PJ Goes Pop receives its first blog award!

Thank you so very much to a dear friend and enabler: Jonette at The Hobby Horse, for this Beautiful Blogger Award.



The rules for the award:
1. Thank the person who gave you the award, and link back to them.
2. Pass the award on to 15 bloggers whom you've recently discovered and think are fantastic.
3. Contact those bloggers and let them know that they've won the award.
4. State seven (7) things about yourself.

With item number 1 marked as done and done, I need to pass the award on - and here are my picks. Sorry I haven't quite made the required 15.

Crafty Cat - Clair
Tres Mujeres - The Misadventures of the Desanggria Family - Anne DeSanggria
Lion Brand Notebook - The Lion Brand Yarn Blog - a team of 8: David, Ilana, Jack, Jess, Laura, Lindsey, Patty, and Zontee
Crochet Me - Kim Werker - the founder of the site

Seven things about myself? Hard to think of it when I do tend to indulge in TMI of the fannish and otaku-ish persuasion here. But let's give it a shot.

> I will try to eat absolutely anything once. This is how I learned to stop worrying and love kimchi, love it enough to attempt making it at home once! But this is also how I learned to abhor delicacies like durian and sea urchin.
> My primary favorite when it comes to cosplay is the Edwardian/Victorian form of cross-play. Men's suits. Frock coats. Essentially I want to steal the entire wardrobe used by Robert Downey Jr. and Jude Law in Sherlock Holmes.
> If I could make it to the Takarazuka Grand Theater, the Tokyo Takarazuka Theater, AND the Wao Enterprise offices in Japan, I will die happy. Seriously. Even if I just wound up standing outside on the sidewalk.
> I missed out on a lot of good TV. Not because I didn't have TV, but because I wasn't allowed to stay up and/or watch the programs. The Twilight Zone, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, The X-Files, Millennium, even sitcoms like Family Ties and The Golden Years. Oh, and stuff like T.O.D.A.S. and Goin' Bananas.
> If I ever get married, I want to do the wedding ceremony in cosplay. Something like Cowboy Bebop although I can never see myself in the iconic Faye Valentine outfit. Jedi robes, maybe? (This is partly because friends of mine who are also members of the 501st got married very recently.)
> My current pipe dream is to open a small business that focuses on bringing good quality yarns and crafting notions into the country. I realize this might place me in direct competition with Tita Lilli at Dreams Yarnshoppe. But I was thinking more along the lines of I could bring in the stuff she can't.
> If I ever take up knitting it will be for the Fourth Doctor's scarf alone. After that, it's back to crochet for me.

One more extra:
> I always feel sad because no one ever recognizes the source of my blog's subtitle.

Growing My Six-Foot Shelf of Crochet References

Previous entry: Crochet Workshop Library: My All-Purpose All-Occasion Crochet Library - Of Two

I have a policy I follow whenever I visit a National Book Store outlet - or maybe it's more like a plan of attack, a way to not tumble down the rabbit hole of endless bookery-geekery. The plan goes something like this:
> Look at the cookbooks
> Look at the craft books section
> Look at the magazines to hope against hope that there will be issues of crochet or knit magazines (there usually aren't, but I'll never know till I check)
> Look at the bargain books bins.

The last NBS expedition turned out to be particularly fruitful, as among the items on sale I found the next two items to help me grow my stack of crochet references - cheaply!


There is one project in this book that I OWE it to myself to try: a lovely evocation of ribbing AND cables, normally that's done only in knitting. But Davis gives here the pattern for a matching hat+scarf set that has crochet versions of those two amazing, versatile motifs. MUST TRY THIS.


If anyone can be kind enough to tell me what this book's title is, I'd be really grateful; I'd try puzzling it out for myself but most kanji are beyond me, and the lone example in the title has me stumped. Anyway, I got this book because: 1. lovely crochet bags in various sizes; 2. instructions and a template for making mobile-phone cases; 3. flower motifs! I cannot have enough of them; 4. practice for reading Japanese crochet instructions. Or perhaps I should say, symbol charts, since they dispense with written instructions.]

This week I'm making crochet ribbing. :D I never thought that all it took was to work into the back loops of stitches! Learn something new every day, that's my motto.....

Musings and assorted fannish notes

THE TALE OF THE PACKAGES

During the recent weekend I dropped in at a friendly neighborhood FedEx facility to ship off the items of the WaoHana Project: the Sunny Beret, the Bobble Beauty Beret, and the Experiment 626 Scarf. For each item I enclosed a card with laundry instructions. I also wrote a note to the intended recipients.

A friend of mine also wanted in on the delivery and added a couple of crafty little gifts - little dolls made with felt and fiberfill, very cute - and her own fan letters.

It took three days, but the package, sent off on a Saturday afternoon, arrived at its destination yesterday after lunch (Japan time). So that's a small victory to crow about.

Hope its recipients wear/use the items we sent them.

Also last week I purchased a pair of back issues of one of the Takarazuka Kagekidan's publications: the January and August 2003 issues of Kageki. I bought them because the cover girls were Wao Youka and Hanafusa Mari, respectively.

So what was THIS that showed up at my office yesterday?


Hmm! A mysterious package for me!


Surprise! My magazines arrived!

*grins* I have good omens, good omens indeed. There's just one more set of fan letters to send off - my friend will be taking care of that later this week.

HAMSTER WINS ACCOLADES


Hey, check it out, the ASUS Eee PC 1005HA just took the Reader's Choice accolade for Netbook of the Year at the 2009 Engadget Awards!

Its counterpart in the Editor's Choice derby was the Toshiba NB205.

READ AN RPG BOOK IN PUBLIC WEEK

I...I'm seriously thinking about it.

On the other hand I would also settle for conspicuously carrying a bag of polyhedral dice somewhere on my person. Perhaps in a nice holster at my waist.

Have you guys got ANY idea how DIFFICULT it is to procure proper RPG dice here in the Philippines? Ever since the late lamented Nova Fontana hobby shops closed down permanently, the only way to get proper dice has been online. (My kingdom for a Pound o' Dice!)

I desperately need a set. Anyone want to hook me up?

Hat Madness Continues!

And so I have spent the last three days making hats.

Today's a great day in my quest to be a good crocheter, as it was the first time I did a project from start to finish in just one day!



I'm very happy with the results of this newest project. It's sort-of-kind-of an original concept of mine. You see, I had wanted to make a really basic tam (the hat type), and came across Deborah Arndt's lovely Simple Tam Pattern. So I decided to make it today with some of the yarn that I recently bought.

In the process of making the hat, though, I wound up making so many tweaks to the project that it was slowly evolving into a new design. So what I'm going to do is to call this new project the "Basic Ripple Tam", as though it were my own work, but also say that it is based on Arndt's original design.



Basic Ripple Tam
Based on Deborah Arndt's Simple Tam Pattern
Designed by PJ Punla

Pattern after the jump.

Blog Updates, 4000+ Visitors, and Yarn Stash, oh my!

Grab-bag entry time! Have a few topics to talk about briefly, so let's run quickly down the list.

1. I finally sent off the package containing the entirety of the WaoHana Project! Had it Fedexed off just this afternoon. Also along for the ride are a couple of small gifts and notes from another fan of the Wao Youka + Hanafusa Mari pair. Gosh, I really hope the gifts arrive safely at their destination. *goes to check tracking number and waits anxiously*

2. I just received word that my Takarazuka Kagekidan package is on its way! I had bought a couple of back-issues of one of the Kagekidan's publications, the magazine Kageki, from a seller in Japan. The seller recently sent me a message saying that the two back-issues are now on their way! I hope the magazines come soon!

3. I've just started playing Dragon Age: Origins! My current character is an elven mage, who will soon be following the path of the Arcane Warrior. I think my final party will be Alistair, Morrigan, and Leliana.

4. More gaming news: Oh god, Civilization V is coming THIS YEAR! Civilfixation ensues - or shall ensue! I should be happy they haven't released the Facebook version of that game yet or I shall surely be lost in chants of "one more turn, one more turn"!

5. I've added a new links list to the right sidebar for "Crafty Things": pattern and yarn resources and the blogs of a few crafting friends mainly. My current prize find is the first link in the list, Antique Pattern Library. A group of people are painstakingly preserving old old OLD books of needlework patterns by scanning them and converting the files into PDFs - and then have been extraordinarily generous by sharing them free of charge. I really want to try looking into their database - and making something out of it, of course!

6. I decided to make something out of the various odds and ends and lengths of yarn I had left from making the WaoHana Project items, and here is what I came up with:

Details and copyrights on this pattern in this entry.

Like the hat? [Photo credits to my partner.]

I like that! A two-day quickie hat project!

7. I'll be starting work on my first real commissioned piece [as opposed to being a gift or a practice item] very soon! And it's a very interesting pattern for a very basic headgear item: a watch cap. I'll be posting about that, definitely!

8. And just to round things off on a lucky and thankful note:

4000+ Visitors - THANK YOU!

The WaoHana Project: Wao's Experiment 626 Scarf: COMPLETE!

And there it is: an almost seven-foot-long scarf, ready to go into the wash.

I finished the Experiment 626 scarf last night! What's more, I've also finished written the letter that will accompany the three items of the WaoHana Project, and even printed out an address label for reference!

If the scarf finishes drying by tonight or tomorrow, I can weave in all the yarn ends so it looks nice and neat - that would be the last finishing step.

If that's so, then the Saturday errand list will look like this:

> Buy gray yarn for first commission (a man's watch cap)
> Have WaoHana Project items properly but thriftily gift-wrapped
> Fedex WaoHana Project items
> Pay utility bills

Waaah, I'm a busy home panda! :D

The WaoHana Project: Wao's Experiment 626 Scarf - Almost Done

These past few nights have been spent eager-beavering away on the Experiment 626 scarf. I suffered a slight disappointment when I realized that 5 oz of black yarn wasn't quite enough to make the full 40-inch middle section of the project, but cheered myself right back up when I realized I had inadvertently made the first striped section a little longer than it needed to be.

So now the project has proportions of:
23-inch first striped section
36-inch black midsection

And now I am down to the last 6 inches of the second striped section. The full length of this thing will be ... DUM DUM DUM...82 inches! Yay!

Pictures, of course, or I'm just blowing hot air your way, so - wish, command:


Here is the scarf as I began the final six-inch section last night.


And this shot really gives an idea of how damn LONG this thing got. :D Of course I am happy with it turning out this way!

Please don't mind all those long trailing tails of yarn. It's a paranoia thing, I swear. I always leave at least six inches to weave back in. And in several instances in this project the tails are actually LONGER than the width of the scarf, hahaha.

Tonight will be finishing-and-laundering night and that means I will have done a scarf that was NEARLY seven feet long in ten days!

I'm just sorry I didn't start the project sooner. Wao Youka's birthday was Monday! Never mind. I'm sure I can post these off to Japan and have them arrive there well in time for the 28th, which is Hanafusa Mari's birthday.

CASABLANCA Head-to-Head: 1942 Movie vs. 2009-10 Musical

A poster for Casablanca, featuring who else but Bogart and Bergman.


A chirashi, or flyer, for the Takarazuka Kagekidan / Cosmos Troupe musical adaptation of Casablanca, starring Oozora Yuuhi and Nono Sumika.

I guess it's a funny confession for me to make that I had never in my life seen what's acclaimed as one of the greatest movies of all time (no Kanye West jokes, please!) before 2009: that was when I finally bought a copy of the Casablanca movie. I watched it and I fell in love with most of the cast: from Captain Louis Renault to the central love triangle of Rick Blaine-Ilsa Lund-Victor Laszlo to, especially, the wonderful crew of Rick's Café Américain: Sam, Carl, Sascha, Emil, and Abdul.

As old as the movie was and as prevalent as its influence has been, I still responded to its scenes and its tropes: the shock of Ilsa's return to Rick's life, "Of all the gin joints in all the towns in all the world, she walks into mine", the duel between "Die Wacht am Rhein" and "La Marseillaise", the final confrontations, and of course the one-two ending punch of "If that plane leaves the ground and you're not with him, you'll regret it. Maybe not today, maybe not tomorrow, but soon and for the rest of your life" and "Louis, I think this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship".

And who can forget the songs? "It Had To Be You" and "As Time Goes By" of course are the standouts, but let's not forget "Knock on Wood" and the duel of the songs I mentioned in the previous paragraph.

Casablanca is an acclaimed film, known and loved for many years, and so anyone who tries to adapt it will be given a lot of attention. No one wants to mess with the by-now-immortal movie.

So of course it was a bit of a shock when it was announced that the Takarazuka Kagekidan was creating a musical of the movie.

First Visits: A Saturday at the Salcedo Weekend Market and Rockwell's Pepper Lunch

[Warning, image-heavy post!]

We spent the Saturday of the double-celebration weekend of Valentine's Day and the Chinese New Year in Makati. Having gotten up at an ungodly early hour of the morning, we had been thinking of going to Banchetto in Ortigas and then we remembered, hey, it's a Saturday, the Salcedo Weekend Market is only open on Saturdays, we've never been there - let's go!

[We in this case being of course me and my partner.]

So after a quick consult with good old Google Maps we ran off at around 7 in the morning. By the time we arrived the market was already in full swing. Here are some of the photos we took.


Lots of fruits and fresh produce. As expected the fruits and round stuff were moving very quickly, because it was the Chinese New Year.


Seafood! (I heard that particular joke a LOT this weekend.) I can't wait for next month when the crabs and the really good shellfish come into season - I foresee MARVELOUS eating ahead!


Lion dancers. They were booked for the whole day of the market, apparently. All the kids - and there were a lot of them - thoroughly enjoyed following these nimble dancers around.

Food and goodies after the cut!

The WaoHana Project: Wao's Experiment 626 Scarf

Okay, this one's just a quick picture post, since I'm really only getting started on this monster of a project. And I would laugh to mean "monster" both literally - because what part of seven feet long isn't daunting? - and figuratively, considering all the names that Stitch from Lilo and Stitch got called.

Gantu: What is that monstrosity?
Jumba: Monstrosity? What you see before you is the first of a new species. I call it Experiment 626. He is fire-proof, bullet-proof, and can think faster than a super computer. He can see in the dark, and move objects three thousand times his size. His only instinct...to destroy everything he touches! [laughs maniacally]
Grand Councilwoman: So it is a monster.
Jumba: Eh, just a little one.

Stitch: ALOHA!
Gantu: You're vile! You're foul! You're FLAWED! [smashes hand on Stitch]
Stitch: [lifts it back up] Also cute and fluffy!

I rest my case.

Anyway, on to the photos.


Here's the scarf at the starting point. The idea is to have pink and blue stripes for the ends and then solid black for the long middle section. I plan to do the whole thing in one piece, as opposed to an earlier attempt where I did the scarf in two pieces and then stitched them together.


A macro shot that shows the stitch I'm using to make the scarf. My book calls it "alternate" stitch, and it's composed mainly of putting two single crochet in one stitch and then skipping the next stitch. This has the effect of creating a firm fabric with a leaf-like motif.


Okay, I've finally finished one end here and am now moving on to the main portion of the scarf - the black section, intended length about 40 inches. (A little over that figure is okay.)


And here is the scarf, 26 inches long. This thing is supposed to end up at about 84 inches in length, which is probably LONGER than the person I'm giving it to (and definitely longer than ME). The funny thing is that I seem to be doing 10% of it every day - I'm up to 30% now - and so it will likely take me ten or so days to finish the whole thing. :D

This is my first striped scarf, so I must have gone through three or four techniques to do the color changes. I finally stuck with the simplest and easiest one: finish the row with the first yarn, join on second yarn by knotting it onto the first and sliding the knot up to abut the last single stitch, drop first yarn, do turning chains and resume motif with second yarn.

[Posting frequency has gone up, partly because I'm taking a long weekend off. Ah, the nice oddness of having Valentines' Day and Chinese New Year AND the UP Fair all in one weekend.]

O tempora o mores!

Here's a subject that's increasingly encroaching on my conversations with my significant other, my friends online and off-, and, well, I might as well give the game away and say that this has been the theme of conversations with members of my own generation at present:

Damn, we're getting OLD.

I think it was the local snarkmeister Jessica Zafra who said something along the lines of, "Don't you just HATE it when a song comes on the radio and everyone else thinks it's such an edgy original, great sound, good performance - but you KNOW you have it on CASSETTE TAPE and you first heard it on your WALKMAN - and you're the only one who knows that song is a REMAKE?"

Case in point: "The Beginning is the End is the Beginning". I recognized it immediately as the song from the George Clooney/Chris O'Donnell Batman & Robin movie right off the bat during the Watchmen trailers. Well, I guess it was just me, since apparently, a lot of younger fans thought that it was a NEW Smashing Pumpkins song.

Cue the reactions: O_o @.@ >.< *facepalm*

And what about the proliferation of those girls and boys dressed up like goth-lolis and trucker-hat emos, eh? So the Philippines finally has its own local definition of weeaboo: people who watch only stuff like Naruto and Bleach and dress up like poor imitations of gothic lolitas, but wouldn’t know what an odango was if it hit them in the face with a matching cry of Tsuki ni kawatte oshioki yo!

And what about those of us who make affectionate jokes about Say My Name? Everyone thinks it began with

MIAKA! TAMAHOME!

but long before that (in 1978!) there was

KAZUYA! ERIKA!

Which got localized to

RICHARD! ERIKA!



And even before that there was

OSCAR! ANDRE!



It's so difficult to realize that the world has passed me by and most of the things that I knew and loved and grew up with have pretty much receded into the mists of history – if it hasn’t been bastardized by clueless remakes, that is.

And now I shall do as Lady Oscar does and get myself a drink, too. I think I need it.

Crochet Workshop Library: My All-Purpose All-Occasion Crochet Library - Of Two

For some people, finding new obsessions means assembling an entire library of books, manuals, and other material related to the subject. I believe the relevant idiom is "the six-foot shelf": like a series of essential books to a given field of study.

As for me, it's crochet: I have a massive stash of yarn - most of which is already allocated to one project or another - and I am also now scouring second-hand book shops and the bargain shelves to grow my collection of crochet reference books.

Here's what I have now.


You've seen this one before: Reader's Digest Complete Guide to Needlework. The nice thing about this book is the extensive illustration of basic concepts and stitches in all of the needlework crafts that it mentions: it is really a crash course for every single one of the crafts contained within.

Having participated in a recent discussion about left-handed knitting, I might rest easy with this book if I ever took up the pointed needles. It's so helpful to have full-page, step-by-step how-to illustrations for knitting and purling left-handed, for reference.


And here is my newest acquisition: Beyond the Square: Crochet Motifs by Edie Eckman. I picked this up last weekend and while I haven't yet had the chance to make up any of the motifs pictured in the book, I use it a awful lot now for recreational reading.

What makes this book so nice? Well, it's got 144 motifs in all sorts of cute shapes: circles, hexagons, triangles, and even unusual shapes such as hearts and ovals and stars. Every motif is presented as both a set of written instructions and a graphical chart, using the standard set of symbols used for representing crochet stitches.

What I really love about this book is that it's hardcover + has stiff pages + spiral bound. That's a killer combination for books like this because you can lay it out flat no problem to stitch a motif or two.

I think I will use a few of the motifs in the book for making brooches. And if I had the patience to work with mercerized cotton and other fine yarns, earrings and other crocheted jewelry.... :D

The WaoHana Project: O-Hana's Sunny Beret: COMPLETE!

This is the second of the two hats I'm making for The WaoHana Project, both intended for giving to Hanafusa Mari. And with the second hat completed, I'm now officially halfway through; now it's time to get started on that seven-foot-long Experiment 626 scarf!

The pattern for this one is Crocheted Cap/Beret by Ed Barrall II. As the pictures will make clear, I decided to make the beret version, so there is no brim on this hat.

Photos ahoy!


This is the beret early on, so the pattern of spirals is not yet very obvious. The nice thing about this hat is that it requires knowledge of only a handful of basic crochet stitches: chain stitch, slip stitch, single crochet, and double crochet - plus a variation on that last one, front post double crochet. This project is ideal for beginners as a first try at making crochet hats.


I've just finished making this beret, and here is the picture of the "inner" side. Again, please excuse the yarn ends - they'll be dealt with after I wash the two completed hats tonight.


And now here is the pattern in the project: a twelve-ray spiral from the center, and scalloping around the edges. This is a very pretty project and I recommend it to everyone!

*whew* Next? (LONG scarf is really intended to be long!)

Meal in the City: Breakfast at Wheatberry, Scout Tuason, Quezon City

I love breakfasts. That is all.

Here's today's, which my boyfriend and I ate at a bakery and cafe called Wheatberry. It's located near my office and is apparently one of the favored places for meetings and coffee in the area.


My breakfast was a house specialty, the Chunky Corned Beef. Cubes of very nice, home-made corned beef with lots of sauteed onions and chopped garlic, served with garlic rice, two eggs any way (I had mine scrambled), and some veg: cucumber, tomato, and some papaya relish (locally, "atchara"). Delish. I loved the texture and flavor of the corned beef. (Sorry, the picture is a bit blurry, and doesn't do justice to the meal....)


My boyfriend had the Wheatberry Breakfast Sampler: house pancakes, potato tots, two eggs any way (he had his over easy), and breakfast sausage. Those pancakes were, in a word, amazing. We both agreed that if they weren't made from scratch at least they were made from a very high-quality mix, as they tasted fluffier and went down heartier than the standard mixes employed locally. Also, very tasty mini hash browns.

We asked for juice to go with our meals, and that right there was the major disappointment: the orange juice was prepared from a local powdered mix. Really a bit of a letdown since Wheatberry has a wide selection of gourmet teas, specialty coffees, and coffee-based drinks - was it too much to ask for a decent juice selection to go with?

The WaoHana Project: O-Hana's Bobble Beret: COMPLETE!

A story told in pictures:

You saw this photo in the previous post. Detail of the top of the hat.

The pattern was based on Dot Matthews's Bobble Beauty.

I finished the hat last night in a determined burst of energy! Here is the "bottom" side of the hat. Please ignore the strands of yarn nested inside - I'll weave those in after I wash the hat.

"Top" of the hat. I really love how the bobbles give the hat so much character.

I think I'll try to update this post soon with a photo of me WEARING the hat so you know what it's supposed to look like, neh? :D

The WaoHana Project: Getting Started with O-Hana's Bobble Beret

[Hey, look, this is the one hundredth post on this blog! Yay!]


The women in this screengrab from a video are Wao Youka (blue sweater) and Hanafusa Mari (gray sweater). I've mentioned them several times in this blog, under the other Takarazuka Kagekidan posts.

The next series of crochet projects I'm doing has everything to do with these two ladies: namely, I am going to send my first fan gifts EVER to them. I have never done anything of this sort before. But I will take a leaf from their book and believe firmly that nothing is impossible - and so I shall make a few things to send to them in Japan.

I'm going to be making Wao-san a seven-foot-long scarf in blue, pink, and black, colors inspired by her favorite Disney character Stitch; Hanafusa-san will be getting at least one hat. Figuring I'd never made a hat before and that it might take me some time to do, I decided to start with this hat pattern: Bobble Beauty by Dot Matthews.

It's really taking me some time to make just this one hat and there have already been a few tear-out-and-start-over bits (something called "frogging" by knitters and crafters alike, since you have to grin and "rip it" *groan*). Yeah, I can't really be happy about that. How was I supposed to know that following the pattern exactly as written, but with a smaller hook than specified, would create a project sized for a kid? I couldn't even get the small version on over my own head. So, yeah, big mistake number one.

I decided to stick with the small hook because using the recommended size tore up my poor beautiful Lion Brand Cotton-Ease yarn. So in order to resolve the size issue, I added a few rounds to the original pattern. But then I over-increased so that the hat was way too large to be attractively slouchy - big mistake number two, which led to another round of frogging.


This will be the top portion of the hat when it's done. I love the floral motif that all the other rounds radiate from.


This is, I hope, the Goldilocks point of this hat. I think it's reached a good size by now, one that will fit its intended recipient and look cute while doing so. I'll continue working on it over this week.

Even as I continue to work on it, I've learned quite a few lessons from this first hat and hope to carry them with me as I continue my crochet adventures.

Wish me luck with this fan gifts project! I'm really excited and nervous to finish the items and then send them on to Japan. I hope I can get a good deal on shipping.... *crosses fingers*