Tired.

I'd been volunteering with TAT (tourism authority of Thailand) to help foreigners who are stuck here. We give out information and help them book in to the government acomondated hotels and stuff. It makes me so angry that some of these people are just stuck here and their airlines won't respond, no one picking up the phone. The confusion and frustration is just icing on this big mess of a cake :( Today I met someone who's here with his family and they had paid for 3 nights in the Novotel Suvanabhum and now they've run out of money. They can't even afford a cab to Pattaya to get on the military plane. I tried to find free ride for them but they can't confirm until the 2nd Dec. Meh. It makes me so fuckin mad and helpless. I hope everyone makes it home safely.

Ch-ch-ch-changes.

Mari has started sleeping (almost) through the night with out me having to go in to nurse her anymore. She used to go to sleep at 7-8 ish and wake again several times to nurse before I went to bed at 10-11 ish. But lately she's been sleeping all the way through until I join her in bed, when she'll feel me get in and scoot over to nurse. I have a feeling that if we didn't co-sleep she would probably sleep through to morning. Also, she likes to ride in her stroller now, she used to SCREAMMM when ever I try to put her in it. She's becoming much more confident and doesn't need her mommy to be with her so much anymore. It's happened so quickly, almost over night with no change of behavior on my part she just seemed to decide she's ok with stuff now. :S My baby's becoming a toddler. It is indeed bittersweet.



"I'm all grown now."

mini craft

I made this little barrette today. I've been seeing a lot of fascinators on etsy recently and since I'm completely broke this month I decided to make my own. Plus, I wanted something a bit less flamboyant. So, I have this hat that was given to me by a very nice old dame. It was a pillbox style hat completely covered with feathers but it was badly smushed and had lost all it's shape. A few feathers from this old hat, a barrette, fabric, a vintage button and some glue= retro cuteness.

What's your dessert island top 5 knitting pattern?

Anyone who has ever watched or read Nick Hornby's High Fidelity will remember the main character Rob and his store with the musical moron twins, Dick and Barry. When a close friend tried to get me to translate High Fidelity in to Thai during my freshman year in college those two characters and that store somehow stuck with me long after I finished reading the book. At first I thought it was because they were amusing but nope, the reason for the connection has nothing to do with amusement at all. Quite the opposite.

Yesterday was my first time to a proper yarn store in a long loong time. Big Knit is a gorgeous, spacious shop full of lovely delicious yarn and cute stylish staff members who are happy to help you pick the out the right yarn and start you out on your knitting path. Most customers are new knitters and the staff were very patiently teaching them the ropes. The cakes are to die for. I went in and was lost in a haze of yarn induced ecstasy then my friend picked out some yarn and I started teaching her how to knit. That's when I realized that no matter how adorable this shop is I would never fit in here. I belong with Dick and Barry in Championship Vinyl.

That's the connection. Like those two dudes I am misfortunate enough to be obsessed with something that normal people see as a hobby. We know that for all the weird random knowledge we have accumulated, most of the time we just come off as a bit odd. See, when you become obsessive to the point of losing sleep about something that's supposed to be done for fun, there's a couple of words begining with the letter L that can be used to describe you. And that realization inspires some kind of strange and misguided elitist attitude. If I had opened a knitting shop it would have been a yarny version of that small record shop Camden. I could just imagine it.
A tiny cramped yarn shop manned by a couple of yarn snobs and stocked with discontinued yarn, hand dyed hand spun stuff, or weird fiber blends.

Customer: Do you have any Fun Fur?
Shop assistant A: Yes, of course.
C: Can I have it?
S.A.: No, I'm sorry but you can't.
C: Why not?
S.A.: Because it's acrylic crap that's why not. Do we look like the sort of shop that sells fucking fun fur, eh? Now be off with you and don't waste our time.
C: Fuck you!

Yep. Fun crowd.

So. If you are ever in town and like knitting, pretty yarn, nice people, and good food, by all means stop by Big Knit on Sukhumvit 49. It really is a great yarn store and knitting location. If you like obscure knitting information, knit bitching, and pattern dissection then maybe you can drop by and see me. Or maybe if you're lucky you may even catch me at Big Knit again, trying to act cool and relaxed, trying to blend in with normal folks and have a life.

Properly kicked.

Today our house keeper told me she thinks I do nothing all day. Shock. It was indeed a shaming moment. Yes, someone else besides myself noticed my lack of activity. Work has been kinda slow since the end of October. I export handicrafts and we aren't selling like we used to. The company is starting to feel the pinch and I'm worried about our financial security. I've been toying with ideas for other means of income, maybe some translation work, maybe start my own shop... but I've been putting it aside. By day I have to look after Mari and at night I really want to work on my knitting or a new book beckons. But yeah, turns out it was glaringly obvious that I am doing nothing in my free time except being free. Guess I needed that kick in the bum.

LYS

I think I may have found my potential LYS. Big Knit on Sukhumvit 49. Actually, I've known about Big Knit for awhile but I didn't have time to go with a baby on my hands. (That's my excuse and I'm sticking to it, but secretly I think it's because I know if I go I'm going to buy buy buy and won't be able to stop, hence setting myself and said baby up for a life of poverty.) But a dear friend recently asked me to teach her to knit and she needs yarn and so I looked up Big Knit on the net and My. God. What have I been missing! I want to be there yesterday. I'm heading there tomorrow and it seems like such a long time to wait. My first yarn store visit in over a year, it's been too long. I will report back.

creeping back.

Ok. So, I've been avoiding this blog. I sorta fell out of the wagon at the beginning of October when work became busy and now I've come crawling back. Yep. Let's see what's been up.

-The Mr. had been here for a month. He's gone back now and we miss him muchly. The month was over so fast. But we got in some nice restful stay at home days.

-Mari is running around and becoming quite a bright albeit willful little thing. She's started throwing tantrums already and seriously, any slight little thing sets her off. Even worse than the tantrum is my mom will give me with "that look" and if I fail to assert my authority (read: spanking Mari or at least verbally admonishing her.) She will laugh rather derisively and remark about how Mari has won. And she laughs when Mari hurts herself too. This is really heartbreaking for me. I can't understand how someone's pain can amuse you, especially if that someone is a one year old who has just caught her finger in a drawer. She will literally stand over her and laugh while Mari sits on the floor wailing and bewildered. I had to scoop my crying baby up and tell my mom to stop laughing and never laugh in her face again when she is in pain. Good god, woman.

-I've started on my Christmas crafting. This year I'm making a tree from scratch. We have our little yarn tree that I made years ago in Tokyo but with little Mari running around I wanted something that wouldn't topple so easily or have so many pointy wire. Also, I wanted something that we would be able to hang lights and ornaments on. So I'm making a new one using wire and re-cycled plastic bags. I took a pic of the bare wire tree and it looked pretty good. I've got a good feeling about this one. Unfortunately we've been very good about bringing our own cloth bags to the supermarket that we don't have enough bags for me to finish the project, so it's on hold until we collect more bags.