Wednesday, January 24, 2007

POINTED

pointed hat
I finally got to make something. It's a pointed hat for the baby.
I hadn't knit for so long that I almost forgot how to...
The pattern is loosely based on the Gnomey Hat form helloyarn. I never really get to follow knitting patterns, because I always substitute the yarn with locally made stuff in a different gauge (in this case Munsell Merino 150 King, a bulky, 100% soft merino Yuzawaya brand yarn).
I got a bag of the yarn (10 skeins of 40g each), and planning to knit a cardigan with that. The plan is to combine the grey with the striping reddish yarn I used for the hat flower, but we'll see what comes of that!

Saturday, January 20, 2007

AND A FEW STRANGE THINGS ABOUT ME

My life has been far from calm lately, with so many things to do before the big deadline. There’s only one more month and a bit until the baby is born and we still need to remodel and move to a new place (last minute find after months of searching), my mother is coming soon, and baby shopping lists still need to be filled and ticked.
While I have been slowly doing things on the crafty front, there’s not much I can show yet so I’ll just go on and list up a few strange things about me as prompted by the ongoing (is it still ongoing?) meme:

1. I am 30. Yes that is strange. I recently turned 30 despite the fact I had thought I was still 26 for quite a few years (“so what if that would make my younger brother older than me?”). But what with the big fuss, I don’t feel anything in particular about turning 30.

2. I live in Japan. That is another strange thing. I mean, figure-wise, I have spent one third of my life here. Not that I had planned it. It feels a bit funny – am I going to live here for the rest of my life?

3. My mother cannot sew on the machine, but we did have a good sewing machine at home. It was my father’s. He even made me a flowery night-gown when I was a kid, and a beautiful wool jumper skirt for my mother (I got to wear that too later), and a few other things. They were all straight line sewing – he never actually learned tailoring or sewing, but he was an architect and I guess that made up for it. Otherwise, my father was an untalkative, enigmatic and even frightening man (in my eyes), so the sewing part really is quite strange.

4. I had a real bad crush when I was in highschool (who didn’t?), so bad I sometimes wonder if I am over it yet. My highschool crush happened to be a genius in geometry but careless about other subjects he didn’t like, and at the same time the class bully. When I met him again a while ago for our 10 year reunion, he told me he had set up a succesful software firm with a friend. He said he was really happy to be doing what he really liked, using a lot of geometry. They make clothing pattern CAD software for industrial use.

5. Talking about highschool, I used to dance like crazy at birthday parties. I loved it. My classmates were sometimes shocked because I would usually be a very serious looking girl, some people may have thought I was a bookworm or something (the truth – too lazy to be a bookworm). My favourite dance music at the time: MC Hammer, Snap, Salt-N-Pepa, yes really.

6. I used to hate baking cakes. The process all looked too gooey, so I didn’t feel like trying. I love baking now. The cleaning up not so much :)