Sock Summit 2011 and PDX

Time has just quickly flown by this summer and I have so much to share!

HAIKU, aka the #LessThan2WeekSweater

Shortly after a fun and successful trip to TNNA, I decided to once again partner with my friends at Anzula to show at Sock Summit 2011. And why wouldn’t I? I love Anzula’s products and yarns — that’s why I have worked may of my Liberation hats in Anzula Squishy (superwash merino, cashmere, nylon) and in Anzula Sebastian (superwash merino, seacell).

For this second Sock Summit, I designed a very nicely fitted tank top out of a new yarn – Anzula Haiku. I named this pattern Haiku as well. With the timing, I really had to get this pattern written, designed, knitted, photographed and published within 2 weeks! (Yes, I know I’m not exactly sane in this respect — my friends remind me of this almost everyday.)  The result is a sexy fitted pattern written in 12 sizes with 8 separate bust fitting options for bust sizes C to GG (I used UK sizing references)!!  If you do the math, that’s 96 different fitting options!!  This is actually a top that will fit me and my 32G breasts! It’s a top that I’ve been wanting to design and write for some time. I have future plans to write additional garments in this style as well, because I really feel that having well-fitting garments is very important, and I want us to be able to knit garments that really fit our bodies.

 

 

I brought  Haiku, individual  Liberation  patterns and limited print editions of my Liberation e-book to Sock Summit and for sale at the Anzula booth.  Several patterns, including  Haiku, sold out by the second day.  All and all, it was a great show.

Gino’s Restaurant & Pico Accuardi

One of the many events I attended in Portland while at Sock Summit was one of Pico Accuardi Dyeworks‘ fabulous sock club luncheon held at my good friend and fellow Visionary’s restaurant, Gino’s. I was a guest and featured designer and shared my Septima Clark pattern with the club. The company and food were spectacular. I ate until I couldn’t eat anymore.

Being Deb’s friend and hanging out with her also meant that this city girl had other opportunities to eat at Gino’s and visit her farmhouse on Mt. Hood.

 

Left: Playing with baby bunnies at Deb’s farm; Right: Her naughty goats that like to steal chicken and rabbit feed.

 
 

Above: I also attended a cocktail party at the Pico Accuardi dye studio, where I was able to have a mini trunk show with the Liberation collection and my Weekend Shawl.

Sock Summit Flash Mob, Sock Hop & Fabulousness

There were many events at Sock Summit, including a flash mob dance. I recorded a rehearsal at the Opening Night reception, a spontaneous dance at the 1980s themed sock hop, and the “official” dance.

Above: Video of the official flash mob. For the other videos, go to my CraftyDiversions YouTube channel.

 
One of the events was the Foot to Fleece challenge, in which teams spun freshly shorn fleece (in the grease) and attempted to knit a sock. I didn’t participate in any teams, but I was the official cheerleader for the Pico Accuardi Dyeworks‘ Spin U team. Above (clockwise from top left): Sheep being shorn; sheep pen; the PAD Spin U team; Shannon Okey took a photo of me in my cheerleading outfit when I went to visit the Cooperative Press booth.

My favorite event was the 80’s-themed Sock hop! If y’all know me, you know that my favorite genre of music is 80s alternative and new wave. Bands like Depeche Mode, OMD, New Order, The Cure, The Smiths, Nine Inch Nails, Jane’s Addiction, Pet Shop Boys, Information Society and Erasure rock my world. So you can imagine my excitement for this sock hop. My friends and I decided to dress up in costume for it. The irony is that except for the big hair (c’mon, I’m from Texas!) and bright red lipstick (of course my parents didn’t know), I really didn’t dress too 80s during that time. Sure, I had my share of hideous outfits, but I refused to succumb to the trendy fashions of the time (aka I was not that cool) and never even owned a set of rubber bracelets, nor did I wear large crosses (I did wear an ankh though).

 

 

 
 

Above Photos: 1. Party Banner; 2. Deb Accuardi, Me and Marisol Sanchez decked out a la Desperately Seeking Susan; 3. Me and Deb in our hideous but fabulous outfits. I even wore lots of blue eyeshadow; 4. Teri Sabah; 5. Crowd dancing; 6. & 7. Two ladies totally knew every single move to Thriller and led a group of people in the Thriller dance; 8. crowd dancing; 9. It got really hot, so I just had to get my hair into a side ponytail!; 10. Left to Right: Deb Accuardi, me, Teri Saba, Joely, Stevanie Pico, Misty, Marisol Sanchez.

Despite the fact that Portland and the Pacific Northwest apparently hate me and the allergy misery hell, I had a great time. (My allergies went into overdrive and went haywire by the end of Day 4 — Even though I take allergra on a daily basis and have been on immunotherapy for over a year, I’m still quite sensitive to allergens. I am very allergic to much of the flora in the region, like Alder, Birch and Cedar.)

 

Above: Left – I finally was able to meet Franklin Habit in real life! He’s a doll! Right – Met Sharon Fletcher of Stitch Jones.

I was able to visit with some friends and meet some in real life for the first time. A few folks I was able to visit with Marly Bird, Jaala Spiro, Shannon Okey , Stephanie Tallent, Caro Sheridan, Stitchy McYarnpants, Mercedes Tarasovich-Clark, Carl and Eileen Koop, Erica Owens…I’m sure there are many more folks I missed and I hope they’ll forgive me for having a brain fart right now. I was also quite flattered and humbled when fans of my work and designs wanted to meet me.  Two people absolutely fabulous and talented people that that I was ridiculously ecstatic to finally meet in real life were Sivia Harding and Franklin Habit.

Post-Summit in PDX

After helping Anzula break down their booth on Sunday, Deb (who also has a fabulous podcast, At the Kitchen Table) and I headed for another fabulous dinner at Gino’s with Cat Bordhi and some fellow Visionaries, many of whom I also had not met in real life. We were celebrating the birth of Judy Becker‘s upcoming book, Beyond Toes: Knitting Adventures with Judy’s Magic Cast-On. Dinner was great, but the company was more wonderful. It’s always nice to be able to share experiences, thoughts and ideas with a group of creative, intelligent, like-minded people.

I spent a few more days in the PDX area, albeit a bit miserable due to my horrid allergies. I could not breathe or sleep well. The allergies dashed my short-lived fantasy of buying a small farm or a cute house gorgeous Oregon.  I stayed with Deb and her husband at their farmhouse on Mt. Hood. The beauty of the surroundings and a great hostess made my stay much less miserable. I spent the rest of my stay helping Deb with her 2012 Knitter’s Datebook (coming soon!!) and teaching her the basics of InDesign and Illustrator.

 

  

 

Above: We went to the top of Mt. Hood, where there were still lots of snow. Deb’s dog obviously loved the snow, and we ended the day with drinks at the Timberline lodge: great view, great drinks, great company….ahh…

Unfortunately, it’s back to reality for me and I’m still playing catch-up. In the past month, I’ve had lots of pattern releases, but I haven’t really been able to post or blog about those. I just recovered from a major chest infection (in the end, I could not fend off the ill-effects of the allergies from Oregon) and am trying to get a project done for Vogue Knitting Live in LA.

I’ll be posting more details about some exciting news later, but here are some of them in a quick nutshell:

• Roseling was published in Twist Collective Fall.
• The Fall issue of Knitscene, for which I got the cover, finally hit the newsstands! My patterns Lepidoptera is the cover garment, and inside, I also have a sassy beret, Whittier Hat.
• On Sept 15, I will be appearing and speaking on a BlogHer panel on Craft + Money at the BlogHer Handmade/ Creative Connection conference. 
• I will be debuting 2 new designs for at Vogue Knitting Live in Los Angeles on Sept 23-25! The garments will be shown exclusively at the Knit Culture booth. Knit Culture will be posting about the designs on their blog and I will be discussing it and revealing sneak peaks on my Facebook page and on Twitter.

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Indonesia – Part 4: Bali, Day 3

Day 3 in Bali was a little sad, because it was our last day. I started with an early morning stroll along the hotel beach (S. Kuta) while Mr. CD snoozed (and the wierdo doesn’t like beach either).  In the rock crevices, I spotted lots of small sea snail. While I took photos of the sea snail, I heard a strange rustling sound on the rocks. I moved forward to investigate and spotted lots of tiny crabs scurrying away (photo, bottom right).

After a breakfast that included lots of yummy fruit, our driver took us to Nusa Dua park and beach. The trees had the most beautiful and entwined roots, while the water was so clear and clean. It really felt like paradise! The shelf of shallow water was amazing and extended quite far. In the photo below (Row 3, right), I’m standing at least 100 ft from the beach. Another unique and very interesting part of the beach is a band of sand, which from farther away just appears more coarse. However, upon closer inspection, each grain is a round pellet about the size of millet (photo, row 4, left).

Along the the beach is a small peninsular rock formation onto which another Hindu temple is built.  We hiked the mini-peninsula and stood on the cliffs (photos, Rows 5 & 6) admiring the ocean view and the naturally occurring and human-planted flora, which included lots of plumeria trees.  My dad got really silly and placed plumeria flowers into each of the ventilation holes of his cap.  Doesn’t he look pretty (photo, row 6, right). He got lots of laughs and strange stares from other beach pedestrians.

After Nusa Dua beach, we had our final Balinese meal and reluctantly headed towards the airport for our flight back to Jakarta.  I won’t bore you with the details of the rest of my trip because Jakarta is just not as beautiful, we only ate Chinese food and there really is no point in comparing the two locations.

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Indonesia – Part 3: Bali, Day 2

My second day in Bali started with a stroll around the resort gardens and a breakfast that included lots of rambutan.

Bali Silver

Our main goal for this second day was to go up to Ubud, a town known for its arts and artisans. Along the way to Ubud, we stopped at an Australian-owned jewlery company and factory that produces high-quality handcrafted Bali silver sold exclusively for export, except for sales to the tourist market in the on-site showroom. We toured the factory and then of course, escorted to their in-house shop.  I was permitted to photograph the factory studios, but of course, not the any part of the showroom except structural fixtures.

Click on photos to enlarge.  Row 1, L to R: 1. Rows of work benches; 2. Annealing a pendant frame; 3. Setting decorative elements to the bezel; Row 2: 4. Sizing a ring; 5. Polishing a bracelet; 6. Finished bezel-set turquiose rings.

Given my interest in jewelry fabrication and silversmithing, my dad jokingly suggested that I stay behind and offer to apprentice and learn from them for 2 years in exchange for my free labor.  I’m not that industrious.

Batik

After the silver factory, we headed towards one of the many batik centers. Several artisans sat in a pavillion working on batik as a live demo for tourists. Some tourists were so crass that without asking, they would lean into the artisan and touch them and their work while they are actively working and applying the designs just to get a photo and a closer look! Geez! I really wanted to slap those uncouth tourists on behalf of the artisans.

The composite above shows various steps and aspects of textile art production (click to enlarge or go to my Flickr set to see larger individual images).  Row 1: 1. Tools of the batik-making process; 2. Various types of natural waxes and resins used for the resist, including a pine resin; 3. Carved stamps used to stamp images; 4. the first step of a batik with the main images drawn with the resist; Row 2: 5-8. Artisans carefully drawing swirls with the tjanting (the pen-tool used to apply the resist); Row 3: 9-11. Artisans working in different stages of the batik process. 12. A partially completed batik; Row 4. 13. Washed fabric with a partial design hung to dry; 14. the wax/resin pot; 15. Artisan sewing a garment; 16. Loom; Row 5. 17. Hank of yarn hung on a loom; 18. Yarn reeler; 19 & 20. Looms  on which traditional cloth is woven.

Of course being in such an environment and my love of beautiful textiles made it hard to resist wanting to buy a whole bunch of batik fabric and garments. Despite having lots at home as well, I did buy a few select pieces.  These lovelies always make good presents for good crafting friends anyways. The problem comes when I can’t decide which ones to part with!

Hindu Temples

Another one of our stops on the way up to Ubud was a large Hindu temple.  Prior to entering, visitors are encouraged to provide a small donation and are required to wear some sort of ceremonial wrap skirt/covering over their legs before entering. I’m not sure what the skirt’s significance is, but all the skirts were colorful and festive.

The temple complex is a very large outdoor complex surrounded by a decorative perimeter wall.  Several  different altars and pavillions dot the landscape inside.  I assume that each pavillion is dedicated to a different diety. Every part of the temple is decorated with intricate carvings and stone work with orange bricks. While some pavillions have very simple straw-thatched ceilings, others have very elaborate fresco and gold-gilded decorations, as show in the photos below (last row).

After visiting the temple, we went to a Balinese restaurant with a lovely garden and located next to a rice paddy field, where Mr. CD ordered us some more delectable Indonesian cuisine and specialties.

Monkey See, Monkey Do

Our next stop on this very eventful day was among my favorites: Monkeys! We went to the Sacred Monkey Forest in Ubud, where nearly 350 macaque monkeys live. According the the forest website, the sacred forest

“is a demonstration of the harmonious coexistence of humans and nature. In Bali, sanctuaries such as the Monkey Forest are usually in sacred village areas, often surrounded by temples. These cultural sanctuaries are not only an important part of Balinese heritage, but also an important part of everyday live.” (sic)

Mr. CD bought bananas to feed the monkeys. Boy, are they cunning when when know you have bananas! They will pull on your pant leg and jump on you to beg for a banana. If you are not careful, they will steal it from your hands.  And if a baby monkey has a banana as a larger more dominant monkey approaches, the baby will drop the banana and run.

My favorite part of the monkeys are their mohawks!

Starfish at Jimbaran

We walked around the main Ubud areas mainly helping my stepmom find some batik dresses.  I tried a few on, but none of them fit my bodacious overgrown boobs. 😦 (Well, if they did, they were made for larger people and I ended up looking preggars.) We also bought a few other small souvenirs, trinkets and gifts for friends.  Mr. CD was very helpful in price-negotiations with the vendors and shops.  Bargaining and negotiation prices is a very common practice in many countries, just not common in the U.S., not even that much in flea markets and swap meets, where it’s practically the only place you can bargain in the U.S.

My dad wanted to buy a carving from one shop and no matter how many times he tried to get the shop owner to lower her price (in English), she would not budge.  My dad was about to give up and was getting ready to approach the counter when I told him to wait as I ran across the street to fetch Mr. CD. Upon seeing and realizing that hubby’s  Indonesian, I could tell that the shop owner was not happy. Of course having a native speaker present was very helpful with everything, especially since he managed to get the lady (begrudgingly) to lower her price after at least 3 failed attempts by my dad.

After Ubud, our trusty driver drove us down to Jimbaran, where we watched another sunset while dining beach side at the Blue Marlin Cafe & Seafood Grill.  We ordered various seafoods and had them grilled to order.  The food was fresh, although not superb. However, the fruit juices they served were rich, thick, sweet and super yummy.

While waiting for our food, I strolled the beach by myself and met a waiter who was releasing a live starfish that had washed ashore. He was kind enough to hold it up for a while so that I and another tourist could snap some photos, however in the process, the starfish stung him. oops!

A perfect end to a perfect day.

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Indonesia – Part 1: Jakarta

My main purpose for going to Indonesia was to visit my in-laws with my dad and stepmom. We met my hubby in Jakarta. (I left first to Taiwan and flew from Taipei to Jakarta with my dad and stepmom, who flew there from Houston, Texas.) Quite a global journey, eh?

Bribes

We almost couldn’t get out of the airport upon arriving. I don’t want to go into too many details in such a public forum, but we were sent from one official to another for a “problem” with my stepmom’s passport. Since Indonesia does not have a great record when it comes to corruption, we suspected that all those officers wanted bribes and when we didn’t give them anything, they sent us to their “boss” and so forth. I really didn’t know how to give a bribe, nor did we want to offend anyone who was ethical by offering. I did communicated with the officer in English and hinted that we’d be open to giving him a bribe by asking if we needed to pay a fine. i think because we were women and a bit dense about all that bribery stuff, they let us go after a 2 hour cat-mouse game…I guess they got bored too. Besides, how to you slip money for a bribe? I am not that slick. According to many Indonesian residents, police and other personnel expect bribes and some of their actions are designed to solicit bribes. Lately, the government has been cracking down on that practice, so the officer probably was not bold enough to ask for one directly or respond to my question about a “fine.”

Afraid that we may encounter additional problems upon exiting, we did visit the U.S. Counsel in Bali, who inspected my stepmom’s passport and informed us that there was nothing wrong with it and all her passport pages were okay. We had no other problems and a pleasant experience after the airport incident.

Jakarta

The city of Jakarta is very urban, crowded, polluted and dirty.  The dispartity between socio-economic status is quite remarkable and wide.  My in-laws don’t really get out much and there are areas in the city that they felt were not very safe to venture into, so we mostly were limited to perusing giant urban malls.  All the malls and higher-end neighborhoods have lots of security personnel that check cars and purses for bombs and other dangerous items. However, the inconsistency in which all the checks were conducted does not really make one feel any safer.

Everywhere you drive, there are street vendors that walk between the cars selling everything from statues, water, fruit and snacks.

Other than visiting family and people-watching, I don’t find Jakarta particularly interesting.  I’m sure there are great foods and other finds there, but my FIL and MIL only eat Chinese food. Some of the restaurants we went to didn’t even have good Chinese food, especially the over-priced restaurant that served a tiny and scary-looking piglet (which I did not eat at all) and an overcooked lobster.

One thing that I did enjoy in Indonesia, whether in Jakarta or on the island of Bali, is the all the yummy tropical fruits. The 2 fruits indigenous to the archipelago of which I don’t like at all are durian and salak (also, snakefruit).

My favorites are rambutan, mangos, papaya, coconut (fresh ripe ones only) and mangosteen.

The photos above show the following, from Right to Left, starting with the top row:
1. Rambutan, star fruit  or carambola and banana; 2. Salak or snake fruit; 3. Mango juice; 4. Duku or lansa; 5. Pink Guava juice; 6. Salak or snake fruit; 7. banana, star fruit or carambola, and papaya; 8. papaya juice; 9. Mangosteen; 10. Duku or lansa; 11. Mango; 12. Coconut; 13. Jack fruit and rambutan; 14.  Mangosteen; 15. fresh Lime soda

While I love fruit and veggies, one thing that I did not want to try was this:

No Eggplant juice for me!

Dad, stepmom, MIL, FIL

Next post: Bali!!!!

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Asian Vacation

It’s been a little over 4 years since I’ve been anywhere near Asia.  The last time I went was 3 years ago. I went to Taiwan for my grandmother’s funeral. She unexpectedly passed about 9 months after my grandfather passed. And in-between that, my mother passed. Boy, that was a really crappy year.

A butterfly that "hatched" in my godparents' house in Beitou, north of Taipei. The cocoon was attached to one of their plants. I was lucky enough to see it (and hold it!) within 1 hour of it's metamorphosis and before they had to release it.

Anyway, thankfully, I am not going to Taiwan for something as dismal as a funeral. I’m going to attend the belated wedding reception for my godbrother (who lives in L.A.) since the majority of all his family live there. I will be meeting up with my dad and stepmom. In addition to the wedding reception and going to the mountains, I also plan to get really fat eating all my favorite Taiwanese foods, but to make up for all the excess calories, I intend to do some extra walking around the city of Taipei.  Taipei and New York are very similar in many ways: lots of walking, traffic, lots of people, good food, fun, shopping, big buildings, more traffic and more good food.

The actual cocoon of the butterfly, taken about 2 days before it's transformation into that large beauty.

The main thing I hope to avoid in Taiwan is getting stung by poisonous caterpillars. The last time I went back, I went on an excursion to Yangminshan mountain during butterfly season.  I sat down on some stone benches to eat a hot bowl of noodle soup that they sell on the mountain. Of course, being accident-prone, my knee touched a stinging and poisonous caterpiller under the table, AND I spilled the hot soup on myself. The hot soup burn was nowhere near the instantaneous and horrific pain from the sting. It hurt for over a week. The swelling lasted for about 2-3 weeks and even left a small scar for a while. (Taiwan has been called the “Kingdom of Butterflies” by entymologist and butterfly enthusiasts.)

From Taipei, the 3 of us will fly to Indonesia to meet up with my hubby and visit my in-laws.  This will be the first time my dad will visit them. I imagine that there’ll be lots of family stuff to do and not so much sight-seeing and traveling. However, I am trying to convince Mr. CD to arrange a trip for us to go to Bali for at least a day.  I have never been to Bali and do resent Mr. CD a little for it.  You see, I studied anthropology and Asian studies in college – we focused a lot on Indonesia and SE Asia, so I’ve always wanted to go. I told Mr. CD that the only reason I married him was because he’s ethnically Chinese-Indonesian, and I wanted my own personal tour guide and translator to the Indonesian Islands.  I’m still waiting for my tour.  I really want to see Bali, Borneo and Sumatra, though the latter is not that safe because they are anti-Chinese and occassional riots do break out.

We call these "lembu," also known as a wax apple though it tastes nothing like an apple. It is 50x better! If these are in season, I plan to eat a whole lotta them! They are the BEST fruit in the world and you can't buy them here at all. Like peaches and strawberries, they are hard to import/export.

I will be gone for a few weeks.  I’m just busted my butt to get lots of charting done on a project so that I can work on it on my trip.  I’ll need to bring something easy too. Perhaps I’ll get lots of charity knitting done this year. I think I will knit and donate to the same charity that I did last year.

As far as blog posting, I have already scheduled for at least 1 post while I’m gone.  If I can get decent internet access, I will try to post about my trip while I’m there.  In the meantime, I wish all my American readers a very Happy Thanksgiving.

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Sketch to Garment: Yehliu

Please excuse my delay in posting about Yehliu — I’ve been a very busy bee working on some designs for SWTC and the upcoming TNNA trade show next week.

I my previous posts about Knitting in the Sun, I mentioned that designers were asked to submit names of sunny places for our garments to keep with the book’s theme.  My lacy cables-and-lace kimono cardigan design just begged to be named Yehliu (phonetically pronounced YAY-lou). The texture and patterning of the cardigan reminds me of the divets and textures in some of the rock formations in the geological wonders at Yehliu Park.

The sketch and original swatch that I submitted differed a little from the final garment, because my swatch used a DK yarn, and in the end, Kristi and I went with Lorna’s Laces Lion and Lamb, a worsted weight yarn. At the time, we really couldn’t find a nice DK yarn that really would give the garment the sheen and drape that we wanted. The garment is knit from cuff to center at the bodice, seamed, and then stitches are picked up for the lower portion of the cardigan.  The silky yarn gives is great drape, while the looser fit just screams luscious comfort.

Because of the difficultly in translating a character-based language with sounds not used by English-speakers, Yehliou is another variation of the romanized spelling. So, if you want to search for information in addition to the links I’ve provided, check the different spellings.

Yehliu is one of the many famous and beautiful destination sites in Taiwan.  It is located north of Taipei, along the northern coast, and very close to Yangminshan National Park (where I once got a nasty “bite” from a caterpillar), and located withing the Guanyinshan National Scenic Area. (btw, “shan” is mountain).

Yehliu is geological phenomenon – there are many gorgeous and unusual rock formations created by Mother Nature.  One of the most famous formation is known as the Queen’s Head, with reference to it’s resemblance to Nefertiti.  My dad has photos of the Queen’s Head from the 70’s and her profile was much more pronounced and apparent.  Over the decades, wind has whittled down her silhouette.  It’s nature, but I wonder how many more years, the Queen’s Head will have before her neck snaps off.   I should try to find my dad’s photos for comparison.

If you want to see Nefertiti’s bust in person, do it soon! Geologists estimate that she many only survive for another 20 years. Even then, since Taiwan sits on a volcanic bed and on some fault lines, any earthquake coud also cause her neck to snap.  Some of the nearby attractions include Taipei, the hot springs at Yangminshan, Tamshui Fisherman’s Wharf, and many others!

Below are more fantastic photos of these natural wonders. Many of the formations have been dubbed with names like Tofu Rock, Candle Rock or Boob Rock,   I personally don’t have any good digital photos of Yehliu, since when I went 5 years ago, I had a really crappy camera, and the weather situation was not conducive to great photos. The photos below are from URLs that I grabbed from photos that I found. In all cases, I linked the photo to the photographer’s Flickr page so that due credit can be recognized.

werew

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Much needed vacation

I will be leaving first thing in the morning for a real vacation. YEAH! I desperately need one. (Of course, vacations would be even better if one were independently wealthy and could go anytime, anywhere.) I’ve been traveling a lot these last couple of years, but none of them are happy events, as you may already know or have guessed from some of my posts.

I will keep y’all posted if I get internet access on the trip. My tech-nerd husband is actually going to bring his laptop. *sigh* His reason is that every modern establishment has internet access, many of which are Wi-Fi, and he wants to be able to reference the maps of the countries we are visiting (since he downloaded MapPoint onto his computer.) I don’t really believe that vacation should involve a computer, let alone brining one’s own laptop, except for the occassional checking-in with family/friends at a computer in the hotel lobby or a seedy internet cafe.

Anyway, we will be gone for a couple of weeks. My godbrother Henry is housesitting and catsitting our needy felines. Henry’s family and mine got to know each other when we were neighbors in Taiwan. We were all under 4 or 5 years old when we met.

Now, what knitting project should I take with me? Hmmm…..

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Taipei, part 3: Knitting Adventure & Butterfly

Throughout my trip, when I had time, I would stop by bookstores to look for crafty and knitting books in Japanese and Chinese. Not that I read Japanese, or read enough Chinese for these to make sense. Anyhow, I bought several books at Page One, located at Taipei 101, the tallest skyscraper in the world. I also bought a few at a Hess Book Store near the Hsin Tien Temple, which carries a large selection of Japanese books.

The night before I left, I met up with Erin, who took me through the wet streets of Taipei (it rained the entire week I was there) to 3 yarn shops. Thank you Erin! Unfortunately, the first shop was closed. The 2nd one was owned by this Taiwanese grandma. She had a nice selection of yarn and some notions. She also had stack of pattern books, in English, Chinese and Japanese, that she lends to customers to photocopy at the print shop next door, but does not sell books. I bought 4 balls of superwash merino that had different color plies of neutrals, grays and browns for 220NT (around $7) The 3rd shop was owned by a couple who, by their accents, appear to be what Taiwanese call Outsiders, Mainlanders or KMT runaways (see footnote below). Anyways, the owner was sort of nice, aside from him poking fun of overseas Chinese-speakers and Americans, thinking I didn’t understand any of the languages he was speaking in (Erin and I conversed in English). I bought 4 skeins of a variegated (pink, peach, brown) mohiar/silk yarn for 280NT (around $8.80) each and a Japanese book with both knitting and crochet patterns. (click pictures for larger view)

On Saturday (4/29/06), I went over to my godparents’ house for lunch and say my good-byes before my flight later that evening. It so happened that they had a gorgeous butterfly in their house! They had noticed that one of their potted plant was getting eaten up and then shortly thereafter, they realized that there was a butterfly cocoon on the plant. So, they brought the plant in and waited for it to come out. Lucky for me, the butterfly hatched right before I left, and before they had to set it free. (below: The butterfly resting on my hand.)
Footnote: These are people who followed Chiang Kai-Shek. They were chased out of China by Mao and the Communists, fled to Taiwan in the 1949, took over Taiwan and made the people live under martial law. (more).

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