mokudekiru

Ideally I would have posted these projects as I finished them, but I kept forgetting… so here’s what I’ve done since roughly November (posted in chronological order).

Machiko’s Bag

Long ago, Batia and I dyed some yarn with Kool-Aid. Actually, we have done this several times, and it always produces great yarn colors, but this was probably my favorite. For years, this yarn sat in my stash, until I returned from Japan, looked at it, and realized it was meant to become a bag for my friend Machiko. The pattern was inspired by one of the bags in the original Stitch n’ Bitch book, but it’s really just a rectangle, so I’m not sure how much “pattern” there is to it.

I did not enjoy sewing in the lining:

Ribbed Lace Bolero

This was my first mild success against lace knitting. Pattern here.

I started the bolero sometime in August. Didn’t touch it again until Thanksgiving Break, by which point I had completely forgotten how the pattern went — bad project to pause in the middle of. Luckily I made a comeback due to perseverance, lace-tutoring from Angelina, and a couple of afternoons spent watching Meteor Garden, an excellent Chinese drama.

Noriko’s Hat

This was one of those projects where I saw a picture and instantly knew I needed to knit it.

The popcorn stitch was fun, and this was a really fast and rewarding knit, and it’s quite stretchy, which eliminates most sizing issues. Stitch detail:

Ford’s Scarf
Holidays typically induce intense knitting marathons, and this year was no different. You really can’t go wrong with a multidirectional scarf, and this was by far the fastest scarf I have ever knit.

The premise of a multidirectional scarf is that you knit a bunch of triangles diagonally, which make up a rectangle. Here’s some detail, and you can see that the panels are knit in different directions, hence the multidirectionality.

Noam’s Hat
Noriko’s hat worked out just so well that I made the same one for Noam! I intend to make one for myself one of these days, but that hasn’t happened yet…

Passport WD Cozy
Hard drive <3

Who says electronics don’t need sweaters too? For storage/transportation purposes, an extra layer of protection makes a difference.

At least with the completion of this project, my hard drive need not be jealous of my Japanese electronic dictionary.

Yuka’s Bag

This is another example of finding exactly the appropriate color for someone (or so I hope).

This is Knitty’s Twiggy Tweed bag, but knit in the round to avoid terrible things like seaming. The best feature of this bag is the contrasting side panels, which are sewn in such that you can still stick your fingers through the purple part there.

This one still remains to be sent to Japan, but that will happen soon.

Really, the hard part about knitting isn’t the knitting itself, it’s the project decision, yarn acquisition, casting on appropriately (do I have the correct number of stitches?). Then the actual knitting goes smoothly, and suddenly casting off happens and there is *finishing* to be done. Sometimes this involves blocking or sewing, in which case all bets are off as to reasonable time estimates for the project. Then of course, if you’re knitting for someone far away, sending packages… all these things take time, energy, and prevent me from finishing projects.

However, I must mention that lately (i.e. the past few days) I have become addicted to yet another Web 2.0 community. Ravelry is exactly what the knitting community needed — craftster forums are good, but a little outdated in terms of social networking. In addition, its purpose is primarily to keep track of your own (and others’) knitting projects. You can add projects, select the yarn you used, record how much progress you’ve been making, uploading photos, etc. Essentially, I had a physical knitting notebook for this in the past, but this is far superior. The most fun part in my opinion, is that you can see anyone else who made something with the same pattern (i.e. anyone else who made the Twiggy Tweed bag). I highly advise any knitters to check it out:

Right now membership is invite based, but you can just sign up for an invite and it should come soonish.

So that’s sort of why I haven’t accomplished anything lately — been unable to tear myself away from Ravelry. Oh, internet.

Yamada Takayuki has bad luck. Every girl he falls in love with dies a few months later of a long-term illness.

Yamada has starred in two dramas of note, Sekai no Chuushin de, Ai wo Sakebu (2004) (abbreviated to SekaiChuu), which in English would be “Crying out Love in the Center of the World,” in which the object of his affections dies slowly of leukemia, and two years later in Taiyou no Uta (2006) (“A Song for the Sun”) in which he falls in love with, Sawajiri Erika a gifted singer/songwriter who happens to be allergic to sunlight, and is beginning the final decline into irreparable nerve damage, and ultimately, death.

Needless to say, these shows are downers, since you have to go into it knowing that the lead is going to die (there’s really no alternative here — if she made it, there wouldn’t be much of a story). However, in Taiyou no Uta, unlike in SekaiChuu, they manage to avoid making the drama 100% about Kaoru’s disease. In fact, the plot is surprisingly centered about her aspirations to debut as a singer/songwriter, and Yamada’s history in the music business with a pop star named Asami complicates the affair, leading to a somewhat involved subplot that gives the drama something to do besides sulk about the girl’s impending doom. Since she can’t go outside during the day, she simply just operates nocturnally, and all of her friends and family seem to be totally used to this (which I suppose they would be, after years of her illness), but the parents seem relatively unconcerned about her whereabouts. It’s also unclear when the parents actually sleep, since their daughter calls them in the middle of the night when she’s off galavanting, and yet they seem to be operating a restaurant during somewhat normal business hours as well.

Kaoru writes songs and performs them at night on some sidewalk (see clip below). The music aspect to the show has a pretty light tone, interspersed only with tension caused by Kaoru’s disease — the nerve damage arising in her left hand leaves her unable to play guitar, and she eventually suffers throat damage, which she mostly ignores. By the end of the final episode, Kaoru, Yamada, and their friends (the backup band) are about to go onstage to debut in their first public concert. Kaoru is dolled up like a Jpop star, and without the disease storyline, this would be the classic chick flick/Disney/Hilary Duff movie ending where the girl goes onstage and sings a great song, filling the viewers’ hearts are with bubbly warmth and happiness. Unfortunately, this was in fact, the last segment of the last episode of the show, so really, she didn’t have a chance.

In stark contrast, Yamda’s girlfriend in SekaiChuu literally spent all 11 episodes dying, rather than putting it off to the last minute. She also wanted to go out with style, insisting that she visit Australia with Yamada (at this point she was unable to walk, talk, or really even breathe), and there is this incredibly disturbing scene with him carrying her over his shoulder through the airport, until he has no choice but to take her back to the hospital.

So while SekaiChuu is a little heavier, and Taiyou no Uta a little more fun, in both shows, Yamada is the same sweet, devoted, serious, and truly nice guy. In fact, his character in Taiyou no Uta was so clearly the same person as from SekaiChuu, that during the beginning episodes of Taiyou no Uta, I was fairly concerned that he was still upset about the death of the girl in SekaiChuu.

Kaoru in her element, episode 2:

SekaiChuu I watched last year in something like under 24 hours (recommendation: never do this. Afterwards, shock), and Taiyou no Uta was watched this week in ~5 days (a more reasonable length of time to watch such a show). Normally I avoid tear-jerking, depressing dramas, but since this seems to be Yamada Takayuki’s forte, I think I can make exceptions anytime he comes across such an ill-fated girl.

This was cool — some killer tesla coils on the engineering quad friday night.