SuperEggplant

Saturday Hedi took a finishing techiques class at the Braid Box, a yarn shop in Saratoga, CA, so I went up with her to goof around. I had enough time to go to Mitsuwa Market, a Japanese supermarket in San Jose. It was heavenly walking down aisle after aisle of ethnic foods! I was quite parched by then, so I decided to get a beverage. In Japan, they have many, many different kinds of canned and bottled tea. I was just going to get some sort of green (well, it’s actually brown) tea, but then I saw this:
Okay, how cool is that bottle? It is a sleek aluminum bottle of Tea Soda! I should have been scared off by the “orange sugar” ingredient, but I wasn’t. As you can probably guess, the beverage itself was quite disgusting, but hey, the bottle is still neato.

Well, there is just SO MUCH to knit and do! I swatched the Phildar Falaise and am fascinated by it. It is springy (i.e., it has elasticity). I used 4mm needles (okay, so it says 3.9mm on my Japanese gauge thingy), and it knit up very tightly, so I thought I would need to use a slightly larger needle. When I took the gauge, though, it was just as described on the label! What a surprise! I NEVER get the stated gauge. Never. Jamais. Nope.
BUT, before I begin the Becky Wannabe Sweater, I am thinking of knitting a tank. I bought Bonne Marie’s ChicKami pattern today, but I am not exactly a strappy tank kind of gal. I just wanted to see how it was constructed so that I could maybe use the waist shaping for a Smooch ripoff. I like the look of Smooch, but the neckline plunges too deeply for my taste, and the pattern book is pretty expensive, so I think I’m going to just make up my own pattern (I know, I’m scared, too). I am not very spacially oriented, and my knitting skills seem to be worsening with age, but hey, why not, I say! Throw caution to the wind!
On a completely different note, the other day I wandered around KMart and found some colored magnets in the shape of pushpins. They are similar to those very groovy Magnutz, but much cheaper! Here is a side-by-side comparison (KMart one on the left. The Magnutz one is stylishly streamlined, as you can see):

The photo leaves much to be desired (I need a new camera, but that is another issue … ). But anyway, I thought that was a fun discovery.
I am working on a gallery of completed projects, so stay tuned, all 2 of you out there!

Today we went and sat on the boat. We didn’t go sailing because a) Peter forgot the jib at home, b) I get seasick, and just sitting on the boat in the water was enough of a challenge for one day, and most importantly, c) it was blowing 25 knots out past the breakwater. So, we ate sandwiches and CheezIts in a tasty new Cheddar/Jack combo flavor and sat on the boat. It was pretty warm, and I probably should have put sunscreen on my legs. Here’s Peter:

Afterwards we went to Michael’s so I could get some more Lion Brand Cotton-Ease yarn. We went to the Dollar Tree next door, and I got some tangy, wild berry-flavored Dots, but they were quite disappointing, and I threw them away. Weird flavors, weird texture.
And now I am very, very sleepy, but I have to study for my French lesson tomorrow. Mon dieu.

My petite aubergine is not feeling very super.

Something ATE THE TOP OFF OF IT. You probably can’t see where the stalks were severed, but geez, the thing was struggling to survive as it was. No Japanese eggplant for me this summer.
Am I the only idiot unable to figure out this reverse short row shaping method in knitting? I am trying to make socks using the toe-up method, and I swear I must have restarted about a dozen times. I think I finally figured it out, but one of the toes looks a little funky. Just goes to show you that just because you’ve been knitting a long time doesn’t mean you’re actually any good (which is why I wisely quite taking piano lessons at around age 16. I think I started at age 5, and I never improved).
I LOVE DAVID BYRNE. Just had to add that.

Why can’t everything be cute? Is it really so difficult to make cute everyday items? Why are garbage cans and dish drainers and other utilitarian items usually so ugly? It’s just not fun! But this is why I get very excited when I do see cute things in places like Target. Check out these great CD-Rs by TDK that are sold at Target!

I think it’s a good sign! Maybe there will be more cool CD-Rs. Last year, on our trip to Japan, I found these super cool CD-Rs in Fukuoka:
I would have bought more, but we had to lug all our purchases back to my aunt’s on the train, so I had to control myself. I didn’t see others like these anywhere else in Japan (but I wasn’t frequenting electronics shops). I’m scared to use them because they are too nice.