bamboo sticks

moving day!

2010-01-07T17:13:00.004-05:00

thanks for a good four years, blogger. onwards, now...new adventures await!

tokyo et paris

2010-01-06T00:16:00.005-05:00

listening to this one lots lately. wish i could be in japan to see the nodame cantabile movie!

two thousand and nine

2010-01-03T17:34:00.007-05:00

january: buying rice at st.lawrence market

february: watching RAW at Toronto's Wintercity festival

march: newmindspace pillowfight on dundas square

april: walking pass trinity bellwoods park

may: during toronto's infamous 2009 garbage strike

june: mass production of wedding invites on my gocco baby

july: scrabble in the park on canada day

august: first day of school, five-hour site visit to milpitas

september: student protest in sproul plaza, UC Berkeley

october: my very first in-n-out burger

november: staying in frank and luna's gorgeous cabin up in orleans, ca

december: making little piggy banks to advocate for more funding for education

goodbye 2009! you were good to me.
i will also be saying goodbye to blogger in 2010, because this blog is moving to a new site! more details to follow. yippee!

hello, 2010

2010-01-01T19:11:00.005-05:00

it's time to turn over a new leaf. new year resolution is to learn how to say "no", and mean it too.

sketchbook december 2009

2009-12-13T13:43:00.002-05:00

sorry i was gone for so long. semester is over and i can finally breathe. looking forward to spending my holidays at home in toronto...i fly out next week! will update soon. lisa x

sketchbook august 2009

2009-11-03T15:47:00.003-05:00

mid-review

2009-10-15T15:02:00.005-04:00

yesterday, and the day before: five cups of coffee, two take-out dinners, 36 hours of no-sleep and all productivity, five hours of presentation and critiques

today: twelve hours of sleep, two hours of lazying around the apartment, two cups of home-brewed coffee. and now it's back to the studio to do it all over again.

whole-wheat blueberry oatmeal honey bread

2009-10-10T00:27:00.010-04:00

for my weekly group meetings on thursdays, we always bring snacks to share. what better excuse for me to close the computer for an hour and do some baking?

this was loosely adapted from a recipe from the enchanted broccoli forest that i had picked up a couple weeks ago from moe's books, from which i live literally 2 minutes walk away - quite a fabulous arrangement.

the bread turned out a little stiff as i used only whole-wheat flour. the sweetness was perfect though - just right for a bread. i was afraid that my critics might have a sweeter tooth than me, but the general consensus after the bread was devoured was that it didn't really need to be sweeter. i might add a little bit more oil next time, though.

whole-wheat blueberry oatmeal honey bread
yield: 1 medium-sized loaf

::dry ingredients::
1+1/2 cups rolled oats, ground to a coarse flour in a blender
2 cups whole wheat flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
1+1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt

::wet ingredients::
2 eggs (i used 1/3 cup eggwhites)
1/2 cup honey
1/2 cup blueberry yogurt
1/2 cup soymilk
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 tsp grated lemon rind
2 tbsp fresh lemon juice
2 tbsp canola oil

::extras::
frozen blueberries (as much as you like)
sliced almonds (for topping)

to make
1. mix wet ingredients into dry ingredients, then stir in blueberries - the more the better!
2. turn into a lightly greased medium-sized loaf pan, and top liberally with the sliced almonds.
3. bake at 350F for 50-60 min. until a knife inserted into the centre comes out clean.
4.cool in pan for 10 min, then turn onto rack and cool for 30 more min before slicing.

milpitas

2009-10-07T03:02:00.004-04:00

the past weekend, we rented a zipcar and drove to Milpitas for a site-visit of our design project. we started from the marsh, worked our way up the geography and ended with the hills at sunset. i stumbled across an incredible 100-yen shop in the Great Mall and had my first inn-n-out burger. it was a very good day.

my resolution to post pictures up from one year ago's europe trip did not get carried out at all. one of these days i will learn how to balance life and school properly.

p.s. the clock has ticked over at last here in the west coast, and now that it is past midnight...happy birthday to me! i foresee sushi in the very immediate future :)

sunday

2009-09-27T21:20:00.008-04:00

in between tackling my weekly readings:

planting chocolate mint

sipping my new favourite tea, especially when it's been brewed for ten minutes or more

laundry, plus i finally put up the sweet little bird mobile (from the Paper Place!) that my awesome friend mel gave me before i left toronto

it's perfect and even matches my new Target curtains!

i'm finally over my dry spell of blogging...(is there anyone out there still reading me? lol.) i'm slowly learning how to stick in personal activities in between classes and readings and studio...like waking up at 6am to do some laps at the pool, or shutting off the computer to try a new recipe for dinner. i've still not had a proper chance to take my camera around berkeley and san francisco, hence the sad lack of photographic evidence that i've moved over here to the west coast. nor have i been very good at keeping up the sketching outside of school. hopefully that will get remedied as the year goes on and i learn how to stop the snowball of procrastination.

it was also a year ago today that i embarked on my european detour, and i have came to the sickening realization that i STILL have not edited any of my travel photos. when will i ever learn?!! so here's the motivation: i will edit them one day at a time and select a few to put up here. mind you, that's 2159 photos altogether according to iphoto, but hey, i'm optimistic. we'll just kindly forget about my self-challenge back in july (which i failed about halfway through the month), shall we.

(p.s. i've started a twitter account to keep track of all the random stuff i find on the net, if you're into this sort of thing!)

august. blink.

2009-08-29T02:26:00.007-04:00

i know, i know. i disappeared again.

list of what i've been up to over the past few weeks:

packed up life in toronto
moved to california
found an apartment
discovered trader joe's
spent every morning at peet's using the free wireless
biked across the golden gate bridge
drank beer at the academy of science
found out that americans don't have the word "cutlery" in their vocabulary
fell in love with meryl streep
became a craigslist addict
had the best pasta on nob hill
visited stanford university
bought the cutest Michael Graves kettle from target
set off my smoke alarm twice while cooking without a ventilator
caught an incredible free exhibit on all over coffee

i'll be back sometime in september. i don't know how soon. grad school is intense, and it's only the third day. oh, but i do absolutely love being a student again.

believe (ai)

2009-07-16T22:12:00.002-04:00

my theme song for the past month...

Believe
作詞: AI
作曲: AI/DJ YUTAKA/Jin
From the single Believe

どこか遠くで声がきこえる
暗闇の中で名前を呼ぶ方へ
向かっても何も見えないとき
ただヒザかかえうずくまってた

不安と孤独おそうこの場所から
やさしく手にぎって連れ出してくれた

光のさしこむ方へと
今歩き出す
守るものがあるから
強くなれる
どんな痛みもどんな悩みも
きっと受け入れられる
だから大丈夫
アナタの声は聞こえてるから

今までずっと分からなかった
アナタがくれた信じる力
この願いも届く気がする
両手をあわせただ祈ってた

人は傷つくコトもあるけれど
すぐにまた笑えるトキが来るから

光のさしこむ方へと
今歩き出す
守るものがあるから
強くなれる
どんな痛みもどんな悩みも
きっと受け入れられる
だから大丈夫
アナタの声は聞こえてるから

もしもアナタが弱ってる時は
かわりに私が強くなるから
心配いらないよ

光のさしこむ方へと
一緒に歩こう
守るものがあるから
生きていける
キミの痛みもどんな悩みも
全部吹き飛ばしてあげる
もう泣かないでアナタの声は

光のさしこむ方へと
一緒に歩こう
守るものがあるから
生きていける
キミの痛みもどんな悩みも
全部吹き飛ばしてあげる
もう泣かないでアナタの声は聞こえてる

welcome to my clutter

2009-07-16T15:20:00.005-04:00

i tend to call myself organized and neat, but shamefully this is really how my work desk looks, ALL the time...except when i'm absent from home for a year or two.

inspired by suzanne's virtual open house challenge

there's a lining to everything

2009-07-12T16:05:00.007-04:00

even if it's three years belated...even if the lining fabric isn't the perfect print...even if i didn't finish it in time for the "get er done giveaway"...even if it's not exactly a lightweight bag to really take to the market to, the market bag is done. hallelujah.

lining it was much much easier than i imagined it would be. much of the obstacle was simply in my mind! the bag is getting wrapped in brown paper and going into a paper bag for a much belated birthday present. good thing my sister is patient.

trackback to older blog posts on this bag

sketchbook july11

2009-07-11T17:04:00.004-04:00

so far it's been quite challenging, albeit satisfying, to fill my sketchbook every day. i did skip one day during last week's hectic weekend, but overall i've managed to at least pick up the drawing pen for a few minutes each day, even if it's just to copy frank lloyd wright fonts. reminding myself that danny gregory says, "writing IS drawing!"

waiting for eliane

2009-07-05T15:55:00.003-04:00

at the toronto jazz festival. and while waiting, was pleasantly surprised by curtis as well! so much that i lined up to get his album and autograph after his set. (check out his signature on the bottom left!)

once eliane came on to the stage i pretty much dropped my sketchbook and kept my eyes glued to her hands. it was a magical concert...i wish i could play like that.

casa loma and mint tea

2009-07-04T15:44:00.000-04:00

attempt three to draw casa loma - success, i think!

at the fringe

2009-07-03T09:15:00.002-04:00

2 minute sketch before the show started, and zombies started to emerge.

what we did yesterday at the park

2009-07-02T12:21:00.004-04:00

(also for illustration friday, "worn")

i am officially starting my self-challenge for july: to draw (and post) one sketch for every single day of this month. let's go, july.

happy july!

2009-07-01T12:28:00.006-04:00

i was so inspired by the beautiful wallpapers at o-check that i was moved to make a july desktop calendar myself.

if, perchance, you like it too, you are more than welcome to download it here for your personal usage:
1024 x 768
1280 x 1024
1440 x 900 (fits my 15" macbook pro)

happy canada day! i'm heading out to enjoy more jazz today. (and hopefully more sketching too, as always!)

postcard journals

2009-06-29T11:30:00.005-04:00

i've a habit of taking and hoarding freebie postcards with designs that speak to me. (tell me i'm not the only one!) over the years, i've collected a considerable stash of postcards, some of which i rotate on my inspiration board in my studio, but many of which sit untouched inside brown envelopes. there are some fabulously designed ones from japan and europe and toronto, and i've long wanted to do something with them.

so when i saw this idea via design*sponge last week, i was super excited to try it out! i set to work last night, using one-sided scrap paper instead of plain paper. it was so addictive...i couldn't stop at just one.

thirty minutes later i've a bunch of little scrap-paper postcard journals, perfect for my compulsive list-making tendencies. i'm planning to give them away to friends who could use a cute little memo book. and really, who couldn't?

if you read one thing today on the internet...

2009-06-27T10:22:00.005-04:00

make it this one. a gem i stumbled upon via suzanne.

have a wonderful weekend! i'm heading for two days full of music and musings and madness. ah, how i love summer.

drifting (illustration friday)

2009-06-25T22:57:00.000-04:00

wing + mike

2009-06-25T10:34:00.004-04:00

wedding invitations that i designed and made for my friends wing and mike, goccoed over the past month in five batches. it was my first time using the gocco machine to print invitations, and i learned quite a lot.

wing and mike chose a "happy hour" theme and asked that the invitation reflect their personalities (they love doing many activities together, especially snowboarding and rock climbing).

aside from the occasional smudges and printing mistakes, i'm quite pleased with how everything turned out. see more photos here.

next up, my sister is getting married next may and we are already designing her "save the date" cards. it's been really fun gathering up ideas and looking at invite designs on the internet. this one is currently our favourite!

sweet potato scones

2009-06-24T09:28:00.007-04:00

i was reading SuperFoods Rxawhile ago and really wanted to try one of the recipes in the book for sweet potato scones. earlier this week sweet potatoes were on sale at the market and we brought home a whole bag, and so this morning i set out to bake.

they turned out yummy! they are also quite healthy (as are all the recipes from that book) and so i don't feel guilty having more than one. plus, not too sweet at all, which is how i like my baked goods.

+ Sweet Potato Scones +
adapted from SuperFoods Rx
yields about 18 scones

dry ingredients
1 cup + 2 tbsp whole wheat pastry flour
1/4 cups oat or wheat bran
2 tbsp ground flaxseed
2 tbsp wheat germ
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp ground cinnamon (i looove cinnamon so i increased this to 1 tsp)
1/8 tsp ground mace or nutmeg
2 tbsp dark brown sugar
1/3 cups dried blueberries, currants, or chopped raisins
1/3 cups shredded sweet potato or other winter squash

wet ingredients
1/3 cups nonfat yogurt or buttermilk (i substituted soy milk)
1 large egg
1.5 tbsp canola or safflower oil
2 tsp finely grated orange zest

to make
1. mix the dry ingredients in a large bowl.
2. stir in wet ingredients and mix until just combined.
3. knead in the bowl with floured hands for several minutes until smooth.
4. turn onto floured surface and pat into 1/4 inch thickness.
5. cut into 2.5 inch rounds with a cookie cutter.
6. place the rounds 1 inch apart on greased baking sheet.
7. bake at 425F for 8-10 minutes.

miso and pho

2009-06-23T08:40:00.002-04:00

new card designs, been in my head for looooong time, now finally transferred to paper - hurray!

available here.

before and after

2009-06-21T18:14:00.005-04:00

i've been watching my budget recently, which means i've not updated my wardrobe since i came back from japan a year ago. (plus the shopping in canada just doesn't compare!) so when i was in new york, i picked up this book from kinokuniya in the hopes that it will inspire me to finally, finally get up the courage to venture into sewing my own clothes.

the weather didn't cooperate yesterday for the outdoor Big on Bloor festival, and i was forced to pack up my table after sitting for two hours waiting for the rain to stop. i won't elaborate on how disappointed i was.

i woke up today feeling like i needed to accomplish something, anything, so not to have spent this weekend in vain. so i dug out the one dress in my closet that has been sitting since grade eight graduation... (miraculously i still fit. how have i not grown any taller since then?!)

(sorry for the crappy quality - i'm not used to taking self portraits!)

it's a very long dress in a pattern that i'm not too crazy about. plus the length was not very flattering! i decided to modify it based on this pattern:

and...three hours later...voila! my first sewn outfit ever! i'm quite happy with the result - i think i'll be wearing this out lots for casual outings this summer.

it's not entirely from scratch, but hey, baby steps, right?

suburbian wildlife

2009-06-17T08:23:00.010-04:00

these visitors have been making daily trips to my backyard. we don't name the birds, but the mysterious orange tabby we call "tigger". she belongs to one of the houses down the street (we're not sure which) but we've seen her play with sinbad before. she showed up at our back door a month ago, looking for her old playmate after five years. we let her in the kitchen and even have a water dish set out for her. she likes to spend a whole morning with us, or sitting on our deck and bird-watching. sometimes she visits three times a day, as late as 11pm! it's like having a pet again, without any commitments.

i'm hereby vowing to post more often this month. it's time to sort through my photos, some of which has been sitting for two years!

it's all happening on bloor

2009-06-11T20:58:00.011-04:00

whenever i sit at this particular corner in the annex, i'm always captivated by the reflections on this adjacent building. it reminds me to look up and take a good look at the skies over the city, with all its clutter of utility poles and billboard ads and rooftop patios.

whatever happened to posting one drawing a day? heh. good question...

i have, however, been busy lately with this:

i will be participating as a vendor on the Big on Bloor festival on june 20th! starting from 1pm until 9pm, Bloor Street West will be closed off to vehicular traffic and become a big community playground. go to www.bigonbloor.com for more details. they are still looking for volunteers and participants, i believe.

oh yes, and if you do make it out, come by and say hi! my table will be somewhere between Christie and Ossington. here's hoping for sunshine.

e is for ellie

2009-05-27T13:54:00.007-04:00

ellie the elephant, knitted for baby kian for his 2nd birthday! i simply cannot believe it's already been two years since that first sweater; baby kian has already grown to be the most adorable chatterbox. he also likes the colour blue, and elephants! see more pictures and details via ravelry here.

i also finally got around to Lettuce Knit to see the muslin bags that i designed and goccoed for the store on display! it's so exciting to see them hanging alongside the colourful shelves of yarns. my design was also printed onto larger canvas totes, also on sale in the store.

here's a shot of the work in progress, back in march. i printed the bags on my gocco junior (big brother to my gocco baby), which i shipped back to myself from japan when i was moving back home. with the larger gocco, i got to print with a squeegee for the first time - it felt like i was truly screenprinting!

lastly, i was sincerely surprised and humbled by the flurry of comments on my last post. thank you all so much. i've realized that what i need to focus on right now is not creating a new blog, or making a new banner, or navigating through fancy html. instead, what i should be spending my time on is producing as much work as i can, with crafting, with drawing, with designing. i have two more months left to challenge my creativity until i move to berkeley, and then it will be back to student mode. as marcos chin says, "work hard and be prolific"! so, i shall be sticking with bamboo sticks. the perfectionist in me still wants a new website, dedicated to my design/illustration portfolio, but the time is not now. onwards!

p.s. i was passed along this fascinating documentation of the typography used in toronto subways, which i've long been a fan of. i've just watched helvetica last week, finally, so typography has been on the forefront of my mind lately - call me serif!

i miss you

2009-05-04T09:13:00.008-04:00

i've passed by trinity bellwoods park a bunch of times over the past months, and seeing this sign always puts a smile on my face. i'm glad that the part of the "U" that was missing awhile ago is now restored. i sketched this on that gorgeous afternoon a week ago, right before that incredible wind & thunderstorm hit toronto and brought down a number of trees all around the city.

i've been doing loads more sketching these days and it's doing my inner soul lots of good. it's my goal this spring/summer: to be a tourist in my own city, and do at least one sketch every day. in order to motivate myself, i've decided to do daily postings of these sketches on my blog.

however, this leaves me with a dilemma. this blog was started as a knitting blog more than three years ago, but lately it's been loaded with more illustration and sketches than anything else. i've been contemplating starting a new blog altogether, purely for my sketches only, and NOT under the title "bamboo sticks" (after receiving TWO emails from strangers asking if i knew where to buy lucky bamboo sticks in toronto...i didn't know whether to laugh or cry!). i would still keep this blog, but limit the posts to purely crafting posts. what do you think?

introducing: the token bag

2009-04-18T11:21:00.009-04:00

here's a sneak peak at what i've been working on slowly over the past month:

if you live in toronto like me, chances are you're always mistaking a dime for a TTC token, or a token for a dime. it's funny when you try to stick a dime down a token slot. but not so funny when you hand over a token thinking it's dime. they start to burn holes in your pockets, sneaky little buggers.

enter...the token bag.

dimes and tokens, mingle no more.

available here.

a new york state of mind

2009-04-15T09:22:00.019-04:00

we walked a lot, laughed a lot, daydreamed and got lost, spent time with good friends, and ate and ate and ate and ate and ate.

needless to say, it was a fantastic trip.

some of our favourite NYC finds:
la taqueria in park slope, brooklyn :: for the best burritos
MUJI :: i've been MUJI-starved since i left japan and was on a MUJI-mission on our first day in manhattan. thank goodness m. was very accommodating (not to mention he also came out of the store with his share of purchases!)
pret a manger :: i couldn't believe my eyes when i found out that my fav UK sandwich chain now has branches in NYC. *pout* new york gets everything...
pinkberry :: green-tea frozen yogurt. enough said!
zoma :: an ethiopian gem, with the most delicious honey wine
sakagura :: for yummy sake and a very authentic japanese isakaya experience nestled near grand central
katz's deli :: known to most of the world as the delicatessen where harry met sally. i wolfed down my gigantic pastrami sandwich (it was only a half sandwich too!), and i don't even like beef!
kinokuniya :: it was like being back in japan, where i'd go to bookstores on sunday afternoons and happily spend hours in the craft section just browsing. m. had to physically pull me out of this store. i finally picked up a japanese sew-yourself-a-tunic book that i've been thinking of for awhile now...more pictures to come.

i've been back for awhile but am still slowly taking my time going through the photos. life has caught up with me since i got back, not to mention i somehow twisted my ankle without knowing it and have been limping around for the past few days. hopefully i'll be back to my normal self soon.

p.s. while i was enchanted with new york, i was not so won over by columbia. so, come august, berkeley, i.e. san francisco, is where i will be! california's calling my name, baby.

goodbye march!

2009-03-30T12:58:00.006-04:00

thank you all so much for the congrats and the trip suggestions! i'm off to the big apple -- see you when i get back!

oh yes, and the pillow fight on dundas square last sunday was great fun -- too bad i won't be in NYC long enough for a second round!

spring news

2009-03-20T17:11:00.007-04:00

i made it to two early morning (6:30am!) spinning classes this week at my gym. But with the weather so fine recently in toronto, i've been enviously watching all the cyclists downtown whizzing by in the refreshing spring breeze. i really, really miss the days in japan when i was dependent solely on my bike to get around town. now, i live out in the suburbs and am dependent instead on public transport. how i wish i lived close enough to be able to bike to work.

happy first day of spring! i've got some exciting spring news -- as of september, i will either be in San Francisco or New York City to attend grad school! london accepted me as well, but as much as i love the city, i simply don't think i can afford it. (not that SF and NYC are affordable places to live either...i guess i'll be living on canned soup and beans while i'm there.) however...i've still got awhile to decide yet. we shall see!

m. and i are off to do some "research" in NYC (i.e. open house and campus tour!) in the last week of march, and we are super excited. if you have any tips on restaurants, museums, shops, anything, feel free to send them my way!

getting er done after two years...

2009-03-13T22:08:00.006-04:00

remember this?

i blogged about it here, here, and here. however, after knitting, finishing and felting the bag, i promptly abandoned it at 90% completion, with the only thing left to do being the lining of the bag. i simply could not find a fabric that matched the bag well enough to my liking, and so the bag sat in my studio in this state, untouched for two years. this market bag was intended for my sister as a christmas present...back in 2007. there's nothing left to say. i am deeply ashamed.

and so i am jumping at this chance to get this bag done and out of my hands! The folks at Toronto Craft Alert have kindly put together a fabulous prize incentive that had me drooling over the screen.

Of course, if nothing else, i'll have the satisfaction of finally giving my sister her finished market bag, which she has been asking me about for two years now. she lives in sunny san francisco and it has been my dream to photograph her carrying sunflowers out of that bag. let it be a dream no more!

there's still a couple more days to enter in the giveaway! go here for more details.

learning patience

2009-03-10T22:25:00.006-04:00

seems all that i do these days is wait: waiting for the real spring to arrive, waiting for subway trains and streetcars and buses, waiting for inks to dry and soups to simmer, and waiting for letters to tell me where i'll be come september.

finding some inspiration from one year ago.

(hmm, maybe if i write another spring manifesto, spring will come sooner.)

aroma

2009-03-03T21:51:00.007-05:00

(psst...see you march 21 at the pillow fight on dundas square.)

sunday

2009-03-01T23:39:00.003-05:00

casa loma

2009-02-26T17:37:00.003-05:00

february 26: i've vowed to carry my sketchbook with me wherever i go, no matter how heavy the day's load.

castle in the sky

2009-02-25T21:13:00.002-05:00

tagged by alice

"Open the 6th picture folder on your computer, open the 6th photo and blog it. Write something about it. Then tag 6 more people to do the same."

this was snapped during my trip to himeji castle when i was still living in japan. it was a softly drizzly day on a humid mid-morning in june. my friend akiko and i took our time exploring the castle grounds, climbing up to the very top on the rickety staircases, silently admiring the dark interiors inside the solid castle walls. we then hopped over to the nearby royal gardens for some well-deserved matcha, served in the loveliest teahouse by two very darling tea-hostesses.

gosh, just looking back at the lushness of those shades of green makes me yearn for summer.

we then hopped over to kobe to hunt out charming zakka shops. it was a grand afternoon.

i tag these six lovely ladies, but only if they want to, of course:

tania
the sweetie pie press
knitnerd
xue-originals
jen da purse ho
knit picking

valentine

2009-02-20T23:17:00.012-05:00

(above - what i made for my sweetie for valentine's, inspired by this; i gathered them into a ginger altoid tin can from my collection, and wrapped them with one of my all-time favourite books)

(and below - what i received - and can't believe that i've never heard of until now. they are now some of my most treasured books on the shelf. gosh, he does know me well.)

her morning elegance

2009-02-14T09:36:00.004-05:00

i've started teaching piano on top of my day job, and it's been a bit hectic. i was also going through a period of fatigue - not physical, but mental, the more tiring kind. just the time of the year, i think. february and march have always been "in-between" months for me, full of waiting and hints of spring and promises of things to come...but not quite there yet.

it was my three-year blogiversary a few days ago! when i started this blog i really had no idea where it was going to take me. it's been a pleasure sharing my journey with you!

today is valentine's day and my sweetie is out of town. instead, we have made plans to celebrate tomorrow and on monday's "family day" - Canada's new holiday (which i only learned about a week ago, as i was in Japan last year when it was first implemented). neither of us like the commercialism of valentine's; we are content just to spend the time together with no agenda at all.

so, instead of chocolates and flowers, today i am spending a day crafting and drawing and creating, and just celebrating being...me.

a friend passed this video on to me, and i found it incredibly beautiful and simple. i hope it brings a little bit of inspiration to all the women out there feeling a bit under the weather.

her morning elegance (oren lavie)

Sun been down for days
A pretty flower in a vase
A slipper by the fireplace
A cello lying in its case

Soon she's down the stairs
Her morning elegance she wears
The sound of water makes her dream
Awoken by a cloud of steam
She pours a daydream in a cup
A spoon of sugar sweetens up

And She fights for her life
As she puts on her coat
And she fights for her life on the train
She looks at the rain
As it pours
And she fights for her life
As she goes in a store
With a thought she has caught
By a thread
She pays for the bread
And She goes...
Nobody knows

Sun been down for days
A winter melody she plays
The thunder makes her contemplate
She hears a noise behind the gate
Perhaps a letter with a dove
Perhaps a stranger she could love

And She fights for her life
As she puts on her coat
And she fights for her life on the train
She looks at the rain
As it pours
And she fights for her life
As she goes in a store
With a thought she has caught
By a thread
She pays for the bread
And She goes...
Nobody knows

And She fights for her life
As she puts on her coat
And she fights for her life on the train
She looks at the rain
As it pours
And she fights for her life
Where people are pleasently strange
And counting the change
And She goes...
Nobody knows

i sumo you

2009-01-25T10:55:00.008-05:00

i've been slowly working on these drawings and cards for awhile now, and just put them into the shop this morning. i'm hoping to get more drawings of japan done this year while memories of my one-year excursion are still impressed into me.

this has been a bitterly cold weekend (-20 degrees, brrr!) perfect for lazying about and coffee and cooking. speaking of which, i should go help my mother make taro cakes and rice cakes for chinese new year's eve dinner tonight. i'll be back here when my fingers have defrosted.

into the light, in 44 words

2009-01-20T23:47:00.006-05:00

i wish i hadn't forgotten my camera today, because i saw the perfect inauguration picture on Bloor.

there was a sandwich board on the sidewalk, usually scribbled with "99 cent wings" or "all you can eat ribs".

today, it simply said one word: "obama".

* * *
44 words for the 44th american president. original project borrowed from alice here.

things making me happy this weekend

2009-01-18T19:57:00.007-05:00

+ new Shinzi Katoh wall calendar that i picked up at The Paper Place today. I didn't really need it, but for $2 and Shinzi Katoh no less - what a steal! it's now up in my studio for added inspiration.

+ this soundtrack (i can't stop listening to it!!)

+ i received a surprise package from boston, coming back from work on Thursday. it was from a friend newly back from a trip to japan, and full of SMAP-related goodness, including a giant uchiwa of my favourite japanese guy...*heart* (excuse me while i indulge in my obsession of 3 years for a little bit!)

+ this plan for tuesday's inauguration.

+ copying recipes from a copy of this book borrowed from the library. Such beautiful photographs and prose...sigh.

chasing rainbows

2009-01-14T16:19:00.009-05:00

arthur's seat, edinburgh

please indulge me while i post about my travels a little more! these pictures are from my three-day excursion to scotland last october with mike and tommy. the weather couldn't have been wetter or windier on those three days, but we had fun nevertheless, counting all the rainbows we saw and laughing while getting drenched in the rain. but oh, what a beautiful and majestic place scotland is, and full of some of the friendliest people i've ever had the pleasure to meet.

in edinburgh i was in architecture heaven. what a treat for the eyes the city was!

we didn't get a chance to explore Edinburgh much outside of the old town. The royal mile was of course a must; the three of us all had our cameras out and we must have been quite a sight to behold, clicking here and there and everywhere.

i loved all the wynds that gave us glimpses of the other worlds behind the charming walls. we didn't have time to go exploring them more in depth, but i wish we did anyway.

we took a tour up to glencoe and the highlands, where we made friends with one very hungry lad named Hamish. what a cutie!

this bridge was not the famous bridge from the harry potter movies, but i was so excited to see it nevertheless. hogwarts express could very well have gone through it, too!

we saw castles nestled deep in the mountains...

...and we went to see a very real Edinburgh Castle the next day. This is one of the sketches lifted out of my moleskin sketchbook, into which i religiously recorded my entire trip.

and lastly, of course, we had to try haggis. i actually quite liked it (i'm asian so i'll try anything) but i don't think i would be able to stomach it for breakfast everyday, like how our hotel served it.

you can be sure i'll be heading back to scotland again. the unyielding spirit of the land, the proud and humble people, and even the ruggedness of the climate have captured my heart. it's an entire world away from the conservative-explosive, serene-surreal societies of japan.

this is the last of the map purses that i will be making for awhile. i've been busy working away on a new project...stay tuned!

tokyo

2009-01-10T21:23:00.014-05:00

my first impression of japan began with tokyo station, emerging from the narita express from the airport straight into the city. i still remember my first time coming out of the train and gawking at the immensity of the station, where you risk getting trampled over by the crowd if you take one second too long to look at the platform signs.

tokyo is full of seas and mountains of people, waves and ripples of people, monotonous white-shirted blurry-eyed high-heeled gaggles of people.

being in that crowd always made me feel insignificant, but with a heightened sense of self at the same time; exhilarating, and exhausting. i'm very much an urban-loving person, but i'm glad that i didn't live in tokyo.

tokyo station did roll out one of my favourite green initiatives of 2008: harvesting energy from commuters via the station's very own floors. Think of all the exciting possibilities this could generate! If you're interested, you can read more at Inhabitat.

dreaming of france

2009-01-08T13:55:00.008-05:00

i'm going to backtrack a little bit and show you some snapshots of france from my Europe trip back in october. i've wanted to go to paris since i was a little girl, reading "notre dame de paris" translated into chinese, so this was truly a dream come true.

on our first evening, we hopped on a paris night bike tour and saw the city as it should be seen - the seine awash with faery lights, the pyramid of the louvre hushed with unspoken magic, the notre dame regal and serene, guarding over a city on fire.

while we were in paris, the eiffel tower was adorned with stars and lighted in blue to commemorate France as the head of EU. it was all very flashy, especially when the stars start to blink, and the air fills with "ooohhhh"s and "ahhhhhh"s.

we loved the bike tours and took another one to versailles, on a sunny, warm, perfect day. biking through the lovely village and then into the meticulously manicured paths inside the grounds of the chateaux made this day my absolute favourite in france. we picnicked with baguette and red wine from the local market, legs dangling over the immense cross-shaped canal, feeling like we were on a movie set.

in comparison, going into the chateaux de versailles felt trite. walking through all the lavish decorations room after room made me want to get back outdoors to the beautiful gardens.

at montmartre, we skipped going into the Moulin Rouge and headed straight for the Cafe de 2 moulins - better known as the cafe from the movie Amelie, which I adored. We had a pint here before heading to the Notre Dame for a choral concert.

giverny was our last bike tour (we really did love them, can you tell!), on a miserably rainy day. we made a pilgrimage to Monet's house and garden, and marveled at his famous lily pond. being soaking wet made the experience considerably less pleasant, but i remember giverny as a charming village that i'd like to go back to again someday.

paris is full of charming splashes of colour at every corner, and i couldn't resist stopping every other step to capture it all on lens.

france is definitely on my mind these days, especially as toronto becomes greyer and colder by the minute.

you can find it here.

two thousand and eight

2009-01-03T08:06:00.008-05:00

january

february

march

april

may

june

july

august

september

october

november

december

goodbye, 2008. it's been an extraordinary year full of beauty and inspiration, of incredible pain, of learning and self-discoveries, and of serene happiness for me. who knows what 2009 will bring? whatever it is, i'm ready.

happy holidays

2008-12-25T11:41:00.004-05:00

chiyogami snowflakes

2008-12-12T19:10:00.007-05:00

i've always adored The Paper Place on Queen Street West. My trips down that neighbourhood never fail to end with me in the shop drooling over their beautiful chiyogami collection.

a couple weeks ago, m. and i dropped by the store and picked up a few chiyogami pieces to make into holiday cards. they've sat on my studio table ever since...until i saw this!

The Paper Place is holding a holiday contest to give away an incredible stack of Chiyogami paper worth $2000! And entering couldn't be easier. One comment on their website earns you one entry; mentioning them on your blog earns you five extra entries, and adding a link to a photo of work you've done with their paper earns five more entries. Go here for more details!

and so, with this extra incentive, today i took a break from grad school applications, and headed downstairs with a pair of scissors.

ah, i do love the spirit of holiday crafting.

(please please please let me win that giant pile of paper. i wouldn't know what to do with it all but i'd be so happy.)

tomorrow i'm excited to be going to City of Craft before heading to my symphony chorus concert. i only have an hour to spare, but i just couldn't miss City of Craft because of all the talented artists and artisans on the vendor list. so, that's where i'll be tomorrow at noon. and if you're in the toronto area, you should be too!

letterpress magic

2008-12-02T21:08:00.010-05:00

i've always had a soft spot for the beauty and elegance of letterpressed cards. two weeks ago, i finally crossed off one of the items on my 2008 new year resolution list: to learn how to work a letterpress machine. it was a windy saturday when my accomplice mike and i shuffled over to KOZO studio in toronto's east chinatown to attend a one-day letterpress workshop, where we de-mystified the magic of the vandercook press.

it. was. soooo. much. fun!

i had no idea that setting up the press was the longest part of the whole process. but after everything was properly set out and tightened and inked and etc, seeing that first proof come out of the machine - i was bouncing with joy. mike caught me in the moment:

and here they are. my very first letterpressed cards!

at $3000-5000 for a vandercook, i realized i need to find cheaper hobbies!! i think i shall stick with my gocco baby for the time being. but this was a wonderful introduction and maybe, maybe someday i will venture more into the letterpress world.

if you are in the area, KOZO studio will be holding its holiday market every Thursday to Saturday until December 24th, featuring local artists and artisans for all your holiday gifting needs. (psst...some of my stuff will also be selling there.) come out and support handmade!

what i did instead of going to the gym

2008-11-25T09:06:00.004-05:00

i'm finally cleaning out my studio! this miserable toronto sleet/rain/snow combination has me staying indoors and happily working away at the sewing machine. i do believe this will be my last sushi prints for awhile, as i'm itching to move onto something else.

you can find them here.

kobe, zakka central

2008-11-07T16:13:00.007-05:00

i've been meaning to write about my trip to kobe for a long time now. then blink, and it's almost 5 months ago already! oh, i do miss japan.

kobe was about 3 hours away by train from my little sleepy town of iga. the day was drowsy, with splatters of summer rain, and my friend Akiko asked if i wanted to see zakka shops. did i ever! and so she pulled me away from the bustling shopping streets, into a quiet neighbourhood that seemed to me, at first glance, to be residential. i was confused.

then all of a sudden, Akiko stopped in front of a small narrow apartment door entrance. "I think...there is one here," she said, and entered. skeptically i followed her up the narrow staircase, taking care to put my umbrella into the bucket by the main door. then i saw the sign.

how delightful! this was the only indication that there was a zakka shop hidden in this building. we climbed two more flights and entered into a small, cozy room. i beamed at what i saw.

we slowly browsed the assortment of the little creations, while soft jazz music played in the background, accompanied by the occasional faint sounds of the zakka artist working behind the counter.

(i asked the artist if i could take photos of her shop. "yes, but not of me, please!" she said, laughing.)

i bought two little mobile straps for friends in toronto...they were so cute, i couldn't resist. and then we were on our way to hunt out the other zakka shops. i soon learned how to keep my eye out for the little hints of zakka presence. some where so obscure that you really had to be looking for the shop specifically to find them! no wonder there are books you can buy locating each of the shops in kobe!

the area was also full of delightful little cafes, in japanese-european style. i don't know how to explain it, but the japanese have nailed down the art of creating western atmospheres so well that the results are more western than actual western. if you've ever eaten in a japanese-italian or japanese-french restaurant, i hope you understand what i mean.

we ended up choosing this cafe:

their menus are too cute!

and the presentation wasn't bad, either.

kobe at night is especially pretty. i went crazy with the camera, like always.

we stayed at a capsule hotel (yes, the infamous japanese capsule hotels) in order to save some money. it was the cleanest, prettiest capsule i've ever seen! this was the women-only area, and best of all, it was linked to a 24-hour, unlimited access onsen (japanese hot spring). not a bad deal at all.

(for those of you wondering what capsules look like...i sneaked shots with my camera...shhh!)

i can only say i wish i went to kobe sooner. it's a city full of artists and art and craft shops that is the dream of crafters everywhere. based on the lovely liz's recommendation, i also discovered Yuzawaya for the first time the next morning, and finished my trip with a much-anticipated visit to Tokyu Hands (where i bought out most of their gocco supplies in stock). i think i spent most of my savings from my year in japan in that one day!

my inner truth

2008-11-06T09:02:00.004-05:00

this has been sitting in my basket just waiting for bind-off, and i finally finished and blocked it last week, just in time for the winter that's been slowly creeping into toronto (notwithstanding the past freakish week full of warm sunshine and summer breezes - i was out in a sundress!)

more details via ravelry here

trackback: inner truth no.1

i'm back!

2008-10-25T23:42:00.006-04:00

sorry for the long absence, friends! for the past month or so i've been hit by the travel bug once again, this time the winds taking me to london, barcelona, madrid, paris, and edinburgh, in that order. it was a bit unnerving to take this extended trip knowing that i am coming back to unemployment once again, but it was something i had to do at this time of my life. and i absolutely fell in love with europe.

now officially jobless, rest assured that i will be updating this blog very soon with all these time on my hands! for now, these photos are from my climb up Arthur's Seat in Edinburgh on a fanatically windy and rainy day. we mistakenly chose the hardest route to climb up, but at the top the view was worth everything.

illustration friday - detach

2008-08-17T22:20:00.008-04:00

hot(air)dogs at the iga summer matsuri. this balloon vendor sure had a sense of humour!

it's been a long, long time since i did an illustration friday! although i haven't stopped sketching in the year that i was in japan, i wasn't quite as diligent with keeping up with writing about my travels and sights. now that i am back in toronto and not hopping onto an overnight bus somewhere new every weekend, i hope to have more time and concentration over the next few months to really look back and gather together my thoughts and impressions of this incredible country.

last year, right around this time, i was walking on the streets of iga enjoying the festival season. summer is really an unforgettable time in japan, filled with colourful (and often free!) uchiwas

and amazing displays of fireworks and lanterns

and cold beer

and green-tea ice cream

and the smell of takoyaki in the air

and of course, the bon odori, which is a kind of traditional dance that everyone participates to celebrate the vitality of the summer night. this dance (and music) varies from town to town. my little town of iga is actually one of the oldest in japan, being the birthplace of the iga ninja; so we too have our own version of the obon.
lookie, i even have a video for you!

(heehee...i even caught a bit of sam and james commentating...sorry guys. good times.)

thank you all for the warm welcome home! it feels good to be back in toronto, although i go through little spurts of really missing japan, and digging through these videos and photographs is making me wish i was there dancing and eating and sweating on those streets right now. (well, maybe not sweating. toronto is nice and cool at the moment and that suits me very well...the day i left osaka, i had sweat rolling down my legs! gross!!!)

sayonara, nippon.

2008-08-10T10:26:00.005-04:00

sorry for the long extended absence. the past couple of months was like being sucked into a whirlwind of sayonara parties, last-minute travel plans, packing and cleaning and creating memories with lifelong friends. and hardest of all, saying goodbye to the place that i've gotten to know on a whole different level within my year here. it was truly all an amazing adventure.

hello, toronto.

i'm home.

ぼくはくま

2008-06-29T11:15:00.004-04:00

what a weekend! i just got back from a fabulously japanese-craft-zakka filled Kobe trip, and got so much to report! i wish i lived in Kobe, creativity central of Kansai!! but for now i'm going to drag my exhausted body to bed and say goodnight to my pillow like the adorable Mr.Bear, a.k.a. くまさん...

subtitles here

☆おやすみ　まくらさん☆

quarter rest

2008-06-25T09:50:00.005-04:00

just wanted to pause from all the packing and resume writing and portfolio editing and picture cropping and endless organizing and goodbye parties and waving sayonara to students, and just breathe.

(and maybe do a little baking.)

aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh.

i've been doing lots of drawing and very little crafting. i am, however, stocking up on craft supplies before i leave japan! i am heading to Kobe this weekend, and thinking about coming home with a second Gocco machine...the bigger size up from my goccobaby, and one that is suited for fabric-printing. If anyone has any suggestions on where to go in Kobe, please send them in!

hair candy and shop reopening!

2008-06-07T22:51:00.004-04:00

remember these?

they made for lovely decorations on my christmas tree last year:

well, since christmas these chocolate squares have been slowly consumed, and i've been collecting the candy wrappers without a clue as to what i was going to do with them.

then...a week ago it finally hit me. i set to work perfecting the idea and this was the result:

which turned into this:

they are so cute that i decided to put some up in my etsy shop. this is my first shop update since i moved across the ocean! although i'll be temporarily closing the shop again very soon as i prepare my move back, i'm still super-excited.

you can find them here.

bread from a rice cooker

2008-05-19T08:45:00.007-04:00

i had a happy weekend making more bread from my rice cooker. as promised, i've finally uploaded step-by-step photo instructions here. Hopefully they're concise and detailed enough!

i made a bit of a mistake measuring my yeast, and ended up with more than i needed...so i also made some raisin walnut buns. ironically, since the rice cooker was busy, it was my first time baking bread in my small microwave-oven!

Happy bread-making!

Goodness! it's a FO!!!

2008-05-14T09:40:00.003-04:00

...it only took a little more than one year, and about four plane rides. this pair of endpaper mitts has traveled quite extensively!

at any rate, i finally have something knitting-related to post about on this blog, which is quickly turning into a post-per-month thing. (sorry!)

i do love my new mitts. now, if only it were cold enough to wear them...

p.s. next update (whenever that is): the bread-in-a-rice-cooker saga continues!

i say hello, you say goodbye

2008-04-25T04:20:00.002-04:00

whoaaaa....where did april go? my week in Taiwan was a blast, hanami in japan was spectacular, the new school year has started and I am off again in 30 minutes to catch a 11-hour bus to Nagasaki for the long weekend. The next few weekends are all filled with traveling plans, too -- to Tokyo, Hiroshima, Komono, and Kobe! I'm determined to see as much of Japan as I can before the rainy season hits.

i'll let my hanami pictures do the talking for me as i'm short on time. REAL updates next post, promise!!

sakura, japan's obsession. (not that i blame them, sakura season in japan really was breathtaking.)

pocket ninja doing the hanami thing at Ninaji, Kyoto

my adorable friend Nagomi, dressed in kimono and doing the hanami thing, too

me, not dressed in a kimono, doing the counter-hanami thing

yozakura

joy spring!

2008-03-28T09:37:00.009-04:00

aloha! just a quickie note to say that i'll be flying out to Taiwan tomorrow morning to visit my gigantic family, including both sets of grandparents and countless aunts and uncles and cousins and nieces and nephews that i have not seen for four years now. i shall be back in japan in a bit over a week, when the cherry blossom season will be in full swing.

fret not, i shall be posting recipes when i come back :) but for now, here is another photo of beautiful plum blossoms that i took at the ume-matsuri last weekend at Tsukigase, off the border of Nara. Plums bloom earlier than sakuras, and last weekend was perfect weather for ume-hanami. May this (and the incredible spirit of the single tiny blossom, above) bring a smile to your face like it did to mine. xoxo

on felting and baking with japanese machines

2008-03-22T19:03:00.006-04:00

how did i end up being away for so long? march has been incredibly busy and april looks to be busier! springtime in japan is absolutely the best time of the year to be in this country...more about that next post. first of all, a rant about japanese machines:

as a distraction from my other UFOs i decided to make the cute felted bowls from the pattern out of One Skein that i've so long admired. i bought the yarns (100% wool) and made my bowls, and last weekend finally decided to felt them. Only to find out that my japanese washing machine had no "warm wash" option, and that my "shallow wash" stops washing after 5 minutes! i ended up manually dumping warm water into my machine and going back and forth to press the "wash" button, for a period of two hours. what a pain for the three little bowls, but they turned out so cute that i have to admit they were worth it.

a couple days later i picked up a book on how to bake using the one machine prevalent in every japanese household: the rice cooker. Bread made from my very own rice-cooker? i had to try it. so one evening i eagerly tried one of the quick-bread recipes: the sausage-and-spinach cake.

i was extremely excited to be baking from the rice cooker, and pleased that the process was so easy: just dump everything in the cooker and press the "cook rice" button. when the rice cooker beeped, i eagerly opened the lid...only to find that my cake was still a lump of wet dough! the top was still soggy and worse of all, when i pressed the "cook" button again, the automatic heat sensor told the machine to finish cooking after five minutes. GRRRRR. it didn't help at all that there were no other buttons to press.

so once again, i stayed up all night walking back to my rice cooker to press the "cook rice" button again and again. by one a.m. in the morning i was feeling like this guy.

i'm happy to report that in the end, it did work out okay. this time, it wasn't the machine that failed me, but rather my lack of japanese fluency. my rice cooker is apparently half as small as the one used in the cookbook. after baking the cake in the cooker for two more hours i declared it done and had a slice for breakfast next morning.

this week i got adventurous enough to attempt a "real" bread recipe -- my very first time making real bread! i cut the recipe by half and this time it turned out perfectly:

mmm...black sesame! all i did was substitute the butter with sesame oil and dropped in generous amounts of black sesame in the dough. making bread was easier than i thought, too! it's like a new world of possibilities has just opened up in front of me!

not too bad, i think! it was absolutely delicious fresh out of the rice cooker. teehee.

and finally...for your daily dose of japanese cuteness...here is the result of my experiment with hard-boiled-egg molds bought from the 100-yen store:

all you do is boil the egg, peel the shells, stuff them in the mold and soak in cold water for 10 minutes...and out comes bears and rabbits. i seriously need to stay away from the 100-yen store...it's too dangerous for my wallet!

can you smell it in the air?

2008-03-09T09:46:00.008-04:00

i was tagged by claire awhile ago for "seven random things about myself". since i did a similar meme last year, and inspired by shari, i've decided instead to write my own spring manifesto.

so here goes.

one this spring, i will wear pink.

two i will open my eyes wider to the world around me -- by listening to cbc podcasts, by browsing good design blogs, by staying informed about the environment.

three i will master the recipe for pita bread without an oven. (my first attempt was a half-failure, or half-success depending on how you look at it, as it was the first time in my life that i've ever made bread -- with yeast and everything! yippee!)

four this spring, i will set aside time in the evenings to write long emails to old friends. i will also set aside time for music, for exercise, for sketching, for reading, and for daydreams.

five this spring, i will finish the other side of my endpaper mitts. really.

six i will start up my etsy shop again.

seven this spring, i will make the most out of my four months left in japan. i will take longer hikes and look for tree frogs under the camillas. i will look up at the sky and count the herons. i will laugh harder, love deeper, and jump higher.

this is my spring manifesto.

tagging: anyone who would not be sad to see this little guy go, via the way of the Wicked Witch of the West.

craft library update!

2008-02-29T07:41:00.006-05:00

thank you all for your words of support! i am feeling much better this week - i can smell spring in the air, and there are so many wonderful things to look forward to that i can't help but be cheerful. life is truly beautiful.

i've also indulged in some good craft therapy over the past two weeks, including hosting knitting parties, and experimenting with making stamps, and impulse-purchases from the bookstore on (what else) japanese craft books. this lead me to realize how much my library has grown this winter! I played piano for a charity concert last december and received a generous bookstore certificate as a thank-you gift; needless to say, the entire certificate has gone towards my japanese craft book collection.

at any rate, an update has been long overdue...so here they are. enjoy!

(clicking on each photo will take you to the name of the book + ISBN numbers. if you would like more photos/info from any particular book just let me know.)

i've never been into amigurumi, but these were too cute to pass up...they might evolve into something else i've been creating in my head for awhile...more on that next time!

a new magazine on the japanese craft scene -- seems pretty promising, full of elegant patterns and consisting of less advertisements than magazines like Cotton Time

i've posted about this book before, but here is a peak inside. this book has really nicely illustrated and photographed instructions on simple sewing techniques and projects.

another sewing book i picked up because it is specifically about hand-sewing (perfect for me, adrift in japan without a sewing machine). lots of wonderful photographs and techniques, from sewing pencil cases to altering adult-size shirts into clothing for kids, all done by hand

and finally -- i couldn't help but purchase yet another book about stamping, by the same author as this one. i will start making more stamps, promise! but it's so satisfying just browsing the patterns. it's like browsing a magazine full of designer dresses: the chances of me ever wearing them is null, but it's fun and inspiring all the same.

and oh, i almost forgot -- this blog turns two year old as of this month. i could go on and on about how rewarding keeping this blog has been for me -- in terms of the inspiration, the people, the friendships, the support...but my words fall short and all i can think of to say is thank you, thank you, thank you, from the bottom of my heart.

my weekend is going to be full of hinamatsuri parties galore...meaning we will be having a grand girlie time gossiping and eating sashimi and chocolate and sakura-flavoured mochi decorated in pink. My idea of fun :) have a wonderful weekend lovelies!

眷戀 (f.i.r.)

2008-02-25T09:58:00.005-05:00

把愛深埋在記憶中　說不出口一種　難過
給祝福太多　不能覆蓋我的痛
你要轉身你要走不再多作停留

分開是誰沒說什麼　最難的決定是放手
眼中的落寞　說的都是我的錯　
當你笑著揮揮手　你的沈默我懂

請別說愛我　推我向晴天
最溫暖的天空　卻換了季節
在絕望的面前　灑落一地心碎
就算是傷悲　我不想太狼狽

請別說愛我　別許下心願
下一秒就出現　你給的紀念
風吹過的思念　曾有過的眷戀
哭紅了雙眼　再讓我心痛一天

healing

2008-02-24T07:21:00.008-05:00

i'm sorry to have been away for the past weeks. life likes to throw emotional curveballs from time to time, and i've been learning how to deal all over again. it seems to be an annual cycle with me; there's something about the brooding, moody months between winter and spring that brings along a major heartache once a year.

although this time it might take me a little longer than heal, i'll be alright.

before all the emotional chaos happened, i did manage to finish one leg of my legwarmer, using a mix of patterns from my japanese craft books. i hope i can finish the other side in time before spring arrives here in japan!

i've also been on a baking spree, due to nabe party invites galore around this time of the year. homebaked goods always make good hostess presents, in my books :)

taiwanese baked mochi cake, from my mother's traditional recipe

hong kong style egg-tarts, from this recipe: my first attempt, with many modifications (i used less butter and sugar and substituted evaporated milk with soy), and a great success!

and finally, one more picture from our last sojourn to Fushimi inari in Kyoto: various prayers to the fox deities for safety and health of family members, for passing entrance exams, for love and blessings

and mine - for strength, and laughter, and inner peace.

heart

2008-02-14T21:26:00.006-05:00

tea for my sweetie, inspired by this from www.marthastewart.com

these were the chocolates that were in that anpanman tin box that i bought at my local supermarket to put the teabags in. aren't they just adorable!! although i can't quite bring myself to eat anpanman!

yesterday i brought valentine M&Ms and cards and gave them to my students secretly (teachers are not allowed to give out candy to students at my school). The response i received was incredible -- all the girls started to pull out treats that they've all secretly brought to give to each other, and piled them into my arms! Apparently it is Japanese tradition on Valentine's Day for girls to package dainty little homemade cakes and truffles and candies in perfect little bags and ties and give them out to lucky guys, or in the case of my junior high school girls, exchange them with classmates. The guys return the favour on "White Day" in March.

all my treats are now sitting prettily in a basket on my dining table. if you don't hear from me in a month, i've died from chocolate overdose.

crafty updates to come soon. hope you've had a happy heart day!

happiness in!

2008-02-03T00:21:00.001-05:00

here is the weather today in my little sleepy city:

as a result i am hibernating under my lovely kotatsu, very recently acquired from a friend:

the kotatsu is in my opinion one of the greatest japanese inventions ever. i'm trying to devise a way to bring one back with me to canada!

today also happens to be Setsubun in Japan. In a traditional japanese family, the father is supposed to wear "oni" (devil) costumes and the children are supposed to throw soybeans at him, chasing him out the door, and crying in japanese "Oni out! Happiness in!"

this year the "lucky" direction is south-south-east. To lure the luck in, one is supposed to stand up and eat a long roll of uncut maki-sushi facing that direction. i've bought my crab-maki roll from the supermarket in addition to lucky mochi, so i'm all set for luck this year!

while not so good for soybean-throwing, this weather is wonderful for snuggling under my kotatsu and knitting while watching japanese dramas. let's just hope i don't dose off!

a winter's crafting, in pictures

2008-01-27T09:00:00.002-05:00

thanks everyone for all the comments on my photos! to balance the previous trip-photo-overload, this post shall be a craft-overload (the result of not having been disciplined with my blogging...)

:: fabric ::

anpanman fabric! found in kochi, anpanman's very own birthplace

more fabulous fabric finds from kochi...that's right, i'm stocking up.

:: knit ::

my inner truth no.2 (for myself this time) taking shape

quick crochet project on the bus back from kochi. my very first flower pin...i'll be making more of these for sure!

trying my hand at a pair of legwarmers, because it really is too cold in this country. and more importantly, because legwarmers are nowhere as fashionable as in japan! the pattern is from One-Skein...although i'm planning to modify it somewhat.

i got a bit sick of crocheting this blanket and so i frogged it...i've always known i enjoyed knitting a lot more than crocheting. but what to do with all these leftover 100yen yarn? i needed something quick and fast and the Ballband Dishcloth (from Mason-Dixon Knitting) was the answer. this will be turned into a cushion cover, i think.

and finally, the beginning of my endpaper mitt, two...the Other Hand, to match this one. (it was about time, i decided.)

:: recycle ::

Before>> corn tin cans that i couldn't bring myself to throw out (and which slowly amounted to a whole lotta cans, because i eat a lotta corn)

After>> cute origami paper + glue = happy cans all standing in a row

and last but not least, i just wanted to show you this, even though it has nothing to do with crafting: my new matching eraser and koala chocolates. kawaiiiii.

a winter's journey, in pictures

2008-01-21T06:44:00.001-05:00

going snappy-happy in Gyeongbokgung Palace, Seoul

getting lost in the crowds in Myeong Dong, Seoul

(and stuffing ourselves silly with kimchi and kalbi)

(andrew had to drag me out of this fabric shop in kyoto to stop me from buying them out)

on the train to Shikoku

cartwheeling in front of Kochi Castle

up to the temple hidden among the mountains

and at the end of it all, journeying into the unknown

(apologies for the photo overload...i'll be back very soon with crafty updates galore...promise)

inner truth revealed

2008-01-11T06:38:00.001-05:00

the only christmas present i knitted this year -- a special scarf for the special guy in my life

(and it kept him warm all through Seoul, too)

inspiration: this by elemmaciltur
pattern: inner truth by Laura Andersson
yarn: Richmore cashmere merino bought from my local japanese yarnstore

i loved how this scarf turned out so much that i am now in the process of making one for myself. although i do wish it were a tad wider...but i wouldn't change the cable pattern for anything!

mary xmas and happy new year!

2008-01-06T22:51:00.001-05:00

akemashite omedetou! i'm back from my travels and slowly editing the 1000+ photos i've gathered on my two cameras. it's been an incredible vacation and i'm certainly not looking forward to going back to work tomorrow.

More posts to come on kimchi-ravishing in Seoul and fabric hunting in Kochi. Until then...i present...hungry deer in Nara :) cheers!

shitake!

2007-12-20T01:54:00.001-05:00

okay, i admit it. i'm a nerd. my friend ayumi laughed at me all the way back from the supermarket because i was protecting my little brown bag of shitake mushrooms so carefully just so i could take a picture of them when i get home. because they are so darn cute!

i have to tell you how dangerous Japanese supermarkets are becoming to me. everytime i walk in with the intention of buying only things on my grocery list, i emerge with stuff that i can't resist solely due to

plain cuteness

limited seasonal editions

or dainty packaging. This is how Japanese people buy flour...in 500g packages at a time. I'm used to the 2kg bags you find in Canadian supermarkets which can squash a kitten if you're not careful. I'm also used to the Canadian ovens which are so large that house elves could probably live in there. Here in Japan, these giant ovens are non-existent; all families use small microwave-ovens to do everything from grilling to boiling to baking.

Have I raved about Japanese oranges and apples yet? They are such common fruits but they are especially good here in Japan. I for one am addicted to these little things called mikans, found everywhere during the winter season.
I also like how they look on my dining table.

I received a bag of apples from a friend earlier this week, so last night I put my microwave oven to good use and made an apple bundt cake from this recipe. It turned out wonderfully -- my teachers all raved about it. Highly recommended!

Onto crafting...all my christmas cards are done and mailed, thank god. i took this idea from design*sponge and dressed up my envelopes in a jiffy. yay for last-minute holiday crafting!

And finally, i gave up on the pom-poms on my christmas tree (see here) because i just wasn't satisfied with how they were turning out. so instead, i took those adorable chocolate squares (that matches my ruler), wired them around and stuck them on my tree. i'm absolutely loving the result! i smile everytime i walk by.

This is turning into a mega-post! however things will probably get quiet around here over the next two to three weeks. My partner-in-crime Andrew arrives this Saturday; we are spending Christmas here in Iga, and then heading to Seoul for the New Year's, and then we'll be making our way round to Shikoku for the remainder of the holidays. It's going to be peaceful and hectic all at once, and I am extremely excited. If anyone has recommendations on what to see/do in Seoul please let me know!

Now if you'll excuse me, i have to head home to prepare for a nabe-okonomiyaki party. Have a happy Christmas and a wonderful holiday everyone, and see you in the new year!

my week in pictures

2007-12-14T21:52:00.002-05:00

is anyone else addicted to BBC's "day in pictures" and "week in pictures"? they're something i check on a regular basis to keep in touch with the world. On a much smaller and insignificant scale, here is my week in pictures:

Sunday: end-of-year bowling party with my taiko drumming group -- so much fun, and in a funky 80's themed bowling alley no less

Monday: loving the fact that i could buy a small ruler that matches my bowl of chocolate squares. i am slowly being suckered into the danger that is japanese cuteness.

Tuesday: picking back up a bit of crocheting with yarns from the 100-yen store

Wednesday: doing some grocery shopping and stumbling upon a craft shop inside the large complex...i've found my piece of heaven in this town!

Thursday: Kaiten-sushi (i.e. sushi "train" restaurant) with the girls - where i had the best sushi in my life - shrimp with a little of mayo, lightly fired up on the top so it's burnt just right with a bit of salt...YUM

Friday: Potluck with other teachers at my school - filled with nabe goodness and tacoyaki (squid-balls, a famous Osaka dish)-making

Saturday: Sleeping in, then eating leftover potluck cake and Peet's coffee for breakfast in a snoopy mug and dish set gifted to me the night before, and browsing craft blogs at leisure for the entire morning -- something that i haven't had time to do for a long, long time. Simply blissful.

weekend mornings

2007-12-08T19:00:00.002-05:00

i love waking up to the sunlight and sipping coffee and eating taiwanese pastry treats and listening to jack johnson

and sneaking a little time to craft (time is running out...gotta get those holiday cards out, eeeeee)

and decorating my little christmas tree with knitted pom-poms(with some assorted early christmas presents brought by the family)

ah...before i forget, these are the japanese craft books i've been taking pictures out of:

if you click on the photos, i've put the ISBN numbers on the flickr link for reference.

happy weekend :)

things i am loving now

2007-11-30T05:54:00.001-05:00

+ the traditional japanese narrow streets and houses, decorated not with anonymous house numbers, but with milkboxes and shrine figurines and the family name written in beautiful caligraphy

+ japanese persimmons, and japanese mikan oranges, and japanese apples

+ going sweet-potato digging with my students, who plant the potatoes every spring and dig them up in the fall to cook with rice for the annual school cultural festival

+ one street down from mine, a beer vending machine right next to a public bathhouse

+ time-announcements in my city - i.e. a tower above city hall which plays a song across the entire town at 7am, 12pm, 6pm and 10pm. Wake-up time, Lunch time, Supper time and Sleep-time. It's so medieval-like and quaint that I already know I'm going to miss it terribly in North America.

+ festivals with fabulous food booths and elaborate traditional costumes and beautiful lanterns and temples all lighted up and being greeted by students every ten steps

+ osaka

+ and japanese craft books, of course

i can go on and on and on...but blogger would probably not be very happy with me with all the photo content overload. you can always see more at my photoblog.

back to those bamboo sticks

2007-11-22T00:50:00.001-05:00

hello knitting...i am back, and with a vengeance. The reasons?

.1 it is getting really, really cold here in japan. and when it is cold all i want to do is curl up and knit.

(And when i say cold i mean freezing, because while Canada was cold, we had heating systems everywhere - in the supermarket, at the mall, in the schools, at home. The heat is yanked up so high that as soon as you enter say the subway you start taking off layers. But most buildings in Japan are not equipped with heating systems, so it is cold everywhere you go. My schools are all reliant on portable electric and gas heaters, and all the students sit in class shivering. I wore my scarf in the classroom one time last week and was asked by other teachers to take it off, as the students are not allowed to wear scarves or gloves but are required to tough it out. So instead, I walk around the hallways in my down vest and fuzzy hoodie. Not very teacher-like at all!)

.2 i am in japanese craft book heaven, being in the homeland of...japanese craft books. my weekends are spent happily browsing craft book after craft book at the local bookstores. of course, i haven't been able to resist stocking up my library. i'm dying to try out all these patterns!

.3 i miss knitting.

.4 christmas is around the corner (which means christmas presents must be made....shhhh)

.5 i received an invitation to ravelry. and it is absolutely fantastic. and so motivating! add me as a friend if you also have it!

.6 and lastly, i've no sewing machine with me in japan, but i've sure got lots of bamboo sticks and crochet hooks...so goodbye sewing, welcome back knitting!

...no pictures yet of my new projects, but perhaps they will come soon. i hereby promise to be more faithful to this blog. no more unannounced long breaks if i can help it!

i talk through my lens

2007-10-05T06:50:00.001-04:00

So...I disappeared again. I think the reason is because it feels so very daunting to write about all that has happened since i left Canada within one post...and so I kept on putting it off. Therefore, I have decided to not write about it at all, but to start with now, and leave it at that. Sorry to create such a gap...but i'll let the pictures say what i'm not:

this pretty much sums up the past couple of months. this one mitt took 3 months to knit and 20% was on the plane. now if i can just get the second mitt started...

after teaching junior high school kids for two months, i now speak in simple english sentences.

japan is beautiful.

mount fuji is hard to climb.

i bicycle to the supermarket.

japanese food is oishii.

japanese kids are very genki.

i see rice paddies and mountains when i go to school.

chestnut cakes sold in supermarket contain lamb (apparently). but they are still tasty.

...and as if this post didn't contain enough photo overload, i've started a japan photoblog which you can find here.

i'm heading to osaka this long weekend for my birthday...can't wait for all the glorious shopping to come! Hope you're all doing well, wherever you are!

hisashiburi...

2007-09-07T22:03:00.001-04:00

just dropping a quick "konnichiwa" from the land of the rising sun.

update should come very soon. have i really been away for three months already? i miss the blogging world! hope everyone is well!

my new home in 60 days

2007-06-05T22:25:00.001-04:00

iga-shi, mie-ken, japan
(it takes 3 google maps to find my city...a good sign?)

-> apparently, iga is famous for being the birthplace of japan's iga-ninja clan...as well as for its seafood (esp. lobsters and oysters...yum!)

-> in crafty news: my etsy shop is featured this week on cre8ivejuice! it makes me feel so humble to know that other people are enjoying my creations. andrea does a wonderful job of showcasing etsy artists; do go check out her blog!

-> i was also quite pleasantly surprised (and hereafter excited) when the lovely Liz handpicked my fishball brothers purselette as a showcase on etsy.
being nerdy and all, of course i had to take a screenshot:

-> some other things making me happy this week:

new supply of linen + new crafting projects on the go

watching my endpaper mitts take shape once more

organizing my slowly growing fabric stash

Lotta Jansdotter from my Indigo splurge today
(and yes, i also pre-ordered Harry Potter, at last!)

oh knitting, how i've missed you!

2007-05-25T11:11:00.002-04:00

it hasn't really hit me how incredibly stressed i've been for the past month until now. Between facing pressure at work (busy season + my only colleague on maternity leave + a lack of new potential employees on the horizon = me gasping for air) and balancing my pseudo-obsession with stocking up on my etsy store and for the Good Catch Craft Show (which was so much fun and where i finally got to meet sophie and her lovely mummy), I was pulling late nights and not really watching my health.

the result was, of course, that i came down with a horrible case of stomach flu and was forced to stop all activities for a day while i threw up every other hour.

and since then? i've been doing no sewing at all. instead, my days have been full of:

wandering around the city playing with a Nikon D70 on loan to me (and dreaming of a D80)

lounging at the beach

enjoying the summer weather that suddenly dropped into Toronto

and finally, i've picked up my needles and started knitting once again, at last. although no pictures yet, i've been making some progress on several projects. it's been so long that i felt like i should have forgotten just how to knit! but once i started again it seems that i've never stopped. and, miraculously, i started feeling...de-stressed!

knitting, the cure for everything!

after seeing stephanie's heartfelt letter to her skirt, i felt like i needed to apologize to my knitting too. what was i doing, thinking that sewing could replace you? i'm sorry for neglecting you for the past three months. i promise i won't do that ever again. please forgive me!

pppssssst......

2007-05-08T00:29:00.001-04:00

i am so very honoured to be invited to participate in this month's good catch craft fair!! I can't believe I'm mentioned in the same sentence as the sweetie pie press, Needle Book, and the Monster Factory! Do drop by and see us this Saturday if you're in the Toronto area.

did you catch the sakura blossoms this lovely sunday at high park?

workspace, 10pm

2007-05-05T09:05:00.001-04:00

this is the state of my studio as of right now, and probably will remain like this all weekend long as i get ready for two intense days of goccoing with a dear friend for her wedding invitations. the month of may is crazy! there's not nearly enough time to do anything! it seems that the nice weather awakened everyone from the drowsy spring we had and life's pace suddenly picked up tenfold.

thank you everyone, for the kind words! i will be journaling my japan travels on this blog, so i really won't be far. although the content won't be about knitting most of the time, rest assured that i will be hunting out all the good craft corners!

this is, coincidentally, my 100th post on this blog. i never thought crafting would take over my life so much. it's such a personal pasttime - there's not a lot of monetary revenue involved (not for me anyway, right now), but conversly, one needs to devote so much time into the whole process - choosing raw materials, designing, working, reworking, finishing. and yet you and i still do it. why? i don't know, but i'm living and breathing crafts everyday now, and i don't think i've ever been happier.

sorry for the rambling nature of this post - it's been awhile since i last posted here. i'm off now to dragonboat practice, to enjoy the gorgeous blue sky and water. Have a wonderful weekend, wherever you are!

two new beginnings

2007-04-19T21:29:00.001-04:00

can you spot them both?

one. my endpaper mitts, once again, this time with the correct gauge. and knitting up surprisingly fast. (duh...i should have noticed sooner that something was wrong when i was battling the toothpick-like needles before...)

two. J-A-P-A-N.

this is my big news which i've been brimming with for the past week or so - i have been accepted into the JET programme, to go to Japan in August to teach english for a year!

japan - the land of muji and gocco and zakka, of SMAP and macha and mochi and doraemon! i am so, so, so, so excited beyond belief. it has been my dream to live in japan for awhile, and i am finally quitting my current chained-to-the-desk job and making the dream come true...in three months.

!!!!!!!!

in other news, i've been largely neglecting this blog while being obsessed with stocking up my etsy store for the past few weeks. i'm sorry! as an apology i thought i'd post up some progress pictures of my lastest project:

i found this old copy of Collier's world atlas in the basement of the new BMV in the Annex. I've always loved maps, and for $2.99 I thought i could make something out of all the beautiful maps in there. So i lugged the heavy thing home, and started my salvaging process last night.

beautiful, aren't they? i wonder why geography was always my weakest subject.
i chose argentina for my first project...just because i've always wanted to go there. here it is laminated...

and sewn.

it will be here soon. I can't wait to make more! perhaps one of Nihon, maybe!

easter bunny visits bloor street west

2007-04-08T19:15:00.001-04:00

the magic on easter sunday morning, brought to Toronto by the lovely folks of newmindspace

happy easter :)

inside...outside

2007-04-06T09:34:00.001-04:00

it's getting too darn cold in toronto for april weather...so i am spending my easter friday holiday indoors. perhaps i'll even pick up my needles again! what a thought ;)

goodbye march, hello april

2007-03-31T15:15:00.001-04:00

highlights of this week, which passed by in a blink:

screaming my voice hoarse at the david tao concert at the ACC in toronto

being sick (and still getting sicker)

receiving my lovely little needlebook in the mail from claire via her etsy shop

getting excited reading about one of my favourite stores in the world finally opening on the same continent as me

saying goodbye to a relationship, a dear friend, and looking upwards

gotamago!

2007-03-25T19:07:00.001-04:00

so for the past two weeks i've been into a sewing/gocco printing frenzy. It seems that all my free time (i.e. when i'm not at work or working out or eating) has been devoted to sewing, gocco-ing, or thinking about one of the two. I really haven't picked up my knitting needles once since i last frogged my endpaper mitts. I think this must be a phase...

the exciting news is i've opened a new etsy shop, at www.gotamago.etsy.com. (if you want to know, literally translated, "go tamago" means "five eggs" in japanese.) I am utterly devoted to stocking up the shop right now, so much that I can't think of doing anything else. I am seriously thinking of quitting my full-time, chained-to-the-computer job and entering into freelance graphic/stationary/illustration/craft design career. I am just so happy doing things with my hands that i can spend an entire day working away at these cards, as i did today, without resting or wanting to rest.

anyway, i should stop before this turns into a rant about work and life. back to my sewing i go.

sushi?

2007-03-18T11:49:00.001-04:00

more?

Some lesson learned in making these little (non-edible) gocco-stamped coin purses:

1. Don't use any fabric paint other than gocco fabric paint...speedwell fabric paint just clumps up the surface, wrecking about 50% of my prints :(

2. Don't bother with too much detail when designing gocco prints for fabric because it'll come out in a big blot anyway;

3. I really need to learn how to sew end of zippers properly...

4. Craftster.org is awesome, except when the forums won't load; and

5. Sewing really doesn't take as long as I think it does. Nor is it scary. Mind over matter!

All in all I'm pretty happy with how these turned out. I'll be making some more to put in my etsy shop once I receive more zippers in the mail. Ever since I opened the etsy shop, I've been leaving it relatively empty; so I'm excited to be able to stock it up for once!

back and again

2007-03-17T17:19:00.001-04:00

Thank you all for the encouragement even when I was throwing a frogging tantrum...I truly felt like a whining brat after all that moping! So as of this morning the deed is done...

However, I am putting aside knitting for the moment to spend some time with my gocco baby. Perhaps I'll have something to show relatively soon! Hope you're all having a wonderful weekend.

...ribbit?

2007-03-13T20:41:00.001-04:00

i've been lying to myself...

And now that i've finally gone back to these endpaper mitts...I realize that no matter how i tell myself that they will stretch, that the beginning 4 inches only seems tight because i haven't reached the palm/thumb increase yet, well, i just don't know...

this always happens. i really do check my gauge before i start. i just happen to be a tight knitter...and now the mitt is a whopping 1 inch smaller than its designed dimensions, I am knocking myself on the head.

the mitt is still sitting there. I don't have the heart to frog it tonight :(

operation Baby

2007-03-11T18:35:00.001-04:00

Here is my secret project revealed: a baby sweater for my lovely coworker M's baby shower. She knows of this blog's existence so i've resisted posting photos until now, since the sweater has finally been delivered to the mom-to-be. I can't wait to see the baby (yet unnamed) wear it!

This was my very first knitted sweater (however small in proportion), and quite a lesson in blocking, shaping and seaming it was! I believe this is the first time I've ever blocked anything properly. (Much props to Eunny's wonderful tutorial on blocking!)

My makeshift blocking board:

The pattern is from Melanie Falick's "Weekend Knitting", and it's quite simple - garter stitch all the way. I do LOVE the yarn and would definitely use it again - it is Sublime extra fine merino wool dk, purchased with Knitnerd's recommendation.

Having finished this at last, I really can't imagine starting a sweater for MYSELF. It just takes...so...long.......and hard to get measurements exact....sigh. I have newfound respect for all you sweater knitters out there!

waiting

2007-03-04T10:09:00.001-05:00

waiting for the results from my jet interview :: waiting for japan :: waiting for births and weddings and concerts :: waiting for the dragonboat season to start :: waiting for the next big adventure

waiting for the snow to melt :: waiting to slip into sandals and walk barefoot on warm grass :: waiting to go for a long run in the sun :: waiting for red bean cakes over the stove :: waiting for new gocco supplies to arrive in the mail :: waiting to get out of this work and creativity rut

waiting...waiting...waiting

new hat for new year

2007-02-18T14:36:00.001-05:00

The Marilyn Hat, something i whipped up based on a hat i saw my friend Marilyn wearing.

Happy Lunar New Year, to those that celebrate it! The Year of the Pig happens to be my year, coincidentally. Oink oink ^@^

ends and beginnings

2007-02-10T15:12:00.001-05:00

Thank you all so much for the support on my Market Bag! Felting this was indeed scary, and I think I intentionally put it off for awhile before mustering up courage to tackle the process. And i'm so happy with how it turned out. The fibres really bound together and the entire bag shrunk about 5%, just like the instructions said it will, to my great relief. The entire thing is so sturdy now I can finally imagine going farmer market shopping with it!

Here is the bag pre-felting; you can see I went with the purple on the decorative stitches, although I liked the green as well. I think the lining, when I find the right fabric for it, shall have some kind of green in it.

Of course, the great thing about finishing a project is that you get to start new ones.

The beginning of my endpaper mitts

This took so long to start, as I had to tackle the Italian Tubular Cast On method (which really is quite easy after you get the hang of it) as well as knitting with the smallest needles I've ever used. Ever. 2.0mm!! They are like Kebob sticks, and I felt like I could easily snap them in two with my every move! Thank goodness i get to switch them over to 2.75mm after the ribbing, or i think i'd have poked my eyes out by now.
I think I'm getting addicted to colourwork though, especially as I finally figured out the "combined" method - i.e. alternating knitting english and continental, with one yarn colour on each hand. The method sounded hard when I first encountered it a year ago, but as I was knitting this it occured to me that one colour on either hand would make the whole thing easier to handle. Thankfully, I was first taught by Mom how to knit the english way when I was still a high school kid, and then was "forced" by a former boyfriend's mother to convert to continental several years later; therefore I have no problems knitting with either style. And it's actually fun, really, holding five tiny double-pointed needles and using all five fingers on either hand.

But of course one can only take so much of those kinds of knitting at one sitting. I had to start a "stress reliever" project to balance off the fair isle stuff.

On a last note...tomorrow this blog turns one year old! I started this blog one year ago as a student frustrated with writing her thesis, and needed a creative outlet. I couldn't have imagined the friends i would meet and the support I would receive from this wonderful online community. Thank you all, every single one of you reading this, for accompanying me on this part of my journey.