All things animal

Well we lived through the hurricane - there was one point where I woke up and the building had stopped creaking and was now literally screaming in anger at the hurricanes attempts to remove it from it's foundation, but I couldn't feel any swaying or anything so felt confident it was OK [for 'confident' read 'lay awake wide-eyed and ready to leap into the cupboard at the first sound of glass breaking, lest I be sucked from the room at this high altitude'] and eventually dropped off.

The boy woke up later to a noise that he described as 'firemen with jet hoses directly outside the window firing not water, but bird seed at the glass'... I am SO glad I didn't wake at this point, though I have no idea how I slept through it.

In the morning all was calm, and cooler. Although a lot of train lines were suspended.

We have so far been brave in our Japanese dining, and embarked upon revolving sushi bar, tempura and shabu-shabu restaurants.

The one you see pictured is Shabu-Shabu [we went to Mo-Mo in Shibuya - where they have english menus - yay!]. This is thin strips of beef and a bubbling pot of boiling water in the middle where you swirl the beef on chopsticks for less than a minute and it's done! Then you dip it into one of 2 sauces and yum!

Perfect for me - I know exactly what I'm eating! Can you picture such a restaurant in Glasgow ... boiling pan of water combined with all-you-can-drink beer? Imagine the queues at A&E...

It's all you can eat, so once you've finished your fill of beef slices then you chuck all the veggies in for a beefy vegetable soup - no waste - clever, no? It was great and we're definately going back!


The revolving sushi bar was great fun - the staff were so friendly. I was expecting revolving sushi, but instead there was plates with Japanese signs on them for what they were, written with Kanji and Kana so the boy and I couldn't read them. Puzzled faces = menu with pictures!

I hadn't realised but it seems to be the norm to include Wasabi [hot hot Japanese horseradish] through sushi here. I nearly fell through the table! Trying not to draw anymore attention to our big Western selves, I motioned the women over and replaced the word 'tomato' with the word 'wasabi' in my prepared Japanese phrase: Can I have this without ...' and all was fine again. I have also memorised the word for water!!

And yesterday at Sunshine City we went to a tempura restaurant [well chain - probably the McDs of Toyko]. Tempura is fish and vegetables fried in a light crispy batter with either rice or noodles. It's practically Scottish! [Actually brought over by the Portuguese]

Everytime we go towards a Japanese restaurant I'm so nervous - especially this one as it was full of Japanese men - everything in me wanted to run to KFC [I place I wouldn't frequent if you paid me in Glasgow, but it's familiar] but so far I've not lost my nerve. And everytime the food has been fantastic and the staff just lovely.

So we went to Sunshine City yesterday [no yarn - it's an aquarium] in Ikebukero. I did however manage to squeeze in a visit to a Hello Kitty gift gate. It was cool although the seals and otters looked quite sad in their confined little spaces. There were some cool fish we'd never seen, and a whole lotta spider-crabs [see below]

And finally, some shots of the view from our hotel. When the woman opened the blinds I nearly fell on the floor - we're so high. Only the 26th floor as well. I remember being so excited that our hotel is the highest in the area - I didn't really think about it until we go here and we looking down ...


You can see Mount Fuji [on a clear day - we haven't had one yet], a stacking car park, a ferris wheel, a dog nursery [directly below where they all run about on the roof all day] and so so so mch more! I think we could just look out of this window everyday for a fortnight and constantly see new things.

Creature Comforts and knitty goodness

Home early this evening thanks to the hurricane - just lots of rain and a creaking hotel at the moment, but I think it's due to get worse later so we're staying in the hotel. I checked with the desk this morning before we went out: [as we can't understand the Japanese weather channel and the BBC hasn't been bothered to update the latest for 24 hours...]

"Today's weather" I said to the reception woman [by way of setting the subject before I embarked on broken Japanese/English with pantomime hands]. "Aah yes" she said, before I could begin; "it will be rain with hurricane in evening. Thank you." - not much more to be said really I suppose!

Last night we were supposed to be going to the Shabu-Shabu restaurant that Bob and Charlotte go to in Lost in Translation. However the boy translated the words "put the translation book in your bag" to mean "throw the translation book on the bed" and so we ended up outside the restaurant for 5 minutes before decided that we weren't confident enough to try such specialist eating without a book to at least give the waiting staff some idea of what we wanted.

I was all for throwing in the towel and getting rice balls from the 7-11 on the 2nd floor of our hotel , but the boy convinced me to try again. We ended up at Hobgoblin - a British pub just round the corner. It was SO GOOD! In photos of Tokyo you can often see long vertical stripes of neon signs down buildings - these are usually advertising what is on each floor - so our pub was on level 3. It's quite strange - you go into what looks like an apartment close and get in the lift. Then the doors open on Level 3 and it's a british pub!

Also on my travels I found Japanese Corn Flakes - not bad! So breakfast is sorted.

A few shots of the Shibuya crossing just 2 mins walk from our hotel. Photos don't really cover how it is here - it's so busy, and there's a giant TV screen at every side so there's noise noise noise constantly competing for your attention, plus people standing shouting adverts for Karaoke bars on the streets, and cool-as-ice Japanese kids everywhere smoking and exuding 'I am so cool' attitude all over the pavements.

Every so often we walk past a place where the automatic doors slide open and there's all these middle-aged couples playing something in an arcade type environment that involves trays and trays of ball-bearings - it's overwhelming smoky, and there's a pumping techno beats - what's that all about?

This is all the information we can get from the weather channel - does this mean the hurricane gets bigger?!

This morning:
We embarked on our first train journey and went off to Shibuya this morning. The train was quite easy - there's an English tannoy on the train to tell you the next station, time of arrival, which side the doors will open on etc. So efficient! The problems only come with the approx 50 exits to every station ...

I managed to find Okadaya relatively easily, and oh, it was bliss! Spent quite a bit :) And forgot to mention - yesterday in Tokyu Hands they had this yarn that said "Shetland Yarn", then "Made in England" and had a British logo... I couldn't take a photo unfortunately because everyone is very uptight about any photos being taken - I even asked in Okadaya but she said no :( You'll just have to take my word for it that it was cool.

Here's all my goodies:

An amigurumi kit for making a frog and a double-ended crochet hook with a different size at each end.


Some Hello Kitty yarn - which is 100% Acrylic but I just couldn't resist!


Some more Tokyu Hands fun stuff - and a baby Pink Panther that I finally won at the UFO catchers! It may have been easier as it was a child's UFO Catcher [I assume as I had to kneel on the floor to use it] but I'm not fussy at this stage!

Enough of this lovely un-dyed 100% wool [which is so so soft] for a jumper. I even managed to ask the woman in Japanese for balls from the store room as there wasn't enough on the shelf.

When I say Japanese I do mean I said the number 12 then visually illustrated that there was only 9 on the shelf - I dont mean flawless fluent beautiful Japanese - but I got the point across :0)

And 6 balls of this merino wool - the shades are just sumptious - so delicate - I think it's going to be a scarf. I have my Jaywalkers with me but I'm just not feeling the love so I needed another project as I haven't knat for days.

And finally another amigurumi book with the cutest little animals, and a book demonstrating all the stitches that Japanese charts use in their patterns. I got these from Kinokuniya bookshop in Shinjuku [all the knitting books are on the 2nd floor [down one from the floor you come in at] and left from the escalators - they're in the middle of the 3 aisles coming from the wall]

Phew! Lotta writing - that's me for tonight. We're just back from a Sushi restaurant with the revolving bar - but more about that tomorrow.

I'm here!

Yep - we made it!! I'm over-stimulated to the max so I'll probably not make a lot of sense...

Seen so many things in the last day that it would take a year just to document it all. The top pic is the arrivals board at Narita Airport. The 2nd pic is the Welcome to Japan sign. We were delayed by over 3 hours in Amsterdam which made it quite hard going initially.

First stop [naturally] was Tokyu Hands. We've only scratched the surface of this immense amazing shop - a pic of my new goodies above: Some felt buttons, cool Kana and rabbit stickers, lots of Japanese pencils advertising sweets, an amigurimi [sp?] how-to, a knitting pattern book, and a Clover bag-making template thingy. Just so cool!

They also had earthquake proof sticky stuff to stop your TV falling during quakes, with accompanying simulation earthquake display to prove it ... *gulp*

Also bought a big transparent umbrella a-la Charlotte in Lost in Translation - I've always wanted one and they're everywhere. Quite useful as it's about 30 and really humid with rain showers every now and again. Fighting off a migraine but trying not to let in dampen my spirits. Typhoon due in on Thursday...

One of the streets of Shibuya.

We played for a while in the crazy saccrine-sweet, smoky, noisy, coloured-saturated game arcades. Got a few pics before a woman came over shaking her hands in the 'no camera' international sign language. Bowed and sumimansen'd my way out of it I think.

I didn't win anything - even when the Sega guy took pity and came over bowing lots, opened the case and repositioned all the cuddlies to give me a better shot!]

Also got some fab photos together in those booths where you can pic your background and everything - it turned out really confusing though so I had to ask a schoolgirl for help [my Japanese is doing OK - made myself understood quite a bit - yay!] In the end there were 5 of them all gathered around the booth waiting for our photos to come out. It was fairly embarassing as we couldn't really say anything except 'thank you so much'.

Then we had lunch in a park ... can you believe this - I was totally sold on the marketing!
Having an immense time - loads more photos to upload and things to tell. The food issues are OK - there are 7-11s and mini-mart type things everywhere. It's about 6pm here at the moment so we're going to think about somewhere to eat now.

Latest Wips

*emerging blinking into the sunlight from Ravelry* yep I'm still here. It's taken a while and I'm only 3/4 through uploading my stash, 3/4 through uploading the WIPs, and barely 1/1000 through uploading the queue works.

I've been having fun with swaps, and chatting on the forums.

Anyways, back to knitting [and crocheting this week] - I've been motoring on with Pinwheel Sweater; I'm loving the colour choices. I had hoped to have this as part of comfy, cosy plane outfit but I'm pretty sure that's not going to happen now.

Luna Moth has stalled for the moment.


Miller's has given up on trying to sell yarn, and everything is bargain bin. Picked up six balls of Sirdar Click [it has some wool in it...] for 50p a ball - thought it would be perfect for a wrap for work as it is machine-washable. This is one of the stitches from Ripple Stitch Patterns called Delicate Lace.

I love crochet for the fast return - I started this on Friday evening, and have been working on both it and Pinwheel. I'm on ball 2 already!

Ravelry

I'm in!!!
And it is as good they say...
I'm going to be busy cataloguing my stash/needles and projects
See you soon!
Elaine x

Ravelry

My invite to Ravelry

You signed up on June 13, 2007
You are #8643 on the list.
190 people are ahead of you in line.
15838 people are behind you in line.
34% of the list has been invited so far

So close!!

and the next WIP ...

... is Pinwheel Sweater. Which had made it as far as the sleeves before I realised that I had an extra yarn over about mid-way through the 2nd yellow. I put it down very gently in the yarn room and closed the door on it for a day or so until my emotions had moved past wanting to set fire to it.

There is really no way around an extra yarn over with this kind of pattern - an extra yarn over in Icarus was resolved by a darning needle and some matching yarn. With Pinwheel however, this makes the segments have unequal stitch numbers, and the cool funky twisty-turness of the segments means that any plan of dropping down to fix such errors are impossible.

I took back out of the room and glared at it for a couple of days over my Summertime Tunic [simply round and round stockinette] but the yarn over remained defiant and glared back.

And so, I took a darning needle and threaded contrasting yarn a row below to make an after-thought lifeline [since this worked so well with Icarus]. It was mighty hard around the yarn over bits. Then I frogged back. Quickly.

Now I'm at the start of colour 3 again.

There also would have been shots of Rogue [up to row 9 of the 1st chart] however I made a big mistake in the cables which a bit of patient tinking probably would have resolved. Coming so soon after the Great Pinwheel Yarn Over Fiasco however ... Well, Rogue didn't stand a chance. It was frogged and rewound into balls smartly, like removing a plaster - before the realisation of another frogging sank in.

one wip of many ...

I've had so many wips, birthday pressies and knitty news of late that I didn't even know where to begin with blogging, and consequently there have been few posts lately.

After a period of avoidance I realised that I was being a bit silly ... knitting is supposed to be fun, not stressful. And I'm only 938 invites away from the supreme organisational powers of Ravelry that will help me to feel more in control of my obsession.

And so, one at a time I decided ... starting with the utterly stunning Handmaiden Sea Silk that I bought from K1 Yarns with birthday vouchers from my work colleagues. As you can see it has sat in my stash for a minimal amount of time [the time taken to free the needles from Icarus] before becoming a wip.

Handmaiden Sea Silk is a Canadian yarn made of 70% silk and 30% SeaCell [made from Seaweed that has magic properties for your skin]

It's colourway Moss, is the most sumptious knit and is becoming the Luna Moth Shawl [free pattern from elann.com]. I'll shut up now and let the pictures do the talking ...

Icarus complete!!

I've been away for a couple of weeks doing this; Icarus! My first ever lace shawl, and I have been bitten by the lace-y bug! I've heard the Yarn Harlot speak of the 'magic' of lace blocking, and now I too have experienced the magic ... and it is AMAZING! [although I had to wear a plastic on my thumbs for the next couple of days after pushing all those pins into the carpet]

This shawl chose me - I went to see Sunshine at the cinema [alright, but mince for the last 3rd of the film] and the spacecraft was called Icarus. Random knit-blog surfing after the film found me at Mirum's blog. I love the design - it's Icarus' frame with the feathers having melted to the ends.

I used handpaintedyarn.com's laceweight - colourways Bombon and Sunshine Yellow.

Like Icarus, I too began in a cocky manner, convinced of my success and confident that I didn't need lifelines or stitch-markers to mark pattern repeats. I learned my lesson [along with how to tink lace and cry without letting the tears splash the yarn ...]

I found the idea for a colour change on Craftster and thought that the smouldering shawl would be fantastically highlighted by the tips being 'on fire'.

I've swung back and forth with whether I actually like the colours, but since I've finished Icarus it hasn't been off my shoulders!

My only problems with the pattern were remembering the separate ways to yarn over, depending on whether after a purl, before a knit etc.

I would recommend this as a first lace shawl - the frame section is relatively easy, and the lace section was a good introduction.

Bedtime Bear

Presenting .... : Bedtime Bear! Made for a work colleagues 1 year old little girl.
Pattern: Simply Knitting Magazine, Issue 13 April
Yarn: GGH Amelie [now discontinued, but still available at Loop]
Skills learned: First time making a knitted toy and embroidering onto knitted fabric.
Modifications: None - had to knit blind as I had no idea how it was going to become a bear until nearly sewing up time.

An added label on her bum!

I wanted it to look like the old-fashioned style bears, but with the more modern yarn, and I hope she loves it.