Something to see

Sorry, for the short post from last week. But, honestly, there was nothing to show.

Today, though, things are different.

Exhibit A:


I've finished Dracolair's Medieval Tiles *big grin*

The picture doesn't really do it justice. For once you don't really see all the metalic gold that's in there. Very nice and shiny. I've made a mistake in the backstitches and did all the outside backstitch in Kreinik 002J instead of a DMC color. But I have to say, I really like it this way, so no harm done.
As this was my big travel project, I have to decide what to do next. So far, there's no strong cantidate, but I'm sure if I ever find the time to go through my stash I might get an idea (or five)

In the mean time, I've gone back to do some knittings. Scarves are so far all I wanted to do, but knowing me, there might be a pair of sock coming soon.

Exhibit B:


Doesn't look too scarfy ;)

So, try this for size:


I've bought the wool originally for a Faroese shawl, but it just didn't work out the way I liked. So the big evil frog of backward knitting visited me and I ripped averything up.
The scarf was knitted sideways, just a very plain garter stitch, until I just couldn't stand the boredom and had to bind off.
It's nice and warm and soft, though.

Never stopping at just doing one, I've started another sideways knitted scarf. The pattern is from the latest issue of Knitty and it's called Henry.

So far I've did 35 rows with 452 stitches.


Knitted in a dark blue wool / silk / cashmere mix from Lana Grossa. Super soft to the touch. I've already pretty much reached the end of the first ball. The edge doesn't look to great at the moment, but there's trick to it, so in the end it will be all nice and pretty.
Only 'negative' thing is that the wool is not 100% color fast. I've got blue fingers after only a short few rows. I don't really remember this happening, except with hand painted wool (where I sort of expect something like this happening.

So, on to the last WiP pic for today (and possibly the first Happy Donce of next week, as I think I'll be done by then)

Michael Powell's Village IV:


All the stitching is done, only (*gough, gough*) thing to do is the back stitching. For once I'm almost looking forward to it, as I know how cool it will look once the bs is there.

Nothing to see

Move on, move on, there's nothing to see.

Sorry, no pictures this week. Nothing to show really. I had some hopes to finish Medieval Tiles this weekend, but then I had a knit attack, so I didn't stitch at all. And the knitting isn't finished either.

I promise, there will be something next week. Scout's honour.

Blackwork Dragon HD

Happy dancing here. My Blackwork Dragon (by Dragon Dreams) was finished Friday evening.
That makes it a little less than four weeks for it. During that time I only worked on her and on the Mini Cottages IV.


The crest and eye was done in Kreinik Antique Gold cord 205C

This was my first larger piece in blackwork (I sort of doodled a bit before) and I enjoyed doing it. - definitely an option when I'll go in another long distance flight.

I'm now back on Medieval Tiles and making good progress.

Exit from Tokyo

Home, sweet home!

Got back about 24hrs ago. So far, jet lag hasn't exactly hit me - there's always hope it doesn't, especially when I go West. Going East is much tougher - I had a nap attack (as in, I can't possibly keep my eyes open for another second) in the afternoon for the first two weeks I've been in Japan.

The customer was ... difficult, but all in all it went pretty well. Last night we went back to Tokyo and went for Shabu-Shabu, a kind of fondue with beef and vegatables.


Very yummy.

Afterwards was a first for me - we went to a hostess club (link to Wikipedia is provided here). Aimed clearly not at female business travellers (well, this one was), you go there and lovely young ladies are there to entertain you, dance with you. Nothing sexual - my hostess told me that they have bouncers that take care of customers who get too far (though what is too far is decided by the lady)

Next morning I had to go up early (ugh) but at least I had a nice view out of the window.


The tower is Tokyo Tower.
Hard to believe that it is actually taller than the Eiffel Tower in Paris.

I didn't stitch any on the 11 hours flight back, but back home, I've found some metalic thread I tried on the crest of the black work dragon. It's Kreinek 205C, the darkest gold I could find.

I think it works okay.

I've got some requests from the Needle and Threads BB to show my Green Dragon Bookmark. The original design is in red ('Red Dragon Bookmark' by Dracolair), but I had this greenish bit of fabric, so I decided to try a green variation.


I used following colors: 163, 500, 501, 561, 890, 3815, 3816 and 3817
Most in some form of mix, some alone.

How to survive in Japan

Second week in Japan is almost over - one more week to go (of course, the customer will be here Thursday / Friday, so this week will be tough)

One thing about Japan: if you don't like rice, you'll get hungry :)
(liking fish is also a good idea, but not required - there's plenty of chicken around)

Exibit A - hotel breakfast


From upper right in clockwise order: a raw egg, some little dried fish, Miso soup, some nori leaves, rice (lots of it), fried fish and some pickled veggies. Oh, and at 12 o'clock, a little bit of Natto (check it out at Wikipedia), which is probably the most veil thing, suposingly edible on the planet - the smell alone is gagging (some people do like it, but I, for once, didn't go by my old rule that I try everything at least once)

And, yeah, it's pretty much the same every morning. I lasted for about a week, then I switched to some fruit and jogurth in the morning.

Well, you can't accuse the Japanese that they don't like to experiment.
Ever heard of potato chip ice cream? And why is it blue?


(and, no, I didn't try any)

Oh, I do love my new lens. I gave it a bit of a work out today and I'm as happy as can be. Need to buy a larger camera bag though. I'm not looking forward to lugging two bags with me all the time. So I need something bigger, where I can put stuff other than then camera + lens in.


A self portrait for a change, while waiting for the cable train.

Cross stitch front: I've put the blackwork dragon aside for now (save it for the flight back) and started with Michael Powell's Mini Cottages IV (I did skip III as I don't like that too much, but have done I and II)
Can't wait for the wonder of the backstitch on this one - it's amazing on all the Michael Powell pieces. Brought a wronge color of yellow for the left roof - so will only be able to finish it when I'm back home.



I've started a Life Journal - blame the Transformer movie for it. And I got back to writing fanfic. Finished two (very short) stories so far, but posted only one (waiting for the beta on the other)
Here's the first one (Judy Witwicky and Bumblebee): The Unfairness of It All