Hello Again!

Hello, I'm back! I've got some Taiwan posts coming up, but those take longer because of all the pictures and descriptions. So I thought I'd post some crafts :). I've had quite a bit of down time the past few months where I've been kept away from my little computer here. In situations that require waiting, I come prepared with anti-boredom, namely a book and/or a crochet project. (You can see what I've been reading here. ) May I present to you Ernie and Totoro! Also please excuse the shitty photoshop job on Mr. Ernie up there. I hate to post a blurry boring photo, so I jazzed it up a bit. Yeah, it's sloppy, whatever.

I only brought one skein of blue yarn with me, which was just enough to make most of this Totoro pattern without his tail. Since they don't sell this particular yarn here, Totoro will have to wait until I return stateside to be truly complete.

I'm leaving Taiwan in a few weeks, and I wanted to use up some of my yarn stash. I had just enough orange yarn left to make this ernie glasses holder. Pretty funny, eh? It's an easy pattern. I did quite a bit of it while simultaneously riding a stationary bike in front of our tv. (It makes the workout go much faster.) See the lamp below? I love that lamp. It came with the apartment. It has a dimmer switch, too. I think I might miss that lamp.

Airplane Crafts

I'm in Taiwan! I arrived about a week ago after some stressful issues regarding travel visas, plane tickets, finding storage for my car, packing up, moving, and among other things, a failed attempt at obtaining a Washington drivers license. The grumpy woman at the DMV could use some customer service training. Well, all that is done, and I am now getting somewhat settled in my new home for the next few months. The plane ride was long, but I easily passed the time, nearly 24 hours, from Seattle to San Francisco to Tokyo to Taipei by crocheting a turtle and heart for my mom. I left Seattle early Thursday morning (many thanks to the wonderful James and Aileen!). The entire trip to Tokyo was daylight, so I didn't feel the need to sleep...not that I could have slept much. I don't think they could have gotten away with any less leg room in coach. My knees touched the seat in front of me, and I don't consider myself unusually tall.

This was only my second time making amigurumi, so I was still quite slow. But I did manage to finish both the turtle and the heart before I landed in Taipei, which was all that mattered anyway. During the first week, I made a second turtle with different yarn. Cute, eh? The pattern is free here.

In other news, I have some more photos that I will post when...um, later. I'll be in Taiwan for several months, so that should keep things pretty interesting. My etsy shop is closed for the time being :-( In the meantime, I've started taking a picture (when I remember to) at the top of every hour of what I'm looking at. It's an experiment; we'll see how long it goes, but for now it's kind of fun for me to document some mundane everyday activities that normal don't normally get photographed. You can view them here. It's not live blogged because I don't have a mobile phone, but I'll upload the photos daily.