but doesn't flatten my hair, which is always a concern. I love my new hat, but now that I'm back home it isn't really cold enough to wear anymore. Maybe in February!

This pair of mitts flew off the needles faster than I thought they would! After getting the hang of the pattern the first time, they were a cinch to make, because there was hardly any concentration required, except for the casting on and binding off stages (the blah blah style sure does make a beautiful edge, too). I didn't have any 3.00mm needles to make the size medium, so I just used 3.25mm and they turned out fine, I think. I have baby hands and small wrists, and they still fit ok on me. I hope that the recipient likes them! It's hard to part with yet another pair of these especially as my fingers get beyond chilly in my unheated apartment at night. Next up, a pair for myself!

I also started a fun new project that I had been thinking about for a while, for use this week on my snowboarding trip to Hokkaido. It's my own pattern so no more peeks until it's finished. I'm not quite sure what it will look like! It's not done yet, but after the ferry and plane ride there (and the waits) hopefully I'll have something new to keep my ears warm.

Mason Dixon's Moderne Log Cabin Blanket
Silky Tweed, 19 skeins
Size 6 US circular needles
Started in September 2007 and finished by Christmas!

I started this blanket back in September and with a goal of one skein per week, I got the whole thing finished by Christmas in total secrecy. It was a huge accomplishment especially as I spend the majority of my weekend free time with my boyfriend who couldn't know what I was making. I worked on it faithfully every weeknight that I could, and I struggled to continue with and start on other new projects so that he wouldn't get suspicious. When he opened the present and promptly wrapped it around itself, all the stress and the secrecy paid off. But in the future I don't want to do anything like it again soon!

The happy recipient and his new knitted quilt.