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 :)

Green Jumper

I had few doh moments last night which could have ruined the evening. I went to my sister's, specifically taking my green jumper with me to start on the sleeves.I had already repaired a hole in the bottom garter stitch edge.

I had reblocked it as it was so crumpled from 3 years of being ignored.

I took it to knitting on Thursday night and worked on the neck edging, which I finished on Friday.

On Saturday afternoon, I wound the last hank of wool, making a few booboos along the way.  It's pretty old so it snapped in a few places and I think I cut it in a few places too, so I ended up with several little cakes.

I very carefully packed my bag but then messed around with my phone so by the time I was sitting ready to knit at my sister's, I realised the wool cake was still sitting on my sofa.  I was so disappointed as I was really excited about starting a top down set in sleeve for the first time.  It's the first new technique I've learnt in a while and it might mean I can finish this jumper that is over 3 years in the making and a cardigan which is about the same age.  I get stuck on sleeves, it seems.  So after realising my mistake, I consoled myself with delicious moussaka and chocolate. And instead of knitting, we worked on starting an album of Japan photos together.

The other doh moment came from sitting down to book Hyper Japan tickets.  I found the half price advanced sushi tasting tickets weren't available anymore and that although advance tickets for Friday are advertised as £6 instead of £7 you have to pay a £1 booking fee AND another fee for paying with a card.  Dagnammit.  So we decided just to buy tickets on the door, buy sushi on the way, and supplement the whole day with a trip to the Tate Modern to see if the pumpkin sculpture we hugged in Fukuoka would be exhibited.

Some progress shots

 I added some hooks and eyes to my Honey cardigan so it does up most of the way down and it's much more wearable now. It's still very difficult to take a self portrait wearing it though.

 I finished my Ishbel Japan Scarf a long time ago too.  I've not been wearing it recently though as I'm wearing a pashmina to keep warm. The Ishbel is a bit more decorative than super warm.

When I was in Japan, I finished the body of the Simplicity cardigan.  It seems shorter now it's been cast off but blocking should fix that. I had an accident with the yarn and dropped it in the road in the dark, then wrapped it around my legs a few times.  Fortunately, nothing unravelled and my friend rewound the ball for me. I need to do the sleeves next.

Snow and a hangover

I spent most of the weekend being anxious about the promised snow and how it would affect my weekend plans.  I did alter them but I saw all the people I planned to and didn't skid off the road and land in a ditch.  I did skid a little but today the roads weren't too bad - the snow had been churned up and was at least melted in tracks across  roads I drove on.  Last night, I went out for a friend's birthday and stayed up horribly late, walked around in the snow and threw snowballs.  It was good fun.  Tonight, I expect I'll leave my heating on so I can dry my washing that I should have done on Friday and not wake up from the chilly temperatures.

I've dug out the back and front of a jumper I made years ago to see if it will make a lovely tank top instead.  I found a hole when I was blocking it so set about fixing it.  I don't know if it was a good idea to add to all the wet laundry in my house but it's cold and anything that's made of wool is welcome at the moment.

My current obsession

Every so often I become obsessed with something I want to buy.  Previous items have included Lorna's Laces sock yarn, the original ipod, a wii fit, lantern moon needles, a laptop, a ds, a 3ds.  Mostly they are gadget type items and mostly I've been very pleased with them.  (The wii fit, not so much).  I didn't get an ipod until recently but I do love it and I managed to circumvent the obsession by arranging for my boss (back in 2004) to be bought one from the company for his big 5-0.

My current obession is a Kobo e-reader.  I wasn't interested in e-readers until recently and then I only considered a Kindle.  I do have a mild amazon obsession and the kindle is always on the homepage saying buyme buyme.  I hadn't twigged until I saw one that it was electronic ink, a scientific development I had read about when I was in school in the 90's, reading New Scientist and generally interested in sciencey stuff. I think it's amazing that it has been followed through to a mass marketed product that you see everywhere on the tube on a day out in London.  I sometimes speculate that if I kept up with running training, I could simply go to London and steal a Kindle (and maybe an ipad too) at rush hour but that would be mean. anyways, I was put off buying an e-reader of any kind as I don't oftenbuy books - I read library books of my sister gives me hers.  Sometimes I buy a few from charity shops to take on holiday and then I can leave them behind if my suitcase is too full of get a new one in a book exchange. Even though my local library does lend e-books, the Kindle is not compatible.  So, I gave up on that idea, bought a print version of the Rough Guide to Japan and lugged it round the islands for two weeks in my backpack, sometimes with a charity shop book in my bag aswell.  Cor blimey, guv, my bag was super heavy.   I think I must have come back from that trip stronger but a Kobo would have saved my back some hard labour and my sister wouldn't have had to ration her book reading.

The Kobo is available in different colours and does accept library books.  Its price seems to have been vastly reduced which always kick starts an obsession as it feeds into my that's-such-a-bargain-it-might-sell-out-buy-it-now reflex. I would like a white one with a blue back.  I don't have any holidays planned though so I can't justify it, even though I would be able to put pdf knitting patterns on it and that will always seem justifiable.  I'm still paying for the trip to Japan and then I want to start saving for a house, which will mean not having any holidays for a looooooong time.

ETA OMLG it's like it knew I was talking about it and has knocked another £10 off the price! I don't know if I can resist much longer...