Last Day of School

Last day of school.  I have one child euphoric and bouncing off the walls with excitement, and one child glum and really sad that the year is over.  Both kids love school, love their teachers, love their friends, and are having totally different reactions to the end of the year.

I did tell them that both of them were having normal feelings, and that seem to help make the once feeling sad feel a bit better -- it's always comforting to have your feelings validated.

I am finally almost myself after my broken arm.  Healing is rough.  I broke my foot in two places (metatarsal) almost 6 years ago, and the healing was no big deal.  Not that much pain, and I had two little kids, aged 1 and 3, and yet it was a walk (limp) in the park compared to this elbow thing.  At any rate, after a LONG plateau of only 95 - 100 degrees of bend, I now have 150-160 degrees, and I am no longer in much pain.  I am using it as much as I can, and it is so much better.  I feel normal, although I do ache like crazy today from all the effort and craziness of yesterday and all the stuff I was carrying around.  

Today is (another) rainy day.  A good day to knit.  A good day to knit my friend Rosemary's Verdigris mitts in a bright orange color with my friend Jun's (tricoquelicot) hand-dyed yarn.

Colorway Calendula, Tricoquelicot's Laine Claude II:

A new project

I'm going to start a new project -- cleaning and arranging my new craft room. A whole room, just for me!
Apparently, though, the message wasn't quite straight, as I'm finding boxes of other things in there, too -- wrapping paper (okay, I guess it makes sense) to kid's crafting items, to kid's paint sets, which is where I draw the line. Playdough, too. No playdough allowed.
I am sorting my stash -- fabric in lovely boxes on the top shelf, and yarn in the lovely drawer bins stacking in the closet. I am organizing by weight. I had to go out and buy more bins today. (Love that Muji store!)

What have I learned during this organization?

1. Anyone who has just learned to knit a single faux fur scarf should not be allowed to purchase yarn again until they knit something else. I have 3 bags of faux fur kind of yarn, and they will never be used by me.

2. Just because it's on sale doesn't mean you should buy it. Enough said.

3. I have a drawer full of lace yarn. I have knit only two things in real laceweight. I am using this as inspiration.

4. Sock yarn rocks. It just does. Three drawers and counting of sock yarn.

5. I have WAY more DK weight than I thought I had. This is interesting to me. Why, I don't know. I guess I thought I was more a worsted/aran kind of gal.

6. I have a lot of Koigu KPPPM. I have only knit one thing (a pair of socks for my son) from KPPPM, because I think it's just too beautiful to use. The rest I just like to look at.

7. I need to figure out what to do with all of the 'fancy' yarn. Aack. Perhaps a hammock for the kids' stuffed animals!

Driving again!

Today I drove.  It was a big deal.  It was not painful, and I felt fine.  My first stop after leaving school was to J-Mart (a home center kind of store), where I went straight to the plants, and bought plants and pots to re-pot them in -- a raspberry bush, blackberry bush, and a little mulberry bush (now we can dance around it!).  Also several strawberries, some tomatoes, and basil.  A couple of impatiens, and a really big dahlia that is the color of DIC In Vino Veritas.  I am all kinds of pleased with myself, as I've been wanting to do this for months, and I finally had a chance.  I just hope that the raspberries and blackberries will ripen while we are still in Tokyo.  

I had acupuncture today, which seems to help with the pain.  At least until I turned around a few minutes ago and whacked my arm into a table.  Then it didn't seem to matter so much.  : )

Knitting is coming along nicely.  I need a new project.  Something cheerful and fun.  Something lace.  Oh, wait, that's right -- I've convinced 5 other people in Tokyo, some of them novice knitters, to all do a February Lady Sweater KAL with me.  I also convinced them all to do it in DIC Classy, while I am using Berroco Ultra Alpaca (knitting from stash).  We are going to have lots of pretty sweaters to wear during rainy season this summer.  

I don't normally.....

Broken elbow -- obviously, it's going to hurt, but who knew that the pain was just beginning?? The bone has healed well, looks great on an x-ray, and those titanium screws are pretty spiffy. I was told that the elbow joint would likely 'freeze' and that it would be difficult and exceptionally painful to regain mobility. (And it has been just that.)

So, yes, it is healing great, and yes, it stills hurts, and I can sure tell you when it's going to rain. (It's not going to rain tomorrow.)

I don't normally whine and moan or suddenly weep at the thought of pain, but I've been doing a lot of it, up until last Saturday, when I suddenly started feeling a tiny bit more myself.

During the time I flew to the US to have the surgery to pin my elbow, our family moved house within Tokyo, one of our cats died, my daughter turned 9, my visa to live in Japan expired, in addition to regular stuff like getting taxes done, school, kids' activities, etc.

In the 4 weeks I've been back, life has been calm and relaxed. Still boxes everywhere, but I just don't mind too much. I can't move them, and they make wonderful tables for my knitting projects!

I was a bit down in the dumps with all the rain last week, and I decided to put some color in my life.  Etsy to the rescue! (I don't normally shop like that, but boy, those beautiful bright colors really caught me.)

I don't normally go for orange -- but this is just beyond gorgeous. Her yarns are stunning to work with. Laine Claude yarn from Tricoquelicot.  This actually glows and shimmers; the cell phone camera does not come close to doing it justice.


And this project bag called out to me -- and look how amazingly well it matches my current sock project!! (Sock is Brigit worked in DIC Smooshy Punky Fuschia) Project bag from Blue Tulips.  There are so many really cute designs, and they are really reasonable.  I don't normally use a project bag other than a ziplock or a zippered pocket thing, but I like this.


And then a little something from Amazon -- because I really really need another sock book. I do.  I DO normally buy lots of books, so perhaps I am getting back to normal.
Forgive the really bad pictures -- taken with my cell phone, because I'm sitting in my recliner with my feet up, and there wouldn't be any pictures otherwise.

Quilt Show?

Back to school, back to business! I finally remembered to enter the Tokyo International Great Quilt Festival with the Dragon Quilt that we made for the school auction in 2007. The entrance form was due today, and I sent it off yesterday, after going out in the rain to get the photos developed for the submission, and then to the post office, walking about 2 miles in the rain. And I'm not a big fan of walking in the rain.



I've been a busy knitter, too. Mostly socks, but I finished my mom's sweater (no pic yet!)

Fetching, with my own mods:



And more to come....

Socks and a haircut!

I'm knitting away at socks -- I've finished quite a few since my last post of the pretty pink socks. Here are Cookie A's Monkeys in progress -- pattern from www.knitty.com, and they are in Socks that Rock color Algae mediumweight -- fun socks, a bit tight on my wide feet, but I think they'll stretch a bit with wear.



I also made Cookie A's Baudelaire, also from Knitty, and also from Socks that Rock mediumweight, colorway Ms. LaRock. Love them!


I also made my son a pair of socks and mittens from (guess what? yes!) Socks that Rock, heavyweight, colorway Space Dust. This skein was purchased based on the name, and the fact that turquoise and orange are both present.





I'm not sure I ever posted a finished picture of the pink ones: Here they are, pattern based on Sensational Socks feather and fan, using Cherry Cordial of Yarntini.


And the haircut? It's AWESOME. I'm loving it. Well over half my hair was cut (it was getting rather long), and now it's layered, frames my face nicely, and is SO much lighter!

Fish, Fish, Fish, Fish, Fish, Fish

Have you seen this children's video?
"Fish, fish, fish, fish, fish."
"No, fish, fish, fish, fish, fish, fish."

A prize (virtual prize, that is) to whoever can name that show.

Our day could have been called:
Fish, Fish, FISH FISH FISHFISHFISHFISH!

We went for a little fishing trip on Saipan, a four hour tour (slightly different from Gilligan's Island, so we felt safe that we wouldn't end up on a deserted island.)

BTW, the literary enthusiast in me would like to point out that while the three words "four hour tour" all end in -our, none of them rhyme with another.

Did I mention the fish? There were fish, and lots of them. We started with 4 lures in the water, and quickly dropped that to two lures, since we had a lot of simultaneous reeling going on, and there were hundreds of yards of fishing line to be re-strung with lots of pounds of fish fighting on the other end.

Another side note: when I was learning about how to teach reading, my instructor showed us this word: GHOTI.

Can you sound it out? GHOTI.

GH is the "f" sound in laugh.
O is the "i" sound from women.
TI is the "sh" sound from action.

It's pronounced FISH. Obviously, laughing women in action are fishing, and that's what I was doing -- laughing hysterically while my muscles were screaming, as fish after fish fought to get on our lines.

So, are you still reading? Ready to see the fish picture? That's what you're really here for, I know.

Here's me and my dad, holding up two of our 13 mahi-mahis, also known as El Dorado, I'm told. He also caught a rainbow runner. We ate them for dinner, prepared as sashimi, grilled, tempura, and poached in white wine. It was amazing.