The real clincher for me switching to the hook has been the fact that you can no longer knit on airplanes anymore, due to the ludicrous security rules (oh come on, you can do more damage with a ballpoint pen than most knitting needles!). Anyway, I decided to take a few skeins of yarn and some crochet hooks with me on my recent trip to Japan, to try and whip out a project or two during my travels.

Here’s a crochet scarf I made one night when my insomnia struck again. I think this took me an hour or two, crochet by the light of a headtorch while my hubby snoozed away. I made it using some super chunky chartreuse yarn in a wool blend. In fact it’s so chunky, it only took 3 rows of double crochet to make it! It’s a really long skinny scarf that looks rather fetching in shocking chartreuse, especially when paired with my favourite peacock blue overcoat. I have another skein of this yarn left, so I am thinking of making a beret or perhaps some wrist-warmers to go with the scarf. Yet another in my long list of future projects!

A few weeks ago my hubby and I got back from an an extended trip to Japan to celebrate our 10 year wedding anniversary, and to meet up with my Japanese family. It has been nearly 15 years since I was last in Japan, and my family there have never met my hubby, so that in itself was a momentous occasion. To me, the other big deal about this trip was that it may be the last time I get to see my 93 year old grandmother (obachan in Japanese). She is an amazing woman, and I can see where my mother gets her amazing-ness. I hope that even just a little bit of this wow-factor has trickled down into me.

I started knitting this scarf for my obachan before I left England, hoping to finish it during my travels around Japan before we headed to Beppu, where she lives. I ended up frantically knitting on the train to Beppu, getting motion sickness as a result, and only finishing moments before we disembarked. It was worth it, though.

You see, my obachan was a keen crafter when she was younger, and my mother has some fantastically detailed amigurumi (little crocheted animals) that she made. I hope these will be passed down to me, just like the skill of crochet, which went from my obachan, to my mother, to me. My obachan also made all of her children’s clothes, when the family were forced out of Manchuria during the occupation in WWII. They had nothing but rags, yet my obachan made do, and managed to instill in all of the children an incredibly positive outlook on life that pervades the family to this day. The ability to make something from nothing was also passed down to my mother, and I like to think a little bit has rubbed off on me, too.

But I digress: back to the scarf. Because she has such an appreciation of handicrafts, my obachan was thrilled to receive the scarf. It didn’t matter that she speaks no English and my Japanese is pretty awful: we could both tell that the gift was something much more than just a little bit of fabric to wrap around your neck. It was something that transcends generations, cultures and time, and brought two people closer together.

She also loved it for other, more simple reasons: the colour is her favourite (which I had no idea), it was done in a stitch that she hadn’t learned herself (seed / moss stitch), and she was really intrigued by the keyhole, which she had never seen before. Overall, a resounding success, that made me want to knit even more. I only hope I get the chance to give her another gift made from my hands someday.

I love Noro yarn, and had purchased a load of this particular colourway, even without knowing what I would make with it. I think the self-striping effect looks pretty cool on this shawl, and the variegated colours mean it goes with most outfits.

The coolest part about this project is how quickly it knits up, because you use ginormous knitting needles and the holes are made by purposely dropping stitches. The result is like a really stretchy net, so I can imagine using this technique for something like a toy ‘hammock’… I used to have one hanging over my bed when I was a kid, filled with soft plush toys. I guess you could also make a handy string bag using the same approach. Or – God forbid – a string vest (aka fishnet tank top, for you American readers!)

Although it’s supposed to be a summer wrap, I think you can wear this pretty much year-round, either as a wrap or around your neck as a scarf. Here it is worn as a scarf, which I must say is very warm indeed.

So I decided to go back in time and take a photo of my very first knitting project, which I still have. It’s now well-worn, with little fluffy bits all over, and it looks quite amateur-ish when I look at it. But here it is: a duck-egg blue & chocolate brown stripy scarf. It’s a basic garter stitch pattern from Stitch & Bitch, adapted with stripes. In the photo it’s sitting on my lovely wool coat that is an amazing peacock blue colour… shame the colours didn’t come out too well because it looks navy rather than teal.

Aside: My mother is an incredible woman. She has always been my inspiration. We have crafted together a lot over the years, from oil paintings to ceramics, to silk-flower making and all sorts of other projects. I really wish I had photos of some of the things we made together when I was growing up. My mother’s latest love is woodworking, and at 67 years old, she’s pretty hard core to be building giant covered porches all on her own. She ROCKS!