of books in particular and japanophilia in general

who would have told me that in my small neighborhood library i'd be introduced to a vast number of contemporary japanese  woman writers? 

even as it seems, at least to me, that murakami has set the canon of japanese contemporary fiction those writers  voices come across as personal, subtle yet poignant. there is not a fleck of over sentimentality to be seen. 

i have also discovered a small publishing house based in gijon that specialises in japanese literature and their books are carefully edited beautiful to look at and a pleasure to hold, not to mention read.

it is a good  confirmation that there is life beyond barcelona and madrid.

some side thoughts: a great write up on contemporary japanese lit. 

and the icing on my cake or should i say mochi? there's an indie film cycle on tv showing japanese movies. so far yamada's  a tokyo family, a take on ozu's tokyo monogatari which was shown the following week to round out the discourse. then the little red house also by yamada which is waiting for some disposable time in order to be watched. 

neki desu
 

whipping them up

knitting once again diana sullivan's fingerless mitts. excellent instructions make this a gratifying project.

going to knit the thumbs in a slightly smaller grist yarn as this one not only is heftier than sock, but also has almost no twist making it challenging to use. thumbs, as you can see in the vid, require a lot of fiddling therefore i do not want headaches.

they are going to be a handsome pair.

some dyeing to be done asap. the carrot tops are choking the veggie bin in the refrigerator.

neki desu
 

me too,me too,me too.

t'is the season to be knitting so everyone seems to be furiously knitting.and everyone seems to be so adept at it no running stitches, no knitting dropped on the floor no misbehaving yarns.

all you see is success stories, pretty frustrating until you realize everyone keeps their miseries to themselves.

following the pattern here's my sheer cashmere cowl, dark navy because it's gentler on the face features than stark black. unless you're either japanese or don't care, which evidently none of those are happening here.vanity still lives here.

as a side note notice hokusai's  big wave of kanagawa on the wall.

neki desu