Christmas present finished

So my first Christmas present is done now: fingerless gloves for my mail delivering mom. She needs the fingerless part so she can handle all the paper she works with. They didn't take long at all once I started them. Unfortunately I haven't quite figured out how to taper the wrists so that the gloves have a pretty fitted look. They kinda resemble tube socks in shape. I do like how they've turned out, that tube shape so the only thing I'm disappointed with.

The hat I was making my brother on the other hand, well that was a flop. I was using plastic needles I had bought at Hobby Lobby. Now, I love the store, but knitters, don't ever buy plastic needles! Get aluminum or wood ones, something tough. So my plastic needles for the hat broke, and then I only had size six needles. With my loose knitting, the gauge was already gonna be off and I was gonna have a big hat, but with sixes... this thing was big enough to cover a basketball. I took the whole thing out, and am gonna have to go buy some good knitting needles now.

Yes, I know that it's only the very beginning of August, but for knitters and other crafters it is time to start thinking about Christmas presents, or they will not be finished by the time the holiday comes around. 

Ugh, don't we all get enough of Christmas starting the week of Thanksgiving? I mean it's in the stores before the Thanksgiving stuff is out, some places even start putting up decorations for sale as soon as the Halloween stuff is out. I like Christmas as much as the next person, but one of the reasons to be excited about it is that, much like birthdays, it only comes around once per year, and is only one day.

I started knitting this hat for my younger brother in hopes that he'll actually wear it. He's one of those tough guys (or likes to think he is, but we all know the truth) who only wears those baseball caps, and doesn't wear stocking hats in winter no matter how cold it gets. Well I found this pattern on Ravelry, a site I absolutely love, by the way, and can spend hours at a time on. The hat itself has a nice brim that looks a lot like a baseball cap, but also has this stretchy bottom part that can be pulled down over the ears when it gets cold.

I am also working on a pair of gloves for my mom, who needs the finger-less kind because of her job. Sadly those are very difficult to find and actually get warm gloves without getting those ugly convertible mittens with the flap that always gets in the way of everything. Sadly I have no camera at this time and the photo you see above was taken with my mom's phone. No, not even the camera on my phone works. So the gloves cannot be photographed by her for obvious reasons. Anyway, more photos to come, hopefully.

Well, We'll See How This Goes

I've attempted blogs before and honestly they didn't work out. Either I would be too lazy to say anything, or I didn't have anything I thought interesting enough to say, or I just plain forgot and suddenly 3 months had passed since I'd posted anything. So let's say third time's the charm, and try this again. Expect there to be few pictures as the camera on my phone is broken, so all I have is my webcam, and for now at least posts to be somewhat far between.

The reason for the title Japan and Knitting would be because I knit regularly, and I am preparing to go to Japan for study abroad in September of this year. At this point that is almost exactly 8 weeks from now. I can't even describe how excited I am about that, I mean a girl from boondocks USA getting to live in Tokyo for a year! How cool is that?

Anyway, on that happy note, there's more to come~