pinku

Loretta Bendall Mok

Say hi to Loretta - the newest additiion to our family. We have her living separately from Sugar for now, but it's been fun to watch them react to each other's squeaks since Loretta arrived yesterday. I think they are going to get along famously. She is SO tiny compared with Sugar and I want to cuddle her so badly, but we are holding off for a couple of days so she can get used to her new surroundings. I wish that was love in her eyes in the photo but to be honest it's pure fear. She is eating, drinking and pooing though, so they are all good signs that she is adjusting. Hopefully in a couple of days we'll be able to pick her up and start introducing her to Sugar. Sisters are the best!! Hey neen!

And since it is Friday here are some pink photos sent to me by my friend Shirl who lives in London. She visited Paris recently and went to the Grand Palais art exhibit - lucky her and lucky me that I can visit all of these awesome places vicariously through her.

PINK WINNERS!!!

Drumroll.........and the winning photos of the Pinku 2nd birthday photo contest are:

Vanessa Oguchi

Hitomi Chinda

Vanessa Oguchi

Vanessa Oguchi

Congratulations to Vanessa and Hitomi - you will be receiving a special pink prize soon! My two judges....(well there was actually supposed to be three, but my third judge piked!!!) each selected their two favourite photos and they did not know who took each photo. Vanessa swept the board with her genius in capturing the love of pink BUT I must say that I truly loved every single photo that was entered and if I was a rich woman I would send a prize to everyone. Seriously. I am not just saying that. Thank you all so much for taking the time to participate!!!!!!

All of the submitted photos will be posted in my permanent pink fix folder and everyone will be credited accordingly.

A big pink thank you to you all!

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!!!!

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

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

Weekly Pink Fix

ok, so the pink fixes certainly haven't been coming weekly (not even monthly) but today's pink fix was certainly worth waiting for.

Darin just sent me this email:

I saw this weird ass logo on a bus yesterday, so I took a keitai pic so I could look it up - boy am I glad I did!!!
http://mammastar.com/e-menu.htm

I borrowed this image of their website - I hope they don't mind!! Dude the star has stubble! Only in Japan. Click on the link above to read some hella funny Engrish!

up, up, and away

Thanks for all your help ladies! I think I am going to leave Tina (that's what we call my laptop) here in Tokes. It's kinda heavy anyway and the last thing I really want is to lug an extra 2 killos around on holiday. Now we are three hours away from leaving our house, then we get on a bus that will take us to Narita Airport and that takes 2 hours. We then wait 2 hours at the airport and then fly direct to NYC, which takes 14 hours crossing 14 time zones. I have my comfy yoga pants to wear on the plane, a refreshing facial spritz and some colourful sock knitting. CAN'T WAIT!!

ok. I seriously gotta go finish packing now!!!

I leave you with a pretty pink pic of Joy's gloomy bears. Thanks Joy and see you next week!!

ps Darin left a comment on pinku yesterday:

Katherine says noone will like my jokes, but I made a page of a couple knitting related ideas I had yesterday: www.bendall.biz/stinku.html

Just for the record I did find it funny.

Lucky Ladies!

The first lucky lady today is Erin. Check out her new pink vespa!!! She's also trying to think of a name for her lovely pink ride....all suggestions welcome! I think she definitely needs a name from the 50s like Laverne, Frenchy, or Rizzo!!

The second lucky lady is me coz there are only two sleeps until we leave on a jet plane!! I can't wait to go to Teva's book launch in Manhattan next week. Joy has organized a big group of NYC knitting gals to come and I can't wait to meet everyone. I just checked the weekend weather forecast for NYC and it says 72 degrees and thunderstorms. I learnt from living in the States a few years ago that anything above 70 is good news (you know I come from the land of celcius and semi-tropical weather - Brisbane is about to hit winter and the daytime temps are still not below 20 degrees celcius). I like thunderstorms too, but hopefully we'll get some fine weather too. I might even be able to wear my merino wool shrug (i.e. if I block and seam it over the next two days). If anyone has any suggestions of MUST visit yarn stores, thrift stores, etc, in the NYC area then please send 'em my way. I especially like reconstructed clothing lately.

SWAP UPDATE: Have you sent out your package?? Mine was sent off today - I bought and made all of the goodies a while ago, but I just never got around to putting it all together. Anyway, if you haven't do your best to try and get your swap packages out sooner rather than later. I was lucky to receive an unexpected package (she's not my swap partner) full of colourful, fun hair clips from the very talented Lucy in Melbourne. Thanks so much!!! Photo to come.

Last but not least, I leave you with a picture Darin took today of a little doggie near our local 7-11. I think it is just so funny. We'd love nothing more than to have a dog come live with us, but dogs and cats are not allowed according to our apartment lease!!

Think pink!

Melinda in Kobe sent me some really great pink photos that she took recently. Thank you so much! I really have to start taking more pink photos - pink makes you feel good. Here are my favourite two - Enjoy!!

I like a man that's confident enough to embrace pink in his life!

ps How fantastic was the Veronica Mars Season One finale (there's a great write-up in Salon) - I cried and hid my eyes quite a bit - I never said I wasn't a whimp! My friend Claire totally guessed who killed Lily after re-watching last week's episode - she's so clever like that. You know Claire - if you had a blog, I'd like totally link you right now!!!

Another swap??

I had a meeting at work this morning and all I could think about were the brightly coloured striped knee-high socks that I want to start knitting. I finally turned the heel on Darin's 2nd sock, so I am on the home stretch - thank goodness. Is there anything better than listening to music and knitting a sock on the train??!!

So Claire and I made it to the When Masters Were Young Film Series put on by the Japan Foundation on Sunday. We did the double feature and saw Insect Woman and the Tokyo Wanderer. I definitely enjoyed the Tokyo Wanderer more basically because it was a lot more fun - it was colourful, entertaining, had a great theme song, and Japan in the 60s looked fabulous (signage masters). Now the Insect Woman did grow on me (I particularly liked Imamura's use of stills throughout the film), but even though it was described as a serious comedy, it's hard to get past scenes where a father sucks pus out of his daughter's wound (for a reason that I have yet to understand), and other scenes of.......well it's hard to describe, but I'll use Claire's exact words because they really describe it perfectly.......scenes of tit sucking incest. She also described these scenes as social realism, but I like the first description better. I think I'll just leave it at that.

Whew...well I am going to leave you with some fabulous pink fixes that Stacey sent to me - they are so great - thank you for making my day a little pinker!!!

ladies at the Denver Zoo

dreamy wall of pink yarn

Fatima to Stacey (pink flower swap)

Stacey says, 'These dogs were outside a little shop called The Barkery on Balboa
Island in Newport Beach, California. One of them was named Taco-Bella!'

Stacey to Fatima (pink flower swap)

ps Hope you all had a nice Easter! I have been thinking about another swap - do you all have any ideas?? - at the moment I am leaning towards a swap of pink hair ornaments (bobby pins, barettes, hair ties, etc) What do you think?

You know you love it!

Pink that is...Wow, the pink fixes are flowing in (well, two this week anyway). Today's pink fix was sent all the way from New York by my friend Angie (hi Angie - see you real soon!!). It is really cute and I love that she cut it out of the New York Times and sent it to me via snail mail (how much does everyone love old school mail now that everyone emails). I am ashamed though because the two main things I get in the mail are bills and things I've bought online (I blame it on living in Japan :P).

Anyway, here is some pink to brighten up your Thursday or possibly Friday!! (click on pic to make it bigger!!)

Spring - you had better buck up!

Nothing very exciting to report today. I am about to turn the heel of Darin's 2nd sock, and soon I should be able to finish the mohair shrug project that has been languishing in my WIP basket for a while. Then I can start on some fun spring projects which will include Iris from Rowan 35 using the kettle-dyed merino from Uruguay (yum!) and those knee-high mulit-striped socks (from SNB1) using the cascade fixation that the nipper sent me in my first ever swap I think more than a year ago now.... You know living in Japan I could buy a pair in a second, but it just wouldn't be the same, would it??!!

Spring officially started on Monday AND the weather was great, but the weather has turned cold again. Very depressing. The cherry blossoms are going to be about 10 days later than last year. I am just thinking that this annoying rain better not be a part of the Spring/Summer weather coming up. I must admit it does annoy me when people walk around with umbrellas in crowded Tokyo when it is raining HARDLY at all. I mean seriously - you would have a hard time even getting damp.

Some exciting events coming up over the next few weeks:

The Japan Foundation Film Series Part II: When Master's were young - 1960s - I have my eye on The Insect Woman and The Tokyo Wanderer.

Kawasaki's annual Fertility Festival to be held on April 2/3 this year

Of course, MASSIVE Hanami parties all over Japan probably from around April 2 (the sakura are due to be in full bloom around April 7).

And another CLOTHING swap (woohoo):

Back by popular demand, bursting closets and an urge for spring cleaning is the second "Your Clothes Friend" clothing swap! Too many clothes and too little room?  Tired of wearing the same thing to work every week?  Want to donate clothes and money to a good cause but are unsure of where to go?  Come and swap with me!  Bring your clean clothes that you no longer want to the cafe, add them to the pile of treasures and feel free to try on and take as many items there as you like!

The last event in December generated several bags of clothing for donation and every one of the 65 women went home with something new for their wardrobe.  Remember, as Coco Chanel said, "The best color in the whole world, is the one that looks good, on you!"  If you don't like something in
your closet, don't hestitate to bring it along to the swap!

All season items will be accepted but should be in clean, functional condition.

Sunday, April 17th at Cozmos Cafe in Shibuya from 3-6pm.  Entrance is 2,000 yen, including one drink and a 500 yen bar list will be available.  A map for Cozmos can be found here: http://www.cozmoscafe.com/

Remaining clothing will be donated to the Salvation Army, Saalaa Women's shelter, and Goonj (a charity based in India). Money raised from the door will go to Oxfam Japan, HELP (a Tokyo based
women's shelter), and the Red Cross (tsunami victims).

And to finish off, a pink fix sent in by Jenna - Spring in San Mateo! Thanks Jenna!

Pink Fix

To the best of my knowledge, this is not a sakura (cherry blossom) tree but an ume tree (plum blossom). Darin took this picture of this crazy tree near our house - seems kind of impossible don't you think.

BTW, thanks for all your very kind comments about the keepsake shawl. It's so pretty I don't know where to keep it. I think I will fold it up in tissue paper or something - at the moment it is draped over our sofa.

Hisashiburi no pink fix!

Brought to us by the very talented Tyler Ensrude, is this very disturbing picture of a Japanese man with a pink hat, pink gloves, and handbag carrying a pink doll! Please note this is the first pinku entry brought to you from my brand spanking new (well slightly used actually) 15-inch G4 powerbook. Am very excited to have a new toy!!

Are you a Secret Pink Earring Swap participant??

Well, then I have a BIG surprise for you!! You love surprises, right??!! Ok - so the deal is that Keith, one of the co-founders of the fabulous Fred Flare contacted me and said that he loved the idea of the Secret Pink Earring Swap soooo much that he wants to send another, that's right, another pair of earrings to every girl who participated in the swap (38 girls in total) - no strings attached. How absolutely bloody fantastic!! I don't usually swear (online), but this is soo exciting and a truly generous thought. Beware of visiting Fred, because their stuff is SOOO cute that you may just find yourself typing in those credit card numbers before you know it!!! Their summer sale is also on right now!! I'm in love with their My Little Pony tee - how cute!!

So, if you don't mind your mailing address to be sent to Fred Flare, drop me a line. I will not pass on your name and mailing address until I have heard from you. They have promised that your contact details will not be passed on or kept for marketing purposes! I will also send out a group email to everyone that participated in case they don't see this post.

To give you a little pink boost this week, I have a pink fix to share with you submitted by the fabulously talented Martine at Frangipani!!! Thanks dear!

Little Bo-Peep

Secret PINK earring Swap

ok. The deadline to sign up for the secret PINK earring swap has passed, and everyone has been sent an email with the full name and address of their swap partner. If you haven't received your email, then there's a problem - email me immediately!! This is the person you need to send a pair of earrings to. You will receive a pair of earrings from a different person.

As a lot of swap participants don't have a blog, if possible send me a photo of you and your earrings once you receive them or just the earrings if you're shy :) and I'll post them here in a pinku gallery so we can all see who got what!!!

FYI, the draw was completely random (Darin pulled little bits of paper out of my travel knitting bag), except there were an odd number of participants so I am sending earrings to two people.

Pink Fix

Today's pink fix was submitted by Tyler our friend and neighbour!! Thanks!! Check out more of his Tokyo photos on his website!! And, yes, girls really do dress like this here in Tokyo!!!

Pink Fix??!! Fix Pia??!!

I'm way behind on posting some pink pics, but don't think for a minute that my love for pink has waned. This is not a fad, it is true love. Remember if you have any pretty pink pics lying around on your hard drive send them my way. Pinku always needs pink.

spring pink in Japan

It might have been Kim's sayonara party, but I ended up with a hot pink hairdryer. Thanks Kim!!

pink bowling shoes - does it get any better than this

ok. now the knitting update and cry for help. I do love Pia (from Rowan 35) and I was on the way to finishing the front when I looked at the back again and decided that the decreases could have been done better. I think I have mastered the pattern and the type of decreases to do, BUT I can't understand when to decrease and how many times to do it. Japanese patterns always have the number of rows that you will complete when you do decreases, but the Rowan patterns don't. I have already posted for help on the Knitty board, but if you can help me.....please do. I tried to write it all down and work it out mathematically....but I am still lost.

Here's Pia so far:

So, here's what it says in the pattern:

dec 1 st at each end of next 3 rows, then on foll 2 alt rows, then on every foll 4th row until 26 sts rem.

Then work 13 rows, ending with a WS.

So before you start those decreases you have 40 stitches - you want 26 stitches, therefore you must lose 14 stitches, right?? I also figure that you must decrease evenly (dec 7sts on each side) at both the end of the RS and WS to create the right shape fabric.

Here's what I have worked out:

Row 1 (RS) dec 1 st at end of row - now 39 sts
Row 2 (WS) dec 1 st at end of row - now 38 sts
Row 3 (RS) dec 1 st at end of row - now 37 sts
Row 4 (WS) no dec
Row 5 (RS) dec 1 st at end of row - now 36 sts
Row 6 (WS) dec 1 st at end of row - now 35 sts
Row 7 (RS) no dec
Row 8 (WS) dec 1 st at end of row - now 34 sts
Row 9 (RS) dec 1 st at end of row - now 33 sts
Row 10 (WS) no dec
Row 11 (RS) no dec
Row 12 (WS) dec 1 st at end of row - now 32 sts
Row 13 (RS) dec 1 st at end of row - now 31 sts
Row 14 (WS) no dec
Row 15 (RS) no dec
Row 16 (WS) dec 1 st at end of row - now 30 sts
Row 17 (RS) dec 1 st at end of row - now 29 sts
Row 18 (WS) no dec
Row 19 (RS) no dec
Row 20 (WS) dec 1 st at end of row - now 28 sts
Row 21 (RS) dec 1 st at end of row - now 27 sts
Row 22 (WS) no dec
Row 23 (RS) no dec
Row 24 (WS) dec 1 st at end of row - now 26 sts

So now there are 26 sts, but if I knit another 13 rows I finish on a RS row with the wrong side facing - aghhhh!!

Even China needs a little pink...

Received this beautiful pic from Nicole:

Was sorting thru some old pics of China when I discovered this pink-roofed house set among the water chestnuts, rice paddies & dwarfed by limestone karsts. It's just outside Yangshuo, Guilin (Southern China).

I've got an inkling that pink will eventually bring this world together......

Pink Wednesday

Here's a very hot pink submission from Andrea. Enjoy!

Pink Monday

Pinku has been very lucky to receive two pretty pink pictures from Alison - a fellow knitter in Taiwan. There's really no better time for a pink fix than first thing Monday morning - or anytime on Monday really. Does anyone ever really want to be at work on Monday??

Thanks for the photos, Alison.

Friday Pink Fix

Gotta good one for you on this kinda fine, but cold again Friday here in Tokyo. This picture is really beautiful. Another great submission from Frangipani - check out this girl's site to see more of her beautiful photos. Enjoy!

I'm feeling good on this Friday morning despite the fact that I have a recurring earache, the weather is cold again, didn't get much sleep, there were some really loud teenage girls on the train this morning (they were disrupting my quiet reading time), and am poor til next payday. I feel great and I think it's coz it's Friday. Got no money, but I have a cupboard full of yarn just dying to be made into something weekend.......yay for yarn stashes!

Oh and I've added a family photo album to the site. I have password-protected it though - there are some weirdos out there and I didn't think you'd all be that interested in a lot of photos of me and my family. If you are though, email me and I'll give you the password!!!

HAVE A VERY PINK WEEKEND!

Pink Fix for the week!

This week's cute submission is from the talented Kinki at 35 degrees. Japanese people have really taken this dog-related consumerism to a whole new level!!! Remember to send those pink photos you got lying around on your hard drive to pinku - she needs her fix!

Pink Fix for the week (or maybe two)

I once told my friend Amanda not to be sad about being back in Japan (she had just returned back from a trip home to Australia), coz Japan has really cute seasonal beers! This seemed to make her feel better, and this year's spring beer makes me feel better. I took this photo of the pretty pink ume flowers today - I can't wait for the cherry blossoms.

If you haven't already, bring some pink into your life already!!

Pink chairs!

Pinku is doing sophisticated this week with a fine pink fix contribution from Miss Martine.

Also, Pinku was very happy to be kindly mentioned in the Bondi Books blog - thanks Josh! Bondi Books is the newest second-hand English bookstore addition to Tokyo. Visit the store (it's way stylish) and make a day of it, have a cuppa with Josh (we have to do that some time), buy some books (of course), visit the park, row a boat, and enjoy KICHIJOJI coz it rules! If you live in Tokyo and haven't been then you are really missing out!

Some photos

Pink Fix for the week - cute little corner shop in Shibuya

Beijing from the sky

House made out of milk cartons at the Edo Tatemono Museum

Beer fairy at the Beer Museum in Ebisu

Chuo train line at night

Weekly Pink Fix Updated

So, I finally updated the 'Weekly Pink Fix' section and added our two contributions. The first is from the talented Kinki of 35 degrees fame - a hilarious blog about the JOYS of living in Japan. Our second contribution is from Eddie (who should definitely start writing his blog again!!!).

Check out their submissions here! Or click on the yet to be renamed pink square in the top right-hand corner of this page.

Beijing

Well, have finally got around to putting my Beijing slideshow together.

Also, have also updated the pink item of the week corner. This week's photo was provided by my talented friend, Amanda who recently got back from a trip to Vietnam - lucky her!!!