Summer is here.

Summer.

Slows down blogging. Slows down knitting & crocheting. I just joined worldwide mom's band of "summer break, what the xxxx." My daughter's summer break is not here yet (Spring, or 1st term ends on July 16th), but I can feel IT already.

I have finished HÉLÈNE SOCKS;

Pattern; Hélène Socks by Tuulia SalmelaPatt

Yarn; Osaka TOA Prism light fingering (from a company long ago gone. one of the inheritance yarns)

Needles; US 1 (2.25 mm) Brittany 5 inches DPNs

The pattern is written for US 10 size, with sport weight yarn and US 3 needles.. To fit my feet, US 5 1/2, I decided to use fingering and finer needles. I thought 2.25 mm needles go better with this yarn, but in retrospect, I should have used 2.50 mm - finished socks are very, very tight on my feet (wearable, though).

Pattern includes beautiful, speaks-out-itself charts. After the first heel turn, I didn't need to reference the main chart. I could have start reading what I've made at much earlier point if I had tried to do so. I was too lazy, and ended up using more mental energy than I needed. Foolish me.

I used wooly nylon thread for reinforcing heels and toes for the first time. The hardest part was to find the right thread, which is not really "hard" once I figured out which thread I should get. Maybe the close second hardest was to find out the right color. Wooly nylon was sold at my trusty craft store (Yoshikawa @ Kyoto tower basement), in 50 zillion colors or so.

Brittany needles are not really famous for their sharpness - if I want sharp tips, I'd go Knitpicks Harmony or Options - but working on complicated traveling & cabled pattern or picking up the stitches on gussets with them were not so frustrating. I love their bare wood finish. I love their length. I always think of switching to 6 inch Knitpicks DPNs only when working on the first several rounds of gusset decrease, most of the time just think and keep on using Brittanys.

Now, I got...

a BSJ with organic cotton yarn in my new knitting bag.

These are from my dear friend Janet in Texas. I can't believe we only saw each other in person just a few times - and I regret it. I was living so close to her home and her work. Again, I was lazy.

Our "visiting each other" happens now mostly on Flickr or on blogs, and e-mails. And, a little care package from time to time. It's sad we can't actually see each other often, but thinking of, finding goodies for, and sending packages to each other totally has another fun.

Her pictures on the blog and Flickr site always amazes me. I should learn more from her works; pay attention to lights and layouts when taking pictures, and consider well when choosing colors for projects.

When I saw her blog about getting new knitting bags, my heart pounded. She had told me she was waiting something for me to be delivered. Yeah, this beautiful green bag might be for me, oh, but... no, I shouldn't be greedy, oh, oh, ...

Big relief and joy it was, what I felt when I found the bag in her package.

Her love and care goes to my daughter, too.

When we opened her package, my daughter, delighted, used the new crayons from "Janet - uh, MISS Janet" to color her then-working drawing ("Mom and Dad and me going to the zoo") right there. My daughter loves drawing and painting. Now she has any color of crayons she wants, and has learned mixing colors when she paints. This shooting-star, rising-sun artist has got a power.

Her package gave me some firm strategy to wade on this summer. Macaroni cheese for lunch. Small knitting(socks?mittens?)/crocheting (how about granny squares?) while she paints, draws or plays at playgrounds. Glasses of tea and lemonade.

Happy Birthday, USA.

The last day for a challenge

I've been working on Hélène Socks by Tuulia Salmela these two month. It's a challenge, to say the least. I'm doing this for a May challenge at Sock Knitters Anonymous group on Ravelry, means, I cast on between 5/1/09 and 5/31/09, to complete adult size pair before 6/30/09 (all the date in EST).

The pattern is very intricate, and I had somewhat busy days. I'm having fun knitting them, but the progress is rather slow.

Now, I have only one toe to go and it's the last day. Can I make it? Or, do I want to make it in the first place?

I do. And yes, I can.

Gotta run.

10 %

On the second&last day of a weekend trip to onsen, in the big outside bath tub stretching out my arms, I had that usual mixed thoughts.  

• It was a good trip - good food, nice room, fun family time together and quiet time alone.
• Where did my sock knitting mojo go?  I ended up knitting 40 cm of garter stitch scarf.
• It's OK. variegated + double stranded + garter stitch = therapeutic. Was true with cotton yarn.
• Ah, good minimalism beauty.  Just me, and bath tub.  Even though it seems like a huge illusion that one can live in a room like ryokan (hotel), can I tidy up my house a little better?
• Oh, I got to do a bigger laundry tomorrow.
• Oh, big grocery shopping today.
• Yeah, I want to try cooking pork like yesterday's dinner.  Just steamed on cabbage leaves?  Salt and, pepper?
• Ah, foot bath.  Can I  have one at home?  Will a couple of ordinary pails work?

Mind bogglers. 

I love&enjoy staying at hotels, visiting and staying at families, seeing or eating local specialties, but that doesn't make me write "interested; travel" on my "profile" page.  I, basically, don't like traveling.  Travel itself is fun, but I usually overwhelmed by getting ready and wrapping up.

I have a love/hate feeling with those almost lifelessly tidied rooms.  I love them, but it reminds me that I am seriously challenged in keeping a tidy, clean house.  At home, I constantly step on laundries, catalogues and paper bags.  I am afraid my daughter has already picked up my bad habit because I constantly step on her toys, too.  I hate myself telling my daughter to watch her steps, instead of cleaning the floor.

What is my problem?  I do have a big clean-up day from time to time.  What happens is I get tired and throw out the work 50-to-80% completed.  It looks a little better, and I talk myself into being satisfied.  Then, the same "decay process" starts right after that.  I try to keep the stuff go back to where it belongs, but hey, who can do it perfectly?

While I was in the hot (really hot) tub, thinking about going home later in the day and feeling sort of depressed, I suddenly remembered what Brian Wansink said in his book, "Mindless Eating".

"People want to eat the same amount as the day before.  If you eat 30% more than the day before, you'll feel heavy. And you'll feel guilty.  If you eat 30% less, you notice it.  You'll feel hungry.  And want to eat more to compensate the loss.  When you want to achieve a success on diet, keep the change in less than 10%.  Doing so, you will not notice the hunger.  Eating better becomes your habit."

(No, it doesn't go exactly as this.  I don't remember word by word and I got that book from Audible that I can't reach it for reference so easily. )

My point is, I got an idea that this concept may be true to the endless household work as well as appetite.  Like belly fat, untidiness piles up day by day, without noticing that I'm a little lazier than yesterday.  Or, like eating only 1000 kcal a day, I'll notice how "too good" I am if I do a big clean-up one morning, that I'll spoil myself to say OK to the second DVD of the afternoon. 

Can I do a little, less than 10%, better/more housework every day?  

It may be my another clever excuse for not doing a big clean-up.  But I believe (hope, wish, whatever) it's worth trying.  Last night, I made a new file on Clover Diary.  It's titled "10%".  I'll keep track on my "plus" or "minus" of what I did outside everyday shopping, cooking, laundry.

Yesterday's "10%"; Getting flowers and fill abandoned empty pots.  Starting rug project on huge needles with used clothes.

Today's ; Cleaning the corner of bath room, to de-mold.  

Small step, but I'm going forward.

Too much

My daughter's kindergarten was closed only on Friday and Monday, and her swimming club was closed for a week that she missed her class on Saturday.

Just that, and I feel I'm still dealing with the messed-up schedule.  I'm not, but I feel I can't keep up with the everyday stuff like cooking, bathing my daughter, or knitting.

I doubt the culprit is this;

Hélène Socks by Tuulia Salmela.

I chose this pattern for my Ravelry Sock Knitters Anonymous Group's Sockdown! challenge this month, "Cables/Twisted Stitches (or Anne Hanson or Mystery Sock designed by Yarnissima)."  This pattern was sitting on the top of my queue for more than a year and was crying out to be materialized.

It is written for size large using sport weight yarn.  I have tons of fingering weight but not any sport weight in solid color.  I thought, maybe using fingering makes a pair that fits my US 5 1/2 feet without changing stitch counts.  The yarn I picked up is on a thinner side of fingering, so I decided to go with US 1 (2.25 mm) DPN.  

My plan worked out OK.  It's a tight fit but wearable, the wooly nylon thread I added on the heel and toe doesn't show up at all, and above all, Austrian cable is beautiful.

But, as I was afraid, it's a slow going project.  After turning the heel, I got confident with the main cable pattern - until that, I needed to look up the chart constantly.  My eyes get tired, my head pounds the next morning if I knit it more than one hour in my bed because I can't figure out the best position.

I have started the second sock immediately after I finish the first on 24th.  I am more relaxed now, but still, I need some concentration that I don't want right now.

Two days ago, when I was putting my daughter's hand towel on clothespins to dry, I realized I was touching the stuff I need.  Cotton comfort.  

Yeah, I broke the promise to myself not to buy any more yarn.  I got some cotton yarn at Masuzakiya.  They are there, at LYS, cotton yarn, that is.  When I whined how it's hard to find cotton yarn last fall, I had forgotten how seasonal Japanese yarn sales are.  They sell "summer yarn" only from spring to summer.

I knit up one Mitered Hand Towel for me in the evening.  And started Moss Grid Hand Towels with a variegated yarn, but found out on the second row of the moss grid part that the color change is not suitable for the charming textured pattern.  I just ripped those two rows and knit stockinette all across but the moss stitch edges.  It looks like a huge swatch now, but I like it.  I just knit, knit on the right side, and purl, purl on the other side.  I feel good.  I'm so glad that I know how to put down a heavy load, even it's only knitting-wise.  Was it Elizabeth Zimmermann who said "you don't need to knit if it's not fun for you"?  Simple, but clever word.

I still love Hélène Socks, of course.  After one or two more cotton hand towels, I am sure I'll be ready to finish them.

Closed.

Kyoto city now has it's first swine flu (novel H1N1 flu, officially?) case.  A boy (10), who has not been out of the city for more than a week, was confirmed to have it.  That means, the virus is here in Kyoto area for a while.  Now all the high schools in the city, along with some elementary schools and kindergartens, which includes the one my daughter goes, are closed for one week.  We have talked about the possibility several times with her since the epidemic in North America hit the news.  I am not panicked, nor my daughter.  Just a little disappointed not to see her friends, and a little excited to have more TV time.

I just hope a quick recovery of the boy.  New strain or not, influenza is a nasty disease.

Officials recommend using use-it & toss-it type face masks when going out.  HA!  They're sold out.  It's OK.  I've made several of this.

Baah.

It's made of soft cotton double gauze.  They say it's not effective to catch sneezes and coughs, just works to some degree to prevent touching nose/mouth with unwashed hands.  I don't really care how much it works.  I simply like the idea of  having cute pink sheep close to me.

Tell the truth, I never liked and still don't wearing these kind of masks.  My daughter tried it, like, for 10 seconds and gave it away to her "friends" (toys, stuffed animals, dollies). 

Well, we'll just wash our hands more often.

Today, it's raining outside.  This maybe good for the purpose of restricting young children from going out & spread the virus, and is a bad, bad news to mothers who have over-energized and bored school-goers.

We (my daughter and I) are planning a little baking.  I am planning a little organizing on toys, too, but my daughter is not so keen on it.  Anyway, it's not so bad to have more mother-and-daughter time (yeah, it's a new mantra for me now).

Baah.

Losing and keeping

Some 10 years ago. It was when my grandmother was still active enough to go to a nearby Shinto shrine to meet her friends and do some exercise every morning.  She saw ginkgo trees over there having lots of nuts and thought it's a shame not to share them with families.

There're mixed info about what she actually did.  I heard she picked up some nuts right there (carefully, as the fruits is stinky and make your skin itchy, develop rash for a lot of people), cleaned them.  My mom says she just picked up some already cleaned, ready-to-roast nuts at store.  Anyway, she sent some nuts to me via my mom.  Mom ate them all.  I planted some, and one of them grew into a pretty pretty tree.

When we moved to the US, I sent the pot to my brother.  The tree was just 30 cm or so tall.  After 5 years, when we moved back to Kyoto, he sent it back to me.  It's now as tall as my husband (he is as tall as Wandy Rodoriguez, fellow Astros fans.)

Here's the conversation on the phone between my bro and transport company guy.

Bro; ... and here's one more. A pot. Pretty big, planting pot.

Trp; Is it made of clay or plastic?

Bro; Plastic.

Trp; (relieved) Ok. No problem.

Bro; Except it's taller than me...

Trp; Huh? ....  Does it have any PLANT in it?

Bro; Sorry, I should have said so.

They are professional, so they just brought it to us overnight (as expected, it's just 100 km or 60-some miles) without farther whining, along with a piece of shamisen and seven boxes full of photo albums and books.

The tree is here.  Every time I see it, I think of my grandmother who passed away last year.  She is gone, but here I am, thinking of her.  And talking about her.

It hasn't produced any fruits yet.  I hope it's not because the tree is still young, but because it's a male.  I really hope so.  I love eating ginkgo nuts, but the smell of the fruits... not really.  Especially when it's 2.5 meter (~8 ft)  from our dining table.

I found a crochet pattern of Ginkgo leaf.  I think I can make some in several shades of pretty green,  golden yellow, and maybe in reddish brown, too.  We can't live forever, and these days, I feel it's OK as that's how the things go.

Planning again.

I can't believe it's five years since I made this.

I don't quilt often.  It's like scrapbooking for me; I don't enjoy it as a crafty hobby, but do it as a very satisfying (when done) chore.  When there're ashamedly huge amount of pictures to be sorted, I just put them in albums.  No fancy stickers nor cutting into cloud-shape/heart-shape the pics.  When there're enough amount of worn-out clothes and old sheets, I just cut them roughly to reduce the amount.  And when there're enough amount of usable fabrics, I start thinking of cut them into squares or strips and put them together.  No new fabrics.

This, baby blanket, is made from old bed sheet.  I just couldn't throw it away when we moved from Kyoto to Texas, so I tucked it in my "craft" bin and brought it overseas.  Finally when we thought it's OK to feel happy and get prepared to welcome our baby (it happened rather slowly, cautiously, after several years of unsuccessful infertility treatment, and, with our scientific but superstitious Japanese mind, we'd been telling ourselves not to disappointed if, when, something goes terribly wrong) , it was there.  I folded it in half inside out to get smoother surfaces, sandwiched a thin batting and just machine-stitched along the edges.  To put all the layers together, I needed some more stitching.

This is what I did.  Sashiko.  

The pattern is Asa no ha (hemp leaves), which is traditionally used for baby clothes, because hemp grows very fast, and also because it (the pattern, rather than hemp itself, I guess) is considered to have a magical power to fight against evils.  

These days, I dream of sashiko project a lot.  Maybe the warm, a bit too warm for wool, weather makes me think about cotton.  Or because I saw Pomatomus a lot on Sock Knitters Anonymous group and can't get Seigaiha pattern out of my mind.

I believe sashiko technique can be used to make an afghan square.  How about a fingering-weight stash busting project?  A tube, set flat with Sashiko pattern stitches with contrasting color to make an 8-in square.  Hmmm.