My Japan Day in London part 1

I took the day off of work on Friday and had a wonderful Japan day in London with my big sister Liz. In Japanese, that is approximately

わたし　は　きんようび　に　あね　と　London　に　いきました。しごと　を　しませんでした。

We took the train to Waterloo and slipped in a sneaky trip to iKnit which is a short walk away from the station.  We extended the walk slightly by going back and forwards trying to decide the correct direction. There are plenty of  things to temp but I am aware that I have plenty of yarn and WIPs already so I only bought some needles for my next submission to the magazine.

We had a dim sum snack walking back to Waterloo to fetch some sushi and then sat near the eye.  It wasn't quite warm enough to relax but we enjoyed our al fresco lunch.

We walked along the south bank to the Tate Modern. The signpost said it would take about 15 minutes and although we didn't time it, I wouldn't particularly disagree with that assertion.

The Tate Modern is housing a special exhibition of Yayoi Kusuma's work.  Although, the TM is free mostly, you have to pay for this exhibition on Floor 1 and then trot upstairs to Floor 4.  There are 14 rooms, mostly chronological, with examples of her work ranging from sketches and paintings to sculptures and full room installations.  There were also two films and original letters from art exhibition curators. I'm not hugely into art but the room installations were amazing and so I decided it was worth the entrance fee. Something that is free though, was back down on the first floor, and wouldn't make a lot of sense unless you'd been to the exhibition.  There was a room full of white furniture where we were given a sheet or coloured circle stickers to stick anywhere we could reach.  We almost fell over ourselves in excitement where we found a section of wall where people had been sticking the antiholes!

The only photo we were allowed to take was outside we a lovely sculpture.  We didn't hug it like the pumpkin, and were very sad the pumpkin hadn't made it (and even began to wonder if the pumpkin was really by the same artist) but it was cheerful flower.  We had been careful to note down our favourite art pieces as we went found but, as if it had all been planned, there were no postcards of these particular items.  There is a photo of one of them here

Then it was time ot eat snacks and wander off to London Bridge to get the tube to Hyper Japan.  More on that later.

What to write

I feel a bit overwhelmed about all the things I could blog about.  I've been to ballet and Japanese this week, I went to London yesterday and today I've been for a run already.  Running in the morning is lovely but leaves me feeling worn out in a very relaxed way for the rest of the day.  I'm excited about the things I bought in London yesterday and want to show them off but I also want to spend the day writing up a kntting pattern and knitting the sample.  And the sun has just come out!

Busy busy

I went for a run today and followed it up with a lovely bath. It is very windy but the rain held off while I was out for about 25 minutes.  I jogged for 4 minutes then about 2.5 minutes at a time.  More running thatn usual but at a much slower pace. I've been working on my project for Let's Knit and it's coming along well although my hand is sore.  I won't do much tomorrow as I'll be at my Japanese class.  I haven't done any since the last lesson which was two weeks ago.  Bad me. I'm trying to balance my time to fit everything but the knitting takes precedence at the moment and I'm trying to keep the house tidy (where normally it falls apart when I'm working towards a deadline). I haven't even had much time for Pikmin.

Lovely weekend

I'm almost converted to getting up early at the weekend.  Lately, I've been staying up late and then getting up late and sometimes sitting in bed and reading all morning.  This weekend, my nephew stayed over so I was up early on Saturday to squeeze in a run and finish tidying up.  I pushed myself on my run and was pleased I hadn't totally lost fitness from last year. I definitely lost some but I'm not back to being a total beginner.  I did think I should start again from scratch but I now I think I'll write my own plan.  I'd like to be able to run a mile in time for the sports relief mile at the end of March and I think that's acheivable. last year I focussed on trying to build stamina for the 10k but this year I'm going to aim to run continuously for longer times.

I played lots of computer games and knitted while my nephew was with me and then we had to get up early after a night of oreos and Jurassic Park, to get to football in good time.  It's a lovely sunny but cold say and the sun always puts me in a good mood.  I've played pikmin and realised I can even save it on the wii with my old gamecube memory card so once the knitting's done, I'll be saving Captain Olimar one spaceship piece at a time. Later, I'll be seeing a sister to eat roast dinner and watch movies, and I'll be knitting some more.  What a blissed out weekend!

Yarn has landed

I've received some gorgeous yarn for my next project for Let's Knit.  It's a lovely colour and lovely and soft and I'm very excited.  I've already knitted a sore bit onto my wrist so am wearing my hoodie with a thumb hook as armour.  I'd like to finish this project really quickly as the yarn took longer to arrive than anticipated.  It means the green jumper is going to be put on pause for a while but hopefully it won't be another three years. 

This week's Ghibli Film #2

I've been really worn out lately so haven't felt like watching whole films, let alone subtitled ones.  I've only had the concentration to watch programs that were less than an hour long, even though I would end up watching several in one go.  My boss was away, so I was covering him, which in realisty means a few hours of overtime but lots of extra worry and perceived responsibility.

This week he is back and although I'm still tired out from being SADded, I ran out of US sitcoms and dramas so I  watched Nausicaa of the valley of the wind on Monday and Tuesday.  It is considered to be  the film that allowed Studio Ghibli to be created and was written and directed by Hayao Miyazaki.

I watched it in Japanese with English subtitles.  I like to think that it will help me learn to speak Japanese but I could only pick out a few words and then very rarely.  This is the only film I've ever seen with WWF stamp of approval but the environmental message isn't annoying. It has strong male and female characters and I didn't find it predictable although it has a satisfying ending.  I recommend it.

I'm getting sleeve

I am so pleased I'm making progress on this jumper. I started on it when my marriage was going sour, designing it myself. It was going to make me rich, I tell you, RICH! Ignore the fact that it's such a simple design with acres of stocking stitch. Well, then I got to the sleeves and didn't really know how to make sleeve caps and moved onto other projects that were published, learned to drive, moved house, became a divorcee etc and the jumper was put on pause. Three years and a bit later and I've learnt a new technique, which is staggeringly simple, why have I not heard of it before! and lo! and behold (and a few more !!!) and I'm well on the way to having a sleeve. I picked up stitches all around the armpit, totalling 68, and fortunately one of the patterns in Modern Top Down Knitting has that many stitches in it so I could follow the general instructions at the front of the book and instructions with actual numbers.  The trick is to knit 1/6 of the stitches down the front (it's described as 2/3 of the way from the centre of the bottom of the armpit), wrap and turn, knit to 1/6 down the back, wrap and turn, then keep going back and forth bringing one extra stitch into each row until there are only a few stitches left.  So I had 68 sts, I knitted 46, w&t (which in these instructions includes slipping the stitch back to the other needle), purled 24, w&t and was well on my way.  I kept going until 8 stitches were unused, 4 either side of the armpit.

I worked quite a few full rounds before I tried it on and decided the sleeve was too wide so I ripped back to nearer the armpit, it looks like 4 rounds, and started decreasing every 4 rows. I'm pleased I bothered to make the improvement as frogging is always disheartening (especially as I'm magic looping which I dislike too) but there is no point spending 3 years on a jumper just to rush the final furlong and be disappointed. 

I'm going to keep plugging away, and ignoring the fact that the neck line looks quite wonky :)