In the middle

The other day, it hit me that I am about as the same age as my mother was when I recognize how old she was for the first time in my life, like, when I was in the 1st grade.  I vaguely remember talking with my classmates how old our mothers were.  My mom was at the older end, and I remember feeling not-so-happy to have "old" mother.

So, I guess, me right now would be the first image of me for my daughter.  I have no idea how she feels about me being my age.

This idea does not depress me, thank goodness, but nudge me to run more often and watch more carefully what I eat.  Because I know from now on I am going only older and older.  A little effort to slow down that process can't turn out wrong.

Because, to see your own mother to be older is a pain from time to time.

My mother is now having some difficulty standing up for long time or walking.  Her "just sitting and talking" is a sharp contrast with my daughter's constant run/hop/climbing up and sing/finding something fun.
And I see clearly that I'm oh-so middle-aged.  I'm just in the middle of those two women, one in her seventies and one waiting for her 8th Christmas in her life.

This year, Kyoto is having a sub-par "momiji", or autumn color of trees.  It was unusually warm in November, so those leaves didn't have any cue to turn their color to vivid red and yellow.  They just are turning brown now as the temperature going down like normal wintertime.  It's an un-welcome situation for the sightseeing industry which this city depends on and disappointing to the teachers and kids who really wants beautiful leaves for their art project.

But, we know, we all know, that sometimes we have such year.  And the color combination of this yarn looks like a somber reminder of that fact.

Work in progress; Maple Sugar Socks by Karin Bole
Yarn; ONline Supersocke Sierra color, I think the colorway is 01 but may be wrong.
It's thin to touch and curls up horribly, but makes a good sock.  I am looking forward to see how wet blocking works.

Looking, touching and knitting this, I think of "down" year like this year, admit my imperfect self and think of rest "half" of my life.

To light up rather dull scenery outside, I started a new tradition (hopefully) of December.  I am making one small ornament every day, and put it on the...

Craft advent calendar, stuck on the inside of our front door.  The pocket is about 2 x 3 inches, so you got the idea how small they are.  I got the base at 100-yen shop, along with two magnets and the small wreath at the top.  The yarns I'm using for the ornaments are those bits and pieces of leftovers.  That means, this is a very economical project.

My daughter is having fun finding "what's new" when she comes home from school everyday.  It's a joy to me.

Thanksgiving 2011

My husband is on the road (in India, to be exact).  We made a small but good Thanksgiving dinner for just mother and daughter.


A huge piece of chicken thigh (boneless but skin-on, over 12oz., just enough for us two), marinated in basil dressing for 30 minutes, and spent just 15 minutes in the 190C (I aimed 375F) oven side by side with broccoli.
Green salad with canned corn tossed with soy sauce dressing (mighty good stuff, store-bought).  My daughter's favorite salad right now.
I had two pieces of still slightly warm blue sweet potato bread as a side (well, one as a side and one with espresso coffee after the meal).  She, not so adventurous for food, doesn't even touch that thing.  She had one slice of raisin bread from neighborhood bakery.
I had a glass of Diet Pepsi and she had a glass of Hojicha (roasted tea).
No TV, no music, we just talked about her excursion to the Imperial Palace Park (to "find autumn". Cute, teachers.) today.

After dinner, I knit the last part of baby surprise jacket for my friend's newborn daughter.  Will be another post.

An evening, quiet and satisfying.  That's what I'm thankful to have.

Wish all my friends' Thanksgiving weekend be good and satisfying.

duplicate

Thank you, my friends, to send me warm comments about my migraine.  I have not been attacked by any severe headaches.  Just a bit of throbbing in the back of eyes and "heavy head".  I feel I'm blessed.  SO FAR.

This morning, I checked my past posts and noticed I had posted about that pink socks on the one before last.  Apparently, my brain is not working properly.

Rather than I edit out the duplicate, I'll post this;

Pattern; no pattern, just K3P1 rib all the way, and a frilly bind-off using knit-on cast-on every other stitch.
Yarn; leftover from Those pink socks, split in half by weight and used up as much as I can.
Needles; same as Those pink socks, JP #1 bamboo DPNs.

I made this for my daughter, and she loves it so much that I can't hunt them out when I want to shoot a pic. You know a 7-yr old girl.  Wears her favorite all the time but doesn't keep them so neatly.  If I can find any, it's just "a warmer".  I can see them as a pair only on her and when she dashes out to the nearby playpark.

She has been in her "PINK, ALL PINK!" mood for a quite long time, so these days, whatever she grabs off her closet/chest it has a high possibility of having some pink color on it.  That fact makes it easier for her to be so "coordinated" every day, matching anything she wears to her schoolbag, but sometimes makes my eyes blurry.  I secretly doubt THIS might be my sudden onset of migrainous vision disturbance.

And you know what?
I'm making a new pair of mittens, NHM#2 with a little twist in pattern (link to my Ravelry project page, sorry, no photos yet as of date 11/9/2011), in the color of ... yeah, mint green on PINK.

New, or Just-found friend

At this age of 42, I am just diagnosed with migraine.

Three weeks ago, I had a strange vision.  A part of my sight was mosaicked... and it didn't go whatever I do; see only with one eye (both left and right), close my eyes, cover my eyes with hands.  Scary.  Am I having a stroke?  Or is this the first symptom of something horrible, and am I gonna lose my sight?..
After 20 minutes or so, the mosaic slowly moved toward left side of my sight and went out.  I was left with mild fuzziness in my head.  No headache.  No blackout.  OK.

The next day, I visited a local general hospital and after a brief session at info/admission counter, I was squeezed in the pretty long waiting line at (the only one at the hospital, works only once in a week) neurologist's office. She asked how it started, how it gone, how I felt during and after it, and worried about the possibility that a blood clot in my brain giving pressure on my optic nerve.  She almost sent me to a larger hospital for a quick MRI in case I am in the danger of stroke or cerebral hemorrhage, and asked me once again how "the strange mosaic" looked, to fix a letter explaining my symptoms.
Me:"It didn't go even when I close my eyes, and look only with one eye, both left and right..."
Dr.:"Oh, even when you close your eyes?  (RELIEF)  It's just a migraine."
Me:"Migraine? But I didn't have any headache, bad or light."
Dr.:"Must've been only the premonitory symptom."

So, I got a CT-scan on that day and an MRI on the next week, cleared for any life-threatening disease.
Dr.:It's not so common you start having a migraine in your 40's. It means your blood vessels are young and flexible.  Congrat's!
Me:... Is there any possibilities that I have had it all the time and didn't notice?
Dr.:Oh, yes.  You might have been taking it as a part of your PMS.
Me:Hmmm. So, what can I do about it?  I mean, am I going to have severe headaches from now on?
Dr.:We can't predict that. But if you do, there are good medicines, just to treat your pain or to work on your nerves.  See, MIGRAINE IS LIKE YOUR BODY TYPE, RATHER THAN A DISEASE.  Let's just deal with the pain, and wait for the day it ceases when your arteriosclerosis goes far enough.  Ha-ha!
Me:Er, ... yes, thank you.


So, I got prescribed two three-day (expected) headache sessions worth of pain-killer (loxoprofen) to see how it works and how often I need it.
So far, I only need one dose, three times, which means my headache is not so severe. SO FAR.

Good side? I finished this when I was waiting for the appointment.

Pattern; LionBrand free pattern, on the back of the label.
Yarn;LionBrand Sock-Ease in Cotton Candy
Needles;JP #1 bamboo DPNs

And made a great chunk of this;

Pattern;Joanna's Poncho by Laura L. Green.  I tweaked a bit to fit to my daughter and her school bag.
Yarn;Hamanaka Wanpaku Dennis in my stash.  Color choice and arrangement was done by my daughter, our house artist. On the collar, a ball of fancy and soft yarn is knit on to stop the itchiness.
Needles; JP #6 (3.9 mm)bamboo circular needles

Note; My daughter loves it. And I made it in time for chilly mornings-but-not-so-cold-daytime autumn days.  Phew.  But, you know, I can't tell if one or two of my headache was caused by the intense knitting session for this poncho.  Boy, I need a Shiatsu.

2nd Anniversary

I realized that it's two years since I bought my Kindle, when I got an E-mail noticing me of the release of YarnHarlot's new book.
(OK, I think I should use "publish" for the word "release", but Kindle book looks more like music downloads than real book.  Hmm.)

I accidentally arranged my "library" in "Oldest 1st" order, and there was the first download, anti-dramatic "Kindle's User's Guide, 1st Ed.", with the date Oct. 19, 2009.

Thank you Kindle.  My reading is not faster nor more in quantity  because of you but I feel more relaxed to buy English books and read it.

Now I'm reading a story about growers of giant pumpkins.  It's the season, right?

Speaking of the season, it's officially sock season for us knitters. Yeah, I agree, it's sock knitting season all through the year, but, hey, it's this cool weather that knitters and Muggles appreciate the magic nature of hand-knit socks... warm, comforting, handy, soothing and at the same time, beautifully complicated if knitter chooses to make it so.

So, I made this.

Pattern; The one on the label of the yarn.  This.
Yarn; LionBrand Sock-Ease, in CottonCandy.
Needles; JP #1 bamboo DPNs, my go-to sock knitting needles.

These are for my mother.  I used about 2/3 balls, and the leftover will make a great legwarmer for my daughter.

October 5th.

It's 21 years since my father passed away. There was a year I totally forgot the date, just called my mother on a whim (or so I thought) and found out it was the anniversary day.  There was also a year I couldn't think about anything but about him.
The dead is unchanged. The livings change.  Improve, decline, up and downs, wonder about.

This year, I noticed the date didn't call to my mother.  Just spent the day like other "ordinary" days in the year.  Mom sent me the usual text message first thing in the morning (proof of life) and I returned a tex mentioning weather.  It was jut another Wednesday, except for a headache that sent me to bed early (thanks to my dear husband, who took care of our daughter perfectly and my lovely and smart daughter who knows what to do and when.)

This morning, I woke up without a headache but with a slight backache likely because of too much lying down, did what I do when I start the day.
And found out Steve Jobs passed away.  On US time, on October 5th.

Of course I did not KNOW him. Like other billions of people in this world, I'm just another user of Apple product.  I'm one of the people who was changed their life forever by Mr. Jobs, with not so much knowing about that when the change happened but now notice that.
I. Feel. Sad.

It's a great loss.
We had lost him officially when he resigned the CEO of the company.  But sadness came, at least for me, only today.

It may be because I just finished my listening to Harry Potter audiobooks yesterday, but it seems to me that we just lost one of the greatest wizards of our time.

RIP Steve Jobs.  Or, go ON.  Like other wizards who chose to do so, not remaining in our world as a ghost.


8 years ago, we found a "real" McIntosh apple at Kroger or WalMart near our apartment and got excited(we don't have them on the market in Japan).  Fun memory.

Summer Wrap-Up

A slide show. Sort of.

This summer was the first after my daughter goes to the elementary school. Three months of school life have add more to her already-good ability to enjoy, learn and learn more in new situations. We are very happy parents to have a smart and active daughter, and good teachers for her.

First half of her summer break was rather slow, made mostly with swimming class at her school, homework (She writes! She can do math! Addition and subtraction!! Sob.), counting the number of flowers and watering her morning glory pot every morning.

After visiting my in-laws, we together traveled to Kiyosato, Yamanashi, to escape from harsh heat.

We had great food,

My daughter rode pony twice ( "just make a round" kind)

and made her mind set to "grow up, taller and taller" to ride a "real" horse next time.

Our parental advises are;

-Keep on running and playing outside.

-Eat protein (yes, we actually use this word), and more veggies than protein. As much rice, bread and noodle as you like, but not too much sweet stuff.

-Don't give up your love for broccoli and apples.

-Sleep well. Verrrrry well. You grow up while you're asleep.

Which, she is eager to follow.

She also had good "just Gramma and me" time.

We are sorry the sky was cloudy during the night and didn't have good starry view on both nights. The B&B we stayed have telescopes with whole observatory and everything (It is one of Grandad's favorite places to stay. He is a retired high school science teacher.), but there was no chance.

There was a competitive three-generations match which Grandad won by just one stroke.

I had pretty good time with these;

My husband had a well-deserved soul-cleansing, visiting a major shrine (Suwa Taisha).

Now, my daughter and husband thinking of returning there (she, to ride bigger horse, and he, to visit the main shrine we didn't have time to go this time, and rather secretly, to move to the area one day).

And now, I'm ready for autumn. WIP on the road is finished.

Pattern; Tyrolean Stockings by Ann Budd, in Interweave Knits, Fall 2007, made only the leg part

Yarn; Academy Plum (70% Acrylic 30% Wool), looks like fingering to sports weight, originally was in my mother's stash

Needles; JP #1 (2.1 mm) bamboo DPNs

Note; The pattern is beautiful, love the stitch definition and heathered look of the yarn. Problem is, it's itchy. Sigh. I will have to wear them over long sleeves.

To touch something more comfy, I finished these.

Pattern; Back to Basic by Deb Barnhill, in Knitty, Fall 2007

Yarn; Hamanaka Paume Kusakizome in colorway 73, two balls and a little more

Needles; JP #1 (2.1 mm) bamboo DPNs

Next one is going to be wooly.