pinku

Gobble Gobble

Happy Thanksgiving to all the Americans out there!

It's November 24 here in Japan, but it's not a holiday. Luckily for us, yesterday was a national holiday, so to celebrate we threw our third annual Thanksgiving lunch. No turkey though - you see my oven is the size of a shoe box making it tough to cook for 10 people!! We did eat garlic and rosemary roasted chicken (quite a success considering it was the very first time I roasted chicken), apple and cranberry stuffing, cornbread muffins, gravy, cheesey potato bake, lots of vegies and thanks to Jo, we enjoyed German chocolate pie and apple crumble. Thanks to everyone for coming esp our guests from afar, Steph and Keith!! I wish I had some photos for you but I was too busy cooking and eating. We did however make everyone draw a turkey and here are their pics.

**** We were going to judge Pinku's second photo contest yesterday but we were one judge short - hopefully we get around to it on the weekend and I'll announce the results next week when the US is back from holidays!! Thank you all so much for your entries. I love all of them and am glad that I don't have to choose the winner. ****** View all entries here!!

Have a great long weekend and see you next week!

New Scarf Sunday

Wow I NEVER-EVER post on a Sunday let alone at 8:42am, but we're about to head to Ananda to see what magic I can work with a drop spindle. Very excited - feels like Christmas.

Since I am doing mostly secret knitting right now, here's a photo of Teva Durham's leaf cravat that I finished a while ago. A cute pattern and a quick knit! I received the yarn and the pattern at Teva's book signing in New York in June. The only gripe I have is that the leaf rolls even after some heavy blocking. Did I knit it too tight or something? It still looks cute though.

And here's Jenn's entry to the Pinku photo contest. It's called 'caged Hannah' - this is a photo of Regina's daughter about to strut down the runway of a knitwear fashion show. CUTE!

Only a day and a half left to get your entries in to win an yet-to-be-determined prize!!! HURRY!

Friday fun!

Wow, can you believe it's Friday again! I mean it makes me happy, but the end of the year always goes so fast. I have been meaning to update ALL week. There were a number of things that I was going to blog about:

1. The dullness of Princess Nori's ( or now plain ol' Sayako Kuroda) wedding dress or should I say 'satin sack' (see pic 5). Even Darin commented on its um.....lack of spark. She looked way more amazing in her junihitoe (12-layered kimono).

2. These hot new banana hammocks found by Darin (via boing boing). I personally wish Darin would wear this one.

3. Marianne Isager (a well-known Danish knitwear designer) came to our S+B on Tuesday (hi Marianne if you are reading this!!) She'll be back in Tokyo in February when she is going to bring some examples of Scandanavian knitting!!! Sometimes it really pays to live in Tokyo. Darin also made it to his first S+B, which was fun. We had another three newspaper reporters this week, and some representatives from the Puppy Yarn company and Nihon Vogue. If only we could work out a way to make money out of this - wouldn't that be great!

4. We visited Mitake-san (nice little day trip from Tokyo) last weekend to see the autumn leaves - photos here!

5. I was going to blog about how super excited I am that myself and a few of the SNB ladies are going to learn how to use a drop spindle this weekend at Ananda!! Woohoo! It's been super crafty in Japan lately with knit-outs happening all over the place. Last weekend we went to the Rowan shop in Ebisu to pick up a free 100g skein of chunky tweed and this weekend there's a mini knit-out at the Puppy store in Shimokitazawa. I'm also going to Taeko's (if you visit her blog check out the amazing leafy parka that she crocheted and designed herself - amazing!!!!) Shibuya Shugeibu in Harajuku. Bring on the crafting!

6. And to finish off, I've received another seven entries to Pinku's 2nd birthday photo contest. A little pink to brighten your weekend. Remember the competition ends on Monday November 21st (COB Japan time). I will announce the winner by the end of next week - very exciting!

Andrea

Andrea

kinkers

kinkers

kinkers

kinkers

Have a great weekend!!!!

You gotta have friends!

Look who's got a new friend.

Spherey and Robo - BFF!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Jessica Hutchinson you rule. So glad I got in on the first batch of Jess's new booklet, but lucky for you there are more for sale. How cute! I received the booklet last Saturday just after I had my wisdom tooth out. I was downing painkillers and watching tv, but I just couldn't help but start one of her fun toys. I have never really been a stuffed toy fan (it's true), but Spherey has seriously added to the quality of both mine and Darin's life. Joy in the evening and joy in the morning.

I stuck to the original design - I just couldn't think of ways to make Spherey cuter than he already was. I used leftover Bouton D'or chenille for the body and some cheapo pink sparkly Chinese acrylic for the limbs. This booklet is inspirational and especially great for using up odd balls of yarn. So.many.of. those.

Jess's toys are turning up everywhere. Check out the Nipper's version of Spherey - Octopussy!

Spherey and Robo get on like a house on fire, and soon after they met they decided to watch some tv together.

Wanna see what they watched? Click below!

A little bit of Rome

A little bit of GG

Spherey wouldn't turn around for the next shot.

Finishing off with a Spherey close-up. Darin liked this one because you can see his skateboards in the background. So cute!

Mid-week pink fix

So the Pinku 2nd Birthday photo contest is heating up. I received a bunch of new entries. Keep 'em coming - you've got 12  11 days left. I am loving all of this pink love.

Contest details here.

Beth

Erin

Erin 2

Erin 3

Estelle

Jess

mary

Priscilla

Vanessa 1

Vanessa 2

Vanessa 3

Vanessa 4

Vanessa 5

Birch

So a while ago I did a swap with Amy  (thanks!!!) and she sent me a bonus present of a skein of lace weight wool from handpainted yarns. It was a bright vivid pink known as barbie rose. Very appropriate! I almost immediately wound it up and started knitting Birch. I haven't knit with lace weight yarn before, and casting on 299 stitches proved to be somewhat of a problem. I think I ended up casting on about three times. At first I attempted the garter lace version, but the stitches were a BIG pain to knit on the way back, so I ripped and started again with the stocking stich version. Much better. I finished the shawl a while ago and Amy was very clever in spotting it in one of my pictures.

Once I got used to the lace weight yarn, everything went pretty smoothly and I only had to unpick a few rows a couple of times. I didn't use any stitch markers and the pattern was very easy to memorize. And unlike the flower basket shawl, where the number of stitches increases as you go, this one decreases and it is very satisfying and exciting. I love the way it turned out, and if you don't want to spend big bucks on Kid Silk Haze (although I'd love to knit it again in KSH) then one skein of this yarn will do the trick. It's warm and cozy - perfect for the ever-cooling Tokyo nights.

And here's a close-up of the stitch pattern - so simple but pretty!

Red ruffles

Guess who arrived yesterday!? Red ruffles from New York City - just between you and me she's been bragging about the knitty cruise in NYC ever since she got here. I must admit though she's really beautiful.

Cassie you did a fantastic job with the Manos Cotton Stria. I loved the colour when I bought it but I love it even more now. I was really worried about the flimsy-ness of the yarn, but the ruffles are exquisite.

Thanks to Jac and Kris for organizing the clever Stitch Ya Neck Out swap - it really is amazing as a knitter to recieve a hand-knitted piece from the other side of the world.

ps To Miss Twiss - your turtleneck shrug is in the box to be sent out Monday. I can't believe that I finished the knitting so long ago but never managed to get it in the mail. Big slap on the wrist for me!

pps You can't tell but I had just had my last wisdom tooth pulled out (seriously like half an hour earlier) in that photo. Actually it has started to ache as I type. Off to down some painkillers!!

Pinku 2nd bday photo contest

Well so far the Andreas (both Canadian) are leading the pack. I have received three entries in the competition, but there are still 20 days left to submit your pink photos. I was going to scrap the contest basically because I am lazy and didn't want to have to promote it or anything, but I have decided to keep it going, so get those entries in to win a super secret prize (um, even I don't know what it is yet!!!)

Contest details here.

Our three entries so far - you can also check them out on flickr

Andrea Tung

Andrea Williams

Andrea Williams