Long time no see....but, please look at them!!!




Today I have picked up these at Post office, and opened at home, WOW!!

It is Minako who sent these to me, how cute they are!! I cannot stand sending them straight to NICU without taking photo, these are so precious and so lovely. And she made them so rapidly. Some days ago I have just received a message that she sent them to me....How modest she is.... anyway, I really really touched, Minako, Thank you so much. I will send them right away to NICU.

But.

My surprise didn't finished. She enclosed in the package these too!!




You know what? The left blue one is a cute stitch marker, yes you know, and this is a bookmark made by her, incredible tatting lace garment, sooooo beautiful! Sorry Minako, I cannot hide it only for me, it is too beautiful to keep...


I have already seen some her tatting objet, but now I know we cannot see its real beauty from photos. It looks so fragile and delicate, I actually hesitate if I really could use it as bookmark. It became immediately my treasure. Thank you so much, Minako.





By the way, do you like fig? I love it. I really love it.




But I don't eat fresh fruits. I adore the jam made from fig. In Tokyo, generally fig is quite expensive to get, but every year when the season comes, I get some and make jam. Here is the this year's :






Especially the smell( not the smell of making, the one of finished jam) is very original and nice. The smell make me think it contains naturally a good riquor in it. If you never try to make the fig jam, try once. It deserves and you understand.

Well, today's post is not really about knitting.....

Recently I found myself that the more I work with cotton yarn, the more I love them. Of course, it doesn't have the elasticity like wool, and at first it was a little annoying me. But, I noticed once you are used to it, the cotton is never itchy, always soft and comfortable touch for hand.

Currently I am working on my Grace cardi, with 100% cotton yarn of Filatura di Crosa, Porto Cervo Jeans. My choice of shade is the mix of hay, indigo and brown. This is the yarn and swatch photo:







It would suit well with jeans and my indigo color skirt. This yarn is very comfortable to work with, smooth and easy to knit up. It is this summer's new yarn, and just now is the summer sale season. You can easily read my thought……I am wondering to order more this yarn, but this time I would get other shade. More blue, indigo mix. This is my Glace, but actually now this back part has been finished, now I am knitting left front part.





When I have got Phildar yarn from this autumn/winter collection, I have also chosen the blue denim shade. For the Rowan All Seasons Cotton, I chose “Iceberg”, pale blue. It looks all my yarns recently bought are in blue shade. What is it?


By the way, as I have already written another day, I really really love Rowan #27. I have got it for getting Pagan pattern, but I found itself a fabulous issue. There I can find many interesting design, and now I count…I made Pagan shell, now working Grace cardi, and got yarns for Lime cardi, finally I could get all shade needed for Punch cardi by Wool cotton.(Yes, I love cardigan. It is very useful for me)I could get four of shades indicated, except #931 Gazelle. I asked to get these yarns to my DH while he had been in England, and the sales person told him that Gazelle has been discontinued. After I found out, I have searched a little on internet and could not find, but I happened to find them here in Japan. Simply I asked Rowan Japan and they had them. People often know little of what is happening under their very noses. So I went to their shop and got the yarn with Rowan magazine #16 and #30.

Kim Hargreaves is my idol since I have been hooked by knitting and found Rowan in the world. Her very simple but chic design and coloring suits well for Japanese women's taste, I believe. Most of Kaffe Fasette's looks too vivid and design-agressive for me. It explains me why Noro is not as popular in Japan as overseas, not only because its price, but color shade. I don't know, maybe I feel like that because I have never tried Kaffe's design. One day, anyhow I will try one.

Today's post is all shopping photos.

At that shopping day, I went to four LYS and looked and enjoyed and envied and decided to buy some....Here is the fist one. This "PingoFrance"yarn was on sale, only 1.5 euro a ball. I found a nice pattern for a child eazy fair isle cardi with this yarn, so I bought them:




Close shot. 50% wool and 50% acrylic, very soft and washable. nice shade.




AND, yes, of course, I found and went Phildar shop. There is a boutique of Phildar wear and yarn corner. I looked carefully the yarns, it was so beautiful and yummy, and very difficult to decide what to buy. Finally I took some of their new 2003 autumn/winter yarn and some other DK yarn matching the color. The left , two gray balls are Plassard's sock yarn. I have found only these as sock yarn while my vacation.




This "Mouflon" is Phildar's new arrival. Very thick chunky yarn, so soft and light. Looks very easy to knit up. There was some other mixed color shade, but I choosed this Denim shade. I thought I could make a scarf with this yarn. So I desided to get some more yarn to make gloves matching this scarf. I cannot wait to cast on!!




These are some magazines I could get there. I didn't get newest Phildar magazine, since it looks that was not my taste. In it, of course there is a pattern for Mouflon, but it was jipup style vest for teens, I didn't like it. I got spring/summer issue, family issue, and some other from Katia, Plassard. The other day, I could get some knitting magazine at the local supermarket. It looks that crochet is more popular in France now. I found only three knitting magazine which are all small volume, but there much more clochet magazines.




This last photo is a basket I bought at the market. I love this very french-style solid basket. It was a little expensive, but I love it and it deserves. Beautiful.....




From this week end, finally I can reach my ordinary life as usual. The Jet lag has been finished. I worked for my new cardi, Grace. I love Rowan magazine #27. There I can find many pattern I fall in love with.

While I have been sleeping, this week-end flew away....but anyway, I am ajusting myself to the local time.

Today first, please look my finished garment collection, which are produced over my vacation. Here is Scamp sweater completed:




And my dearest son is playing with a dog in the sweater....
Looks good size now. But the sleeves are a little long.




I arrived at the CDG Airport in the morning of Saturday, and had full day long after 13 hours flight. In that day, I finished my DH socks finally.




AND during the vacation, from Saturday until Wednesday midnight, I diligently worked at this Pagan shell and finished!! Actually, I planned to visit some LYS on Thursday, I wanted to do it wearing this Pagan. I did, but no one ever mentioned......ugh. But I am happy about it, the size is OK, I have got some complements in other occasion. For the pattern, to tell the truth I did not understand well the explanation at the part of finishing shoulder shape. So I amended a little, as I could manage, so I used short-rows and shaped the inclination. Looks OK?




Just after Pagan, I started this socks for my son with the yarn which I introduced here in the post on June 28. Now I have finished the first one and just starting the second heel. Not worked well. So it is WIP.




At the next post, I will show you my shopping results.....