Plus Minus Cats

In Physics there is a symbol called "plus minus" (not anything greek or nothing) that looks like this:

When I was doing my degree I would use it daily - or maybe even hourly. In later life maybe not so much but probably still a few times a month. It is very handy to indicate a margin of error or, in other words, how wild an estimate you are making. In some ways it isn't suitable for this post because my Mum did definitely lose her cat this week.

Poor little Artemis (Arty for short) developed a flea allergy about two years ago and had to go onto steroids. The weight gain they caused may have robbed her of her svelt figure but she was still a champion hunter and was leaving impressively large entrails on my Mum's doorstep right up until a few days before she died. She used to love sleeping with her paw over her nose.

And she had terrible balance and could only get down out of trees if someone stood underneath and caught her.

On my farewell visit before coming to America I spent a lot of time with her on my lap with her doing this kind of inward snore, outward purr breathing while I stroked her soft fur. I'm really glad I did that.

The morning I got my Mum's email was the same morning I had booked my first visit to the Cat Town Cafe in Oakland. Oakland is where you end up if you follow the the Bay Bridge (not the Golden Gate one) out of San Francisco. Traditionally it has had a fairly rough reputation with lots of race violence and shootings but parts of it are now Shoreditch-esque in there inclusion of vegan coffee and bicycle shops. It is not like the previous cat cafes I had visited as all the cats there are up for adoption so some are only at the cafe a matter of days before they go to a new home. The cafe has rehoused more than 135 cats since October last year which is pretty phenomenal and one was being fostered while I was there.

The whole place is very clean and light with lots of places for the cats to sit or play. All the cat furniture represents aspects of Oakland or San Francisco.

This *beautiful* one was sleeping at the top of the Tribune Building.

While in another "Quiet Area" (max two people at a time and no toys) there was a little house.

Underneath this was a very quiet area where the cats could go if they were nervous. The ginger boy below had just got back from a patrol of the main room but the long-haired back one, called Mason (should have been 'Mow-son') was quite jumpy.

He loved being stroked though and completely stole my heart. Having just lost Arty and knowing that Mason didn't have a home with people who loved him made me pretty emotional. It was hard to say goodbye. I have mentioned him to Pooch but until we have sorted out some proper housing it's not really viable. Not really. Certainly not ideal. Probably not for the best. Not for the best. For the best. The best. The best thing that could ever happen.

Poor little Arty. She was a rescue cat herself. She was such a quirky little thing but so adorable.

Craft Blockage

I've finally got the space to create in...and I can't decide what to do.

I've still only got basic supplies BUT there are shops so I could go and get something. But...what to get? I was thinking of maybe some embroidery but I already embroidered this before I left England...

...and I don;t know what to do with it. I am therefore a bit wary of embroidering something else I don't know what to do with. I don't have a sewing machine yet and only have about 8 FQs of fabric (which, actually, sounds like a lot now I write that) but the designs aren't talking to me. Much like my Mum's cat wouldn't talk to Triple H even when he was being eaten by a dinosaur at her feet.

I could knit something. That's probably a better idea. But what to knit?! I have just signed up for the UK Knitting and Crochet Guild's monthly knitting challenge to knit something for a child. Naturally, my ickle niece came to mind. Her Mum is doing a great job with the face-training.

I've seen a cute Peppa Pig cardigan I want to convert to a zip up hoody but that requires many colours and charting and so can't be started any time soon. What I need is something more immediate. Much Ravelry trawling and I am thinking of this Drops cardigan which I have the needles for and can get the yarn for pretty easily.

Blockage shifted. I feel so much better now.

Lixie Reaches San Francisco

Finally! Two month after leaving Tokyo, Pooch and I have arrived in our temporary flat in sunny San Francisco (ignore the blog header suggesting I'm still in Japan - the image file is on a hard drive in a box somewhere in another country). Even a temporary lease of two months seems like heaven when you've changed location 16 times in two months. It seems nuts to complain about it when we were made wonderfully welcome by family and were fed all our favourite meals and were warm and clean, but I was definitely getting to the end of my tether. Living out of one suitcase for that amount of time is no fun, and all those meals have damaged the Byrne waistline.

Since arriving here this has been much walking to explore the local area and never more so than when we went to the weekly Ferry Building Marketplace this morning. Quite a selection to choose from.

This one was mental.

All those chickens and what looked like whole pig...bodies? Not sure of the technical term. They were all cooking and dripping juices and fat onto the baskets of brussel sprouts in amongst the meat and then onto the potatoes at the bottom. The smell was amazing. The only thing I tried was an ASTONISHING ice cream from a place called Humphrey Slocombe.

I had the Malted Dulche de Leche and, my word, I seriously think it is the best ice cream I've ever had. Obviously it doesn't have a chocolate in, but then nothing is 100% perfect. We also brought home fish and veg for dinner.

Getting here and being able to have more than one tiny project on the go has already paid dividends. One block for the I Love Lucy patchwork bee.

My Crazy Stripes Tee has blossomed a sleeve and the start of another.

I tried this on last night and couldn't be happier with the fit.

I've also got the desk set up with Nickerjac's LB's parting gift - a polka dot television he made himself complete with Japanese scene. Plus one or two other reminders of Tokyo.

Exploring so far has been largely of the necessity rather than the crafty nature, but then Pooch starts work next week so I am planning trips to Thrift and Craft Stores for then (look - I said 'thift' not 'charity and 'stores', not 'shops'. La! I'm so american already).

Have a nice day!

SkipNorth Knitting and Spinning Holiday - Last Chance to Book!

What are you doing between 26th and 29th March this year? 

Oh really?

Well, that sounds fun, but you'll have more fun at the 

UK's numero uno knitting and spinning holiday 

- now in its 11th year!

Shop, eat, natter, eat, learn new skills, eat...and more!

Click here for details and to book. 

We also have a discussion group on Ravelry. 

Normal Service Will Resume At Some Point

I am currently living with The Pooch in a tiny studio flat in Paddington (London) without any craft materials other than one half done pair of knitted socks and one patchwork hand sewing project. I have also been ill with a virus pretty much since the plane touched down from Tokyo two weeks ago AND I sprained my thumb lugging that wretched suitcase around over xmas so can't in fact knit anyway until it has healed. As a result I've not got a lot to blog about apart from the occasional outing completed between bouts of coughing.

By March I hope to be living in a more permanent place in a country to be confirmed. Until then it might be a bit sporadic on here.

Here are some more cat pictures to round things off. I hate blog posts without pictures.

A Delayed Visit to London's Only Cat Cafe

When I first heard about the crowdfunding campaign to get a cat cafe open in London I was all over it like a rash. I was so excited. I signed up and pledged my hard earned wonga and then sat back, eagerly awaiting the opening date. That was at the start of 2013, and shortly afterwards I found out I'd be moving to Japan which then finally happened in November of that year. I vaguely remember that the cat cafe was supposed to have opened by then but got held up by planning permission, so I was already in Tokyo and whooping it up in the cat cafes there by the time Lady Dinah's opened its doors.

In return for my funding I got a "Nine Lives Card" entitling me to a discount on the £6 or so cover charge for a 90 minute visit for my first nine visits. Saturday was my first! The staff were very friendly and I was seated at my own table downstairs.

There were cat perches everywhere and sure enough there were about five of the seven or so cats sleeping in different spots.

Some of these were accessible and some weren't. Before I went I had read one of their updates online saying that some people had been disappointed with the number of cats that were sleeping during their visit. I read that statement in the context of Tokyo's cat cafes and assumed the disappointment was due to the cats not running after profered toys or jumping into laps. What I hadn't realised was that you are not allowed to touch sleeping cats, even if they are sleeping right next to you. That basically meant that there were two cats to "go around" what turned out to be a really large number of people for the space. If the downstairs room was a cafe I would have described it as definitely full. Perhaps 20 people were down there? And half an hour after I got there - in what was the first "sitting" of the day - more people arrived and were seated at the tables upstairs in the play room. What quickly happened was that as soon as any of the awake cats did something (such as walk across the room) it was immediately surrounded by a little crowd.

The cat cafes in Tokyo and Seoul were never anywhere near this crowded and often I'd be the only one there for at least some of my visit.

On their website, Lady Dinah's talk about how some overseas cat cafes deprive cats of food so they beg customers for treats - something I never saw in Tokyo or Seoul - but at Lady Dinah's the cats instead were stimulated with some sort of powdered chicken treat. Initially this was done by staff but they then handed it to visitors so the cat in question would interact with them. This is what that looked like.

An even bigger crowd around the cat involved. If you were at the front of the crowd you got to pet the cat. Otherwise, you got to watch other people do it.

While I can understand that the thinking behind Lady Dinah's is all to protect the cats, I feel there might be a bit of anthropomorphism going on. If your own cat was asleep at home, you wouldn't fear upsetting its emotional balance by stroking it. And if the cat was peeved at being disturbed it would go and sleep somewhere else. The same thing used to happen in the Tokyo cafes I went to. Cats wishing for a good snooze would sleep up high.

Cats open to a bit of doze/tickle would stay low.

Afterall, these cafes are only open for about 8 hours a day so that leaves another 16 for undisturbed r+r.

On reflection I felt that if I had never been to any other cat cafes I would have been satisfied with the experience on offer at Lady Dinah's. In fact I felt the word "experience" summed it up pretty well. It is a "cat experience" and a cafe. It was only having experienced a "cat cafe" as they were originally intended to be that made the name a misnomer in this case. However, as the Knit Harlot once said when I asked her for her opinion about knitting needles on planes (at the time they were banned) "It's their plane so it's up to them to decide what can go on them." So it follows that this is their cafe and their cats (I forget who exactly 'they' are) so it's up to them to decide when you can stroke them. However, I won't be needing the other eight of my nine lives so if anyone in the UK would like the card let me know and I'll post it to you.

One thing about the cafe is its very interesting location - on Bethnal Green Road. This is a low income area of London, coincidentally where I was living when I met The Pooch. You will not find many other hipster places just here which, let's face it, is basically what Lady Dinah's is. Depending on the way you choose to walk you can end up walking through parts of Shoreditch which has been gentrified and is now full of hipsters wearing layers of grey, black and plaid. This means the graffiti, something I quietly admire in general, is a mix of traditional and modern. You get the more artsy stuff...

...on hoardings surrounding current building work while longer-term walls hiding waste ground get a more transitional treatment.

My personal favourite on this trip was this thuggish Peppa Pig amid a load of tags.

Having had to draw Peppa umpteen times for my ickle niece I admired this artist's work. That's assuming it is Peppa. For all I know it could be a Hipster Icon and Peppa is simply an ironic reworking of it. In which case I need to rewatch the "Muddy Puddles" episode and think in more depth about the subtext.

My 2014

My year started with us living in Japan and has ended with us back in the UK but with plans to be somewhere completely different within the next two months. Looking back, I have made at least 117 different things during the year. More than one every three days - not bad going!

Phew! I've knitted eleven hats, two adult jumpers, four little ones and seven pairs of socks plus various other bits. I've sewn six Sew Together bags, three bed quilts and twenty four other bags or pouches. Lastly, twenty nine of the things were for me or my home - everything else was a present or for a swap.

Personally there have been a few ups and downs and there has been a lot of uncertainty about the future but as the year ends it is all looking pretty good! I don't yet have any plans for 2015, apart from setting up another new home in another new place. Hopefully this move will be slightly more permanent but then...you never know!

Magical Button Jars

My mother-in-law works in a charity shop and when I got here to her house for Christmas she resented me with a little jar full of buttons. I *love* buttons. Seeing my glee she remembered a jar she had (on the left below) and invited me to take any I liked. Squee!

Between the two jars I found some lovely ones. Terribly cute yellow on their card and a single in the sweetest shade of red.

Lovely pink with an octagonal blue.

Beautiful glass ones.

Five very small little glass triangles with diamante.

I had a lovely Christmas with the in-laws (there were 18 of us in the small house at one point) and a very nice few days before that at my Mum's with my sister and ickle niece. The poor little thing wasn't too well and was cuddled up with her Mum when she asked for a toy. She asked for my Quiet Book!

I had given it to her the day before the the pages with the moving beads from one to five and the stars on ribbon velcro'd to the page were the clear winners. I was so chuffed that she liked it enough to want it when she was poorly!

Tokyo Crafting - Guide to Shops, Classes, Events and Resources

Not intended to be exhaustive - this is just my round up of what I have come across after 13 months of living in Tokyo.

Last Updated: December 2014.

Shops

Shinjuku Craft Shops - I created a map and list of shops for a tour I did. download .doc list and descriptions and download .doc map

Nippori Fabric Town - Blogged about here. Worth going to just for Tomato which has four different buildings.

The main one has 100 Yen a metre at the entrance which is great for cheap curtains. Each floor deals with something different like knits, cosplay etc. On the fifth floor you'll find patchwork cottons in fat eighths (ish) and you can buy american imports by the half metre - everything else in the shop is by the metre. The prices are cheaper than Okadaya or Yuzawaya (both in the Shinjuku list above) but if you only need 20cm or so you're better off at the expensive shops. There are about 50 other fabric and notion shops on the same road too. Go to Nippori station and look for a down escalator at the East Exit. You should come out on a square with a big samurai on a horse statue. Look for the signs for fabric town.

Yanaka - as well as having a comic museum and an amazingly beautiful sculptor's house which is always worth visiting, and lots of cats and cat merchandise, it has a beautiful bamboo craft shop called Midoria (3 Chome-13-3 Nishinippori, Arakawa-ku). This is high end stuff so you can easily pay 15,000 for a woven vase but they also have smaller, cheaper items. Beautiful work. Few minutes walk from Nippori station, in the opposite direction to Fabric Town.

Sakura Horikiri - washi paper, fabric and paper 'painting' and kits galore in Asakusabashi. Eveything is in Japanese but the staff are very friendly and the kits are so well illustrated it is clear what you need to do just from the pictures.

Kiwa Products - beads and findings for jewellery, resin craft, bag making and probably much more. There is a small one in Shinjuku but the store in Asakusabashi is enormous - about 5 floors of lovely temptation and tonnes of instruction sheets at 50 yen a time if you lack a definite plan. There are a lot of bead shops in this area - look out for 'wholesale only' signs as they won't welcome you.

Traditional Dolls - if you are in Asakusabashi to visit either of the two above places you really have to go and at least have a quick look at the ground floor of this place. Kyugetsu is one of several of these places in the area and the dolls are just amazing, and I'm not into dolls at all. If you walk from here to Sakura Horiki you'll go past another doll making shop with all the bits and bobs needed to get started.

Salvation Army Bazaar - it might sound odd but this huge charity shop is a warehouse with different sections for clothes, books, furniture, crockery (just get everything here rather than at IKEA) and also crafts. I've blogged about it here. Only open on Saturday mornings but definitely worth a visit. Buttons are so expensive in Japan so this is a great place to get them.

100 Yen shops - beloved beauties. The biggest I've found is Daiso in Harajuku (blogged about here and in picture below).

However, you are likely to have a local Seria or Can-do near you. There are several on the Shinjuku list above. You'll be surprised (especially if you're used to nasty english pound shops) at the quality here. 100% wool yarn, fibre for needle felting, purse frames, fabric, needles, thread, buttons...you name it. Add kawaii stationery and kitchen paraphernalia and bob's your uncle.

Online craft shopping in Japan - I compiled a list of places I found out about at the Yokohama Quilt Show here. I also have a list of places selling finished handmade items in my Handmade in Japan Fes post here. Okadaya and Yuzawaya (in the Shinjuku download) also have online shops.

Classes

Pottery - Shirokane Ceramic Art School. I have done their 'try out' class in english and it was awesome. I had never made anything on a pottery wheel before and it was a great experience. Wear trousers you don;t mind getting clay on (it washes off easily). Don't expect a modern studio. It is off the main road and down a traditional little street.

Loom Weaving and/or Indigo Dyeing - both at one place, Wanariya in Asakusa. While this is a child friendly activity, don't be put off by the pictures of children on the website. I still felt like a grown up while weaving and am ridiculously proud of my coasters. You can also take your own fabric to indigo dye and they charge you by weight. About 15 mins walk from the station. Very friendly people.

Washi Paper Mini Tasters - the shop at Sakura Horikiri (above) usually has a little taster session going for some form of paper craft.

Adhoc Craft Meet-ups - meetup.com is very active in Tokyo. I can recommend Kokoro Crafts Group!


Craft Shows

Tokyo International Quilt Festival - blogged about here. Held in January every year at the Tokyo Dome which is a huge baseball stadium. This show gets seriously busy - as in no-room-to-turn-around busy. You save a couple of hundred yen and avoid the queues if you buy a ticket in advance. Not as many shopping stalls as I would expect but amazing quilts - if you can get close enough to see them!

Yokohama International Quilt Week - blogged about here.

Less than an hour from Tokyo and, in my opinion, a much better event than the Tokyo one. This is largely down to the far more manageable number of people, the excellence and variety of the displays and the numerous shopping areas. Again, you save a hundred yen or so buying in advance but the website usually has a coupon for that much you can print out and use on the day.

Handmade in Design Fes - blogged about here. A staggeringly huge event by british standards.

Design Festa Tokyo - I hear this is very good.

Other big events - keep an eye out on Time Out Tokyo for what is going on.

Resources

Stitch n Bitch Meetup - a very active group with people passing through and some 10+ year regulars. All nationalities welcome. You just promise to buy one drink minimum wherever it is, although the food at Pariya is delicious if they are there and you should try the ice cream too. There is a daytime group as well as this evening one. Both meet twice a month. I found out so much about craft shops, dealing with the recycling and more from chatting to regulars at these meetings.

Searching google in Japanese - an artform in itself. If you can't find something by googling in English, it is quite easy to do so in Japanese. The key to success is using Chrome as a broswer which auto-translates for you. Then go to translate.google.com and type in what you want to search for (i.e. glass blowing lesson ガラス吹きレッスン) and copy and paste the japanese into google.com. Each result will then have "translate this page" as a link next to it. Click on that to see what the suggested websites are saying.

Time Out Tokyo - keep an eye out for flea markets, big events, museum exhibitions and so on.

Japan Folk Craft Museum - amazing exhibitions in the most beautiful traditional building with a rotating collection of handmade items.

Bunka Gakuen Costume Museum - blogged about here. An often overlooked simple but quite large museum near Shinjuku station. They have exhibitions on all sorts of fashions.

Tokyo Crafts Gallery - This comes under the wing of the National Museum of Tokyo but is in a separate building. It is a great space and has some excellent exhibitions.