eyeless fish

My Halloween post for 2009.

This semi-dry fish is popularly served for breakfast, or as salty treat in Japanese cuisine. We eat this as it is, head and bones and all, after lightly roasting it.

It's called mezashi (speared at eyes, literally) or maruboshi (dried whole, literally).

It is "dried sardine, held together by a bamboo skewer or string piercing the eye sockets" (by tangorin.com).

It's just.. yummy.

Happy Halloween!

Mission; kotatsu

kotatsu completed
Originally uploaded by O'Chica

About 3 weeks ago, my daughter, born and spent her first 4 years of life in Texas, was watching TV and asked me, "Mom, what is this stuff?" On the screen was a kotatsu. We have one, but have not been using it as its original form - I mean, it was just a square coffee table for us these years.

I had thrown away both of kotatsu futons (shiki-futon and kake-futon, mattress and blanket, that is) before we move to Japan (yes, I took them to Texas). My daughter and I picked up a set (happened to be the most inexpensive one in the shopping catalogue - good eye, girl!) and it was delivered yesterday.
It's not really cold enough for a kotatsu yet, but we just HAVE to get it ready NOW.

This morning, I cleaned up the living room floor and got it. A basket of Unshu (Satsuma) oranges is essential. Lots of coloring and drawing, snacking, TV-watching, knitting, reading, card games and not-so-intended naps are going to happen here this winter.

Do (again, if you need) it right

I haven't finished any knitting project for a while.

I'm working on these;

My daughter's jacket/cardigan.

Pattern based on; DROPS 112-38 Jacket in "Alpaca" and Kid-Silk" with long sleeves

I'm using Omega Synfonia in my stash to use up most of them. It's a mercerized cotton yarn I bought at Hobby Lobby long ago, leftover from this colorful snake.

I had such a fun time using this colorful yarns on various projects, but it's about time to say good-bye... I feel pretty bad to keep ten (or more?) partial balls of mercerized cotton. It's not that I don't like it, but.. you know.

My daughter LOVES colors. Rainbow colors. I hope this cardi/jacket wears more than one season. In fact, she grew one whole inch during two month in this summer. I am really trying hard, making the body long and all, but, now, I'm counting on the "grow" of the cardi itself. Oh, the god of gravity, please, please mercy me.

I did the body in one piece, split and joined at the shoulders. I picked up the sleeves, and working two sleeves one time on two circs.

My husband's socks, one done. I'm using Earl Grey by Yarn Harlot, and Patons Kroy sock yarn on Brittany 5 inch DPNs. This combo is so comfortable, so natural, that... I knit the foot too long and had to rip it back about 1.5 inches. I added another light grey yarn to make the toe thick and durable, as of my husband's request.

My mother in law's gloves. I will not really "finish" this project before she tries them on and make final adjustment on fingers (or palms, if needed). These are made for "a perfect fit". I am wondering if her hand is really this big, but I'll not make any speculation.

I made the second cuff almost to the bottom of the palm, and realized I counted wrong. It is "a twist every 5 rounds", but I made it every 4 rounds a few times. As a result, I had to choose between adding one more twist and go on or ripping it back to almost cast on edge and do it right. I, proudly, chose the latter. It's a Christmas present, so I still have time.

All these three project required some ripping and re-doing. I feel proud and really matured of myself, to have done so.

After finishing all these three, I'll cast on fingerless gloves for my sister in law. I think I found a perfect pattern for a mother of three who loves playing flute and wants a pair of fingerless gloves for driving hot summer days and chilly mornings.

Living with a girl

Here's my dughter's fluffy scarf, "huggie" towel, and a "tail" for her kindergarten bag.

Patterns; Noro Striped Scarf by Jared Flood, and Mitered Hanging Towel in Maxon-Dixon Knitting Outside the Lines. Both are arranged a bit.

Yarn; Chaton (orange) and Chaton Print (mix) from Naska, 100% nylon

Needles; US 11 (8.0mm) plastic single points

Notes; Scarf is made 2 rows of orange and 4 rows of mixed colors, instead of 2 rows alternate colors of the original. Towel is made "top down", from handle to increased bottom, to use up all the yarn. The tail? It's just a piece of yarn, folded. It's just tied to her bag's shoulder strap.

We went to a small shopping mall to get my daughter's new pair of indoor shoes. I wanted to get a button for her sloppy lacy bolero, so we hit the craft store (Lupinus) just for a button. (I just realized I have forgotten to take a pic of the improved bolero. Ha!)

I wasn't going to see a yarn because I have enough (I'm tired to even think of it. Enough.) yarn for coming twenty years or so, but my daughter walked into the yarn aisle like a planned visit. ( That would tell something about my yarn habit.) I had to go with her. Before I say "oh, not today, you've got a runny nose and I'm not gonna....", she took a skein and cuddled it like a baby doll, put it on her cheek, saying "aaagh, this one is so soft! so fluffy!" (Well, she's speaking Japanese all the time these days. I'm a bit sad that she says she forgot how to speak English, but delighted that she says it's because speaking in Japanese with her friends is such a huge fun.)

I had to buy the skein. And a little more to make it work. I ended up buying three skeins of furry 100% nylon yarn.

Partly because the yarn was really soft to touch and thought it would be fun to deal with this kind of yarn (oh, I'm talking like a yarn snob) from time to time. But mainly because it was the only thing my daughter really wanted that day.

She is growing up. She is not a baby who would only accept anything her parents think good for her. She's got her own taste, and I sometimes get really really impressed how good it is.

It's still a little too warm for wearing a scarf. She just have "a tail" on her bag for now, and it helps her really well to touch it on the way to the kindergarten in the morning she's not so excited to go.

The towel doesn't work a bit for drying hands. I knew it. I was just afraid that she likes the feel of the scarf so much that she might secretly take it in her bed at night. I just had to make something which will not strangle her. It's beautifully working every time she or her buddy cuddly horse Mar-kun needs something soft on their cheek when they fall asleep.

And you know what? My husband liked to touch the scarf, too. Big guy apparently needs a little fluffiness, too.

On not using a dryer

We have a washing machine. But not a laundry dryer.

We have small ACs for our living/dining room and each of two bedrooms. And we turn them on only when we think we need to adjust the room temperature or humidity. OF COURSE we turn them off when we go out, even just for a grocery shopping. They are not a central AC for the whole house which keeps on working even while the house is empty and waiting for a new buyer.

Now, after staying in southeast Texas for 5 years, I know that would sound somewhat pre-historic or uncivilized for a lot of Americans. I understand that.

When we moved to the US, I learned it's not allowed to dry my laundry outside (like on the balcony) at our apartment. I learned we are basically only supposed to adjust the thermostat and toggle cool/warm switch on our AC, only from time to time. We bought a washer and a dryer at BEST BUY, and found out the temperature comfortable for both me (who like it warmer) and my husband (who like it cooler). We got used to it.

I have read about a Japanese lady who married to an American and was living in New Mexico (or Arizona. Somewhere in the Southwest.), who couldn't dare to use "excess and meaningless energy" for drying their laundry and tried drying bed linens in their backyard. I understood her way of thinking, but couldn't agree her with "Americans are wrong, Japanese are right about saving energy" kind of implication she was trying to make.

Yes, saving energy is very important and urgent issue for us all. I don't deny that. But, there are reasons for any "common" way of life. That Japanese lady finally admitted that not using a dryer makes bed sheets so hard (because of the hard water they have from the tap) almost unable to sleep on, and gave up. I really think it's necessary to use a dryer in snowy winter of Northern countries to keep the family healthy. I know for a fact that turning the AC off in southeast Texas in summer temperature (which starts in March and doesn't end even in October) can be a serious health threats for elders and infants.

In Japan, energy is expensive. We try to use less energy not because it saves the earth. We do it just to save money.

I have my September bill for electricity (charges for 8/11~9/9, the second most usage in this year) here. We used 372 kWh and owe 8,145 yen (about 90 US$) to them. I tried to figure out how much we would pay if we were in Texas, and visited Entergy web site. They have "A typical residential bill calculation, using 1000 kWh of electricity usage." Ha. We are not even on a same ground. (FYI, the model bill says the price is $86.47. Roughly speaking, the same cost for three times more usage.)

While thinking about this, my trusty washer told me the load is done with a lovely melody (I guess it's a phrase from some famous Classic music. Please don't ask me further.) I got my damp laundry out and brought them to the balcony, hung them on the clothes line (bar, actually) to make this scene;

We have restrictions for the laundry drying on the balcony in the apartment rules, not to let the laundries seen from outside nor to hang mattresses/rugs on the fence. Otherwise, we would buy one of these and hang our laundries as high as possible.

Like my husband's maternal grandmother (may her soul in peace), we like to hang our laundry as close as to the sun, "so it will dry quickly." My husband says she believed that the closer, the quicker.

Even though he laughs off her "not-so-scientific" reasoning, his laugh is a very warm one. We believe in the antiseptic power of the sunshine. The belief takes the form of a knowledge about ultraviolet, but I'd say it's a primitive awe we have to the sun. I think it's the way we worship the sun in everyday life.

The same kind of awe to the air itself can be the reason we turn off AC and let breezes in.

So, call us uncivilized. In the sense we haven't lost our indigenous, primitive eyes to the nature, we are.

Catching up

It's about time to be productive again. The high for today is expected to stay under 30 Celsius (=86 Fahrenheit). As my mom said yesterday (on text message! Hooray for her!), we have survived another summer.

I blogged on Aug.3rd that I got a lovely book "Amigurumi sweets"(changed the title translation). The taiyaki pattern was irresistible, so I just started right away at their home.

It took only a small piece (like 10g or so) of fingering-DK cotton yarn I had on hand and half a day. I gave it to my mother-in-law. She is a good crafter herself. She quilts and sews garments & toys mostly, but doesn't crochet or knit ( knows how to, though. ) We have our own niches, which is really, really good for us both, I guess. Although I am invading her field by making stuffs for my daughter myself, I'm not so comfortable like her with sewing. It's like I'm just learning a language to make myself useful, and she has grown up with that.

Now, about taiyaki. Traditionally, taiyaki is not white. It is made of flour-based batter, have red-bean paste (usually tsubu-an) inside and is cooked up on a mold shaped like fish. Naturally, tan-colored.

Recently, white variation is getting popular. The batter is made from tapioca flour, and cooks up really chewy.

This is real white taiyaki. There's a shop near my daughter's kindergarten, and we gave it a try for the first time the other day.

It was good, but not so great like people's talking. For red bean paste filling, my husband and I like traditional flour batter far better. Custard cream or chocolate cream fillings, more and more often seen with flour-based ones, go better with white ones. May make a good breakfast. But as a snack, I prefer "normal" one.

Anyway, you see how good the crochet taiyaki pattern is. This is what I made (posted again).

My sock knittings were on hold during the summer. I didn't have enough time nor mental energy to pick them up after spending a day with my daughter (we had a lot of fun every single day, for the record). Instead, I was making a few hand towels with cotton yarns which I didn't bother adding to my Ravelry stash page, because I was so sure I wasn't going use the same yarn again. It's not that they are horrible, just not so attractive. They are something that get mixed up and fades out in your memory. And you'll never miss them.

I am slowly making a come back to garment knitting these couple of weeks, at last.

I finished these;

Pattern; Poseidon Socks by Elinor Brown

Yarn; KnitPicks Essential in Gulfstream (as suggested in the pattern)

Needles; US 1 1/2 circulars (two of them)

I knit them one at a time, because I didn't want to have two small leftover balls.

Pattern; Whitby by Nancy Bush, in her great book Knitting on the Road.

Yarn; Bob Sleigh from a Japanese company no longer exists. Sports/DK weight.

Needles; KnitPicks Harmony DPN, size US 2 1/2 (2.75mm).

I started them as my Sockdown! challenge for June, but gave up finishing them before time limit. They knit fast once I resumed, the pattern is just right to have them around (not too boring, not too complicated). I tried adding wooly nylon in a non-matching color to the heel flap and the toe, and I am OK with the tweedy effect. The only problem with this pair is, they itch. I think I can cope with it by wearing them over another pair, by making these "room boots".

I also finished a scarf for my daughter, but I'll blog about it on my next post.

And now, my daughter is back in her kindergarten, I'm having an ICW, intensive cleaning week. It includes we give in and bring in a floor-to-ceiling shelf to the tatami room (no, it's not so classic-looking as the photo on Wikipedia page). We are waiting it to be delivered while I'm picking up every toys on the floor and throwing away some of my daughters "works" (after taking pictures of it), vacuuming the floor... you know, putting back our house in a state it's supposed to be all the summer.

Now on my needles are;

Colette pullover for me. Pic is just a swatch. I started this project on March, and now the body is on hold before knitting sleeves and joined to make the yoke. It's a good bedroom knitting for me.

I also casted on a pair of gloves for my mother-in-law. Like this one;

These work for me so good, to put laundry on the line outside on the balcony in wintertime. I made them with KnitPicks Essential, which is machine washable. I'm using SockEase from Lion Brand, which also is machine washable, for MIL's. I got her handprint when we visited them in May. I'm using Brittany 5 inch DPNs for this project very comfortably. After trying magic loop and two-circs, I found out my favorite is DPNs. For now, at least.

After that, I'll start a pair of fingerless mitts for my sister-in-law.

After that, a pair of socks for my husband (very possibly Earl Grey by Stephanie Pearl-McPhee) with the yarn my dear friend Janet sent me.

After that, well, maybe another pair of socks.

I think I have started counting down the days to Christmas already.

Gardening without a garden

This year, I got a pretty large plant pot, a bag of gardening soil, and a cherry tomato seedling from nearby home center. Later, I got a bag of fertilizer which says "for tomatoes", too.

Today, I harvested eight tomatoes as the last crop and cut down all the vines, packed them in a plastic bag and put out as garbage. The tree was tired and lost almost all the leaves. I could have saved several green fruits still on the vines by waiting a week or so more, but Typhoon No. 9 (No, our lovely Meteorological Agency doesn't name them. We just give them numbers. An international meeting give them Asian names, but we, ordinary Japanese never recognize a typhoon with name.) was coming closer - or so I figured that I didn't want to take a risk.

I explained my daughter that I was going to cut down the tomato tree while she was helping me harvesting. "No, I don't wanna say good-bye." "But, look, the leaves are almost gone. It's about time, honey."

She went inside. I was sure she was watching me using my pruning scissors, and lost her interest after a few minutes.

It's OK. What I have done today was an act of killing. It's not something she has to learn to do it herself yet.

We live in an apartment in the city. It's not completely unaffordable, but very expensive to have a "real" garden in my neighborhood. I dream of having apple trees or citrus trees that I can cook with their fruits in my own backyard. I set a table under the tree, sit and knit and sip iced tea from a tall glass.... Just a dream. Instead, I spread a rug on the veranda/balcony/whatever the word that describes my little outside space which hold clothesline and plant pots, sip lukewarm coffee from my mug. Sometimes I knit.

And think of the next plant or seed I get from the home center.

This summer, I got 209 cherry tomatoes from my tree. And thankfully killed it. The typhoon took the eastern-most course that we didn't have any strong wind. Just rain.