Look at this flash gallery from Sibling, a new knitwear company out of London

Watch for the ram. You'll know it when you see it.

The carousel horse is cool too. Watch out for mice, though.

A busy not-busy weekend it was.

Saturday was, of course, PenWAG meeting. It was the summer pot-luck brunch meeting, so we had a good crowd, if a somewhat warm room (we have divined that there is no A/C in the fellowship hall).

The afternoon program was a trunk show by Rachel D.K. Clark. The woman is a blast. Seriously one of the best speakers the club has had in ages.

Sunday we went to Obon with yotefoxwolf and gurdymonkey.

It was... interesting.

We did not dress. I didn't feel like pressing our hakama. Then again, there were very few people in traditional clothing, aside from the taiko performers. We may dress next year.

In many ways it was just a standard church festival/carnival. There were food vendors, lots of food vendors, with interesting and very fresh Japanese goodies. There was a performance area. We got to see some of the UC Irvine Jodaiko performance. They were pretty good.

Most of the local shops were open, so we did a bit of shopping. Nichi Bei Bussan was a pleasant surprise; we had never gone in because it's at the edge of the shopping district. They had a very nice selection of vintage clothing, an excellent selection of footwear, and a very large martial arts store.

Nikkei Traditions (the Hawaiian Japanese store) had some cute stuff.

We almost always make a stop at Kogura Company, and made some good finds there. They had some nice books on tsukemonon (Japanese "pickles") and some other goodies. There will be a return shopping trip soon.

Nikaku Japanese Arts (the website is focused on the Nikaku Animart portion of the business) was also a good stop. We didn't buy anything, but if you ever want a big tanuki statue (and are willing to pay real money) they've got them.

Finally we returned to the performance area to see San Jose Taiko perform. They were, as always, fabulous.

Rather than staying for Bon Odori (traditional dance) we bailed on the festival and went downtown to the Camera 12 to see Wall-E. It was a good film. Highly recommended. Strange, but highly recommended.

So here's how next Saturday (6/14) is shaping up:
08:45: Breakfast, probably OPH (-ish, could be as late as 9:15)
10:00: PenWAG meeting in Saratoga
12:00: (-ish) finish at PenWAG meeting and head to Milpitas
13:00: (or earlier, ideally earlier) get to West Kingdom Arts & Sciences Tourney at Ed Levin Park in Milpitas to join gurdymonkey and gcmadtown81

From then on it's all wing-it.

Got the order mix-up with Marcy Tilton sorted out satisfactorily.

Got a ride-in appointment scheduled to rebuild the seat for the K75. November 12, 7:00am in Hollister. Blah, but it needs to be done and I have that day off.

Got my health plan changed to Kaiser. It's not like I was taking advantage of the old one, and this will give me incentive to make use of it come January.

Left a voice mail with Scharffenberger to talk about the CC26 tour group in April.

Ordered a hemp fabrics swatch set from Pickering International. It comes with the price list, so we'll see if it's affordable.

Ordered the Silk Connection Swatch Set.

Ordered the free bleached linen swatch set from fabrics-store.com.

Bamboo silk brocade, One of the good finds at the Poppy Fabrics going-out-of-business sale. 4 yards. Might be enough for a dobuku...

We stopped at the Anderson Outlet mall on the way home from Redding, mostly because I forgot to bring sunglasses and the sun finally came out on Sunday morning. We also stopped at the Pendleton Woolen Mills outlet store. We hadn't stopped in a while, because the last few times they just didn't have tall or long size shirts.

This time they had shirts, but they also had yardage. $10/yard is a pretty good price for quality wool plaids. Didn't get any, because we don't have any plans that call for wool plaid, but if you're desperate for good wool plaid for Victorians and the drive up to Anderson is reasonable for you, it's worth checking out.

Muppet Pants!

Got more done on the scrubs pants, probably just under 2/3 done. Need to buttonhole for the drawstring, set in the elastic, and hem. That's it.

Still very happy with the pattern.

The Pfaff 332 and the Singer 4/2 serger are back from the shop. We picked them up Friday before heading to the rodeo, and dropped off the Elna Supermatic and the BabyLock Pro Line Serger are in for service.

Just in time for more work on scrubs...

The September Peninsula Wearable Arts Guild meeting is coming up this Saturday. It's at 10:00 AM at Immanuel Lutheran Church on Saratoga Avenue. If you're free and interested in going, let us know.

We're going to preceed it with breakfast at the Original Pancake House at Almaden & Curtner at probably around 8:45 AM.

We're planning to follow it with a run to Eddie's Quilting Bee to pick up the new Embellisher Needle-felting machine and also a run to Viking Sewing Center on Lincoln to drop off a pair of machines for service.

...that I'm most excited about.

I'm happy with the results on the Japanese project, but I could have done better. Of course, that's why I used cheap clearance-rack plaid and sale calico. This iteration was more about learning how the garments went together. Still, the plaid and the purple look great together, and I'm wishing I had made my mistakes on something less interesting. And, of course, after being in the "I'm so glad that the next project isn't Japanese" state for Saturday night and Sunday, I'm already excited about the next iteration of Japanese.

Of course, if you rewind to 3 or so weeks ago, it was all about shopping for St. Mungos (because I thought I had good fabric for Japanese, and then I realized it's all in the warehouse and the deadline was upon us).

So we've got Mungo's to start on. Scrubs have to be done for Silicon.

I've got patterns. I like the Kwik-Sew pattern because the pockets, collar and yoke offer plenty of opportunities for embellishment. The women's pattern and misses' pattern have a button-down scrub top that is pretty cool too.

I've got fabric. The gallery isn't even up to date, I've got a stack of fabric I found while re-sorting the boxes of fabric from the garage that I haven't photographed yet (A copy stand! A copy stand! My Kingdom for a copy stand!).

I've got sewing machines and sergers that aren't overdue for a visit to the shop. I've got needles. I've got thread.

I've got a cutting table that's clean, and needs to be folded up long enough to vacuum the studio. Might get to that tonight.