ribby progress

Posted on December 8, 2004 by mariko

Here is the ribby cardi thus far:
ribby in progress.JPG
Not much else going on right now. There will, however, be some baking happening in the next couple of days!

Posted in knitting | 7 Comments

a wee wonderfuls apron

Posted on December 6, 2004 by mariko

When I got back from Portland, I was greeted by a pile of junk mail and a few surprises. One of the fun packages I got was from Hillary of Wee Wonderfuls, my partner in Japanese fabric crime. She sent me this beautiful apron that she made:
wee apron.JPG
I don’t know if you can see all the lovely sashiko she did on it. It is way too pretty to cook in, so maybe I will wear it as sort of a craft apron? Peter thinks it looks like part of a samurai costume.

Posted in sewing | 11 Comments

Back in Cali

Posted on December 5, 2004 by mariko

I got back from Portland last night, and it will take me a while to readjust, I think. Here’s Deedle wearing her gift–a stylin’ shirt from American Apparel:
deedle in aa shirt.JPG
Here’s one last Portland story: Carolyn and wacko brother went shopping around the neighborhood while I took Peter to the airport. I asked the bro to pick up a copy of The Art of Eating, a quarterly magazine, if he happened upon it. He tried taking Carolyn to a zine store to see if it was there, but they accidentally wandered into a porn store instead. Bro asked if they carried the magazine, just in case. They did not.

Posted in General | 8 Comments

fabric stash enhancement

Posted on December 3, 2004 by mariko

My mother came home from Japan a couple of days ago, and she brought me some good stuff (and though my wacko brother likes to complain that I get all the good stuff, and he just gets underwear, I must point out that I am very specific in my requests, while he is not. Besides, he is very picky. Did you see the fabulous reflective sash my mother brought him, though?):

japan fab.jpg

Some great fabric to add to my stash! Hillary found a Japanese web site that only sold fabric in Japan, so we conspired and figured out a way to GET SOME (make my mother bring some back). Hillary should get her fabric early next week, so keep your eyes peeled for the goodies she ordered. I love the fabric! You’ll also notice a couple of knitting magazines. There are some really weird things in the top one, but there is a crocheted flower tutorial in there, so maybe I will finally be able to figure out how to do that successfully.
Here’s some tawashi yarn:
japan tawashi yarn.jpg

I swear Japanese acrylic is softer and nicer than the American stuff.
And this is not from Japan, but I wanted to share. Check out the yummy chocolates my brother got for me at Moonstruck Chocolates, a local chocolatier:
moonstruck.jpg moonstruck truffles.jpg
He was offended because I didn’t immediately rip open the box to admire the truffles. He said he put a lot of effort into picking out the prettiest ones. I guess he ain’t all bad all the time.

Posted in sewing | 14 Comments

Test Post

Posted on December 2, 2004 by mariko

The computer hosting this blog crashed today and I’m just testing to see if I fixed the database corruption.
Sorry for the interruption.
– Mariko’s brother

Posted in Uncategorized | Comments Off on Test Post

christmas shopping

Posted on December 1, 2004 by mariko

Cancer-killing Megan was in Portland for Thanksgiving, so I got to spend some time with her. I dragged her over to the workshop of Queen Bee Creations, a great company that makes vinyl bags and accessories. I have admired their work for some time, so I was pretty excited to discover that they are now based in Portland and that they allow visitors to the workspace. They sell a lot of seconds there for great prices, so how could we resist? I got a messenger bag and wallet, and Megan got, well, a whole bunch of stuff (my two items are on the left):
queenbee.jpg
They do really great work, so please keep them in mind for your holiday shopping.
Speaking of holiday shopping, I was thinking it might be good to buy from the indie crafters of the world instead of The Man this year. Here are just a few vendors you might want to check out:
-The aforementioned Amyville, home of miniature clay creations
–My Paper Crane, an amazing shop offering donut and toast and other plushes (totally love the donut hole plushes), as well as handspun yarn and fun fleece scarves (I have the striped one, and I love it!)
–Tania Howells, who sells really, really, really cute bird stuff, including necklaces, silk purses, mugs, etc.
–Buy Olympia, a collective of artists based in or near Olympia, Washington. Queen Bee is part of this pack, along with Stella Mars and Nikki McClure
–Giant Robot, publishers of Giant Robot, an Asian pop culture magazine. The store has great T-shirts and tons of wacky Japanese goods.
I’m sure there are plenty more, but this a good start! If you know of any others you’d like to plug, feel free to leave them in comments.

Posted in other crafting | 6 Comments

candy interlude

Posted on November 30, 2004 by mariko

I thought I’d throw another candy post in here before listing my christmas shopping guide (I have to tell you about one place right now, though. Remember those cute miniature clay donuts and sushi? Well, Amy has launched Amyville, her online shop of goodies! They would make great Christmas gifts).
So anyway, yesterday I took my father to Edelweiss, the German deli with the wall o’ chocolate. We also went to a Serbian deli that has some chocolates and treats (but the Ritter Sport bars there cost a good 60 cents MORE than at Edelweiss. What’s up with that?). My father kept asking me if I didn’t need more candy to take back to California. Here’s a smattering of the candy I’ve gathered (some of this is for others. Yes, I can share sometimes):
candy.jpg
A couple people were curious about the green tea marshmallows. I got those at the Asian market (I can’t name it because it’s NOT the one where my mother works). They have this green tea goo inside. They were a bit too perfumy tasting for me, but they are definitely interesting.
And a final candy discovery–did you know there are watermelon-flavored Tootsie Pops? They had them in the giant candy jars in the lobby of the hotel where Carolyn stayed (and NO, that’s not why I recommended this particular hotel). They come in a beautiful green wrapper.

Posted in candy/chocolate | 12 Comments

big blog break

Posted on November 29, 2004 by mariko

Whoah, I haven’t posted for a long time! I’ve been alternately sick and busy (or busy being sick?). Peter arrived at midnight on Wednesday, Carolyn came Thursday/Thanksgiving late morning, and it’s been all go since then. It was really great to meet Carolyn, and we had a lot of fun running around and exploring Portland. We seemed to spend a lot of time (and money) at REI. Here are Peter and Carolyn changing into their new threads in the REI parking garage:
rei shopping.jpg
In addition to shopping and eating constantly, we were able to pull off a little knitblogger gathering at a great little cafe/dessert shop called Pix Patisserie. Here we are trying not to freeze to death:
pix bloggers.jpg
That’s Melanie and her daughter Eleanor (and yes, her sweater is incredible), Melissa wearing her cute Rowan sweater vest that you can’t see, me, and Carolyn. Thanks to Melanie’s husband for being the photographer!

Posted in General | 11 Comments

wool disguised as acrylic

Posted on November 22, 2004 by mariko

What does this look like to you?

mill end yarn.jpg

Doesn’t it look like nasty acrylic yarn? Well, look closely–it’s 100% virgin wool! And it cost $1.99 per skein! I couldn’t pass it up. I found it at the Mill End Store, yet another giant fabric store that Mrs. H and I visited. I asked the woman in the small yarn area what the story was with the yarn. She told me people come and buy shopping cartfuls of it! Apparently it felts pretty nicely. Crazy, huh?
And for your daily moment of candy, here is another selection in the mint-flavored seasonal candies:
mint nuggets.jpg
These are little nuggets of goodness! Not too minty but just right! I hope the mint-loving Jessica is paying attention.

Posted in knitting | 26 Comments

portland craftiness

Posted on November 20, 2004 by mariko

Today I played with Melissa. We went to Rose City Textiles and picked up some zippers (and oops, some wasabi exoskin fell into my shopping bag!) then headed to a holiday craft bazaar. I met Susan Stars and Cathy, from whom I bought this:
bowling magnet.jpg
It’s for my father-in-law, the champion bowler. Look how cutely she wrapped the magnet (yes, the baggie is sitting atop my wasabi exoskin):
bowling magnet bag.jpg

Posted in other crafting | 4 Comments