Kaleido’s Scope

While knitting at my desk last Friday, one of the sweet teachers on my row, Okada-sensei, asked me what I was making:

岡田先生：　「何を作った？」
私：　「これは? マーフラーです！」
岡田先生：　「僕の？」

At this point in the conversation, I wanted to giggle, especially since the scarf I was knitting at the time was for Yuriko and very girlie. Okada-sensei has always been very nice to me, checking up on my calligraphy (a past time that he, too, enjoys). He’s one of the few teachers that regularly talks with me, especially since Mr. Yasugi has been in Canada.

So I responded like this：
私：　「メービ」

I was compelled to make a scarf for him, especially since he’s been so kind to me. I started making a yellow scarf with this golden color yarn that my mom sent for me to make my "Gryffindor House Scarf" but I was inspired to make this with it instead.

It wasn’t until my bus trip to Osaka on Saturday and fighting with width and length issues that I realized what I could do with this yarn. I thought it might be weird giving a guy a yellow scarf, but three hours into negotiating length, width, and relearning how to crochet, I remembered that he LOVES the Hanshin Tigers (the Osaka based Pro Baseball team). Instead of crocheting the scarf horizontally, I chose to make it vertically, so I could check the length. I have to keep in mind that I am making the scarf for a six foot man, and not me.

I need to buy black yarn to make the thick black stripes. The yellow will be slightly darker than the Hanshin yellow, but it gives it a more mature look to the scarf. Mr. Okada is 38 years old, so giving him a childish scarf that wouldn’t suit him would be stupid. Hopefully he has a sweet black wintercoat to pair up with it. I’m hoping to have it done by early October. I’m much quicker at crocheting than I am at knitting, but I want to expand on both of these skills.

———————
Project: Hanshin Tiger’s Scarf
Needles: Pink Metal Crochet Hook
Yarn: Some yarn mom sent from home
Dye Lot: (I’ll need to check)
Stitch count: # Wide
Row count: 6 Rows

Victory! I have managed to finally get the basic knit stitch down! I have completed my first swatch, and now I have begun working on my first scarf which will be a present for my friend Yuriko for this Christmas.

———————
Project: Scarf
Needles: Clover Bamboo (Size 7)
Yarn: Offtime’s Merino Rainbow
Dye Lot: Color = 3 Lot = 6A
Stitch count: 30 Wide
Row count: 21 Rows

25 Years Old + Typhoon #18 = School Closes Early + No big Birthday Plans.

Not that I had any to begin with, but it kind of sucks that any outing I wanted to make, is basically on hold until a clearer day. I was surprised to come in and find a gorgeous basket of small sunflowers, peach roses, yellow and peach carnations, and orange daisies sitt on my desk. It took me 5 minutes to figure out who the mystery sender was. When I thanked Fukushi, one of the non-English teachers, Kanade-san (3-3 HR Teacher), wished me a happy birthday too. It made me happy.

Leanne, as always, bestowed ‘the Pretty’ on me with her present of CLAMP’S X/1999 [ZERO] artbook. It’s gorgeous, and I’ve been eyeing it everytime I’ve seen it in a bookshop in Tottori. I got many birthday wishes from teachers who I don’t normally talk to. I really didn’t tell too many people that it was my birthday, because I didn’t want people to feel obligated to do/get anything.

I hope that I can go DO something about my birthday this weekend…