Driving again!

Today I drove.  It was a big deal.  It was not painful, and I felt fine.  My first stop after leaving school was to J-Mart (a home center kind of store), where I went straight to the plants, and bought plants and pots to re-pot them in -- a raspberry bush, blackberry bush, and a little mulberry bush (now we can dance around it!).  Also several strawberries, some tomatoes, and basil.  A couple of impatiens, and a really big dahlia that is the color of DIC In Vino Veritas.  I am all kinds of pleased with myself, as I've been wanting to do this for months, and I finally had a chance.  I just hope that the raspberries and blackberries will ripen while we are still in Tokyo.  

I had acupuncture today, which seems to help with the pain.  At least until I turned around a few minutes ago and whacked my arm into a table.  Then it didn't seem to matter so much.  : )

Knitting is coming along nicely.  I need a new project.  Something cheerful and fun.  Something lace.  Oh, wait, that's right -- I've convinced 5 other people in Tokyo, some of them novice knitters, to all do a February Lady Sweater KAL with me.  I also convinced them all to do it in DIC Classy, while I am using Berroco Ultra Alpaca (knitting from stash).  We are going to have lots of pretty sweaters to wear during rainy season this summer.  

I don't normally.....

Broken elbow -- obviously, it's going to hurt, but who knew that the pain was just beginning?? The bone has healed well, looks great on an x-ray, and those titanium screws are pretty spiffy. I was told that the elbow joint would likely 'freeze' and that it would be difficult and exceptionally painful to regain mobility. (And it has been just that.)

So, yes, it is healing great, and yes, it stills hurts, and I can sure tell you when it's going to rain. (It's not going to rain tomorrow.)

I don't normally whine and moan or suddenly weep at the thought of pain, but I've been doing a lot of it, up until last Saturday, when I suddenly started feeling a tiny bit more myself.

During the time I flew to the US to have the surgery to pin my elbow, our family moved house within Tokyo, one of our cats died, my daughter turned 9, my visa to live in Japan expired, in addition to regular stuff like getting taxes done, school, kids' activities, etc.

In the 4 weeks I've been back, life has been calm and relaxed. Still boxes everywhere, but I just don't mind too much. I can't move them, and they make wonderful tables for my knitting projects!

I was a bit down in the dumps with all the rain last week, and I decided to put some color in my life.  Etsy to the rescue! (I don't normally shop like that, but boy, those beautiful bright colors really caught me.)

I don't normally go for orange -- but this is just beyond gorgeous. Her yarns are stunning to work with. Laine Claude yarn from Tricoquelicot.  This actually glows and shimmers; the cell phone camera does not come close to doing it justice.


And this project bag called out to me -- and look how amazingly well it matches my current sock project!! (Sock is Brigit worked in DIC Smooshy Punky Fuschia) Project bag from Blue Tulips.  There are so many really cute designs, and they are really reasonable.  I don't normally use a project bag other than a ziplock or a zippered pocket thing, but I like this.


And then a little something from Amazon -- because I really really need another sock book. I do.  I DO normally buy lots of books, so perhaps I am getting back to normal.
Forgive the really bad pictures -- taken with my cell phone, because I'm sitting in my recliner with my feet up, and there wouldn't be any pictures otherwise.

Quilt Show?

Back to school, back to business! I finally remembered to enter the Tokyo International Great Quilt Festival with the Dragon Quilt that we made for the school auction in 2007. The entrance form was due today, and I sent it off yesterday, after going out in the rain to get the photos developed for the submission, and then to the post office, walking about 2 miles in the rain. And I'm not a big fan of walking in the rain.



I've been a busy knitter, too. Mostly socks, but I finished my mom's sweater (no pic yet!)

Fetching, with my own mods:



And more to come....

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.

Where are we all hiding?

In knit blog land, there are a lot of blogs that have gone quiet this summer...some entries just shorter, some never updating (like mine).

Wonder where we are?

We are on Ravelry.

Go now and get on the waiting list. It's awesome. Take the screen tour.

I've been spending so much time on it -- it's so much easier to upload pictures and such on there, that I'm really contemplating ditching the blog altogether. (Gasp!) I'm not the only one.


The Finished Calorimetry made of Fjord



My toe-up socks on Magic Loop made from Yarntini's Cherry Cordial variegated



The Knit One Crochet Too Cabaret Scarf