pinku

My first Koigu!!

I received the best 'leaving Japan for a week' present yesterday. It was my final secret pal II present from Stephanie in San Diego. It was amazing. I feel so lucky. Thank you so much Stephanie - you were a fantastic secret pal II!!!!

Here's what I got:

* handmade stitch markers
* pop rocks
* the debbie bliss book 'baby knits for beginners' - so cute!!
* the cutest card with needles and real knitting on the front
* a cute super mario brothers dvd
* and finally 2 skeins of Koigu KPPPM - woohoo!

Actually I immediately put the koigu in a separate knitting bag as I am going to start knitting socks on the plane if they let me take on bamboo double points. I've had no problem with Denise needles, but those double points are awfully sharp. Damn terrorists.

So my flight leaves in 7 hours, am pretty much packed and ready to go!! See you in a week!!

Flowery joy!!

There are four days left to sign up for the Pinku's 1st birthday flower swap! Deadline is 31 October 2004. So far we have 35 flower lovers signed up from all around the world.

Email me with your full name and mailing address. Swap partners will be assigned some time next week (hopefully) - definitely by November 8.

To make this a really fun event, I have set up a separate flower swap blog here. Once we get craftin' I thought we could share photos, patterns, ideas and inspiration!! It'll be fun. So feel free to send me any ideas, photos, links that you have and I'll add them to the site (as soon as I can).

Please make sure that I have received your email and that you are signed up - I have listed everyone on the first blog post.

Fun, fun, fun!!

Check out the new flower swap blog:
http://pinkurocks.typepad.com/flowerswap2004/

ps Quick shout-out to Sarah who I met at the hair salon last night - you are the first pinku reader that I have met randomly on the street so to speak - YAY!!

Nice people!

Some very kind people from work took me out to dinner last night at an expensive french restaurant in this very cool building in downtown Tokyo that was built in 1929. They had just found out about my engagement, so the restaurant organized a special dessert - yum!!! It supposedly says 'Congratulations on your engagement' in French with my name of course.

Shake it up baby, now!!

Right now I am really relieved that Japan's biggest earthquake since the disastrous Kobe earthquake in 1995 wasn't centred in Tokyo. The damage in Niigata is terrible, but I can guarantee you that if it had been centred in Tokyo..........it would've been much worse. It is such a scary thought. We felt the earthquake and about five or six of the larger aftershocks (there has been about 209). The latest one was at about 6:30am this morning and I was awake - it is pretty hard to sleep now. Our apartment is on the 2nd floor and I feel pretty confident about its sturdiness and the fact that we could easily jump off our balcony to the ground BUT now I am at work on the 20th floor of a Tokyo highrise (the view of Fuji is usually fabulous) looking out over the skyscarpers of Shinjuku and I feel nervous. Supposedly you are safer in a big building but I'm not convinced. At least the Fall Knitty surprise was in my email inbox this morning to cheer me up - all the projects are in pink and it supports a great cause (breast cancer awareness). Three cheers for Amy!!

I leave for a visit home to Australia on Friday for a week and I am looking forward to seeing my family, the warm weather and NO possibility of earthquakes. Maybe I'll get some sleep.

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Flower Pin Swap update: we have 22 people signed up so far, remember if you want to participate send me an email with your name and mailing address. Sign-up deadline: 31 October 2004. Once I select your swap buddy you can email them asking if they have any preferences, etc.

We love birthdays!!

(thanks to daz for the birthday cake!!)

So on this day one year ago, I opened an account on Blogger and pinku was born. Before that I don't think I even knew what a blog was.... How quickly a year passes. It's all been good (except for these recent typhoons and constant wet weather). I had no conception of what it would be like having a 'website'.

List of cool things that happened in the first year of pinku's life:

* met (virtually) some of the coolest, craftiest gals around (too many to list)
* Pinku's successful Pink Earring Swap, which resulted in a free pair of earrings for every person that participated thanks to Keith at Fred Flare!!!
* the Tokyo Stitch + Bitch was born in Jan 2004
* discovered a whole lotta global love for pink
* have been inspired by all of you!!! seriously!!

So, birthdays are a time for celebration and pinku is no exception. I might be crazy, but let's do the flower swap. I say crazy because I have so much to do before the end of the year (like get married??!!!), but damn, you only live once and you always gotta be a little bit crazy.

Pinku's 1st birthday crochet/knit/fabric flower pin swap

Rules:

1. Send me an email (pinkurocks at yahoo dot com) to sign up before the October 31 deadline. Whoops forgot to add that you need to send me your full name and mailing address!

2. You can be from anywhere!!!

3. The flower must be handmade - you can use any fabric/yarn that you like. It can be a pin, hairtie/clip, wrist tie - whatever you like.

4. It must contain a little pink (beads, sequins, lace, etc - it's up to you).

5. I will assign you into pairs - you will send someone a flower and you will receive a flower from that same person (I think this will be easier to set up and monitor). It won't be a secret, but I guarantee you'll love getting your flower in the mail regardless.

6. You must be willing to send your flower overseas.

7. You must make and send your flower so that it arrives beforeChristmas

7. Spread the word and spread the love.

8. Celebrate pink today!!!!!!!

Salvation Army Bazaar in Tokyo

I finally made it to the Salvation Army Bazaar in Tokyo on Saturday and I had a blast. I highly recommend it to those who love 'real' thrift stores. My favourite section without a doubt was the old Japanese kimono/craft section. I bought 2000 yen worth of yarn including vintage black silk tape, a variety of coloured mohair, two skeins of this vintage wool boucle and some rusty coloured wool. I also bought some clothes and some really cool Japanese purses for 300 yen each.

You can buy furniture, clothes, shoes (they even had two pairs in my size??!!! but I didn't buy either), electrical appliances, antiques, stationery, fabric, vintage kimonos, bags, purses, crockery, just about anything really. Click for bazaar layout.

The bazaar is on every Saturday from 9am until 2pm. Busy but not necessary to be there at 9am. You could easily turn up at 11am and spend a good two hours looking for special treasures. Cash only (from what I could tell). You can also donate goods, which may be useful for people leaving Tokyo and looking to get rid of unwanted stuff.

Salvation Army Bazaar (information in Japanese)
2-21-2 Wada, Suginami-ku, Tokyo,
TEL: 03-3384-3769

Directions: seems like there are a variety of ways to get to the bazaar. I got a bus (heading for Nakano) from Eifukucho station on the Inokashira line. I got off the bus at 'Kouseikai Seidou-mae'. After getting off the bus, keep walking in the same direction as the bus in heading and take the first left (it's a narrow road on a slight incline), continue right to the top, turn right and the bazaar is on the left after about 100 metres (look for a white building) - you'll be entering from the back.

Lucky girl!

Sometimes I wonder about the whole blogging thing. You know those days when you really have nothing interesting going on, but luckily I have days like yesterday when I receive unexpected presents in the mail. You girls rock! Mindy sent me the cutest pink earrings and some candy in a cute little bag to celebrate my engagement and Stephanie in Toronto sent me some adorable crocheted flowers. I put everything on IMMEDIATELY!

one happy girl (new earrings and pin flowers - three in diff colours and sizes)

Now I definitely have to come up with a fun idea to celebrate Pinku's first birthday on October 21st - that's a week from today. Any ideas? How about a fabric/knitted/crocheted pink flower pin swap? Of course they all must be handmade. If you have any ideas, let me know.

Mini Celebrity

I haven't done much knitting lately. No reason really. I did find myself going through my stash bins on Monday (when it was rainy and cold) and I pulled out a single skein of Celebrity by Artful Yarns, which was given to me by the very kind Folly who was visiting Tokyo from San Francisco in July - I had fun showing her and her husband around Kichijoji. I finished this skinny scarf in one day and it is based on the Carla stitch pattern from Rowan's It's a Tape thing.

the stitch pattern up-close

Eventful!

It's been an eventful week here in Tokyo - my good friend Cam from Sydney came and stayed with us for the weekend. He was here in Tokyo on business and unfortunately Japan showed its true colours during his first stay ever in this country. First there was a relatively big earthquake on Wednesday night (5.8) and then a typhoon hit Tokyo on Saturday afternoon/evening. It was crazy trying to show our visitor around Shinjuku in the middle of the strongest typhoon to hit Tokyo in like 10 years.

I received two fantastic packages: one from my good friend, Shirl to celebrate our engagement, and one from Julie filled with Vogue Knitting and Fall Interweave Knits AND three skeins of Katia Velour (a very exciting addition to the package). Thank you girls - you made my weekend!!

It was a three day weekend here in Japan, so I had the day off yesterday. It was rainy, cold, and overcast, so I KNIT!! It felt so exciting and fun. I knit a cute little skinny scarf using the same stitch pattern as in Carla, and I think it is going to be a present. Photos tomorrow.

Keepsake Knitting

I've thought of something that I really want to knit for the wedding or as a keepsake to remind me of such an exciting time in my life. A charlotte's web (loved the book!) or flower basket shawl in cream silk - what do you think? I think it'll be beautiful. I'm stealing the idea from Amy Singer of Knitty fame who did that exact thing (but in blue) as detailed in her blog (scroll down to see pictures).

Now just gotta get the yarn from Village Yarns in Canada...um and the pattern!!!

ps As you will have noticed, I have decided to try out google adsense. My bandwidth has grown considerably since I started pinku nearly a year ago. (might have to think up an exciting event to celebrate pinku's first birthday on October 21st. Stay tuned and click those ads!!!