pinku

Weekend (Feb 25-26)

Five things I did on the weekend (via Red Current)

So I have been really busy lately, but feel very guilty about not posting. So here's a list of what I did on the weekend:

1. Had C&J over for dinner. Since it was a special 'long time no see, catch-up dinner', Darin pulled out all the stops and served up classy frito pies for everyone. That was a first for everyone. I even got a frozen sara lee cheesecake (a difficult find in Japan)

frito pie

the aftermath (btw, we have switched from kirin to asahi gold so Darin can win this robot - as the website says, 'it talks, it keeps your beer cold, it opens your beers AND it pours your beers'. So as you can see the beer drinking was for a worthy cause)

2. I had a business meeting with my partners, Pinn and Taeko. I might have mentioned my idea to some of you, but it looks like it really is going to happen. I'm not going to give out any details yet - don't want to jinx it, but I'm very excited. Keep watching this space for news....

3. Went to the latest clothes swap with Pinn, Jo, Jenn, Martine and about 50 other women. Got rid of a lot of clothes and picked up some really great pieces!!

4. Cried while watching the women's figure skating finals. I hadn't watched any of the Olympics, but this was great. Every time they had a 'special background story' on a skater, I'd cry. So much hardship, so much glory. I felt like a proud mum. Glad that Japan picked up at least one medal and it was a pretty gold one too. Have any of you girls living in Tokyo ever seen an ice skating rink?

5. Daz and I found a butterfly in our apartment. At first we thought it had flown in from outside but we soon realized that it was trying to fly but couldn't . Soon the realization hit us that this butterfly's metamorphis more than likely occured somewhere in our house. It was kind of gross and cool all at the same time. The butterfly started flying all of a sudden yesterday so we released him into the wild, wild wilderness of Tokyo to begin a beautiful new butterfly life cycle.

Bonus list

One thing I did at lunch:

1. Listened to Craftypod while knitting my SockapalOOOza sock. Am down to the toe decreases so I might have an exciting sock photo for  you soon.

Four things

Part of my Valentine's Day present - I love me some berries!

spring in winter in the park - I love me some row boat action (Valentine's Day 2006)

Tagged by Lucy

Four jobs I've had:

Making sandwiches and hamburgers at a local takeaway
Call-centre operator
Translator
The 7-11 (this was my favourite by far - unlimited magazine reading time, free slurpies, time to do uni work and I really loved it when people asked what time we closed)

Four Movies I can watch over and over:

Dirty Dancing - I know all the songs off by heart....it's true
Valley Girl - I love Nicholas Cage
Raiders of the Lost Ark - I love Harrison Ford
Pretty Woman - I do NOT love Richard Gere but this movie.....a classic

Special mention: Little Lord Fauntleroy (newer version with Ricky Shroder) - used to watch this all the time with my mum

Four Places I've Lived:

Brisbane, Australia
Hirosaki, Japan
Kyoto, Japan
Oakland, USA

TV shows I love:

Veronica Mars
Project Runway/Catwalk
The Daily Show
The Sopranos - can't wait for the new season in March!

Four places I've vacationed:

China (this was a super poor student vacation when I was 20 - one of the most interesting months of my life)
Sarawak and Sabah, Malaysia (probably climbed the only mountain I will EVER climb - Mt Kinabalu)
Thailand - got married!
India - got Delhi belly!

Four of my favorite dishes:

Crepes with lemon and sugar (I will eat these until I die)
Any Japanese food (esp. miso soup, sushi, oyakodon, any nabe and Japanese-style mabo dofu)
Anything from the King Chow (my dad's restaurant) but especially the bbq pork after it comes out the oven, King Chow special chow mein, steak and black bean, peking beef, mongolian lamb and the new Malaysian curries are out of this world
Spagbog - there's nothing like a bowl of spagbog - the ultimate comfort food.

Special mention: my mum's meatloaf - thank goodness I have mastered this recipe...

Four sites I visit daily:

Bloglines
Sydney Morning Herald
Yahoo Japan Weather
My credit card website.....

Four places I would rather be right now:

Swimming outside anywhere warm
At home, knitting in bed
Travelling in South East Asia
Getting a massage/pedicure/manicure

Forecast (with full pics this time)

You know why this year sucks? Because four of Japan's regular national holidays fall on Saturdays meaning that I miss out on four free days off. Today is one of those days. I think subliminally that affected my morning. I just couldn't decide what to wear today, so I took the morning off work. Man, is there anything more civilized than taking the morning off work to have a long shower, a walk in the park, and a coffee and conversation in the sunshine with your sweetie. I was able to get to work in a non-crowded train,  and have a full 45 minute swim before starting work (usually a rushed 30 minutes in my lunchbreak).

Ok - I could have spent the morning tweaking the photos of Forecast but decided to leave them as is. This is an awesome pattern. Thanks Stephanie! Why is it awesome? Because it is knit in one piece, top down (why knit clothing any other way??), there is no shaping but it still looks fitted, and it is a quick interesting textural knit. I loved knitting with Rowan Cork and it is soft against the skin and super warm (I ended up wearing it to work 3 out of 5 days and was considering wearing it again today).

• Pattern: Forecast by Stephanie Japel (size 36.5 inch chest)
• Yarn: 9 and a half balls Rowan Cork (now discontinued) I would never have chosen this colour but it was the only yarn I had lying around that I got gauge with.
• Needles: US 8 and 10 (I think)
• Buttons: yellow vintage flowers from my collection (that I amassed a few months ago when I was addicted to buying vintage buttons off ebay)
• Pattern changes: I copied Winnie's awesome version of forecast and started the lower border on the sleeves at the elbow to give it a more fitted look, the garter stitch for the sleeve would have been just too baggy. I also decreased an additional six sts when starting the lower border on the sleeve. And I added about an inch and a half or two inches to the body before starting the border and also added an additional 10 rows to the lower border on the body. The extra length was a real winner. I also left out the bobbles and just knitted a simple 4x4 cable - a lot less going on and I didn't have to look at any chart!!

A full-length shot

Too far away you say. Ok, here's a closer one.

Whoa too close - your face is freaking me out. Take a few steps back already.

That's better. And a close-up.

Happy Birthday Chris!

My little brother turns 23 today. He brings sunshine and laughter into the lives of all that know him. He has a new blog and will soon be travelling to Europe for the first time. Chris, did you know that you share your birthday with hottie, mena suvari, ziyi zhang, joe pesci and carmen miranda?

ps I have photos of my finished Forecast, but you'll have to tune in tomorrow to see them!! Today is dedicated to little brothers - if you have one go and give them a big kiss (even if it embarasses them).

Speaking of embarassing things we do to siblings. I'm going to turn back the clock to 1987. I was 12. Chris was 4. As you can see, age-wise I was in a powerful position. I've decided that this is my best art project to date - well except for the giant box of smarties I made as my pop art project in high school. This photo makes my heart melt. He was so sweet (and still is of course). I have a feeling I told him he couldn't move otherwise....well you know the kinds of things you threaten your brothers and sisters with. (Thanks for the photo Stephen....now I'm feeling all nostalgic)

New knitting tv program in New York? Need your advice!!

Alas you must wait at least another day for a full pic of Forecast. I got back late from our S+B last night and wanted nothing more than to go straight to bed. It was a great night even though I didn't knit a stitch.

First I did an interview for NHK digital radio that should be on the Internet next week. I'll provide the link if you are interested in hearing my flagging Japanese!! Ha! Then we had an unexpected guest, artist Anna Maltz  who just happens to be visiting a friend here in Tokes. You might have seen her knitted naked suits before. Darin really liked the chest hair.

This is the 'need your advice' section of this post!

One of our friends is a tv producer in the US and she is putting together an idea for a knitting show based in the NY area. I have emailed some of my ideas about places and particularly outstanding blog/knitting personalities, but do you have any?? You are free to recommend yourself as a possible host as well :)

Our friend wrote:

We would need to find a NYC knitting place and person who would be good on camera: full of passion, hip, really up on new knitting trends and ideas that new, and experienced knitters could enjoy. What do you guys want to see on a knitting show? Do you know any knitting places in New York City or close by, that have a cool bunch of people that hang out and create a fun atmosphere?

So, I have never seen Knitty Gritty but I hear good things. Vickie Howell seems cute and qualified. What do you all think? I like the DIY aspect of the program and have just found the instructions for making my own top whorl spindle out of CDs. Thanks Knitty Gritty.

You can leave suggestions or ideas in the comments or email me at pinkurocks (at) yahoo (dot) com!! Thanks in advance!!

Cohol + Forecast

My weekend consisted of heavy metal and knitting. Actually there was quite a lot of beer involved and I even had a group of eight people at our house on Sunday helping me decide on the colour of buttons to use for Forecast. I am still undecided, but have sewn on 10 yellow buttons because that was the only colour of which I had ten matching buttons.

You may be able to tell from the above photos that I was torn between red and yellow buttons. I still really like the red and am finding it hard to come to terms with the yellow. I will take a full shot of Forecast in the next couple of days. I've worn it to work for the past two days - they must think that I don't have many clothes. They would be wrong in thinking that. It's just that this cardie is super warm - merino wool - how I love thee.

dough-knit

I feel like a completely random post today. The weather is miserable - overcast, cold and rainy.

After reading Blue Lotus's post the other day about Doughnut Plant, I thought I'd check them out even though I have never been a doughnut fan except for those hot cinnamon sugar doughnuts that come straight out of the hot oil and into my mouth at Doughnut King at Stafford City (ok local hometown reference - sorry). Anyways, I found that the newly-opened Dean and Deluca Cafe near my work sells the glazed ones, so I went there in my lunchbreak yesterday on a doughnut mission. Ok - normally I wouldn't pay 320 yen for a doughnut, but after travelling in Australia which was surprisingly expensive, all of a sudden 320 yen seemed reasonable for a rare treat anyway. I'm not a doughnut connoiseur, but it was pretty good although I am sure it would have been better fresh as is the case with all deep-fried food. I chose the pistachio-flavoured one and the only thing I didn't like was the amaretto flavour. So today I went back and bought a vanilla bean flavoured one instead.....it was good too. Not oily, but the glaze is really sticky so now there is doughnut glaze all over my mouse. And man are those doughnuts big. The man at Dean and Deluca was insistent about wrapping my one doughnut in wax paper, then putting it in a paper bag and then putting that bag in another plastic carry bag. When I told him I didn't want a plastic bag he told me in a whispered voice that the doughnut oil would stain the bag. Shock, horror! Little did he know that it wouldn't be in the bag long enough to stain it. I have banned myself from going back now at least until next month...

FYI - you can also buy them on the Internet here in Japan.

the vanilla bean one with my hand included for scale

Continuing on in random fashion, I'm really glad that I never listed myself as a knitting blog...You know why - coz I would so get my butt kicked out of the webring for hardly ever posting stuff about knitting. However here's a knitting picture for you. It's a new ad for Kanebo that I spied (=couldn't miss) in the subway station today. Um, they are some hot knitted hotpants if you know what I mean. That can be my pink fix for January...even though it's February.

And to finish up, I started watching Project Catwalk - the UK version of Project Runway. It's pretty much exactly the same except everyone's got British accents, they've got Liz Hurley instead of Heidi Klum and they focus quite a bit on who's getting pissed and who's sleeping with who....my vision of perfect reality tv entertainment. The garments also seem a lot more experimental than the ones produced by the designers in the US version - that's just an observation.

Oh wait - I have a Tokyo craft community announcement!! AVRIL is having a week sale from tomorrow until next Wednesday. You can also buy a box of yarn for either 5000 or 10,000 yen on the Internet - I think you can choose between small or large gauge yarn.