Thursday, January 31, 2008

A bit of knitting & snow


So I will not put any suspense in this note... here is ONE Slippery sock finished. (Free pattern on knitty, the designer is a high schooler! I wish knitting was cool when I was in high school.) It is really cool in person and I can't wait to wear this one sock. But then there is a part of my that wants to find the right person to give the complete pair to because I almost feel like they are too nice to wear. The last pair of super cool socks that took a little more time than usual were sent to the East Coast to be loved. Just need to find time to wind the yarn so I can start the next sock before the February Sockamania pattern comes out... uhm tomorrow.

I also finished these boring plain blue socks. They came out all screwed-up and I can not explain why. The two skeins of blue yarn were different lengths, and I opted not to fix the unmatched design. Some poor soul will end up wearing this goofy socks somewhere in the world.

Last weekend I was out with game-girl. We met up at the yarn shop and then went to my coffee shop of choice, Tully's. (Although, I am a little upset they no longer have the Tiramisu latte.) While we camped out at Tully's for a few hours, she helped me read the instruction of a game and then....... we pulled out our weapons and I made my best attempt at .... Amigurumi. It is too bad I did not take a video of my first attempts trying to hold the hook and pull loops through. It was ugly...trying to knit with a hook. Eventually I got the hang of the , while I completed what is in the picture, game-girl finished a scarf. Unfortunately, I have not had time to work on the basic crochet stitch since the outing, but I know how to read the patterns and can probably attempt and complete anything in the current book I have... I think..... more practice is needed....... IF I had more time...

Ok this is a picture from last week. I guarantee I will have better snow pictures in 2 weeks...

Sunday, January 20, 2008

Very Cold here...


It was a busy week as the winter has arrived with freezing temperatures every night and highs of about 38 degrees. I think you will have fun with this weather in the NorthWest for about the next 2 weeks. We might get snow here to night, only 3 cm. Should I wake early and look out my window?
As you see in the above picture my body guard and I did brave the cold temps....

Not for a round of the highly popular, past-time sport of Gate Ball, but to visit my outside friend、 大ちゃん、who views the Pacific ocean.

To say warm we walked down the street popping in and out of gift shops to stay warm... I even found a nice yarn shop along the way, but sadly there was no fancy sock yarn to be bought. The socks featured with "Dai" are my Sockamania New Years socks for the little sis. Renaissance 100% wool yarn, super soft!

I just can't get a good picture of this... the Slippery sock from Knitty.com. It is a lot of fun to work on with all the twists and cables. This is the first time I am understanding cabling without a cable needle. So quick and easy? Well it is going quickly, or is that because I am dying to see the results? Or trying to burn through all my yarn? This color is Envy by lorna's laces. Aren't you Envious?? huh huh... Sorry. m(_ _)m (To the left is a little bowing dude.)

Then I went indoors for my own "Push SUMOre Stitches." Is that what they would call that here?? Should I start that event? Would the 400 pound wrestlers get offended and sit on us regardless off the sharp needles?? well I worked on the simple boring blue sock so I could avoid any wrestler conflict.

While the weather is so beautiful..and cold.. I still felt like I needed to ride the train really far.. 3 hours (so I could knit) ... and see how cold it really is in other areas. I ran across this super cool spot. I believe it might be a natural gizer(sp?)

But don't worry about the almost freezing temperatures in the sunny day because... you can join this lively bunch for a dip...
If you chat it up with the volunteer galおばさん who mans the towel vending machine, you will learn this is a special hot spring for your feet.
Would this work in the states??? Cool ... but .... really... this hot springs is situated next to a busy intersection. Note the 10 story building in the background. I am really glad it is not for full bathing! Maybe that is why they designated this as a foot springs guarded with tough おばさん-gal?
I leave you with a soothing picture to dissolve your angry feelings after having read to the end of this blog to find.... there really in not much knitting content here or any surprise skien of yarn give away, just the random adventures of a girl with needles, Sockergirl.
また、来てね。

Friday, January 11, 2008

おひさしぶり

I did not realize I took a longer vacation from the blog than expected. I was sooo on vacation that I forgot to take a picture of pair #38 for the year... my third pair of banana socks made in the Eleanor pattern for my music friend. I guess you will all be in the dark on this pair. If I catch my friend wearing the socks I will try to sneak a picture.

The first picture is of the mono colored Christmas lights around here and the famous tower in featured in most dramas. These people do not know how to do Christmas lights likes we Americans, variety of colors with various shapes. Kind of missed those this year.... but in exchange I tried to show my patriotism by attending this next event:

I got up early and fought the winds and rain to see this guy wave to the crowd. He only does this twice a year at specific times. In order to see this we had special security checks and polite body searches, the women police patted-down the women. We were handed flags to show our spirit. It turned out to be a very cooler event than I expected.

Then I went to mom and dad's where it is suppose to be warmer than where I live. But as you can see I ran into some of this white stuff around New years. Crazy!! Here is a picture of our outside activities we planned for this cold snowy day:

We are making pounding rice for the New years, it only took about 5 hours. Just think I could have made a sock in that time instead of 12 trays of rice cakes... outside in the cold! Really it was fun because I got to eat rice cakes for the next week as well as being with friends and family. (Dad is in the left back corner.)
Then the big New years Eve came and mom, dad and I had this great idea to run down to the local shrine at midnight. We thought it was an original idea...

Well... we knew would not be along at the shrine, but we did not expect the lines in the country side.

Then the next day we climbed a mountain to this temple to make more wishes for the new year. We even fought the crowds to buy a charm for my little niece's health... and it fell out of our bag somewhere on the mountain. I hope that is not bad luck! (well really we were suppose to buy this charm at the shrine, but forgot as we went for the free soup and hot ginger drink!)

After all that fun at with the family... I had to return via a 14 hour train. AND that is when I had time to knit this scarf, the branching out scarf, made from mohair. Fortunately, this pattern is rather fool proof because you can not rip back mohair.

Oh, and finally here is the Sockamania New Years Pattern I have one sock done... this pair is for my little sister :)