Nearly Finished Projects, Norah Vincent

As promised, here is the felted iPod holder I made for David. It's almost dry, so soon I'll be able to tell if it's actually the right size.




And here's the nearly completed Koko Kimono, as of last night. This morning on the way to work, I finished sewing up the side seams and begin picking up stitches along the neckline. After that, it's just the i-cord ties and some serious blocking. I think I'll do coordinating booties as well. Knitting for babies rocks!

In other news, I recently finished reading Self-Made Man by Norah Vincent. It was very well-written, informative, funny, moving, all that good stuff. The author went undercover as a man for 18 months. She joined a men's bowling league, spent some time at a monastery, dated women, etc. Check it out.

Only two more days left of this work week. When you take a lot of uncertainty and pair it with the much slower pace of summer, you end up with too much time to worry. I hope to take up at least some of that time with knitting and Harry Potter books on the iPod. And tonight there are two great shows on PBS--"Secrets of the Dead" and the Frontline special on AIDS. (We watched part I last night. Excellent.)

The Buddha and me-and some knitting

Well, obviously I'm going to have to get better at blogging in a regular and timely manner. Still, I'm excited about all of this--I just have a few kinks to work out. But first, some actual content.




This is a picture of me taken in Japan when I was there in March for work. My "partner in crime" David (not my husband David but the other staff member who was on the trip with me) and one of the 72 (!) MBA students took a half-day trip outside of Tokyo to Kamakura to see the great Daibutsu. It was a lovely day and very peaceful. (After all, going to see a huge Buddha couldn't be anything BUT peaceful, right?)











This is a picture of our two tour guides in Japan (the woman in green and the woman in red), two of the professors on the trip (the man with grey hair and the man with a burgundy shirt), David (again, not my husband David but the other staff), and me. This was taken right before we were leaving for the airport on our last day in Japan.












This is one of the many, many vending machines in Japan. See the red labels and the blue ones? The red stands for hot drinks (and they are wonderfully hot on a cold morning) while the blue stands for cold drinks (again, just what you want when the temperature rises). The simply marvelous thing? They coexist harmoniously in the same machine. Man--I miss the vending machines.

But anyway, in knitting content, I'm nearing completion of the baby koko kimono. One sleeve down, one to go. And I felted an iPod holder for David (this time my husband) over the long weekend. We'll see if it actually fits or if I'll have to adjust the number of stitches. Drat--the pictures I'm trying to share are not uploading properly. I'll put them up when I can. But without further delay, I'll go ahead and post this.

Happy Memorial Day!
Brenda

A Hike, a Dead Mouse, and a Kimono

Here is the Koko Kimono I'm working on for a co-worker who's having a baby. (And shoot--the baby shower is just a couple of weeks away!) I finished the back yesterday when we were watching Chasing Amy. The pattern is from Minnies by Jill Eaton.







Here is Thomas. He wouldn't hold still for me to take his picture.


Here is Greta. She looks kind of freaky in this picture, but I think she'll look better when I get a new camera. I love her snaggle tooth.




This morning we went hiking (a bit over 7 miles!) with our friend Craig at Topanga State Park. We're thinking of training for a half marathon that's coming up in September. But that involves running, right? I'm not sure...

Oh--and the dead mouse was actually a mummified mouse that I found yesterday while cleaning outside by the too many plant containers I have on the porch. I was a little wierded out at first, but then I became fascinated. I mean, you could see bones (vertabrae, skull, teeth, etc), but there was also this leathery skin. All the juicy bits were gone. David was intrigued as well. Craig and Niki, when I told them about it, seemed less impressed. I guess you had to be there.

So, that covers all the things in my title, right?

Happy Sunday.

Brenda

Hello world!

This is my first post on my brand new blog, so I'll make it a short one. I've been talking about setting up a blog to talk about my knitting for quite awhile. Now I've done it! Here we go...

Brenda

meowdemeow@earthlink.net