Socks and a haircut!

I'm knitting away at socks -- I've finished quite a few since my last post of the pretty pink socks. Here are Cookie A's Monkeys in progress -- pattern from www.knitty.com, and they are in Socks that Rock color Algae mediumweight -- fun socks, a bit tight on my wide feet, but I think they'll stretch a bit with wear.



I also made Cookie A's Baudelaire, also from Knitty, and also from Socks that Rock mediumweight, colorway Ms. LaRock. Love them!


I also made my son a pair of socks and mittens from (guess what? yes!) Socks that Rock, heavyweight, colorway Space Dust. This skein was purchased based on the name, and the fact that turquoise and orange are both present.





I'm not sure I ever posted a finished picture of the pink ones: Here they are, pattern based on Sensational Socks feather and fan, using Cherry Cordial of Yarntini.


And the haircut? It's AWESOME. I'm loving it. Well over half my hair was cut (it was getting rather long), and now it's layered, frames my face nicely, and is SO much lighter!

Fish, Fish, Fish, Fish, Fish, Fish

Have you seen this children's video?
"Fish, fish, fish, fish, fish."
"No, fish, fish, fish, fish, fish, fish."

A prize (virtual prize, that is) to whoever can name that show.

Our day could have been called:
Fish, Fish, FISH FISH FISHFISHFISHFISH!

We went for a little fishing trip on Saipan, a four hour tour (slightly different from Gilligan's Island, so we felt safe that we wouldn't end up on a deserted island.)

BTW, the literary enthusiast in me would like to point out that while the three words "four hour tour" all end in -our, none of them rhyme with another.

Did I mention the fish? There were fish, and lots of them. We started with 4 lures in the water, and quickly dropped that to two lures, since we had a lot of simultaneous reeling going on, and there were hundreds of yards of fishing line to be re-strung with lots of pounds of fish fighting on the other end.

Another side note: when I was learning about how to teach reading, my instructor showed us this word: GHOTI.

Can you sound it out? GHOTI.

GH is the "f" sound in laugh.
O is the "i" sound from women.
TI is the "sh" sound from action.

It's pronounced FISH. Obviously, laughing women in action are fishing, and that's what I was doing -- laughing hysterically while my muscles were screaming, as fish after fish fought to get on our lines.

So, are you still reading? Ready to see the fish picture? That's what you're really here for, I know.

Here's me and my dad, holding up two of our 13 mahi-mahis, also known as El Dorado, I'm told. He also caught a rainbow runner. We ate them for dinner, prepared as sashimi, grilled, tempura, and poached in white wine. It was amazing.

Show and Tell

Happy New Year!

It's been a busy fall, busy holiday season, and well, just busy.

A little show and tell: first the tell. In December I finished several knitting projects, worked on a quilt, caught 14 very large fish with 3 family members (I reeled in 4 or 5 mahi-mahi by myself!), and oh, what was that last thing...?

Give me a minute to think....

OH, YEAH! My shodo calligraphy was exhibited in the brand new National Art Center Tokyo museum!!!

That would be THIS museum:


Another view:

My work hanging, picture of me and my sensei:

Someone also wrote a very generous article about my shodo calligraphy in a magazine this month. The author was gracious and kind, and she did a very nice job on the article making me look good. I've reached the "apprentice teacher level," which is the rank before full-fledged teacher, but I'm not going to be making that jump for a good while, if ever.

(Vocabulary: shodo = the way of the brush, as it were. It's Japanese calligraphy, and I study the sosho form, doing mostly kana work, although I've done some all-kanji poems and some short kanjis as well.)

It's kind of a shame to blur that set of pics with fish pictures, or knitting or quilting pictures, so I'll save those for another post. Truly, the fish pics need their very own post. I'm as proud of them as I could be.