sprouting up

Midori (3) asks me everyday (actually almost everyhour!),
"Am I bigger?"

This past 6 months or so, she has realized there are so many things her brother can do but she can't because she is "small". Riding a school bus, building a fire, taking Butterscotch to walk, eating with chopsticks, etc...To my surprise, even though those things are brought up constantly, she never complains or gets frustrated. She would just say "Oh, I can't do that because I'm small?" and seems convinced.

But, it doesn't mean that she doesn't care about it. I realized that she had been measuring her own limits every day and now she knows that she is getting bigger every day! "Let me open the refrigerator for you. I'm bigger, mom." "Please don't help me, mom, I think I can reach the sink." "Can I carry the (grocery) bag for you?" "(turning on a light) Mommy! I reached it, I'm big!" Even after dinner she looks at her big belly sticking out happily "Mommy, I'm getting biiiiiiiiiiiig." She knows she is getting there. She is really confident and I'm proud of her.

 Oh my, my baby girl is sprouting up!

and some sprouts from our yard.

Spring finally!

My girl and cat, and my first granny squares you see a bit in the back.

                                                                                                                                                                                  

I finished my first granny squares using various leftover yarns I accumulated for those years. It took more than two years of my slow crochetting during my commutes to make decent amount of motifs, and still, they were not enough for the size I wanted be originally… 

Anyway I thought the time had come and I put them together.

Oh, poor thing.. I don't have enough nerve to show close-up of my sorry afghan. My sewing is a mess!! I hope I do better job next time and I won't use white yarn for sewing again! At least it makes my lap warm and my girl seems to love it, too.

Anyway I love the way this picture itself turned out. My daughter keeps her toy cat close everywhere in our house.

Happy Valentine!

Kira's hooded vest

Update 10-5-11: Japanese Red Cross Society stopped accepting Paypal donation on 9-30-11. I'm trying to look other organization which accept Paypal easy for us in outside Japan.


update 4-5-11: Thank you! The first donation was sent (more details are posted here).

update 3-15-11: All sales will be spent to support Kira and people in Japan (post about this is here).



Hi there!


I just released a new knitting pattern for baby.

"Kira's hooded vest"

"Kira" is my first nephew and means shiny.

I used the pattern stitch (it is called star tweed!) for a kids coat before in Petite Purls , and fell in love with those cute stars. Since then, I wanted to use this stitch again in different way.

This pattern is fairly simple; The body is worked in one piece mostly in plain Stockinette stitch and knits up quickly. The star tweed stitch will be worked in the end as a part of front/hood edging. Buttons are attached for front closure. Also optional waist tie can be added as an accent.

Size: baby 0-6[6-12, 12-18, 18-24] months, finished chest size 19[20, 21, 22] inches (48[50.5, 53.5, 56] cm)

Needles/Notions: Size US7 (4.50 mm) and US8 (5.00 mm) 24” (60 cm) or longer circular needles; one set of US8 double point needles (DPNs); two markers; a stitch holder or a waste yarn; tapestry needle; buttons.

Gauge:
18 sts and 24 rows = 4" (10 cm) in St st


 The pattern PDF is available for sale at Ravelry.com

 

Choosing color combination is really fun!

Can you think of any unique color combo??

2-5-11

  I made a pair of modified Staccato Socks from "Knitting Socks With Handpainted Yarn" for my husband. It was our anniversary (12th!) yesterday. I was determined to get over the second sock syndrome, so I was very proud of myself, even though the socks was meant to be for his Christmas originally ;) Anyway, if it was not for my beloved, I couldn't finish this forever (I mean, the pattern is great, It is me thing, mind you)!

And for the reward, I got a beautiful book from which I want to make every single thing. I'm so excited!

You all have a great weekend!

waiting for a school bus

My son loves riding on a school bus. He is very serious about not missing it, so we come out our house way before the bus actually comes. It is pretty cold right now, we try to entertain each other during waiting, to keep us distracting from the cold. The bus comes usually around 7:20 in the morning, and in this time of the year, the sky just starts showing some sign of the morning coming.

I took my camera the other day and tried to capture the Venus we see every morning. I've never tried to take pictures of stars. so I was not sure if I could capture it.

I didn't take tripod with me so I needed to make exposure as short as possible. So the picture is pretty dark even though the sky was getting bright, but I managed to get a little dot of Venus in the view. Do you see it?? (Sorry I don't even have a zoom on my camera..... ;) It is always  impressing how bright Venus is.



There was also the Moon;

It was fun, except I was a little shy to say good morning to the bus driver with big camera hanging from my neck..My son might be also a little embarrassed for me, but he waved at me as always from the bus window so cute. That is the best morment first in the morning.

And Butter in the morning light;



What I'm working on... and today's Butter

Little hints on what I'm working on now.
This will be named for my first nephew "Kira".
"Kira" also means "shiny" and I have shining Star Tweed stitches here... 

 

And today's Butterscotch looking up my son.

Have a wonderful day!

camera test

In Atlanta we were stuck in snow whole week. No work for me, no schools for kids.
It could have been so boring if I didn't receive the camera right before the snow began.

I got my first DSLR!

It's an used Canon 30D (used, otherwise I couldn't afford it!). It came without a manual and also I need to get used to use the view finder because it has no live preview which I had been so spoiled with.

So, my girl and I, whenever we had nothing else left to do indoor, did test shootings together to play with the camera. In this case it was a good thing that it took a while to figure out how this camera works because we had so much time!

And


We love this camera so much already!

I also took some pictures of my favorite projects again. This is one of my most favorite project, Sunflowers Satchel (currently the pattern is available for Ravelry users only), a crochet bag designed by my knitting BFF, Asami Kawa. I hope I can write about her sometimes, she is such an amazing designer, and also my knitting boot camp buddy!



And a sweater I finished this winter. The pattern is from a book "a fine fleece" by Lisa Lloyd.
























I wish I could re-take for all my works with this camera, This is so much fun!


And our Butterscotch looking at snow.