rakkasei zoroi

I think that's what the package says in Japanese. They're beautiful, delicious Japanese rice crackers with peanuts on the inside and various outers. I love them... I could eat them all the time. I bought these kind in Japan. There are some pretty good ones sold at Uwajimaya here in Seattle, but they don't have this kind of aristry. Something to be savored.

What now?

So it's October. What happened since August?

Garden
I went to Japan in September. While I was gone, my sister and parents were good enough to keep watering my plants! Unfortunately, no one weeded or stood up the fallen stakes, so when I came back the tomatoes were falling all over themselves. Then it rained, so I didn't go out to fix anything, and basically the garden looks like it's in shambles. Somewhere between leaving Seattle and coming back, my fire for the garden died down. I think I'll compost everything and just wait for spring to come again. Oh well-- it was fun while the sun lasted :)

Work
I work for a technology group on campus, and I recently switched from a cubicle to an office. Here's part of my desk:


Ooh, pretty! I have plants, too! (The one in the center in the clay pot-- it has been named Jimi).

Ooh wait.

Ooh, no. Is that a binder clip attaching the lamp to the stand? We are ghetto after all...

Hey, I try my best with what I have in the office. The lamp is from Ikea-- it's like $5 to $10 for the shade and the light fixture inside. I got the lamp stand from my boss, which is actually from Ikea too. It used to be a desk lamp in its own right, and had a lightbulb for a head. Unfortunately, I dropped the lamp when moving from Odegaard in Red Square, so the head (the lightbulb) broke off. So now I just use it as a stand for this other lamp I have :)

Knitting
In September, when I left for Japan, I began a new project. It is the Bridgetown Belt Bag, the pattern for which was published in Interweave Knits magazine in Spring 2006.

Here's where I was at the beginning of the trip, on our flight from Seoul to Hong Kong, I believe (about 3 hours total of knitting?)



I like the contrast between stockinette (the smooth "v"s) stitch and garter stitch:


Here's where I am, now, in early October (about a month's worth of knitting):


It's unfortunate, but I have problems staying awake in my classes (even though there's only 22 people in my class!). So, to help my awareness disability, I knit during class. My instructors have been good enough to let me do this. I finished the straps (the 2 tails) this last week over two days of 3 classes).


I think the tails make my beltbag look like some kind of Japanese monster from a Studio Ghibli movie. The next steps for the project will be making the pouch part of the beltbag, sewing it on, and knitting/attaching two D-ring loops to the V side of the belt bag. The beltbag closure will be kind of like those belts with the two metal rings on one side. You put the end of the belt through both, then pull it backwards through one, then pull tigher to conform to your waist size.

I'll also have to "block" my knitting. I hate blocking because for some reason it just demands too much patience. But it's worthwhile-- it's supposedly magic for making knit pieces look like the way they were intended. Like ironing a terribly wrinkled shirt.

I think this belt might end up being too loose on me. I knit it larger, thinking it couldn't possibly fit around my waist. I neglected the stretch factor, though. Well, we'll see.