Nikko & yuzu mitsu

This cold, chilly and rainy weather today is reminding me of our day trip to Nikko, Japan. We had one of those days that just didn't go as planned. We got up up before dawn to take the Shinkansen from Nagoya to Tokyo. Once we arrived in Tokyo, we missed the first train to Nikko and had to wait three hours for the second train. The second train wasn't an express train so it took us 5 hours to get from Tokyo to Nikko. Once we arrived in Nikko, we couldn't figure out where to take a bus to get to the Tosho-Go Shrine. When we finally did find the bus, we arrived at the Shrine 30 minutes before it closed. We forked over the cash and tried to run around and see as much of it as we could. We thought we'd be able to see it for the full 30 minutes, but they blocked off the interior of the shrine and the burial grounds 15 minutes before closing. The ironic part of the whole day is that it took us 12 hours to reach the shrine, but we only got to see it for 15 minutes before closing time. Oh well...every trip always has the one day filled with letdowns, right? We had a good sense of humor throughout the day and kept laughing about how it was the worst day ever and that with our luck we'd never be able to leave the city.

Nikko is set in the mountains and the scenery surrounding the shrine was beautiful. We liked the change in landscape from the flatter parts of Japan that we had seen during the other parts of our vacation. The shrine was so ornate and beautiful. We especially loved the moss covered lanterns - Jon is now obsessed with growing moss in our backyard and in his bonsai plants. The moss was especially pretty because it was raining and it looked so green and bright and vibrant.

the sacred cat carving

the entrance to the burial grounds

The best part of the day was discovering this little store that sold a delicious hot drink made from yuzu, called Yuzu Mitsu. It tastes like a warm citrusy, honey drink and it's always nice to drink on a cold day. I have no idea where we'll find any in the States to replenish our supply, but I did find another substitute for it at Trader Joe's this afternoon. It's a Citron Honey spread that's made with Yuzu and the flavor is very similar to the Yuzu drink, but with a marmalade aftertaste. I'm glad that we caved and bought a bottle of the drink to bring home with us because everytime we pull the bottle out for another drink, it always takes me back to that rainy day in Nikko.

new yarn, new project, old house

We've had a crazy little week around our house lately but fortunately things should be back to normal by Sunday. I'm off to Indianapolis for a convention tomorrow and Jon is filling up his social calendar while I'm away. Now I'm jealous that he gets to hang out with his friends while I have to work. I know, poor me...right?

I've been planning out my next knitting project (nevermind all of those other projects that I haven't finished). I'm going to attempt to knit a new hat for Jon (key word: attempt). This is my first time knitting anything that is not a rectangle, so I'm trying to understand how the whole circular needle or double pointed needle thing works. I've been watching tutorial videos on knittinghelp.com, so hopefully I can figure this out on my own. Our plan is for me to make him the Koolhaas Hat by Jared Flood of Brooklyn Tweed from the Interweave Knits Holiday issue. The cabling on it and the crown has such a neat design. I bought some really soft yarn for the hat last night: Berroco Pure Merino in Storm. It is so soft and almost feels as soft as the Debbie Bliss cashmerino yarn that everyone raves about. I'm pretty sure these Berroco Merino yarns that I've been using have solved our my wool-is-too-scratchy dilemna. My new circular needles are ready to go and now I've just got to wind the yarn into center pull balls.

And on a totally unrelated note...we've officially had our house for one year! I just pulled out our mortgage papers to see when our closing date was and it was just today. Man am I glad that we're not moving again this year or painting or installing blinds or making 101 trips to IKEA, Lowes and Home Depot for things we didn't know we needed. It's been a fun year in this house and Jon and I have enjoyed turning this place into our home.

el día de los muertos

I'm crossing things off my to-do list left and right here...finished this patchwork pillow with Day of the Dead embroidery from Sublime Stitching just in time for the holiday today. When I did the Virgen de Guadelupe embroidery back in May I didn't really think that it would take me so long to finish up the skulls and put everything together. That purple and pink skull was sitting in its embroidery hoop waiting for eyes and teeth for about 5 months there as I moved on to different projects.

The skull fabric is by Alexander Henry and I think it officially puts this pillow into the kitschy category, but oh well...it matches the theme, right?!?

happy halloween

It's our first halloween in our new house and consequently our first time passing out candy to all the neighborhood kids. Shinji is being a good sport greeting all the trick-or-treaters at the door while we hand out the candy. He's been very popular with the kids.

And Nuku Nuku is holing up in the basement enjoying my new quilt.

Hazel Hurrahs and rodgab

One last fall stitchette finished. I'm done with fall, now on to the next set. From: wee wonderfuls

We saw an amazing concert last night with our friend Jodi at St. Andrews Hall in Detroit...rodrigo y gabriela. They're a Spanish guitar duo with a rock n roll twist...filled with lots of tricks and techniques to make you drop your jaw. It was a bit louder and a bit later than I'm used to but their talent definitely made staying out late on a work night worth it (man, are we getting old...had to stock up on coke to get a caffeine high to keep us awake : ) You can check out some of their youtube videos here.

Handkerchief Corners Quilt

I am officially finished with this little project. (You can see how the project progressed here, here, here, here, here, here, and here). I'm pretty sure this is the longest it's ever taken me to complete a quilt. I bought the fabric back in May, came up with the idea for the pattern in September and got to work on September 19, a little over a month ago. This project has been haunting me and I'm so glad it's finished!

This is the largest quilt I've made to date and the first time I didn't use free motion quilting. Yikes...all of those straight lines got pretty tedious. It got to the point where I made myself quilt it in one hour blocks so that I would at least get something accomplished. And to top that off, I decided to go with the not so speedy machine stitched/hand stitched binding method seen here. The hand stitching took forever and wasn't quite as fun as embroidery, but I got the hang of it after a while and now it seems a bit more manageable.

I was so happy to throw the quilt in the washer and dryer and see it come out in all its crinkly, wrinkled goodness.

Here are the final details if you're interested in making one of these for yourself:

Final quilt size:

64” x 88”

8 blocks x 11 blocks = total 88 blocks

Blocks:

finished size

8” x 8”

For each block you will need the following pieces:

   Final Size       Cutting Size (w/ 1/4" seam allowance)

1: 5” x 5”         5.5 x 5.5

2: 5” x 1.5”       5.5 x 2

3: 1.5” x 6.5”     2 x 7

4: 6.5” x 1.5”     7 x 2

5: 1.5” x 8”       2 x 8.5

Fabric needed for front:

18 fat quarters

5 sets of fabric from each fq = 90 sets from fq (you will have two squares extra)

1.75 yards for solid color (I used white) center squares

Cut the fabric as directed on each fat quarter:

new yarn + scarf

I discovered my new favorite yarn last month. Berroco Jasper 100% Merino Yarn. I've been knitting a new brioche stitch Berlin Scarf with this yarn for the past few weeks and I am really liking the colorway...can't go wrong with a self-striping green, turquoise and purple yarn, right? I wish I could make every project with this yarn because it is just so soft and so enjoyable to work with. This is definitely the solution to my "wool is too scratchy" dilemna!

I am cranking away at the hand-sewing the binding on my handkerchief corners quilt. I'm hoping to have it all finished by tonight. Jon and I have had a Wes Anderson film-fest weekend. We saw The Darjeeling Limited in the theatre last night, watched an interview with Wes Anderson on the Charlie Rose Show afterward and are wrapping up the festivities with an afternoon showing of The Royal Tenenbaums (one of my top ten favorite movies ever) this afternoon in our basement while I finish up the binding.