ok i finally got the new blog working, and entries from this blog imported. it’s not as pretty as i’d like it to be, but hopefully that will happen in time. anyway anoisette.com is where it’s at. see you there!

my sock is coming along slowly so i haven’t got much for updates. i also went and bought a domain name wanting to have a blog hosted on my own space but i didn’t realize that wordpress.com blogs have so many great features that aren’t in a regular wordpress install! so i’ve been mucking around trying to get the new blog set up and and it’s going kind of slow.

things have been quiet here because i only just got back from australia and haven’t quite had a chance to get my life reorganized. my trip gave me the opportunity to finish my sock! i do however still have to bind it off. i did a loose bind off as directed in the knitty universal sock pattern, but unfortunately i still couldn’t get it over my heel. i do recall reading somewhere that there is another way to bind off that maintains the elasticity, so i’m going to have to try and find some instructions somewhere and do that when i get the chance.

i had a great time in australia! i’m working on sorting out all the pictures i took. and will probably post some eventually.

a few weeks ago i watched a german movie called Erleuchtung garantiert (Enlightenment Guaranteed). it’s about two brothers who come to japan and their adventures once they get here. i really enjoyed the movie, and i could relate to so many of their misadventures. parts of it were positively hilarious, but towards the end it took a more philosophical and contemplative tone when the brothers find their way to a monastery. the other thing that was really cool about this movie is that it was entirely shot with a digital video camera, which gives it a more intimate perspective.

ok notice how my sock has backtracked? this is because foolish me didn’t try it on after turning the heel (see i didn’t realize that with this gauge and yarn it’s much shorter to do a short row heel than a heel flap) and when i finally did, it was too short! that and i foolishly started ribbing right after turning the heel which made my rib start right from the heel instead of closer to the ankle. so i frogged it all the way back down to right before the heel and started over. i got to practice doing the short row heel again, which i guess isn’t such a bad thing. live and learn.

so knitting is really great to do while watching tv or something like that, but here in japan i don’t have a tv, and even if i did it would all be in japanese so i wouldn’t understand much. most of the time i just knit on the subway, but occasionally i like to knit in the evening and then it’s nice to have something else going on while i knit. so tv is out. occasionally i’ll watch a movie, but i don’t always want to knit for that long. anyway, i think i’ve finally found a solution: podcasts. a few days ago i posted about a podcast about kiva.org that i listened to. last night i listened to an episode of escape from cubicle nation interviewing the author of the personal finance blog iwillteachyoutoberich.com. makes me feel like i am being double productive, knitting socks and learning about entrepreneurship!

and so i found some time to turn the heel using a short row technique, i followed the instructions from the misocrafty short row heel tutorial. once i wrapped my head around the wraps and double wraps it went pretty quick, although i’m not entirely sure i really got it since the join part doesn’t quite look the same on both sides. oh well, it works though. now i am just going to keep knitting the top until i run out of yarn, following a k2 p1 rib pattern. so far i do prefer this toe up method of making socks.

the second socks has been sitting almost finished for a couple of days now. i just haven’t had a chance to sit down and graft the toe. in fact, i have been putting it off since my last attempt on the first sock didn’t come out properly after a couple of tries. i just had to go with it after try number two because the yarn had already been cut and it was getting really finicky to fix. hopefully i’ll have some time soon to finish it (although the next few days are busy ones, i’m leaving for australia in a week! aaahhhh! so much to do!).

in the meantime i’ve started a new sock, this time toe up. again, i’m at an impasse because i have to work on turning the heel and i want to try to do a short row heel. this again means setting some time aside to sit down and follow instructions. the problem is the stockinette foot and leg parts just go by way too quickly doing it on the subway every day, but then i don’t have time to do the trickier parts so i’m left without any knitting for my subway commute. yesterday i was just finishing up the foot part of these socks and a little old lady started talking to me about it. except i have no idea what she was asking me coz my japanese just isn’t that good.

you really can find anything on the internet. ever wonder what a penguin sneeze sounds like? can’t say i’d ever spend much time pondering that question, but anyhow, there’s the answer. via this site.

this is pretty crazy, a deep fryer with water at the bottom in which goldfish live. crumbs from the deep fried food fall to the bottom, where the goldfish can eat them. very bizarre.

finished the first sock! my first sock ever! am almost done decreasing the gusset on the second one so it should be done in the next couple of days.

the weather here is beautiful. i think spring has properly arrived. i’ve got the balcony door open and the sound of birds chirping is wandering in with a nice little breeze of fresh air and the occasional trickle of kid’s voices playing.