One Thousand (knitting) Needles

Long Story Short (with a picture!)

2008-05-21T23:42:00.003+09:00

Check it out! While I've been away from the Internet (one and a half more weeks to go, knock on wood), I've joined a band!

There are two guitarists (Dr. H and S), a double bassist (K aka Magnum), and a violinist (H). In case you didn't figure it out, I'm on vocals. Maybe accordion if I practice enough. For now, I'm quite busy singing! We had our first performance at Utsubo Park last Sunday-- decent turnout! A lot of my great friends, including E of and her lovely boyfriend. And our first at-a-bar venue is on Sunday at 8pm! Excitement!

Life is good! I haven't been knitting quite as much as I want to... mostly because knitting is an activity that I do when I'm bored, lonely, in transit, or watching something. While I *have* been watching (the new BSG! Woo!, the new Office (OMG did you see the finale??), and Dead Like Me), I haven't been feeling the need to knit quite as much. I have started on a stashbuster (which required buying more yarn... um... don't ask) sweater... and then my good friends U & Y asked me to make their wedding mascots for the 7th of June! Eek! Better get knitting!

I've also become a yoga practitioner. Is that what you call it? Yoga is the best thing ever. And I'm learning Portuguese. And I haven't killed too many plants thus far... but I have aphids again! Yuck!

Motivation

2008-03-18T16:21:00.003+09:00

I have motivation now because my (soon to be former ;-;) co-worker has decided to start a blog.

Since last I blogged here, I have:

*begun and finished a Scrapotis (clapotis made of scrap yarn!)
*survived winter
*found a new apartment
*started on a punk rock (i.e. completely from my head) design for work

...and I'm sure there are other things. Now to get photos on here! Give me time!

Holy Cat Beds!

2008-02-03T05:51:00.000+09:00

I've been up since about 4am. What started as a trip to the bathroom ended up being a two-hour-long stay-up session which ended in trying to go back to sleep and instead designing cat beds as a use for my extra left-over yarn.

Oh. Em. Gee.

If all goes well, I will have a knitted cat bed pattern started.

The laziness! Ack!

2008-01-25T18:21:00.000+09:00

The cold means I don't want to do anything other than sit/lay in a warm place (bed), either knitting, petting the cats, or both. (Believe me, I can do both at the same time. This feat has saved many a project.)

Since I last blogged, I have finished a hat (twice-- once it was too small), a rose (pattern from "Dominitrix"), Reversible Steampunk Fingerless Biking Gloves (and I even have a pattern, when I type it up!), and I have started on a "scrap-otis"-- which is a Clapotis knit from scraps and leftover yarn. I love my scrap-blanket more than anything else-- I always want to wear it out, but one cannot wear a blanket... and I've been meaning to try Clapotis, so...

Pictures coming, eventually. And now, to dislocate the cat from my lap and cook some dinner! Fresh strawberries!

お久しぶり！ Long time no see!

2008-01-08T10:48:00.000+09:00

I am making a pattern!

And I have resolved for 2008 to do a real knitblog and organize my patterns. Thank you, Ravelry!

Exciting news: I am writing an official pattern. This is new for me, as I'm one of those impulsive knitters who frogs after every attempt, never writing anything down.

Happy 2008!

Frogs and Toads

2007-03-07T09:53:00.000+09:00

Extreme frustration!

I have two cats-- this keeps me from being able to frog at home. I frogged Mariah so hard last year around... October or November? She'd been finished for a few months, but I didn't have the heart, the patience, or the guts to actually do it. My friend Jillian was there to witness much of the froggage.. and from the balls of frogged Mariah emerged a newer, better-fitting, more perfect Mariah! With a few errors (like, a front instead of back cable) and some pattern alterations (like, ribbed body! no breaks between cables, etc)-- my new Mariah was shaping up nicely! And it fit tightly and was pretty! (No pictures yet...)

Anyway-- I realized size inches into the hood that I hadn't decreased properly and I just frogged 1.5 balls worth of yarn. Thankfully, no cats interfered.

Oh man, I'm gonna finish Mariah soon! Soon!

Hisashiburi!

2006-06-21T12:41:00.000+09:00

June 21st, close-up
Originally uploaded by harisenbon.

Japanese for "long time no see", this blog has been sorely neglected. Why? Frustration with Mariah, figuring out where I went wrong and re-knitting, Open Yours Trade 07 (I have pictures to share, but when am I allowed to?), joining a karate dojo (yes!), frustrations with Japanese medicine, and other such things.

More pictures to come, as soon as I take them. Currently on the needles: Mariah's sleeves (both 17 inches), and a shopping bag (of my own 'design,' if you can even call it that), and contemplating comic ideas.

Yay for Second Attempts!

2006-06-06T09:58:00.000+09:00

Yay for Second Attempts!
Originally uploaded by harisenbon.

This is my second attempt at Mariah. I'm trying my best not to make any mistakes this time... but I feel like I must be because the central panel doesn't look quite right. This makes me sad.

But this is where all my knitting time has been going lately. I just wish it weren't so frustrating.

GAH!

2006-05-30T12:52:00.000+09:00

I've decided to finally start on Mariah, the pattern by Jodi Greenefeatured on Knitty.

So, I did a swatch. And actual, real swatch. And, I even figured out how to knit correctly (because I knit "backwards" -- right to left needle); I have to twist my knit stitches and on the reverse side, purl with the back loop. It makes an even, nice stitch. I figured out how to do it in the round much, much easier... and it's taken me months to figure out how to do "correct" stitches on flat pieces. Hooray!

Anyway, after doing about... 20 or so lines of the first sleeve of Mariah, I realized that the reason the pattern chart is so hard for me to follow is because it's written so the the right side is followed and the wrong side (which is only knit and purl stitches) is done in the reverse. So I've been twisting all the cables backwards and being confused and... argh.

So, taking pictures tonight, posting maybe a photo, frogging the progress, and starting over again.

Next time: doing both sleeves at the same time.

No sketches in the past week or so. Have been contemplating doing a 24-hour comic... but I would like someone to do it with.

I have started listening to audiobooks as of yesterday. The boy bought a new mp3 player so I have his old (and quirky) one. The book I'm listening to, Anansi Boys by Neil Gaiman, MUST be read auditorially. No, I'm serious-- the reader of this book is genius and it's really, really good. I love the writing and the storyteller really brings it to life. Gaiman works well with different media; comics (with various artists) and now audiobooks. I should try reading his books by themselves.

Hats

2006-05-15T13:22:00.000+09:00

Hats
Originally uploaded by harisenbon.

I finished these hats a long time ago but gave them to the intended people yesterday.

The pink and red hats are baby wool, and the green one is in soft acrylic. While I usually hate acrylic, this yarn was nice and the perfect colour.

Patterns? We don't need no patterns! The green one is a simple top-down knit-in-the-round roll-brim (stockinette) hat. The pink one is also top-town, stockinette with three increasing points, and then some purled rows for a pattern. The red hat was made bottom up with three decreasing points until it came to a point. Because the kid it's intended for? Looks like an elf. SO CUTE.

Finished at last!

2006-05-13T23:20:00.000+09:00

Scrap Blanket
Originally uploaded by harisenbon.

This is the Scrap Blanket that has been my work in progress (i.e. my procrastination on real projects that require concentration). I started at the foot of the bed and finished tonight...

This blanket was made completely out of scraps of leftover yarn from projects that I've done since I've been in Japan (1.5 years). I knitted this blanket with a twisted stitch ("incorrect" knitting technique according to Japanese knitting gurus) on size 10.5 needles. There is wool, alpaca, acrylic, all weights of yarn-- whatever I was using at the time. And I **still** have a huge stash to bust... more on that later.

I love this blanket.

More sketches coming. I've been working on a bunch of Columbine pictures...

Poppy

2006-05-10T13:14:00.000+09:00

Poppy
Originally uploaded by harisenbon.

This is the picture I made for my own mom for Mother's day. Now to send it...

A bit of ink and mostly prismacolours on a postcard.

Clippings

2006-05-09T10:58:00.000+09:00

Clips
Originally uploaded by harisenbon.

Used to be, "clippings" was a term used to describe teeny pieces of plants that were babies and could become big, happy plants.

I still love clippings of plants, but lately I've been doing a lot of clippings in art.

Top left: prismacolours on Japanese vocabulary cardstock (flimsier than index cards). Top middle: prismacolours on index card, cut out with x-acto knife (another thing I've been crazy about lately). Top right: ink on the back of a butter package. Hey, it's perfectly good paper!
Under the ink picture, a magnolia abstract on index card, and to the left of that, a teeny piece of something with green. Just playing with colours, really.

Pufferfish attempt #1

2006-05-08T09:45:00.000+09:00

Pufferfish attempt #1
Originally uploaded by harisenbon.

First official knitpost!

This is what I've been working on lately. I'm upset because he's round... maybe attempt number 2 will be in pieces?

Anyway, he's still damn cute.

Good art day!

2006-05-08T09:44:00.000+09:00

Iris
Originally uploaded by harisenbon.

I feel accomplished. It's not perfect but I think it'll work for now.

This is for the boy's mom on Mother's day. I'll post a picture of my own mom's card eventually (I finished it a week or so ago)

Ugh, artist's blo(ck)g

2006-05-07T09:22:00.000+09:00

Abstract Rose
Originally uploaded by harisenbon.

I have a semi-assignment (draw irises) but my hands and my mind are just not allowing the iris to flow. So I've got a few failed attempts and a lot of frustration. On days like these, I just don't do art. I should knit instead.

Speaking of knitting, I'm working on a porcupine fish (aka harisenbon)... but it's not looking so good. I prefer knitting everything in the round, you see. Which means that I don't have so much control about the shape and instead of looking like a cute little happy fish, he looks like a puffed up, intimidated fish. I'm going to try to learn to crochet, but...

An abstraction!

2006-05-06T08:13:00.000+09:00

Out of Body Experience
Originally uploaded by harisenbon.

This is an abstract piece made with ink on paper. It can and should be viewed from any angle.

Sketchblog!

2006-05-05T09:11:00.000+09:00

Terra from FF6
Originally uploaded by harisenbon.

I enjoyed drawing this picture a lot. Terra from Final Fantasy 6 in ink and prismacolour pencils.

Flickr

2006-05-05T09:10:00.000+09:00

This is a test post from , a fancy photo sharing thing.

2006-05-03T19:33:00.000+09:00

Obligatory First Post

2006-05-03T14:19:00.000+09:00

Things I love in no particular order:

the month of May
Prismacolour pencils
headphones
Freddie Mercury's voice (this happened today)
mornings

And has anyone else out there noticed that Cloud Blue (which is incidentally one of my favourite coloured pencil colours) does not play well with others? White works wonderfully-- blends colours together and is all soft and shiny. But Cloud Blue is just as stubborn as can be.

Hi to all you out there in the wide world. This is my first entry.