pinku

Nectar

So Kim Hargreaves has finally released a book containing some of the most classic patterns from her website.

This is exciting.

Is it enough to get me back to knitting for myself? I don't know. After the almost instant gratification of baby knitting I'm not sure whether I have the patience to knit 'big' items anymore.

It's a little pricey at 16.95 pounds plus 5 pounds shipping, BUT there are 21 patterns and finally you don't need to buy the kits. That's pretty exciting.

You can view all of the patterns in the book HERE.

FO alert!

It's so nice to be knitting again. It may only be a small baby hat but we have to start somewhere. And who doesn't love a cute project that can be completed in a night. To find a project I, of course, went to my Ravelry page and checked my queue and found the Kiddie Cadet pattern. I immediately bought it and went to Yuzawaya on the way home from work and purchased some yarn.

Here is the result:

I made a few changes to the decreases on the top of the hat so it fit Jake's head better so it doesn't actually sit flat like in the pattern photos but it fits J's head perfectly. It's definitely a keeper. I've nearly finished my second one to give to a girlfriend who is due in July. Hope she likes it.

We also added one of Darin's Heroin Skateboard pins

view from top

view from the side

Oh and Jake is wearing one of my favourite purchases of late - a stylized freddie krueger tshirt. I am loving Japanese baby clothes!!

Boys

Jake turned six months old on Monday. We keep telling him to stop growing up but he just won't listen. I promise his six month birthday post is coming - when I have time to edit our latest photos. In the meantime, enjoy some great photography from our talented friend, Martine, who caught some great Jake moments at Hanami 2008 and in Nagasaki at Tyler's wedding.

Boys will be boys. Sandi and Jeff's boys wanted to hold Jake at Hanami and it wasn't long before they were using him to punch each other up. It was kind of hilarious and Jake didn't seem to mind one bit. It was a glimpse of what is to come. Oh my.

A sign of age

When we were in Kyushu recently for our friend, Tyler's wedding, we decided to travel to Fukuoka after the wedding since both Darin and I had never been. It's a lovely sized city - very Brisbane actually. Anyway we finally got around to doing something that I'd been wanting to do for a while. Purikura (Japanese photo booths) with Jake.

Wow, purikura machines have really changed since I was a high school student in Japan. We could barely keep up with the multitude of options available and what you see here is the final result. It made me feel old. I bet those 13 year old girls in line knew how to work those machines like nobody's business.

(click to see the larger image)

I personally love the I HEART ME one!! And Darin was excited to turn himself into a Panda. Oh and I loved being Snow White with my many Darin dwarves!!!

Let me indulge

It's Monday morning here in Tokyo and I just left my baby boy napping on his futon while I struggled through the nasty crowds of Tokyo rush hour to get to work. Monday mornings are hard - no way around it. I know I only post baby-related stuff now, but I never really labelled myself as a craft blog and that's just my life right now. I do feel a knit coming on though because I just downloaded a cute baby pattern from Ravelry. I may even splurge and buy new yarn for the project. I would like to knit for myself but my body is um...not what it used to be, so I'm gonna hold off for a while. It's getting warm anyway.

So let me indulge in the cuteness of my baby boy....

We love it when Jake wears hats. He has quite a few.

This one was NOT knit by me, but it's cute all the same.

Handknit by me!!

Recently we went into Yuzawaya a while back and they were selling a large variety of crazy animal hats for babies. I couldn't resist trying them on. Sorry Jake.

End of hanami - beginning of spring!!!

It's the end of hanami season in Tokyo. Parties have been going on at parks all over Tokyo the past two weeks. Our very own park was once again this year very spectacular. This was Jake's first hanami and we took him on the boats!!

I love how Japan really celebrates the cherry blossoms. It's kind of crazy. There are sakura-themed everything - including disposable nappies....of course we use that brand!!

With all this sunny weather, Jake has now been able to get some use out of his baby banz. Darin reckons he looks like a member of Duran Duran.

And in other exciting news, Jake is obsessed with dogs and our guinea pigs. They could keep him entertained for hours. He had his first close up dog experience yesterday. It went very well and luckily Jake didn't pull on his fur like he pulls on mama's hair.

Dude, I'm back at work

and that ain't no April Fool's joke.....

It's actually my third day back and it's not that bad. Darin has now become Mr Mum (or Mom as you Americans like to say) and we are all doing ok. I only cried once when leaving the house and have only choked up a few times after seeing other mums around town with their babies, Maclarens and o-balls. In preparation for his stay at home dad role, Darin wanted to rent the movie Mr Mom. I'm pretty sure that it wouldn't be of much practical help, but hey it'd probably be funny.

This is the face I had to leave at home Tuesday morning......it was hard.

Work seems unnaturally normal to me...um, except that my brain is in a constant fog from the lack of sleep. It's weird. I also just took a work phone call and they wanted to have a meeting now but I gotta run and pump. I was also simultaneously trying to purchase six bags of disposable nappies at the same time too. I told them I was free in half an hour. Weird. It's like I'm leading a secret life.

Luckily my work is pretty flexible and they have allowed me to work four days a week for the first few months and my hours have been reduced to 10 to 4:30 and with an hour lunch and two 20 to 30 minute pumping sessions, I really only work four and a half hours a day - the days are flying by so far. Darin also brings Jake to work during lunch once a week so I get a quickie cuddle. That baby smell is quite addictive.

I wasn't sure how my work would deal with the fact that I needed to pump at work. I had recently received a memo before coming back to work that encouraged mothers coming back to work to continue breastfeeding....BUT only during the night and they encourage using formula during the day. Anyway, considering that in a building of 3000 or more people I am the ONLY one pumping, they have generously offered the use of an unused meeting room for me to pump. It has two sofas (not that comfy), a great view (although I close the blinds), a cupboard to store my pump and running water to wash the parts afterwards, oh and of course let's not forget a very handy lock on the door to prevent any shocking incidents! Yay!

Hopefully I'll be able to blog a little more often (thanks work!) now. Ok gotta get back to work. I have Jake's five month update coming soon but it'll probably be next week before I get around to it!