Knitting in Japan

Before I left, I made the effort to research yarn stores in Tokyo. I was so super excited about Japan and so very under utilised in the office, that I had plenty of time and enthusiasm but not enough Japanese. Fortunately, I found Pinku's list, which was then updated by the SnB group. As it turned out, we found yarn serendipitously in Kyoto and prioritised other shops for Tokyo.

I finished some fingerless gloves for myself (um, where's the picture?) and proudly wore the mohair jumper that my friend Emily sent me as a kit for my birthday 2 years ago that I finally finished in the Philippines.

Hey, that's me sideways! Well, okay that's it for today but let me just say it is so nice to catch up with you all, it's knocked me sideways.

I hope you're all on bloglines...

...otherwise I don't imagine you'll see this but never mind. I just wanted to chat and for the first time in 7 months I'm in a nice place with a comfy computer where blogging seemed a real option. When travelling, unless you have extreme commitment to the blog, it can be a bit of a trial. I suppose, also, blogging is always something I've done alone and didn't want the husband to be getting bored while I battled with dodgy connections.

I'm in New Zealand at my friend's place and my husband is just making some lunch. It's about one thirty in the afternoon so too late to skype with my mum. My mum prompted me to post as sometimes there are things I want to chat about other knitting people with and then I realised I'd really missed blogging while I'd been travelling.

Hello, Mum! This is about you so if you don't want to read it you don't have to!

I bought my mum Big Girl Knits for mother's day and she doesn't like it. She says she's smaller than a lot of the patterns smallest size and doesn't think she can knit the patterns, but concedes she might feel differently if I was there with her. I'm disappointed - I think she is definitely bigger than a UK size 16 and I thought patterns in the UK only tend to go up to that size. I checked out the book and the women in the photos seemed large but I thought they seemed large like my mum but maybe big girl in the US means BIIIIIIG. I admit I didn't check out actual sizing of the patterns but I presumed they would fill the gap in UK patterns. I suppose I feel a but dumb for not checking further but also I was so excited and so sure she'd like it because she's been getting more confident and some of the patterns are really lovely.

So there are two things: sadness at the present not going down well and frustration at hearing her say she can't knit stuff when I know there is no mystery to following a pattern. I don't know if there are symptoms of her MS that I'm not aware of that mean she's extra reticent to try a longer, more involved pattern or if she's just talking herself down. I wsa very gung ho about knitting. I was so excited about trying every new technique I could when I restarted knitting three years ago that I let nothing phase me. I always tried to encourage other knitters, including my mum, when they got stuck with garter stitch scarves. Break free! My mum has recently knitted me a garter stitch log cabin blanket for when I return to the UK (end of May) which I thought was an inspired request. She now knits other things aswell - bobbles and intarsia have been recent additions to her knitting CV. So what could there be in the pattern book that would stop her? Is this something that happens with all acheivements? My friend had to write a list of her achievements to take to her life coach for the next session. She felt very disappointed with the list she made but I was jolly impressed by it. What do you think?

Ok ramble ramble and I don't even have a photo for you! How rude! well, how about I promise to go to the LYS and spend money just to get a good piccy for you guys. Yes, yes, I am that selfless.

So good to see you all again and I won't leave it another 7 months!