Breech Position of the Baby

My baby has been at the breech position more than a month. His head should be at the bottom of of the womb by now to come out. My dear, you'll be out the world within a month, do you know that? Get ready for your head-down position now!!! If not, I'll have to go under a caesarean section in a few weeks but I don't want to! Since last month, I have been looking for ways to solve the problem and found some, like moxibustion, an exercise, and an cephalic version. First, I ran to a pharmacy and got a box of moxibustion and tried them out at home. The baby didn't turn as he was supposed to even after a week so that I decided to ask for a professional. That was a beautiful autumn day when o had the appointment with the doctor but turned out a bad day. I had a brief check up before the doc would have the medical exercise on me( is it a right expression?). What he told me was that I should go back to my original hospital right away for the baby was ready to come out. It was a month ahead of expected day. Anyway, I ran yo my hospital by taxi and couldn't have my baby turned at all. What happened was that I was told by my doctor here that they would keep the baby in me another 2 weeks until the bay was fully grown up. Ten days after that day, I had a c-section and after another ten days finally I was able to go home!!! Yay!!!! I was so happy to go home with my new baby! Now he can't drink breast milk well but is getting better. I've been super busy since back in november and my two kids has made me happy every day!!!

Two Knitted Bonnets!

As I mentioned before, I like the book called "More Last-Minute Knitted Gifts" and knitted two bonnets from the book.   It was a pretty short work to get them done so that I made two.  The pink one was supposed to be donated and the yellow and my daughter was going to be wear the yellow and white bonnet; however, the yellow and white one became better than the pink one!  I know why!  It was just because the pink bonnet was my first work.

The yarn: Warm! Warm! (Yokota) 2 skeins (Well, 1.5 skeins are enough.) The needle: JP8 or similar size, I prefer a circular needle rather than regular knitting needle because the long sticks doesn't bother me at all! This pink is very girly!

Here I made a striped bonnet.

Easy Knitted Scarf with the Pattern

I knitted this scarf as one of the donations for the victims in Japan. It is a very simple design so that anyone can put it on!



Pattern

Finished Measurement
126cm (excluding fringes) x 9cm

Yarn
alpaca wool 80grams
                                                                                   

Needles
One set of straight needles and one crochet hook ---3.25mm (US3)

Pattern
CO 60 sts.

Row 1: K4, P4. Repeat 14 times to end.
Row 2: P4, K4. Repeat 14 times to end.

Repeat Row 1 and 2 until piece measures 126 cm from the beginning, or until your favorite length.  BO.

Make Fringes
Cut 60 pieces of 30cm-length of yarn
Use crochet hook to hook fringes on each side.  30 pieces each

Adjust the length, and the number of pieces as you like!

Help For Japan 2. Does anyone knit? "Handmade Scarves for Japan" Project

Hi, all! Ae you into both knitting and volunteering? One college group of Japan receives donations that are hand-knitted for the evacuees from the earthquake in March. The Japanese group started the project called "Handmade Scarves for Japan" and is going to give the donated items to the evacuees. Lots of people in the area where the earthquake hit still spend days in school gyms and don't even have own a room! In winter the areas have snow and cold breeze from the shores. It'll be a harder winter for them to spend this year. Then the group want your kind heart and some warm hand-knitted projects.

According to the website, it has to be HAND-knitted and wearable. Here are some samples;
1) scarves
2) mittens or gloves
3) shawls
4) hats or caps
5) neckwarmer
6) socks
etc...

No matter what you make, it must be hand- knitted. That's important.

Needless to say, the evacuees are in all the different ages and also the genders differ, so please make not only for women but for men, kids, adults, and different sizes!!

To join the project, you need to email them about what you plant to make, when to finish, and a number of items. They say it is just for checking what and the number of items. Click here.

For more details, please check out their website.

It's also on Ravelry and Facebook too.

New Tote Bag Debuts

This summer is a little different from the past. These last 2 weeks, it was mostly cloudy and the temperature stayed under 30 degrees! Comparing to last year, it's not that hot and humid, which is very nice for a pregnant woman. One thing I concern is vegetables grown in the farms because it'll be expensive!

Well, no matter the weather is hot or not, I neither give up sewing or knitting. This time I made a tote bag with cotton fabrics. Cotton is so much easier to sew than oil cloth, so it didn't bother me sewing at all. You can use this tote casually since it's cotton, so that carry it around everywhere you go!

The size is as follows;
width: 19cm
height: 19cm
depth: 12cm

I attached a flower motif at the bottom of the tote!

The base fabric is as same as the inner fabric, and the red part is crocheted. On the top is a pink button.

For the details, you can see here. You can purchase it online too! Please go to my etsy shop!

A Water Bottle Carrier

My husband brings wheat tea in a plastic bottle to his office every day. But even though the AC is on in the office, sometimes the tea goes bad. Also lots of companies in the tokyo area reduce the power usage in the summer for lack of electricity since the quake so that the AC is often weakened recently.

So, I made the holder for my husband. It should keep the tea cold! This looks very girly, I know, but I'm not interested in buying fabrics for men. It's boring for me, on the other hand, there are so many cute fabrics for girls to look around. It's more fun! As a result, my husband has to carry this girly holder. I attached a insul-bright sheet as the inner fabric to keep cold. The color of the string actually doesn't perfectly match with the exterior fabric because I used my left over material. Possibly I wanted to use white but I still like it.

Our family took a day trip to the aquarium in Tokyo on a hot humid day, and the carrier really worked! It kept the tea cold for a while. I wanted to test how long it could keep the coldness but he finished it soon! Anyway, it's proven it works!!

Lots of Yukata Fabrics and Ready-to-Wear Yukata Are in Stores

It's perfect time to wear a yukata now. You can wear it only in the summer time, so don't miss it everyone!

Last Sunday I bought a yukata fabric! (Shame on me, I wasn't planning to buy such a thing but I couldn't resist...) As some people know that some yukatas can wear from May until the end of August. If you want to wear it earlier than the regular yukata season that is from Jun to Aug, you should wear a nagajuban, which is worn under a kimono, and zori, which is kimono shoes but not for a yukata, to look it more like a kimono. Because it is too early to wear the yukata just as is. If you wear a nagajuban, it is ok. In addition to that, you can wear a either hanhaba obi or nagoya obi.

A hanhaba obi is a half the width of a regular obi, and is worn on a yukata or a casual kimono, on the other hand, a nagoya obi is usually worn on a casual kimono. Occasionally, it's worn on a yukata.

So, if the color or the pattern of your yukata is not too bright or too girly, you can wear your yukata as a summer kimono. You should try!

Anyway, this is the fabric I bought. I want to wear it as a summer kimono next year. (I don't think I can finish up in the summer!)

When the Rainy Season Is Over, It's Time to Dry Umeboshi Under the Sun

Yes, finally the rainy season is over and real summer is here! Huuummmmiiiiiddd humid humid every day... This humidity drains all of my energy out of my body.

Anyway, when fresh plums and akashiso leaves are out, I pickled them with salt and rest them until the rainy season is over. I had to dry the plums and the leaves for 3 days. For the first 2 days, I just need to dry them only under the sunshine but on the 3rd day, it has to be over night.

Here is some akashiso leaves before I pickled.

This is the photo form the first day.

After 3 days, plums got shrunk a bit.

Now I need to put all the plums and the leaves back into akaumesu, which is salted water produced while pickling.

And the leaves!

It looks like umeboshi, doesn't it? However, it just tastes salt for now. I've got to wait until winter! See you then, my umeboshi!!

I hope it'll go well!

Tanabata Festival

Do you know "tanabata" festival? It's one of traditional festivals in Japan. It's said that the prince and the princess who cannot meet can finally meet only on July 7th. It's the only chance they can meet; however, it has to be a clear night. Since the Milky Way separates them (they can't cross the river!), they can meet only at a clear night when you can see the Milky Way clearly.

Unfortunately, July 7th is usually cloudy or rainy every year. Tonight is cloudy. Man, it's a tragedy...

Well, we write a wish on a piece of paper, called tanzaku, and hung it in a bamboo tree. This year I wished quick recovery from the earthquake.

Today lots of small kids and their mom got together and celebrated the tanabata festival and had lots of fun. All the kids wore jinbei, which is clothing with a yukata top and shorts, and they were really cute. But only one of the others and I brought yukatas to the place, and of course I put it on right away. I put a yukata on one of a Japanese moms, one Filipino woman, and one Thai woman. They seemed to enjoy wearing it. One thing surprised me was that the Filipino woman knew how to fold a yukata! I gave her some advice and she quickly learned it! Amazing isn't it? Not many Japanese people know how to fold a yukata, but a non-Japanese person knew more! I hope she remembers it!

Hot Sandwich Maker

I've wanted this for a looong time! This comes with waffle plates, sandwich plates and taiyaki, which is a traditional Japanese cake, plates. I'm not interested in taiyaki, but I couldn't change it to others. The reason I've wanted is I can "bake" doughnuts instead of deep frying. I'm sure fried doughnuts should taste better but it's oily for me, and also my husband is on diet!(really? yes. I've controlled his calories as much as possible.) It's good for my child to eat lots. Anyway, although I didn't want taiyaki plates I had to get the doughnuts plates too.

But now I think the taiyaki plates aren't waste. Probably I can make something instead of real taiyaki! Real ones have lots of sweet bean paste inside but I'm not big fun of the paste. It's a little too sweet for me, so I just can eat only a bit at one time.

Last month I was looking at the catalog to decide which plates to buy, I was thinkng about getting the panini plates as well. However, I gave up because I need to see how often I'd make panini, so I'll wait and see.

Anyway, I need to find good recipes now! What can I make for my family?

Thanks for reading!

Attaching the Collar on the Kimono

This is the most time-consuming and difficult part of sewing kimono. Oh, well, at least for me. Kimono consists of two parts of collars if it's an hitoe, which is a single layered kimono or yukata that is made of cotton and worn in summer, but formal kimono consists of three parts of them!

For now, I'm making hitoe. I've finished the first part of collar sewing. This part of collar is called "hon-eri," and the other part, which I've got to work on it soon, is called "tomo-eri."

Even pinning took a while because it didn't seem well. And finally, I finished sewing! But wait, I need to go through more hard parts to be finish the collars... Oops! I'll upload more photos later.

Playing with Needles

It's fun to make something without thinking anything serious. Do I use my brain or not? It doesn't always succeed but sometimes it turns out right! This time I played with fukuro-obi fabric, and it turned out like this.

I made a necklace!

Fun Fun Fun! Thanks for reading!

Book Review

I met a great awesome book at the library yesterday. It is called Meisende tsukuru komono to skirts published from Seibundoshinkosha in 2010.

ISBN 978-4-416-31009-0

Basically, I don't want to remake anything from kimono except sold in pieces because I just love KIMONO as it is. If it's cut into pieces and made into something else, I usually feel sad. When I see anything made of kimono fabric, I think of the sewist, especially antique kimono. But there is an exception! If there are some spots on the kimono that are not removable, or you can't unsewn and resew to hide the spots, there is no way you can't wear it. You need to either throw it away or remake something.

But when I met this book, I wanted to buy antique kimono just to make things out of it! (what a shame on me!). Probably I'll go find some kimono that have too many spots or torns for remake things. Otherwise, I want to wear it as kimono!

If you are interested in handmade with kimono fabrics, why don't you get this book?

Soybean Paste

Sorry, I've been lazy recently that I haven't updated my blog. Since I found my pregnancy in the late March, I've been feeling tired and sleepy all the time. But I can't help it. Every afternoon I try to put my daughter to sleep but I always fall asleep first!!

So, I can't sew much lately. I can't do much. Now, I can take care of my plants on the verandah...

Today here I want to show you my soybean paste, called miso. I cooked it in the beginning of February and let it rest until today. During the spring time, it is said it will only take 3 to 4 months to be done, but during winter, it'll take a half year!

I was going to open it some time in June or July but there is some good smell of soybean paste I felt today. So, I was like "I think it's ready! I can use it today!!," and I did.

I used this soybean paste in miso soup for today, and it tasted good. However, I thought it should be rested a little more.

Now, plums are ripe. I need to make sour plums soon!

Umeboshi Tea

Here are some hand made umeboshi.

Have you ever had an umeboshi in your life? It's a pickled plum with salt and shiso leaves. You'll feel it is suuuuppppeeeer salty if you have it for the first time. Some are mild and some are just salty. However it can be addictive!! Recently, I've been craving for something sour every day, and an umeboshi is the one. I am addicted but I should not take lots of it since it contains a lot of sodium. I know it but I can't help it!!!

Today I tried umeboshi tea at home. It was delicious. I put a little piece of an umeboshi(I didn't add whole... It'll be too salty.) in a mug and just pour hot water into the mug. How easy it is!
I felt warm and relaxed after I had it.
I followed the recipe from this site, and you can check out more ideas! But please note that it's in Japanese.

Anyway, if you are not scared to try umeboshi, or you like umeboshi, tri it out!
(none of my North American friends like it. Some Asian friends like it!!!)
Good luck! No, I should say "enjoy."

Fresh Pasta

Last night I made fresh pasta for the first time in my life!!! It tastes so much better than dried pasta.

This time, I tried this recipe published in Alessandra's blog that I've been wanting to make. I was scared to use flowers from florist because I don't know if it's organic and eatable or not. So, I picked up jasmine flowers that I'm growing on the veranda. It smells super good now.

Then, I picked up the flowers and tried to roll out the dough into flat shape. What was wrong with it? The pasta was thicker than it was supposed to be! Was it because I didn't use a pasta machine? Maybe... It was 1mm thick and was the thinest I could do.

Here is some cooked pasta. You can't see jasmine... Ouch.

Now, I should buy a pasta machine and make it again! But, the taste was good! I want to thank Alessandra.

A New Apron for a Toddler

I have some nylon bibs for my daughter that I bought a while ago. These days whether she thinks she is old enough(really?) or not, she doesn't like to wear it when she has a meal. So, every time she eats, she's made a big mess on her clothes even if it is after shower! Does anyone have the same problem as me?


It is a little annoying to change her clothes every after meal, so that I decided to make own apron that she probably won't take it off.

I picked echino for the apron and made it. The size seems well on her.

She can't take it off by herself anymore like regular bibs.
Tonight is the first time for her to use it!