Japan at my feet

We did not have enough time in Japan. We should still be in Japan. While traveling I was forced to rig up a portable runcible bin using a discarded raku cooking pot and an electronic converter I found in Akihabara. I filled it with temple stamps, moss, little music boxes that play the Yamanote station tunes, green tea caramels, incense, slippers, books and magazines. I'll post ideas as I unpack them.

Drawstring bag

I am working on a drawstring backpack for Japan from Lexie Barnes's Sew What! Bags. I did not find the crinkled waterproof silk I have in my mind, but I did find some waterproof gray linen and some glittery white linen for the lining.  I used a seam tape maker to fold strips into drawstrings. I look forward to blogging about Japan when we return in July. Enjoy Summer!

1919 Kimono Waist

I've been practicing this pattern from Decades of Style. They have the most wonderful patterns from the 1920s-1950s. I am beginning a series of kimono waists in shirting fabrics and hopefully flea market remnants - wouldn't a Vera Neumann scarf be great as the front piece, or one of those huge mod ones as the shoulder/back piece? Next up is kitchenette pajamas.

Mr. Boy

The Summer Twist Collective is up and Cristina contributed a wonderful rib sweater named Mr. Boy. Last Summer I knit one in sport weight Rowan Denim for my nephew. The saddle shoulders are very becoming on everyone and the pattern is very adaptable. I made one for myself in a simple rib in Cascade 220. I think I will make a denim version for myself, maybe playing with those ribs for a smocking effect...

Kimono robe

It turned out just as I hoped - and I mean turned out literally because I used an old Threads issue on linings with directions for sewing the lining to the fabric and then performing Houdini contortions (on the robe) to turn it out properly! I still need to sew along the edges and make some kind of loop inside the neck. The photo is taken in our former dining room which we now refer to as the Japan Room. Inspired by our school's Around the World Week, we removed most of the furniture and brought out all our gifts from Japan. We also have a map, library books, and origami paper. 

Kimono robe

This is the Nani Iro fabric from way back that became a bedspread and is now a little bathrobe. I lined it with terrycloth and it is divine. I will post finished picture this week. I saw Super Eggplant has this fabric pattern in a stretch knit in red and white. I can see the danger of going all "Nani Iro" in Japan and coming back with suitcases of gorgeous fabric. I've been wanting to make some little sundress tunic things to wear over jeans with a little cardigan and this Heather Ross pattern is perfect - I have the Nani Iro fabric she is wearing!

Rhubarb magnificents

Mr Lear came back from the market Saturday with armloads of rhubarb - an armload for the sorbet, an armload for the crisp, and this armload for the compote - all courtesy Mr. Lebovitz. It was the edge of a leftover ricotta orange pancake dipped in the remains of the rhubarb crisp that inspired magnificents - it was like suddenly thinking things and being able to speak them in Hungarian - crusty, moist, both sweet and sour with salt and wine and spring. 

Daniel Carasso's Yogurt

Daniel Carasso's obituary in Saturday's Financial Times inspired me to make yogurt again. Sometimes I stumble on tradition. I am so wound up on re-creating that I stop enjoying. A few Summers ago I read about the carbonated fruit flavored tea drinks on the menu at Mariage Freres in Paris. The article was similar to this post at TeaMuse by Karen Burns, "France has never been a big tea-drinking country...this is an advantage because the French never developed fixed traditions regarding tea, and so they're open to new flavors, new blends, and new varieties."

The Mariage Freres web site explains, "Day after day, we ask ourselves what tomorrow's tea should be like. So in the field we constantly seek the most delicate harvests, while in the lab we devise the most expressive blends."

I'm going to adapt David Lebovitz's Lavender-Honey ice cream into a Fage Greek style homemade yogurt. "Day after day, I am going to ask myself what tomorrow's creations should be like. So in the marketplace I will constantly seek the most delicate harvests, while in the kitchen I will devise the most expressive blends."

Books for Japan

I'm hunting down children's books set in Japan and looking for some historical fiction for myself. I also want to make a fantastic daybag that is part How to Wrap Five Eggs and part waterproof nylon that looks like antique silk. I'm reading Write It Down, Make It Happen and I realize that many of my projects come to life because I write them down here first!

Ceramic bottles

More images from the Mingei book - these ceramic bottles would be lovely in the kitchen with cork tops. I would glaze the inside and use it for meyer lemon concentrate - which tastes incredible chilled in tiny tea cups!

Mingei

A friend lent me this fantastic book of Japanese folk crafts. The Japan Folk Crafts Museum in Tokyo was founded in 1926 by Soetsu Yanagi to preserve the everyday handmade, functional objects being replaced by factories. The textiles are mostly kimonos made from indigo dyed cotton, linen and hemp.  

This next photo is not a kimono, but a kimono comforter! A cotton quilt in the shape of a kimono. The caption reads, "Wrapped securely in symbols of good fortune, wearers could drift off to sleep peacefully." 

>This fireman's coat has resist indigo water waves across the back...


...and embroidery on the sleeves.

Poffertjes grows

I'm adding the diamonds and connecting the circles in the Poffertjes pattern. The Alchemy Synchronicity is so beautiful that I don't want to add anymore circles in anything else. I'll border this piece with panels - a pillow? a wall hanging above the bed? a blanket? a table runner?

Fire everything!

The new Star Trek movie is great. This is the Sonia Delauney quilt I'm thinking about emulating with some machine washable fabrics. 

Mustard

I am going to make fancy mustards and can them for gifts. This is white wine and sage with honey 1.0. I cooked it too long. The next batch will be lighter, smoother, and I'll make a porcelain mustard spoon! Maybe it will look like a sage leaf.

Knitted quilt pillows

This is the blanket pattern from Holiday Handknits made of garter stitch diamonds sewn into squares. The yarn is all leftovers. I don't love it enough to commit to a blanket. This is a very large swatch - a pillow. I think the final blanket will end up being a central 36" square pattern from the Sonia Delauney book bordered by huge plain panels of garter stitch like an Amish quilt. 

Poffertjes blanket

I found a skein of gold Alchemy Synchronicity in my closet and managed to eek out 4 Poffertjes circles. I have another skein in a bronze color. Perhaps this will become a large reading pillow instead of a queensize blanket. I like tweedy wools next to the silks.

Custom travel guides

In June we are bound for Japan. We stretch out our trips by researching them - tearing out articles, writing down restaurant names, reading novels. And then I lose the notes. I like tearing out the pertinent guidebook pages and adding them to my own book with xeroxes of 100-yr-old guidebooks, internet printouts, copies of paintings.

Moleskine has a line of City Notebooks that include a map with tracing paper, blank pages and tabs, and a little pocket. Of course they have many notebooks in different sizes that can be customized. Imagine doing a river walk using the Japanese Accordian planner, a bike tour with maps pasted into the A3 folio, or a custom big city details with the mini notebook. Imagine making a custom guidebook for your everyday life in your own town.

Custom jumbo crayon

I saw this jumbo Crayola ballpoint pen at Flax this weekend. It has a nice weight in your hand. I couldn't decide between a purple crayon like Harold's or a bright red crayon, and so I bought blue. Imagine customizing the purple Crayola pen with a purple ballpoint refill and using it for doodling - or giving the red Crayola pen a red ink refill for editing papers. What a graduation present! Next I need to choose a color name and print a transparent sticker: indigo, midnight blue, denim, bleu, Kind of Blue??? 

Beach knitting

I finished all but one mitt at the beach last week. These are my Fetchings knit from some stashed Louisa Harding Kashmir. They are pretty; the microfiber makes them shine. But do you see how Miss Lear's stashed Alchemy Reservoir - a wool/mohair single - puts them to shame when knit up into the simple ribbed Maine Morning Mitts? They soak up the beach sun and warm your hands. 

Heirloom Beans

I heard about Heirloom Beans on Splendidtable.org. As you can see in the photo, most of my experience with beans is drilling holes in them and stringing them. Last month I sampled some leftover gigante beans from Flora's in Oakland. Those creamy white beans mixed with goat cheese and bread crumbs and the Splendid Table podcast convinced me I need to get cooking.

Fairy boat

What a wonderful and long week. We ate strawberries and roasted almonds. I wish we had planned better and grilled artichokes. I wish I had painted the farmers' markets. I wish I had found a book. I wish I had spoken to the Scrabble player who looked like my college professor. I wish this little boat would stay anchored so I could return and get my wishes.

Spring Break

One Spring when I lived on the Hill I was walking home and passed a house with cherry trees behind a tall fence. They had strung little lights through the blossoms to make them glow. I could hear people and the sound of real glasses and dishes. I stood there imagining the perfect cherry blossom cocktail party, and I still do. We are heading to the beach for a week. I am going to concentrate on knitting mitts to wear while I knit more mitts.

Linen patches

In my quest to shrink my stash, I found a home for some linen swatches. These are Barbara Walker slip stitch patterns. I was planning to make a pillow or bag by knitting one for a while and then binding off and picking up and knitting another for a while. In one of her books, she includes the directions for a bag in this style.

Tea pot of bowls

Carol McNicoll's tea pot in the FT last week reminded me of Kate's comment on my last post about pottery. All across my kitchen are stacks of bowls, salt bowls, olive pit bows, sherbet bowls, cereal bowls. I'm going to try something like this and call it, "All I can make is bowls."

Striped socks

All last week I was looking for the camera cable! I completed these socks from leftover Socrates and leftover Shepherd Sock. It's Spring and I feel like using everything up and cleaning everything out.