★ Happy Holidays from Portland! ★

The pretty tree in Pioneer Square

I wish I had thought to take a picture of the creme brulee we had before it disapeared!
It was delicious though!

I actually knit up two more gift hats, but was in such a rush to finish them before the gift swap,
I didn't take any photos!! ;_;
I made the Beehive hat from SNB Nation, and a clover lace hat..that ended up being woefully too short.

I received a bunch of yarn for Christmas, and now I'm thinking of things to knit.
I suppose I should finish the projects that were put on the back burner in favor of X-mas knits, and have been sitting in my "Making" list for the last couple months.

★ Happy Holidays! ★

Slightly Girly Hat 完成！

Yarn: Knit Picks Wool of the Andes in Cranberry
(only 1 skein! with about a yard left over)
US 6/4.25 mm circulars and dpns

Made up the pattern as I went along,
inspired by the cabled wrist of Fetching

CO 100, 6 cabled rows, decreasing from 10.

I've been feverishly knitting away at holiday gifts, so this hat was knit in only 3 days!
A new record for me, the world's slowest knitter. Speedy progress brought to you by Chappelle's Show Season 1 & 2 on DVD ^_^ One hat down, one more to go!

[Edited to add short pattern 7.30.2007]
I received an email asking for a pattern for this hat, so here it is!
(I really just made this up on the fly, so be gentle)

Slightly Girly Hat

Worsted weight yarn 110 yards (Used one ball of Knit Picks Wool of the Andes for the small size)
US 6/4.25 mm circulars and dpns
1 stitch marker
1 tapestry needle
1 cable needle ( or learn to cable w/o a needle!)

CO 100 (I used the long tail cast on o make it nice and stretchy)

Cable Repeat
Row 1-4: K4, P1, repeat until end of row.
Row 5: C4B [slip the next 2 stitches purlwise to a cable needle, move those slipped stitches behind the work,knit two stitches. then knit the 2 stitches on the cable needle], P1, repeat until end of row.

work this repeat 6 times.

knit 4 rows normally in the round

Begin decreases
Row 1: K10, K2tog, repeat until end of row.
Row 2: K, repeat until end of row.
[move stitches to dpns]
Row 3: K9, K2tog, repeat until end of row.
Row 4: K8, K2tog, repeat until end of row.
Row 5: K7, K2tog, repeat until end of row.
Row 6: K6, K2tog, repeat until end of row.
Row 7: K5, K2tog, repeat until end of row.
Row 8: K4, K2tog, repeat until end of row.
Row 9: K3, K2tog, repeat until end of row.
Row 10: K2, K2tog, repeat until end of row.

cut working yarn about 6 inches from work, and use a tapestry needle to thread through the remaining live stitches. Pull tight to form top of hat, and weave in the ends on the inside of the hat.

Happy Knitting, and let me know if there are any mistakes!

My 1st and probably last tapestry.

3 months, working 12-16 hours a week in the weaving studio,

and this tiny 14"x14" tapestry is the product.
I learned a lot from the class, but the time
commitment was so much more than I expected!

A sneak peek at some last minute holiday knitting!

It was just an excuse to go to Seattle.

I took the Japanese Language Placement Exam in Seattle on the 3rd of December. My brain still hurts to think about it. There is no hope that I passed, but it was fun times seeing friends from Waseda, and general excitement to be in Seattle.

At the base of the Space Needle
Yay for ramen! Excuse the tired faces all around,
all of us just came out of a 4 hour testing session.

The pretty view of Mt. Rainier across the fountain on the UW campus.

On the deck behind Ivar's Salmon House (the clam chowder is amazing!). You can see the Space Needle between us!

Bright Red Meathead!

My finished Meathead!
Yarn: Lambs Pride Bulky
I knit the small size and still had a good 3-4 yards left after seaming.
I added some glass beads as embellishment.

Knitting for selfish purposes

Yarn: KnitPicks Merino Style in Coal(only 1 skein, with a couple yards leftover!)
US 4/3.5mm DPNs
Pattern from Knitty
cabling w/o a cable needle (awesome!)
Added 2 extra rows to the body of the glove( 18 rows to 20 rows)
No picot bind-off
Picked up a total of 8 stitches vs. 4 for the thumbs
to account for the smaller gauge of the Merino Style.

It took me a month to knit these!
I think weaving and other homework got in the way.
Now I have toasty warm gloves to wear,
and the cabling w/o a cable needle was strangely fun to do.
The merino was a nice yarn to knit with, and now i'm a bit addicted.

A poor attempt at tapestry weaving

I'm taking a beginning tapestry class through my university!
I was so excited to be learning how to weave, and it's a lot of fun.
Tapestry is turning out to be much more time consuming
and much slower paced than knitting.
To tell the truth, I get so overwhelmed with fiber
after class that I really don't feel like knitting.
I've gotten to the half way point of the circle since these pictures were taken,
but we are using LeClerc looms!

Shopping!

I <3 shopping!
Above:
1st pic: My new favorite tea from Trader Joes
2nd pic: Nori (Teriyaki and Korean Style)
Corn Cream soup mix
Almond drink mix

Lace may just kill me

7 hours of work, and only 3.5 repeats into this Branching Out scarf. I may well be ready to retire by the time this gets long enough to be used as a scarf on anything larger than a Barbie doll.

Mini-argyle my heart <3

Due to a bus breakdown, which turned a 1.5 hour trip into a 5 hour disaster,
the mini argyle hat got finished!

I did the decreases at the wee morning hours at the beach.
Pardon the resemblance of my head to a egg.
Though a snazzy argyle egg at that.
It's a lot harder to take picture of oneself in a hat than you'd think.

Yarn: Jaeger Shetland Aran in Linen Tweed and Charcoal Tweed.
US 8/5.5 mm circulars and dpns.
Made up the hat pattern as I went, mini-argyle chart from Eunny Jang
96 st. in the round (to go with the 12 st. pattern repeats. )

I really like knitting with both hands! What I mean is holding one color on my left, and one in the right. The balls of yarn don't end up tangled. Lovely ^_^

Argyle is a go!

Argyle!! Well, mini-argyle, since it's only two colors , not three. Using the chart I got from EunnyJang

what do you get when you mix tapioca bubbles and mangos? Mango Bubble Tea!!!

What I've Been Reading 2007

The gorgeous view of Mt. Rainier from Bainbridge Island, WA

I spent the weekend eating a lot of great food, enjoying beautiful weather, and staying on a island that felt like living in a postcard. Oh, and I went to Pike Place Market in Seattle, and to this cute yarn store call the Churchmouse. ( I had to restrain myself from buying anything)
I am kicking myself for not taking more photos!

Pictures just because

I love living in Oregon, and one of the reasons I love it here so much is the fruit in the summertime! The neighborhood Farmer's Market is always full of fresh fruit, veggies , and other produce and meats.
Fresh Blueberries!

Rainier Cherries!

A cat who doesn't look evil for the first time in his life.

This heel is going to kill me!

So I finally get to the last row of my first ever Sherman heel. What do i do with the extra stitches at both ends, and what do i do with my left and right wraps??

I tried to wing it and did a series of crazed k2togs and such, and ended up with huge holey stitches where the wraps were. Help!

I'm back!

I flew back home to Oregon yesterday, and at this moment I am typing from my bedroom rather than the 24 hour computer lab in Waseda University. I am thoroughly jetlagged and tired, and I have a mountain of stuff to unpack and sort through. >_<

The motivation to maintain this blog has waned over the year, mostly because I really didn't want to make the 40 trek to school and back just to us e the computer.

However, now that I have broadband wireless at home, I really have no excuse, do I?

Happy 4th of July to those of you from the USA out there. I love BBQ, and no BBQ more than the pork spareribs my mom makes!

-Jun

More pictures!

If there is one thing I love about being in Japan, It's all the beautiful things that I get to see on a daily basis. After living in Oregon for 14+ years of my life, not that Oregon is lacking of beautiful things to see, it's still nice to see different sights that I can't see elsewhere.

1st pic: By the river near my house in Shinjuku

2nd pic: the stormy view of Sado Island

3rd and 4th pics: Himeji Castle!